Page 10 of Mysterious

God, I hate when she does that. I’m a grown woman, but as soon as I sense my mother placating me about anything, I turn into a pre-adolescent girl who wants to do nothing more than stomp her feet and have a temper tantrum.

“What did you come in for anyway?” I ask, tired of this dance the two of us do.

Suddenly, she looks guilty, like I caught her in the middle of doing something wrong. Looking away toward the sofa on the other side of the room, she says, “I just wanted to check that you were ready.”

“This isn’t my first rodeo, you know. I know I need to be ready, especially since Carl popped his head in a few minutes ago to say it was fifteen minutes until show time.”

“Good, good. Well, I’ll get out of your hair then. I just wanted to make sure you’ll be ready when security comes to take you out to the stage,” she says with her back toward me as she walks toward the door.

“I’ll be ready. In fact, please send Liam in now so I can talk to him before I have to go out there.”

My mother stops just as her hand lands on the doorknob, but she doesn’t say anything for a long moment, further irritating me. Why does she have to be so dramatic about everything? All she needs to do is say okay and then walk out. Why act like this is some scene in a damn movie?

Slowly, she turns around and gives me the fakest smile I’ve ever seen on her face. Even faker than the ones she used to put on when I acted up and everyone thought she was to blame since I was underage.

The type of smile that means she’s hiding something.

“About that.”

“About what? Just send Liam in and stop making this whole thing a melodrama with you as the lead actress, okay? I need to get prepared to go out on stage in less than ten minutes.”

“He’s not here.”

I’ve never been diagnosed with high blood pressure, but I swear at this moment I feel like the top of my head is about to blow off, spraying blood and brains all over this goddamned room. A headache instantly begins to throb at my temples, and my face feels like it’s suddenly ten degrees hotter than the rest of my body.

When I stand up, I can barely keep myself from falling over. “What do you mean he’s not here?”

“He wasn’t ready to protect you for tonight’s show. I knew it the second I saw him having one of his guys help him with that sling he has to wear. So tonight and tomorrow night, Michael will be your personal bodyguard and take you to the stage.”

“What the hell did you do?” I say, feeling the tears start to well in my eyes as I struggle to keep my emotions in check. “The first night of the tour and you pull this shit?”

She moves into hyperplacate mode like she always has when she’s fucked up and I dare to tell her I won’t stand for it. “Now don’t get upset, Mia. It’s only for a couple of shows. You should have seen him. He just can’t do the job like I know he wants to, so I told him I’d have someone else do it so he could rest. Liam knows his men are right here for you. That’s why he was perfectly fine with it.”

I can’t control my emotions anymore and scream, “Get out! Get out now! Leave me alone!”

My outburst startles her and she quickly hurries out of the room like some guilty thing who knows if she doesn’t get the hell out of my sight at this very moment that she risks me really blowing up on her. I collapse back down onto the chair and look around for some explanation how this could have happened after I explicitly told her I didn’t want her to replace Liam with Michael.

Oh, God. Liam isn’t here. I can’t do this knowing he’s miles away back at the house. How could he just let me come here without being by my side?

CHAPTERSIX

Mia

Quickly,I scramble to find my cell phone. I need to talk to him. I need to understand how he could let her do this. He knows how much I rely on him to be around me to feel safe.

He answers with his usual hello that sounds so casual that I want to scream. How can he be so calm at a moment like this? After all his lectures on how important my security should be to me and how it used to be practically Swiss cheese with all the holes in what Michael used to do for me, the first time I truly expected to have him in charge and he’s back at the estate in bed watching some nature show?

“Liam, why aren’t you here?” I ask, practically sobbing.

“Mia, what’s wrong? Aren’t you supposed to be going on in like three minutes?”

“Why aren’t you here? My mother told me she replaced you. You’re okay with that? Tonight, of all nights, you’re okay with me being with lame security?”

“You don’t have lame security,” he says and then chuckles like any of this is fucking funny. “My guys are there, so trust me, there’s nothing lame about your protection. Trust me.”

I stand up to pace as the realization that my mother lied to him about everything concerning this show tonight. My legs feel like they’re going to give out, but I can’t sit down because I swear I’m going to explode at any moment.

“Your guys aren’t handling my security tonight. My mother brought Michael back to replace you. She told me she wanted to do that the other day, but I flatly refused to agree to it. She knew I needed you here tonight, and still she went behind my back and brought Michael back. He’s the one in charge, not your guys, Liam.”

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