Someone to Watch Over Me (15 page)

Beside me,
Tate grinned and
snickered.

“Where did you get this stuff?”

“I was Austin Powers last Halloween.”

“
And you
want me to wear this, why?” We were over two months away from
Halloween.

“
So all
those fucks in there’ll keep their paws off you. And I’m not being
possessive; I’m just indignant for you. Plus, it’ll give you a good
laugh.”

“
Gosh,
Tate,
I don’t know what to say. Nobody’s
ever bought me a hairy mole and low budget dentures
before.”

“What can I say? I’m incredible.”

Behind me,
someone rapped on the window. I turned to find
the gray-haired security guard bent at the waist and
staring into my car. Pressing the button on my armrest, I rolled
the window down.

“
Ma’am,” he
said in greeting, trying futilely to keep his eyes from the train
wreck on my face.
“Tate.”

“
Evan.
”

“Time to go.” With a jerk of his head, he
gestured to the group of women who had gathered at the back door.
Another of the security guards held them back with his arm,
blocking their path. “You know how they get.”

“
Yessir.”

“
I’ll take…”
Evan looked to me. His eyes zeroed in on my mole.

“
Cooper,” I
said with a smile, and Evan’s breath caught in his throat. Not in a
good way, either. He smiled awkwardly, his eyes rebounding from my
mole to my teeth, to my eyes and away again, unable to meet my gaze
for any extended length of time.

“I’m sorry,” I said, playing along. “Do I
have something on my face?”

“
Don’t mind
him, babe. It’s your resounding beauty. He just doesn’t want to
stare.”

“
It’s my
mole, isn’t it?”
I let a little whine
slip into my tone. “He’s staring at my mole. Everyone always
does.”

“
Why do you
always think the worst?” Tate scolded, laying it on thick. “It’s
not the mole. It’s barely noticeable. Is it, Evan?”

“
No,” Evan
said without hesitation. “Not at all.”

Tate patted my knee, fighting a smile.
“See?”

“
We should
go,” Evan said, grasping the opportunity.
“Miss Cooper, if you’ll come with me. I’ll be escorting you
inside.

“It’s Miss Hale,” I corrected him. “Cooper
Hale.”

“Hyphenated?”

“
Nope. First
name’s Cooper.” Now I wasn’t feeling bad about the whole mole
thing. What a dufus.

“
T
hen, Miss Hale, if you’ll come
with me. Derek will park your car once you’re safely
inside.”

Suppressing
a frown, I looked to
Tate then slid from the car. Tate, escorted by the second
bodyguard, came around the car and followed Evan and me inside.
Derek, much to my discontentment, took my keys as I passed through
the back door and into The Loft.

Upon my
immediate entrance, I heard Marshall’s voice. “Coop!
Cooper!” Threading his way through the bustle of
Loft employees and members of the band setting up backstage, he
lifted his arm to flag me down, as if he didn’t stand a head taller
than everyone else did. Pausing midstride, he frowned at the punk
lugging the large keyboard, who’d just cut him off.

“That’s Marshall,” I told Evan. “He’s one of
our bouncers.”

“
We’re
acquainted, Miss Hale. We arrived early to evaluate the building
and the staff as we do with all venues.”

“
Oh.” I
guess they did have skills.
Lord, I
wanted to bring them home with me and keep them all. Em would be
slavering over Tate’s personal armada of bodyguards if she were
here.

“
Damn kids,”
Marshall complained, reaching us. “This place is mad
tonig—what the hell is that?” Stopping dead in
front of me, he ducked his head to get a closer look. Breaking into
a wide smile, I stunned him even further. “Cooper? Jesus Christ.
What the fuck did you do—fall in a puddle of ugly on the way
in?”

Laughing, I balked as he reached with his
index finger and poked my mole. Evan and the others looked away,
finding interest in our surroundings. Tate was biting his bottom
lip, trying not to smile, and failing miserably.

When the
mole fell from my cheek and tumbled to the ground, I gasped and
spread my arms in a wide, protective circle. “Oh my God! Nobody
move! You might step on it!”

“
What is it,
your contact?” the second bodyguard asked. Since he was focusing
elsewhere, he had missed the revelation. He bent, scanning the
floor.

“No, it was my mole.”

Evan snorted
in disgust. “Tate, you asshole! Damn it, I should’ve known!” He
threw a couple light punches at his client and then kicked the fold
of his leg, sending him to the ground.

Tate
took the castigation with a smile, quickly
picking himself up and brushing himself off. “Oh man, I’ve never
seen you so tongue-tied! That was absolutely priceless!”

“
Ha
rdy, fucking, har har
har.”

The second bodyguard chuckled, muffling it
with the back of his hand.

“
Shut up,
Taylor,”
Evan scoffed. “You thought it
was real too.” Taylor apparently wasn’t one for words. He simply
raised his hands in submission, biting back a smile. Evan scowled
and turned his attention to me. “I should kick your ass,
too.”

Tate’s smile
fell, as did Marshall’s grin. Evan
took
them in and quickly put himself in check, though I wasn’t sure how
much Tate told him. In seconds, his demeanor was back to business.
I pulled the fake teeth from my mouth, the fun and games coming to
a quick end.

“
Billy wants
to see you before you hit the floor,” Marshall
advised. “I’ll walk you back to his office.”

I looked to
Tate, unsure if I was supposed to lead the way. Was there some kind
of bodyguard etiquette to follow?
I felt
like I needed to ask permission.

“
I’ll be
right behind you, Miss Hale,” Evan assured. Taylor stepped around
us and began leading the way. I was sure Marshall could’ve handled
anyone that got out of line.

“
So you
and…?” Marshall jerked his head toward Tate, who fell behind us and
was having a conversation with Evan. I lifted my shoulders in an
ambivalent shrug.

“
I don’t
know what we’re doing. Well, I don’t know what I’m doing,” I
amended. “He says he’s serious.
He wants
to stick around.”

“You don’t believe him?”

“
I do.
That’s what scares me.” Marshall chuckled and clapped me hard on
the back. I arched away from his hand, still sore from my earlier
trip down the stairs. The only thing keeping the knots from forming
was the fact that I was moving around. I knew that once I woke up
in the morning, I would be sore as hell.

“Hey, are you all right?”

“Yeah, I fell down the damn stairs today,
and my back is killing me.”

“
You fell
down the stairs,” Marshall repeated. Encompassing my arm with his
large hand, he yanked me to a stop. Before I realized what he was
doing, he was tugging my shirt to the side and looking at my back.
I quickly jerked my arm from his grasp, or tried to. His grasp
tightened. “Who the fuck did this to you?”

“
Come on
Marshall, let go of me. I told you I fell down the
stairs.”

“
Let her
go,” Tate said, resting his hand on my shoulder. The two eyed each
other up, each staking proprietary rights over me, as if I were a
some
thing
and not a some
one
.

Things were going downhill fast.

“
That’s a
line of bull
if I ever heard one, Coop.”
Being the only thing standing between an all-out pissing match, I
refused to move when Marshall tried to push me aside, which,
unfortunately, pissed Tate off even more.

“I said. Let. Her. Go.”

“
Gentlemen,”
Evan intervened, placing a hand on either man’s chest in attempt to
hold them back. “Let’s all take a step back, shall we?”

“
That’s shit
a girl says when she’s trying to cover up for someone,” Marshall
pressed, ignoring him. “Are you gonna tell me you slipped, or that
it was an accident, or that you were being clumsy?” He was speaking
to me, but he held Tate’s
gaze.
Comprehension dawned on me. I had misjudged his concern. He wasn’t
worried about Grant having found me; he was worried about
Tate.

“
You
think…shit…you think
Tate
did this?” Finally, I drew
his attention from the wrongfully accused. His gaze flickered to
me, surprised with my tone. “Jesus, Marshall, I thought you had a
brain beneath that thick skull of yours, but I guess I was
wrong.”

This time, he let me go when I pulled
away.

“
I fell down
the fucking stairs. For real. You’ve seen them before. They’re hard
and wooden.
I was carrying…” Pausing, I
took a deep breath. “You know what? I don’t need to explain myself
to you.”

Whirling, I
strode away, picking through the crowd. Mia and several others
hurried away, hoping to escape my notice. Fucking
gawkers.

“Coop…Coop…Cooper!”

“Fuck off, Marshall,” I said over my
shoulder.

“Hey, I’m sorry!”

The day
couldn’t possibly get any worse. I was beginning to feel like I’d
been sacked by a freight train. My head
rang with a surreal numbness that I wished would envelop me
entirely.

“
Miss Hale,”
said Taylor, behind me. “You’re impairing my
service
, ma’am. I can’t perform to the
best of my abilities if you continue to walk away from
me.”

“
I’m going
right there.”
Stopping, I pointed to
Billy’s office. “It’s not four yards away.”

Taylor disregarded my objection, passing
around the few people separating us. “Thank you, ma’am. Just doing
my job.”

Evan, I
observed, was mediating between Tate and Marshall, who were having
a heated exchange of words.

“
They’re
fine, ma’am. Evan can handle them.”

I disagreed.
Marshall looked like he could eat Tate for breakfast and use Evan
to sop up his
remains, but I turned and
left to see Billy. Once I hit the floor, I could lose myself in my
work, and right about now, I needed the distraction.

Taylor
entered the office before me, took a cursory glance over the
interior and stepped aside, giving me a nod of approval. Billy
look
ed slightly addled when I walked
through the door.

“Marshall said you wanted to see me.”

“
I do. Close
the door. I can’t hear
jack shit with the
racket out there.”

I pushed the
door closed, sealing out the din of musicians, cooks and waiters.
“What’s up?”

“
Cooper, I’m
afraid you
r employment here has come to
an end.”

I could feel
my jaw drop. I felt like Billy had just slapped me across the face.
I must’ve misheard him.
“Are you
firing
me?”

“
Firing is a
harsh term. I’d rather think of it as cutting you
loose.”

“You can’t do this!”

“
It’s for
your own good. The place is a madhouse, Cooper. I can’t have you
out on the floor. It would be a hazard to your safety.”

“
They’re not
here for me! They’re here for Tate!”

“
Whom you’re
dating.”

Walking to
the edge of his desk, I placed my hands flat on the surface and
leaned in, steam billowing from my ears.
“My personal life is none of your damn business! Whom I’m
dating included! I’ve worked my ass off, Billy! I’ve never called
out, or even been late for that matter! You’ve no grounds to let me
go! Goddamn it, I need this job!”

“
Nonetheless, I can’t have you on the floor. You’re welcome
to stay on and perform, of course. You’ve—”

Perform? He
was firing me
, taking away my means of
survival, and he thought I would still perform for a meager fifty
bucks a night? God, the guy was a grade A asshole. Standing, I
folded my arms across my chest. “What about the tip
jar?”

“
You know
about the tip jar?” he asked, caught off guard. I could see the
surprise in his expression, clear as day. “How did you find
out?”

“
That’s
irrelevant! You’ve been collecting tips and pocketing the money,
while paying me pennies for it! I sang those stupid twit songs you
make me sing, I’ve worn this shitty uniform without complaint, and
you’ve been freakin’ stealing money from me! I have a kid to take
care of! What kind of person steals money from a single mother, you
freakin’ asshole?”

Well, I
guess I just answered my own question.
I
was looking at him.

At the sound
of my raised and clearly agitated voice, Taylor opened the door.
“Is everything alright, ma’am?”

“
Fucking
wonderful
.”