Page 22 of Carte

I’d been missing you all along,

You don’t see me the way I see you.

I squeezed my eyes shut hoping I was seeing things, but when I opened them, the paper was still there.

My song from last night.

The words became blurry as my eyes filled, my hands were shaking in earnest now. Hell, I could feel my whole body quaking.

I didn’t think.

I turned and ran. I didn’t know where I was running to, but the moment I got to the door of my room, I saw him and my whole body sagged against the doorframe.

His head whipped around. He took one look at me and in two strides he was across the room and before me. “Speak!” he barked.

I couldn’t. I couldn’t get the words out of my mouth. I just lifted my arm and pointed with a shaky finger to my right, indicating the bathroom.

“Stay here,” he growled, then stalked to where I pointed.

To that room. To my words. To the page that was ripped from a notebook no one even knew about.

I thought it was over. I was sure that the incident from last night was it. The big showdown, and that everyone was just overreacting. But watching Carter reading my words, words that were about him, I knew it wasn’t.

This was no longer a game.

For the first time in my life, no matter what happened before, I was in real danger. The only problem was, I wasn’t sure which danger was greater. Was it the unknown fan, or whatever he was that had clear access to me? Or was the way that Carter made me feel?

Chapter Six

Carter

“How could this happen?” Tim barked. His whole face was contorted and there were red splashes across his cheeks. “I thought we hired you to prevent this kind of thing! And now here we are. Someone was in Harley’s private room, ruffling through her things. Having access to her unpublished songs.”

I looked up at him.

He sounded like a toddler having a fit because his sibling got to play with a toy he wanted.

However…

He had a point there.

One I couldn’t argue.

Someone got into Harley’s room when no one should have access to it.

“I was with her on a site,” I said calmly but was actually anything but.

I came with a team of five to ten men, depending on the situation I was walking into, not including my brother’s, Max and Chace who worked in the background and only came out into the field if it was strictly unavoidable, meaning, the shit hit the fan. All of my men were highly trained in surveillance, security, some had martial arts training, others had combat. All in all, the security I provided was thigh and this shouldn’t have happened.

“What if he took pictures of her music sheet, of her lyrics. We don’t know the extent of the damage here,” A man in his fifties groused, clearly shaken up. But not about the invasion of Harley’s privacy, of invading her space and obliterating her sense of security. Or of her life being in danger.

No, he was worked up because he thought his money flow would be staunched. That the golden goose would be taken from him.

I bit the inside on my cheek until I tasted the metallic tinge on my tongue to prevent saying something that would get me kicked out of this room, and put Harley even more in danger.

You walked in like a quiet song

I’d been missing you all along