"She'd do that?"
"Sure. I'll call her now."
"Thank you."
Stella readily agrees to fly out right away. She loves having a new person to dress, and with her boyfriend Kace on tour with his band Storyside, she also needs a distraction. We all told her to go with him, that we'd take on extra missions for her, and her assistant Kevin could handle buying us new clothes if we needed them, but she didn't want to shirk her duties. Helping Jeanne will give her something to focus on that's not a certain hot young singer who would fly home in a second if she said she needed him.
I'd be lying if I said that I don't want someone like that. A guy who puts me above everything else in his life. I've kissed a bunch of frogs, and I'm not really looking for a prince. Just a nice, normal guy who will respect me, and fuck me senseless. Is that really too much to ask for?
"Is the tour finished?" Blake asks, sitting down at the patio table with us.
"Yeah. We're going shopping once Audrey's friend, Stella, gets here."
"You hate to shop."
"I know, but Audrey says Stella can find me some cool clothes that make me feel like myself."
"She can," I say. "Stella is amazing, and she'll make sure Jeanne's comfortable."
"Can I meet up with you for dinner?"
"Can we got to Noodles & Co.?" Jeanne asks, looking excited.
"If that's okay with Audrey and Stella," he says, pulling out his wallet.
"We're fine with anything," I tell him.
"Great. Do you have your credit card, Jeanne, or do you need cash?"
"I have my card."
Really? A twelve-year-old has a credit card? My face must show my surprise. "She has a card on my account that she can use to buy whatever she needs if I'm not around," Blake tells me.
"That's very generous of you."
"She's my daughter, Audrey. Who else would I spend my money on?"
"You should buy Audrey something!" Jeanne tells him.
"Oh. No, I didn't … that's not what I meant. Or wanted. You don't need to buy me anything."
"Challenge accepted," Blake says.
"Challenge? What challenge?"
"Finding the perfect gift for you."
"Really, Blake. You don't have to. I have everything I could possibly want."
"Then I'll just have to give you something you need."
Yep. I'm in trouble. Big trouble. The man gives his daughter unlimited access to his money, and now just promised to give me what I need. I don't think he was just talking about buying me something from the store either. And God help me, I really want what he has to give me.
Chapter 4
Audrey
Stella is waiting for us when we walk up to the Fashion Valley mall. Jeanne stops short when she sees her. "Wait, she's your friend Stella? But she's famous."
"So is your dad," I tell her with a laugh, surprised that she's star struck.
"Actually, it's my boyfriend who's famous. I just go along for the ride."
"Is Kace as amazing in real life as he seems?"
"He has his moments. Storyside will be coming through here on tour soon if you want to meet him."
"My dad said he could get me backstage, but if you did it, that'd be cooler."
"I am much cooler than anyone's dad, so I'll do you one better. You can come by for sound check and then have dinner with us before the show."
"I thought you weren't flying out to any of the shows. You wanted to be all independent and shit, right?" I tease her.
"I miss him, Aud. So fucking much. I miss my boy."
"Then go and get him," I say, giving her a hug.
"I'm going to. I'll be meeting the tour when I leave here tonight."
"By the way, who's here with you?"
We want Jeanne to have fun shopping, but none of us can forget that she was almost kidnapped the other day. Stella and I both wanted her to be able to focus on styling Jeanne, and not protecting her-although she'd be ready if something happened-and Reina agreed.
"Ainsley, Isa, and Darcy. They're on shopping sprees with their guys."
"Poor girls," I say with a laugh. Those three are the most unlikely to want to shop of any of us.
"They'll deal."
"Your nerdy friends are here? Can they eat with us later?" Jeanne asks.
"It's not a good idea for us to be all together while they're watching you."
"What if we take the food back to the house? Could they hang out with us there?"
"I'll ask them."
"Now?"
"How about I do it while you're trying on your clothes? It's not a good idea for us to just stand here for a long time."
"Okay," she says, looking a little disappointed. I hate disappointing her, but her safety has to come first.
"Let's get going," Stella says. "We'll hit the big stores first, and then the smaller boutiques."
"You're the expert," I tell her.
"Damn straight."
We're still laughing when I sense them. Stella swings her head to the side, and I know she feels it too, the shift in the air. The Society trains us to look for, and sense trouble. It took my science minded brain a little bit of time to trust it, but I've come to believe in it after all of these years. There's danger in the air right now.
Stella and I flank Jeanne, and I put my arm around her as we walk her a little faster. When we veer towards an internal exit instead of the store entrance, Jeanne realizes something is wrong.
"Why are we going down this hallway?"
"There are people here for you," I tell her. "I don't know how they found us so fast, but they're here."
"You'll protect me, right?"
"Yes," Stella tells her. "You just need to do whatever we say."
"I will."
We make it only a few feet before the door slams open behind us. Stella and I have our guns out, and Jeanne against the wall behind us before they're all the way inside of the door.
"What do you want?" I ask.
"The girl," the lead man says.
"You can't have her."
"We'll see," he says, rolling his neck.
"Yes, we will," Stella tells him.
There are six of them, but Stella and I could probably take them if we had to. Our friends should be here any moment now, but it looks like the fight will begin without them as the men fan out into a line in front of us. We could shoot them, but that would stop us from getting the answers we need, and also draw more attention than we want to what's happening. Stella and I both holster our guns, and get ready to fight.
The first guy goes for Stella, and she easily dodges his fist while knocking him back. The next four attack at once, two on each of us. We both take a few hits, but do more damage to them than they do to us. I see the main guy heading towards Jeanne out of the corner of my eye, and lose my focus for a moment. I take a hard hit to the jaw, and then renew my efforts, even as I move back in front of her. Now it's three on one as the guy who was going for her joins his friends, and the other one Stella knocked back rejoins the fight with her. We're holding them off, but it's not easy.
All of a sudden, Darcy is next to me, taking on two of the guys. Isa helps Stella, while Ainsley grabs Jeanne from behind me. I hear her hand Jeanne off to Zack and Brayden, then she and Jake take on the final two. Six against six is too much for the bad guys, and they realize it, trying to run. I motion to the main guy, and Isa and Jake stop him from leaving. His friends get away, but we only need one.
"You'll never get anything out of me."
"On the contrary, we'll get everything out of you. How alive you are when we're done will be up to you," I tell him.
"Reina has a car outside for us. We'll get him settled with the support staff we brought until Reina gets here with Matt and Faith, and then meet you later," Darcy tells me.
"I was going to ask you about later anyway, so I'll call with details."
"It's a plan."
I watch them go, and then turn back to Stella. "Are you still up for shopping?"
"Yeah, she needs normal after that. We just need to clean up a little."
We take care of that, and once we've looked each other over, and decided we look normal again, we go back into the mall. The sight we find makes us both smile. Jeanne is sitting on a bench with Zack on one side of her, and Brayden on the other. They're all eating ice cream, and laughing. A few feet away, some girls and boys around Jeanne's age are openly gawking.
"Ready to shop?" Stella asks Jeanne as we walk up to them.
"We can?"
"Of course. We're not going to let a minor hiccup stop us from having some fun."
"Oh my God, you're Stella. Like from KaSt, Stella," a girl says, using the "ship" name fans have assigned to her and Kace.
"I am."
"What are you doing with her? I mean, she's so … nerdy?" another girl asks, scrunching up her nose.
"Nerds are hot," Zack says.
"Gamer girls, too," Brayden adds, and they fist bump in front of Jeanne.