Lonnie shook his head. “You know I won’t tell you anything she has confided in me.”
“True. But there has to be general information I can know that isn’t sworn to secrecy.”
Lonnie sighed and watched Jake for a moment before reaching into the black backpack by his feet. He pulled out a tabloid and handed it to Jake.
On the front page was a picture of Claire as she ran into the hospital with Ben, and the headline read, “Claire Evans Runs from Baby Daddy”.
“Fuck,” Jake muttered. He flipped to the article and skimmed it. There were several quotes from Charles saying how his pregnant girlfriend fled to the tour to see her brother and never came home. There was a sob story about missing her and just wanting to make sure he saw the birth of his child.
Jake handed the magazine back to Lonnie, not wanting to see it any longer, but also not wanting it to stay out for anyone to get their hands on in case Claire hadn’t seen it yet.
Lonnie shoved it into his backpack.
“He went to the press? Claire knows?”
Lonnie nodded. “He’s trying to paint Claire in a bad light. We suspect he’ll come after her soon.”
The hairs on Jake’s arms raised. “Can’t they arrest him before that happens?”
“Claire filed a police report against him and has a restraining order. We have been working to file them in every state we go, making sure you’re all covered as well. But the problem is she doesn’t think he’d abide by one, anyway. He’s unhinged.”
Jake nodded. He thought the same thing. The guy will come after Claire regardless of there being a restraining order. Criminals do not care in the end.
“What’s being done to protect her?”
“We have security keeping an eye out at every event. We’ve requested she stay backstage and not watch every show. Every arena you guys play has security checking for weapons, so we have that additional protection as well.”
Jake’s eyes shifted toward the bunks again before his voice lowered even more. “Stay with her at all times.”
Lonnie leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. “I promise you, Jake. I’m doing everything in my power to make sure she’s safe.”
“I know you are. I just… I’m worried.”
“I know this is an impossible request, but let us worry about her. You need to worry about yourself. You can’t let this affect your sleep. The best thing we can do is keep things as normal for her as possible. She knows what’s going on, but she doesn’t need to be reminded every second of every day.”
“Okay,” Jake said. “Shouldn’t the others know too, in case they see something?”
The look on Lonnie’s face told him they already knew.
Jake sighed. “So this was only kept from me?”
“We’re just trying to make sure you recover and didn’t want to give you something else to worry about.”
“I’ve always been worried about it.”
“I know. We just thought it was for the best.”
“So why are you telling me now?” Jake asked.
“We all agreed that if you asked, we wouldn’t keep you in the dark. No one wants to lie to you.”
“Is there anything else I need to dig for answers on?” Jake raised an eyebrow.
Lonnie chuckled. “No. That’s it. You now know as much as everyone else.”
“Keep me in the loop, please. Wondering if there’s information you all are keeping from me will just make me more anxious.”
Lonnie looked as if he was considering what Jake said before slowly nodding. “I will.”
