CLASS ACT (A BRITISH ROCKSTAR BAD BOY ROMANCE) (26 page)

He could save my life… at the cost of his own.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” Tyler yelled, grabbing me by my shoulder. “Hold up!”

I shrugged his hand off me. The entire band would have to jump me if they wanted me to stop. “To Santa Monica! I left Charlotte there and she’s not picking up her phone!”

“Maybe her battery died,” Dave said, trying to calm me down. “Some weird shit is going down today but let’s not rush to conclusions.”

“You heard Mr. Han,” I argued, glancing at my head of security. The man was the only one in the room who was relaxed. I guessed he was used to these types of scenarios. “He said someone broke into the building in Santa Monica. Like an idiot, I left Charlotte alone there. She could be in danger!”

We were making a scene in the hotel lobby but I didn’t give a fuck. Megan grabbed me by the hand and stared into my eyes. Howard’s old girlfriend always had a knack for calming me down. “Heath, let’s think this through before we do anything drastic. Or stupid. Or both.”

“This is Charlotte’s life on the line-”

“Wait guys,” Ryan interrupted, silencing everyone. “What is that noise?”

It was the ringtone to my phone.

“It’s my phone,” I glanced down at who it was from. My heart thundered when I read the name. “Fuck, it's Jared.”

Tyler raised an eyebrow. “He should be in this hotel right now. Why is he calling us when he’s in the same damn building?”

“Because he isn’t,” I answered before accepting the call. “This is Heath.”

Jared’s familiar voice was strangely icy as he spoke. “You want her back then give me ten million dollars within one hour.”

The man knew the jig was up.

“Where is she?” I demanded, my rage apparent in my tone. I put it on speakerphone so everyone could hear. “Where are you keeping Charlotte?”

A strange metallic hiss went off in the background before Jared spoke. “Give me the ten million dollars. Have it wired to this routing number.”

A text message popped up. It was a string of numbers. I guessed it was some secret account in the Cayman Islands or another tax haven.

“In case you haven’t already noticed, my bank accounts are empty,” I spat back. I had checked earlier to see a little over a thousand pounds in my savings account. Jared had left the bare minimum in it as not go below the minimum threshold and alert me. On the other hand, my checking accounts were drained dry. “How do you expect a broke rock star to pay your ransom?”

“Then take that money from your stupid fucking charity,” he growled. “I don’t care where it comes from as long as I get it. Just know that she dies if you try anything funny or have the police involved!”

Now, we were negotiating. “How can I trust you to uphold your end of the deal?”

“I’ll drop her off at an undisclosed location,” Jared replied. “She’ll be safe so long as you give me the money. You have my word.”

“The word of a man who stole from an orphanage,” I growled. “How can I even begin to trust you?”

“I can send her back in pieces if you like,” he threatened. I didn’t think this pencil pushing manager had it in him to be a murderer. However, I wasn’t going to push the issue with Charlotte’s life on the line. “Get me the money in one hour or else. Don’t even call the police if you want her alive.”

The others shared looks of concern with me. “I need to know she is safe before I agree to this.”

There was a brief pause.

“Heath, it’s me,” Charlotte said, pure terror in her words. “Jared is-”

Her voice was interrupted by her kidnapper. “One hour or she’s dead.”

He ended the call.

My blood ran cold.

We looked at each other in horror.

“That son of a bitch was behind it all along!” Tyler growled. “I can’t believe I trusted that crazy bastard.”

“He seems unhinged,” Ryan agreed. “Who knows if he’ll keep up his side of the bargain?”

I shook my head. “We can’t just leave Charlotte out to dry.”

Dave sighed. “What hell are we supposed to do? We’re musicians, not a SWAT team!”

“We should call the cops,” answered Tyler. “They’ll know-”

“What if Charlotte’s dead by then?” I replied, barely keeping my anger in check. This wasn’t the time to have a temper tantrum. My lover’s life was on the line. “Fuck, I’d give every cent I have to get her back safe. Megan, can you wire the money?”

“Heath, it’s not going to be easy getting that much money together in an hour,” Megan replied. My heart fell like a stone. “Big transfers like that can’t be done in an hour. It raises a lot of alarm bells in our banking system. Hell, it’d take over a day to move that dollar amount. I can try rushing it through but I can’t be sure he receives it by the deadline.”

Dave looked confused. “Why’d he tell us to give him so much money in one hour?”

“Jared must be desperate and not thinking straight,” Ryan replied. “He’s been backed into a corner. With luck, he releases Charlotte if we get the money to him in time.”

Mr. Han didn’t look convinced. “A man like him will not honor this deal. He will take your money and kill Ms. Rosen.”

I shuddered at the thought but I knew there was a kernel of truth to it. “Then we have to find him and free Charlotte.”

Tyler shook his head. “We don’t even know where Jared is. Los Angeles is a big county. It’ll be like searching for a needle in a stack of needles.”

“The security at the Santa Monica property went off,” Mr. Han replied. “Jared was likely the trespasser. He would have the means and motive to kidnap Ms. Rosen and hold her hostage at the property.”

“That’s no guarantee that he’s still there,” Dave countered. “For all we know, he’s hiding in some hole in the wall in Santa Monica city.”

“Wait, that metal sound in the background during the phone call,” Megan said out of the blue. “It’s the boiler room in the Santa Monica orphanage. I swear that’s the same noise we kept hearing during our visit down there.”

“You’re right,” I whispered. The boiler room was old but functional. Its lack of use had led to contractions in the metal. “It’s the sound the pipes make when they contract. He’s holding Charlotte hostage in the boiler room.”

“Even if we know where he is,” Ryan sighed. “How do we take him down? Even if we call the police, it might be too late to mobilize a SWAT team and rescue Charlotte. Even sending a cop car down there might spook Jared into doing something stupid.”

“He doesn’t know that we’re aware of his exact location in the complex,” said Mr. Han, stroking his chin. He was seeing this from the point of view of a soldier. Perhaps, that was what the situation needed. “This is a tactical advantage.”

Tyler massaged his forehead. “Well, we know that he’s probably holding Charlotte at gunpoint in the boiler room. What do we do about it?”

“I’d go in alone with the money,” I said to everyone’s shock. Well, except Mr. Han. That man was as cool as a cucumber. “I’ll text him that the bank couldn’t wire the entire amount. We’ll wire him a few thousand and I’ll have another thousand or so delivered to him in person. I’ll lie about security cameras finding out that he entered the construction site so I could deliver the rest of the money in person. Megan, can you at least get a few thousand I can put in duffle bags?”

Megan looked dumbfounded. “Heath, this is insane. What do you hope to accomplish going there alone?”

“I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing,” I admitted, fighting back tears in my eyes. I knew I had to focus and stay strong. Yet, I was at a complete loss. This was all falling out of my hands. Worse, the woman I loved would pay the ultimate price for my failures. “All I know is that I have to save Charlotte.”

For a good moment, no one spoke.

Mr. Han broke the silence and placed a hand on my chest. “I have a plan.”

“That wasn’t part of the deal!” he roared. “You’re in no position to negotiate!”

He was arguing with someone, probably Heath, over something. Jared looked crazier by the second. I wasn’t even sure if he even cared about the money. He seemed to just want to get back at Heath.

“Fine, but know that she’s a dead woman if I so much as hear a police siren,” he conceded. “Break the speed limit if you have to but get here now! Have the money and getaway car ready.”