Take Me to Paradise (Sinners on Tour 6.5)

Kev covered his bleeding lip with one hand. “I didn’t know.” He glanced down at his blood-streaked fingers. “Oh my God, Brian Sinclair punched me in the mouth. The guys back home are never going to believe this.”

He actually sounded proud of his split lip.

“Why would Jeremy want pictures of us together?” Myrna asked, but she knew the answer. Jeremy was still fixated on her. He still thought she belonged to him. He wanted proof that she was the whore he claimed her to be. It wouldn’t matter to Jeremy that she was married to Brian—she was fucking someone else, which in his twisted mind meant she was cheating on him. Jeremy had falsely accused her of infidelity for the majority of their marriage. He’d been obsessed with the idea, always trying to catch her at it, looking for proof of her whorish adultery. He’d never managed to get proof because she hadn’t cheated on him. However, the way Jeremy’s mind worked, he probably thought these pictures validated his suspicions.

“We need to call the States and see if anything can be done about Jeremy getting those pictures,” Brian said.

“So sorry about this,” Kev said to Brian. “I really do idolize you.”

Brian continued to speak to Myrna, his hand gentle and soothing against the tension in the back of her neck. “First we’re calling the hotel manager to have this fucking asshole thrown off the property. I don’t know if there are laws against spying in this country, but if there are, we’re pressing charges.”

“But I’m supposed to get married in two days,” Kev said.

“You should have thought about that before you invaded our privacy,” Brian said.

“Gail is so going to kill me for getting caught.”

Brian urged Myrna back inside and had her sit in a chair while he figured out who to call and how to deal with both situations. She was too shaken to be any help. It was more than fear of Jeremy that had her rattled—she felt completely violated. Now she knew Jeremy didn’t have to be standing over her with clenched fists, yelling angry words to make her feel that way. He could pay other people to make her feel as if no part of her life—or even her own body—truly belonged to her.

She wasn’t sure how much time had passed before Brian urged her to her feet and then sat in her vacated chair so he could hold her in his lap. He didn’t say anything at first, merely stroked her hair and placed consoling kisses at her temple and cheek. He soothed her as well as he excited her, and soon most of the tension had faded from her muscles. She actually felt like she could function again. Like she didn’t have to lock herself inside her own mind to get through this latest upset in her life. Brian did that for her. No one else had ever been able to reach her the way he could with just a touch.

“Jeremy is out of jail on house arrest again,” Brian said.

Well, that would explain how Jeremy had Internet access. Prisoners had access to multiple amenities while in jail, but the Internet wasn’t one of them.

“We both know how well that went last time,” she said.

“His parole officer was not pleased to learn that he attempted to have contact with you, even if it was indirect. So he’s petitioning for a warrant for Jeremy’s arrest.”

“Are they going to keep him locked up this time?”

“That’s for the judge to decide. Jeremy didn’t contact you directly, so I’m not sure he broke any laws. But it sure feels like he did something illegal.”

She shivered and buried her face in Brian’s neck.

“I don’t want to leave you in Kansas City alone,” he said. “Come on tour with me.”

“I can’t,” she said. Turning him down had less to do with her job responsibilities and more to do with proving to herself that Jeremy could not make her live in fear for the rest of her life. “I’ll be safe. I had that new peephole installed in my apartment door. Remember?”

“Then I’m staying with you. The tour has already been delayed; we’ll just cancel it for the rest of the year.”

Myrna pressed a hand against his chest so she could pull away enough to stare him in the eye. “You’re not doing that. Your fans would be devastated.”

He captured her face between his palms. “Imagine how devastated I would be if anything happened to you.”

“I lived in fear of him for years, Brian. I can’t do it again. I won’t let him dictate any aspect of my life. If it will make you feel better, I’ll get an alarm system. I’ll take more self-defense classes. I’ll carry a weapon. But I will not let him terrorize me.”

“I understand what you’re saying, baby, but you need to understand what I’m saying. I have to keep you safe. There’s no compromise in me on this one.”

She’d never had anyone care about her so much. And she almost gave in. Almost agreed to pack her bags and go with him on tour or lock herself in a fortress. But to her, that would mean that Jeremy had won, and she would not let him win this. “I’ll be safe.” She kissed him passionately on the lips. She tucked her hair behind her ears and glanced around the room, still feeling a bit disoriented, but much less traumatized now that Brian’s attention had turned to her.

“What happened to Kev?” she asked. The creep was no longer in their room. She had a vague recollection of some security guards coming to collect him a while ago, but she’d been so withdrawn into her own head that everything that had happened in the last hour seemed surreal. She wasn’t sure why she went into such a state whenever she found herself deeply rattled. She couldn’t remember ever trying to block out reality by receding into her own mind until Jeremy’s abuse had become unbearable. She hated that he still had so much impact on her life. That so many of her emotional responses were still dictated by the bastard. She was grateful that Brian’s presence could bring her back out of her head space so easily. What would she do without him?

She didn’t even want to think about the possibility.

“They took him and Gail down to the police station for questioning. And they’ve both been banned from this hotel property for life. I’m pretty sure their wedding had to be cancelled, and I don’t feel the least bit sorry for either of them. Are you trying to change the subject?” he asked. “Jeremy—”

She lifted a hand to silence his next words.

“I don’t want to talk about Jeremy or even think about him. I don’t want him to intrude upon our honeymoon any more than he already has.”

“Yeah, that’s a great idea, but how the hell do we pull it off?”

She wrapped both arms around his neck and touched her nose to his. “Take me to paradise.”

Chapter Ten

Brian almost shit his pants when he saw the paint job on the new tour bus. Their old bus—the one that had been destroyed in the accident—had been a nondescript black with a wide gray stripe. Any regular schmo could have been riding inside that bus. This one was jet black with the Sinners logo painted boldly on the side in red. The devil girl whose tail made up the final S in Sinners was taller than he was. After the crap that he and Myrna had dealt with due to his notoriety, he sure as hell didn’t want everyone with working eyeballs to know that he was on this particular bus.

He hadn’t wanted to leave Myrna in Kansas City by herself. Even though Jeremy had been incarcerated again, Brian had Jeremy’s parole officer and the Kansas City PD on speed dial, Myrna’s apartment was now fitted with the best security system money could buy, and she promised to carry a Taser concealed in her right pocket and pepper spray on her key fob, he would never feel that she was entirely safe. Unfortunately, she had refused his idea of locking her in a tower

surrounded by a moat filled with man-eating crocodiles and hungry piranhas. So he was back on tour—begrudgingly—and she was in Kansas City alone. At least the rest of their honeymoon had been uneventful. Comparatively. They had gone skydiving and parasailing, walked miles and miles of beaches, taken a few snorkeling adventures, and drunk watery beer at a brewery. But compared to those first two days on the island, those regular tourist activities had been totally—blissfully—uneventful.

Still annoyed by the giant logo on the side of the bus, Brian stomped up the steps ready to have it out with his entire band. His stomach churned at the sight of the new color scheme. Everything was either black or red. From the appliances to the curtains to the furniture to the fucking carpet. “What in the hell?” He rubbed his face with one hand, hoping he was seeing things.

“Brian!” Trey rushed down the aisle to give him a bro-hug and pound him on the back. “When did you get back? Did you forget sunscreen? How was your flight? Where is your luggage? Did you have fun in Aruba?”

Brian chuckled at the barrage of questions but only answered the last one. “Of course. I was with Myrna.” He’d probably tell Trey about the creepy fan and Myrna’s fucked up ex-husband later, but he sure as hell didn’t want to spill his guts in front of everyone. “Why is our logo painted all huge on the outside of the fucking bus?”