Uncovering Kaitlyn (14 page)

“So what’s this guy got that I haven’t. I have student debt,
average looks and no job. Does this guy seriously have anything on me?” Ryan
gave me a look of sure shock.

I excused myself to go to the bathroom, and text Jamie when I
walked inside.

Me- Here’s me thinking I’ll enjoy a nice cold drink, and Ryan
thinks it’s a good time to point out he’s perfect for me because he has student
debt and average looks.

I waited a minute to see if he would reply then went back
outside, carefully checking to see if it was clear of men throwing people into
the swimming pool. Ryan, Jake and Jamie were sitting with a few others around a
garden table. Jake waved me over and I plonked down in the seat a young woman
had vacated for me. I gave her thanks and checked a message I had just gotten
through.

TJ Smith- That’s a bit harsh. Didn’t you see him on Youtube?
He’s got to be at least a nine.

I was just typing my reply when Jake snatched my phone from
my hand. I went to take it back as he scrolled through my messages but I ducked
out the way.

“Romeo, I loved watching the sunrise with you this morning. I
think you’ve earned yourself a workout.” Jake laughed. I saw Jamie jump but
then regain his cool as Ryan took the phone from him.

“Juliette, I’m man enough to admit I like the exercise more
than the breakfast date but God did you look sexy this morning.” Ryan eyed me
up and down and gave me an approving nod. “I’ll second that.”

He took a step towards me and Jamie jumped between us and
took my phone. Everyone looked at him and it clicked that he had to read out
one of the private texts between us.

“Hey there’s one about you here Ryan. Oh my God, her
boyfriend was checking you out.” He read out the last two texts and laughed
with everyone else.

“You were hitting on Kaitlyn?” One of the other guests
laughed.

“I think you’ll find I asked her what he had that I didn’t. I
then listed a few of my favourite qualities.”

“And what brilliant qualities they were. I mean who doesn’t
love student debt?” I jokingly kissed Ryan on the cheek. Somebody turned up the
radio as
Daddy, Don’t cry
came on. I grinned in my chair and had to
refrain myself from dancing my usual victory dance when I heard my song on the
radio, especially one in America.

“Come on Kaitlyn, give us a real version” Somebody shouted
over to me.

“I don’t have any music though.”

“You can still sing though.”

“I don’t sing my songs without music.”

“You sang requests to warm up and not all those had music”
Jamie pointed out.

“Thanks, Jamie I forgot about that.”

“Sarcasm doesn’t suit you Kaitlyn.”

“Fine, I’ll do one song so you’d better pick a good one.”

I ended up singing three songs without music and having
everyone at the BBQ joining the audience. Jamie had to stop people by offering
to get me a drink to which I gratefully followed him into the kitchen for.

“I’m going to miss you when you go on Wednesday.” He
whispered to me while he got me a glass of water.

“I’ll miss you too. Although you have loads of visits to
England scheduled in the next three months.”

“It’s not the same, is it?”

“I know. I’ve got time spare on Tuesday evening”

“I think we’ll have to have a good-bye dinner date.”

“I think we should skip the dinner part.”

“Sounds like a fun date to me. I get the feeling I wouldn’t
have much of my manliness left if Jake heard us right now.”

***

It was
strange be back in England, and even stranger that I had become even more of a
sensation while I was away.
Daddy, don’t cry
had been at number one for
five weeks now. It took an entire day for the three of us to sort through
requests that I had. Aaron apologised as he scheduled every hour of my life for
the next month. I was always given at least eight hours out of twenty four for
free time (to sleep) but most days I was busy for at least fourteen of the
sixteen that remained. I had interviews, charity events, parties and other
public things to attend as well as promotion work for the movie and time in the
studio to finish the album. Aaron assured me that it would calm down once my
album was released but until then he wanted to keep me in the spotlight so
people would be more receptive to my album when it was completed. I didn’t mind
too much and even agreed when the label wanted me to be a supporting artist at
a few shows around the UK.

I spent
twelve hours at the studio on Friday. Dad rung me at seven in the evening and
asked me to have a few hours break. He offered to cook me dinner and bring me
back to the recording studio later if I still wanted too. I’d made a lot of
progress and agreed to come home. Wayne spent just as much time in the studio
helping produce my album and running the rest of his company. When I knocked on
his office door he called me in.

“Hey Wayne,
I’m going to head home for a few hours. I might come back later if I can?”

“Sure, I’ll
have somebody come in to give you a hand. Do you want a lift?”

“My Dad is
going to head over soon.”

“I’ve got to
go home anyway. My wife will kill me if I stay until midnight again. You’re on
my way.”

“That would
be great thank you.”

I waited for
Wayne to call somebody in to help me and lock up the top few floors. The higher
floors had extra locks and access keys were needed. Wayne spoke to the security
guards at the front desk and said good night. I waved as well and followed
Wayne to his car. We made idle chitchat in the car and I thanked Wayne as he
reached my drive. I smelled roast beef when I walked through the door.

“A Roast?
You should have said earlier. It’s not ruined is it?”

“I knew
you’d be running late, don’t worry, its fine” Dad gave me a hug as I dumped my
stuff by the door. “Come help me dish up then.”

“No Jake?”

“He’s at his
new place. He brought some furniture earlier so he’s getting it ready. He says
he’ll come over tomorrow. To be honest, he’s moping. Diana called over earlier.
He told her where to stick it without even listening to her. I think he regrets
it.”

“He needs to
talk to her, they’re so good together.”

“If they’re
meant to be they’ll fix it.”

“If I knew
Jake wouldn’t kill me I’d go fix it for him. He needs to get that nothing was
his fault. He deserves to be happy after everything he’s done for us.”

“I know he
does Sweetie, but until he realises that for himself there’s not a lot we can
do.”

We sat down
at the table to eat our roast dinner.

“I really
missed this in America. They need to do proper food.”

“Dad, they
did do proper food. Most people don’t eat a roast in the summer. Only us.”

“You’re some
sort of celebrity. They should be able to make an exception.”

“What do you
mean by some sort? I’m on the radio in the States. I don’t care if they only
ever played it once and the only people who heard it was at Jamie and Ryan’s
BBQ.”

“I know it
was a small station but I couldn’t believe it when…”

Dad froze,
he looked passed me and went pale. “Kaitlyn.”

Slowly I
turned around to see what he was looking at. A gloved hand clung to the
doorframe. My fork fell to the ground.

“You made me
jump.” I said to the figure in the doorway. I didn’t know much about etiquette
of strangers standing in your house, but I guessed trying to stay calm was up
there on the top of the list.

A man in
dark clothing walked towards me. His hair was long and greasy, he was unshaven
and his eyes appeared to be completely black, but that could have been my
imagination going into overdrive.

“Kaitlyn. My
Kaitlyn Fox. You sing like an angel, so beautiful my angel.”

“Why don’t
you come and join us? I think Dad has photos in the study of LA. Would you like
to see them?”

The man
nodded and pulled up a seat at the table. He held a large knife in his right
hand. He took my hand with his left. I indicated to dad to go to the study for
the ‘photos’. Dad was shaking as he left me with the man. He kept talking about
us being together and I could only bring myself to nod.

“We’re going
to be together Kaitlyn.”

My dad
walked back into the room with a photo of me onset singing in LA. He handed it
to the man.

“Who is he?”
he snapped.

“I don’t
know who you’re on about.” I looked at the photo in his hand.

“Him. He’s
staring at you.” The only people in the photo were me and the band. The drummer
looked ahead, but nobody was paying attention to me. “You’re with him aren’t
you? Why would you do that to us? He’s only with you for your money. He’ll
throw you away when he sees how poor you are.”

The man
waved the knife and my dad ran to my side. He blocked a light touch of the
knife and it scratched his arm. We listened to the man ramble for what seemed
like hours before we heard a car pull down the drive. He didn’t notice until
police broke down the door and shouted commands to the man.

Jamie

“Jamie, are
you in there?”

I ignored
Ryan and climbed in the shower. I’d worked through the night on set and had to
spend the morning doing an interview which lasted three hours this morning.
When I finally got out from that I had to make an appearance at a
Rising
Christ
convention, though Graham let me go after an hour. I was going to
enjoy this shower if it killed me.

The door
jumped and I yelled at Ryan to piss off. He shouted something back and I swore
at him again. I was just in the middle of washing my hair when Ryan opened the
door and barged in.

“What the
hell man. I locked that door.”

“And I
unlocked it. I have a question for you. Are you sleeping with Kaitlyn Fox?”

“You
seriously broke down my door to ask if I’m dating Kaitlyn while I’m naked. Is
this some sick test for a reaction?” I grabbed a towel and covered myself up
while Ryan stood there watching me.

“The door’s
fine and your lock were shit obviously or I wouldn’t be in here. I’m asking you
because Jake and me thought you was but then we didn’t think so after the
barbeque, anyway I don’t know if you are or not but something’s happened to
Kaitlyn.”

“What do you
mean something’s happened to Kaitlyn?”

“There’s
police everywhere, it’s all over the internet. I tried to ring Jake but he
isn’t answering.” I walked to my bedroom and opened my laptop. In minutes I
found reports all over the internet of an attack on Kaitlyn. There were
pictures of a house with police cars and ambulances outside. The picture was
too grainy to work out what happened or if it was even Kaitlyn’s home.

Kaitlyn
didn’t answer when I called. I sent her several texts, then dialled her
recording label but nobody answered that either. Ryan grabbed my home phone and
started speaking to someone. After a minute he handed me the phone.

“Jamie.
What’s wrong?” my dad asked me.

“I need to
know if Kaitlyn is ok. Kaitlyn Fox, I think she might be hurt or something.”

“The singer?”

“Yeah Dad,
the singer. She’s a friend of mine. We’ve been doing a film together. She only
went home the other day.”

“Do you have
an address?”

I gave him
all the details I could think of and sat by the phone watching it until it rang
eight minutes later.

“Dad?”

“She’s ok.
Something happened at her house, but nobody went to hospital. I couldn’t get
anything else.”

“Thanks
Dad.”

Ryan looked
up at me questioningly.

“Something
happened but she’s not in hospital. I guess we just wait until we hear something.”

“So you are
sleeping with her?”

“Does it
matter?”

“Maybe,
maybe not.”

“She’s a
friend. Can we leave it at that?”

“For now.”

“And could
you not tell Jake about this conversation?”

“Why? Are
you scared?”

“You’d be
scared. He’s a big guy and he doesn’t leave her side.”

“I’d win.
You know I would.”

I slept
while I waited for news on Kaitlyn. At three in the morning my phone buzzed and
I picked it up quickly.

“Kaitlyn?”

“Jamie? It’s
so good to hear your voice.”

“What
happened Kaitlyn? Are you ok? I heard stuff but I didn’t know what was true or
not.”

“This man
broke into my house. He was just crazy, he had this knife and he cut Dad. I
didn’t know what to do.” She started sobbing down the phone.

“It’s
alright Kaitlyn, your safe now. Is he ok?”