Chapter 26 #2
The applause was drowned out by my thoughts, but I wore my smile with a confidence I didn’t feel. I was going to have to shoot the music video over the next few days that I was off from tour, which was fine, but not if I didn’t get to talk to Van.
I felt possessed by my need to talk to him. It was consuming me. I probably was feeling so weird about it because we’d been denied the chance to talk it out, because of the interview. I just needed to wait it out, to get through with filming, and we’d be able to talk.
The redhead was in the middle of saying something when I felt that peculiar feeling for the third time. That weird feeling that I’d felt before, like I was being looked at with such an intense look of disdain and despair that I felt overwhelmed by the invisible intention of it.
On instinct, I looked amongst the audience, trying to see if I could somehow decipher where it was coming from, but I came up empty handed. I couldn’t see anyone from backstage, so I wasn’t able to rule out anyone back there.
What didn’t make sense to me about this feeling was the inconsistency of it.
I’d felt it that first time at Spider Way, when I’d shown Van where I’d spent most of my childhood.
I’d felt it there in Phoebe. The second time was during the opening night of tour, here, in Nashville.
And now I was feeling it here on the set of The Gab?
Where was the connection? I’d always been an emotional perceptive person, which I’d deduced was why I was so sensitive to feeling the energy from whoever this was. But it didn’t make sense to me.
“Alistair?” Veronica’s voice pulled me out of my head again, confusion spreading across her face.
“I’m sorry, what were you saying?” I tried my best not to sound as shaken as I felt, but I probably looked like a fucking deer in the headlights.
“Tawnie was asking where the next tour stop is?” Veronica, to her credit, looked genuinely concerned for me. If nothing else, at least I’d learned the name of the last lady here at the table.
“Right,” I said, laughing to attempt to cover up the blank stare I must have delivered when Tawnie had first asked me the question. “The next show is in Glendale, Arizona.” I looked out to the audience. “I hope to see some of you there.”
The crowd erupted with cheers while the hosts did their sign offs for this segment of the show, the interview coming to a natural close.
I never wanted to leave somewhere fast enough.
As they called the all clear, letting us know that we weren’t on air anymore, I stood up abruptly.
Veronica mimicked my ascension, concern deepening her brows.
“Are you okay?”
“Sorry about that,” I laughed nervously, trying to cover up the fact that I was now afflicted with two situations I was trying to solve in my head. “But yeah, I’m all good.”
“Alright,” She didn’t seem convinced, but she didn’t push the issue, which I was grateful for. “Well, thanks again for doing this interview. We really appreciate you giving The Gab the time.”
“Of course.” I stuck out my hand, grateful that she grasped it without question as we shook on it. “It was lovely seeing you again.”
That made her calm a little, bringing out the blush of her cheeks as she smiled. “You as well. Good luck in Arizona!”
I thanked her again and managed to work my way backstage.
Now I needed Van for a whole different reason.
While I didn’t feel the eerie feeling anymore, not since the show had ended, I needed to brainstorm with Van about why the fuck it was happening to me.
I hadn’t mentioned it to him at all, so I was expecting him to be a little upset with me.
But that was the thing, I had no idea what this feeling was.
Unlike my feelings for him, this was completely detached and unable to lock on to.
As soon as I was backstage, I looked around for Van, but I didn’t see him in the same spot I’d left him earlier.
Glancing around, I didn’t see Priyanka either.
She had to have been somewhere around here.
She’d been bossing around a production assistant earlier.
Maybe she was back at the room they’d let me get ready in earlier?
Maybe Van was back there too, waiting for me.
Moving through the crew and everyone else mulling around backstage, I managed to find myself alone in a hallway that eventually would lead to the dressing rooms when someone stopped in front of me.
Actually, I practically ran into him, stumbling backward to stop myself from bowling him over.
When I retracted back and took in his features, my mood soured even more.
Lafayette Rhodes stood before me.
“I’m so sorry.” I said on instinct, seeing that he was wearing a more pointed look than he had the last time I’d met him. “Lafayette? What are you doing back this way?”
“Looking for you, of course.”
Something about the easy way he admitted that made the hair on my arms stand on end. Why the fuck would he be looking for me? Especially when he could very easily go congratulate his wife on another show well done?
“For me.” I didn’t pose it as a question, because it was clear to me that whatever he needed, was serious. I looked beyond him and behind myself for anyone else, but there was no one down this hall. Where the fuck was Van?
“Yes.” He revealed his hands from his pockets, which were covered in black leather gloves.
I thought it was quite the choice because they were pumping the heat throughout the place.
Or maybe it was weird to me because I was suddenly sweating from the fact that I was alone with Lafayette Rhodes with no easy exit in sight.
“I’m going to need you to follow me to a car I have just outside the back here. ”
I stared at him like he was insane. I mean, to me, he was. “What? I’m not going anywhere with you. I need to find my publicist and my bodyguard.”
“The manager was easy enough to distract,” Lafayette smiled and I swore I could see malice dripping from his fucking teeth. The way he smiled was the way I imagined a demon would grin, and I was complexly unsettled by the sight of it. “The bodyguard, however, proved difficult.”
Alarm bells went off in my head. Distracting Priyanka…for what? And what did he mean by Van proving to cause issues? Staring back at him, I tried stepping backward slowly, but he only followed my actions, stepping forward just as slowly.
“Where’s Van?”
“Alive.” Lafayette sighed, reaching into his pocket. “Let’s keep it that way and follow me to the car.”
“Fuck you.” I spat, wondering why the fuck I wasn’t running backwards and screaming for help. But if Van was in trouble… “What did you do to Van?”
“Look,” Lafayette looked visibly upset by my refusal to follow basic directions.
“If you want to make sure he keeps breathing,” He revealed his left hand again, which now had a sleek black handgun within his grasp.
He kept the gun tight to his side, so that if someone did walk down this hall, it was easily concealed.
He nudged the gun toward me. “Get in the fucking car.”