Time Out (21 page)

“Now I know why Hawkins finally shaved off that beard,” he smirked down at me as we broke apart from the hug. “I thought we were going to have to institutionalize him there for a second.”

“Yeah well—we made up,” I felt my cheeks grow a light shade of pink as Riley softly chuckled.

“Come to an understanding, did you?”

“Stop it,” I playfully slapped his chest and he composed himself again. “Anyway, he thinks it’s safer for me to be with him instead of without him.”

“So he’s finally changed his mind,” Lizzie joined the conversation as she came out the backstage door behind us. I noticed she was wearing the same matching ‘Team Joie’ t-shirt as Riley’s, but hers was tied in a knot below her chest to show off more skin. The gesture meant a lot to me, especially when I wasn’t even sure if Lizzie owned another t-shirt. “It’ll make my job of keeping you glamorous a heck of a lot easier,” she continued. “Thankfully we can blame the whole ‘wardrobe disaster’ on being depressed and away from Hawkins.”

“Yes, that was first and foremost on my mind,” I rolled my eyes. “Thank god Lizzie will be dressing me again.”

“I know
I’ve
been thanking God,” she emphasized as I ushered them over the picnic table where my cheesy fries were going cold, though that didn’t stop me from eating them.

“So what’s new around here?” I asked them.

“Harlow’s not a fan of the new security measures now in place because of Vance.”

“What new security measures?” I asked.

“After what happened to Ted,” Riley explained. “He brought in his own security staff. These officials protect every aspect of the band’s affairs from the venues to their hotels. It’s beginning to piss Harlow off, especially when they weren’t going to let me be up there with him since I’m not an ‘official’ member of the crew yet. Well, I haven’t gotten my first paycheck yet, and Harlow went ballistic on him,” Riley cracked a smile. “You know he doesn’t have a problem telling people how it is.”

I remembered the head of the lighting crew getting into an argument with Hawkins when we first arrived and how he didn’t want us, or rather Riley, back there with his team at the time because Lizzie had insulted him by calling him out for being gay.

“You don’t mess with Harlow,” I nodded in agreement.

“And what’s new with you, Lizzie?” I asked in between taking bites of my cheesy fries.

“You know you’re competition’s one hundred and ten pounds, right?” she looked from me to the fries.

“Do you ever take a break from your ‘job’?” I snorted.

“
No,
and neither should you,” she emphasized before continuing, “Ryan and I are finally over. He’s changed since high school. It seems like he never has the time for me the way Warren does.”

             
“Thank god,” I sighed in relief. “Riley and I’ve been planning this for weeks now.”

             
“Yeah, yeah,” Lizzie suddenly blushed herself. “What’s new with you? Any more photo op disasters I need to know about?”

             
“About that, brace
yourself
,” I smiled. “Hawkins picked me up in an oversized hoodie.”

“
Icck
!
You know, any other stylists would have dropped you by now for not
listening
. It happened before to Brittany Spears when she had that mental break down,” she scoffed like the girl could help herself.

             
“Yes, because that’s what really matters since we’ve last seen her,” Riley raised an eyebrow doubtfully in Lizzie’s direction. “How are you holding up since…that night?” he seemed tentative about how to broach the subject.

             
“Well—I got tossed into the trunk of my car,” I started at the beginning. “I woke up in only my underwear in this abandoned warehouse, and there were these three men who interrogated me for what felt like hours. They kept asking me where this microchip was, but I had no idea what they were talking about.

             
“They went out to have a chat halfway through when one of them realized I didn’t know anything. I was pretty sure they were going to kill me because I was worthless to them then. That’s when the guy guarding the door came up to me and began to talk about ‘the infamous Joie Hall’ and how ‘Hawkins would be so upset to see me like this,’ and then he licked my face.”

             
“
Eww
,” they both groaned in disgust.

             
“I basically started to defend myself,” I continued until the end. “And escaped…you know, just another day on the tour.”

             
“Who’s this ‘she’ they were talking about?” Lizzie asked.

             
“If I knew, I would have confronted her by now.”

             
“Well honestly, Joie, how many girls do you know besides me on the tour?”

             
“There’s those two girls on the crew,” I wracked my mind as Riley and Lizzie turned to look at each other.

             
“Who else do you know who would sabotage you’re safety, just to save herself?” Riley asked next; prompting me to catch on.

             
“When you say it like that,” I baulked. “You guys, you don’t think…it was
Gwyneth
do you?” I thought that they must have been kidding.

             
“That
biatch
has had it out for you since the first day she arrived. So yeah, that’s what we think,” Lizzie smiled with fake sincerity.

             
“How’s she connected to the microchip? What would she
really
know that we don’t?” I asked in astonishment. 

             
“Lots of stuff, she’s a doctor,” Lizzie added, which made me snicker. “
A doctor
who works across seas - in a country where dealing with terrorists is a common practice,” Lizzie clarified. “Gwyneth knows something, and it’s your job to figure out what it is, or else knowing her, she’ll end up getting you killed.”

“I agree,” Riley added. “If she’s capable of hitting you over something as small as a locket, who knows what else she would do?”

“She told me it was a piece of jewelry given to her by her mother.”

“Yeah, her locket,” Riley explained. “I overheard her talking to Warren about finally finding it.”

“She freaked out over a…
locket
?” I drifted off when I remembered the terrorist saying,
“It’s a very small chip that can be easily concealed in another object.”

“If you two are right about Gwyneth,” I realized with a renewed sense of purpose. “She’s had the microchip on her this entire time, and I think I know where she’s keeping it,” I said before quickly getting up to leave.

             
“Wait, Joie, don’t confront her by
yourself
,” Riley warned. “At least have Hawkins there with you.”

             
“You think she’d hurt me?”

             
“That’s exactly what I think she’d do,” Riley locked eyes with mine.

Chapter
Sixteen

Once I had explained that it might not be in my best interest to confront Gwyneth alone with the few ‘unanswered questions’ I had, Hawkins agreed to come along with me back to his tour bus where he texted Gwyneth to meet up with him for a talk. If the microchip was in the locket it would explain why Gwyneth desperately searched my belongings for it and how we ended up in the fight in the first place.

Before Gwyneth arrived, Hawkins pulled me in for a kiss and asked if I was sure I wanted to do this?

I nodded, “We need to clear the air.”

Minutes later, Gwyneth sat down across from us on the other leather couch in front of the bus. I had no idea how I was going to apologize to either one of them if I was wrong, so I tried to approach the matter as subtly as possible.
             

             
“I thought that you lost that locket,” I looked down at the piece of golden jewelry around her neck.

             
“It must have fallen off in my sleep,” she looked a tad bit guilty as she fiddled with it nervously. “I found it in my sheets.”

“You were pretty upset the day you lost it,” I reminded her. “What made you think that I had it?”

“Is this really why you brought me here?” she turned to Hawkins. “To talk about the day she hit me when I went looking through her things?”

“Actually it was you who hit me
first
that day,” I set the record straight because I was sick of playing these games with her. “So why do you think I had it again?”

“You’re one of the only other girls on the tour,” she added dismissively though I got a sense the locket wasn’t the only thing she felt I ‘took’ from her.

“
Exactly
,” I nodded, deciding that it was time to be honest now. “It’s in your locket isn’t it?” I asked as my eyes watched her nervously touch the locket again. “The microchip, isn’t it?”   

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Gwyneth said, but I saw a flash of alarm in her eyes with the discovery.

“That’s why you’re here.” It suddenly dawned on me. “You’ve been using the band’s security to protect yourself.”

“What’s she talking about, Joshua?” Gwyneth asked innocently enough.

“No, you’re not going to
lie
your way out of this one,” I told her. “It was you who set me up by telling them I had the microchip. It was probably the day you couldn’t find it. The day that you assumed
I
had taken it.” All the pieces began to fall into place as I watched Gwyneth squirm in her seat.

“Please tell me you have a
good
reason for bringing all of this retaliation on the band,” I emphasized, and before she could even blink, I leaned over to rip the golden locket right off of her neck. “By wearing this—

“Easy there, Joie,” Gwyneth whole mood suddenly shifted with the seriousness of the situation. Holding out a cautious hand, she continued to insist, “You don’t know what you have in your hands.”

“After being tortured for hours, which by the way thank you for that,” I added glibly. “I think I have a pretty good idea what you’re hiding in this,” I popped open the locket and looked down at the tiny silver square microchip.

I flipped over the locket to catch it my hand as Gwyneth urged, “Careful, whatever you do, don’t drop it.”  

“What’s that?” Hawkins looked from Gwyneth’s half hunched over body on the edge of the seat back to me standing above her.

“Would you like to tell him what this is?” I held up the tiny microchip, completely bluffing as I continued, “Or do you want me to?”

“Okay—fine, will do this your way,” she caved. “What you’re holding there are the coordinates and locations for a hidden nuclear missile site in Sudan, Africa.”

Not quite expecting to hear that, I slowly and carefully placed the microchip back into the safety of the hard locket and then closed it.

“Exactly,” I finally said.

“What the hell are you doing carrying something like that around your neck?” Hawkins asked in astonishment.

“Because I can’t go to the police with the information,” she sank back into her seat with the confession.  

“And why not?”
I asked, because I thought that the government would want to know if there was a hidden nuclear missile site in a potentially hostile foreign country.

“Because it’s the only evidence that links me to
Aarif
Kumar’s death,” her eyes snapped up to mine.

“Isn’t
Aarif
Kumar the terrorist who was killed?” I felt my face pinch with the question.

“The terrorist…I killed,” her eyes locked with mine and for a brief moment, I felt a shiver race down my back. I knew Gwyneth wasn’t a saint, even if she may have looked like one, but I didn’t peg her for the murdering type and, judging by Hawkins’ dropped mouth, neither had he.

“Do you remember the story I told you about one of my first experiences in
Paoua
, involving the brother with the gun and how I had to talk him down from killing anyone?” she looked from Hawkins and then to me for understanding.