Assure Her (Assured Distraction Book 1) (26 page)

“That remains to be seen,” he shot back at her.

“It certainly does, Mr. Harper. It certainly does.” She would not give him the pleasure of having the last word on the subject. She turned quickly and returned to the bus. As much as she was infuriated by how he’d spoken to her, she was more focused on the information it delivered. She was finally going to meet her father.

Chandler could not hear the music, she was so nervous. KeeMac tried everything to calm her down, as they waited in the room backstage where security had taken them for the two hours they had to wait.

“Chan, please sit down. You’re making me fucking crazy.” Grabbing her hand, he pulled her into his lap. “Let’s think about the new song we finished. Help me sing the lyrics.”

“You know I don’t sing.”

“OK, then let me sing it to you.” The song was slow and the melody was catchy, something that would linger in the minds of the listeners. She let the soothing sound of his deep voice carry the tune over her. The music helped her as it always did. When he reached the chorus, she joined in with him in a harmony that only added to the strange lilt the song had. By the time they were done, silent tears were rolling down her cheeks.

So much had happened in such a short amount of time: grieving for the loss of her parents and searching for the family she never knew about, she’d felt such a deep state of loneliness she never knew could exist. But KeeMac was there, and he held her close and spoke soothing words to her until the door to the room jerked open.

Ryder and Paul walked in, and Paul immediately began speaking, trying to lay down the terms of the meeting. “This will be only a brief meeting as Mr. Steel has to leave quickly.”

“Shut the fuck up, Paul.” He turned to Chandler who was now standing. “Excuse this jerk, he can’t help himself. I’m Ryder Steel, and you have to be Chandler Chatam,” he said, holding out his hand. When Chandler put hers in his, he held on to her soft skin with both hands.

He turned to KeeMac, and said, “You’re the front man for AD, right?”

Acknowledging his question with a nod of his head, KeeMac stuck out his hand and introduced himself but Ryder refused to let go of Chandler’s hand long enough to shake, so nods were exchanged instead.

“Let’s sit down. I’ve been standing for two fucking hours. Dammit, I hate feeling like an old man at my age,” he said with a chuckle. Chandler sat on the couch with KeeMac, and Ryder pulled up a chair in front of her, never letting go of her hand.

Chandler jumped right in despite the way her brain was in overload from touching him. “Thank you for agreeing to meet with me.”

“Princess, I didn’t even know you wanted to meet until I brought it up to this dickhead over here,” he said gesturing with a cocked head toward Paul, then continuing, “that the bands needed to get together since you were opening for us tonight.”

“I have a story to tell you, Mr. Steel.”

“Ryder, please, Princess,” and he hung on her beautiful smile, and she took a steadying breath and then eased her into the story.

“OK, Ryder. I grew up in Austin and D.C., raised by my parents, Catherine and Senator John Chatam. They died in a plane crash several weeks ago and my world fell apart. I had just started the tour with Assured Distraction and we were in Vegas when it happened. I flew home as quickly as I could, and spent days in a sea of arrangements and legal mess. Then their attorney came to me with a letter that changed my life, another 180-degrees from what had just happened when they died. The letter was written when I was two-years-old. It explained that I had been adopted, something that I had never known until that moment. It stated that my birth mother went to D.C., from her home near Austin, to live with her aunt when she was seventeen and she found out she was pregnant. She decided to put her baby, me, up for adoption, and that she wanted me to be adopted by a Texas-based family who could provide for me, since, apparently, she couldn’t. She refused to name who my father was to anyone, and since they adopted me at birth, my name has always been Chatam. She did give my father’s name to the attorney handling the adoption, though, in case any medical problems occurred. The name she gave was ‘Braxton Whitmore’.

Ryder sucked in a breath and eyed Chandler with uncertainty. “Please, continue.” The look in Ryder’s eyes unnerved her Chandler.
Was he was saddened or angered by her story?

“That’s really all I have, sir. The only other thing I do know is, she told them my father never knew anything about me. And they were able to tell me that my birth mother was killed in a car wreck shortly after I was born.”

“Son of a bitch,” tumbled from his mouth. He stood abruptly and paced around the room like a mad man. Chandler didn’t know what to make of his reaction. She, KeeMac, and Paul just watched him in silence as he continued to storm back and forth across the room, muttering, ‘Lainey. Lainey,’ over and over, failing to acknowledge anyone else’s questioning stares.

After some time, he finally turned to Paul, he said, “Let’s go.” Paul quickly pulled the door open and exited, and Ryder strode quickly after him pausing at the threshold only long enough to take a long-lingering look into Chandler’s questioning azure eyes. And then he was gone.

What just happened?
Chandler couldn’t understand. Was he not Braxton Whitmore? Did she get it all wrong? KeeMac wrapped his arm around her when her knees buckled and she stared at the floor.

Keeton wasn’t sure he understood what had just taken place either, but said, “Let’s go, babe. Ryder’s a prick. Or, maybe he’s not Whitmore, and when he realized the hot young thing waiting to talk to him was looking for her father and not a lap to party in he just split. Whatever. Obviously, he must have been expecting some other kind of story, or this wasn’t what he bargained for, and he wasn’t interested in sticking around to find out the rest of it. You don’t need someone like that in your life. Good thing we just had this one show with them and we won’t have to see them again.”

He steered her out the door and held her close as they made their way back to where their bus was waiting on them. “Chandler, your father is out there somewhere and eventually we’ll find him. I know it’s hard but you have to know that Ryder isn’t him. Let’s just give it some time, babe.”

Chandler wasn’t sure about anything at this point, except that she felt an overwhelming need to find out about her father and the rest of her family. And she didn’t want to wait, no matter what Keeton said. If he wasn’t going to stand by her while she was going through this she would do it on her own, just as she had done everything her entire life.

When they got back, the female guests were dismissed from the bus, and the AD tour bus pulled out of Denver, headed for Austin.

Chandler curled up in a blanket on the couch, and pretended to watch TV. She wouldn’t engage in any conversation and seemed to prefer to be left alone. KeeMac kissed her temple and told her that he would be right back then wandered toward the front of the bus. He couldn’t find the words to express how Ryder’s treatment of her made him feel. She was so grief-stricken at this point he didn’t know what to do for her.

“What are we going to do, Cash? I fucking hate seeing her like this.” KeeMac paced down the length of the bus.

“I really don’t know, man. She told him the entire, royally fucked-up story and got nothing?”

“Nothing! Didn’t confirm or deny that he was Braxton Whitmore, or that he knew him, or that he knew her birth mother, or had any clue what she was talking about. But he sure seemed agitated by something. Then the damn son of a bitch got up and left the building. Didn’t even say good-bye to her.”

“I don’t know what to say.” Cash couldn’t imagine Ryder being so cold to someone, even if she wasn’t his child. “Surely he saw the hope in her eyes when she told him her shit-storm of a life story. No way could anyone make up that stuff, not with the details like she had from something that happened so long ago, before he made it big.” The rest of the group agreed with him.

Chandler rolled over and gave them all a strange look. “Y’all know I’m right here, listening to you, right?” She had always felt like she had to make her own way, and during her silence she had come to some conclusions about this situation, too.

They looked at her with sympathy not knowing what to say or do.

“OK, well. I’m done with it all. If he isn’t my father, then my father is still out there somewhere, and I will find him, eventually. So, I’m going to get some sleep and then tomorrow I’ll start over doing some research. And, for God’s sake, please stop looking at me like I’m about to go Postal! It’s done! Over with. Move on!”

Everyone was a little shocked at her tirade but they agreed with her assessment, and all moved at once to find something else to occupy their time. They would be close to Austin when they woke up and everyone was excited about getting home.

Everyone but Chandler, that is. What would she do with herself? How could she live in that big house now, all alone? What would KeeMac want to do when they got home? She knew he would be happy to return to his eastside condo when they got there. She didn’t want him to feel obligated to her when they arrived. Maybe she would close the house up and take a vacation. There were lots of places she had never been, both in and outside the U.S. Maybe now was a good time to do that. Her life felt so rudderless at this point.

****

S
he still hadn’t been able to fall asleep by the time they passed through Amarillo. She didn’t know exactly what time it was but it was still dark outside when the bus driver stopped for fuel. She quickly packed up her smaller Hart bag and grabbed her guitar case and walked off the bus when the driver wasn’t looking. KeeMac was out cold after the long day and tense evening they all experienced so he didn’t notice her moving around or leaving the bedroom. She was glad for this small blessing. She didn’t want the long, drawn out battle a separation now would cause. She had fulfilled her obligations to tour with the band for eight weeks, so leaving now would keep her from being a burden or the buzzkill on the ride any longer. She needed to be on her own.

She walked into the truck stop and drew her fair share of strange looks from the drivers sitting around drinking coffee.

“Need a ride, honey? I can get you anywhere you want to go.” A young driver offered to her.

“No, thank you.” The last thing she needed was someone hitting on her now. She sat in a corner seat near the window where she could watch for the cab she’d called while she waited outside in the shadows to make sure no one from the bus had seen her leave. She didn’t want to let on to anyone inside that she was traveling alone.

When her cab finally arrived, she took one last look as the bus was pulling away from the station, and climbed into the cab and asked the driver to take her to the airport.

“Chan, come back to bed, babe. It’s too damn early and we have time to kill before Austin. We can find a few ways to waste our time and I promise you’ll like them,” he called to the sounds he heard in the bathroom.

“Douchebag, as fucking good as that sounds, you know I don’t bat for that team,” Gunner replied, laughing at him.

“Where the hell is she?” KeeMac sat up on his elbow looking out the door at Gunner.

“I don’t know. She’s your girl. I don’t fucking lose my women, ever. Just taking a piss.” He climbed back in his berth and pulled his curtain shut.

The sun was shining in through the front of the bus now, so KeeMac made his way up front to find her without waking everyone.

“Cash, where’s Chandler?” He was asleep on the couch.

“No idea. All those damn shots we had before bed knocked me out.”

Keeton was getting worried. There were not that many places to hide on the bus.

He made his way back down the bus, pulling open all of the curtains of the bunks. When he opened Ryan and Krissy’s curtain, he got more skin than he wanted to see.

“God Ryan, I’m damaged for life, dude. Cover that shit up.”

“You look behind the curtain without knocking, you deserve whatever you get. Now shut the fucking curtain, asshat.”

“Y’all know where the hell Chandler is?” By now the entire bus could hear his raised voice, but it was obvious she wasn’t on the bus.

Cash moved forward to ask the bus driver about any stops they made. “Did you see her get off in Amarillo?”

“No, I was filling the bus. She had to have climbed off then because the bus has been rolling ever since.” The other buses had left Denver first while they were meeting with Steel so they were traveling alone for this leg of the trip.

KeeMac came back from the bedroom, pulling a shirt over his head. “Her guitar and bag are gone from the room. Dammit all to hell. What was she thinking? She’s out there alone right now. We have to go back for her.” KeeMac was worried and angry. “Why would she get off the bus and not tell anyone?”

“I don’t know but we are too close to Austin now to turn around,” Cash told him. “Did anyone try her cell?”

Peri came up to sit with them. “Yeah, I did as soon as dick-wad here started yelling and woke up everyone on the bus. It rolls to voicemail every time.”

“She couldn’t have just disappeared.” KeeMac was frantic now. “Call the fucking Amarillo police and the airport.”

Peri looked at him sadly, “I already have. They paged her in the airport but she didn’t pick up. The police say until she’s missing twenty-four hours, they won’t do a damn thing. PR is on it, they’ll get calls in to all of the hospitals in the area and I’m waiting to hear back. That’s really all we can do for now. Look, she’s got access to a lot of money. She could be anywhere.”

KeeMac stared at Peri like he couldn’t comprehend the words coming from her mouth.
What happened? Did she just leave him?

****

I
t was only a forty-five minute flight from Amarillo to Austin. Chandler was exhausted when she landed since she had no place to sleep in the airport and the first flight out did not depart until seven a.m. She rented a car and drove to the only hotel she could find in Smithville. She couldn’t believe that the Whitmores would give out false information, and felt like they were the only hope she had of proving that Ryder was Braxton and that Braxton was her father. She did not understand why he would refuse to recognize his own child but for her own peace of mind, she was going to find out the truth.