Chapter Nine
“I already told you, I can’t think of anyone!” The tightness of his jaw was a dead giveaway that he was getting angry. He was running on almost no sleep and he had a show to do that night. Sitting here with Alana in this stuffy hotel room was the last thing he wanted to be doing at the moment. He wanted to sleep.
She wasn’t giving in. “And I’ve already told you, numerous times, that you’re not going anywhere until you start giving me names.”
“Names of WHAT?”
She forced herself not to roll her eyes. Was he really this dumb? “Names of people who could be angry at you, who you’ve wronged, offended… any of the above here!”
He threw his hands up in the air angrily. “There’s no one to NAME, Alana! If I could think of ANYONE, I would tell you!”
“Who are you trying to protect?”
“Nobody!”
“What are you not telling me?”
If she was a man, he would have hit her. How could anyone be so dense? Is this what cops did? Badger the hell out of innocent people until they gave the statement that was wanted? He hadn’t done anything wrong and he felt like he was on trial to be given the death penalty!
“Answer me!” She snarled, slapping her hands down on the table to gain his attention. His eyes flashed with anger though he made a mental note to take a moment before he responded. He wasn’t looking to fight with her and he knew if he opened his mouth without thinking, that was exactly what would happen.
“Alana, please. I’ve answered you quite a few times now. I’m tired, you’re tired. I have a show tonight. Can I please just get some rest and we’ll discuss this later?”
“You’re not going anywhere until you give me the answer that I want,” she replied stubbornly through clenched teeth.
He pushed the chair back and stood up, shaking his head. “Whatever. I’m not going to sit here and listen to this,” he grumbled angrily. However, when he was prepared to walk away, he felt a hand grab his arm and he turned, his eyebrow raised.
There was this little shrimp with a scowl on her otherwise pretty face attempting to stop him. Had he not been so tired and frustrated, he probably would have laughed. “Take your hands off of me,” he said coolly.
“No,” she responded angrily.
“Alana… take your hands off of me and sit down.”
“I said no. I call the shots here, buddy and until I tell you to get up, you don’t move,” she told him evenly, her eyes flashing with anger. She tugged him roughly, causing him to stumble slightly at the force, but he did as she said, fuming the entire time. He was finding it harder and harder to keep his cool.
“Now we’re going to try this one more time,” she said, her patience wearing thin. “I want you to give me the names of anyone that you think might want to hurt you.”
“I’ve told you—“
“DO NOT go there with me!” She roared. “I want ANSWERS! This is not some kind of a game, JC!”
In an instant, he was on his feet once more, having reached the end of his rope. He towered over her, his steely blue eyes boring into hers angrily as he took a step towards her, successful in backing her up until her calves brushed against the chair.
“I am WELL aware that this is not a game! This is my life we’re talking about here!” He snarled. “You’re supposed to be here to help ME, not to treat me like I’m the one who’s done something wrong! Now here’s the part where YOU sit and listen to ME!”
Having nowhere to go, Alana dropped herself into the seat, looking up at him. Her eyes were wide. She’d never seen him this angry before and frankly… the fire behind his eyes scared her.
“I’m tired of you shouting at me! I haven’t had any sleep and I’m tired. I have a job to do tonight, so you’re going to go back to your room and do whatever the hell it is that you do that doesn’t consist of bothering ME. I’m going to take a much needed nap, and MAYBE, if I’m not still pissed off at you later on, we’ll continue this discussion! But it will be at MY convenience, NOT yours!” He finished, his chest heaving slightly.
“Now take your little ass next door and leave me alone!”
Alana had been spoken to this way many times by angry suspects that she’d had the misfortune of questioning, though never by a client of hers. It had definitely opened her eyes.
She had been against this case from the beginning, for her own selfish reasons. Although JC had not been pleasant during their initial meeting, he had never given her a reason to speak to him in this fashion, and frankly, she was ashamed of herself. What she had done was unprofessional and just plain hateful.
She stood shakily from her chair and turned towards the door, wasting no time in putting plenty of space between them. However, once she was sure that he couldn’t strike out and hit her with anything unless it was thrown, she turned back in his direction.
“I’m sorry,” she said quietly as she stepped into her room and closed the door between them. He could hear the tell tale sound of the lock sliding into place.
Alana had deserved it. She had deserved every harsh word that he had thrown her way. Though as he sank down onto the bed, he couldn’t quite explain why he was the one feeling like a creep.
~*~
Being in the profession that JC was in, fake smiles often came as a second nature thing. He didn’t even have to think about it, it was automatic. When stepping out in the public, one automatically pasted on a smile. That’s how it was when he and Alana left the hotel later that afternoon to head over to the venue for sound check.
It was awkward, to say the least. Though luckily enough, she was a complete professional and didn’t let the little spat they had earlier get in the way of her doing her job. At least, that’s what he thought until they got inside of the venue.
Although she hadn’t been present during a show, he was under the impression that she would stick near him while he was at sound check, but he was mistaken. He had seen her whispering fervently to Tony and it was obvious that she had told him expressly to keep his eye on JC at all times. Every time JC moved, Tony’s eyes followed him like one of those creepy paintings. It was slightly unnerving.
Even when she had returned by the end of the sound check, it was obvious that their words had not been forgotten. And with each passing moment of silence, JC felt like an even bigger jack ass than he had the minute before. It was enough to drive any guy insane.
~*~
By the time the show was over that night, Alana had barely said two words to him. She had played the part of his girlfriend dutifully by holding his hand and smiling at the fans as they made their way to the waiting bus, but once they had boarded, she headed into the back and was not seen for quite some time.
JC was exhausted. He had gotten absolutely no sleep the night before and the nap he’d taken that day had been pretty much useless. He was wiped out. They had a good couple of hours on the bus before they reached the next stop and it was the perfect time for him to sleep, but he couldn’t.
And not for lack of trying. They’d been on the buses for about an hour now and he was tossing and turning fitfully in his bunk, wondering when the hell sleep would overcome him. But he knew the answer. Not until he apologized to Alana.
The look on her face when he backed her into the chair had stood out in his mind like crazy. He had scared her. And that was no easy feat, considering she was this big tough FBI agent who’d probably been up against much worse in her day. But he had scared her.
He closed his eyes and let out a sigh and he could clearly see the doe-in-headlights look on her face. She had just been trying to do her job, trying to get him to cooperate and to answer her question and…
Her question. He couldn’t believe it had taken him so long to finally come up with an answer.
In a flash, he had jumped down out of his bunk and was at the back door. He knocked on it lightly though he didn’t wait for an answer to push it open. He had expected Alana to be ready for him, to give him an earful for the way he’d spoken to her earlier, but no suck luck.
She was sprawled out on the couch in the back, fast asleep. Apparently, Chris had come back and taken pity on her because he recognized his friend’s fleece Steeler’s blanket draped over her petite form. She looked so peaceful. But not for long!
He was at her side in seconds and dropped down on one knee, his hand resting gently on her shoulder. “Alana,” he called, much as he’d done the night before when he had received the email. Though this time, her response time was much quicker.
“Hmm?”
“I need to talk to you,” he said softly, resisting the urge to brush the stray strand of hair from her face. She used her elbows to push herself up, yawning slightly.
“Is something wrong?” She questioned, fearing that he’d received another email already. She could barely make out his blurry form shaking his head, so she rubbed her eyes and reached for the glasses that were resting above her head. She slid them on and blinked several times.
“Can you sit up for a minute so that we can talk?” He asked, hoping that she would not reject him. He was pleased when she complied with his request, and he moved from the floor to the couch beside her.
“What’s up?”
“First of all… I owe you an apology,” he said quietly. “The way I behaved—“
“JC, you don’t have to do this,” she said, shaking her head. “I was out of line earlier. We were both tired and I never should have pushed your buttons like that. I was treating you like I treat my suspects and I’m sorry,” she said, offering him a small smile. That didn’t deter him.
“No. The way I behaved was completely uncalled for. My momma would probably slap the taste right out of my mouth if she knew how I talked to you,” he told her. “I just… like you said, I was tired and cranky… and I wanted to apologize.”
“There was no need for an apology.”
“Would you just accept it, or am I going to have to break out some my old karate skills?”
“You took karate?”
“Well no… not really, but that’s beside the point.”
There was that laugh again. “I accept your apology,” she said quietly. “And for the record… if we’re going to work together to get this creep… may I suggest no more shouting sessions? On either end,” she said with a smile, sticking her hand out.
He held his out and allowed her smaller hand to fit into his before they shook on it. “I definitely think that I can live with that.”
“Does that mean for the time being that we can be friends, on and off the clock?”
“As long as I can go back to hating you when we’re done.”
“You’ve got yourself a deal.”
For a moment, he had almost forgotten the real reason that he had come back to wake her. Their lighthearted teasing had made his brain pretty much mush, but on his way out, he remembered.
“Oh! Before you get comfortable and fall asleep again… I have something to tell you.”
“What is it?”
“I’ve got a name for you.”
“A name?” She was puzzled for only a split second before she held a finger up to pause him and then dug around in her bag. She grabbed her notebook and pulled it out before she flipped to a clean sheet. “Lay it on me.”
“Jude Hailey.”
“And how do you know Mr. Hailey?”
“He used to work for us. We’re notorious for producing disgruntled workers. We always catch people leaking things to the press, or stealing things to sell on eBay, but… Hailey was different.”
“What do you mean? Different how?”
“Well… Melanie… she’s my dancer… Anyway, awhile ago, she was acting really weird. She had all of us really worried. We had no idea what was going on with her.”
He paused as he watched Alana scribble furiously in her book. When she nodded for him to continue, he did. “Anyway, we’re all close here on tour, especially with the dancers. And for her to not tell us what the problem was… it made us even more worried, as you can understand.”
“Of course,” she said, not glancing up from her book.
“It turns out, Jude was making advances on her. Unwanted advances, mind you. He’d always corner her when he did it, like a slime ball. It was really starting to scare Melanie. Well, one night, I came back to the dressing room to grab my watch and I caught him.”
“And you didn’t remember this sooner?”
“I didn’t think about it! He’s been gone probably over a year now. The only reason I remembered it is… well… the look on your face from earlier. It reminded me of Melanie’s when I caught Jude cornering her. She looked terrified.”
“So what happened?”
“I told him to leave or else I’d press charges. He laughed at me, of course. Said that I had no proof against him. Turns out, the only proof I needed was Melanie. He was fired and we haven’t heard from him since.”
“Wow… that puts Mr. Hailey right up there on my suspect list,” she said.
“You have a suspect list?”
“I do now,” she said with a grin. “And if you’ll excuse me, I need to go make a phone call. I’ll see what I can find on Mr. Jude Hailey.”
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