A black Escalade pulled up beside us before Hampton and another man got out. They came around the back of the vehicle to meet up with us. Hampton quickly explained that “Hines Ward” would be staying by the van for the remainder of the night, which instantly erased a tremendous amount of the fear in me, as I thought about Riley heading back to the van all alone last night. Hampton explained that he would follow behind us up to the amphitheater. When I hiked my backpack over my shoulder like I did for yesterday’s concert, Hampton looked at me curiously. After I explained the money situation to him, he assured me that it would be safe in the back seat of the SUV so I handed it over to him.
We were already feeling safer than yesterday now that Hampton was keeping an eye on us as we trekked across the field. A few times, Lizzie stumbled in her wedged shoes along the broken up gravel below, but I kept the whole mom spiel about her fashion choices to myself. We crossed over to a flat, paved, pathway that led up a rather large hill to the pavilion. Panting by the time we made it to the top, I took a look around and wondered where Hampton went? I didn’t see him anywhere as we went through security at the gates.
We walked past a couple of promotional tents while bypassing the green lawn to the left. Following the remaining gray strip of pavement we reached the lower pavilion. Hampton, out of nowhere, reappeared behind us. Man, he was stealth. I thought that he must have left us somewhere along the way, but obviously not. The staff looked at him and didn’t even check to see if we had the right tickets. They just let us bypass them to our seats.
The Larks had already exited the stage when we walked down to the orchestra pit without interruption, and seemingly without Hampton again, but I felt better just knowing that he was watching from some hidden place. I was grateful for all the protection, but knowing that Cyrus had somehow gotten around security this morning left me fearful in a way that I just couldn’t shake. How safe were we really? I shuddered at the memory of finding Monroe’s body.
My concentration was so rattled that I didn’t realize right away that the band had taken the stage. However, I did notice that Hawkins seemed preoccupied as well. He looked over at a bodyguard just to the left of stage for some kind of cue. They exchanged a curt nod when the bodyguard redirected his attention to a tall, built man in civilian clothes just to the left of Riley and then to another guy to the right of Lizzie. Trying hard not to smile, I thought, who would have thought that Hawkins would go to all this trouble to protect me?
Hawkins looked across the packed venue before his eyes fell on me. A small, sad smile played across his face before he started to sing for the crowd. As the show continued the spotlight found Lizzie again, but she was over the initial excitement it brought as she swayed sexily beside me.
“Roxanne you don’t have to turn on the red light,” I sang to myself.
As the night continued, I was preoccupied with watching the fans. We were as safe as we could be, but I knew that I was the only one who could identify The Grimm Reaper so I watched the flow of stragglers more carefully. Fans edged down the aisles around the three seated sections in front of the stage as usual, but I noticed the crowd of eager fans was quickly ushered back by the venue crew tonight. The staff had been obviously warned about The Grimm Reaper, too. At the end of the show, Lizzie sauntered away and Riley gave me one last gentle pat to my back.
“Go make your living,” he said jokingly.
“Where are you going tonight?” I asked him.
“I’ll find somewhere off-road to sleep,” he explained. “Don’t worry about me. Just text me, if we need to meet up.”
“I’ll talk with Hawkins,” I promised. “There’s no reason why you can’t come along, too.”
“Just take care of yourself tonight, okay?” he said tenderly.
“Okay.”
Walking down the aisle towards the backstage door, I found it strange that I could nod at Harrison, Woodley, and Hampton as I passed through the door. To my surprise, Hawkins was waiting there for me. He pulled me into him for an unexpected hug. After all that happened today, in the strong protective embrace of Hawkins, I started to tear up.
“It’s okay,” he murmured in my ear before he gently released me.
“Sorry.” I was embarrassed by the sudden display of emotion and quickly wiped away the tears from my face.
“It’s okay,” he murmured as his expression softened from his initial tough exterior. “We’re going to keep it low key tonight.” He wrapped an arm around my shoulder and pulled me into him.
“Oh, good.” Taking in the way I fit perfectly under his arm, his toned muscles flexed under the soft, thin material of his t-shirt, and I inhaled the faint scent of his cologne.
Lizzie, who was waiting on Warren, looked like we were just doing this to rub it in her face.
“Get a room,” she muttered underneath her breath.
Only moments later, Warren arrived with Hampton behind him. “Swank’s tour bus?” Warren checked with Hawkins as he came to wrap an arm around Lizzie’s waist.
“Yep,” Hawkins answered.
“You okay?” Warren asked Lizzie and she mumbled something I couldn’t hear before she walked rigidly with his arm over her shoulder down the hallway.
Gently, I pulled away from Hawkins. I didn’t want him to feel that he needed to baby me, but he pulled me into him with a stiff tug, wrapping his arm around me even tighter than before.
“Can’t you just let me?” he whispered while glaring ahead. Knowing that he wasn’t just doing this because he felt bad for me, I relaxed into his side.
It was easy to see that the security staff was taking extra precautions to protect the band from The Grimm Reaper by the way Harrison was tagging closely behind us. Before we exited out to the parking lot, Harrison pressed his ear piece with two fingers and asked, “Is everything secured at the gates?”
Harrison was listening to a conversation that we couldn’t hear, before he nodded to Warren. He pushed through the doors to the buses outside in the parking lot. We followed behind him when I heard the loud sound of screaming fans from the distant edge of the gates. Hawkins held up a hand in their direction which caused the crowd to scream even more hysterically. Cameras flashed and I thought of my mom seeing those pictures splattered across the magazine stand at the nearest grocery store, so I buried my face into the side of Hawkins’ chest.
“What, afraid to be seen with me?” He laughed softly.
“No,” I murmured.
“Then what is it? Huh?” He tilted his head to whisper into my ear while knowing full well what it was about, but clearly getting some satisfaction over tormenting me.
“Can’t get enough of me, then?”
“Something like that,” I mumbled into his shirt and felt his shoulders shake with laughter again.
Hawkins released his tight grip on me to let me head up before him onto the tour bus. Quickly, I climbed up the stairs when I noticed we weren’t alone. In the front of the tour bus was a group of girls. They were sitting on the couches and dancing along the aisle. A few of them turned, taking in my black inside out t-shirt and faded jeans before looking down at me smugly. It wasn’t until Hawkins followed in with his arms wrapped around my waist that I took my turn to be the one smirking.
Monaghan, the keyboardist, was sitting in the middle of a few admirers on the couch. Lizzie gently pushed Warren forward towards the direction of Blakely in the back where they were playing cards.
“Sorry, girls,” Lizzie said to them. “This one’s taken.”
“Wasn’t that, that Lizzie girl?” one of the girls asked amongst themselves. “What’s she doing with Warren?”
Before I could hear any more a girl dressed in an off-the-shoulder black top, cropped shorts, and a cowboy hat on, like she and Lizzie had picked out their clothes from the same closet, bounced up in front of Hawkins. “Can I have your autograph?”
“Sure,” Hawkins said politely.
“It’s my forty-first concert!” she exclaimed while handing him a pen, but nothing to sign on.
“Wow,” he smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “We certainly appreciate it.”
“What do you want me to sign?”
“Umm.” She flashed a flirtatious smile. “I kind of lost my ticket.”
Ah, huh, I thought while rolling my eyes.
“Could you just sign here?” She scrawled an invisible line across her chest.
Glancing back at Lizzie, who was sitting on Warren’s lap in the back, I thought I could learn a thing or two from her. Hawkins looked over at me for some type of permission. Surprised, I shrugged. “I don’t care, if she wants to be that desperate that’s her own choice.”
The girl snarled at me as Hawkins snickered and signed his name across her chest.
“Who’s she?” another girl whispered harshly from the couch.
Hawkins handed the girl back her pen when another girl bounced up beside her, but he grabbed my hand and led me down the aisle away from the other fans. He glanced over his shoulder and smiled. “That feels awkward
every
time.”
“Worst part of the job I bet.” I smirked.
He led me to the back of the tour bus. Unlike Hawkins’ bus that had a bedroom in the back; this one had a lounge room with a large circular table in the center surrounded by a circular suede booth.
Swank, the saxophone player for the band, had a different girl on either side of him while Blakely dealt out a set of cards around the table. Hawkins took the nearest seat and wrapped a hand around my waist pulling me down onto his lap in one quick motion. “I’m going to teach you how to play first,” he said smugly, mimicking Kosic that night in the hotel.
“Let me insult your intelligence. This is called poker, okay?” He looked at me as I laughed.
“Come closer.” He pulled me into him until we were pressed up against each other. “I want to make sure that you can see the cards.”
“Ah, huh,” I murmured, liking the way his strong body cradled mine. Relaxing, I leaned my head back against his shoulder. He suddenly smiled and continued to talk to Blakely about the score of a baseball game. Warren dealt out the next round of cards before Hawkins pulled them up to my chest.
“Breast your cards,” he said shamelessly as he braced the cards against my chest. Looking down at our cards, I recognized that we had a full house.
“I don’t know about this,” Hawkins said like we didn’t have a good hand. “We’re going to have to fold.”
“Stop it.” I laughed.
“Enough lip from you,” he said jokingly. “Remember,
I’m
teaching you how to play cards.”
“Whatever you say,” I hummed, taking in the inviting feel of Hawkins with his arms wrapped around me. It was truly the first time I had felt safe all day. He tossed the cards down against the table while everyone else continued to play.
He turned his face into my hair. “You smell good,” he whispered, leaving me breathless as the soft touch of his lips grazed against my neck.
Vaguely, I remembered watching Blakely win the game with two pairs, but it was hardly the full house we once had in our hands.
“What are the odds?” Hawkins asked sarcastically. Warren downed a shot of some amber liquid across from me while I tried to avoid looking over at Lizzie who was still gawking at us.
“Drink,” Hawkins said to me as he grabbed a bottle of bourbon and poured it into an empty shot glass in front of me. Shaking my head while laughing, I downed the shot.
“See, I’m teaching you how to play cards.” He laughed.
Swank dealt the next set of cards around the table.
“Huh, four of a kind?” Hawkins looked at our cards and then folded. “Rubbish.”
“Are you trying to get me drunk?” I said in my most shocked voice.
“
No
, not at all,” Hawkins toyed. “I’m a gentleman, remember?”
“Ah, huh.”
“Why’s your t-shirt inside out?” he whispered in my ear. “It isn’t because it’s another one of the band’s t-shirts, is it?”
My face burned as we looked at each other for a moment. “Noooo,” I vehemently denied.
“Which one is it?” He went to peek from behind, but I gently slapped his hand away. Laughter rose up in his chest with the realization. All I could do was bury my face in my hands. This was horrifying!
“Wait…is that…is my…” He peeked around the front of my shirt. His megawatt grin was getting bigger with each passing second. “Is that a picture of my face on your chest?”
“No!” I hissed, then looked around the table and lowered my voice. “No, it’s not.”
“I’m going to have to disagree,” he said, tapping the cards against the table. “Is this some kind of fantasy? Because I might know the guy.” He winked.
“It’s not a fantasy,” I insisted.
“Maybe I could put a good word in for you?” He softly chuckled.
Oh, my god!
“Did she ever tell you why she has those rules, Hawkins?” Lizzie interrupted us, surprising both Hawkins and myself.
“No, it’s funny,” Lizzie continued when no one took the bait. “It really is.”
Hawkins sighed heavily behind me while he continued to ignore her. Blakely looked up from his cards, but I could tell that she was even trying his patience at this point.
“What is?” Warren humored her.
“Lizzie,” I warned.
“You can even YouTube it.” She laughed.
Has she lost it! Would she really stoop this low?
“She was following this guy around like a sad, little puppy dog and he told her to get out.” Lizzie snickered. “She was in love with the guy, too. I mean how sad is that?”
Apparently, she would, I thought while my body and mind shut down and I went rigid in Hawkins’ arms.
“All you have to do is type in Josephine.” Lizzie was in the middle of her rant.
“Alright,” Hawkins cut her off. “We’re going to take this somewhere more private.” He got up with me, but I still felt dazed and angry at being thrown under the bus by Lizzie.