“Trevon we’ll wait here until you’re sure everything’s secure here.” He led Hailey by the arm. “Come on, we’ll wait in your car. Keys please.”
Hailey hesitated, but handed him her keys. “You didn’t have to follow me. I had everything under control.”
“If I wouldn’t have come, Shareeka wouldn’t be the only one hauled off to jail.”
~ 33 ~
Hailey had a hard time sleeping. Every time she dozed off, she could see Shareeka’s face. Her irritating voice sounded like fingernails on a chalkboard as she taunted Hailey. “Garrett was mine first. Welcome to my left overs,” Shareeka kept saying over and over with a sinister look on her face as Shareeka chanted Garrett’s name.
Hailey woke up in a cold sweat. She was disappointed to find herself alone in the bed. Garrett went to the police station so he could be there when they questioned Shareeka. Hailey called John. “I know I said I didn’t want to do this, but in light of what’s happened, let’s reschedule the shows for a later date.”
After Hailey assured John, she was okay, he said, “Be careful. Call me if you need me.”
“I will. Please apologize to everyone for me,” she said. Hailey called Jackie and repeated the same to her as she told John.
“Do you need me to come over?” Jackie asked.
“Just keep your cell phone near you,” Hailey responded. She knew she could be a little hard on Jackie, but Jackie always stood up to her.
After ending the phone call with Jackie, Hailey opted to take a long hot bath to sooth her nerves. She kept her phone near the bathtub. As the bubbles soaked into her skin, she opened her eyes when she heard the Los Angeles news reporter say her name. She fumbled for the remote and turned up the volume.
“Our sources say that Shareeka Johnson has been accused of sending Hailey Barnes life threatening messages because of one man. The man’s name is unknown at this time. As soon as we find out more, we’ll disclose that information.”
Hailey didn’t bother to dry off. She jumped out the tub, grabbed her phone off the floor and threw on her robe. She had her agent Carmen on the phone before she could get the robe on good. “Please find out who is behind leaking this to the press.”
Carmen said, “Why am I just now hearing about this? I should have been the first person you called.”
Hailey apologized but continued to rant about the leak to the media. Carmen’s attempt to calm her down, didn’t work. She was still fired up when Garrett showed up. Garrett reached to hug her when she opened the door, but she wasn’t feeling it. Garrett said, “If you don’t calm down you’re going to work your way into an early grave.”
“Have you seen the news? Every station is talking about it.” Hailey’s hands were moving all over the place.
“I take it you probably don’t want to see this either.” Garrett pulled the daily newspaper from behind his back.
She took it from him and looked at the front cover. There she was all glammed up in the right hand corner with a crazy looking photo of Shareeka that they must have taken at the police station the night before right next to her. The caption read – Alleged Crazy Fan Now Caught. She threw the paper at Garrett. “Some heads should roll for this. Don’t you have connections on the force?”
Garrett responded, “Yes, but there’s no telling who leaked this information.”
She pouted, “Somebody needs to do something. I try to lead a drama-free life, but no, people just won’t let me.”
Garrett started laughing. “Drama and free shouldn’t even be in the same sentence when describing you.”
“Oh you can take that negative attitude and leave for all I care.”
Garrett frowned. “Oh you just used me. Now that we got the fan, you want me to go.”
Hailey felt like he did have a point. She didn’t mean to come off as a user. “Sorry. All of this has been too much. I’ll cook us breakfast, while you tell me what happened at the station last night. Seems like everybody else knows more than I do and it’s all happening to me.”
“She admitted to the clippings because she was curious to why her man seemed to be infatuated with you. In fact, the way she made it sound, Trevon could be the culprit. The detective pulled him to the side and asked him a few questions as if he was the guilty party too.”
“Wow,” was all Hailey could say.
“It pissed him off, but he’ll be alright.” Garrett massaged Hailey’s shoulders.
“Did Ms. Thing say anything else?” Hailey asked, as she moved her head from side to side.