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That’s the very reason I’m currently hiding in my shared suite, refusing to answer the door anytime someone has knocked. It got to the point Valentina went to the guy's suite and told them to mind their damn business and stop coming to the room. Okay, her actual threat had something to do with shooting the next person who knocked on the door, but still. The point stands. We were sick of them all.
I just needed a break; mentally and physically.
“We can’t just hole up in the room every night, Sky,” Valentina sighs from her spot near the window. She’d taken up leaning against the window pane and watching the cars pass by below. It was boring as fuck I knew that, but I couldn’t bring myself to feel completely bad about it.
Ever since we got back to the room, I’d been on my laptop doing research. The police report still didn’t have anything new to report about Ezra’s death. I didn’t expect that it would but I still had to try. Knox had come through with getting the security camera footage of all the cameras that were around the area where Ezra’s body had been discovered. I was currently going through those trying to see if anything stood out to me. So far no luck, but I wasn’t giving up.
“We’re not holed up in here every night,” I eventually answer her when the video I’m watching ends. I knew she wasn’t offended by my late answer but I could tell she didn’t believe a word I said when she turned her head to give me that knowing look that in my opinion she’s gotten way too damn good at.
“We both know that’s a straight-up lie,” she shakes her head. “This murder/stalker isn’t going to just knock on our hotel door and announce themselves, Sky. We need to be out there, being seen. They need to know you’re accessible. They murdered an innocent man just to get you here.”
“I know, Val,” I sigh, hating how right she is. I’ve just never been the person to want all the attention on myself. I know being the lead guitarist of a famous rock band means having all the attention on me, but that life was different. I had the guys, my best friends and lovers with me helping to ease the attention and shelter me. After I ran, I only had myself. Learning to stick to the shadows and not being seen was the way I learned to live and feel safe. What this job is asking of me goes against every fiber of my being.
I don’t like it.
“Then how do you want to do this?” she questions, leaving her spot by the window and pulling out the other chair at our small table.
“The band should be going back on tour soon. We all know the label is losing money the longer Damned Embers is off stage,” I pause trying to come up with something that may work in our favor. “Maybe we can talk to Alexandra about setting up a press conference of some kind? It would give us a public appearance and a chance to announce that I’ve come back to join the band.”
Bringing my hands up to either side of my head I start to rub my temple, wishing away the headache that’s coming on. My eyes already hurt from staring at the computer screen for the past I don’t know how many hours. I should have had my blue light glasses on but they were over by my bed and I didn’t feel like getting up to get them. It would have just broken my concentration.
“That would probably be the best idea,” she hums in agreement. “Do we know what story the label is going to push out with your return? So far it’s been kept under wraps. I haven’t seen anything reported online yet about you.”
“You keeping tabs on me?” I ask with a laugh. It was a half-hearted attempt at easing the heaviness in the room.
“Someone has to,” she smiles. “If I’m your primary guard, it makes sense to stalk you online and anything that has to do with you.”
“And here I was thinking you were just into the physical shit. Proud of you for having the tech skills to do that,” I return her smile.
“Psh,” Valentina rolls her eyes at me. “You read my file and interviewed me. You know my skills.”
“This is true,” I shrug. “It’s still nice to remember I don’t have to keep track of all of that myself.” I pause, letting us both have a minute to think. “You’re right though, none of my alerts have notified me of the news leaking about me rejoining the band. I’m actually surprised by that. I would have figured something would have leaked by now. Even a rumor. It’s weird.”
“I was going to ask if you had bots sweeping all the news outlets and pulling the stories before they were published but your words confirm that isn’t true,” she sighs and gives me a worried look. “Do you think the stalker has some sort of hold on the media? It would be reasonable maybe?”
Shaking my head I have no idea how to answer that. Every time I get one little clue to get us closer, I feel like I go ten steps backward. It’s maddening. “I have no idea. It’d take a crazy amount of skill to do that but it’s feasible, I guess.”
If the stalker does have those sorts of skills then I’m going to have to up my game. Already my attention is back on my computer. Quickly minimizing the security camera footage, I open the coding for my computer and start testing and securing all my firewalls even more than before. I’m not taking any chances if the stalker does have some damn good computer skills. Everything is on this laptop, and on two hidden hard drives that only I know the locations of. If anything were to happen to me, I have clues that would be delivered to my bosses so they can find the hidden hard drives and instructions on how to access them. It was the only insurance policy I had in place. A small part of me wondered if I would come out of this alive and I wanted them to have something to use.
“I’ll get the door,” Valentina calls out, standing from her seat.
I never even heard anyone knocking, lost in the world on my computer. I probably should have been paying better attention, but honestly, that was half the reason Valentina was here. Knox knew I would need someone I could trust 24/7 with me to do the things I couldn’t. He knew I could get lost in my computer for hours on end chasing leads. This way with her I always had someone looking out for me since Knox and the others couldn’t be here to do it.
“Sorry to bother you all so late,” Alexandra explains as she walks into our room. Chills break out on my forearms as I turn to look at her. I can’t explain why I’m reacting that way to her other than wanting to know how the hell she knew we were talking about her.
Odd timing.
“It’s okay,” I mumble, quickly closing my laptop. Call me weird but I won’t risk anyone I haven’t vetted to look at my shit.“Trust no one”is the mantra that’s helped me get by this long on my own.
“I talked to the boys, they said your rehearsal went very well today and they think you’ll be ready next week to do a small show to start. What do you think?” Alexandra asks, leaning against the side of the dresser.
Her question is innocent enough but my eyes cut to Valentina who only gives me a nod, already thinking the same thing I am. We need to sweep our room immediately for bugs. I’m also going to shoot off a quick text to Knox asking him to send us some more equipment to secure our rooms better.
“Yeah, I would agree with that assessment,” I answer, keeping my worry out of my voice. “We thought doing a press conference to announce my coming back would be a good idea. Sort of a way to reintroduce myself into the music world once more.”
“That’s a brilliant idea,” she smiles and claps her hands. “I’ll start making the phone calls and get that set up two days from now. I’m positive a lot of our diehard fans will love having you back in the band.”
“Great,” I answer with a tight smile. Ten at night isn’t exactly the time to be having this conversation in my opinion.
