Chapter Thirteen

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Leah

 

 

 

We made the drive up in Davis’ black Suburban. His was a bigger model than Dominic’s, and it had a window behind the driver’s seat, which I liked because it gave me and Audrey some privacy. She’d been packed and ready when we arrived at her building, and Dominic had climbed out to toss her suitcases in the back. Yes, suitcases, plural. She had three. And she couldn’t get over the fact that we had bodyguards.

“Are they going to come with us everywhere?” she asked in a hushed tone, even though the window was closed and the guys couldn’t hear us.

“That’s kind of the point.”

“Even in the hotel?”

“Well, basically. They have their own room, but it’s connected to our suite.”

“That’s amazing. I always wanted to know what it would be like to be famous.”

I only raised my eyebrows in response. She could keep them.

The suite was beautiful. It had an open lounging area with a kitchenette off to the right, and two small bedrooms to the left. Dominic and Davis swept through the area first, making note of the placement of windows and all objects. The door to their room was in the kitchen close to the main door, and me and Audrey both got keys to it.

“We can use this whenever we want?” Audrey asked with a smile, looking down at her key card and then back up to Davis.

“It’s for emergencies only,” he replied, not amused. “And I need you to understand that Leah is our client, so stick with her if you want to be safe. We’re not chasing after you if we lose you.”

Audrey bristled, and I smiled to myself, glad she was getting a taste of how annoying it was to be treated like a child all the time. “Understood. I’ve managed beautifully for twenty-one years without you, so I don’t think anyone needs to worry about me.”

“I’m not,” Davis said easily, already moving on. She didn’t say anything, but I could tell she was a little offended by being written off. I don’t think she really understood yet that this was simply a job to them, and that they weren’t here to fawn over us or treat us like princesses. “No one answers the door for any reason or leaves this room without Dominic or myself. Again, Audrey, you can go off by yourself but you’ll be on your own. Leah, if Audrey leaves and then comes back knocking on the door because, I don’t know, she forgot her key or whatever, Dominic or myself will let her back in. Under no circumstances do I want you answering this door, even if you think you know who’s on the other side.”

I rolled my eyes. “I know.” We’d had the same rule at home since I was fifteen. You’d think he would know I was used to it by now.

After Davis’ speech, Audrey and I got settled into our respective rooms and then we went down to the steakhouse in the hotel for dinner. Audrey invited Dom and Davis to sit with us, but they declined, instead asking for a table close by.

“Are they just going to be like that the entire time?” she whispered across the table. “It makes me nervous how they’re just sitting there watching us.”

“It’s what they do.” I gave an apologetic shrug. “And they’re not really watching us. They kind of do their own thing and keep watch for anything strange around us. Honestly, I’ve had them around for so long it just feels normal at this point.”

“Why? I mean, no offense, but you’re not like the President’s daughter or famous or something. Why do you get your own security detail?”

“My dad. He’s…overprotective.”

Her dark blond eyebrows shot up. “No shit. That has to cost him a fortune. It’s crazy.”

I hesitated. “Something happened to me when I was younger. Well, almost happened. Even though it was just one random event that would most likely never be repeated, he kind of lost his mind about it. That’s why I have security.”

Interest lit up her face. “What happened?”

I quickly glanced around. Dom and Davis were a few feet away, talking low in the way that they did when they were on the job. I always imagined they talked about grossly inappropriate things under their breaths while maintaining the image of stoic professionalism. A few feet away on the other side there was a booth with a middle aged couple eating and drinking from wine glasses. And then across from me was Audrey, looking at me with these wide eyes, like she was seeing something about me for the first time. I hated talking about this. I’d never really had to before. No one had known about it from school, or outside my family’s small circle. Mom had visited me for awhile after it all happened, but she mostly brought me presents and artisan deserts and pretended everything was fine. Dad had definitely never wanted to talk about it. He wasn’t the talking type. Rather than talk about stuff, he went into action, and that time was no different. There was nothing to talk about, as far as he was concerned. Instead, he corrected the problem. He made it so I was never alone and open for attack again.

To Audrey, I simply said, “I’ll tell you about it later.”

“Really?”

Would I? I guess it depended on how much she pushed it. Secretly I was hoping she’d just forget or lose interest.

“Yeah. Maybe after I’ve had a few drinks.”

“There’s a liquor store down the road. What? I was going to get some anyway. We’re officially on vacation, girl. But I honestly hope that you decide to tell me. I want to know about you.”

“Why?” She’d never had much of an interest in me before.

“Because I just realized I don’t know very much about you. Like, we’ve known each other a long time, but not on a very personal level. I’m hoping that by the end of this trip, we’ll have shared an amazing experience and be super close because of it.” With a twinkle in her eye, she raised her water like she was giving a toast, then took a delicate sip from the straw.

I didn’t know why that made me nervous, but it did. Maybe because I was starting to realize how little I knew about Audrey as well. And I was sharing this big experience away from home with her. It was kind of a lot of pressure. In the back of my mind I knew that how we got along had the potential to make or break this trip for us. But instead of letting my mind get caught up on that, I gave her a small smile back and lifted my own glass.

Before heading back to our suite, we went to the liquor store nearby and picked up some vodka, soda, and snacks. And then we proceeded to drink until we were very close to being drunk. We sat on her bed and I gave her shit about bringing three suitcases, so she bounced over and opened all of them, giggling while showing me the contents.

The first suitcase was packed full of clothes: three bikinis, one for each day. Five pairs of strappy sandals, because what if she loses some of them at the concert? Miniskirts to wear over her bikini bottoms. Expensive lingerie sets. Skimpy sleep clothes. Pretty much everything she could want or need to wear at a music festival, and tons more beyond that.

The second suitcase was filled entirely with makeup and beauty products. More than I’d probably owned in my life. The third carried miscellaneous personal items: a laptop, granola bars, condoms, a white noise machine that she swore she couldn’t sleep without, and a whole pharmacy of over the counter and prescription meds.

“I like to have everything with me,” she said.

“I don’t even want to imagine what it’s like when you go away for more than three days.”

“It’s not pretty.”

She didn’t forget about her line of questioning from dinner, and resumed it with a suddenness that caught me off guard.

“So what happened that made your dad hire bodyguards?”

Sighing, I felt some of my buzz slip away. “It’s not a big deal, really. Nothing happened. Something almost happened. One of my dad’s employees had just been fired, and he showed up at the house when I was there mostly alone and tried to get me in his car.”

“Like…he tried to kidnap you?”

“Yeah. But it was stupid. One of my neighbors was out walking his dog and saw what was happening, and when he and the dog came running over, the guy let me go and drove off.” I’d been too scared to even feel relief when this had happened, too scared to trust it. Even now, the biggest thing I remembered about that day was the feeling of the man’s arms coming around me as I turned to let him inside. One arm folding around my stomach, the other trapping me at the chest, and then he was pulling me out of the house. My will, my strength, my safe haven, gone. I still shivered just thinking about it.

“What was he going to do? Hold you for ransom until your dad gave him his job back?” She scowled, shaking her head.

I knew more about Steven Bosch than my dad probably realized I knew. I knew more about his motives and fucked up state of mind than I wanted to. That was the part I really never let myself talk about. Instead I said, in what was clearly a brush off, “I don’t know. He was crazy.”

I left it at that, and we finally went to bed soon after.

We had VIP passes but so did a lot of people, and when the gates opened at eleven the next morning we still had to wait in line for close to an hour. I looked over the crowds forming around us and felt the excited energy flowing through it. The weather was perfect; it was a bright day, the sun warm on my skin. Audrey, standing next to me, wore one of her little bikini tops with a denim miniskirt. I’d gone a bit more modest with a vintage wash tee that I’d stolen from Eleanor, and white shorts with sandals. I hadn’t slept great in the unfamiliar setting of my hotel room, anxious with the anticipation of today, but we’d grabbed coffee at the hotel and I felt wide awake. When we finally entered the festival, wristbands and lanyards showing our VIP status, I didn’t even know where to start. People were everywhere and the space was open and vast. The previous night we’d made a loose schedule of bands we wanted to see, but I had no idea where anything was or where we should go.

“Do you have the map?”

“Fuck the map,” Audrey said. “Just follow me.”

“Do you know where you’re going?”

“Nope. But we’ll get somewhere good, I promise.”

We walked for awhile, just looking at everything. There were food trucks everywhere, every kind imaginable, vegan, sushi, tacos, gelato, frozen cocktails, juiceries. I had a sick love for food trucks, and my mouth started to water. But Audrey dragged me along, and we continued past a tattoo and piercing tent – I really could have done everything from my list here – and then stopped at an artist’s tent to admire the paintings she had displayed. But soon we moved along and I discovered Audrey’s ultimate destination: the bar. In this case, it was a full L-shaped bar that was covered by an orange tent and manned by a cute bartender, whom she immediately struck up a flirtation with. But as he delivered our drinks, his eyes kept drifting behind us to where Dominic and Davis stood at the entrance. To their credit, they tried to look normal by wearing jeans and t-shirts, but practically no one at the concert was wearing jeans and t-shirts, and with their stiff demeanors they kind of stood out.

“Your bodyguards are totally going to cock-block us,” Audrey said to me in a low voice, leaning in toward me as she said it. “I can already tell. What do you do when you’re out with a guy?”

I could feel my cheeks flush. “That doesn’t happen very often, unsurprisingly.”

Her mouth fell open, and she looked at me like I’d just told her a deep personal tragedy. “Do you think we can ditch them?”

“No. God, no. My dad’ll kill me. But, seriously, just do what you want to do. They’re not going to care. This is their job, they’re used to it.”

Shaking her head, she said, “I thought it would be cool coming in here with bodyguards. Like we were famous or something. Turns out it completely sucks.”

“I’m sorry.” I felt like she was regretting asking me to come, like I was ruining her festival experience. Resolve began to settle over me, a determination to make sure she had a good time. “They really won’t get in the way of anything. I promise. I still have like four things on my summer bucket list I need to mark off, and I’m going to do it here.”

She looked vaguely curious. “Like what?”

I glanced over at my bodyguards, but they were in professional mode, surveying the area around us. And even though they weren’t very far away, it was too loud for them to hear us. “Well, I don’t have the list with me, but…”

“Wait, there’s an actual list? One that you wrote down?”

“Yeah. It’s in my suitcase.”

She barked off a laugh from behind her hand. “That’s hilarious. So what’s on it? No, wait. First tell me what you’ve already marked off.”

“Okay. Well, I got a tattoo.” I rolled my bar stool around and lifted my shirt so she could see the compass tattoo. This led to her showing me her tattoos, of which she had several. Then I told her some of the other stuff I’d done, like going clubbing alone.

“See, you can ditch them!” In her excitement, she said this pretty loud, and I shot a look over to them. It was impossible to tell if they heard her.

“No, that’s exactly why I can’t. Once nearly got me disowned. Twice would probably get me killed.”

She sighed her disappointment. “Okay. So what’s left on the list?”

“Hooking up with someone I’ll never see again. And, this one’s kind of ongoing, but I have to say yes to everything I want to do.”

Her forehead puckered. “Why wouldn’t you say yes if you want to do something? I don’t get that one.”

“Because I have a big tendency to talk myself out of things. Like if it’s too risky, or if it scares me. I always end up backing down and not acting.”

She nodded, like she understood. “And now you’re accountable because you’ve told me about it. I won’t let you back down. I’ll make sure you say yes.”

The first thing she made me say yes to was a stop at a gourmet ramen truck, and then we ventured to the closest stage to watch one of the bands play. There was a VIP section near the stage to the far left, but Audrey wanted to be in the crowd, and she expertly led me through it. Holding on to my arm with one hand, she raised the other and called out the name Sarah, acting like we were trying to get to our friends up front. And it actually worked. People let us through until we found a nice spot close to the front, and then we smiled at each other. The band on stage had an electric sound that was hard and fast, and we were so close I could feel the beats vibrating through my body. Audrey and I raised our arms and danced. At one point my back bumped into a body and when I turned it was Dominic. He was still wearing his sunglasses but I could tell he was watching me. And it wasn’t in the way he always wanted to pretend, like he was just doing his job. I was very familiar with the bodyguard type of watching, and this was not it. This was the type of watching that made me feel like I was the only thing visible to him, even in a crowd full of people. It hit my skin and the nerves beneath like a touch, and made my entire body buzz with anticipation of something more.