Chapter 5
CHAPTER 5
Jazz
That’s right, folks, you read it here first. Jazz, the front woman for The Scarlet Letter is living a double life, and we have the scoop. But no worries, they may run, and they may try to hide, but they can’t get too far away for us to find them!
Jazz woke up feeling as if there was a boulder the size of Texas between her shoulders while a seismic event was happening in her head. She’d had the worst nightmare. It was the kind that felt so real that it also affected her physically, and she didn’t want to open her eyes, afraid of what she might find.
“Pixie, I know you’re awake, and I know it’s scary, but you need to get up.”
If any voice could help pull her from the void it was that of her Dom and the love of her life, Michael.
Her eyes felt like sandpaper as she forced them open. The light burned, but the thing that became obvious very quickly was that though she was usually an early riser, it was bright enough to be later in the day. “How late is it?” she asked, her voice sounding scratchy to her ears. “I had the worst dream; you are not going to believe it.” She started to pull herself to a sitting position.
When she looked around the room, Jazz saw suitcases sitting against the wall that were not there yesterday, and pictures flashed in her mind like a slide show. “Fuck,” she said, grabbing her head trying to ward off the shooting pain. “It wasn’t a dream, was it? That really happened?”
“I’m afraid it did. I’ve taken care of everything. I want you to get up and get in the shower. We have a plane to meet and not much time to get on the road. I am going to put our bags in the car. I left you some clothes to change into in the bathroom.”
“Get in the shower, a plane to meet? Where are we going? It’s not like I can go anywhere without being recognized, Michael,” she argued. She wondered what he could be thinking. It took a great deal of planning to go anywhere, and she could only guess how far things had spread after the fool she had made of herself yesterday. It was a national press conference after all.
“There is no time to argue. Do what I told you to do. Get your ass in the shower, or you’ll be traveling in what you are wearing—it makes no difference to me.” Michael shrugged as if he really would be happy to do as he threatened and moved toward the suitcases and started rolling two of them out of the room.
“Freaking bossy Dom,” she mumbled to herself as she made her way to the bathroom. She wanted nothing more than to bury her head under the covers and hide away from the mess that her life had become in the last twenty-four hours, but she knew Michael well enough to know that he would throw her over his shoulder and carry her out of the house if she did not comply with his demands.
Once she was out of the shower and dressed in her favorite maxi dress, she hung up her towel and stepped out of the bathroom to see Michael sitting in the chair messing with his phone.
“I don’t want to go out there. You and I both know when they see us leave the house, they will go nuts. Besides, it’s not like you can just up and leave your patients, Michael. I don’t know what you were thinking, but you need to stop whatever this is and reconsider.” She tried to get him to see reason, but the stubborn man seemed determined to leave, no matter the consequences.
The truth was she’d been thinking about everything while in the shower. She never wanted to be a burden to the people in her life. Michael’s practice would suffer from his proximity to her, there was no doubt, but if she walked away, maybe he could salvage things before it was too late. However, she knew that he was too good of a man to walk away, so it meant she was going to have to do it for his own good. It would be the only way.
“I already have the practice all squared away. A colleague is going to take over for me while we’re gone. He has been looking at buying into a practice in the area anyway, and I’ve been thinking about cutting back my hours, so the timing is fortuitous. Now, no more excuses. We are going and leave your phone on the bedside table. You won’t need it where we’re going.”
“Leave my phone? But what if there is an emergency? What if I need to talk to Jamie?” She couldn’t remember the last time they went more than a day or two without speaking since Jamie had gotten injured. This was not going to happen.
“Jamie has my number, and he or Dom can call me if they need us. Now, let’s go.” Michael turned and left the room, leaving no room for argument.
Jazz was never one to go against him under normal circumstances, but it seemed that they were leaving normal far behind. Before she could second guess herself, she pulled her charger from the outlet and after silencing her phone, put it along with her phone in the small side pocket of her purse before following him out the door.
As she climbed in the passenger seat in the garage, her heart rate began to pick up knowing they were getting ready to leave the safety of their quiet home. When he engaged the garage door opener, they were assaulted by an onslaught of flashes as the paparazzi rushed up the driveway in an attempt to get pictures of the couple leaving the house.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” she asked as she threw on her sunglasses and did her best to school her features in an attempt not to give them any more ammunition than she already had the day before. She’d already shown them weakness. There was no way she would allow herself to do it again, even if she just wanted to curl up in her bed and keep the blinds closed against the outside world.
“I promised to protect and care for you and that is what I am doing. I just need you to trust me. Do you think you can do that?” He managed to get the car down the crowded driveway and onto the street without hitting any of the photographers who were still snapping pictures at the moving car.
“Michael, you know trusting you isn’t the problem, and it never has been. But you’ve remained so tight-lipped about what your plans are, it’s making me nervous.” How could she make him understand that her biggest fear had just been realized? She’d been made a laughingstock in front of the entire world just like her mother had always said she would be.
“You say you trust me, but I’m not sure how true that is. We have a lot to talk about, but it isn’t going to happen right now while I’m trying to get us to the airport. I do want you to consider this. If you honestly trusted me as your Dom and the man in your life, then why in the past three years that we’ve shared our lives together have you never talked about your past? I know nothing about your family no matter how many times I’ve asked. I know nothing about where you come from or about your childhood. And don’t try to tell me that your reaction to what happened yesterday has nothing to do with your past, because there is no way in hell that I will believe it.”
He tightened his grip on the steering wheel, his knuckles growing white, but he never turned his gaze away from looking straight ahead. Michael was never one to raise his voice to her, but the quiet calm in his voice was all she needed to hear to know that he was angry but doing everything he could to keep it in check.
“I don’t know what you’re going on about, or why you seem to be mad at me.” She decided that denial was her best option at the moment. “I was the one who was embarrassed on a national level. That was me, do you not understand that? If you can’t, then I don’t get what we’re doing together.”
Jazz continued to dig her hole deeper. She turned to look out the window as their surroundings quickly passed them by along the freeway. She couldn’t look toward Michael’s face, afraid to see the disappointment that was sure to be there.
“Oh, my little Pixie. I hate that this had to happen to you more than I can say, but something tells me something needed to happen in order to force a change. So now, you and I are going somewhere where we can spend time together without interruption, somewhere without the press, either of our jobs, or quite frankly your bestie keeping you distracted.”
She didn’t answer him because she didn’t know what to say. She had left her childhood and whatever feelings she had about her family behind the day she and Jamie left Johnson’s Fork, and it had nothing whatsoever to do with what had happened in that press room yesterday, no matter what her bossy Dom seemed to think. So, there was no reason to bring up the ghosts from her past now, and she had no plans to let him.
Pulling into the airport, she noticed he avoided the main terminal altogether. Well, that was why he didn’t seem to be worried about traveling. He must have been busy while she’d been sleeping.
He pulled into a private hangar and found a large private plane with a man in a suit waiting outside. Michael pulled the car inside and turned it off before turning his attention to her. “This is our ride.” His hazel eyes looked at her as if he were searching into her soul. “Jessica, I need you to understand that I promised to take care of you, and that is what I am going to do. I will protect your body, your heart, and your soul, and if you want to fight me on that, then so be it.” He reached out and stroked her face, pushing her hair behind her ear in the way that she loved.
“You know, just because you are my Dom doesn’t mean you get to be my shrink. I didn’t sign on for that. And what are you doing calling me Jessica? You never call me by my given name, and I don’t want you to start now,” she griped. She hated her given name because it reminded her of everything she left behind, and she didn’t want any more reminders of her past. She didn’t even know why she was acting this way with him. It didn’t feel good, but she couldn’t seem to help it. Everything in her was screaming to fight Michael and everyone else around her.
“Be honest, Pixie, you knew what you were getting when you started a relationship with me. Maybe I haven’t taken care of you like I should, I don’t know, but today that ends. So, get your cute little ass out of the car and into that plane right now.”
Was it wrong that she was a little turned on in the midst of all of this chaos? That was what Michael did to her.
“I would have no qualms letting the crew watch me tan your ass after take-off if you continue with this attitude.” He cracked a smile for the first time since entering the car. “I love you more than I will ever be able to tell you, but this attitude ends when you exit this car, or I will be happy to help you with it.” He winked and exited the car, ending the conversation.
Jazz took a deep breath. The truth was she had chosen this kind of relationship and to give control over to Michael, but had she really handed him all of the control she had promised him? Or had she only done so when it was convenient and looked good? The more she thought about it, the less she liked the answer.
She stepped out of the car with her purse in hand and made her way over to the steps leading up to the door of the plane. At the base of the steps stood one of the staff with his hand out to assist her into the plane.
“Where are we flying to, anyway?” she asked him, remembering that Michael still had not answered her question, not that it mattered as she would still get on the plane regardless of the answer, but she was curious.
“We are scheduled to land in Missoula, Montana, which will take about two and a half hours, ma’am.” He turned his attention behind her. “Sir, please let me help you with those.” The attendant moved behind her and she turned to see Michael had come up behind her with their bags in hand.
“If you could get the guitar case from the trunk, that would be very helpful,” Michael answered.
He’d brought her guitar?
“Michael, what the hell could there be to do in Missoula Montana, and why did you bring my guitar? Are you planning on me doing some kind of performance, because if you do, I should tell you that isn’t going to happen.” She may have been born in a small town in Ohio, but she wasn’t a woman who would thrive in the country. There was a reason she’d lived in Los Angeles her entire adult life.
“Pixie, get on the plane. We can discuss our plans once we are safely on board, but we have a schedule to maintain, and it’s rude to keep the crew waiting.”
She turned back toward the door, and he slapped her ass before she could start to move up the steps. She found herself wishing she could rewind to before she had agreed to the concert in the first place and change her answer. Then maybe life could go back to normal instead of this twilight zone where she was headed to the middle of nowhere with her Dom who seemed hell-bent on digging up her past for no reason other than his assumption that it was somehow related to her reaction to people knowing about her life.