Chapter Ten: I Will Not Say Goodbye

Chapter Ten

I WILL NOT SAY GOODBYE

Performed by Danny Gokey

NIKKI

They came and tore the property apart. FBI. Police. Garner Security.

But none of it could change the fact that Landry was dead.

Paisley and Jonas thought it was because of them.

The officials weren't so sure. According to them, the creepy stalker notes were erratic and amateurish, whereas at first glance, Landry had been killed by someone trained to do so.

An officer approached Nikki, said the Professor was there to see her, and asked if she wanted him to send the man away. Nikki turned a wide-eyed gaze toward the open front door and the sea of officials who'd been pouring in and around the property. She'd forgotten about him. Forgotten about the torn-up office and the rough man who'd been with him. She didn't know if she wanted to see him. Not now. Not after what had happened.

Maynard looked wild-eyed, and she was afraid he wouldn't leave, so she pulled herself from the couch and joined him on the porch. He whispered in her ear, dark thoughts. He said this could have been THEM coming for her like they'd come for him earlier in the day just for trying to find the truth.

Landry and Nikki were almost identical from the back when she had her hair straightened. Same height. Same body shape.

Her stomach turned.

Could this have been because of her? Her family? The secrets the professor hinted at?

"My brother was right. We need to drop the entire thing. If you say anything, if you try to find out the truth, you risk not only your life but your mother's and the rest of the band's. You don't know who you can trust. They came for your father, they'll come for you and kill whoever is in their path," he whispered. At his office, he'd been afraid but still eager, almost desperate. Now, there was only pure terror in his voice.

A horrified tremor went through her.

She believed him with a sickening clarity. Because Landry was dead. She was dead even though they'd had a host of bodyguards and law enforcement agencies watching over them.

"I'm done, but this," he shoved a small package at her, "it belongs to you. Take it. Don't show it to anyone. Ever."

Nikki tried to push it away, but he pried her fingers open and placed it her palm.

"Good luck, Ms. Rani. I hope you stay safe," he said stepping back.

She would have protested. She would have thrown the package at him if two people hadn't emerged behind him in the darkness. One tall and somber in a dress with her brown hair pulled back into a bun and the other tall and wide-shouldered with a frame that screamed military. Sadness and relief flew through her as she rushed down the steps.

"Mom!" Nikki cried, throwing herself into her mom's strong arms. Her stepmom squeezed her back.

"What's happened?" her father's best friend asked.

Bile rose in her throat. She'd happened. Her curiosity. Her desire to know more about a family she'd never know because her father was no longer alive to answer the questions. The loss of Lan could be her fault.

She promised herself right then that she'd forget it all. That she would never again risk her friends…her mom…herself… to chase a fairytale.

Her mind flashed back to the muscled and tattooed man she'd seen outside the studio and Maynard's scarred brother with his beady eyes.

She hadn't said anything about either of them to her team.

She should have said something.

But now it was too late.

Now she could only bite her tongue and hope the swells of guilt and sorrow didn't drown her.

? ? ?

FIADH

She hugged her friends, her bandmates , her sisters fiercely and tightly to her. She'd thought it was all falling apart, and it was, but not in the way she'd expected.

Fee listened while Asher Riggs calmly talked to their label owner about money, and discounts, and a band that would no longer be the flagship of the label, and her stomach twisted and turned.

He'd wanted to get rid of some of them.

He'd wanted four instead of six.

And now there were only five.

She shook her head. It was a ridiculous thought. He wouldn't have had to kill one of them to do it. He'd just fire them. Tear them apart that way.

But when Asher took a call and spoke quietly into the phone, saying, "It's done," all the hair on the back of her neck stood on end.

When he looked up, he caught her gaze, and she sent daggers into him, burning him with an intensity that had him frowning.

If he was behind this, she'd make it her mission to destroy him bit by tiny bit.

? ? ?

LEYA

Her hand shook so hard the phone fell from her grasp, and her knees gave out.

Special Agent Kent caught her, picking up the phone and listening to the voice on the other end repeating what they'd told her.

Pain lodged somewhere in her stomach, dragging through her as he set her down on a couch in the living room of the hotel suite.

Had this been what it felt like? The knife slicing through Landry's throat?

"What is it?" her mother asked, rushing over to them.

"She's dead…she's dead…someone killed her," Leya tried to say, but it came out as a garbled collection of words that made no sense.

It was the broody agent who explained it to her mother.

Her mother was not a woman who was afraid. She cut brains open with a steady hand regularly, and yet Leya saw the fear that crossed over her features.

They stepped away as her mother's voice dropped so she wouldn't hear. Except, she did because her brain was hypersensitive, trying to process everything, trying to not feel the agony.

"You don't think…the white supremacists that have been coming after…" her mother's voice faded away. "They all look so alike…"

Holden Kent sent a look in Leya's direction. He hesitated, but then he shook his head.

"I don't think so."

"Think?! Think isn't good enough, Special Agent Kent. Find out. Find out for sure."

He nodded and left the room.

Her mother returned to her, wrapping her tight against her chest with the scent of Chanel drifting over them. It didn't provide Leya the comfort it normally did. Instead, the pain in her grew until it felt like it would become the only thing she knew.

Was Landry dead because they'd thought it was Leya on the shore? A warning to her father to give up his nomination as vice president?

? ? ?

ADRIA

Lana was the female bodyguard who'd taken Adria from Grand Orchard to the cabin in the middle of nowhere. The bodyguard's phone rang not long after they'd settled in. Hope and fear cut through Adria. She needed them to find her sister whole and well. Lana's eyes cut directly to her. The bodyguard's cheek ticked, her jaw tightened, and Adria could read the truth.

It wasn't good news.

Tears welled in Adria's eyes before Lana even opened her mouth.

"It's not your sister. We're still waiting to hear from your father. This. This is about your band. About Landry."

Adria stared at her, not quite comprehending even as she spoke, the words blending into nonsense. Something about Landry and her throat and the fact that she was no longer with them.

Adria shook her head in denial. No. No, it couldn't be.

"You're wrong," Adria hissed.

Lana looked sad, shaken.

It hit Adria.

The men who'd taken her sister. They'd been coming for her as well.

Her gut heaved, anger and fear and guilt scoring their way through the pain.

Was this because of her?

Because of her family?

The four of them looked so much alike from behind. It would be especially hard to tell them apart in the dark.

It could have been Adria standing by the pond.

Landry could be dead because of her family.