Total pages in book: 22
Estimated words: 20775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 104(@200wpm)___ 83(@250wpm)___ 69(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 20775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 104(@200wpm)___ 83(@250wpm)___ 69(@300wpm)
“They were just reminding me,” Hollis said with a grimace. “That a lot can happen between here and the airport.”
Layla waved off the concern and rounded the little table between us, sitting down next to Hollis. “We were fine.”
“No fans stopped you?” Forrest asked, like a dog with a bone. “You knew your driver personally before he picked you up? Came in through the garage when you got here? Took the back hallways?”
“Well, no,” Layla replied, the smile falling off her face. “I mean, yes, there were fans. That’s why I took a shower when we got here. People like to touch me, you know, shake my hand, hug me, take a picture with me, harmless but I feel better after I’ve showered all the germs off.”
Forrest made a noise in his throat and then thankfully shut the hell up.
“For future reference—” I shot Forrest a look. “It’s better to be safe than sorry. WE could’ve picked you up from the airport.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Isn’t it your job to take care of that stuff?” Forrest asked Hollis, a trace of suspicion threaded through his words.
Jesus Christ. I’d thought Eli would be the problem. I glanced over at him and he was trying to hold back a smile of glee that he wasn’t the one being an ass.
“I’ve never dealt with these kinds of threats before,” Hollis said, his mouth firming into an uncomfortable smile. “Layla’s had the usual threatening letters that anyone in the public eye gets, but nothing specific like this.”
“You’ve been her manager for a long time?” I asked. Layla had curled her legs up onto the little couch across from us, leaning a bit toward the manager, clearly comfortable with him. I couldn’t get a clear read on their relationship. They seemed like more than just business partners, but I couldn’t’ tell if they were sleeping together.
“Since the beginning,” Layla answered for him with a small smile.
“We were high school best friends,” Hollis added with a shrug. “I went out to Nashville after college and joined a firm and she came out a few years later.”
“And blackmailed him into representing me,” Layla joked. “I know where all his skeletons are buried.”
“Please don’t tell that to the people with guns,” Hollis muttered, making her laugh. He met my eyes. “It was a no brainer, she’s incredibly talented. I was managing smaller bands for a while, but she’s my main job now.”
“I’m a lot of work,” Layla said easily.
I nodded. “Tell me about this threat.”
“You got the PDFs?”
“I did.”
“Right, so like I said, Layla has had the same letters everyone gets—but this one specifically stood out because it was so detailed.”
“They were pretty clear that they were planning on coming to the Portland show.”
“Exactly.” Hollis grimaced. “From what I understand, these things rarely turn into anything bigger, but we wanted to be extra cautious.”
“That was smart.”
Hollis let out a small relieved breath.
“Can I ask why you’re not using your usual security team?” Lu asked, leaning forward to rest her elbows on her knees. “Seems like that would’ve been the easiest choice.”
Layla glanced at Hollis before answering.
“It’s a team of three,” she said after a moment, “And two of them are great guys. The best.”
“And the third isn’t?”
“That’s not really fair,” Layla grimaced. “It’s just—”
“He was making her uncomfortable,” Hollis added.
“Uncomfortable, how?” Forrest asked.
“Nothing overt,” Layla said quickly. “Just, you know, bringing his personal phone to work when their contracts explicitly state that they can’t. Coming in late. Mumbling things under his breath when he’s irritated with me.”
“Why didn’t you just fire him?” Eli asked easily, the toothpick still dangling from his mouth.
“We have,” Hollis replied. “I contacted the company before it was time to leave for the tour two days ago and they apologized, but they wanted to do a complete internal review of the team and didn’t have anyone else they could send with us last minute.”
“They’re pretty exclusive,” Layla said.
“Not sure how,” I muttered. “With that kind of service.”
“That’s what I said,” Hollis agreed. “Which is why we’ve hired your team for this stop. They’ve assured me they’ll have a new team meeting us in Seattle, and from there, we can decide how we want to move forward.”
For the next half an hour, we went over all of the appointments Layla had the next day, explaining what our expectations were and walking her through how we planned on protecting her. The woman was surprisingly easy going in comparison to other people we’d protected. Generally speaking, they were used to doing whatever the hell they wanted and the thought of following any of the rules we set in place rubbed them wrong.
“So we’ll see you all bright and early,” Hollis said as we finished up, getting to our feet.
“You still don’t have security for tonight,” Forrest reminded him.