Regency Romance: A Duchess in Disguise (Historical 19th Century Victorian Romance) (Duke Fantasy Billionaire Romance) (49 page)

''All day,
everyday
?'' Janice asked, horrified.

''Do you want to keep your
job,
Janice?'' Janice nodded. ''Well, in that
case,
do what I ask you. You know I've been
very good
to you, you should try to remember that.''

*****

I need to pee, Janice thought. She got out of the car and went into the alleyway next to Wild Bill's. She'd managed to
pee
there
everyday
for the last three days without
being seen
.

Janice didn't see the man, but she felt the slap across her face. ''Why are you looking for me? Who are you? Tell me or by God I'll stick this piece of steel into you.''

Janice stood with her jeans halfway down her thighs and whimpered. It was indeed the same man that she'd seen with Britney. ''Sorry, but I'm not following you,'' she said as she rubbed the place he had slapped her. ''I just came in here to pee. If it's......''

''Who are you? Last time
I'm
asking?''

''Janice.''

''You've been sitting in your car for three days and asking about me in Wild Bills. Why?''

Keke had told Janice that the last thing you do is reveal you clients name.
In fact,
Keke had told her that you die before you do so. ''It's to do with Britney.''

''I don't know anybody called Britney.''

Janice assumed he was having an affair with Britney. “Yes, you do. I saw you together. I'm a friend of hers,'' she lied.

''You're one step away from being murdered so tell me the truth. Why are you following me?''

''I
told you
. I'm a friend of
hers,
and she
told me
about you. She wasn't sure she could trust
you,
so she asked me to keep an eye on you.''

He didn't want another victim on his hands, especially one that he would have to kill on the spur of the moment. She also looked like the kind of woman who would go away and keep quiet if he threatened her hard enough. ''Piss off and leave me alone. If I ever see you again, I will murder you in the most savage manner possible.'' He let go of her and walked away. Janice collapsed onto the ground and forgot she needed to pee.

*****

When Jessie saw Keke pull up outside the diner, she went to the table and took away the sugar. ''The usual Keke?''

''No, can you bring me a plate of ice cream and some chopped onions.''

''What?''

''Ice cream and a plate of chopped onions.'' I hope the father is the nice looking guy in the Ferrari, Jessie thought.

When Dan
arrived,
he was wearing an Armani suit and open white shirt. As he walked towards her, Keke cleared her throat nervously. Without saying anything, he handed her an envelope. She opened it and gasped. ''No Dan, not like this.'' She handed the paper back to him.

''Then how?'' he asked. She looked at him and noticed how weary he looked. She took his
hand,
but he pulled it away.

''When I called you and asked you to come and see me, I wanted to talk to you about a couple of things. First, Britney.'' What does it matter now, he thought.

''We have witnessed Britney meeting a man in a park downtown. Janice was following him. He caught her and shook her up quite badly. He's up to no good.'' Dan looked confused when Jessie arrived with the strange mixture of foods. ''We can't say whether it's an affair or not, but she met a man. I need a bit more time
to
get to the bottom of it, but I think
you, at least,
have a case for postponing the wedding until we find out more.''

''I have decided to go ahead with the marriage.''
It could have been so different, he thought.
When he sighed, Keke took hold of his hand again. Again he tried to pull back, but she held onto him desperately. ''What do you want, Keke?'' he said, almost angrily.

''I don't want a check for three million dollars, that's for sure. I understand when you came here, you came prepared to support me, but that's not the way I want it.''

''Jesus, how do you want it?'' he said no less angrily. ''It seems
to me
, you want it all your
own
way. You dumped me, now I'm offering you financial security for the rest of you
life
to look after you and the baby, and you throw it back at me. I don't understand.''

''Because I have made a terrible mistake,'' she said, tears in her eyes. ''I love you so
much,
and I am so sorry for what I did to you. I was hasty and didn't think it through properly. I just reacted on the spur of the moment to a problem that I've known before in my life. I have every faith in you, and I want you and me to bring our child up together, under the same roof, and in the same bed. ''Keke pulled him over the table and kissed him. ''What do you say?'' She looked at him as his expression changed. The tiredness in his face
went,
and the sparkle in his eyes returned.

''Do you know how hard it has been, thinking I would have to live my life without you. Without seeing my child every day?
Of course,
the answer is yes.''

Jessie watched as Dan stood up, walked to Keke's side of the table and got onto one knee. When she saw Keke nod, she broke out into applause.

*****

Britney got out of the car outside Jason's house. In her bag was ten kilos of the best cocaine money could buy.

''I warned you, if you talked, you would die instead of your fiancee. Those are my rules,'' Steve said as Britney appeared in the middle of the cross hairs of his
long-range
assassins rifle.

*****

THE END

“Lela, why aren’t you taking this more seriously?!” Liddy was already working on her makeup for the show, and I had barely decided if I was going to go. 

“It’s just a concert, with a bunch of
loud
girls screaming.  I’m pretty sure that wearing a slutty skirt and layers of makeup won’t help me enjoy the
concert
more.”

I still slipped into the skirt, though.  I thought I looked good in it, and I think Liddy felt the same way.

“That look is perfect for you.  I wish I had your model figure.”

I gave her a sheepish look.  More people have told me that I’m lucky for my figure, but just as many people have told me to eat more.  I think I eat too much, honestly.

“Thanks,” I replied, “why are you
tryin’
so hard to look good for this, I’ve never seen you work so hard before a concert.”

She gave me a half smile and a wink.

“I may have a little surprise for after the show.”

I rolled my eyes, the last time she said she had a surprise I was stuck driving her while she had awkward sex in the backseat. 

“I hope this time your underwear stays on,” I said.

“Trust me,
this time,
neither of us will be wearing anything afterward.”

She bit her lip.

I didn’t talk much after that, but the ideas I had about what she wanted to do after
the show
were mortifying.  She was the kind of person that was interested in driving to Mexico at two in the morning. 

It
really
didn’t take long for me to get ready, and soon enough we were in a cab with three of our other friends headed toward the show.

‘The Sell-outs’ were the newest and most
popular
rock band, and their tickets sold out in minutes.  I was
actually
surprised that Liddy managed to get tickets. 

Even more surprising is how good the seats were, not that anyone ever really sat in their seats at these concerts.  I figured that would
be best explained
later.

When they began the entire audience lit up, screaming and dancing, some even began to sing along off-key.  I didn’t
mind,
though, I just enjoyed the music and danced along. 

The four members of the band played so hard that they started taking their shirts off part way through the show.  And, when the lead singer Aiden threw his shirt to the crowd, I thought there would be a riot. 

For some reason it felt like he made eye contact with me a few times, perhaps it was how close we
were seated
towards the stage, or it might even be that Liddy felt the need to flash the singer a few times.  But, to
me,
it
felt
like a moment, and before too long the concert was over and the moment had passed.  I could already feel sick thinking about the hangover I would probably have tomorrow morning.

However, as everyone filed out of the stadium, Liddy grabbed me by the arm.  She gave me a wink, and with
that,
I could tell that this night might only be getting started.  Pushing past the exiting crowd, we found ourselves standing in front of two of the beefiest men I’d ever seen in person. 

“Passes?”

The larger one asked.  Liddy reached into her small handbag and held out two ID badges, and after a quick
look,
the guard ushered us toward backstage.

I’d never been backstage at a concert before, and the suspense was getting to me.  My hands were starting to sweat, and I could feel myself getting a little dizzy when I looked around.  But, Liddy kept pulling me along on this ride, and I just followed.

Walking through busy corridors and hallways, even a staircase or two, Liddy kept flashing her badges and would
be met
with people pointing one direction or another.  Before long we had found the
holy-grail
, the coveted green room where the band was enjoying some
much-needed
refreshment.

2.

It wasn’t a terribly large room, but it was large enough for the band and a few other girls to wander around.  Along the far side sat a table, covered in drinks and food.  A
couple
of couches and chairs occupied the center of the room where the band sat, as well as most of their female company.  The longest wall had a large balcony stretching out towards the stadium field.  A few roadies, drinks in hand, were chatting with a couple of the other girls on the balcony.

Liddy shot from my grasp as soon as she made contact. 
This was
her element; she always was a bit of an attention hog.  I never minded at
all.
I wasn’t interested in
being stared
at by a bunch of gawkers, but she was a professional. 

“Lela, get over here!”

She waved at me, attempting to bring me in closer but I just waved her off and made for the table in the back.  All that dancing had me feeling relaxed but too drained.  I could already tell that my muscles would be regretting my workout from tonight.

I put together a small plate of snacks, as well as some water, and sauntered off to the balcony.  It was quite a nice night actually; the
cool
air off the water staunched the summer heat. 

As I stood, leaning against the railing, it became a bit lonely as the
couples
filtered back inside, leaving me to my thoughts.

I couldn’t help but feel like I was wasting the gift from my friend.  She probably worked hard to get these
passes,
and here I was just leaning against a railing eating
meager
snack foods.  I peeked on Liddy; she was laughing and chatting with the lead singer. 

I had to admit, I did think Aiden was gorgeous.  His long blond hair was tied back behind his head, and it showed off his sharp, and high, cheek bones.  Being a rock singer, he
definitely
took care of himself, and while he was quite skinny, it looked like he still enjoyed his time at the gym.

He was out of my league; he was only
really
paying attention to the fairer skinned girls at the party, so I could tell right away that his eye wouldn’t stray too far my direction. 

Still, as imaginative as I was, I tried my best to tamp down any thoughts of Aiden coming my way.  Besides, Liddy was more interested
anyway
, it would probably be best that she
is given
the opportunity of a lifetime.

“Excuse me, is this balcony taken?”

The voice sounded familiar, I turned my neck and saw him standing there, long hair and all.

“Err… um … no.  It’s open to everyone,” I squeaked out.

I turned back to my empty plate of snacks, but now I couldn’t remember what I had just been
thinking about
.

“Lovely night,” he said.

I nodded, trying to hide my excitement.

“You’re missing out on the party, were you planning on staying out here all night?”

I nodded again.

“You certainly are a woman of few words,” he laughed. 

I smiled and giggled to myself a bit.

“Well, that
’s quite a nice
smile.”

I was happy for the compliment, as much as he was
happy
to have given it.

“Since this doesn’t seem like your kind of party, I doubt you came here alone, who dragged you here?”

I turned and pointed at my friend Liddy, who was chatting up their bassist at this point.  I was quite surprised that none of the other girls were trampling the balcony, hoping for another minute or two with Aiden.

“She seems nice. Bit
of a talker, though.”

I giggled
again. H
e was right.  She had quite a mouth on her.

“Why didn’t anyone follow you out,” I asked meekly.

Aiden let out a surprised expression, as though he’d just seen lead turn to gold.

“So you
can
speak!”

He laughed, almost as much as I did.

“To answer that question, how many people in that room do you think would follow me out here right now?”

I turned and counted, there must’ve been about fifteen girls in there ready to swoon all night.

“Looks like fifteen?”

“Sounds about right; how many of them
look
available enough to chat on this balcony.”

I looked again, and after examining, I saw that most of them were already talking to other band members or strong looking roadies.  Except maybe one or two that just sat chatting with each other about who knows what.

“Maybe two of them would come out?” I asked.

“This happens after nearly every concert.  I’m not
really
interested in
groupies,
they get boring.  Sex is great and all, but it feels like I’m exploiting my fans.  I just get a dirty feeling after it’s all over, so I just don’t sleep with them.  I respect my fans too much to exploit them as bad as my record label does.”

“So you just told them all you weren’t
interested,
and they backed off?  That doesn’t sound like Liddy at all.”

“Ah, Liddy is your friends name,” he said. “She was the hardest pressed to get close to me tonight.  She told me she knew the manager, which was strike one right there.  Anyone that knows our manager knows what a total creep he is.  He’d have to sleep with all the girls in that room before he’d even think of giving any of them a backstage pass.”

That explained quite a lot in my mind, Liddy didn’t mind using herself to get what she wanted, and I suppose this was no different.

“So how did you get yours,” he asked.

“Liddy had two, so she gave me one.  We’ve been best friends since 2
nd
grade, so she didn’t even have a second
thought
about whom to give it to.”

“She got
two
from that scumbag manager?  She must’ve done some pretty crazy things to get a second one.”

I giggled, but I also felt a little sad about how badly she must’ve wanted to get a second pass, and here I was wasting it on this balcony.  But, I couldn’t help but wonder what she did to get it.

“Okay, I need to change the subject.  Thinking about Greg sleeping with anyone is killing my brain.”

I giggled.

“What do you do when you’re not performing,” I asked. 

“Oh, that,” he said, flashing me a big smile, “I like a lot of things.  But, the thing I like to do most is photography.  It’s
really
convenient for me since I can take my camera with me anywhere, and I get to visit some places that most people only dream of.”

He looked
really
excited.

“I suppose you probably knew that from the fan club website, though.”

I shook my head no.

“Back to not talking again, eh?”

“Sorry, I don’t
really
talk to a lot of new people, let alone rock stars.  You’re a bit out of my league.”

He laughed at the thought.

“You think you feel overwhelmed by me?  I’m just amazed that 20,000 people want to show up and listen to me play, that’s overwhelming.  I’m not out of your league. 
If anything,
I’m in just the right place.”

“No way, I’m sure
you’ve been hit by the celebrity bug
.  Haven’t you met some other people that you admire and felt
awestruck
?  Don’t say it never happened.”

He bellowed a laugh.  But, his moment of silence that followed let me know that I was right.

“I’ve been bitten by the bug, alright.  You don’t grow up in the middle of nowhere expecting to meet your inspiration.  I must admit that I melted a bit when I met Robert Plant and James Hetfield.”

I gasped at the name dropping; those were a couple of my celebrity crushes as well, although they were still a bit too old for me to consider anything dirty.

“So, if you were to go out for a walk with them now, would they still be out of your league?  You’re probably just as famous.”

He thought about it for a second before he answered.

“I guess fans spending time with their idols will always be overwhelming, but you shouldn’t feel that way with me.  Sure, I might get paid doing what I love, but I’m nothing too special.  You’d be able to tell that if you spent a day with me.”

A sudden flash of interest flashed into my head, and I didn’t want to miss out on an opportunity to prove someone wrong.