Now he and the rest of the band sat in their green room reviewing the playlist for their upcoming set. For the first time that Sage could ever remember, Archer looked haggard. He trailed off mid-sentence and repeated himself a few times, unable to focus. Even the House of Archer crew seemed to sense things were off. They stopped filming and left the room for a while.
“Look, man,” Xander said when Archer paused again and rubbed his hands over his face in a further show of weariness. “Let’s just quit ignoring the elephant in the room. Is Lily in danger?”
“I don’t know,” Archer replied, his tone laced with frustration. “Lily and I both remember seeing the guy somewhere before. Ordinem figures that he’s good at blending in. He wore a uniform at the spa and earlier at the hotel and he’s probably done it before. It’s going to make it even harder to spot him if he looks like someone who’s supposed to be there.”
“Wouldn’t it take some time to get uniforms like that?” Noelle asked, her eyebrows drawn together. “You can’t buy them any old place on short notice, and I can’t imagine it’s easy to just march into these places and take one.”
“No one knows how he’s getting the uniforms,” Archer said. “If he is stealing them, he’s skilled at gaining entry into secure places and acting normal enough that people don’t question his presence. More than that, he has to have been following us.”
Sage considered that. “Our tour schedule is on our website and Lily posts from our locations all the time. We’re not all that hard to track.”
“Exactly. It’s too easy.”
“That comes with being a celebrity,” Noelle pointed out. “It sucks large and I know you don’t want that for Lily, but she’s a celebrity now, complete with all of the insanity.”
“None of us has ever dealt with someone like this,” Archer said, running his fingers roughly through his hair. “And it might not be just this guy threatening her. They have no idea who’s sending the psycho e-mails. It’s even worse knowing there might be someone out there wanting to hurt her and we don’t even have a face to look for.”
Keith sat forward in his chair, bracing his elbows on his knees. “Arch, you hired our shadows mainly to keep Lily safe. She’s always got someone with her. She’ll be fine.”
Archer met Keith’s gaze. “Would you be saying that if some crazy guy got Sydney alone and tied her up and then started following her around after she got away?”
Keith’s jaw clenched briefly and then released. “That happened to Lily before the Ordinem team came on board.”
“That’s not an answer.”
Keith didn’t reply. His eyes had gone glacial, likely envisioning Sydney at the hands of a stalker. Sage suspected that Keith would have already hunted the stalker down himself and killed him where he stood.
Xander got to his feet and walked over to the table full of booze that none of them had touched. He grabbed the bottle of Jägermeister and five shot glasses.
“You’re letting him win,” he said in his deep, level tone as he handed a shot glass to Archer and passed the rest out to everyone else. “He’s disrupting your life and has the potential to really fuck things up for you when you’re at the height of success. Don’t let him.”
Sage waited along with his band mates as Xander filled the glasses. He saw Archer pondering the big man’s words. Some of the darkness cleared from his expression.
“You’re right, Chill,” Archer said.
Xander grinned and took his seat beside Keith on the couch. “‘Course I am.”
“No more dwelling on that douche nugget,” Noelle insisted, lifting her glass. “Time to get ready to rock this joint.”
Everyone lifted their glasses. “To friends, to greatness, and to great friends,” Archer said.
They all joined their glasses and took the shot, much as they did before all of their gigs. Sage felt the liquid burn on its way down, spreading quickly through his veins. He chased it with a chug of water from the bottle he held. None of them particularly enjoyed the taste of Jäger. Archer had chosen it for their ritual so they weren’t tempted to have more than just the one shot before they performed.
“I’m going to stop by Lily’s green room for a minute before sound check,” Archer said, rising and depositing his shot glass on the liquor table. “I’ll meet you all over there.”
Sage exchanged glances with Noelle, Keith, and Xander. Despite what he had said a few minutes ago, Archer apparently wanted to reassure himself of Lily’s safety before taking the stage. There was no way all of his focus would be on the show. They would have to be on their game tonight to help Archer get through the end of what had been a difficult day.
Sage didn’t mind. They had all supported each other through one thing or another over the years. It was what family did.
“So what’s up with you and Freckles?” Noelle asked him around a wad of chewing gum as they walked down the tunnel towards the stage.
Blinking at the abrupt question, Sage glanced around. No cameras, thank God. Both Garrett and Noelle’s security specialist, Simone Morrow, were escorting them, but Sage wasn’t worried about them saying anything that could ruin the plan he was pursuing with Rosemary.
“What about us?” he asked, keeping his voice low.
“Where’s all the hot and heavy PDA you’re supposed to be getting into the media to catch Kaila’s attention?” she pressed, nudging him in the side with her elbow. “Hand-holding ain’t gonna cut it, ya know.”
Sage fought his discomfort. His best friend had no filter.
She had a point. He hadn’t moved things beyond the hand-holding, sitting-together, hands-around-each-other’s-waists phase with Rosemary since they made their agreement almost a week ago. In all honesty, he had been holding out hope that he’d hear from Kaila before the plan progressed to a more intimate stage. He still wasn’t comfortable with the idea of putting Rosemary in such an awkward position.
He shrugged and focused on where they were going instead of Noelle’s penetrating gray stare. “What if there’s no chemistry between us?” he hedged. “It would defeat the purpose of the plan if it doesn’t come off on camera.”
She snorted. “You know there’s chemistry. I’ve seen it. You’ve felt it. Man up and kiss the chick already.”
He had no valid argument, so he didn’t bother replying. The bottom line was that if he was committed to getting Kaila’s attention with this plan, he had to move things forward with Rosemary. Rosemary had already agreed to do it. All he had to do was take the next step.
Easier for some than others, he mused.
Some knew how to keep their hearts out of it.
They reached the section where Noelle, Keith, and Xander would head backstage and he would head to the front of house. As he turned to follow Garrett towards his sound equipment, Elle grabbed him and placed a kiss on his cheek.
“Do your thing, V,” she said, winking as she bounced away.
She most often called him V or Virtuoso when they were about to perform. It put him in the right state of mind to focus on their coming performance. He would figure things out with Rosemary later. Right now, he had a crowd to please and a distracted front man to support.
It was time for the show to go on, he thought. In more ways than one.
* * *
The air was cooler than usual in the wee hours of the morning as Sage made his way to the hotel’s pool later. He was happy to see that Rosemary was wearing boots and a denim jacket when he spotted her sitting in a double chaise lounge chair. She smiled at him in the moonlight as he approached.
The sight of her smile did things to him he’d been trying to deny since they met. He felt it deep within him like a puzzle piece snapping into place. He couldn’t remember experiencing that for anyone...not even Kaila. It was yet another reason he had hesitated to make a more significant move with her.
He didn’t trust himself.
“Hi there,” she greeted him as he took the seat beside her. “Wasn’t sure if you??
?d turn up tonight.”
“Well, I had a craving that I knew only you could satisfy,” he said in a deliberately suggestive voice, leaning closer to her. “Are you going to indulge my wicked desires?”
She laughed and reached beside her, pulling out two boxes. “Swedish Fish or Sno-Caps?”
Without fail, she had brought some kind of movie candy to their nightly interactions. He had no idea where she got it. Sometimes they ate it all, sometimes they just nibbled. Either way, he had come to look forward to it.
“I’ll go crazy and have some of each,” he said, holding out a hand so she could shake some of the candy into it.
“You really live on the edge, Strickland.”
He grinned and settled back beside her in the chair, staring up at the night sky. They fell into companionable silence as they looked up at the stars and munched on candy. It was much like every night they’d spent together. Depending on how tired they were, he might get an update on Lily and Archer’s wedding plans or chat with Rosemary about ideas for Noelle and Mandy’s wedding. They might dissect that night’s concert or mention something they found amusing at the after-party. They might even share stories from their pasts, keeping things light and humorous. He enjoyed not knowing where their conversations would take them.
The night breeze carried the scent of chlorine from the pool and some kind of flowers blooming in the surrounding bushes. At this time of night, there was little road noise from the nearby highway. Instead, the air hummed with the whirl of the pool’s filtration system. As it often did during these nightly visits, it felt like he and Rosemary were alone in their own little universe.
“You don’t see stars like these in L.A.,” he observed after a while.
“I was just thinking that before you got here. It’s almost like we’re in another world.”
Her words echoed his thoughts enough that he looked over at her. She smiled at him. His chest panged in reaction.
His eyes instinctively fell to her full, tempting lips. If ever there was a time for him to test the whole chemistry thing, this was it. The mood couldn’t be more fitting.
Rosemary’s smile eased. Her gaze grew more intent. She started leaning towards him. Her enticing scent had his entire body going taut with anticipation.
“Did I ever tell you about my father?” he blurted.
Blinking, Rosemary hesitated and then leaned away from him. “No. You haven’t discussed him.”
Sage wanted to kick himself. What the hell was wrong with him? First, he ruined an opportunity to kiss Rosemary when he knew he needed to practice with her before they did anything romantic on camera. He’d probably managed to insult her on top of that.
And second, he didn’t talk about his father with anyone outside of the band. It had been the first topic to spring into his head to kill whatever mood had just blossomed between them.
Way to go, dumbass, he thought.
“I, uh, don’t usually bring him up in conversation,” he said, trying to recover from his blunder.
“I see.” She settled back in the chair and returned her gaze to the stars. “Why did you bring him up now?”
She was so calm. He didn’t think he’d ever seen her really upset. Even earlier that day when she was with Lily, who had been understandably shaken after seeing her stalker, Rosemary had remained collected and level-headed, reminding Lily that they had top-notch security and assuring her that she’d stay by her side the rest of the day if that’s what she wanted. It had gone a long way towards calming Lily.
Now she acted as though it was of no concern that he brought up his father in what could only be described as an intimate moment.
He sighed and mimicked her by lying back and looking skyward. “Because Elle told me I need to step things up with you to make our romance more believable in the media and it’s screwing with my head.”
“I can understand that,” she said equably. “You don’t want to be intimate with another woman. You want Kaila. That’s admirable, Sage, not shameful. As I told you before, Kaila’s lucky to have a guy like you.”
“Then why doesn’t she see that?” he muttered.
He hadn’t realized he had spoken the words until Rosemary turned and met his gaze. “In all honesty, I’ve been asking myself that since you first mentioned this plan of yours,” she said. “Forgive me...I know you love Kaila, but she really must be an idiot.”
Sage figured he should be insulted on Kaila’s behalf. Instead, he felt vindicated. It was liberating to have someone validate his feelings.
“That said,” Rosemary continued, “if it’s going to take kissing me to slap some sense into her, I think we should just do it. I’m all in. Whatever I can do to help you. In fact...”
She trailed off and once again leaned over to rummage in the bag she had brought with her. He had the fleeting concern that she was reaching for a breath mint with the intent of kissing him right then. When she instead held up a small origami creation, he wasn’t sure whether he was relieved or disappointed.
“Here,” she said, reaching for his hand and placing what appeared to be a rabbit in his palm. “The rabbit is a symbol of both mischief and rebirth, which seemed ideal for implementing a scheme to renew your relationship with the woman you love.”
The pang in his chest tightened and squeezed until he had to look away from her sweet and earnest gaze. He studied the intricate design she had given him instead, noting her signature swirling “RM” scripted on the rabbit’s haunch. It would join the crane she had given him among the few possessions he brought everywhere he went.
“Thank you, Rose,” he said. “I just...it doesn’t sit right with me. I feel like I’m taking advantage of you. That’s bound to come across on camera.”
“All right,” she said. “Then tell me about your father. It’s the least you can do after leaving a girl hanging.”
Her wink made him fight a smile. “It wasn’t like that.”
“Oh, yes, it was.”
He knew she was right. Besides, he found himself wanting to discuss this with her. She was so easy to talk to.
“My father is Abe Strickland.” He paused a moment out of habit, used to people being awed or amazed when they heard the name. When Rosemary didn’t show any sign of recognition, he added, “He’s the Director of A&R for Linear Records.”
“A&R?”
“Artists and Repertoire. He oversees the hunt for new talent. He’s known as the best in the industry.”
She nodded but didn’t comment. Sage paused to process her lack of reaction. It was unusual for someone he knew to have no clue who Abe Strickland was, never mind not thinking he was a big deal.
“Anyway,” he went on, “he wanted me to follow in his footsteps by becoming an A&R scout and working my way up with Linear. He even brought me to work with him as an intern when I was sixteen. I just wasn’t into it. I didn’t want to be hunting for talent. I wanted to be the talent.”
Because he was studying Rosemary’s profile as he spoke, he saw her smile over that. It eased some of the pain he experienced when he thought of his father and everything that had broken between them.
“I used to DJ in high school to earn some cash. I loved it. And, quite frankly, I was pretty damn good at it. All of my friends said I should do it professionally. By the time I turned seventeen, I had decided they were right. I wanted to work with audio and sound and collaborate with musicians on their albums. I knew I needed to get my foot in the door, so I went to my father. He’d surely know plenty of acts who might be willing to give me a shot.”
He paused as his mind went back to that conversation. He had gone to see his father in his office because his father was so rarely at home. After making Sage wait in the reception area for nearly three hours, his father had given him ten minutes of his time.
“You’re joking, right?” he had chortled after Sage explained what he wanted to do. “No son of Abe Strickland will be DJing for a living. You have a respectable career waiting for you right here.
”
“I don’t want to be a talent scout,” Sage had argued. “And I won’t be DJing like you seem to think, hanging out at weddings or mitzvahs. It’s sound mixing...audio manipulation. Ninety-percent of Linear’s current artists use people like me to achieve their sound. Some of the highest paid talent in the music industry are high-octane DJs.”
His father’s expression had darkened more and more with every word. “I said no, Sage. I’m not going to change my mind.”
And he hadn’t.
“Suffice it to say that my father wasn’t supportive of my chosen career path,” he told Rosemary. “Since I didn’t have his support, I went on my own to hunt for artists or bands who would give me a shot. I had met Christopher while I was interning at A&R and I reached out to him. He mentioned the audition for The Void.
“I hadn’t considered joining a band. I figured I would work with numerous artists like the big-name DJs out there. Christopher pointed out that all of those DJs started somewhere. Joining The Void would help me prove myself and give me the foot in the door that I’d been seeking. Since I hadn’t had any other doors open for me, I gave it a shot. And here I am.”
Rosemary twirled a lock of her cinnamon hair around one of her fingers. “And now you’ve not only made a name for yourself with The Void, you’ve gotten to work with a number of other artists on their albums. You’ve built the career you wanted and you did it on your own. I assume you feel you made the right decision?”
“Absolutely.”
“Let me guess. Your father doesn’t see it the same way.”
Once again, she showed outstanding insight. “He was angry that I auditioned for The Void. Check that. He was furious. So much so that when I asked him if Linear would consider signing the band, he flat-out refused.”
Her eyes widened. “Holy shit. He must be so pissed now. He missed out on a major opportunity.”