Chapter 9

Levi

 

It was finally Thursday morning.

Finally. 

Yeah, right.

Saying it like that made it seem like I was relieved we had gotten to this point or that it was something I had been looking forward to. 

Not in the least. 

My reasoning had nothing to do with Elle singing or touring either.  It had everything to do with her stalker.  There hadn’t been any activity since the flower delivery at Lou’s, but I knew that a person like this would not just simply stop.  I just hated to think that they’d act when we were out of town.

I was overly concerned and worried about her, but did my best to hide it from Elle.  I couldn’t stand seeing the stress and anxiety in her face whenever she thought of or talked about the whole situation.

Currently, I was standing in the doorway to the guest bedroom watching her franticly pack her suitcases.  One suitcase was already overflowing with clothing; the other was halfway there.  She also had a large bag sitting on the bed that looked as though it was coming with us as well.

Elle turned her head and saw me standing in the doorway.

“I don’t think I can do this,” she fretted.

“What’s the matter, sunshine?” I asked keeping my voice calm hoping to relax her a bit.

“I don’t like this.  I don’t do well with deadlines and schedules.  I’m certain that this is not going to be the lifestyle for me.  Everything it requires is everything I hate: living out of a suitcase, packing my things, traveling by plane.  It makes me overwhelmed and I don’t like it.  I like it here.  In Wyoming.  I love my life here.  I love singing.  That’s all I want to do.”

I had to admit that deep down it felt good to hear that.  The more time I spent with Elle the more I was beginning to feel something for her.  In the back of my mind I wondered what would happen if she went on this tour and decided it was something she wanted to continue to do.  I knew I was the kind of person that wouldn’t be able to let her go alone on tour unprotected, even after her current situation was resolved.

I pushed off the doorjamb I had been leaning against and walked to her.  I wrapped both arms around her and pulled her against my body.  She immediately melted in to me.

“I’m cool with whatever you decide to do, Elle.  I think if you have the slightest idea in the back of your mind that this is something that you want to do down the road on a larger scale, then you should not pass up this opportunity to test the waters.  If you don’t want to do it, though, you don’t have to do it.”

“I’m not sure what to do.”

“Based on everything you’ve shared with me this week leading up to right now, I’m pretty certain you’re going to have a lot of fans that are disappointed if you cancel this.”

“Yeah, there’s that.  I’d never want to disappoint my fans, especially if this is the only time they’d get to see me perform in person.”

“So, do it.  Just try to go into it with a clear head and really make the effort to enjoy it.  If you want to keep things as they’ve been, at least you can make that decision knowing that you’ve explored this avenue.”

Elle pulled her face back from my chest, looked up at me, and wondered, “How do you do it, Levi?  You know just what to say to me to make me feel better.  Thank you for talking me through this; otherwise, I might have had a total meltdown.”

“No problem,” I responded.  “If you’re good now, I’m going to let you finish your packing while I go get my stuff loaded into the truck.  I’ll also get your car pulled into the garage since we’ll be gone for a while.”

“Ok.”

I gave her a quick kiss on the top of her head and walked out of the room, where I grabbed my suitcase and went downstairs.  Before walking out into the garage to load the suitcase into the truck, I snagged Elle’s keys off the island.  I tossed my bag into the truck, opened the garage door, and walked out to her car.

I had been telling her for days now to pull the car in the garage and she refused to do it.  I wasn’t necessarily worried because I had state-of-the-art security outside of my house, but since I had the space in the garage, I figured she should just use it.

I climbed in, started it up, and adjusted the seat.  She was a quite a bit shorter than me and my knees were practically hitting the dash.  Then, I flipped up both visors since she had them down.  When I pushed the driver’s side visor up, a folded piece of paper fell from it.  The paper floated down and landed in the center console with part of her collection of lip balm. 

I had to laugh.

This girl.

I don’t know why, but she had this crazy obsession with lip balm.  I thought it was adorable and I had a great time tasting every flavor she put on, so I didn’t give her shit about it.  And thankfully, the words I spoke to her the other day didn’t backfire on me. 

I’m not sure what I was thinking a few days ago when she brought up the fact that I wasn’t billing her for my services again.  When she told me that she felt like she was giving her body up as payment, I made a split-second, emotional decision and told her we wouldn’t have sex again until her stalker situation was no longer a situation.

The second I said the words, I instantly regretted them.  Deep down, though, I knew it was the right thing because I was not even remotely ok with her thinking that I viewed her body as payment.  It killed me to watch her walk out of my bedroom that night.  It was even worse listening to her cry in the guest bedroom.

As much as I wanted to go in there, pick her up, and carry her back to my bed, I couldn’t.  She needed to come to me on her own terms. 

She walked in my room quite some time later with puffy red eyes.  I hated seeing her like that.  When her delicate tone filtered into my ears, repeating words I said to her not much earlier that night, I knew she felt remorseful and regretful.  I didn’t want her living in that too long, so I pulled her to me and we talked.  Luckily, after she apologized and asked if we could still have sex, I got the answer I needed when I replied by asking if she knew what sex between us meant. 

Since that night, she hasn’t brought up paying me for keeping her safe and investigating this case.  I think she’s finally accepted that I genuinely care for her.

So now, as I looked down to pick up the piece of paper that had fallen in with her lip balm I simply smiled inwardly at the fact that I still had the opportunity to taste her lips.

I grabbed the paper and was about to put it back in the visor when something caught my eye.

Initials.

B.B.

My gut clenched as I opened the paper completely.

I read the words that had been maliciously typed and directed at my ray of sunshine and immediately pulled my phone out of my pocket.

It rang twice.

“Yeah?”

“Need you to come to my place.  Call Pierce and Dom, too, and have them come as well.  I just walked out to pull Elle’s car into the garage and found a note stuck in her visor,” I explained to Cruz.  “We’ll be leaving for the airport shortly and she’s not finished packing yet, so making a trip into the office is not an option right now.”

Cruz was my youngest brother who, shortly after I opened the firm, joined my team.  I trusted him, as I did all my guys, implicitly.  There was that added layer of confidence with him because he was family.  That’s why, when I found out that Elle was going to be going on tour I had no doubts about leaving my operation up and running in Cruz’s hands.

“On it, Levi.  See you in fifteen,” he responded.

I pulled the car inside the garage and went back into the house to look at the camera feed.  I already knew I wouldn’t find anything on them because I would have known if someone had stepped foot on this property and put that note in her car while it was parked here.  I also knew that this guy wasn’t an idiot.  It was likely he realized that he knew he’d be caught if he came here.

I checked the feed anyway.

Part of me was hoping that I was wrong.  That part of me was the part that didn’t want Elle to have to worry more than she already was about this tour. 

As I suspected, the feed was clean.  The only person that ever approached Elle’s car was Elle.

I walked out of the room that had my security equipment in it and locked the door.  I always kept it locked on the off chance that someone was ever stupid enough to come here.  I didn’t need the evidence of whatever they did or would attempt to do removed. 

Elle was walking down the stairs trying to carry a bag and a suitcase.

“Seriously, El?” I called as I ran over to take the bags from her. “You could have left it all upstairs and I would have gotten them.”

“Well, there’s one suitcase still up there.”

“I’ll get it after,” I said.

“After what?” she asked.

I didn’t get a chance to answer her because Cruz knocked on the door and walked in.  A look of confusion washed over her face before she shook it off and questioned him.

“Hi Cruz.  Are you here to see us off?”

When his eyes immediately came to mine, I gave Cruz a look that told him everything he needed to know, which was that Elle had no idea what he was doing there yet.

Not even thirty seconds later, there was another knock on the door and in walked Pierce and Dom.  That’s when Elle knew.  She never met Dom, but she knew who Pierce was since he was the one there when she first got to Cunningham Security looking for me.

She instantly tensed.

“What’s wrong?” she questioned, her terrified eyes coming to me.

I watched as she shifted nervously back and forth on her feet and her hands started fidgeting.

“Elle, you already know Pierce.  This is Dominick, better known as Dom.  Dom…Elle.”

Dom gave her a chin lift and she acknowledged him with a nod of her head and a small smile.  Then, her eyes came back to mine and pleaded with me.  

“Come here,” I urged her.

She shook her head.  “Just tell me, Levi.  What is it?”

I took a deep breath and explained, “I brought my suitcase out the truck and walked out to your car to move it in the garage until we get back.  I adjusted the seat so I could fit in there and put your visors up since you left them down.  When I put the driver’s side visor up, a piece of paper fell from it.  I didn’t think anything of it initially, but as I picked it up and lifted my hand to the visor to put it back, I noticed the initials on it.”

She jerked back. 

“The same ones from the flower delivery?”

I nodded and then watched as her chest rose and fell rapidly.  She was starting to panic. 

“What did it say?”

“Elle, listen.  I don’t want you to worry,” I got out before she cut me off.

“Levi, please.”

I took in another deep breath and repeated the words on the note, “Best wishes on your upcoming tour.  Remember, he can’t always be with you.”

“Oh my God,” she whispered as she brought a hand up to cover her mouth.

I went to her and pulled her into my arms.

“Sunshine, I will be with you the entire time.  I’m not letting you out of my sight,” I tried to reassure her.

She held on tight to me, her fingernails digging into the skin at my sides.  I looked up at Cruz, Dom, and Pierce and found them all looking concerned.

Cruz spoke.

“Any idea how the note got there?”

“I checked my security feed here already.  Nothing…which is what I expected.”

“Where else has the car been?”

Elle answered, “I went to Leah’s yesterday to go over a few last-minute items for the tour.  Levi knew I was there and I called him when Leah and I decided to take a trip to the Windsor Mall in the afternoon.  I wanted to pick up a couple of things for the tour.  Oh my God, this guy probably followed us there.  Do you think he went to Leah’s place, too?  Do you think he’ll go after her?”

I wished I had the answer for her, but the truth was I had no clue. 

“Probably not.  It appears the obsession is with only you, but just to be safe we’ll have you give us her address before you and I head out of town.  Cruz will have the team check in on her regularly.  We’ll keep it quiet so she doesn’t begin to worry unnecessarily.  In addition, he’s also going to have Trent look at the Windsor Mall parking lot footage.”

“Thank you.”

I nodded to her and looked up at Dom and Pierce.  “Elle’s performing in Denver tomorrow night.  As you know, after Colorado, the rest of the tour has two stops each in Arizona and California followed by two performances in Vegas before coming home to perform at Lou’s.  I’m looking to have you two split the time.  I’m prepared to cover Denver solo, since it’s cutting it close, but I want a second person for the remainder of the tour.  Pierce, I’ll have you cover both Arizona performances and the first in California.  Dom will get the second California performance and the two in Vegas.”

“No problem,” they answered in unison.

“Cruz, have Deb take care of booking their flights.  The hotels we’ll be at are in Elle’s case file.  Make sure Deb gets rooms booked for each of them as well.  Same floor.”

“You’ve got it, bro.”

At that, Elle slid her hand in her back pocket and pulled out her phone.  We all watched as she held it up and scanned it across the space where Cruz, Dom, and Pierce were standing.  Then she moved it to me.  She moved it back to the guys, held it steady, and moved back to me and held it steady briefly.  Then, she lowered the phone and began tapping away at the screen.

“Elle?  What’s going on?”

She continued tapping on the screen furiously.  Her brows were furrowed as she remained focused on her task.

“El?” I called again.

Not looking up from her screen, she replied, “One sec.  Almost done.”

We waited and watched her.

Finally, she dropped her arms and looked up at us.  I gave her a look that indicated she needed to explain what just happened.

“Social media,” she stated, matter-of-factly.  “I just took some quick shots of all four of you and posted to my social media accounts.  I know Cruz isn’t going to be there, but nobody needs to know that.  My thought is that if this person is following me on any one of those platforms he should know what my security team looks like.  Besides, that note said you can’t always be with me.  What it fails to assume is that maybe you can’t always be with me, but there’s a whole team looking out for me.  A team that looks menacing.  If I were stalking someone and they had a security team that looked like mine does, I’d probably find someone else to stalk.”

I looked to the guys.  The looks on their faces told me that they all had the same thoughts as I did. 

“How many followers do you have on social media?” Cruz asked.

“Depends on the account, but no less than forty thousand on any one platform.  Facebook has the highest number of followers.”

“How many there?”

“Roughly a hundred and fifteen thousand.”

“Jesus Christ,” I muttered.

Elle’s phone rang.  She looked down at it and answered.

“Hey, LP.”

I watched as a smile spread across her face.

“I know.  The situation sucks, but at least I’ve got some good stuff to look at during the tour.”

What?

“That’s Dom.  I just met him today.  The one in the middle is Pierce.  Cruz is on the right.”

That quick?  Someone saw that shit already?  It hadn’t even been a full two minutes.

“Right?  I didn’t believe Emme back a few months ago when she was telling us all about Levi’s team.  There was no way they could all be hot, but apparently, she wasn’t lying.” 

I was going to lose my shit.

“Oh, right.  Well, we think someone got into my car yesterday when you and I were at the mall.  Levi found a note in my visor this morning.  The initials B.B. signed the note again.”

Silence again.

“Wished me well on the upcoming tour, but then reminded me that Levi can’t always be with me.  Levi rectified that by organizing a team to travel with me.”

She listened to Leah’s response. 

“It’s a sucky situation, but I figure I need to look on the bright side if I’m going to make the best of it.  I’m thinking that the way my bodyguards look is part of the bright side.”

I was losing my patience with this.  A noise came from the back of my throat.

Elle’s eyes came to mine and she gave me a questioning look. 

She had no clue what was wrong.

Cruz, Dom, and Pierce were laughing. 

“Hey, listen LP, Levi’s looking at me a little funny right now.  I’ve got to go, but I’ll see you in California.”

She waited while Leah, I’m assuming, said good-bye.

“Love you, too.”

My stomach clenched hearing her angelic voice say those words.  What the fuck?

She disconnected the call and began quizzing me.  “What’s wrong now?”

I didn’t answer her.  I looked to the guys and announced, “Thanks for stopping by.  Get the details sorted with Deb for the trips.  Cruz, I assume you are already planning on it, but have Trent look into the social media accounts.  Maybe we can narrow it down to a handful of individuals with the same initials.  Report any updates to me right away.”

Dom and Pierce nodded their agreement.  Then, because everybody in the room besides Elle knew where my head was, Dom walked over to Elle, gave her a hug, and said, “Nice to meet you Elle.  See you in California.”  He finished with giving her a wink. 

He looked at me and I warned, “You’re lucky I need a crazy motherfucker like you on my team; otherwise, I’d fire your ass for that.”

Dom laughed, put his hand on my shoulder, and retorted, “It would have been worth it.  Catch ya later, Levi.”

Pierce and Cruz laughed.

Cruz then walked over and pulled Elle into a hug.  He kissed the top of her head and reassured her, “We’ll find this guy and keep you safe, babe.”

“Thanks, Cruz.”

“Your ass is lucky you’re related to me.  Fuck, now I know what Zane felt like when you pulled that same shit with Emme.”

Cruz jerked his head to me and informed Elle, “Don’t let this guy give you a hard time after we leave.”

Confusion marred Elle’s features as Cruz turned around and walked out of the house behind Dom and Pierce.

When the door closed, I looked at Elle, who still looked as confused as ever.

“Did I miss something?” she asked.

“Nothing at all, Elle,” I explained as I brought myself to within mere inches of her.  “That is, nothing except for the fact that you stood here talking about how hot my team is with not only me here, but some of them as well.”

“Seriously?” she began.  “Levi, there are few people in this world that could even come close to holding a candle to you.  That said, you can’t deny that your team is hot.”

“I don’t spend much time checking out my guys, Elle.”

She closed the distance between us and with her luscious lips barely touching mine, she reasoned, “Then maybe you should just take my word for it.”

I wrapped my arm around her waist and replied, “You think so?”

She simply nodded and pressed her lips to mine. 

The kiss was soft and unhurried.  Elle’s arms wrapped around the back of my neck and she pulled her mouth from mine.

She looked up at me with her golden, bedroom eyes. 

“They might all be hot, but you are the only one that’s ever taken my breath away.”

Fuck.

I couldn’t say the feeling wasn’t mutual. 

Especially when I looked in those fucking eyes.

With that, my mood shifted.  Talk of my team went out the window and my face softened.

“Are you finished packing all of your stuff?”

She nodded.

“One hundred percent ready to go?” I continued.

“Yeah,” she replied softly.

“Good.  We’ve got two hours before we need to head to the airport.  I can think of a few ways I’d like to spend those two hours.”

Elle’s beautiful eyes turned liquid honey and I knew she was content to spend the next two hours doing exactly what I wanted.

A grin spread across my face before I bent down, pushed my shoulder into her belly, and picked her up in a fireman’s hold.  I carried her upstairs and enjoyed the next two hours with my woman.