Prologue           

The rain fell mercilessly upon the thick window of the elongated tour bus, the steady pitter pat reaching his ears. It had been non-stop since they’d pulled out of the venue in Washington, DC. He was alone for once. Anyone else would have complained about the torrential rains that the area was receiving but for him… it was relaxing. The sound of it falling rapidly around the bus calmed him. In fact, it was beginning to lull him into a peaceful slumber. In fact, it was the first time in three long weeks that he found himself giving in easily to the temptation of
sleep.

For the past three weeks, he hadn’t been himself. Anyone could have told you that. He had been more aggressive, more drawn into himself. The time he spent with his fans was decreasing greatly. In fact, he couldn’t stand to be around them. Well, not them specifically. It was the large crowds that had him spooked.

The notion was laughable. Ever since his late teenaged years he’d been in the center of large crowds. The early Mickey Mouse Club fame had prepared him for the life of stardom that he chose to lead. It had never been a big deal… until recently.

He had thought it was a joke at first, perhaps being played on him by his brother. After all, it wasn’t unusual for JC to be on the receiving end of a practical joke. Tyler had taken a particular liking to Chris after he came out to visit during his college’s spring break. Perhaps Chris had shown him the ropes and helped him to advance to master prankster status.

However, upon cornering Tyler once, JC immediately ruled out his brother as the culprit. After all, sometimes JC wondered if he had the mental capacity to keep the prank going this long. Probably not, knowing his brother. Which meant only one thing: It was time to let his bodyguards know.

~*~

He raised his arms over his head, groaning as his back cracked loudly. He forced his tired eyes open and immediately, the sun blinded him. “Close the damn blinds,” he growled, to no one in particular, shooting up into an upright position when no one in particular complied with his demand! “What the—“ He had been alone the previous night when he fell asleep! He forced his eyes opened once more and wiped the sleep from them hurriedly.

“Sheesh… paranoid much?” JC recognized the deep voice and immediately relaxed, slumping back down onto the plush couch in the back of the tour bus. Lance.

“What are you doing here?”

“Umm… I sleep here. Remember? Well, not here in particular because this is the back of the bus. But I sleep here, here being on the bus,” he rambled before stopping himself. “What are YOU doing here? Here meaning the back of the bus instead of your bunk?”

It was too early for this mess. JC shook his head and let out a weary sigh. “I fell asleep back here. I thought you were riding with Justin and Joey?”

“I did. Until we stopped for gas. Chris and Joey were still going strong at 2:30 this morning, so I switched buses, hoping for some sleep.”

“Great. He’ll be tons of fun to deal with today,” he grumbled. Sometimes, people got extremely silly when tired. Well, Chris was extremely silly anyway, so couple that with his tiredness and he’d be bouncing off the walls.

Lance gave a laugh that rumbled from his chest and then he shook his head. “Well, we’ll be stopping in about 20 minutes. So whatever you’re gong to do, you should do now. And by that, I mean go change because you’re starting to smell.”

“Ha. Freaking. Ha. You’re hilarious, you know that?”

“Yep, that’s what they tell me anyway.” He turned and reached for the knob on the door that separated the back space of the bus from the bunk area and pulled it open before he was stopped by the sound of his friend’s voice.

“Hey Lance?” The younger man turned, and immediately took note of the way his friend worried his lower lip with his teeth.

“Yeah?”

“Umm… well… you know a lot about computers and the internet and I was just… I was wondering if I could ask you something?”

“Well, technically, you already DID ask me something, but if you have another question, you can ask that too.”

JC fixed him with a blank stare before shaking his head. “Yeah… okay. Anyway, I was wondering. If uh… if someone emails you, you can like… trace the email… right?”

“Well,” he paused for a moment to think. “You could trace the IP address, yeah. That gives you the name of the internet service provider, who could then give you the name of the person doing the emailing, yeah.”

JC nodded as he pushed himself to his feet.

“Yeah… thanks.”

“Is everything alright?” He asked. He, too, had noticed the way JC’s demeanor had changed over the last couple of weeks. And since when did he care about emails and such?

“I’ve got it all under control.” Little did he know, he was quite wrong.

~*~

The fog fell all around her, the chilly morning air causing her to shiver slightly as her feet slapped against the wet pavement. She pulled the hood tighter around her head as she continued on her way, her breathing slightly labored as she reached the end of morning jog.

As she reached the walkway to the one-story cottage, she let out a deep breath and bent over, her hands on her knees. She was out of shape. Well, out of shape for her, anyway. Up until she’d sprained her ankle three weeks ago, she had always been able to complete her jog without so much as breaking a sweat. Still, she could jog in circles around the other goons at the agency. Always could.

As soon as she got her breathing under control, she headed for the front door and pulled her key out of her jacket pocket, inserting it into the lock. As soon as she pushed the door open, she was greeted by a giant black dog, his tongue hanging out of his mouth in what she perceived to be that little doggie smile that she loved so much.
                                          
Normally the dog accompanied her on her morning run, but this morning, he was a complete lazy bones, refusing to budge out of his spot at the foot of her bed.

“Decided to wake up and see me?” She cooed affectionately as she dropped to her knees to rub the large dog behind his ears. “You’re such a sweet boy.” She pushed herself to her feet and smiled down at him before she made her way into the kitchen. First stop, the dog bin, where her beloved Zeus’ food was stored. She filled his bowl before she grabbed herself a bowl and her favorite box of cereal.

Just as she finished fixing her breakfast, she noticed the incessant blinking on the answering machine, indicating a new message. She forced herself not to roll her eyes. Probably someone down at the agency, screwing up again. It seemed like every time she turned around, she was being forced to do someone else’s job. And frankly, she was sick of it.

She walked over to the counter and pressed the button on the machine. As of 11:59 pm the previous night, she was officially on a week’s long vacation. And nothing or no one was going to ruin that for her! She deserved it!