time I’ve been alone, since Branden attacked me. Okay, let’s face it, I’m not alone, alone. Mason is here, along with the woman who doesn’t talk to me. There are also two other guys in the house who don’t talk to me. There are at least six outside that I have seen. The only one who talks to me is Mason. He said he’s my point of contact. So damn formal.
Today, is my first day alone without one of the guys here. I feel safest with Dallas, but Landon runs a super close second. Without one of them here, I’m a bit jumpy. Every time I see movement from the corner of my eye, I spin around. Every time, it’s been Mason. I try to shake it off, but for some reason, I just can’t.
So, I’ve started pacing the living room. Mason has his back to the wall with his arms crossed watching me, and another guy is standing by the back room. This room is large, I could probably run laps around it for a decent exercise, but the pacing is enough right now.
“Austin, why don’t you try to watch some TV?” Mason says.
I shake my head.
“Okay, why don’t we do some baking? Dallas is always talking about much he loves your cookies.” He says.
“I’d probably burn them all,” I say.
“Well, you’re making the guys nervous.” He says.
This makes me stop in my tracks, and I look at the guy by the back door and see another one in the doorway that leads to the small hallway to the kitchen.
“Sorry.” I sigh and try to slow down my pacing, until a door closes, and I full on panic. I run right to Mason, who puts me between the wall and him.
“It’s okay. It was just one of my guys coming in from doing a garage sweep,” Mason says.
I don’t move right away, and finally, he sighs.
“If you’re going to pace, let’s at least go do it in the upstairs hallway and give these guys a break, yeah?”
“Okay.” I nod. He follows me upstairs, and I start to pace not just the side of the hallway where my old room is along with Landon’s and mine and Dallas’s room. But also, down the guest side and make the ‘L’ turn to the game room and the loft. Mason follows me the whole way.
They still haven’t found Branden or Jimmy, whatever his name is. The cops have a warrant out for his arrest, because on top of attacking me, he missed several probation check-ins and being back on drugs is a violation of his parole.
I know the cops are searching for him, and I know Dallas and Landon are working with Mason, too. One night, I heard them talking to Mason, who had hired on a bunch of extra men to start their own search for Branden.
I asked Dallas about it that night, and he told me the guys are all ex-military and happy to help find someone, who attacked a woman. Dallas said this is also a trial run for security for their label and their tours. Mason is going to be working with their clients too, not just as their personal security.
That made me feel a bit better. Mason is good at what he does, and I know they trust him because they ask him to watch over me. Dallas also told me once everything is over with Branden, I will be assigned a new guard, because Mason will take on a desk job, managing the security team.
That makes me sad, because I really like and trust Mason, but I know this is a huge promotion for him, so I’m happy for him, too. It will allow him to be home more with his wife.
After several passes of the long hallway, Mason finally speaks.
“Dallas and Landon’s car is at the gate.” He says.
I sigh and start to feel better. “Thank you.”
Making my way downstairs, I enter the kitchen, as soon as they do. And I don’t stop, until I’m in Dallas’s arms, and finally feel safe and calm again. Things are okay. I won’t let go of him, and he just chuckles and carries me into the living room, collapsing on the couch with me in his arms. Landon follows us and kicks his feet up on the coffee table.
“It’s over, baby girl,” Dallas says, as he rubs my back.
“What do you mean?” I ask him.
“We had a meeting at the label today as you know, but we kept some stuff from you, because we didn’t want to worry you,” Dallas says.
“It didn’t work. She was a nervous wreck, jumpy and pacing, and freaked at the sound of a door closing,” Mason interjects, sitting at the edge of the love seat.
“Thanks,” I mumble and snuggle into Dallas even more.
The guys chuckle, before getting back to business.
“So first, we finally were able to get a meeting with Dave. As expected, he just kept asking us to drop the charges. He was all sweet at first, saying Branden couldn’t get the help he needed in jail and all that, which we know isn’t his motivation. Then, we revealed how we knew he was stealing money and things got ugly. He admitted to it, and of course, I was recording it all, though he didn’t know that.” Landon says.
“So, after that, we met with the label execs and laid out what Dave has been doing, the stolen money, and all about his son. We gave them two options. Let us out of our contracts now, and we’ll spin this in a positive light for them, or if they don’t, we will assume they were working with Dave.” Dallas says.
“How did they take that?” Mason asks.
“Better than we thought. They said they had planned to let us out of our contract early anyway, and they want to work with us on our label, help with tour promotions, and still use our name. We have contracts to look over. Then, after the meeting, Milton shocked us both and offered to be our mentor. So, all in all, it was good.” Dallas says.
“After that, we went to the police station with the recording. Milton had his security hold Dave, so he was easy to arrest, and he turned Jimmy in to try to save his own ass. A few minutes ago, we got a call saying they picked Branden up, too.” Landon says.
“So, it’s over? They’re in jail?” I ask, hesitantly.
“Yes, and will be for a very long time,” Dallas says.
I sag in relief, and even though I’m happy, I start crying. Crying in relief, it’s all over and letting out all the emotions from the last few days. So many emotions.
“Come on, baby girl. Let me take you upstairs. I just want to hold you.” Dallas says, and he picks me up in his arms.
All I can do is nod, as I let him take control. He carries me upstairs like it’s nothing and lays me in our bed. The bed we have been sharing every night, since he moved my stuff in. This room already feels like home. When I wouldn’t change anything, Dallas did. He added stuff from my room and mixed it in with his stuff.
I grab his hand and pull him into bed with me.
“Lay with me,” I say to him. “I hated you being gone today. I feel so safe in your arms.”
With this, he wraps his arms around me and pulls me to lie on his chest.
“I will always protect you. Though I hated being away from you today too, but it had to be done, to put an end to this. I wasn’t expecting him to turn on his son the way he did. I thought we’d still be hunting him down, but I’m so happy he’s behind bars, too. They can’t hurt you anymore, and it got us out of our contract, so I’d say it’s a win.”
“You guys excited to start your label? Are you ready to start early? I know you weren’t planning to for another year. This won’t set you back, will it?”
“Calm down, baby girl. We’ll be just fine. It will still take some time because we want to do this right, but we’ll be okay. This also means there won’t be a final tour, so I’ll be home. No more going on the road for a while.” Dallas says.
“Will you ever tour again?” I ask him. I can’t imagine Highway 55 never touring again.
“We will. Landon and I have been tossing around the idea of being part of the first tour, as we bring the people we sign on. We’d draw a crowd, and it’ll be a good way to get them out there. Maybe, have each person do a song with us that would be on their albums. We know our name will sell and to get them off the ground we aren’t afraid to use our names. But because of that, we will be extra selective of those first few artists.”
“Oh, you won’t join some music competition show and just take the winners?” I joke.
“No, we won’t be part of those horrible reality shows you watch. Those guys get a huge fan base, even if they don’t win. We want undiscovered talent. We’ve been watching videos online and pouring over the demos people send us. There are at least seven possibilities, and I’m sure there will be more. We’ll bring them in and audition them to see who can cut it.”
I love seeing Dallas like this. He’s in his element, and that calms me in a way I didn’t know I needed tonight. He must sense me getting tired, because he starts running his hand through my hair.
“Get some rest, baby girl. I’m right here, and we aren’t leaving again tonight.”
That soft touch of his hand in my hair makes the whole world right. Our next battle is working things out with Landon, but right here, right now, everything is perfect.