Tempting Perfection

“You’re right. It’s just hard to not want to grab my baseball bat and smash out their windows while I demand answers. I’m so angry and done with them.”

She hugged me. “I’m here for you. Get some rest. We’ll talk again when you’re ready.”

Quietly, Kurt and I walked back to my room. I paused. “Oh my gosh! My bedroom stuff!”

The whitewood bedroom set with mint green bedspread was a sight for sore eyes. He nuzzled my neck. “I figured since you had me in your bed every night, we didn’t need all the Reverence stuff surrounding us.”

“Whew…good thing. I was starting to dream of Sykes.”

Kurt chuckled and rolled his eyes. “You’re a funny one.”

I gave a tired chuckle. “A riot, for sure.”

Silently we stripped for bed, and I cuddled next to him. In my mind, I kept going over everything I’d learned, not wanting to believe it was true but knowing it was.

After a few minutes, Kurt asked, “How are you, really?”

“Hurt. Sad. Mad. Furious. Livid. Crushed. And every other descriptive emotion. But Knoah was right. They’ve been out of my life for so long…really, they were never plugged in. And now I have a family. Is it weird that I want answers, but it won’t matter what they say? I can’t ever have them back in my life. Ever.”

“No, not at all. I’m just not sure you’ll get the answers you want.”

Neither was I. And that probably bothered me the most.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Sawyer

I woke from a nap and lay still for a second as memories of the past twenty-four hours came back to me. Kurt was holding his phone and typing on it one-handed while the other arm remained securely around me. He paused to look at me. “Hey, sleepyhead. You sleep good?”

“Yeah. How long was I out?”

“A little over four hours.” Kurt shifted to stretch out his arm. “Oh fuck, my arm is numb.”

I sat up as he moved it back and forth, up and down, trying to re-establish circulation.

“Oh shit, the tingles. Those damn tingles are racing up my arm.”

As he kept flailing his arm about, he cursed more, and I couldn’t help but laugh. “You look ridiculous.”

George jumped on the bed, barking and creating a barrier between Kurt and me. Kurt stopped whipping his arm around. “It’s okay, buddy. He’s so protective of you.”

I gave George a pat. “I think he’s that way because he senses something. You’re a good boy, George. A good boy.”

After licking Kurt, he lay between us, remaining a living, breathing barrier. I pointed at Kurt, “Looks like you are officially on the watch list for crazy arm flailing.” We lapsed into silence as we petted George. “I saw you were texting. Any updates?”

Part of me wanted to pretend my world hadn’t been rocked to the core that afternoon. But I needed to face it, and keep facing it, if I wanted to move forward.

“The police are allowing Steve’s team to help gather evidence. They were able to hack into some of Jennifer’s accounts and found she was part of a morbid fan site.”

“Okay…What do you mean by ‘morbid’?”

Based on what I’d seen in the dressing room, I had an idea. I cradled my stomach, willing Dylan to kick. From his lack of movement, he was probably sleeping.

Kurt stretched his arm a little bit. Poor guy—those tingles when the feeling came back were awful. “One that takes their obsession with the band a little far. They plan their weddings to one of the members. Create a family photo album. It’s pretty sick.”

“Oh, shit.”

“Yeah, it was on our list to watch, but there are private chats we weren’t privy to. It seems Jennifer and another girl named Amanda Fisher were into some serious fantasy playing. Jennifer wanted Harlem, Amanda wanted me. They both have blonde hair with similar features, believe it or not. The security team is on their way to Amanda’s house now.”