“The ‘rents should be by around nine-forty-five to pick us up and whisk us off to the airport,” Rick said.
“Are we flying commercial or charter today?” Zach asked.
“I think they have us booked in first class on Peregrine Airlines. I checked it out last night. We’re booked in sleeping pods, so at least we’ll be able to lie back, watch movies or sleep some more,” Rick told them.
The three ate the rest of their breakfasts, chatting about the day and the plans for when they hit the ground running in Seattle. Their choreographer, Sally Higgins, had flown up to the Emerald City, as some called it, the previous week to work with the backup dancers. ZERO had worked with one of her assistants, who had taken the redeye to Seattle the previous night. Ethan was amazed that Sally wouldn’t force them into a late-night rehearsal when they landed. Still, there was some press junket Rawlins and Hightower had agreed to that afternoon.
After eating, Ethan put the plate in the kitchen sink.House cleaning will deal with it after we’re gone, he thought to himself. He returned to his bedroom and gathered around the few last-minute items he still had out. He separated everything into two suitcases. One was his usual giant rolling suitcase, the other an overnight bag he wouldn’t need to check. With everything ready to go, he wheeled the rolling bag into the common area and left it near the door. Ethan saw that both Ric and Zach had already beaten him. He heard a door opening from within the suite and glanced over his shoulder to see Orr coming out of his room, dressed in a pair of sweats and a hoodie. Orr may have been wearing sweats, but the outfit was probably crazy expensive, because they all wore designer clothing these days. The hoodie cost about nine hundred dollars, and the sweats were around thirteen hundred. Orr had topped the look with a ball cap and a pair of sunglasses.Because, you know, who doesn’t need to wear sunglasses in a hotel suite?
“Morning, Orr,” Zach yelled, a little too chipper with a goofy grin.
Orr tilted his head in Zach’s direction and mumbled something Ethan thought were words but honestly wasn’t entirely sure. Orr went over to the smattering of breakfast goods, selected a dry bagel and pocketed it before muttering, “Are we doing this?”
“Aye, aye, captain,” Ric said, giving Orr a brief salute.
“Stop messing with Orr,” Ethan said. “He clearly didn’t get his beauty rest.” Then Ethan swiveled his head to Orr and said in a high-pitched voice, “Does baby need his binky?”
“Fuck all of you. Just fuck all of you,” Orr said before opening the door to the suite and rolling his bag into the hall.
Ethan, Rick and Zach scrambled to follow Orr with their rolling bags. There were only four suites on their floor, so there wasn’t a long way for them to walk to the elevator. Orr had already pulled out his hotel key card and used it to call the elevator. This floor was only accessible by key card, making it almost impossible for random strangers or fans to access the set of suites.
Ethan looked up as there was a quiet ding and the steel doors slid open. Orr wheeled in first, followed by Ric, then Zach and Ethan were last. The four had to adjust a bit to get them and their luggage into the metal box before Ethan hit the lobby button.
“Anyone text the parents yet to let him know we’re up and on our way down?” Ethan asked.
“I let Hightower know we would be down in ten about twenty minutes ago,” Ric responded.
The four quietly rode the rest of the way to the ground level. When the elevator opened, they exited and went through a secondary security door before heading into the hotel’s massive lobby. The marble tiling may have looked great, but it made everything echo loudly. Ethan could hear the rotation of his wheels on the flooring as he made his way to where Ron Hightower sat on an overstuffed couch readingThe Times-Picayune.
Hightower looked up from the paper.Probably heard our wheels rolling across the floor, Ethan guessed.
“Morning, manager-daddy,” Ric said. “Where’s business-daddy?”
“Rawlins is out in the SUV waiting for you. He has some call to a booking agent in the UK. They’re still trying to iron out your tour dates for that leg of your tour in the new year.”
Hightower stood, folded this newspaper in half and slid the paper under his right arm. He pulled out his sunglasses and gave the group an ‘after you’ sweep with his left hand, and they headed to the side exit. Ethan could see two black SUVs sitting out front. There was a paid bodyguard standing on either side of the two SUVs.They look like characters out ofMen in Black.
Mr. J., as the boys called him, was six-foot-five-inches and almost three-hundred pounds of solid muscle. Ethan was nearly amazed Mr. J. could find a suit to fit his giant frame. Mr. J.’s bald white head shone like a giant blazing beacon in the sunlight. Mr. S., on the other hand, was only about five-foot-eleven-inches, but Ethan knew the former Navy SEAL was not one to mess with. His black suit and even blacker skin created a visage of absolute badassery. Ethan couldn’t see their eyes behind their dark sunglasses. Still, he knew their focus swiveled in their direction when the hotel’s door opened and the five exited the building. Silently, the guards walked to the back, opened the hatchbacks and helped them with their luggage. Ethan and Zach chose the first vehicle with Hightower, and Ric and Orr chose the second.
Mr. J. helped Ethan and Ric with their luggage before closing the back door, then opened the side door to let them in. Ethan remembered how long it took him to get used to this kind of treatment by their security professionals when they started getting famous. After the release of their first album, Mr. J. and Mr. S. were hired full-time and were the group’s constant shadows. If the group was out in public, they were always close behind.
“Good morning Ms. A.,” Ethan said as he entered and found another one of their bodyguards already behind the wheel.
“Good morning, Ethan. Good morning, Zach,” the guard said as she glanced at them through the rearview mirror. Ethan already knew from experience she would not turn her head to look at them. When she was behind the wheel, she was focused on potential threats or traffic.
“Morning, Ms. A.,” Zach said as he settled beside Ethan.
Hightower was the last to enter, and Mr. J. shut the door as soon as Hightower was safely inside.
Mr. J. then opened the passenger side door, sat down, closed the door and buckled himself in.
“VIPs secured. Heading to MSY,” Ms. A. said.
All four of their bodyguards were on the same closed-channel radio. Ethan saw Ms. A.’s head title slightly as she listened to a response in her earpiece. The SUV pulled into traffic and headed to Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. The airport had been initially named Moisant International Airport, so it had the flight designation code MSY. The airport was officially renamed in 2001 to Louis Armstrong in recognition of the one-hundredth anniversary of the legendary trumpeter’s birth.
Ethan closed his eyes and leaned against the window as they rolled through New Orleans. Before he knew it, he felt the vehicle slow down, and he opened his eyes to see them pulling up to a side entrance at the airport. A Peregrine representative was already standing outside waiting for them. As the SUV pulled to a stop, Mr. J. got out, retrieved the luggage from the back and put it on the sidewalk. After a couple of minutes, Mr. J. opened the door, and Hightower, Zach and Ethan exited to start the airline check-in process. A luggage handler with a large baggage cart appeared and put their checked items on the cart as the group was led into the building to a celebrity check-in area. The Peregrine representative talked with each person in the group, checking their IDs, tagging everything and issuing boarding passes.
* * * *
