Page 80 of Not Another Rockstar
“I’m positive! We wouldn’t have got out without him,” Lena said, as shocked as she was.
What if his target was the art and when he realised people were inside, he didn’t want to add murder to his charges?Phoebe considered, and she felt Axel watching her in the mirror. She closed her eyes, trying to calm her mind, but the sight of her charred canvases on the ground invaded every inch of her peace.
After making sure Lena got home safely, they arrived through the front door to find Nick and August waiting for them on the stairs. Phoebe glanced at Axel. Having spent the drive from Lena’s in contemplative silence, they hadn’t decided on how they were going to tell them.
August didn’t give them a moment to breathe. “What’s happened?”
Bart circled them as though sensing something was wrong. Unsure she could explain, Phoebe rubbed Bart’s ears, in desperate need of some fluffy snuggles to calm her nervous system.
“Someone set the gallery for Phoebe’s next exhibition on fire. They destroyed her paintings,” Axel revealed.
It was a gut-wrenching sentence. Lena was irreplaceable, but with her hand still healing, so were her paintings.Whoever did this got what they wanted: my career is stalled indefinitely,she thought as Bart checked on Axel before settling on the stairs where he could keep an eye on all his herd.
August’s shoulders sagged, and Nick punched the wall by the door. Phoebe winced; they couldn’t afford any more injured hands.
“What the fuck is wrong with people?” Nick said, shaking his hand. “How bad is it? Was it intentional?”
“There’s nothing left,” Axel confirmed. “The gallery is just char, but luckily no one was injured.”
“Not exactly unscathed though. Lena got some burns on her fingers and the gallerist had to go to the hospital for some burns to her arm.” Phoebe filled in the blanks.
“Fuck.” August said it best.
Phoebe nodded. “My point exactly.”
August sat beside her on the stairs and rested his hand on her shoulder. He said nothing, but so much at the same time.
Someone buzzed the intercom.
“Are you serious? What does he want?”
Nick answered the phone. There was a moment’s hesitation as they stared at him.
“No, let him in.” Nick hung up, staring at them blankly. “Gunther Sheen is here. Olivier held him at the gate, but he said there is something we’ll want to hear.”
“He’s either truly insane or narcissistic to walk into a lion’s den,” Phoebe said, too blindsided to be pissed.
She didn’t have time to gather her thoughts before August opened the door and Sheen stood in the doorway, looking small.
“Thank you for letting me in.”
“Say what you came to say before we don’t let you leave,” Axel said coldly.
Phoebe could barely see Sheen past the wall of men in front of her.
“I want to start by saying that I’m here to help. What happened earlier was crazy, and I never wanted to get wrapped up in arson or potential murder. I think whoever sent me thattext wanted you to find me there, so that they could frame me.” With his pasty complexion, Sheen looked like he was about to pass out, but given the death stares from those who loved her, he had every right to be afraid.
“But you’re doing such an excellent job of framing me,” Phoebe said.
“That was LouderTech covering their asses; they saw my car and I was backed into a corner. I was trying to save my job, and they were trying to save themselves a lawsuit,” he said. “Seeing how devastated you were at the scene, how you attacked me, I knew it wasn’t you orchestrating this. When you asked about the envelope earlier, I lied about burning it. With all the police and cameras around, I didn’t want whoever’s doing this to come after me for snitching. I kept it just in case.”
Phoebe didn’t need to verify his conclusions—of course she wasn’t deliberately destroying her own career.
“Smart enough to cover your own arse in front of the police though.” Axel took the plastic-bagged envelope from Sheen and handed it to Phoebe.
The envelope was blank. She wanted to cry in frustration; they’d hit another dead end.
“This is useless. There were no delivery details—whoever gave this to you had access to the building,” Phoebe said. They knew the sender had access to LouderTech, but they were none the wiser as to whether the envelope had been placed on Sheen’s desk before the accident.
