by Clare Cole
I breathed in deep and slowly rose to my feet. “Who, Rick?”
He looked me in the eyes, worry creeping across his face. “Luke’s mother.”
“Julia?” I stammered.
“No, Amy,” he replied, walking slowly to the bed and perching on the end of it. “Luke isn’t Julia’s son. But you knew that already, right?”
I composed myself. “I had an inkling.”
Suddenly, a phone rang. We both practically jumped out of our skin and fumbled around before I realised it was my muffled ringtone, buried in the bag I had left downstairs. We both ran for it and I pulled it out to see “Withheld Number” on the caller display.
“Hello?”
My blood ran cold as I heard a woman’s voice laughing uncontrollably on the other end. The laughter grew more uncontrollable, breathless even.
“Who…who is this?”
Like a cassette player being paused, the laughter stopped abruptly. A sweet, almost faint voice spoke. "Don't sleep. Don't close your eyes for a second. If you do, you'll never open them again."
As the call went dead, I realised my entire body was shaking uncontrollably.
Chapter Seven
"Her name is Louisa."
Rick slumped his body into an armchair as I sat opposite him. He took a deep sigh and looked up at me.
"We were both young, both stupid and both extremely fucked up."
"How long were you together?" I asked.
"God, I don't know. Does the length of time even matter? We were on and off then on again, then off again. You've got to remember, this was when Beautiful Losers had their first album out. I met her at a gig in Germany. She latched on to me, got her hooks in me and wouldn't let go. God knows I tried enough times to get rid of her."
"Did you love her?"
"Hell, no!" Rick sputtered. "Like I said, we were just young and stupid. But I couldn't have ever fallen in love with her if I tried. She was crazy as a coconut. She would have absolutely bombastic mood swings – one minute she was all over me and lovey-dovey, the next minute she wanted to slit my throat. Literally. She almost did a couple of times. If it hadn't been for a couple of other guys in the band, she might have succeeded."
I looked around at the carnage the house had been left in. This wasn't the act of someone just jealous or insecure. "So how did she become pregnant with Luke?"
"Because, Amy, we had a common thread that bound us together – our love of drugs at the time. We weren't even a couple at that point, but she turned up at a press junket I was doing in the UK and we ended up in bed together. I was high as a kite, she was probably high too. At least that's what I thought at the time. Now I know better."
"What do you mean?"
"It was her attempt to keep hold of me for good. Get pregnant, have a kid – she was too calculating to have been high when she did that. Now, I think she knew exactly what she was doing. She had her eyes wide open the whole time. Anyway, I don't even remember us having sex that night but we clearly did because Luke's here and the rest is history."
"What if he's not yours?"
"Already been there and done that," Rick grinned. "DNA test. She got me good and proper. Despite everything, I don't regret any of it. I have Luke, after all."
I raised my eyebrows. "Yeah, you also have a house that's been completely trashed and now I have a stalker. Fantastic result."
"Yeah, sorry about that. Anyway, we're going to have to get out of here. The police in this area are next to useless but we won't be able to get a plane now until the morning. May as well batten down the hatches and make the most of it for tonight."
"You really think we need to leave? Is she that dangerous?"
"Amy, she's nuts." Rick leaned forward in his chair. "Stark raving crazy. After we had the DNA test I promised to support her and Luke but refused to be with her. I made it absolutely clear we had absolutely no future together whatsoever. You know what the first thing she did was? She booked herself into a room at the Savoy in London, got into the bath and slit both her wrists. That was with a two-month-old Luke crying his eyes out in the same room as her. "
I shuddered. "Shit."
"Shit indeed. It was Luke's cries that alerted the hotel staff that something was wrong, thank God. But after that she got worse and worse. Obviously, the authorities removed Luke from her care and I took out a restraining order against her, not that that means anything. If she wants to turn up somewhere that I am, she will – as you can clearly see around you."
I threw my head back on the chair, collecting my thoughts. "So what happened to Luke after she tried to kill herself? Couldn't you have looked after him?"
Rick shook his head. "I was a fucking mess at that point, Amy. The person you see now isn't who I was back then. I was kicking drugs, kicking alcohol and had a two-year world tour to finish. I was in no fit state to be a father. Hell, I could barely look after myself, let alone a child. But I still had a conscience, you know? That's where Michael and Julia came in. We went way back to when I was playing tiny clubs. They couldn't have children, had tried IVF and everything. I knew they were good people, responsible people. More responsible than I ever could have been at that time. So I swallowed my pride and gave them the gift of a child and Luke the gift of real parents who weren’t both screw-ups."
Suddenly, there was a gigantic crash from downstairs. We both looked at each other, panic flashing across our faces, and Rick grabbed the fire iron. We cautiously made our way down into the hallway where a red envelope lay near the entrance. Rick opened the front door and looked outside. The wind made a faint rustling noise through the trees but there was nothing or no one to be seen. Rick picked up the envelope and thrust it in my direction.
"It's for you."
I looked at the front and shivered.
FOR AMY
Cautiously, I split open the seal and took out a single note of paper.
Has he written you a song like he did for me yet? Has he declared his undying love with words and music?
You like songs, Amy? I can write them too.
Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
You stole my man,
Now I'm coming for you.
“Call the Police,” I barked. “I don’t care if they’re useless. Call them anyway. We need their presence around here.”
Rick bolted the door and looked around for his phone. “Shit.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I left it right here in the hall when we came in. It’s gone. Christ, Amy…”
I grabbed his arm. “What?” Rick’s voice turned to a whisper.
“What if we didn’t lock her out? What if we locked her in?”
As the hairs stood up on the back of my neck, my eyes darted around in the near-darkness, terrified of who might be lurking in the shadows.
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Afterword
Thank you for buying this ebook!
Rick and Amy's story will conclude in:
DANCING IN THE DARK
Curves for the Rock Star 4
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