Ruthanna didn’t need to say anything more; Ethan knew she wanted him to check out the venue’s event staff and security protocols. “Of course,” he said. “I’ll see you later. After dolphin yoga. Say hi to Flipp—”
She snorted and hung up on him.
Ethan downed the rest of his coffee and hurried to the Aquitaine Event Center. Ruthanna’s personal team would be assisting the venue’s regular staff, which included over a hundred uniformed and plainclothes guards responsible for bag checks, pat downs, and crowd control.
The manager of the event center, a no-nonsense blonde named Mary, assured Ethan that there were only a few ways to get in, and reentry would be forbidden. “The venue is extremely nonporous,” she said. VIP badges would be limited, and no one would have access to Ruthanna’s backstage area without passing through a gauntlet of armed guards. Ethan scanned the huge, empty space and pictured it thronged with people.
Lucas, Ruthanna’s driver and personal bodyguard, walked over and slapped Ethan’s shoulder in greeting. He was six foot four at least, with a head shaved smooth and shiny. “Ten thousand seats,” he said, “and every one of them sold. Ruthanna’s fans sure didn’t forget her.”
“Let’s hope the creeps did, though,” Ethan said. Ruthanna had had her share of stalkers over the years, including a deranged man who’d managed to scale the fence of her compound before being arrested. Police had found knives, zip ties, and a pair of handcuffs on him, and Ethan still shuddered to think what the man would’ve done if he’d gotten into her house.
He stood at the railing on the three hundred level and gazed down. Could a person manage to slip a weapon past the guards? Would someone come to the concert intending to do harm?
Ruthanna was the real star tonight, and Ruthanna was the one who needed professional protection. So why was it that Ethan was more worried about AnnieLee?
Mary walked over, adjusting the radio earpiece beneath her short blond curls. “We’ve had multiple security meetings, and we’ve gone over media credentialing, where our singers will enter and exit, which gates will be used, blocking reentry points, et cetera,” she said. “We’ve got everything under control.”
Ethan nodded, knowing that he should trust in Mary and her staff. And Las Vegas was a safe city. Every hotel, casino, nightclub, and theater had its own security team, and there were police on foot, on mountain bikes, and in patrol cars. There was no need to be afraid—not for Ruthanna, and not for AnnieLee.
His eyes swept the stage, which was crawling with workers setting up projections, risers, and equipment for the band. If this were a Hollywood movie, the bad guy would already be hiding up in the lighting rig, ready to swoop down and kidnap the heroine as she sang her final, triumphant notes.
But thinking like that was crazy. Life had its dramatic moments, Ethan thought, but it sure as shit wasn’t a Hollywood movie.
Chapter
71
AnnieLee had just stepped out of the shower when she heard a gentle knock and a polite voice calling “Room service” from the hall.
Wrapping herself in a fluffy white robe, AnnieLee padded over, unlocked the double locks, and stepped back to let the maid wheel the folding table inside. “Thanks a million,” she said. “You can put that over by the couch, I guess.” She headed back into the bathroom.
As she stood in front of the mirror, combing through her wet hair, she could hear the wings of the table clicking into place and the sound of water being poured into a glass.
“Bon appétit,” the woman said. “Au revoir!”
“Thank you,” AnnieLee called. “And um…au revoir to you, too.”
They really like their French around here, she thought.
With her hair brushed and her skin slathered with one of the fancy complimentary lotions, AnnieLee came back out, re-bolted the door, and then walked over to inspect the breakfast spread. Beneath a gorgeous spray of lilies was a bowl of cut fresh fruit, a basket of buttery pastries, and a cappuccino with a fleur-de-lis design in its foam.
She was too nervous to be hungry, but she took a croissant and made herself eat it as she paced around the luxurious hotel room, going over her set list in her mind. She’d open with “Driven,” and then go into “Dark Night, Bright Future”…
Knowing that Ruthanna was the true headliner of the show took a tiny bit of the pressure off. But AnnieLee and Ruthanna hadn’t sung together in weeks, and their only rehearsal time before the performance was in less than two hours.