Page 162 of Hard Rock Tease
“Thanks,” Neil grunted, squeezing her neck tighter.
After a few long moments of bucking wildly and growling, she finally stopped fighting and went limp. Neil lowered her to the floor, but didn’t let her go.
“You got anything to bind her wrists?”
Jayce looked around the tour bus, but didn’t see anything.
“Your tie?” he suggested, wry and breathless.
“That’ll do.” Neil pulled at his tie and loosened it from around his neck. He tied Melissa’s hands together behind her back, securing it with a tight knot.
“The gun?” Neil asked.
“I took out the bullets.”
“Good.”
They both turned to look at me at the same time, concern in their eyes. I gathered myself together, wanting to reassure them even though my voice was weak and breathless.
“Glad to see you guys got my message.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
The paramedics had wrappedme in a blanket and settled me into the back of an ambulance. I think they were worried I was in shock. I might have been, a little bit, but mostly I was angry. Some insane fangirl tried to kill me because she wanted my job and she wanted my man? How dare she! How messed up did you have to be to try something like that?
Even worse, she’d put Jayce and Neil in danger. That was what made me angry the most.
I had wanted to see her in the back of a cop car with handcuffs, but instead they loaded her up on a stretcher and took her to a hospital. I guessed Neil choking her unconscious meant she couldn’t be taken straight to jail. Damn.
As soon as the police sirens had sounded, the entire staff and crew flooded to the back parking lot to see what happened, pouring out of the emergency exit doors just in time to watch the police pull the unconscious girl from the tour bus. Deena had been frantic, wanting to know just what in the hell was going on, but the police made everyone stand back. Kell and the others had waited behind a line of police tape, looking worried and distraught.
After I had given my statement from the back of the ambulance, I told the police they were my friends. They crowded around me as soon as they were allowed in, forming a protective circle. Their expressions ranged from anger to concern to disbelief.
“How did she even get in?” Deena asked for the tenth time. “Why didn’t someone realize she wasn’t a staff member?”
“I want to know how she got the gun,” Kell growled. “Aren’t crazy people banned from owning weapons?” Kell was pissed, taking it personally that someone had threatened his friends.
“You sure you’re okay?” Morris asked quietly.
“I’m fine.” I gave him a small smile. “It was scary, yeah, but everything turned out okay.”
Ren put a protective arm around my shoulder and gave me a squeeze.
Jayce and Neil were both still talking with the police. For some reason, the paramedics didn’t think they needed to be coddled and treated like they were glass. I scowled at the double standard and shrugged my blanket off.
“Don’t get up yet,” Ren said, alarmed.
“Stay here for a little while longer,” Kell wheedled. “Let us mother-hen you a bit, okay?”
I grumbled but allowed Ren to pull the blanket back over my shoulders. “I just want to get back to the hotel room and get a good night’s sleep.”
It was a lie, really. I was buzzing with nerves and couldn’t stop fidgeting, a bundle of energy unable to sit still. The adrenaline, most likely.
“Jayce!”
Kell called out the guitarist’s name as he approached, finished giving his statement. He took his place in the circle of people hovering over me. Morris gave him a slap on the shoulder and Ren gave him a one-armed half-hug. Kell pulled Jayce in for a tight squeeze and thumped him on the back several times before letting go.
“Don’t youeverscare me like that again,” Kell admonished.
