“I sent out an SOS to Courtney, Becca, and Irina. They’ll be here shortly.” Mach slipped his guitar into its case.
“Sam’shere?” Tanner asked, and confusion didn’t even cover the questions going on inside his brain. “In California. In this building?”
Mach nodded. “Yup.”
Sam was there. Holy shit. He got to hold her. Touch her. Kiss her.
Sam was there, and he didn’t know she was coming.
But Mach clearly did. Why’d that sting?
“Was this supposed to be a surprise?” he asked. Because if it was supposed to be a surprise, they’d fucked it up. Honestly, everyone had been weird since last night. Even Sam. She hadn’t answered his calls and only shot off a few texts here and there. Said things were super busy.
As though Tanner had called her into reality, Sam slipped through the door into the studio booth with Dan.
WithDan. Dan who rarely left Denver because he had a body shop to run and he hated to fly.
What the fuck was going on?
All he knew was she was there, and he was going to share the same air. They’d sort the rest later. Balancing his sticks on the snare, he stood and maneuvered around the cords and instruments to the foam-lined door.
“Sam?” he said as he pushed it open. “Dan?”
Sam went right to him. Slipped into his arms. “I missed you.”
He would’ve kissed her, but she buried her head in his chest and seemed to melt there.
“I missed you, too,” he said. “What’s going on?”
In response, she gave him a squeeze and sighed like all the issues in the world would be okay now that they were together.
“Give me a minute to enjoy this,” she said.
He understood that feeling since it was pretty much the same one he experienced with her in his arms.
“What the hell’s going on?” he asked Dan.
“Catiana figured out Sam,” Dan said matter-of-factly. He’d gone into protection mode—Tanner had only seen it once before. When he’d convinced Tanner to stick around after the whole Sharknado prom debacle. “Catiana tracked her down. Made some threats.”
“She did fuckingwhat?!” Tanner didn’t mean to roar, but roar he did.
Sam jumped a little in his arms, which was unacceptable. She didn’t need to be afraid when they were together.
“I’ll need the details,” Hans said from behind Tanner. “If you have contact information, that would be helpful.”
What the hell? “What can you do about it?”
“I make problems go away so you can focus on music,” Hans said. “That’s my job. This woman is now a problem.” Hans adjusted his cuffs and headed past Tanner.
“You and I are gonna talk,” Tanner said before Hans made it to the hallway.
“After,” Hans waved him away, which would usually piss him off, but now he had Sam here and a big fat mess he only had the summary about. He had a hunch there would be cleanup needed. He needed Hans’s help to do the cleanup—that’s where Hans excelled.
“Green Room is ready,” Courtney said, peeking her head in the sound studio. “Figured that made the most sense.”
“You know what’s going on?” Tanner asked her. Sam still gripped his chest like she was afraid he’d disappear. He moved his hand behind her neck, holding her there. Letting her know he had her.
“Nope.” Courtney shook her head. “But I got the SOS, so I’m here.” She glanced at Sam. “She okay?”
