Page 38 of Rescue

Chapter Eight

Lennon

For a guy who has a well-known problem sleeping, it’s probably no surprise to anyone that I barely sleep that night. For once, my insomnia can’t be blamed on my own bullshit. Instead, I’m haunted by the image of Haylee in the middle of that crowd, eyes closed, hunched down as if to protect herself, terror radiating from her.

I go over it a million times in my head. What in the hell happened to cause that kind of reaction? I can’t figure it out. She told me, once, that she wasn’t a fan of crowds. But she seemed to do so well with it, following me out to the cars, even laughing when I told her how great she looked. So what went gone wrong?

Was it somehow related to her stalker? I picture her icy anger when she threw those words at me back in the alley, about what he did. She hasn’t brought it up once since then. But that was the kind of thing you didn’t just forget about, right?

If I wanted to ask her, she wasn’t going to make it easy. You would think that it would be simple to find someone when your band is on tour with their band—we were, after all, occupying the same hotel, but Haylee apparently had other ideas. She’s nowhere to be found when I come downstairs the next morning, but she somehow manages to get on the opener’s bus just in time for us to leave Glasgow. When we arrive in Edinburgh that afternoon, she again disappears, leaving a wary-looking James to intercept me in the hall outside her hotel room.

“She’s resting,” he explains, arms crossed. He’s a lot taller than me, and the way he’s standing seems designed to take up as much hallway space as possible.

“Can I just—”

“I’ll let her know you stopped by,” he says, turning to go.

“Hey, James?” I call. He doesn’t turn, just stops in the middle of the hallway, waiting for me to go on. “Is she okay? What happened last night was—”

He sighs, his shoulders slumping a little, but when he responds, his voice is firm. “She’s fine. Tired, that’s all. I’ll see you around.”

“Yeah,” I mutter to his retreating back. “See you.”

I could probably push it. I could wait outside her hotel room door until she gets up, or plant myself in their dressing room at the venue until she shows. But something in the way she shut down the night before was familiar. I had the sense that whatever it was she was feeling, it wasn’t all that far removed from my own experiences. Haven’t I spent hours hiding away in a hotel room somewhere, hoping no one would come looking for me? Was I really going to do that to Haylee?

So I allowed her to keep her distance. Even though it sucked.

We were scheduled for two shows in Edinburgh with a day off in between. As was becoming practice on the last two tours, Dad and Levi worked with the booking manager to make sure we have decent time off between shows on this tour, even though we are already operating on a condensed timetable.Another thing they have to thank me for, I think to myself as I make my way downstairs the next morning.

Levi, Daisy, Paige, and my brothers are all there in the restaurant already, waiting for me. I take one look at Paige and know exactly what’s coming.

“I think I’m going to take a walk,” I say before anyone else can speak. “See the sights. Edinburgh is a great city for walking.”

“Nice try,” Cash says, grabbing my jacket sleeve and pulling me into the seat next to him. “Paige has plans.”

“Of course she does,” I sigh, earning a glare from Reed.

“Okay,” Paige says, sounding excited. “This is what I was thinking.”

Before she can begin to tell us, I’m distracted by the sight of the members of Intrigue coming into the restaurant. They’re practically huddled together as they walk, and I’m struck by the sense that they’re in protective mode. Or maybe that’s just my imagination in action when I see Haylee in the middle of the group. Her eyes look red, and dark shadows mar her pale cheeks. I wonder if she hasn’t been sleeping either. She glances at me, and her eyes widen a little before she quickly looks away.

“Hey, you guys!” Paige calls, waving. “Over here!”

“Paige,” I mutter, seeing Haylee wince. “I don’t think it’s a good—”

But Layla is waving and leading the rest of the band over to us, though James’s face has gone rather tight. “Hey!” Layla says. “How’s it going?”

“Come sit down!” Paige urges, holding up the plate in front of her. “We have pastries!”

“I’ve never said no to pastries,” Dylan says, pulling up a chair. The rest of the band follows suit, Haylee sitting as far from me as possible. She doesn’t meet my eyes.

“We were just talking about how to spend our day off,” Paige explains.

“Talking,” Levi mutters. “Yeah, because you were going to let anyone else get a word in edgewise.”

She spares him a single disdainful raised eyebrow before turning back to the others. “You guys should hang out with us!”

“Uh,” Dylan says, gaze shooting toward Haylee. She doesn’t meet his eyes, staring steadily at the ground. “I think we were just going to go out and explore.”