Page 33 of Not Another Rockstar
Axel took her breath away as he kissed the back of her hand. The feel of his lips against her sensitive nerves made her light up—he wasn’t grossed out by her scar. She turned his hand, and much to his amusement, kissed his palm, calloused from years of drumming.
“We’ve shook on it, so no take backs,” he said.
“No take backs.” She released him as the electricity became too much. “The last thing to do is to clean up. You’ve bled all over my floor.” She grabbed a towel to clean up the droplets.
“Remind me to never surprise you again,” he grumbled.
“Are you going to help?” She tossed him a rag. “I don’t want the police coming in and seeing the blood.”
“The police are the least of our concerns,” he muttered under his breath.
The sound of footsteps echoing down the hall interrupted them. The police had arrived. Voices called out their names.
“Maybe we shouldn’t have called them,” Phoebe fretted, putting the towel on the counter. “I don’t want the break-in to get leaked to the press. Getting the police involved only draws attention.” She was afraid of what the headlines would be. That, and she had her own plans to find out who did this.
“Someone broke in, and they deserve to be punished. This is about your safety. Even if it gets leaked, the intruder might get spooked and back off,” Axel said, resting his hands on her shoulders. She stared up at him, knowing he was right.
Axel guided her out of the kitchen, and they found two stern-looking police officers looking over the studio.
“Axel Adler? You called about an intruder?” the officer with red hair and a long beard said, squaring his shoulders as Axel shook his hand.
“Yes, thank you for coming,” Axel said. “I got here about thirty minutes ago, and I noticed the broken window in the door. I went around back to see if I could catch the person, but they were already gone.”
The officer looked to Phoebe. She felt that was her cue to continue.
“I noticed the door, and came in to turn on the light. That’s when I saw the threatening message on the canvases and the floor,” she added, feeling like she was back in the hospital in Munich being questioned. She had seen enough uniforms to last a lifetime.
Thankfully, the red-headed officer didn’t seem to care who he was interviewing as he took down the details of the break-in. It was the female officer with a pixie cut who offered them her condolences, and that damn slanted smile that made Phoebe want to roll her eyes.
“Do you want to go to the hospital?” the redhead asked, looking at Axel’s torn jacket. “Did the intruder injure you?”
“No, I don’t,” he said firmly. “As I said, whoever broke in was already gone.”
“How did you get injured?” The officer arched a brow.
“I cut him,” Phoebe admitted, not wanting to draw out the interview any longer than necessary. “It was an accident, I thought he was the intruder. The light is out in the hallway to the kitchen, and I couldn’t see that it was him.”
“Right, and you don’t need medical attention?” the redhead asked again, while the other officer examined the door.
“Phoebe already took care of it,” Axel said, holding his arm.
“Has anything been taken?” the male officer asked Phoebe, taking notes on a tiny pad that looked comical in his largehand. The woman had moved on to taking pictures of the ruined artwork.
“No, I don’t think so. They slashed some canvases, and graffitied my work,” she explained. “Put the paintings together and it spells out ‘it should have been you’.”
“Have you received any threatening messages prior to this?” he asked, looking up when she hesitated. He looked between them like he already knew the answer.
“There has been some negative media attention about me recently. Mostly just internet trolls.” Since the officers were fans, she didn’t need to elaborate.
The officer nodded solemnly, like he understood.
“My agent, Lena, is handling my social media at the minute so I’m not sure of any specific messages or threats.”
Axel scowled as she brushed over the topic. She wasn’t going to mention the calls her parents had received.
“Have your agent take screenshots of the accounts and the messages, in case they delete their accounts or things escalate,” the officer instructed.
“Judging from the state of her studio, things have already escalated,” Axel interrupted.
