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She curled the blanket over her bare foot. “And you broke the internet.”
He slumped back on his side of the couch. “Pretty much.” He finished his coffee and set the mug down. “That woke me up. I’d been over the whole thing for a while, but the machine was running by then. I’d finally started writing again and we had a new album that was just All the King’s Men - no other writers. It was time to record and get on the road.”
A tickle of foreboding crawled over her neck. “She didn’t like that.”
“No. The picture outside the chapel changed her. She started talking about a wedding and how we were already celebrity royalty. Her parents were obscenely wealthy. It was actually another point in her favor at first. She didn’t give two shits about my money.”
“So it was a bad breakup. I’m not going to say it wasn’t shitty, Logan. Because it was.”
“Undeniably. She’s the second biggest mistake I’ve ever made.”
She looked down at her mug, tracing her thumb over the sports logo. “That still doesn’t explain the security.”
“The breakup wasn’t pretty, you’re right. But after the initial blow-up she seemed to have just ignored that it happened. She turned up at every party I went to, my album release, movie premieres for the two soundtracks I’d done.” He curled his fingers into fists. “It was just annoying at first, then it was her spreading rumors that we were back on. The woman has been spinning the press to suit her needs since she was fourteen years old. She’s a master at it.”
She set her mug down on the table and scooted forward. Without thought, she wrapped her hands around his fist. “I didn’t know.”
“The press sees and reports what it wants. I disappeared for a while. Rehearsals for the new tour distracted me, I started dating again. I figured if she saw me out with someone else she’d finally let it go.”
“Not so much.”
His hand unfurled and he linked his fingers with hers. “No. It was nothing overt. Nothing that I could pin on her. She was just always there. It was messing with my head.”
He looked down at their joined hands and tried to pull back, but she twisted them tighter. “She was stalking you, Logan. If a man did that to a woman, no one would call it anything else.”
“People told me to shake it off. Ignore her. In this business, we deal with people that can get a little focused.”
“Focused? That’s not focused. That’s obsession.”
He finally met her gaze. “All she did was come to the shows. She maneuvered her way backstage no matter how I tried to block her, she was just too connected. Aimee was the most wanted person at a party. The fact that she was always at my shows didn’t look strange to anyone because she still played with the press. Are they on or off this week?”
His grip was like iron, and her bones protested, but she held on.
“She even played the field with other men to throw chum into the waters. But it was always me that she wanted. Then came the anonymous letters and gifts. Untraceable, but I knew it was her.”
“Logan.”
He blinked and finally saw how tight he was holding her hand. He immediately released the death grip and brought her hand up to his mouth. He kissed her palm and pressed her hand to his cheek. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.” She lightly drew her nails through his beard and he leaned into her touch. His eyes were ancient right then. Emotional warfare was just as abusive. She knew that firsthand. “So you upped security?”
“No. I don’t know why. Pride and guilt were probably part of it. I asked for the fame and the lifestyle I led wasn’t exactly free of fault. I partied and I hurt people. But there she was. Every-fucking-where. I lost it. Binge drinking full of hate and anger. One weekend I trashed a series of
hotels that her parents owned.”
“So you threw a tantrum.”
He laughed and stood, his fingers sliding out of hers. “Pretty much. I’m not proud of it. It wasn’t the way to handle any of it. But after a year of having that kind of crazy in my life, add in the pressures I put on myself, and the exhaustion of a tour. I was beyond done.” He looked out the window to the city below. “Hell, I even went to see a shrink.”
Well, that explained the Valium she’d found. And his vigilance when it came to locking things away, security in his home, the gates, and the security detail at the festival.
So much made sense and still she knew there was something else.
She followed him to the window. “What’s the part that you’re not telling me?”
He looked over his shoulder at her. “I found a middle ground. She was still always there, but I compartmentalized it for the most part. I grew to hate going on stage, but I did it. I closed down the tour and sent everyone away.”
His body language screamed for her to stay away, but she was going to see this through. She slid a hand around his middle and under his shirt. Where once it had been solid, with a little give, now Logan was all steel under smooth skin. “And it got better.”
