Page 116 of The Stalker

“Is life worth living if you’re not paying attention to me, Tati?” he asked with a cheeky grin.

“Yes, it is. I pay far too much attention to you, anyway, just not during your concerts when it’s more important for me to pay attention to the people around you.”

Hayden didn’t get a chance to respond before the door to the dressing room opened and Jesse walked in, along with Tanya.

“One of the roadies got the gift from a security guard, but he couldn’t remember which one. It was mixed in with a bunch of gifts for the other guys and he took them to each dressing room along with another roadie.”

Tatiana frowned at him. “Which two roadies?”

“Anthony got the gifts from the security guard, and Daniel helped him deliver them.”

She cringed internally when she felt Hayden stiffen next to her at the mention of Daniel. She wished it had been any other roadie. She’d become good friends with Daniel, and he regularly brought her food and drinks during the soundchecks, so she didn’t have to leave her post. She hadn’t talked about him with Hayden again, but she felt awkward whenever he happened to see them together.

“Okay, I should probably talk to them before we get on the bus. Can you take Hayden and wait with him for me?”

“Sure, I can do—”

“No. I want to come talk to them with you,” Hayden interjected.

She looked at him and shook her head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

He frowned at her, his body tensed, and his anxiety was obvious to her as he said, “I’m tired of being shut out of this shit. Cooper hiding emails. You off talking to roadies about what they know. Me sitting in the bus like a good boy and waiting for the adults to handle everything, completely in the dark about what’s going on. I’m over it.”

Tatiana glanced at Jesse, who looked uncomfortable and shrugged at her, answering the unasked question of what she should do. She looked back at Hayden, who was still looking at her. She could see his point, and she knew that she would hate to be in his position if she were him.

She sighed heavily and said, “Fine. You can come with me, but Jesse needs to come too.”

Are you shitting me? Since when does Tatiana Swanson allow a client to dictate his movements to her? Make him go to the bus.

She ignored the fact that this was wildly unconventional for her as she led the way out of the dressing room. She pushed away the knowledge that her feelings for Hayden were causing her to make choices that she normally never would because she couldn’t stand him being upset in any way.

He’ll be a lot more upset if he dies. Well, you’ll be upset. He won’t be upset because he’ll be dead, Tatiana.

She ignored this depressing thought and nodded at Tanya as she told her that she’d let Tatiana know if she came up with any other information. Tatiana told her that she’d called Cooper, and he’d said to keep him in the loop. Then they left to talk to the roadies. They found Anthony first, and Tatiana asked him about the gifts.

“I got a whole bunch of gifts from security and Dan helped me carry them to the dressing rooms, then we split them into a pile for each band member. I took Hayden’s and Gabriel’s to their rooms, while Dan took Sebastian’s and Harrison’s to theirs.”

“Do you remember what the security guard looked like?”

Anthony cringed and shook his head. “Sorry. It was dark out there. It was a tall guy, pretty well-built with brown hair, I think. He had a whole stack of gifts and he caught my attention then asked me to take them away.”

“Thanks, Anthony. If you can remember anything else about it, let me know.”

She smiled at him as he nodded, and they walked away to try and find Daniel. He wasn’t anywhere backstage, but they eventually found him on his way to the crew bus with a couple of other roadies. He smiled brightly at her as she approached him.

“Hey, Tati. Hey, Hayden. Great show tonight.”

“Thanks,” Hayden said in a tight voice.

“Can we talk to you for a minute, Dan?” Tatiana asked him.

He turned to the other roadies and said, “I’ll catch up with you.” The roadies nodded and walked away toward the crew bus before he turned back to them. “What’s up?”

“The gifts you took to the dressing rooms with Anthony. What do you know about them?”

Daniel looked confused and said, “Um, he had a whole bunch of gifts for the guys, and I helped him take them to the rooms.”

“Did he tell you where he got them?”

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