* * *
IT WAS STILL DARK OUT when Killian’s cell rang.
He groaned in his sleep beside me and made no move to reach for it.
I planned on closing my eyes and going back to sleep when it stopped, but as it rang again, my cell rang too.
What the hell?
Killian muttered something under his breath and reached across to his side of the bed to grab his phone off the table. Annoyed that we’d been so rudely awakened, especially considering our sexual shenanigans had kept us awake most of the night, I turned over and almost knocked my phone off the table trying to grab it.
“What? Lois, slow down.” Killian was suddenly very awake as he sat up.
I frowned at him as I fumbled to open my phone, not liking the sound of his side of the conversation at all. Seeing Autumn’s name on my screen, I refrained from unleashing my tired grumpiness on her.
“Skylar, it’s me,” she sounded distressed and breathless.
It made me bolt up into a sitting position too. “What is it?”
“It’s all over the news.”
“What’s all over the news?” I asked, but as I looked at Killian, staring at me with concern and anger in his eyes, I thought maybe I already knew.
“A fan posted photos of you, Micah, and Brandon outside the flat yesterday morning on Instagram. She said she followed Micah and Brandon from their hotel and when they disappeared into, and I quote, ‘a mysterious flat, I just knew in my gut something good was going down. I called a friend who brought her car and supplies and we camped out all night waiting for them to emerge from the mystery flat. We had no idea how big the climax to our ridiculous night of playing paps would be. Lo and behold, we found Skylar Fucking Finch!’”
“Holy shit.” I felt my chest tightening as I practically fell out of the bed, hauling the bedsheet out from under Killian to cover myself as I hurried down the hall to the door.
“Are you okay?” Autumn asked in my ear.
I pushed the peephole cover aside and looked out, feeling marginally calmer to see the hallway was empty.
I felt a warm hand on my shoulder and spun around to find Killian. “They can’t get into the building.”
Still, the fear made my gut churn. “What’s going to happen?”
Autumn sighed. “Is my brother there?”
“Yes.”
“Put him on.”
Dazed, I handed the phone over to him. He took it, appearing beyond exasperated. “Aye, I’m here,” he said impatiently. “I just got off the phone with Lois. She was giving me a heads-up that the paparazzi have set up camp outside Skylar’s building.”
Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck.
“Problem is, I’m here and I can’t be seen leaving here at this time in the morning.”
Oh, shit. I hadn’t even thought about that. I threw my hands up in disbelief and horror and Killian caught one of them. He pulled me into him, caressing my back in soothing strokes as he listened to Autumn. “That sounds like a plan. Thank you. We’ll see you soon.”
“What sounds like a plan?” I asked as soon as he hung up.
“The paparazzi can’t see me. This is already going to be a shitstorm without adding that on top of it. Autumn is going to come over with a security team we’ve used for other artists. You’ll get dressed and you’ll leave the apartment to draw them away so I can get out.” He took hold of my biceps and bent his head to mine. “Under no circumstances are you to engage with any of the press. You keep your head down and the security team will get you out. Okay?”
My mind whirled. I felt so disoriented.
I think I’d always secretly hoped it would never actually come to this.
“And . . . and . . .” I blinked, trying to remember what I wanted to say. My lips felt numb. I brushed my fingers over them, checking that they weren’t made of rubber.
“Skylar?”
I shook my head. “I, um . . . yeah . . . uh . . . where am I going? Where is this security team taking me?”
“To the label.” He brushed my hair off my face. His eyebrows almost touched, he frowned so hard. “Tell me you’re okay.”
I couldn’t.
I wasn’t.
“Fuck, Skylar, I’m going to make this okay. We knew this would happen eventually.” He wrapped his arms around me, holding me tight, and even though I held on, devastatingly his arms felt nowhere near as safe as they had the night before.
Nowhere felt safe now that they had found me again.
AUTUMN ARRIVED NOT TOO LONG later. I’d showered and dressed, feeling jittery and more than a little sick.
It was adrenaline.
Adrenaline spiked by fear that I was about to lose everything that had begun to make me happy.
Killian’s sister, as promised, was not alone. There were two huge burly guys with her wearing dark jeans and black sports jackets. Beneath their jackets their sweaters stretched across massive muscular chests. Their expressions were mirror images of fierce calm that said “don’t fucking mess with me” without actually saying anything at all.
They looked like every other professional security personnel I’d ever hired.
Not that I was hiring them. Since Adam had given me access to my accounts, I’d tried to pay Killian back for everything but he wouldn’t let me. We’d argued before I got in the shower about who would pay for the security.
Again, he wouldn’t let me.
I’d figure out a way to pay for this, even if I had to be sneaky about it.
I stared at Autumn standing in the living room with the security guys. She looked flushed and harried, and there was a large suitcase beside her.
I flicked a look at it, then back to her. “What happened?”
She rounded her eyes. “They swarmed me like bees as soon as they saw these guys with me.” She gestured to the men.
I gave them a halfhearted wave. “Hey, I’m Skylar.”
They each held out a hand one after the other to shake, introducing themselves as Rick and Angus respectively. “We have a car waiting for you outside,” Angus said. “We’ll get you away from here safely.”
I blew out a shaky breath. “What’s with the suitcase?”
“I’m packing you up.” Killian strode out of the bedroom, pulling on a sweater. His hair was still wet from the shower he’d insisted we take together. I’d stood under the stream of water while he washed my hair, taking care of me, as I tried not to disappear into myself. It was hard to stay present but I needed to face this, not run away from it.
“Packing me up?”
“You can’t stay here anymore now that they know where you live.”
“And where am I going to stay?” I asked.
He looked at the security men, his sister, and then back to me. “We’ll discuss that at the label.”
“We should probably get this over with,” Autumn said. “Rip it off. Like a plaster.”
“Like a Band-Aid,” I corrected her stupidly, like it mattered.
She smirked. “You’re in Glasgow. We call them plasters here,” she teased.
I couldn’t bring myself to smile back. The effort to do so seemed too great. “Let’s do this.” I brushed by Killian to hurry to the bedroom closet. He came in after me as I was shrugging into it my coat.
He stared at me warily. “We’ll get you through this. This was always going to happen, no matter how you came back into the limelight.”
I bristled at how defensive he sounded, like I was blaming him for putting me in this position when I wasn’t. I knew that this was always going to happen once I reached out to my old life. However, for a long time, I thought I was never going back and as awful as it made me, it was nice to think I’d never have to deal with this shit if I didn’t go back.
“I know this isn’t your fault.”
He scowled. “Then why have you barely touched me since the news broke?”
Confused, I gestured to the bathroom. “Did we not just take a shower together?”
“Aye, where you stood like an icicle in my arms.”
“What? Oh, I’m sorry. Is my paparazzi crisis cutting into your sex life?”
Fury slashed across his face and he slammed the bedroom door closed.