Chapter Twenty One

The sound of his laughter reached her ears and immediately caused a pinkish tint to creep onto her cheeks.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

She narrowed her eyes, practically glaring at him as her hands went to her hips. “Why would I joke about something as serious as this, Josh? I’ve got probable cause to believe it’s her. She was in your dressing room, rooting around in your things and then magically a letter appears?”

“Yeah but—“

“And what about the first letter, Josh? She’s the one who ‘magically’ found it? Isn’t it a little suspicious that for the letters you’ve received, she’d always been around?’

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, Alana. Melanie is my friend. She has no reason to want to hurt me,” he explained. “She’s been around forever. If she wanted to off me, she’s had plenty of opportunities. So what exactly is it you think she’s waiting for?”

“Josh, please just trust me. I have a feeling about this. I have enough probable cause to make the arrest and question her about it. I just know it’s her!”

While it had been comical at first, to hear his girlfriend offering to arrest a good friend of his sent him a little over the edge.

“No,” he said firmly. “Do you hear how you sound, Al? You want to arrest Melanie? She’s a friend of mine. She’s a coworker. And I’ll be damned if I’m going to let you do that! Do you have any idea what it would do to her reputation around here? Absolutely not. I want you to drop this right now.”

She stomped her foot and thrust her lower lip out in a pretty pout before she crossed her arms over her chest. She wasn’t getting her way and she didn’t like it one bit.

“Look at you. You should be ashamed, Alana. You’re acting like a petulant child who didn’t get her way.”

“Well!”

“Well nothing,” he said. “I want you to drop it, alright?”

“Yeah yeah…”

“I mean it. I had better not hear you again, alright?”

“Fine,” she grumbled. He said he didn’t want to hear about it. Fine. She would just have to figure out a way to go about her business without him finding it out.

~*~

It had been yet another long day for the group. They had had several radio interviews to attend, as well as a photo shoot, their sound check, meet and greet and finally the concert. She didn’t understand how they just didn’t topple over in complete and utter exhaustion after such a long day.

She pushed the door to the hotel room open and let out a sigh, running her fingers through her messy hair.

“I don’t understand how you guys do this so often,” she said, going over to sit on the bed. Her feet were aching from standing all day and she had been stationary! They had to bounce all over the damn place!

He gave her a tired smile and sank down onto the bed beside her, dropping his head onto her shoulder before he attempted to stifle a yawn. “When you have so many shows in a row, you kind of go into auto pilot, if that makes sense,” he told her. “Usually, they’ll try to give us a break every now and then with a day or two off, but when the cities are so close together, that’s almost impossible,” he explained.

She pressed a gentle kiss to the top of his head before she patted his lap gently. “Well, I think you should lay down here and get some rest,” she told him. “You look absolutely exhausted and I don’t think your fans would like it if you keeled over in the middle of ‘Bye Bye Bye’ or something,” she laughed.

He leaned over and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips. “I think you’re right,” he said, giving her a small smile. “I’m just going to go hop in the shower and I’ll be back,” he said quietly. He leaned over and kissed her once more before pushing himself to his feet before he headed into the bathroom.

~*~

Her eyes narrowed as they locked on the target, refusing to blink and miss a moment of observation. She was crouched down under the stage, a full view of all going on around her. She could clearly see JC from where she sat and waited, and she could see Melanie as well. She watched as the blonde practically sauntered over to JC and let out a shrill laugh, one that made her cringe.

“What a bimbo,” she whispered to herself, shifting so that she could get comfortable. She hated sneaking around. She was a grown woman and here she was, sneaking around because her boyfriend had forbidden her to continue with her investigation on his dancer. Hmpf. Little did he know that his command had gone right in one ear and out the other.

Alana was an insanely stubborn woman. Even if she hadn’t truly believed that Melanie was the one behind the letters, she would have continued with the investigation just because JC had told her not to. But that wasn’t really the point right now.

She knew that Melanie was behind it. She had to be. Everything pointed to her and everything that Alana had learned in the academy was screaming that she was indeed the culprit. She just needed something solid so that she could make her move. Once she got the prints back from the lab, she knew she’d have more than enough information to get the girl.

She watched as JC got into his position once more on the stage. She couldn’t help but smile a goofy smile. He was absolutely wonderful. She felt the pang of guilt at knowing that she was deliberately going against his wishes. He wouldn’t be able to stay mad at her once it came out that she was right though, right? Of course not.

She watched carefully for another twenty minutes or so before she headed back to the exit area. She wiped off her dusty pants and then fixed her hair before forcing a smile as she headed up to the main stage area. No one had any idea that she had been watching.

“Hey Al!” Chris greeted.

She gave him a wave in return before going over to the side stage to keep an eye on JC. When he glanced in her direction, she gave him a bright smile and then leaned against the wall, crossing her arms over her chest as her eyes scanned the arena. Empty, as usual during the sound check. They used to let fans in to watch until the letters had started. Now, for JC’s safety and the safety of everyone on the crew, it was closed to the public.

After ensuring that all was as it should be, Alana allowed her eyes to wander over to Melanie. The girl had left a bad taste in her mouth after the first meeting with her. There was just something about her that Alana didn’t like. She knew that being an agent, she was supposed to remain objective. Innocent until proven guilty, after all. Perhaps it was the jealousy she felt whenever the petite blonde was around, but Alana was finding it increasingly hard to remain objective.