“For me.” I didn’t pose it as a question, because it was clear to me that whatever he needed, was serious. I looked beyond him and behind myself for anyone else, but there was no one down this hall. Where the fuck was Van?
“Yes.” He revealed his hands from his pockets, which were covered in black leather gloves. I thought it was quite the choice because they were pumping the heat throughout the place. Or maybe it was weird to me because I was suddenly sweating from the fact that I was alone with Lafayette Rhodes with no easy exit in sight. “I’m going to need you to follow me to a car I have just outside the back here.”
I stared at him like he was insane. I mean, to me, he was. “What? I’m not going anywhere with you. I need to find my publicist and my bodyguard.”
“The manager was easy enough to distract,” Lafayette smiled and I swore I could see malice dripping from his fucking teeth. The way he smiled was the way I imagined a demon would grin, and I was complexly unsettled by the sight of it. “The bodyguard, however, proved difficult.”
Alarm bells went off in my head. Distracting Priyanka…for what? And what did he mean by Van proving to cause issues? Staring back at him, I tried stepping backward slowly, but he only followed my actions, stepping forward just as slowly.
“Where’s Van?”
“Alive.” Lafayette sighed, reaching into his pocket. “Let’s keep it that way and follow me to the car.”
“Fuck you.” I spat, wondering why the fuck I wasn’t running backwards and screaming for help. But if Van was in trouble… “What did you do to Van?”
“Look,” Lafayette looked visibly upset by my refusal to follow basic directions. “If you want to make sure he keeps breathing,” He revealed his left hand again, which now had a sleek black handgun within his grasp. He kept the gun tight to his side, so that if someone did walk down this hall, it was easily concealed. He nudged the gun toward me. “Get in thefuckingcar.”
Chapter 27
Being escortedto my own house in Nashville hadn’t been where I’d expected Lafayette to take me when he’d suddenly whipped out a gun on me. Surprisingly, I wasn’t even that scared. I was more pissed off than anything. Where was Priyanka? Where was Van?
My heart lurched gratefully when he made me open the front door, like he wasn’t poking me in the back with the gun, and both Fawcett and Thiessen came bounding up to me, unharmed. I’d managed to come back home and get them settled before I’d had to go to the taping at The Gab. I managed to slick my hand down the back of Thiessen’s fur right before her sister started hissing at Lafayette, already sensing his malice. When she saw that Fawcett was going off in his general direction, Thiessen started doing the same thing, eyes wide and hissing loudly.
“Either get them to shut up or put them in a different room.” Lafayette demanded, his slicked back blond hair unmoving as he gestured the gun between my girls. “We have business to discuss.”
Attempting to calm the storm brewing inside myself, I scooped up my little darlings and placed them in the office right off the entrance, closing the door with them protected inside.Whatever the hell Lafayette planned to do to me, I wouldn’t allow him to hurt them.
While I’d been securing the girls, I saw that Lafayette had managed to walk into the dining room and had picked up a chair from the table, one of my silver coated dining chairs that had come with the house, and placed it in the middle of the entrance, right beneath my massive chandelier that hung from the ceiling.
“Sit down.” He again used the gun to gesture toward the seat and I really wished he’d holster the fucking thing if he wasn’t going to actively shoot me.
Because I valued my life and the continued heartbeats of my cats, I begrudgingly sat down in the chair and faced him as he began to pace. He revealed my phone from his pocket, sliding his fingers over and over as he seemed to be typing a message. I heard the sound that signaled that the message was sent and then without a second thought, Lafayette slammed my phone on the marble floor, my phone shattering in a skittering of jagged pieces across the floor. I winced at the impact, but kept my eyes square on him. He’d confiscated my phone once he’d gotten me in the white car he’d forced me to get in to.
I had no way of getting in contact with Priyanka, Van, or the authorities. There was no home phone here. Inwardly, I remembered that I had my iPad upstairs in my bedroom. If I could somehow get up there, I could use it to get help. However, Lafayette was ending his pacing, and aiming the gun directly at my chest as his narrow eyes drank me in, his obvious obsession with me blooming behind his blue eyes. A wicked smirk proceeded, looking ugly and twisted on him. This was a grin full of malicious intent, and I wanted to look away but I found myself not wanting to allow him the upper hand by me not being vigilant to my surroundings.
“What do you want?” I bellowed, unable to take this silent dance any longer. He had been brave enough to pick me upbackstage at The Gab and brandished a gun to make me get in a car with him. Clearly, he’d had a plan and I was done being in the dark. “What’s the point of all of this?”
“Straight to the point.” Lafayette nodded, his lips turning into an impressed frown. “I have to respect that. I’ll postpone my monologue then and get to business.”
“Thank fuck for that.” I rolled my eyes.
Again, I don’t know why I wasn’t more scared than I should have been. Maybe it was being in my own house, being in a familiar setting, but I was just irate that this was happening. And if he’d hurt Priyanka or Van, I’d kill him myself.
Lafayette let out a rolling laugh, full of self-indulgence and sounding out of place around me. I wanted this psychopath of a man out of my fucking house.
“Bold and brash. As I’d expect you to be. You really are one of us.”
My face crumpled in confusion. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“How much do you know about the Rhodes family, Alistair?” He said, standing before me and actually managing to conceal his gun in the back of his white slacks.
“Enough to know all of you are prejudice pieces of shit.” I snarled, crossing my arms. “Did I miss anything?”
He chuckled again, tossing his head back in a fit of laughter and amusement. When he regained his stature, he bent down, carrying his weight solely on his ankles as he made sure we were on the same eye level before he spoke again.
“A fair assessment.” He wiped the smug look off his face and suddenly looking pious. “I, however, have no ill-will toward Orbs like the rest of my family. I don’t really care about Orbs. But this,” He used his hand to pantomime between the two of us. “This isn’t about Orbs. This is about you.”
“Get to the fucking point.” I said bravely. Now that the gun wasn’t as accessible, I really didn’t give a shit about keeping my tongue from lashing out at Lafayette.
