Page 1 of I Think We’re Alone Now

Travis

“You have gotto be fucking kidding me,” I muttered as I pulled into the parking lot of the Pine Grove Galleria.

A massive coach bus painted in the brightest blue I’d ever seen was parked in front of the mall’s main entrance and had been completely surrounded by teenage girls. The crowd must have been four or five deep, all trying to push their way closer, their screams piercing through the windows of my truck. They were all here for one reason and one reason only—to catch a glimpse of the megastar inside.

Glitter.

I whipped my car into the first open spot I saw and made my way toward the chaos. This was not the way I had wanted my day to start. Not that anyone had asked for my thoughts on bringing the teen pop sensation to our mall, much less Pine Grove, Louisiana in the first place. Anyone with any kind of security experience could have told you that inserting someone of that much notoriety into such a small, yet very public, place was asking for trouble.

The door to the bus started to open, and the crowd surged forward. “It’s Glitter!” someone in the crowd wailed, igniting the crowd into more shrieks and shrill cries. The sound made me cringe slightly as I approached the group, making a mental note to make sure that I found a pair of earplugs before my shift started. If I was going to have to patrol the mall while all this was going on, I needed to make sure I didn’t leave with bleeding eardrums.

It’s going to be a long fucking day...

A petite, middle-aged woman with a red pixie cut appeared in the open door, only to take a quick step back as the crowd closed in on her. The panicked look on her face told me everything I needed to know—she was not prepared for this. I signaled to her, trying to get her attention, as I pushed my way through the sea of female fans. My efforts were met with return shoves and a number of elbows to the gut, but these little girls were no match for my six-foot-one frame—or my military training. The redhead finally made eye contact with me as I reached the door.

“I’m Travis,” I told her, shouting over all the noise. “I’m with Pine Grove security. Need some help?”

“Yes! I need to get inside. I’m Linda McDonald with Reverb Records.”

The record label name meant nothing to me, but I assumed that was who was behind this whole mess. Squaring my shoulders, I grabbed onto her hand, looked her in the eye, and said, “Whatever you do, don’t let go.”

Not giving her a chance to respond, I squeezed her hand tightly and yanked her from the bus. Thankfully she stayed close as I pulled her through the crowd, who for the most part was happy enough to let us pass since we were no longer blocking what they believed to be their potential view of the star. I continued to hold on to her until we were inside the vestibule of the main entrance and turned into the security offices. The small rectangular space wasn’t anything fancy—it really looked more like a glorified break room than anything else once you got past the front counter. There was an eight by eight room that the head of security called an office, even though it barely fit his desk and a guest chair, while the rest was just a couple of folding tables with chairs perched around them and a dozen or so lockers up against one wall for each guy to lock up whatever he didn’t need with him during his shift.

“Thank you,” she said, as the door to the security office slammed behind us. “You seem to know your way around a crowd.”

“Six years with the army will do that,” I replied politely.

“Yes, yes it will,” she said.

Before she could finish her thought, however, a deep voice reverberated through the air, stealing our attention.

“That’s what you call under control?” the tall, burly man attached to the voice hollered. “It’s a good thing Glitter isn’t actually on that bus!”

“I assure you, it will be fine by the time the concert starts. I have plenty of extra men scheduled to be here for the event, and we have a plan in place. That plan did not include y’all parking that bus in front of the food court!” Nick Horton, Pine Grove’s head of security countered.

“Not good enough. I don’t think you understand just how chaotic a group of teenage girls can be.”

“Randall, it’s fine,” Linda said, making herself at home and sauntering back behind the counter to where my boss was arguing with this guy. “It’ll be like all the other locations we’ve done.”

“Do you know how many close calls we’ve had today already? Sneaking her in via the movie theater was hard enough!”

“But she’s in now. That’s all that matters!” Linda said, her voice sounding overly sweet.

“I’m done! I can’t take any more of this shit! Find yourself someone else!” he spat, before brushing past all of us and walking out the door.

“Randall!” Linda shouted after him, but he kept walking. Frankly, I didn’t blame the guy. This whole plan seemed like it had been put together by a third grader.

Linda turned to look at me, then to my boss. I already knew I wanted nothing to do with this situation, so I headed toward my locker to get ready for my shift. Mall security was a job that left a lot to be desired, at least for me, but for now it paid the bills and filled up my time while I waited on my official acceptance to the police academy. Having joined the army fresh out of high school and served six years as a member of the military police, mostly in Europe, it was just a matter of when they would have a spot for me. Until then, I spent forty hours of my week wandering the halls of Pine Grove Galleria on the lookout for shoplifters.

“Just great,” she said, seemingly to no one. “Well, Mr. Horton, who do you have that can take his place?”

“Take his place?” my boss repeated.

“Yes, someone needs to act as Glitter’s personal security while she’s here. Can’t just let her roam around all by herself.”

“Parker!” my boss called out. I slowly turned around at the sound of my last name, glancing in his direction. Don’t pick me, don’t pick me. “Parker, you’re up! You’re on security detail!”

“Seriously, boss? Why me?”

“You’re the best I got, that’s why. Don’t argue.”

“Fine.”

“It’ll be fun!” Linda added in, a bright smile taking over her face as she turned to me. “What young man doesn’t like spending his day hanging out with a pretty girl?”

I had to stop myself from scowling at her in response. It wasn’t that I didn’t like pretty girls—hell, most twenty-something guys did. But wasn’t Glitter, like, fifteen or something like that? Jailbait was the last thing I needed while waiting on the police academy. I also had no idea what this chick looked like, not really. I’d seen a few pictures of her here and there, but she’d always been done up in a whole lot of makeup, with a sparkly blue wig, making her look like she was a member of Jem and the Holograms. For all I knew, underneath all that she could have a beard.

“I’m sure we’ll have a blast,” I said as I rolled my eyes internally.

“Where is she? We’ll get you two introduced.”

“She’s in my office,” Nick said, turning toward the door off to his left. “Miss, ummm...Glitter, I’d like to introduce you to Travis Parker. He’ll be assisting with your security.”

I turned toward the door just in time to see a tall, slender blonde in a pale yellow sundress emerge from his office. Her long hair was straight and loose around her shoulders, not teased out like most of the girls her age. There wasn’t an ounce of makeup on her face, letting her naturally rosy cheeks shine through, highlighting a pair of beautiful hazel eyes. I blinked rapidly, my heart pounding in my chest as I took her in. She looked so different, so grown up, and yet was one hundred percent still the little girl I’d known all my life.

This wasn’t some teenage pop star standing before me. This was my best friend’s little sister.