“So I said to the officer…” Hawkins picked the story back up without missing a beat. It was hard to peel my eyes off of Lizzie with Hawkins as he kept the room laughing. It was sickening really, to watch her in that tight-fitting, red dress that hugged her chest and showed off her long legs while he sat with his careless dark hair, smoldering eyes, and the top of his shirt slightly undone. It was hard to figure out which one was more beautiful. Maybe it was Hawkins with his tense jaw and narrowed, sexy, come-hither eyes? Or was it Lizzie with her angelic face and the body of a supermodel? I couldn’t decide, but I did know that they were the perfect match for each other physically. It was no wonder the record company helped put this charade together. Who didn’t want to watch two beautiful people in love like Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen?
“Joie.” My name brought me out of the analysis. I turned around and saw Kosic, who released his arm from the waist of the girl next to him. His green eyes simmered as he walked toward me. “We keep running into each other,” he smiled, “small world.”
“Got to say that I’m disappointed,” he said.
“About what exactly?” My face pinched in confusion.
“Never pegged you as the groupie type.”
“I’m not a groupie!” I hissed.
“What are you doing here with the band,
again
?” He smirked.
“It’s complicated.”
“Is that a Grimm Brothers’ t-shirt?” He pointed down at it.
“How can you tell from this angle?” I glanced down at my shirt nervously. “The tour dates are on the back.”
In the next second, Hawkins was leaning against the opposite side of the doorway. “I’m sorry, was I interrupting something?” he asked, knowing full well that he had.
“You just keep telling yourself that, Joie.” He raised his glass to Hawkins with a wicked grin across his face as he backed out of the room and down the hallway. At the time I did the most rational thing I could think of and flipped Kosic off, gaining a laugh from him before he turned around.
“What was that all about?” Hawkins looked down at my hand.
“It’s complicated,” I repeated myself with a roll of my eyes.
“Is that,” he narrowed his eyes, “one of our t-shirts?”
“Oh, god, could you just go back to your side of the room again?”
“So, this is
your
side of the room?” He arched his eyebrows. “'Cause I’m pretty sure every side is
my
side of the room.”
“Why are you always throwing that in my face? Kosic and the hotel room, now this?”
“Because it irritates you which makes me,” he pointed to himself, “very happy. By the way, I thought that you didn’t do hotels?” He continued to try to have a conversation with me after I tried to give him the silent treatment.
“Isn’t that the point?”
“And I’m the arrogant one?” he stated like he was mockingly shocked. “Where would you have me bring you after a concert if not to a hotel?” A smirk played across his face as he matched my knowing glare. This wasn’t because it was convenient and we both knew it.
Who knows a restaurant, a dance club, a sports bar I mentally listed, but saved it for someone who cared. “Maybe a crack house?”
“Well, if I had just known,” he said sarcastically. “I could have made arrangements.”
“That I’m sure of,” I said, matching his sarcasm with my own. “Anything to make me feel right at home, I mean that’s the point, right?”
“
Exactly
, you’re my guest after all.”
Wanting to change the subject, I scanned the crowded room, “So is this a typical Friday night for you?”
He shrugged. “Why do you ask?”
“I don’t know…it’s a little bit more crowded than the other night.” I cracked a smile.
His eyes flashed over to mine. “You mean when you barged into my hotel room on a Tuesday night?”
“We were worried for Lizzie. I didn’t do it because it was
your
hotel room.”
“Lizzie was fine,” he dismissed the thought.
“That’s not what you tweeted.”
He leaned against the doorway as he rolled his eyes. “We’re not exactly being honest with each other most of the time, now are we?” He raised his eyebrows at me knowingly.
“You mean like what you were doing with Lizzie tonight?”
“I thought that I made our
arrangement
clear. Did Wayne drop you on your head when he escorted you out, and you forgot already?” He mockingly winced. “I told him to go easy on you.” His blue eyes twinkled with mischief.
“Ha, nice,” I snarled.
“Why do you care?” His eyes looked casually over my shoulder, down the hallway, then flicked back to me. “Are you jealous?” His left eyebrow rose slightly.
“Of Lizzie, umm,
no
,” I mouthed.
“Ah, huh.” He didn’t sound convinced. “So what are you doing with Kosic?” His face twitched for a second like he smelled something bad.
“Jealous?” I smiled.
“Umm, no,” he mimicked me. “The guy’s creepy, like perpetrator creepy.”
“We’re not that close,” I insisted.
“That’s not how it looked last night.” Hawkins made a silly lopsided grin at me. “Oh, my gosh, giggle giggle, oh, Kosic,” he mimicked with a goofy grin.
“Shut up, I was trying to warn him,” I explained. “Not encourage him.”
“Sure,” he taunted while obviously loving the reaction he was getting out of me.
Out of nowhere, Lizzie bounced up beside him. “There you are!”
“Yes, here you are,” I sang while smiling up at him. Hawkins’ face suddenly fell.
“Yeah, I am here,” he answered unenthusiastically. “Umm, good job tonight.” He stiffly patted her shoulder and the smile faded from her face.
“What do you mean?” Lizzie asked.
“You were believable, kid.” He pressed his lips together and turned his head to look out at the hallway.
Ouch.
“Kid?” Lizzie hissed.
“Now, run along and let the grown-ups talk.” Hawkins gestured for her to pass by us. He acted as though she was twelve or something.
Lizzie dropped her mouth open and cut her eyes at Hawkins and then at me.
“Maybe this
kid
won’t be as cooperative the next time the two of you have something you want to keep hush, hush.” Lizzie pushed past us and headed down the hallway.
“Kid?” I eyed him like, you seriously had to go there?
“I am twenty-three.” He shrugged.
“I’m the same age as Lizzie so do you think that I’m a kid, too?”
“Sometimes you act like a kid,” he hesitated. “Wait a minute,
you
seriously want to go there?” The sexy sneer he seemed to reserve for only me was on his face.
“No, on second thought,” I said, shaking my head, “I don’t.”
“You know, I could sign that shirt.” Changing the subject, he pointed down with a sly grin. He seemed to sense that it was a touchy subject so of course he was completely fascinated. “You could make a shitload of money for it on eBay.”
“Well, that wasn’t arrogant, was it?”
Instead of answering, Hawkins looked over at a small, huddled group of girls nearby. “Does anyone have a pen?”
About four girls among the circle of fans who were just gawking in our direction rushed to open their purses. He examined his choices from each girl and then took one. “Thank you.”
“You can keep it,” the girl gushed.
“She said you can keep it. That was very nice of her. Why don’t you go talk to her for a while?” I murmured only loud enough for him to hear.
“You give me things, too,” he said in a hushed voice as he bit off the cap.
“
Like what
?”
“A headache.” His smile widened.
“Ha, ha,” I said, though I couldn’t stop myself from grinning at his quickness. “No.” I pulled back when he leaned in to sign my shirt. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Hey, we can either do this the easy way or the hard way,” he said, no louder than a whisper, but his eyes were intently serious. Suddenly, messing with Hawkins didn’t sound like such a good idea.
“Fine.”
He leaned in and whispered, “Relax, it’s not like it’s a tattoo.”
Staring over his shoulder, I felt his hand graze against the top of my chest as he began to sign his name. It felt oddly mesmerizing as he took his time writing out each cursive letter. It was soothing like when I was a kid and got my face painted. Only Hawkins was much, much hotter than a clown. With my head tilted just a fraction, I watched him intently finish a swoosh mark underneath his name. Our faces were nearly touching when he softly blew on the ink.
“See, that wasn’t so bad,” he murmured into my ear, then tilted his head and looked down at my lips. I felt my heart flutter. Breaking the mood, Hawkins jerked his head up when he saw Harrison rushing down the hallway. We quickly backed away from each other.
“Sorry to interrupt, but we have a credible security threat,” he explained. “You need to get to a secure spot
now
.” He quickly directed Hawkins down the hallway. Watching Hawkins get ushered down the hall, I didn’t know if I should follow. Suddenly Hawkins stopped and glanced over his shoulder. “Joie?” He turned around while ignoring Harrison’s annoyance and the excited fans around him. He rolled his eyes at me, jogged back to where I was and reached down to grab my hand.
“I know, I know,” he muttered. “You’re not
with
the band.” He took my hand and pulled me in close behind him as we exited the crowded hallway.
They escorted us into a stairwell where the rest of the band was gathered. Surprisingly, Lizzie was there with Warren. Her eyes widened at the sight of Hawkins with his hand in mine. Hawkins dropped my hand and I crossed my arms. Once again we seemed to feel as though we had been caught.
“We need to evacuate you guys from the building,” Harrison said once everyone was in the stairwell. “It’s the Grimm Reaper. He says that he’s taken a crew member hostage. We are in the process of figuring out who it is, but he has already made a ransom demand.”
“How much?” Blakely asked.
“Five million in cash.”
“Five million dollars!” Warren exclaimed. “We can’t just come up with five million dollars in cash!”
“Do we even know if it’s a credible source yet?” Hawkins asked.
“We just got hit with the call,” Harrison told them. “But my sources tell me that it’s legit.”
“We don’t make deals with sociopaths,” Blakely said in a final tone. The rest of the band started to nod along in an agreement.
“What if he does have a crew member?” Harrison asked more seriously. “Are we going to do nothing?”
“Hold up,” Woodley interrupted. “We don’t even know if he has anyone yet. Let’s just get everyone to a safe location.”
“I agree.” Warren nodded.
“Well then,” Harrison said while still clearly exasperated. “We have a few vehicles stationed outside. We’re going to evacuate everyone slowly so that you leave ahead of the crowd. The girls can follow us to the exit, but then they have to go their separate ways.”
“Hey, wait a minute,” Warren argued.
“When this one,” Harrison pointed to Lizzie and continued, “gives me her social security number then we’ll talk. As for now, gentlemen, let me do my job,” Harrison said as we all followed him down the stairwell to the ground floor.
Hawkins turned to me and asked, “Your driver is outside, right?”
“Yeah, we’ll be fine,” I assured him.
He just nodded at me before he exited the side of the hotel and I was left standing there next to Lizzie. Before she could ask any questions, I pushed through the door and entered the crowded parking lot. The night sky was cleared of any hazy clouds. Right above us was the three twinkling stars of Orion’s belt. The hot, sticky day had cooled down to a bearable light warmth in the air surrounding us. The band was probably leaving as we crossed over to Cyrus by the Escalade. He flicked a cigarette to the ground and exhaled a cloud of smoke. “Is everything okay?” he asked as he opened the door for Lizzie.
“The Grimm Reaper,” Lizzie muttered as we got in and shut the door behind us.
“Crashed the party, huh?” He swung into the driver’s seat and started up the SUV.
“You could say that,” Lizzie muttered to him, but I could tell that she was still seething with jealousy at the sight of Hawkins and me together.
“Where to, ladies?” he asked.
“The nearest Walmart.”
“Walmart?” He chuckled.
“On Malcolm Street,” I clarified. “It’s back towards the venue.”
“Well, that doesn’t seem right.” He glanced back in the rearview mirror at Lizzie. “Has the band already been safely evacuated?”
“Yes,” Lizzie muttered.
“Who is going to protect you girls?”
“Ha!” Lizzie huffed.
And with that we all stayed quiet for the rest of the drive to the Walmart. The Escalade pulled up beside our Volkswagen Van. “I don’t know if I feel comfortable leaving you girls all alone,” Cyrus hesitated.
“Oh, we’re not alone,” I assured him. “Thanks, though.” Slamming the door to finalize the conversation, I gave a super animated wave at the Escalade, but he just stayed parked there. At that same moment Riley, who was typing in the passenger side seat, exited the van squinting in the bright headlights of the Escalade.
“So how was your night?” Riley croaked as he stretched his arms and yawned.
Finally, the Escalade pulled away from us. Maybe the sight of Riley, the body builder, had made Cyrus feel better about dropping us off.