Part 503
A lone figure lurked in the shadows near the elevator as ‘Mook’, the rest of the band, and the bodyguards stepped off.
"Hang on, guys," called ‘Mook’. "I need to go to Howie’s bus and get his guitar for Sarah."
"I’ll get it and meet you guys there," offered Raoul "What’s the name of this place anyway?"
"Brendan’s Pub. Thanks Raoul."
Waiting for the group to leave, the lone figure slipped seemingly unnoticed from the hotel. He had to wait for a cab.
Returning from the bus to catch a cab himself, Raoul spotted Lou and started after him. Unfortunately, Raoul missed him but quickly pulled out his cell phone.
"Billy, I just spotted Pearlman catching a cab in front of the hotel…. yeah, I’m headed to where they are now….I’ll tell Carlos and the other guards but I don’t think the guys or Sarah need to know. I’ll stay close. Later."
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"Fuck." Billy broke the connection on his cell phone, looking over at the closed door to Nick and Becca’s bedroom. Rubbing a weary hand over his face he thought back over the last half-hour. Becca had been fine. Then he’d been called downstairs, only to find out that he’d wasted time on a security issue that apparently was non-existent. Or was it? He didn’t like where his thoughts were heading, not at all. After arguing with the night manager who insisted that neither he nor anyone on his staff had contacted Billy, he’d returned upstairs to find Becca shaking like a leaf and damn near in shock. She’d insisted she was fine, and when pushed, had told him she’d had a bad dream.
More like a nightmare. Goddamn it, that bastard had played him for a fool. Set him up and then come upstairs to harass Becca. If he’d so much as touched her … Well, only one way to find out.
"Becca?" Billy knocked on her door, trying not to wake up the baby, but needing to see for himself that she was really all right. When she didn’t immediately answer he knocked again, just a little louder. "Becca?" he called through the door.
The door opened just a crack, and Becca peered out, letting her hair frame her face so that Billy couldn’t see the shape she was in. "Billy, Garrett’s asleep," she whispered. "And so was I…" she tried, attempting to lie convincingly.
"He was here, Becca. Lou was in this room and I need to know if he touched you before I decide whether or not to kill him."
"Billy he didn’t-" she began to protest.
"But he WAS here. Becca, I need to know what happened." In his anger he was getting louder, and the only way for Becca to calm him down was to come out of her room.
"Billy, I can’t …" she broke off, the lump in her throat making speech incredibly difficult.
She ducked her head, but Billy took charge, lifting her face and looking at the ravages of her tears. Her eyes were swollen, her nose was red and damn if he wasn’t going to kill that mother- "I have to know if he touched you, Bec."
"No! No, not really," she amended, flinching at the string of curse words that flew from Billy’s mouth.
"Bec," he said, lowering his voice. He knew she was frightened and didn’t want to add to it. "We can press charges."
Becca gasped. "No! Billy, no! It wasn’t like that." Becca turned pale at the thought of that bastard’s hands anywhere on her body. "He just … talked." Becca felt a tear slip down her face and didn’t even have the energy to wipe it away.
"About what?" Dammit, Billy thought, I don’t have time for this. Get to the point.
"Just … stuff. He really didn’t have a point, Billy." She looked away as her stomach turned at the memories of his threats. Please go away, I don’t want to talk about this.
Billy watched as she began to shiver, and then the shivers turned into full out shaking. Now he knew there was more to this than she was admitting. "Becca?"
"He wanted to upset me and he succeeded. That’s it, that’s all there was to it."
"Becca, I need to call Nick," he said gently, already knowing what she would say.
"No, please?" she said brokenly. "Please don’t call him. I promise I’ll talk to him when he gets back. Please, Billy, I need some time to get myself together."
"You’ll tell him everything?" Billy’s eyes narrowed as he looked into Becca’s tearful eyes.
"Yes, I promise," she whispered. "I promised him no more secrets."
Seeing that she was telling him the truth, he relented. Reaching across to the overstuffed wingback chair, he grabbed the soft, woven ‘throw’ and wrapped it around her shoulders.
"Billy?" she asked timidly. "Will you stay with me? I mean… can I sit here with you till Nick gets back?"
"Sure Bec. C’mon and scoot over."
Becca tucked her legs up beneath her body, and moved over against Billy’s massive side, where he held her close, kicking himself for not being there earlier.