Page 117 of Hayden's Stalker

“How would they know you broke your drumsticks?” Tati asks in a worried voice.

Her question breaks through my concern, and I turn to grin at her. “Everyone knows I break drumsticks. I’m surprised you haven’t noticed.”

“I mean, I guess I’ve seen you do it once or twice?”

I raise an eyebrow at her. “You reallydon’tpay any attention to me during the concerts, do you?”

“I pay attention to what I need to pay attention to, which is not you.”

It’s happened at least four times while she’s been nearby just on this tour. Most recently was at our last concert, and Tati was only a few feet away, so I can’t resist teasing her about that.

“Well, I’m very sad that you don’t pay attention to me,” I say with a fake pout at her.

“Don’t be. You’re alive, aren’t you?”

“Is life worth living if you’re not paying attention to me, Tati?” I give her a mischievous 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.”

I wish she’d pay a hell of a lot more attention to me, though, and I’m about to say that when the dressing room door opens. Jesse walks in, followed by Tanya, and it reminds me of the gift I’ve been sent.

“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 frowns at him. “Which two roadies?”

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

Daniel.

I’ve noticed him and Tati with their growing friendship. More importantly, I see the way he looks at her, and it makes me a swirling mix of jealous and envious every time. I want to be him, with his freedom to be with Tati and no stalker in his life. I keep waiting for him to make a move on her, and I can’t tell if she’s interested or not, despite her admission that she doesn’t think about him the way she thinks about me.

“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—”

My frustration at the way I get shut out of everything to do with my stalker bubbles up to the surface, and I cut Jesse off. “No. I want to come talk to them with you.”

She looks at me and shakes her head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

I frown at her because I’m fucking over this whole stalker shit and being treated like I’m a child, instead of a grown man who is capable of being told what is happening. Especially sinceI’mthe one it’s happening to.

“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 glances at Jesse, who looks uncomfortable and shrugs at her before she looks back at me. I meet her gaze with a defiant one of my own. This is the hill I’m willing to die on. I can’t keep being kept in the dark about this shit. Not when there’s someone out there who wants to hurt me.

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

Relief floods through me because I didn’t really want to have to argue with her about it. We set off to find the roadies, finding Anthony first.

“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,” he answers when Tati asks him about my gifts. “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 cringes and shakes 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 smiles at him as he nods, and we walk away to try and find Daniel. I can’t pretend that being kept in the dark is the only reason I wanted to come with her. I want to see what their conversation is like. Hot jealousy courses through me as he smiles brightly at Tati when we find him on the way to the crew bus with two other roadies.

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