Page 23 of Israel

Chapter 10

Ashley stared at her dressing room, starting to shake. The scent of lilacs assaulted her nose, making her feel sick.

He’d gotten into her dressing room.

This was no shy pudding-shaped doughboy in his momma’s basement penning anonymous notes. He was here, really truly stalking her, and he’d somehow managed to elude every single bit of their security with a fucking truckload of lilacs.

She turned to Israel, hot anger flooding through her. “How the hell did this happen?”

But her words fell on deaf ears. He was already on his headset, rapping out orders. Calling in Harrison, mobilizing the security team, having them do a perimeter sweep.

She swept a pile of lilacs off the nearest surface and ground them underfoot. “Fucking—chicken-shit—demented—asshole—” she was muttering as she stomped.

She went for another batch, and felt Israel’s hand clamp down on her arm. “Don’t,” he said. “I appreciate the sentiment, but we need to leave the evidence undisturbed.”

“Why?” she snapped. “You obviously can’t do fuck-all to find this guy, or even keep him away from me. What good is evidence going to do you?”

He didn’t rise to her accusations, but he didn’t let go of her arm, either.

“No, check the inside of the bus,” he was saying into his headset. “I don’t care if a guard has been outside the entire time. Fucking go through the bus, and that’s an order. Do it now. I’m coming with Ashley in five minutes.”

“I’m not going back to the bus,” Ashley protested. “My clothes are here, and—”

But he was ignoring her again. “No, now,” he was saying. “And I—”

He broke off as Harrison came pounding up to the doorway, skidding to a stop when he saw the flowers. “Fuck,” he muttered. He turned on Israel. “How the hell did this happen?”

“My question exactly,” Ashley said, rounding on him.

Israel held up a hand to both of them. “That’s a post-mortem for your security team,” he said to Harrison. “My responsibility is Ms. Silver’s personal safety, which was not compromised. So let’s move on.”

Harrison closed his mouth, his eyes narrowing, but he didn’t argue.

That was a first. Her respect for Israel went up a notch.

Israel said, “I’ve initiated a perimeter sweep and a search of the venue. Probably useless, but they may pick up some clues about how the perp got all this in here without anyone seeing him. In the meantime, as soon as I get the all-clear from the bus, I’m taking Ashley over there and staying with her until we’re underway, which will be as fast as we can get that bus in gear. So tell anyone normally assigned to it to get their asses moving and get on board or they’ll be left behind.”

Ashley opened her mouth to protest again, but he spoke right over her to Harrison. Asshole.

“Ms. Silver needs her belongings collected from this room,” he said. “Please have someone take care of that.” He turned to Ashley. “You have clothes in the bus, I assume?”

“Oh, I exist now?” she said. “I do, but—”

“Then we have to go.”

Ashley expected Harrison to light into Israel about his high-handedness, but he just gave a short nod. “Hold the bus until I get over there, though,” he said. “I want a debrief before you go.”

Israel nodded in agreement, then led her from the room. “Security escort, stage door,” he barked into his headset.

“Come on,” he said to Ashley. He dropped her wrist and put his hand on her back. His touch was surprisingly gentle.

“I don’t want to—”

She was going to say she didn’t want to go back to the bus, but she suddenly realized she did. Security guards were running in all directions. Crew members were standing in little groups, whispering.

Everyone was staring at her.

“Okay,” she whispered.