Page 12 of Forbidden Encore

“I’m so sorry, Ocean.”

“What happened?” I meet his eyes, my chin lifted. Everyone keeps bustling around us. Ezra is still in a heated discussion with the police officer.

“Didn’t they tell you anything?” My uncle asks, his brow raised. I can tell he wants to be the one to deliver the news.

Gritting my teeth, I shake my head no. “We just got back here and saw the lights. Why didn’t you give us the heads up?”

His mouth drops open and he has the gall to look offended. “I just got here and when I opened the door, some masked freak ran out. He destroyed your room and everything in it.”

I feel the blood rush from my face and my heart hammers in my chest. I run to the bedroom, ignoring the people protesting behind me. More officers in CSI get-up are walking in the room, taking pictures and slipping things into evidence bags. The room is destroyed. My bottle of perfume and personal makeup is smashed across my vanity table. The bedspread is torn and what looks like red paint is splashed on it. On the wall above the bed, the word POSER is painted in bright red as well. I rush to the closet and open it. My heart crumbles in my chest, and I choke on a sob. Every single costume for tomorrow's show lies in scraps on the floor or barely hangs on the hanger. Thousands of dollars in fabric, material, beads, and glitter are wasted. Not to mention the time and energy that my seamstress put into these. They were incredibly expensive and one hundred percent loaned to me from BNE. My contract states that I can be fined for ruining them. “No!”

Strong arms circle around me. Ezra half carries me out of the room and into a separate, private area. The whole time he’s holding me, he’s telling me it’s going to be okay. But the damage is done. Not only do I feel violated that my space was broken into, I’m in breach of my contract, and I’ve haven’t felt this unsafe in a long time.

“Let me go.” My chest heaves and the struggle to breathe is real.

Ezra sets me to my feet and turns me to face him. His hands cradle my face. “It’s okay, princess. I promise. I’m going to take care of it. We’ll get everything fixed. You’re safe. You’re safe with me.” His lips press against my forehead and the crown of my head. I can’t stop myself when I lean into him. He doesn’t hesitate, his arms wrapping around me and pulling my body intohis. I hold onto him, my arms wrapping around his waist. I don’t even care how it would look if someone walked in on us.

I can feel Ezra’s heart beating strong against my cheek. One of his hands is on my head, tangled in my hair. The other holds me around my waist. There is no space between our bodies, his heat sinks into my chilled skin.

I don’t know how long we stand like that, him holding me, but eventually, he sits on the bed, my body cradled to his. My eyes get tired, and everything in me calms down. Ezra never leaves; he never disentangles himself from me. I can feel the soft kisses he places on my hair, my forehead, my temple, and I bask in it. My fingers clutching his jacket, keeping him with me and I don’t think he minds. I close my eyes and all I hear is his gravelly, strong voice telling me to sleep.

“You will wakeher up over my dead fucking body.” I hear Ezra’s voice and I jolt awake. I’m alone in the spare room in the middle of the bed, and Ezra’s jacket is draped over me like a blanket. The events of the evening come back and I glance at the clock, noticing it’s already almost midnight. I passed out for three hours. I quickly get off the bed and pad over to the door.

“Sir, we need to ask Ms. Heart if she was aware of anyone wanting to harm her or her performance.”

“And I already told you. I’m in charge of her security and we’ve never had any threats or incidents like this. I suggest doing your job and finding out who did it rather than waking up my client to ask your ridiculous questions.” Ezra is practically seething.

His client. For some reason that hurts more than anything. More than learning that someone might be trying to harm me.Obviously, stalkers and obsessed fans aren’t unheard of. It has just never happened to me before because I have Ezra keeping me safe.

I crack the door open and the officer is the first to see me. Ezra whips around and scowls. “See you woke her up.”

I give him a small smile. “I’m fine.” I touch my hand to his arm. His client. I know I need to let it go, but it hurts. Not that I expected anything different. His friend. It's not like he can sayMy girlfriend. My wife. A girl can dream, I guess.

“Ah, Ms. Heart.” The officer shuffles on his feet. “We’re sorry to bother you but I do need to ask you a few questions.”

“It’s okay.” I open the door to the room wider and flip on the lights. The officers and Ezra follow me in and I take a seat at the sitting table. Ezra stands by the door and the officers sit on the couch across from me. “What are your questions?”

“Ms. Heart, have you ever been made aware of a stalker or an overzealous fan?”

I shake my head. “No. My security is very thorough and if there were threats or incidents, I would know.”

“Right. Has there ever been an incident before tonight where your property was destroyed?”

“No.” I shake my head again. My gaze slides to Ezra. “Mr. Hamilton supplies my security and we’ve never had any issues before tonight. I’m still not sure how this happened.”

“Well, it appears that someone was able to get past the security you feel so highly of. It also seems, from what your uncle has told us, that you’ve received many letters at home from a fan who might have taken this too far. We’re starting to investigate them now,” the other officer responds.

“My uncle is rarely on my tours and I haven’t been home in months. He has never brought this to my attention.” I feel the need to defend Ezra and his company.

“Which is also what I told you.” Ezra jumps in, moving toward me and away from the door. “We’ve never had issues in any hotels or with the security plans we have set up. I suggest you start looking at what happened in this hotel room first rather than some supposed letters at her house that I’ve never been made aware of.”

I glance between the officers and Ezra. None of them blink, intent on winning the war. Eventually the officers cave and nod then leave.

“Here is my card, Ms. Heart. If you think of anything, please let us know.”

“Sure.” I nod my head and take the card. The door shuts behind them and Ezra rips the card from my fingers.

He paces the room, his hands running through his hair repeatedly. I stand waiting patiently, silently supporting whatever he is feeling. I feel bad about my panic attack earlier. After the shock wore off, I realized that I’m safe now with Ezra here.

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