Page 182 of The Stalker

26

The Statement

It was earlyin the evening when they reached the big building with the limestone facade on University Heights Boulevard. Hayden was escorted to a medical room with a doctor from the FBI, who checked him over and took some blood tests. Tatiana was allowed to go with him after Hayden insisted that he didn’t want to be separated from her. She was horrified when she saw bruising across his torso, anger at Sarah and Daniel flooding through her, as well as guilt that she hadn’t been able to keep him safe.

When he was given the all-clear by the doctor, Special Agent McGuire told him to follow her to give his statement and added, “Miss Swanson, you might as well come with us.”

Tatiana nodded at her, grateful that she didn’t have to fight in any way to stay with Hayden at this point, even though she would have if she’d had to.

They were taken into a polished conference room where they sat on plush chairs at the table, and Special Agent McGuire sat across from them. Tatiana’s back was to the door, and it made her uncomfortable, but she was hardly in a position to insist they move seats. Her arm and hand were both linked with Hayden’s; his presence, the warmth of his skin touching her, and his scent all combined to provide a soothing balm for her frayed nerves.

“Okay, Mr. Vega, can you run us through your version of the events?” Special Agent McGuire said.

“Sure. I guess you want me to start from when I was taken?”

The FBI agent nodded. “Yes, please. If you can tell us everything you remember in as much detail as you can from the soundcheck through to your version of this afternoon’s events, we would appreciate that.”

“Okay,” he agreed. “Well, when I came offstage, Daniel was there, and he told me that Tatiana was sick. He seemed really worried and said she was asking for me, so we needed to go quickly. I followed him to my dressing room, and as soon as I got inside, I saw Tatiana passed out on the sofa.”

Hayden’s expression dropped into a deep frown and he looked upset as he recalled her being unconscious.

“I rushed over to her, and as soon as I got there, I was so worried about her. I felt a stabbing pain in my neck and everything went black. Daniel told me that they used some drug, I forget what he called it. Anyway, I woke up in a big box and I could hear the sound of a car moving, but I had no idea where I was at the time. Both my arms and legs were tied up. My phone and watch were already gone, so I knew that nobody could track me and I started to panic, kicking at the box to try and get out.”

Tatiana could see it in her head like a movie, and she longed to hold Hayden, hating herself for letting this happen to him, even though she knew it wasn’t really her fault that it had.

“What was the box?” Derek asked from where he sat, at a slight diagonal to them.

Tatiana thought that the fact he’d been allowed to sit in on this meeting was probably a good sign for his career.

“It was one of our equipment boxes from backstage. Apparently, Daniel shoved me into it and wheeled me out of the backstage area into a van without anyone asking a single question.”

Tatiana groaned softly and Hayden squeezed her hand. Nobody would question a roadie moving equipment boxes around backstage. It wouldn’t warrant a second thought from anyone, especially when they didn’t know that Hayden was missing. The level of detail that Sarah and Daniel had gone to in planning this out was terrifying.

“We drove for ages, and finally we stopped. Daniel opened the box and pointed a gun at me before telling me to get out and go inside with him.” Hayden’s jaw tightened, and he took a deep breath before continuing. “It was really hard to get out because I was tied up and there wasn’t a lot of room between the top of the box and the van. I eventually managed it after he untied my legs. He took me inside and tied me to a bed in one of the bedrooms. I kept asking him why he was doing this, but he wouldn’t tell me, and then he left the room. Sarah showed up about an hour later.”

Hayden shuddered when he said her name, and Tatiana squeezed his hand. He looked over at her with a worried expression on his face, but when he saw her, he took a deep breath before turning back to the federal agents in front of him and continuing his story.

“She thought that I would recognize her, but I didn’t, and that made her angry.” Hayden lifted his right hand to the cut on his cheek and Tatiana’s blood boiled at the thought of anyone hurting him. “She punched me, and the ring on her finger sliced my cheek pretty badly. As soon as she saw the blood, it was like a switch flipped and she got really concerned. It was so weird and disturbing how quickly she changed. Anyway, she got Daniel to get a first aid kit to clean the cut.”

He continued his story, with the agents in front of him taking notes despite the fact their meeting was being recorded.

“So, apparently, we met her during our Cards Have Been Dealt tour one night when we went out to play pool. She starts going on about how from the moment we met, she just knew that we were meant to be together. She raged about Ariana and how she’d ruined our opportunity to be together that night, but that she’d known that we were meant to be—”

Hayden’s voice cut out, and he inhaled a slow breath, then said, “Sorry. I just—this bit is really hard.”

“Take your time, Mr. Vega,” Special Agent McGuire said kindly. “Do you need a minute?”

He inhaled deeply again and then shook his head before picking up a glass of water from in front of him and taking a sip as Tatiana squeezed his hand again.

“So, apparently, she tried to meet me several times but failed. Then she heard that we were going to be at a charity function at a hotel in Los Angeles on Halloween. This woman is psychotic. She faked paperwork to get a job there and spent months convincing the hotel manager that they should drug us to get a scandal because the pictures would be worth a fortune. She told me proudly how she managed to get them to do it and have them think it was their idea so she wasn’t even involved.”

Special Agent McGuire frowned at him. “To what end did she want them to drug your band?”

“So that when I was high on GHB, she could have sex with me, and it would be the start of our beautiful love story.”

His words left a shocked silence in the room and nausea rolled over Tatiana as she gasped, “She wanted to rape you?!”

Hayden turned to look at her and nodded with a sad look on his face. “Yes, she did. In her mind, the sex would be so good that I would fall madly in love with her. Everything that happened was my fault.”

---