“Look, something’s wrong.”
“Liam, just accept it. She left.”
“No, I won’t bloody accept it! Matt, call security, maybe they have surveillance video?”
“Yes, boss,” Matt said, walking away as he made the call.
“Liam, this is absurd. What are you hoping to accomplish here?” Ian asked.
“Are you bloody mad? I’m hoping to find Catherine, you prick!”
“Big D!” I said, turning to him in anger. “You should have been watching her!”
“I was watching you, Liam - I’m supposed to protect the band!”
“Don’t be such an ass! Go look for her - now!”
“Yes, boss,” he said, sauntering down the hall.
“Calm down,” Ian said, putting a hand on my arm. “What could have possibly happened to her? Everyone was watching the show. She probably didn’t want a big goodbye.”
“We weren’t saying goodbye, dammit!” If I wasn’t so worried about Catherine, I would have punched Ian right then. He was infuriating me, suggesting she’d just walked away. She wouldn’t have done that.
Or would she? A creeping doubt began chipping away at me, and I tried to push it away. I was an arrogant prick, after all. Maybe I was fooling myself thinking she might want something from me besides a quick fuck? Had she done it all for the story?
I didn’t want to believe it. Fuck, I couldn’t believe it.
“Boss, they say they don’t have surveillance cameras in the dressing room,” Matt walked back up. “They do monitor the hallways, though. They’re going to check them and call us back. I gave them a description of Catherine.”
“Thank you,” I said, walking back into my dressing room. “Tell them to hurry the fuck up!”
I needed to look for her myself, I’d decided. I opened up my closet to find a shirt to wear, and saw her purse hanging there. My heart dropped. I opened it up, and saw her phone lying there, displaying two missed phone calls - one from me and one from her agency.
She hadn’t left me, after all. She’d never have left her purse behind if she’d planned to bail on me. Which meant she was just off somewhere wandering around the venue. Maybe she was still out lingering in the crowd or something.
I sighed a huge sigh of relief.
“Her purse is here,” I said, pulling on my shirt as I walked back into the hallway. Everyone was milling about, whispering to each other. I scanned their faces, and realized they were all looking at me with pity.
“She didn’t fucking leave me, you bastards! She’s probably just out in the crowd somewhere!” I turned and walked down the hallway.
“Where are you going?” Ian asked.
“To find her!”
“The crowd will tear you apart, Liam, you can’t go out there unprotected!”
“Watch me!”
Chapter 37
CATHERINE
“You have a key to his house?” I asked, as Callum opened the door. He walked over to the alarm and punched in the code.
“I stayed here for a little while when I first moved to LA to run the charity,” he replied. He was nervous; the hand holding the gun he had pointed at me again was shaking. I looked around for a way out, something to hit him with, anything at all. Unfortunately, Liam house was decorated in such a minimalistic way, there wasn’t much around at all. If I could get to the kitchen, maybe I could find a knife, though.
“Callum, I’m sure if you just explained to Liam that there was a mix up with the numbers…” I began.
“There wasn’t a mix up. I stole it. All of it. I stole millions from him, because he deserved it, but that isn’t what this is about.”
“You didn’t steal the money from Liam, you stole it from all those kids with cancer,” I replied. Bad idea. He pushed me against the wall, and pressed the gun to my temple. Pain screamed through my head as he pressed into my flesh.
“I’ve heard enough from you, bitch. Now, shut the fuck up or I won’t wait till Liam gets here to kill you. I’m sure seeing your pretty little brains splattered all over his floor will be enough to do the trick.”
I nodded silently and willed myself not to cry. I needed to keep my wits about me, stay calm, look for a way out.
Callum’s eyes were wild and angry, his words spitting out of his mouth furiously, as he pulled me to the kitchen and sat me in a chair. He grabbed some extension cords out of a nearby closet, and began tying me to the chair.
“Liam’s a monster,” he spat. “He threw my sister away like a piece of bad meat. As if she wasn’t even a real person, with real feelings. She loved that bastard, and he just turned his back on her at the first mention of money and fame,” he tightened the knots on my wrists, the cords cutting into my flesh painfully. “And then, when she died, he still didn’t even acknowledge she existed. All the years, all the interviews, all the chances he blew to memorialize Ally. He could have at least honored her memory.”
“But he didn’t,” he continued. “Not once. Not one fucking word. And then what does he do? He asks me to give away the millions of dollars he earned by fucking her over to some sick kids. What about me? What about my family? What about our pain? Our suffering?”
He finished tying me up and he stood back to inspect his work.
“Callum, I don’t think —,” I began once again to try to talk him out of this.
“Shut up!” he said, disappearing behind me. When I heard the distinct sound of duct tape ripping, my heart sank.
“Callum, please don’t —,” my words died as he slapped the tape over my mouth. I struggled against the cords, shaking my head, pleading with him with my eyes.
“Too bad you got mixed up with him,” he said, staring down at me. “You’re a pretty lady. You probably don’t deserve this, but how stupid are you to get mixed up with a bastard like him?”
He began pacing around the kitchen, looking at his watch.
“You know, he’s fucked thousands of women. You’re the first one he’s ever had over to his house. You’re the first one he’s ever looked at that way since Ally.”
“You must have some really good pussy,” he said, towering over me. Fear gripped my heart, and I realized exactly how helpless I was. Up till now, I’d hoped I could talk my way out of it, but now that I couldn’t speak, or move, I knew exactly how fucked I was.
Liam was my only chance, and he didn’t even know where I was. He must be worried sick about me by now, I thought.
Callum reached down and pushed the hair from my face, his eyes narrowed as he looked at me.
“You know, I’d fuck you myself, if you weren’t so tainted from fucking Liam.”
I groaned, attempting to beg him again with my eyes. He obviously was not swayed, because he walked away, leaving me alone in the kitchen, alone with my thoughts, alone with my fear.
Chapter 38
LIAM
As soon as I walked out into the crowd lingering around the merch booth, I knew it was a mistake. Dozens of fans surrounded me, asking for autographs, trying to shake my hand. I pushed through them, my eyes scanning the crowd for Catherine, as a huge circle of people formed around me.
“Catherine!” I yelled, over and over again, ignoring the fans. She was nowhere in sight, and within seconds, I was surrounded by so many people I couldn’t get through them. Someone began pulling on my shirt, and I heard it rip as I tried to pull away. “Get off of me!” I yelled, barreling through them. They parted and then closed around me again.
“Please sign this, Liam!” Someone pushed an album in my face, and I pushed it away.
“I love you, Liam!” A woman threw her arms around my neck, and I pulled her off of me, trying to work my way through the crowd.
“Liam! Liam! Liam!” they chanted.
“Alright, that’s enough, everyone back the fuck up!” Big D’s large frame busted through the crowd, and he grabbed my arm, pulling me away. I looked up at him thankfully.
“Any sign of Catherine?” I yelled, as he pushed through
the fans.
“Not yet,” he said.
“Did you hear from Matt yet?” I asked, hope clinging to my shaking voice.
“No, boss,” he said, as we finally cleared the last of the crowd. We walked behind the stage and back down the hallways that led to the dressing room.
“You’re fuckin’ crazy,” Ian said. “I told you not to go out there!”
“Fuck off! You’d have done the same thing if Rhone had gone missing!”
“Rhone? You’re comparing your fling to my marriage?”
“It’s not a bloody fling! I love her!” I yelled. There. I’d said it out loud. The words that had been churning in my head for days. I didn’t give a shit what anyone thought. It was true, and that was that. The shock on Ian’s face said it all.
“What?” he asked. “Love?”
“Piss off!” I said, pushing past him.
I walked into my dressing room and pulled Catherine’s purse out of the closet. Her phone was still there, and I pulled up her voice mail and listened to the message from her agent. I knew I was invading her privacy, but I was becoming frantic with fear and dread, and I was hoping for some indication of where she was.
“Catherine,” the female voice said. “I checked the rest of the numbers for Liam’s charity and nothing is adding up. I reconfirmed the numbers by calling each charity again and everyone is saying the haven’t received this money. I’m not sure what to tell you…but call me, and let me know how you want me to proceed.”
What the fuck? I thought. What was she talking about? My charity? Catherine hadn’t mentioned anything to me about it, but none of this made any sense.
I walked back out to talk to Ian about it, and just as I stepped into the hallway, my phone rang.