“It’s not funny at all,” I say.
He shrugs a little bit. “I can see how you might think that.”
I turn to Norah. “What does that say?”
She hesitates a second, glancing at the paper. I can tell she wants to hide it from me, but I step closer.
“Norah,” I say.
“It’s not nice,” she answers. “Do you really want to know?”
“I do,” Graham says chipperly.
I glare at him. “Yes, I want to know,” I say.
“Okay.” She clears her throat and reads. “‘Dear Slut, You are a worthless cunt and I hope you die of venereal disease. Your new album is trash. I loved being in your house the other day and hopefully we’ll see each other soon. Love, your new man.’”
We sit there in silence for a second before Graham lets out a choked growl.
“Now I’m annoyed,” he says.
Norah sighs. “This individual is deranged.”
“No shit,” Graham grunts.
“You thought it was funny just a second ago,” I point out to him.
He shrugs. “I was wrong.”
“What do we do now?” I ask Norah.
She hesitates a second. “Cancel the tour,” she says finally.
We sit there in silence before I finally shake my head. “No. We’re not canceling.”
“This is bad, Katie. I don’t want to cancel, I mean, the logistical nightmare of it, but… we can’t continue with this hanging over our heads.”
“No,” I say more angrily this time. “We aren’t canceling.”
“Katie,” Norah says softly.
Graham clears his throat. “If she says no, it means no, yeah?”
Norah frowns at him. “She’s not in charge. It’s a team effort.”
“Is it?” he asks softly. “Seems to me that she’s the one in danger, not you.”
“Enough,” I say, before Norah can tear into him. “He’s right, though. This is my decision, and I say we keep going.”
Norah looks at me, frown even deeper, but finally she nods.
“If that’s what you want.” She looks at Graham. “Her life is in your hands now.”
He rolls his eyes. “Don’t be so dramatic.”
Norah shrugs and tosses the note back into the box. She turns and leaves the room without another word, leaving me alone with my bodyguard.
He grins at me. “Dramatic,” he says.
I sigh and sit down at the edge of the bed, putting my head in my hand. “How the hell did you get in here?” I ask him.
“Jumped to the balcony.”
I stare at him in horror. “We’re thirty stories up.”
“Yeah. Jumped carefully.”
I laugh despite myself. He’s insane, absolutely insane, but he risked his life to make sure we didn’t get caught. That has to say something. I just don’t know what, exactly.
“Come here,” he grunts.
He stands up and walk over. He pulls me down into his lap and kisses me gently.
“We’ll be okay,” he says. “I promise. Whoever sent this is just looking for attention. That’s all.”
“How do you know?”
“People don’t do this sort of shit if they’re serious. If someone wanted to hurt you, they’d just try to hurt you.”
I laugh bitterly. “That makes me feel so much better.”
“It should. Because if they tried, they’d have to get through me.”
I bite my lip. “Yeah? You can keep me safe?”
“Better than you think, princess.” He kisses me one more time.
I stand up and stretch. “Well, this has been fun. But I’m going to shower and get some breakfast.”
“I’ll dispose of our little dead stuffed animal.”
“Sounds good.” I hesitate. I want to say more, but I decide against it. “See you later.”
I leave his room before he can say anything to make me want to stay.
I know Norah’s probably right. We should just cancel and reschedule after this blows over. I mean, it’s not worth risking my life for.
But I can’t make myself do it. I can’t let down all the fans, all the people with money involved in this. It would be awful, canceling now, and I won’t do it.
I guess I’d rather risk my own life, which is stupid, but here we are.14GrahamI’m on high alert for the next three stops. She plays five shows, and each time, nothing happens.
Oh, we fuck though. Each night, after her show, I bring her back to her room and I fuck her goddamn brains out. I have her begging on her hands and knees, taking my cock down her throat, calling me Daddy. Basically giving me anything that I want, whenever I want it.
And fucking hell, it’s great. But there’s no more stalker shit. No more notes, dead stuffed animals, no more ketchup. Just her pussy and my cock and all my cum filling her up.
It’s a great few days. Fucking shit, I don’t think I’ve ever had better in my whole life.
It’s not until we head out to Chicago that the shit really hits the fan.
Things go smooth like always. We head to the venue, she does her soundcheck, the show goes on. Norah hangs around, looking all fucking stressed, and I keep my eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary.