Chapter Seven
She’d been up against the biggest, the toughest, and the meanest criminals in her five years at the agency. But this definitely took the cake. She was expected to go from rough and tough bad girl agent to a girly pop star’s girlfriend? What the hell had she been thinking?
She glanced at her reflection in the mirror, smoothing her hands down the front of her jeans to ensure that they were the perfect fit. They were a little low cut for her taste, but it was almost impossible to find a pair of decent jeans, so she’d just had to settle.
Once she was convinced that she looked decent enough to leave the room, she grabbed her sweater in case she caught a chill later in the day before she snatched up her purse. She had, of course, checked to make sure it held the essentials and once she was sure that she was prepared for her day, she exited the hotel room, checking to make sure that the door was shut tightly behind her.
She let out a soft sigh as she headed towards the elevator. She was scheduled to meet everyone in the large dining room on the bottom floor of the hotel. To say she was a little nervous would have been an understatement. Although she’d been on numerous cases that had required her to go undercover, none of them had her working so closely with her client. With her utterly sexist, though quite handsome client.
This was going to be an adventure.
~*~
It had been a long night for JC. After he had parted ways with Alana and her giant of a friend, he and Johnny had spent half the night going over the terms for the agreement. Though he and Johnny had initially been against the entire deal, they HAD gone to the agency for their help and to turn them away now would be insane.
So in the end, they had signed the contract. JC had, however, made it very clear that while he would be forced to interact with Alana daily on a seemingly intimate level, once they were behind closed doors, he wanted nothing to do with her. He wouldn’t be spending time with her, he wouldn’t be entertaining her, he wouldn’t even be within a ten foot radius of her. Once they were behind closed doors, he was a free agent.
He let out a sigh as he stepped in the dining hall where he was scheduled to meet everyone. Several of the crew members had already arrived, and over by the buffet table, he spotted Justin and Chris, goofing around as usual. No sign of Lance or Joey yet. He shook his head as he made his way over, though he wasn’t feeling very hungry. He thought he would just get some coffee or a bagel, just to hold him over until later in the day.
He grinned as he made his way over to his friends, trying not to let them see the bags under his eyes. Truthfully, although he and Johnny had stayed up for quite awhile, once he got to bed, he slept quite well. Though he didn’t want to admit it, having Alana there, even though she was a girl, comforted him to some extent. At least he knew he was safe.
He would just never tell her that.
After getting a cup of coffee and a bagel with cream cheese, he headed over to one of the round tables to have a seat, making sure there were plenty of spaces for his band mates. They would be traveling quite a bit that day, and therefore would be split up. He always liked to give himself some time with his friends, especially on days where it was likely they wouldn’t see one another for hours on end. When you spent every waking moment with a group of people day in and day out, it was hard to be away from them. Again, not something he would ever admit to anyone.
Just as he bit into his bagel, they heavy wooden doors to the dining area opened up and in strolled a young woman. He had turned to see who was coming in, thinking it would be the remaining two fifths of the group. Although this woman seemed vaguely familiar, he couldn’t place her. Until her eyes landed on him.
“Alana?”
Although he now knew very well who she was, he couldn’t believe his eyes. She had transformed quite a bit from the night before. Gone was the stuffy business woman with the dark suit and austere bun that had left him cold. In her place was a rather attractive young woman… one that he could easily classify as his “type.”
He shook himself out of his stupor and immediately his hard demeanor had changed. According to him, he still had forty-five more minutes before this little charade began and he wasn’t looking to start it any sooner than necessary.
“Is this seat taken?” She questioned, her voice cool. She didn’t wait for him to answer before she dropped down into the empty chair, dropping her purse onto the floor beside her chair. She scooted the chair closer to the table before she rested her elbows, looking intently at him as if she were studying him.
He felt immediately uncomfortable. “Didn’t your mother ever teach you not to stare?”
“My mother didn’t teach me much of anything,” she retorted, though she dropped her gaze back down to the tablecloth. “As soon as you’re finished here, we need to head to the bus,” she told him.
“You’re not riding with us.”
“Yes I am.”
“NO, you’re not.”
“How in the hell is this supposed to be believable then? Don’t tell me that you make your girlfriends ride a different bus than you.”
“Of course I don’t but you’re not my—“
“Until we find out what’s going with this whole situation, I AM your girlfriend. Whether you like it or not. And you’re not to tell anyone otherwise,” she snarled.
He rolled his eyes and threw his half eaten bagel down onto the plate before he shoved himself back.
“What are you doing?”
“I don’t have much of an appetite anymore.”
“Well where are you going?”
“Anywhere to get away from you.”
Although JC wasn’t afraid of his guards, Tony was another story. The gigantic man had not yet left, and when he had seen what was happening between JC and his co-worker, he had stepped in. Unfortunately for JC, “anywhere to get from you” ended up being on the opposite side of the room, within Alana’s sight.
“This sucks,” he grumbled. “This really sucks.”
~*~
She slid her sunglasses onto her face as the two of them stepped outside. A crowd had already formed outside of the hotel, the fans all hoping to catch a glimpse of their favorite pop star before they climbed onto the bus.
She felt JC’s arm slide around her waist and for a moment, she reveled in the feeling… until his grip tightened quite a bit. She glanced up at him, the smile plastered on his face matching the one on hers. Honestly, it looked more like they were baring their teeth at one another like rabid dogs, but fans never picked up on that kind of stuff.
The squeals from the fans died down as the two of them stepped onto the bus, and immediately broke apart. She yanked the sunglasses from her face and pulled a hair tie from her purse before she threw her hair up in a sloppy bun. “Get your laptop.”
JC rolled his eyes at her command. “Yes mother,” he sneered, and as he made his way to the back of the bus, he couldn’t keep himself from thinking how cute it looked to have those little sprigs of hair she’d missed tickling her neck.
“Snap out of it,” he growled to himself. He grabbed the laptop bag from the back area of the bus and returned to find that Lance and Chris had joined and were chatting it up with Alana. He watched as she laughed at something Chris had said and couldn’t take his eyes off of the way her nose crinkled up as she tossed her head back.
The laugh was something you never would have expected out of her. It was light and melodious, not harsh at all like her speaking voice. But then, he’d never really heard her speak unless she was barking out orders. He could only imagine how she sounded otherwise.
“Here,” he growled gruffly, thrusting the laptop bag towards Alana and immediately her smile ceased. She turned back towards Lance and Chris before she spoke.
“If you boys will excuse us, I need to talk to JC about some things involving the case,” she said pleasantly.
“Why can’t she ever speak nicely to ME?” He wondered bitterly. “Probably because you’ve been a jackass to her,” he answered himself. He watched as his two friends headed into the back of the bus, leaving him alone with Alana.
She took a seat at the table in the kitchen section and motioned for him to do the same. When he took a seat on the opposite side, she rolled her eyes. “You know, it would make sense for you to sit beside me so that you could show me the emails,” she told him.
“I’ll just bring them up. You can sort them yourself.”
“I’m not really interested in sifting through your emails,” she explained. “I feel like that’s an invasion of privacy and I don’t want to see anymore than necessary.”
The caught him off guard slightly. She was a special agent and she wasn’t into snooping? What kind of an agent was she? He shook his head and got up before moving to the other side of the booth and sat down beside her. He flipped open the lid to his laptop and turned it on, waiting a few moments for the computer to power up.
Once the welcome screen came up, he typed in his password and within minutes, he was logging in to his email. He noticed how she averted her eyes from the keys as he typed in all his passwords. Wow. She really WASN’T a snoop!
He brought up the first email and watched as her eyes skimmed over it, having pulled out a little notebook and pen from her purse. She scribbled notes furiously before she nodded at him to continue along.
By the time he’d showed her all of the emails he’d received from the mystery person, she had several pages of notes. “May I see your cell phone?” She asked him. He looked confused, but didn’t protest as he pulled his phone from his pocket and handed it to her.
She pressed send and scanned down to the restricted number. “This is when this person called you, correct?” She asked, showing him the screen.
“Well, it’s the only restricted number on there,” he pointed out sarcastically. She forced herself not to roll her eyes as she jotted down the time and the date of the call before she snapped his phone closed and then handed it back to him.
She let out a sigh and just about the time she was going to ask JC to let her up, the door to the back area opened and in strolled Lance.
“Are the two of you done?”
JC glanced over at Alana for confirmation and then shrugged. “I guess so,” he said. “We’re done, right?”
She nodded. “Yeah, for now we’re done,” she said quietly.
“Good because Chris and I are going to watch a movie. Are you coming?”
Although there was no hesitation on JC’s end, Alana wasn’t so sure. Even though she’d be spending every waking moment with these guys for quite some time, she wasn’t sure she should encourage friendly personal relations. But then again, what could it hurt?
~*~
Chris reminded her of her brother. She hadn’t seen him in quite a few years but just being around this man brought back so many of her fondest memories. She had almost let her guard down. Almost.
She had joined the three men in the back for the purpose of watching a movie. However, that last about all of 10 minutes and before the opening credits were even over, the movie was forgotten and they’d pulled out a deck of cards to play a round of poker. Alana was horrible at it, so had agreed to just watch.
She wondered if this is what they did on the bus on a regular basis. Although she was no stranger to travel, she wasn’t sure if she would last on this bus. It felt too confined for her tastes.
“Hey babe?” Her head snapped up on the sound of his voice. She had gotten butterflies as soon as the word ‘babe’ had tumbled from his lips, but upon seeing the sneer on his face, she knew he was being nothing more than a sarcastic asshole. “Why don’t you be a good little girl and go get us some drinks?”
She rolled her eyes and stood up before she grabbed a pillow and threw it at him. “JC has two aces,” she announced before she exited the room, giggling when she heard his angry growl. So he was an asshole. That just gave her plenty of reason to give it back.
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