Absolutely Unforgivable(64)

While Billy tended to me, Trista was on the phone with the security company. The house, it seems, was about to get a heavy-duty upgrade. There was even talk of adding in a safe room.

We went into the living room and Billy sat on the couch and propped me up on his lap. I was mindlessly running my finger across his chest when I really started to think about what happened. My mind flashed to the man from the Fourth of July fiasco, and then to the man in the backyard. It suddenly hit me, they weren’t the same. There were two of them. I popped my head up and without realizing I had done it, squeezed Billy’s arm, -- my nails digging into his skin.

“Stacy!” he cried out.

“She okay, man?” Vin asked, coming towards the couch to see what was going on with me.

“Stacy, Babe please. You are hurting me,” Billy said as he tried to remove my fingers that were painfully digging into his arm.

I stared off into the distance and murmured, “There are two.”

Billy looked at me, trying to figure out what I was talking about. “Two of what?”

I continued to stare off into space. “Two of them. Two …”

“Two of who? What do you mean?”

“The man today. He wasn’t the same from the Fourth of July. He was not the same man as before. The other one is still out there.”

“Oh, is that what you are worried about? Babe, don’t. That other guy got his ass kicked. He won’t dare come back for more.”

I knew Billy was trying to reassure me that everything was going to be okay but still, the thought of that other man out there haunted me. This whole thing was just all so crazy. There was just no way all of this was really happening.

Before long the front door was flung open. It scared me to death and I jumped up out of Billy’s lap as Vin leaped over the couch to stand in front of me. I stood behind him shaking, my lip started to quiver but it was all for naught. It wasn’t another crazy stalker; it was only Travis and the rest of the gang.

I loosened my grip on the back of Vin’s shirt and peeked around his massive body. I half expected Travis to make a pervy comment about what I was wearing but surprisingly he didn’t. He just shook his head and said, “Damn girl. You okay?”

I didn’t get a chance to answer before Mindy and Bree rushed to my side. “I can’t believe it. Are you okay? This is so crazy. Did you see them shoot the guy? Did he touch you? Did you recognize him? Were you scared? Did you know what was happening?”

Their seemingly endless questions were overwhelming me and I started to feel the room spin. I tugged on the back of Vin’s shirt and he turned around and scooped me up in his arms and brought me to the couch. Mindy and Bree plopped down on either side of me, not letting up even for a moment with their questions.

When I saw Brick enter the room I started to remember what Trista had said earlier about him tweeting as me, telling my followers updates about my well-being. I turned to Mindy and asked if she could show me her phone. I clicked on the Twitter app and read what he had been saying. He had tweeted a few photos of me and the police officers that had been at the house earlier. I guess Trista had given him those. He posted several messages about me being okay and how wonderfully sweet and downright sexy the police officers were who came to my rescue.

My stomach started to turn as I read the pages and pages of tweets Brick had been sending out as me over the past few weeks. He made me seem like such a ditzy bimbo in some of them; I hated it.

“Don’t mind Brick. He’s just an idiot. He thinks that is how all women talk,” Mindy said as she took her phone from my hand. “So I totally have the best news. I was talking to Trista and in light of all the buzz around the band right now she thought it might be fun if we joined them onstage for the next few shows.”

Bree added, “And we can totally coordinate all of our outfits like we did the last time. Think how hot we would be!”

“I don’t know what Billy would think about that.”

“You really think that after all of this happened he would let you more than an arm's length away from him ever again?” Mindy joked.

I shook my head no. “I guess not.”

“We are going to be the most awesome addition to the band ever!”

Darla leaned over the couch and added, “And we have the first show this weekend.”

I looked over at Billy who was across the room talking to the boys. He seemed to be pointing out where various events from earlier had taken place. I had to look away. I just didn’t want to think about it again.