ROCK HARD (A BRITISH ROCKSTAR BAD BOY ROMANCE) (14 page)

A
s soon as
I walked out into the crowd lingering around the merch booth, I knew it was a mistake. Dozens of fans surrounded me, asking for autographs, trying to shake my hand. I pushed through them, my eyes scanning the crowd for Catherine, as a huge circle of people formed around me.

“Catherine!” I yelled, over and over again, ignoring the fans. She was nowhere in sight, and within seconds, I was surrounded by so many people I couldn’t get through them. Someone began pulling on my shirt, and I heard it rip as I tried to pull away. “Get off of me!” I yelled, barreling through them. They parted and then closed around me again.

“Please sign this, Liam!” Someone pushed an album in my face, and I pushed it away.

“I love you, Liam!” A woman threw her arms around my neck, and I pulled her off of me, trying to work my way through the crowd.

“Liam! Liam! Liam!” they chanted.

“Alright, that’s enough, everyone back the fuck up!” Big D’s large frame busted through the crowd, and he grabbed my arm, pulling me away. I looked up at him thankfully.

“Any sign of Catherine?” I yelled, as he pushed through the fans.

“Not yet,” he said.

“Did you hear from Matt yet?” I asked, hope clinging to my shaking voice.

“No, boss,” he said, as we finally cleared the last of the crowd. We walked behind the stage and back down the hallways that led to the dressing room.

“You’re fuckin’ crazy,” Ian said. “I told you not to go out there!”

“Fuck off! You’d have done the same thing if Rhone had gone missing!”

“Rhone? You’re comparing your fling to my marriage?”

“It’s not a bloody fling! I love her!” I yelled. There. I’d said it out loud. The words that had been churning in my head for days. I didn’t give a shit what anyone thought. It was true, and that was that. The shock on Ian’s face said it all.

“What?” he asked. “Love?”

“Piss off!” I said, pushing past him.

I walked into my dressing room and pulled Catherine’s purse out of the closet. Her phone was still there, and I pulled up her voice mail and listened to the message from her agent. I knew I was invading her privacy, but I was becoming frantic with fear and dread, and I was hoping for some indication of where she was.

“Catherine,” the female voice said. “I checked the rest of the numbers for Liam’s charity and nothing is adding up. I reconfirmed the numbers by calling each charity again and everyone is saying the haven’t received this money. I’m not sure what to tell you…but call me, and let me know how you want me to proceed.”

What the fuck?
I thought. What was she talking about? My charity? Catherine hadn’t mentioned anything to me about it, but none of this made any sense.

I walked back out to talk to Ian about it, and just as I stepped into the hallway, my phone rang.

Matt.
Thank god
, I thought, picking it up.

“Did you find her?” I answered.

“No, boss, but it looks like she left with someone. The video shows her going into the dressing room and someone followed her in and then a few minutes later, they left together.”

“Who?” I asked.

“Well, boss, I’m not sure, but I came in to look at the video myself, and I could swear it’s that guy that runs your charity. The nerdy, skinny guy?”

“Callum?” I asked.

“Yeah, that guy,” he said.

“Why would she go anywhere with Callum?” I wondered out loud. “Where did they go? Does the video show that?”

“Looks like she got in his car with him and they drove away. Headed South away from the venue. That’s all we’ve got.”

“Thanks,” I replied, hanging up the phone.

“What?” Ian asked.

“She left with Callum. Why the bloody hell would she go anywhere with him?”

“That’s fuckin’ odd,” Ian replied.

“Yeah, it is,” I replied. “Hey, did Catherine say anything to you about the charity?”

“No, why?”

“There was a message on her phone from her agent. Something about the donation numbers from our charity not matching. I don’t know, it doesn’t make any sense.”

“Let’s call Callum,” Ian said, pulling out his phone, just as mine rang in my hand. I looked down at the display.

“Wait!” I said, putting a hand on Ian’s arm. “Callum’s calling me now.”

“Callum?” I answered.

“Hello, Liam,” Callum said.

“Callum, have you seen Catherine?” I asked.

“Yes, she’s with me.”

“Why? Where are you?”

“We’re at your house. Waiting for you.”

“What the fuck? Why are you at my house?” His voice sounded robotic, far away, and it made me nervous.

“I’ll tell you when you get here,” he said, and then the line went dead.

My blood ran cold.

“Something’s wrong. Something’s terribly wrong,” I said, racing away as fast as I could.

“Liam wait!” Ian called from behind. “Goddammit, Liam!”

I
fought
against my restraints as I listened to Callum talk to Liam on the phone. Of all the shit I hadn’t expected to happen this week, this topped the list. I held out hope that Liam would be able to talk some sense into Callum when he got here, because there was no escaping these binds.

Callum paced around like a nervous rabbit, biting his nails, his eyes darting around the room as he muttered to himself.
Yeah
, I thought,
as soon as Liam gets here, this will be all over
. Liam might have been lanky, but he was tall and strong.

The only problem was that gun in Callum’s hand. And the insanity that was obviously wrestling around inside his head. A crazy with a gun could do a lot of harm, to anyone. Strength didn’t matter.

What mattered was luck.

And with any luck, we’d get out of this bullshit with nobody getting hurt. Callum seemed to have another idea, I thought, as I watched him begin to pull out all the knives from the kitchen drawers and lay them out on the counter. Then, with horror, I watched him put not just the gun he was holding, but pull out two more handguns from inside his jacket, and lay them next to the knives.

He looked over at me watching him, and he shook his head.

“You can’t understand. You think I’m a monster, but it’s not me. It’s him. He’s the monster,” he said, his voice rising. “Ally suffered. Night after night, crying herself to sleep. I tried to comfort. I tried to give her the love he’d deprived her of. She was never the same. He ruined her.”

He picked up one of the biggest knives and walked over to me. My eyes widened in fear as he brought the tip of the knife up to my chin, trailing it slowly up my cheek, stopping right under my eye. Slowly, he twisted it, poking into my flesh. I whimpered, pulling away before he could break the skin, as he laughed.

“I’ve been waiting for this day for years,” he said, spinning away from me.

“At first, I thought I’d only be able to take his money,” he said, “but then you came along!” He turned back to me, sliding the blade of the knife between his fingers, his eyes wild and frantic. “It’s so much better this way! He can always make more money. But after this, he’ll never fall in love again.”

My stomach sank with the realization that this was all my fault. If I wasn’t here, if I hadn’t slept with Liam, gotten close to him, none of this would be happening. If I hadn’t poked around trying to find something good to include in the story, none of this would be happening. If I hadn’t opened my mouth and told Callum what I’d discovered, then I wouldn’t be here tied up in this chair waiting for the man that I loved to come and save me.

Loved.

I loved Liam. There was no denying it.

If we got out of here alive, I intended to tell him just that. He’d made something come alive in me that hadn’t been there before. He made me feel alive just being in his presence.

It was magical.

And I’d gone and fucked it all up.

I looked at the door and then looked at Callum, pacing across the kitchen floor like a fighter waiting for the bell to ring, his weapons laid out at his fingertips, a hatred that had been brewing in him for years on the verge of exploding, and I couldn’t help but wonder.

After the lightening strike, what would be left?

T
he Jag couldn’t move fast
enough. I sped through traffic, weaving around every car in my path, ran red lights and blew through stop signs, my head spinning.

I still couldn’t figure it out, I had no idea what could be happening, but something deep in the pit of my stomach told me it wasn’t good. Fear gripped me in a way I hadn’t felt since Lennon was in his last days.

I hoped like hell it was something simple, a misunderstanding, miscommunication, something like that. But there was something about the tone in Callum’s voice, his ominous words, the way he hung up on me, that told me it wasn’t just a simple misunderstanding.

With all my erratic driving, it still took me almost half an hour to get through traffic and arrive at my house. My heart raced as I climbed up the winding driveway. I grabbed my phone and continued to ignore Ian’s calls. It was still ringing - it was the third time he’d called. I hadn’t answered while I was driving but I didn’t take the time to answer now either.

The front door was wide open, and I walked in slowly.

“Catherine?” I called. The living room was empty. I walked down the hallway toward the kitchen, and just before I rounded the corner, Callum appeared in front of me.

“Hey, mate, what’s going on?” I asked, peering into his eyes. Something was definitely off about him. There was a darkness in his eyes, and as he ran his hand through his hair, I saw his trembling fingers. “Are you okay, Callum?”

He narrowed his eyes, and I looked down at his other hand just as he pressed the gun into my stomach.

“Callum, what the fuck?” I froze.

“Put your fucking hands up, Liam!” I raised my hands over my head.

“Callum, where’s Catherine? What the bloody hell are you doing?”

First, I was shocked, but that quickly turned to being pissed. I looked over his shoulder, but she wasn’t in sight.

“Catherine!” I called out, and Callum dug the gun in deeper. I looked down at his little weasly face and knew it was going to feel amazing to slam my fist into it. As soon as I made sure Catherine was safe, I was going to do just that. Seriously, who did this wanker think he was? “Catherine!” I yelled again.

“Where is she?” I asked him again.

“That’s all you care about, Liam? Don’t you want to know why I’m so upset?”

“Listen here, you little worm! Tell me where she is right now!”

“You don’t care about anyone but yourself, Liam.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, Callum. I care about lots of people, I just don’t care about you, you fuckin’ twat! Now where’s Catherine?” I pushed past him, taking a chance that he wouldn’t shoot. I was right.

I assumed Catherine was in the kitchen, since that’s where he’d emerged from, but the kitchen was empty. I ran back into the living room, and stopped when I saw he’d walked out onto the patio, a bound Catherine sitting in front of him, his gun pointed right at her head.

“You motherfucker!”

“Now, you’re going to listen to me,” he seethed. I froze, and put up my hands.

“Fine, Callum, what’s wrong? What’s going on?” I asked, my heart seizing in fear. I didn’t care for one second if he shot me, but if he hurt Catherine, I wouldn’t be able to take it.

“I’ve waited years for this,” he said, his voice shaking. “For revenge. You just went on like nothing happened. Like she never mattered.”

“What are you talking about, Callum?”

“Ally, you asshole! She didn’t mean anything to you, did she? She gave up her life for you, you selfish prick!”

“Callum, we’ve had this talk before,” I said.

“No! You’ve talked. Now it’s my turn. You thought giving me a job would make up for it? For losing her? You start a million dollar charity over the memory of your precious little brother, but what did you do for Ally? Nothing!” he spat, tears streaming down his face.

“Callum, mate…c’mon, let’s put the gun down,” I said.

“No, fuck you! You couldn’t even acknowledge her. Not once did you mention her in interviews, you didn’t even come to the funeral!” I winced at his words. He was right. I’d been on tour in Australia, and it had all happened so fast, there was no way for me to attend without canceling sold-out shows.

“You’re right, Callum, I should have come,” I agreed. “And I’m real sorry about that, mate. Now, can we put the gun down?”

“I’m going to kill her,” he cried, his shaking hands terrifying me. It would only take a small amount of pressure to pull the trigger.

“No, Callum, Catherine has nothing to do with this. Let her go. This is just between me and you.”

I’d avoided looking into Catherine’s eyes until now, and when I did, it crushed me. The fear, the tears, the way he had her fucking taped up like that. Rage filled my veins, but I fought against it, resisting every urge to rush him, to kill this twat.

“She’s great, right?” he asked, a sickly smile smearing across his face as he reached down and pulled Catherine’s chin up. She wiggled away from his grip and he grabbed her hair, pulling it roughly. “But she’s just the icing on the cake.”

“Callum, let her go,” I growled, my hands balling into fists at my side.

“She figured it out,” he said. “She went snooping around, so she’s gotta go anyway.”

“What did she figure out?”

“That I stole all your money. The charity money. I gambled it all away. It’s all gone.”

“Why would you do that?”

“To fuck you over. To hurt you. It was the only way I knew how, until she came along,” he said, pulling harder on her hair.

“This is better,” he said, smiling down at Catherine.

“She has nothing to do with this, Callum. I don’t care about the money. Just let her go and you can leave, I don’t care.”

“No way,” he said, “not until you see your pretty little love die in front of you.”

“You’re not going to fuckin’ hurt her, mate, you know I can’t let you do that,” I said. “Callum, you need to rethink this,” I said. “Leave the country. You’ll never get away if you kill Catherine. I won’t let you get away, you know that.”

“I’m going to kill you, too, don’t worry,” he said, the smile returning. He looked like a fucking deranged lunatic, and just as I was about to throw caution to the wind and take him down, I saw a glimmer of a light flash behind him.

“Callum,” I said. “what are you going to do after you kill us?”

“Why do you care?”

“Let me give you more money,” I said, lowering my hands slightly and inching forward. “You can have it all, retire, live in style, anywhere you like. You won’t have to be on the run all your life. We can let all this go.” I took a slow step forward and he moved the gun from Catherine’s temple, pointing it at me.

“Stop,” he said. “I don’t want your money. I don’t fucking care about that. That’s not why I’m doing this. But that’s the only thing that means anything in your world, isn’t it? You think money can get you out of anything, don’t you?”

“No, Callum, I don’t,” I replied, inching my feet forward again. “But it can get you out of this. All you have to do is put the gun down. It’s an easy choice.”

“You think this is easy?” he said, his voice rising in anger. “You stupid motherfucker! Nothing has been easy! You killed my sister! I tried to make it better. I loved her. I loved her better than you ever could! You should have seen the way she looked after I made love to her.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I asked, my stomach churning in disgust.

“Ally was mine. I loved her. But she never got over you. It’s your fault she died.”

“How could you do that to her, Callum?” I asked, my head racing. No wonder Ally had turned to the bottle.

“You think it’s easy running the company of someone who killed your sister?” Callum continued. “Having to work for a selfish prick like you?”

“Well, you’re right about that, Callum, I am a selfish prick,” I shrugged. “But you’re the one who’s fucked.”

“What?” he said, his eyes widening.

“Piss off, you prick!” I yelled, just as the bullet from Big D’s gun sliced through his leg from behind, I ran over and jumped on him, and he began wrestling against me as I tried to get his gun. It fired, the bullet ripping through my left shoulder. Pain shot through me, but I sat on top of him and began pummeling him with my right fist.

“This is for Ally, you fucking cunt!” Over and over, my fist smashed against his face, rage ripping through my body like a freight train, until Ian and Big D pulled me off of him. Big D kicked Callum’s gun away, and rolled him over, putting a boot on his back and holding him down.

“Help Catherine!” I yelled to Ian and he ran over and freed her, ripping the tape from her mouth. They ran over to me, as I lay on the ground, white hot heat radiating from my shoulder.

“Catherine!” I called, as she looked down at me. I pulled her into me as she cried against my shoulder.

“Are you okay, luv?” I asked, pulling her to me.

“I’m okay, I’m okay,” she cried, tears falling down her face. Ian looked at my shoulder, and then disappeared, only to come back seconds later with a towel that he pressed against the hole in my shoulder.

“Oh, luv, I’m so sorry,” I said. “I’m so sorry, Catherine.”

She leaned down, kissing me gently, before pulling away and wiping her tears.

“Are you okay, Liam?” Ian asked me. I looked over at him and saw the concern filling his eyes.

“I’m fine, brother. You aren’t getting rid of me this easy.”

“I don’t want to get rid of you, you bastard,” he said, his eyes shining with tears.

“Of course you don’t - you’d never find another singer like me.”

“I’d never find another brother like you,” he said. He reached down, hugging me hard.

“I’m calling an ambulance,” he said, standing up and looking down at Callum laying beside me.

“He’s not even worth killing,” he muttered, as he walked away. When I looked back at Catherine, my heart swelled with love.

“Are you sure you’re okay? I couldn’t bear it if you were hurt,” I said, looking her over. My heart was racing with worry.

She nodded, shivering. I pulled her close, as best as I could with my bloody shoulder, the urge to wrap my arms around her protectively overwhelming.

“I’m never letting you go again,” I whispered, as she kissed me again.

“Promise?” she asked.

“I love you, Catherine,” I said, peering down into her bright green eyes.

“I love you too,” she whispered. I kissed her again, relief flooding my limbs now that I had her safely in my arms.