Keltan.
“Whoa, they’ve got the big guns down here,” I commented.
Duke squeezed my hand. “This is most likely gonna be a lot, Lexie. Lots of questions. A lot of people askin’ you shit that might not even seem relevant. You gonna be okay?”
No, I was not going to be okay. I was currently fighting back pure fucking panic. But of course I wasn’t going to betray that outwardly. I’d do what I always did, fake it. I smiled. “Sure. Let’s get this done.”
*****
Sam paced the living room. “Okay, we’re getting a dog. A big one and we’ll train it to maul any strangers who comes near it.”
I raised a brow at him from my position on the sofa. I had a huge wine glass cradled in my hand. It was my third. It barely touched the sides, but at least my feelings were fuzzy at the edges and my heart wasn’t beating so fast.
“A dog that mauls strangers is a lawsuit waiting to happen, Sammy,” I said.
The hordes of people had just left after asking me question upon question and fingerprinting my bedroom. Strangers tramping through my space. The place where I escaped.
My sanctuary. The white room was splashed with color from abstract paintings, rugs from my last holiday in Morocco, hand-embroidered throws from India, a beautiful suede sofa at the edge of it, and a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf full of my favorites. It had just been for me, the place where I could shut out the world. Now the world had rushed in. A stranger had been in there, that malicious stare violating my space while I slept.
Fear would probably be the correct thing to feel right now, but I was pissed off. So very pissed off. Everyone had recommended I go somewhere else, check into a hotel, stay with someone else. I had refused. This was not chasing me out of my home. I would not surrender to fear.
Mark had even offered to let me stay at his place as soon as he’d gotten here and realized the situation. The worry on my manager’s usually laid-back face was unnerving. As was the offer. He was a reserved man and I knew his home was his sacred space. He’d been managing us from the beginning and I’d only been there a handful of times.
He hadn’t been happy when I’d refused, but he’d accepted it. Then he spent the rest of the time on his phone trying to contain the situation and sort out what needed to be taken care of. I was more than grateful I didn’t have to handle the logistics of this situation.
Noah, Wyatt, and Sam had all disagreed with this choice. But I’d put my foot down. I’d won but Wyatt and Sam were now staying here until further notice. Ditto with Duke. He had been by my side the entire time, his professional mask on, but his presence comforting.
He was sitting across from me in our huge living room. This was not white like my room. It was an explosion of colors and mismatched sofas were cluttered around our sheepskin rug and giant coffee table littered with books and knickknacks. Paintings and photos littered our walls. Photos from our first tour, of all of us with Rocko the last time he’d been to visit. Memories of the last four years. I was smiling in all of them. But I knew if you compared them to the photos that were hidden in my closet at Mom’s house, you’d see the difference. You’d see the visible light absent from my eyes. But to the naked eye, I looked happy.
“Well, we’ve got to fuckin’ do something.” Sam threw his hands up. “He got in here and watched Lexie sleeping. That’s like a thousand on the creep scale. I’m getting a gun,” he declared.
“No gun,” Wyatt, Noah, and I said in unison.
Sam glowered at us.
“Duke’s got a gun and he actually knows how to use it, right, Duke?” I asked him.
Duke nodded. “Point and shoot. It’s a complicated process, but I’ve mastered it.”
I snorted out laughter. It was nice to break this wired atmosphere with humor. We needed something.
“Okay, but we’re getting out of Hollywood at least,” Sam said.
I narrowed my eyes at
“Whoa, they’ve got the big guns down here,” I commented.
Duke squeezed my hand. “This is most likely gonna be a lot, Lexie. Lots of questions. A lot of people askin’ you shit that might not even seem relevant. You gonna be okay?”
No, I was not going to be okay. I was currently fighting back pure fucking panic. But of course I wasn’t going to betray that outwardly. I’d do what I always did, fake it. I smiled. “Sure. Let’s get this done.”
*****
Sam paced the living room. “Okay, we’re getting a dog. A big one and we’ll train it to maul any strangers who comes near it.”
I raised a brow at him from my position on the sofa. I had a huge wine glass cradled in my hand. It was my third. It barely touched the sides, but at least my feelings were fuzzy at the edges and my heart wasn’t beating so fast.
“A dog that mauls strangers is a lawsuit waiting to happen, Sammy,” I said.
The hordes of people had just left after asking me question upon question and fingerprinting my bedroom. Strangers tramping through my space. The place where I escaped.
My sanctuary. The white room was splashed with color from abstract paintings, rugs from my last holiday in Morocco, hand-embroidered throws from India, a beautiful suede sofa at the edge of it, and a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf full of my favorites. It had just been for me, the place where I could shut out the world. Now the world had rushed in. A stranger had been in there, that malicious stare violating my space while I slept.
Fear would probably be the correct thing to feel right now, but I was pissed off. So very pissed off. Everyone had recommended I go somewhere else, check into a hotel, stay with someone else. I had refused. This was not chasing me out of my home. I would not surrender to fear.
Mark had even offered to let me stay at his place as soon as he’d gotten here and realized the situation. The worry on my manager’s usually laid-back face was unnerving. As was the offer. He was a reserved man and I knew his home was his sacred space. He’d been managing us from the beginning and I’d only been there a handful of times.
He hadn’t been happy when I’d refused, but he’d accepted it. Then he spent the rest of the time on his phone trying to contain the situation and sort out what needed to be taken care of. I was more than grateful I didn’t have to handle the logistics of this situation.
Noah, Wyatt, and Sam had all disagreed with this choice. But I’d put my foot down. I’d won but Wyatt and Sam were now staying here until further notice. Ditto with Duke. He had been by my side the entire time, his professional mask on, but his presence comforting.
He was sitting across from me in our huge living room. This was not white like my room. It was an explosion of colors and mismatched sofas were cluttered around our sheepskin rug and giant coffee table littered with books and knickknacks. Paintings and photos littered our walls. Photos from our first tour, of all of us with Rocko the last time he’d been to visit. Memories of the last four years. I was smiling in all of them. But I knew if you compared them to the photos that were hidden in my closet at Mom’s house, you’d see the difference. You’d see the visible light absent from my eyes. But to the naked eye, I looked happy.
“Well, we’ve got to fuckin’ do something.” Sam threw his hands up. “He got in here and watched Lexie sleeping. That’s like a thousand on the creep scale. I’m getting a gun,” he declared.
“No gun,” Wyatt, Noah, and I said in unison.
Sam glowered at us.
“Duke’s got a gun and he actually knows how to use it, right, Duke?” I asked him.
Duke nodded. “Point and shoot. It’s a complicated process, but I’ve mastered it.”
I snorted out laughter. It was nice to break this wired atmosphere with humor. We needed something.
“Okay, but we’re getting out of Hollywood at least,” Sam said.
I narrowed my eyes at
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