Page 35 of Rock Me

I squeeze her shoulder.“Run the video.”

The woman orders a drink, and sure enough, the bartender passes her a glass of red wine.

“I don’t recognize her,” the manager, who is also watching carefully, says.“She’s not one of ours.”

“Yet she walked to the side of the bar, picked up a serving tray, and mingled through the crowd, into the roped-off area, and handed Summer a drink,” I say through clenched teeth.

The woman then turns away from the bar, unknowingly facing the camera as she eases her hand into her apron pocket and slips something into Summer’s drink.No Tawny or evidence of who paid the woman to drug Summer.

“Fuck!”I turn angrily toward the manager.“Well?”

“What can I say?”Red-faced, the man straightens his shoulders in self-defense.“The place is a zoo on a good night.I wasn’t given a heads-up to tighten security.”

“Make sure the police get a copy,” I instruct the man.

But that isn’t enough.I intend to make sure Jade Glow’s agency takes this situation more seriously.We need to hire someone to figure out who is after Summer and why.My job, my sole priority, is to get Summer to a safe location and keep her there.

***

Summer

Back in theroom, I can’t relax.I pace the floor while Ben speaks to his boss, demanding they put someone on Tawny’s tail and bill it to the people covering my protection.Threats are one thing, he says.Escalating is something else, andshe could have fucking died thanks to an overdose.He is furious and angry on my behalf, but his words merely drive home everything that happened tonight.

Shaking, I leave him on the phone and head for the bedroom area, unnerved by the fact that someone tried to drug me.Scared about how close I came to drinking the poison.During the night’s investigation, I sat in silence, feeling dizzy.I thought.

But I didn’t say anything because I assumed I was just reacting to the power of suggestion and fear.I really took such a small sip, I finally accepted the fact that I was going to be fine, which left me time to think.About those moments after Ben saved me from drinking the alcohol and while he was trying to find out whether I was drugged.

I sat in the security room, Ben’s sole focus on the screens in front of him, and one painful fact was driven home to me—I am alone.My best friend can’t give up her career to follow me around, and my parents abandoned me, hurt feelings more important than family ties.In my career-driven life, I never had time to make a group of friends, and in my profession, people are more competitors like Tawny than gal pals.At least the people I’ve met so far.And Ben is pretty sure at this point Tawny is involved, which makes me sick to my stomach.

I hear Ben’s voice from the other room as he talks on the phone.And what about Ben?He is my bodyguard… for now.My protector.But he’ll be gone when his assignment ends.With a lump in my throat, I wash up and finally climb into bed, my heart still racing inside my chest, fear mixed with raw pain.

He comes in soon after, climbing in beside me.I hadn’t realized how many emotions I was holding in until he pulls me into his arms and I burst into tears.

“Hey.Everything’s going to be fine,” he says, pulling me close and running a hand over the back of my hair.

I take a shuddering breath, grateful for his strength and support.“I know.I just…”

“Talk to me.You’ve been through a lot in a short time.You’ve got the stress of the competition, the performances, someone sabotaged your dressing area, now you were almost drugged.”

“Explain why someone would want to do this to me?Even Tawny.That drug could have done serious damage, and for what?A leg up on me?What was she thinking?”

“At the very least, you would have acted without inhibitions.Maybe she was hoping to catch you on camera doing something outrageous.Something that would get you kicked out of the running to open for Jade.She’s certainly played that card before.”

I swallow hard.“God, I hate to admit it, but that makes sense, especially if the tape went viral, like the one did back onStar Power.”

“There’s something else that’s been bugging me,” Ben says.

“What’s that?”

“Michael Gold.He’s always around, quietly in the background.My gut churns when he’s in the area.”

I think about his words, weighing possibilities in my mind.“I’m all for looking into every angle, and he is in Camp Tawny… but he’s a professional.”

Ben shrugs.“I’m not discounting him.I’ll have Dan add him to the list of people to look into.”

“Okay.”

“Areyou?Okay?”He strokes my arm in a soothing motion.“Like I said, it’s been a lot for you to handle.”