Chapter 27 Sloane
Sloane
Life just wouldn’t give me a break. Less than three days after we arrived at the safehouse, I got sick.
The migraine I’d barely been keeping at bay with my medicine came back with a vengeance.
Pressure built behind my eyes, sending a lancing pain through the side of my head.
To make matters worse, my stomach felt like it was being ripped in two.
I stumbled out of the bathroom, eyes half-closed to block out the light, and made my way to the stairs, careful not to trip.
Kolton was on the couch where I left him, though he wasn’t reclined anymore. He looked up from his phone screen as I hit the bottom stair, then came rushing to me, his hands poised to catch me if I fell.
“Diva? What’s wrong?”
“Umm…” Heat flushed through me, and I shifted side to side. “It’s kind of embarrassing.”
He took my arm, leading me across the room to the couch. “You don’t have to be embarrassed. What’s going on?”
“I think I need to go home.”
His brow furrowed and he crouched down in front of me where I sat on the couch. “What for?”
“I left my purse there.” Another pain stabbed my head, and I pressed two fingers to my temple. Kolton brushed my hair off my shoulders before cupping the sides of my neck.
“Do you have a migraine? Can I get you a pill?”
Wincing, I swallowed hard. “That’s the problem. My pills are in my purse.”
Kolton shook his head. “No, I made sure the bottle was in your bag before we left New York. We didn’t get to unpack. We—”
I covered his mouth with my fingers to stop him. “Not those pills, baby.” I winced again. “My, umm. My birth control.”
Kolton’s eyes grew to the size of saucers, and even with my fingers against his lips, his mouth dropped open.
“No, no. Not that. I’m not—” I took his hands in mine.
“I’m not pregnant. I just… I haven’t taken my pills since…
the day before the concert? And my period’s here.
It just started and I feel horrible, and I don’t have any tampons because it shouldn’t have started so soon.
And without my pills, my hormones are all out of whack, which explains why my head has been hurting more since we got here. ”
Though he closed his mouth, his eyes were still wide. He took one hand away from me and wrapped it around the back of his neck. “Shit, Diva. I didn’t even think—” He broke off, bringing his eyes to mine. “I’m so sorry. I should have known better. I didn’t even think—”
“No, baby, it’s not your fault!” I winced as my stomach cramped.
He curled his hands around my face, his long fingers wrapping around my head. “What can I do?”
Tingles spread down my neck as warmth pooled in my chest. “I need to get some things from home.”
He nodded, then pressed a kiss to my forehead. “I’ll call Joss, see if she can help.” He hadn’t even let go of me when his phone buzzed on the couch beside me. Before he could grab it, I saw Monica’s name on his screen. “Shit.”
“What’s going on?” I asked as he punched in his passcode and opened the message. He swiped a few times, then the phone was ringing.
Monica answered on the first ring. “This is a problem, Kolton.”
“Hey! Monica! Sloane’s right here and I’ve got you on speaker.”
“What’s going on?” I asked, my eyes burning into his.
“Sloane! How are you today?”
“Cut the crap, Mon. What’s the problem?”
After a brief silence, Kolton responded. “There’s rumors going around about you in the tabloids.”
“That’s nothing new. That’s an everyday occurrence.”
“It’s not every day people are saying you’re dead,” Monica said, and the harsh sound of her voice had my breath hitching.
“What do you mean?”
Kolton took my hand, giving it a gentle squeeze.
“We think someone at the police station leaked something. Celebrity found out about the break in, and the fans are going crazy. They’re saying you were injured and that you haven’t been seen since you left New York.
And the crazies are out there with their conspiracy theories that you were rushed to the hospital for treatment and died. ”
“But I’m right here!”
“We know that, Sloane,” Monica told me, “but the public does not. If we don’t do something to stop this, things could get out of hand. Have you talked to your mom or Skylar since you got home?”
I winched again, partly from the pain in my stomach and head, partly because my phone was also in my purse back at my condo. “I haven’t, no.”
“You need to call them and let them know you’re safe. Then I’d like to schedule a sighting. Something somewhere public, so people can see you and we can put these rumors to rest.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Kolton said. His brow was furrowed, and his hair was sticking up after he’d run his hand through his brown locks. I patted it down, smoothed it back in place.
“You’ll forgive me for not taking your opinion of my client’s image into consideration.”
“It’s not our client’s image I’m concerned about.
I’m worried about her safety. Not to mention her mental health.
Someone broke into her home, Monica. Someone attacked her on stage.
Sending her out in public is the last thing we need to do.
I’m not going to put Sloane’s life at risk for some publicity stunt. There are other ways to handle this.”
There was silence for a moment. When Monica finally responded, there was much less bite to her voice.
“What are you thinking?”
“We need to go back to her condo—”
“You think that will keep her safe?”
“We’re going to get her keyboard,” he said, with far more patience than I would have had. “She’s going stir crazy, being locked up without a way to play music, and we all know music is the one thing that calms her in tense situations.”
It was my turn to drop my jaw to the floor.
I’d mentioned in passing once, back on our flight to Georgia for my morning show appearance there, that I had a keyboard stashed under my bed. And while I’d said it because I was feeling tense about the flight and having Kolton by my side, I hadn’t told him that.
Kolton took my hand without taking his attention off his phone.
“There are fans standing outside the building, right? Well, they’ll see her, take pictures that prove she’s fine, and it will likely be posted all over social media before we’ve left the building.
We’ll hightail it out of there, drive around long enough to make sure we’re not being followed, and come back to the safehouse. ”
“There’s just one problem with that little scenario. You don’t have a car.”
“No, but I know someone who does. And she’s the kind of girl who will do anything to help a friend in need.”
“Joss?”
He looked up from his phone and gave me a crooked smile.
Monica didn’t say anything for a moment. When she did, she started with a heavy sigh. “Fine. We’ll try your way first. But if it doesn’t help, we need to consider doing it my way.”
Kolton pressed his lips together. The man was too nice for his own good.
“It’s going to work,” I told her. “I have faith in him.”
We said our goodbyes, then Kolton sent me upstairs to pack anything I wanted to take back home.
Not long after he joined me to do the same, there was a knock at the front door.
He raced down the stairs, pulling his handgun out from under his jacket as he went.
I watched from the landing as he peered through the peephole before tucking his gun away and opening the door.
When Joss walked in, the first thing she did was give him a hug, and my ribs squeezed tight.
Brooklyn had always been a hugger, and even though I usually wasn’t, I missed that connection.
The hug she gave me when we talked at my hotel in New York wasn’t like her usual hugs.
They’d always been long and comforting, taking away my stress and making me feel a little bit better no matter how badly I felt.
I needed that again, even found myself coming down the stairs, as if doing so might afford me the same embrace Kolton was enjoying. I felt like a fool. I’d only met the woman twice before, and both times were brief. She wasn’t my friend, but I was drawn to her all the same.
When Joss looked up and saw me on the stairs, her face morphed from serene to something bordering on ecstatic. “Hey! There you are. Are you doing okay?”
Before I knew it, she’d swept me up in that hug I’d been so desperate for. All at once, it felt like something was crushing my throat and my chest, and heat prickled at my eyes. I blinked quickly, trying to hide the tears I could feel building.
Joss tugged at my arm, pulling me a little farther away from Kolton. “I brought you something.” She pulled a small pouch out of her purse and handed it to me.
I peeked inside, expecting to find a handmade gift—like a friendship bracelet or a necklace that so many fans of singers seemed to be obsessed with lately. Instead, what I found had those tears I’d been fighting falling from my eyes.
“How did you—?”
Joss squeezed my arm, her gaze darting toward Kolton, who stood with his back to the two of us, his hand cupped around his neck.
“Of course.” Of course, Kolton would think of this for me.
Not only was he an amazing lover, a fierce protector, and a beautiful soul, but he knew me better than I knew myself sometimes, thinking of my needs before I recognized them myself.
My migraine pills, my keyboard, and now this: a period kit with tampons, pads, pain killers, a portable heating pad, and a bag of chocolate candies. “Thank you.”
I gave Joss another hug, then went to Kolton and hugged him too, despite his discomfort that showed in the tight muscles in his shoulders and back.
“Thank you, baby,” I whispered as I brushed my lips against his cheek.
He nodded, pulled back, a pink flush to his face. “Go take care of yourself. Joss and I will get our things into the truck, and we’ll go when you’re ready. And here.” He pulled out his phone and handed it to me. “Give your mom and Skylar a call, let them know you’re safe.”
I couldn’t help it, I lifted onto my toes and pressed a kiss to his cheek, company be damned. If my affection toward this man was taken as anything other than gratefulness, I decided I didn’t care.
After rushing back up to the bathroom to use the kit Joss had given me, I called my mom and let my family know that I was safe and what was going on. By the time I was done and out in the back of Joss’s truck—with Kolton driving and her in the front passenger seat—I was already feeling much better.
When we pulled up outside my condo, I almost didn’t recognize it, and I certainly didn’t want to get out of the truck. There were at least two dozen people—all dressed in bright pink, rhinestone-covered shirts—standing outside the door.
Kolton pulled up to the curb and sent a weary glance my way. “You ready, Diva?” When I shook my head, he reached back and squeezed my hand. “Don’t worry. I’ll be right there with you.”
That gave me a small sense of relief, though not enough to feel comfortable when he opened his door and got out. Joss jumped over the center console, buckling in before turning to me as Kolton opened the door.
“Good luck. Give me a call when you’re ready and I’ll come back for you.”
Kolton took my hand to help me down from the truck, then tucked me under his arm as he rushed me toward the front doors, which burst open as we neared. Building security stepped out, blocking the paths of the fans trying to get inside as we slipped into the building with a minimum amount of hassle.
Marty, the head of security, was at the front desk as we passed. “That went better than I expected.”
Kolton loosened his grip around me, though he kept his hand on my back. “That’s just because they weren’t expecting us. It’ll be worse on our way out.”
I glanced up at him as we boarded the elevator. His lips were pressed into a flat line, his brow furrowed. Once the doors closed, I reached up to smooth his forehead out.
“Thank you.”
“For what?” He pulled me close, wrapped his arms tightly behind my back.
“For doing this for me. Taking care of me. Appeasing Monica and getting my keyboard.”
His lips quirked up. “Is that all?”
I shook my head. Stood on my tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his lips. “And for loving me.”
“Diva.” He kissed me back, then pressed his forehead to mine. “Loving you is the easiest thing I’ve ever done.”
My pulse fluttered in my veins. I would have been content to stand there for hours, wrapped up in his arms, but the elevator dinged, and the doors slid open. Kolton grabbed my hand.
“Come on, Diva. The faster we get out of here, the faster we can get back to the safehouse.”
“What are we going to do then?”
He turned his gorgeous smile my way. “Whatever you choose. I’m happy just to be with you.”