Page 41 of Save Her from Me

My phone was in my hand, the browser one click away.

Fuck it.

A whole raft of heartbreaking headlines filled my screen, and my plan to be friends took a new angle again.

Chapter 13

Jackson

My phone buzzed in my pocket, but I couldn’t answer. We were here, and it was game time.

I needed to get my head out of steamy scenes with Ariel and onto the crowd ahead.

The Edinburgh studio had flaws in its planning. First, the PR team leaked who they were recording ahead of the show being aired the same evening, meaning fans knew to show up that day to haunt the steps. Second, even at the rear entrance, the celebrity had to climb out of the car and walk down a path and up two flights of steps to access the nineteen twenties building, only metal barriers holding back the crowd.

And Leo’s fans were legion.

I’d read up on his career in preparing for the role. Leo had gone from being a jobbing musician, playing festivals and building a following, to selling out stadiums. He’d released five albums in the past decade and each broke more records, especially after he’d revealed how his love story with his wife had been the inspiration for a lot of his songs.

Gordain, his father-in-law, had talked me and Valentine through how dangerous those fans could be, how people hated his daughter for marrying Leo and wished her harm. How some made death threats and even doxed him—publicly posting his address, which at the time was in London—because they didn’t like the way his musical style had evolved. Typically the threats were empty, but not always.

Celebrities had been hurt or killed by fans in the past.

It drew parallels in my mind to a boy obsessed with my sister. How people had underestimated him and laughed off concerns. Until it was too late.

I took my job seriously because I’d lived through the outcome of such an event.

The car slowed, and my focus sharpened.

Back at Castle Braithar, Leo’s home, the family had any number of security features set up, so risk only came when he left the mountains.

Like today. Running the gauntlet of getting in and out of the studio.

Valentine drove us through the gates, and I scanned the crowd of faces. Both of us had spent hours memorising the features of Leo’s most concerning fans, a hit list that had been refined and added to over the years.

The car behind kept close to our tail, driven by Ben and with Leo and Gordain in the back behind tinted glass.

The TV appearance was to announce an upcoming album and tour, but the press had gotten wind of Leo and Viola’s new arrival, so he was pre-empting that by revealing it himself.

The crowd knew something was up. Numbers were a lot higher than the studio had estimated for our risk assessment.

“Into position, boys. We’ve got this,” Ben said into our earpieces.

We had to. A lot rode on this, more than Leo’s safety. If I couldn’t do my job effectively, I’d lose it. The pressure honed my senses. My fingers shook.

We climbed from the car to a wall of noise and energy.

The second car stopped, and Valentine and I crossed on foot to meet it, keeping our focus on the throng of bodies behind the barriers to the left of the entranceway. Most screamed or cried out, their excitement obvious.

Those weren’t the faces we homed in on. It was the quiet ones. The loners. Not necessarily male, but the comparisons between Leo’s threats and Ariel’s stuck at the forefront of my mind.

“Exiting now,” Ben advised.

A roar went up, everyone with a phone in their hand.

Leo was out of the car. We flanked him, Gordain going on ahead and Ben at his back. If he smiled or waved, I didn’t see it, only keeping the rock star in my peripheral vision while I moved apace with him.

Faces passed, some weeping, others breathless and beaming.

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