Fade to Red

Roxie giggled and then cringed. She wanted to yank her throat out for a while and put it back when it stopped tormenting her.

“Do that, please. I’ll feel better if I know you’re comfortable,” she said. “And take a nap. You all three have dark circles. Please. Go rest. I’m already sleepy again.” She looked up at Beckham, who was gazing at her as if she was the only woman he’d ever seen before.

His eyes filled as he stared at her. “I never want to come close to losing you again. Ever, Roxie.”

“I’m here,” she said. “I’m not going anywhere.”

He kissed her hand. “When you’re out of this hospital, you know I’m not letting you out of my sight, right?”

Roxie made a face. “This doesn’t give you permission to be any bossier than you already are.”

“You’ve always been the boss of me and you know it,” he whispered.

Her parents laughed. Her dad stood up and looked at her mom and Beckham. “I’ll just step out and check with the doctor on call to see when they’re taking her down for tests.” He looked at Roxie. “Maybe I can go grab something besides hospital food for you?”

She shook her head. “Everything sounds too hard to swallow.”

“Hospital soup it is, then.”

Her dad came in with the new nurse on shift a few minutes later.

“Sounds like,” he looked at the nurse’s name tag, “Claire here has the paperwork, so you’re going down to radiology with her.”

Her mom and dad patted her shoulder and Beckham put both hands on her cheeks.

“I’ll be back before you are,” he said.

She nodded and smiled up at him. Claire stood next to the bed and they both watched Beckham walk out of the room until the door shut behind him.

“You are one lucky woman,” she sighed. “He is so hot. Anyway, I’m not telling you anything you don’t know,” she took a breath, “but seriously, he’s always been on my list of free passes. My husband would die if he knew I actually met him because, you know, that list is supposed to be so hypothetical. You know, the list?” She looked at Roxie and her eyes got huge. She gulped. “That just came out. Not something I should be telling the girlfriend, right? Right. Okay. So. I have to get a wheelchair and we’ll be set.” She paused for a quick breath. “We didn’t have any on the floor just as I was coming to get you.” She backed out.

Roxie leaned her head back. “Thank you,” she whispered.

She’d dozed off when she heard a creaking wheelchair. The room was even darker than it had been before. Roxie groggily sat up but felt so limp she relied on help getting into the chair. Something was said as a cool cloth was placed over her eyes, but they sounded so far away. Her eyes still burned, so she held the cloth in place as they rolled down the hall. They got in an elevator and Roxie’s head jerked back as she dozed off.

Disoriented, she tried to hold up her head, but it felt like a bowling ball. Everything was blurry. The cloth was placed over her eyes again and held down.

“I don’t feel right,” she slurred.

A muffled voice responded, but she couldn’t hold onto consciousness long enough to hear it.

Ian had crawled into the bed at some point in the night. It smelled musty, but he didn’t care. He felt like he’d been out for days, but surely not. He’d be hungrier if it had been that long. He finally thought to look at his watch. 2:01 a.m.

He couldn’t stand to think of Sparrow worrying. She’d be frantic by now. She knew he’d made big plans for their a

In one of the other rooms, someone was making a racket. He wondered if it was Coco or if she had help. Maybe she was angry or didn’t want him to sleep. He sat up in the bed and swallowed away the nausea. Not many musicians could brag about concussions. From a stalker. It probably didn’t count since she wasn’t even stalking him. He’d just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. She wanted Beckham, which meant Ian’s chances were slim.

He was about to get up and look around when the noise stopped. He heard steps coming toward his room and waited. Coco burst through the door and turned on the light. She looked manic.

“Tonight backfired,” she said, pacing near the bed. “Literally. I should have done it at least an hour later, but I was too wired to wait. The placement was perfect—close to the guards, so they couldn’t save the bitch. And the bomb worked just as I hoped, but it was so loud the owner came outside and hosed it down before the fire could even burn much of the cottage!”

She talked faster and faster, while his panic grew.

“Whose cottage, Coco?”

She looked at him and frowned, shaking her head back and forth. “I just have to get a new plan,” she said. “It’ll be okay. I’ll do better next time.”

“What did you do? Why don’t you sit down and tell me about it?” he asked.

She sat on the floor for a second but quickly jumped up and kept walking. “I can’t sit still right now.” She shook her head faster.

“That’s okay. Just tell me when you can.”

She nodded. “Okay.”

Her eye twitched and she rubbed her face. Her hands shook.

“I-I can’t tell you,” she said. “I have to kill you soon.”

“All the more reason to tell me,” he said. “You know that saying, I can’t tell you or else I’d have to kill you? You may as well tell me since you’re already pla

“Are you making fun of me?” she yelled.

“No! Not at all. I promise.”

Her face softened. “Okay.”

“Have a lot of people made fun of you?”

“Always,” she said. “But not Beckham. He knows I’m just shy. And you don’t either. You’re nice to me.”

“Has anyone made fun of you on the tour?” Ian asked, frowning.

“School,” she corrected. “I get made fun of at school.”

“Oh yeah. What year are you?”

“Sophomore.”

“How old are you?” He thought she was probably in her late twenties.

“Fifteen.”

Holy mother. She was all over the place. No way she was anything close to fifteen.

“Do you know Roxie?” he asked.

Her face darkened. “I tried to kill her tonight and she survived. How does someone survive a bomb like that?”

His pulse quickened. Roxie was okay. Oh God. He was scared to mention Sparrow. She didn’t seem to be on Coco’s radar, but he had to know.

“Were you able to get rid of my car?” he asked.

“Oh yeah. I pushed it off a cliff not too far from Beckham’s house. I stayed until it went underwater.” She held up her hand. “You’ll be glad to know this didn’t go to waste.” Sparrow’s new ring was on her finger.

Rage hit him so hard his body physically burned. The knot in his chest grew and he swallowed hard before he spoke again. He knew he was walking a tightrope.

“Smart. You’re staying a step ahead. I can’t believe you were able to drag me to this place. I’m a heavy bastard.” He struggled to keep his tone light.

She smiled. “I’ve had a lot of time to work on this. You have to be prepared for every scenario. Surprises. You were a surprise, Ian.”

He took a deep breath. She was so fuckin’ creepy. Flippin’. Flippin’ creepy. Sparrow and her crazy penchant for words had played through his head for years now. Even now she wrecked him from cussing properly. If he made it out of here alive they’d have a good laugh about that.

“Do you have family nearby? Do they know you love Beckham?”

Her smile curled and her expression turned in an instant. “No. They didn’t understand. They never understood.”

“Sometimes family doesn’t,” he agreed.