Chapter 40: Rock Stars Are Nowhere When The Cops Show Up

This chapter is dedicated to @jumprope because she leaves nice comments, she calls me "Hun", and she really wants Kat to be happy. @jumprope, I think  Kat has made it through her darkest night, and this is her turning point. In a room full of people all wanting her to act one way or another, she's true to her feelings. She  doesn't know exactly what she wants yet, but she's done trying to please other people!

Kat

Ben ushers Colin out under protest, but I'm glad when they are both gone. As soon as I see myself in the bathroom mirror, I lose it again.

I don't even know why I'm crying. Is it because Trace is married to Ashlynn? Or is it because he lied to me for days about it? Or is it because my sister—who should love me and be more loyal to me than anyone else—married the boy that she knows I love, have always loved? Or am I crying because I'm an idiot, and I ignored all the signs, and all my instincts that told me something wasn't right, in the way Trace spoke so casually, so intimately about Ashlynn?

Suddenly I'm on my knees because I can't even trust that Trace didn't lie when he told me he'd never slept with her. Who marries someone they aren't sleeping with? I don't know what to believe about that part, because both Trace and Ashlynn are liars.

I don't know how long I sob on the bathroom floor, but finally I hear my mother's voice calling me, and I hear the bathroom lock jiggling.

"Katheryn, are all right?" Katheryn, honey, let me in. Katheryn."

"I'm fine, mom. Just getting dressed."

"Unlock the door, honey."

Somehow I splash water on my face and pull on my jeans. I don't look at myself in the mirror again. I can't. I don't even recognize the girl I see there. She's not the Ashlynn clone, she's not the old tomboy hellion—she's a stranger that doesn't even know herself.

I open the door and meet my mother's gaze. We look alike...warm skin, dark eyes and hair—Greek ancestry. Ashlynn has the same features as us, but the lighter skin and hair like my dad. My mom takes one look at how shattered I am, and she embraces me, pushing me back into the bathroom and closing the door as she hugs me fiercely. After a long moment, she pulls apart.

"Katheryn, you tell me now before we go out there in front of Trace's people...did he hurt you, or...give you drugs to make you..." she hesitates, her Southern sensibilities curbing her words...

"Have sex? No. God, why does everyone think he's a creep like that?" I put my hands to my face, furious at myself for still being loyal to him, when he's clearly not loyal to me. "No, Mom. I'm here willingly. Everything I did with Trace—coming here, clubbing, drinking, sleeping in a bed with him— I did willingly. And by the way...I'm still a virgin," I hiss at her.

Her eyes widen a little at that. She assumed Colin and I had been sleeping together for awhile, but like a good conservative southern mother, who approved of my sweet conservative, southern boyfriend, she never asked.

"Colin said he thought you were...taking drugs last night..."

"I did, but Trace didn't give them to me or want me to take them. I'm just the inexperienced idiot that didn't understand that the drinks somebody else bought for the table were laced." God, how did I not see that? Didn't they make us watch all those stupid video in high school about drugs, and how one of the side effects of MDMA was jaw tension and how pacifiers were basically Molly paraphenalia—used to prevent teeth grinding?

"Let's just...go get this over with, with dad," I say, pushing past her. Michael Ballard, CEO, would be the one in charge, and the one I had to negotiate this situation with.

The scene in the living area stops me short. Fuck...everyone is here but Trace. And not Bodie, but all the other Soundcrush members, Dawes, Riley, the security guys, , some hotel management I don't know—and an armed police officer.

What the hell? Who called the cops?

They all stare at me as I swing open the door. My mother goes to my father's side and murmurs to him. She's probably telling him that I've reported to her that I'm not on heroin and that I haven't been raped, but that I willingly ran off to be a groupie, because the concern on my father's fair features darkens to disappointment and anger. "Katheryn—" he begins sternly.

Dawes cuts him off. "Where is he?" he asks me bluntly. "This police officer has a few questions for Trace."

"I don't know." I immediately look at Riley, but he won't meet my eyes. He's leaning against the wall, his eyes on his phone. "Riley?"

He shoots a look at my dad, then his eyes go back to the floor."Respectfully, Kat, it's like I told Dawes and your father, I work for Trace, not you lot. My job here is to take care of Trace's interests." He gestures down at his phone, and then looks at me for the first time, his kind hazelish eyes smiling at me behind his glasses. "That's you, Kat. He says, whatever you want to do, whatever you need, I'm supposed to make that happen."

"You're texting with him right now?" I yell at Riley.

"He'll happily speak with you, if you want," Riles smiles, offering me his phone.

"Are you fucking kidding me? He's too much of a coward to face this?" I yell at Riley.

"Please, Kat, don't yell at Riley," Leed says. "And Trace isn't a coward. He would be here if he could. You don't know the whole story. He's got...a situation, to deal with."

"Oh my god," I say, what little fury I had falling to the floor. The way Leed is looking at me, trying to speak to me without words, I know what he's saying.

Trace found Ashlynn.

Or the people he hired found her, and she's in trouble and he's gone to her. Because she's his wife.

I want to ask Leed what he knows, but before I can, my father takes command of the situation.

"Katheryn, did you or did you not tell Colin last night that these people," my dad pulls an impatient hand from his trouser pants and swings it at Dawes and the security guys, "were making you stay here against your will? Because the police officers don't take kindly to kidnapping. So will you please tell the police officer—and us—what the hell is going on here?"

The police officer steps forward, "Everyone just needs to calm down, okay. I'm here to help. Miss Ballard, is it? Will you please show me some identification, and explain what's going on here?"

Ben helpfully hands me my wallet. "You threw this at me last night," he winks.

As I give the officer my name and ID, I give my account. "I'm here of my own free will. I have a..." I don't know what to say, as furious as I am with Trace for his betrayal, I'm not going to screw his career. I'm not that kind of petty bitch. "I have a long standing friendship with Trace Gallant. I accepted an invitation to travel with him for a few days. Everything was fine, until last night. We went to a club. I took a drink that I didn't realize was laced. Trace did not give it to me."

"Who did?" The officer asks. "It's very common for these drinks to be offered by a third party, for more than one person to be involved in the victimizing."

"It wasn't like that," Mac says at once. "Margaret Banks supplied the MDMA to a large party in the VIP section. She's a celebrity. She's well known in our circle of friends for serving MDMA laced drinks. She wasn't with us, though," Mac gestured to the Soundcrushers. "I heard Trace tell Kat not to drink one, but I guess she didn't fully understand the drinks were laced."

"That's right," I confirm. "Molly brought the drinks to the table. Later, after I drank one, she called them 'her special cocktails.'"

"So what about this claim that you were not allowed to leave last night under your own cognizance?"

"I had a fight with Trace," I sigh. "I tried to leave, but he knew that I was..."

"Rollin'" Leed supplies helpfully, winking at me as he rakes back his red hair.

"Right," I say "And he told me it wasn't safe for me to leave alone. He said he would leave. He had one of his security guys come in to watch me," I sling a weary hand at Ben.

The cop checked his notes. "Ben Sullivan? Yeah I already took his statement. He nodded at Ben. "Are you saying he detained you against your will?"

"What? No. I'm saying...I was high and angry and apparently I got drunk on top of that too. I don't ever remember trying to leave, after Trace left. I don't remember calling Colin or what I said to him."

The cop looked at my dad. "Everyone's story corroborates here except yours, which is hearsay, and your daughter admits she was altered and she doesn't know what she said to her ex-boyfriend, Mr." He checks his notes again, "Reiter. There doesn't appear to be a crime here, except for the illegal drug use, but frankly...these are celebrities and there's no evidence of drugs here. As far as the club drugs...this is New Orleans. What happens in the VIP of a high end club usually stays there, if you know what I mean. What you have hear is family matter, not a police matter. And since you live out of state and your daughter is legally an adult, I suggest you sit down and talk to your daughter, sir." Then he looks at me. "You seem like an intelligent young woman. Don't make another dumb mistake and take drinks you didn't buy, or see mixed."

He looks at Dawes. "Keep your talent under control, man. We have enough problems with tourists. We expect better from professional partiers."

Dawes nods in agreement. "Believe me, I'm trying." He glares at Riley as the cop and the hotel management exit.

"I can't believe you called the police," I glare at my parents. "I sent you an email. I told you everything was fine."

"Yeah, but Kat, to be fair, you told me Trace let wouldn't let you leave. And that he was married," Colin grumbles.

As Colin says that, I'm still glaring at my parents. Neither one of them reacts with shock at Colin's words—about Trace being married. They both search my face, and then look apprehensively to Dawes.

He raises his hands in surrender to my father, "Don't ask me what she knows, Trace tells me as little as fucking possible anymore, thanks to you folks."

It hits me—the one last piece of the puzzle that I still hadn't managed to put into place. A sob escapes me and I take a step back like somebody hit me. "Kat," Colin is there in a second behind me, keeping me from falling over a chair.

"You knew?" I look my between my parents, whose faces are morph into guilt at my accusation. "You knew Ashlynn married Trace?"

"What?" Colin murmurs. "Your sister Ashlynn?" but no on answers him. My parents and I just keep staring at one another and every one else in the room seems surprised—except Dawes, who sighs heavily and pours himself a drink.

"You knew?" I shout again.

"Yes, of course we knew, Sweetheart," my mother says gently. " Do you think we would have just...given up, searching for her? That we didn't love her, that we weren't desperate to find her? When Dawes contacted us and told us she and Trace were married, we knew there was not much else we could do, legally. She was an adult. Trace was her husband—her legal next of kin. And Dawes assured us that Trace was taking care of her, that he sent her to rehab. Later, he reported that she had come home, she was clean and that they were happily married. He said Ashlynn was still angry with us and she wasn't ready to make contact, because we had tried to assume control of her legal rights, there at the end, before she married Trace. And we recognize, that might have been a mistake and we had to respect her wishes. And honestly, we didn't know how to tell you about their marriage. We always knew about your crush on Trace, and it seemed like you," she looked sympathetically at Colin, "well it seemed like you were still holding a torch for him, long after he stopped contact with you. We just assumed, he was being a bit cruel to be kind, with you. That he had actually fallen in love with your sister, and thought the best thing for you was to have not contact with him so you could get over your crush. But, you see... Ashlynn is alright. I can't understand why Trace would do this—try to renew his relationship with you, but they are married."

"Isn't it obvious, Ellen?" my dad was giving Dawes a murderous gaze. "We've been handled. Trace and Ashlynn aren't happily married. It was all just a sham."

Dawes grimaces and knocks back his drink. "In my defense, I don't think I've said happily married since the first time I spoke with you. I might have been a bit optimistic on that point."

"But you did say she was clean, and she and Trace were living together in LA, they last time we spoke, not two months ago." My dad retorts.

"You slimy git," Riley said. "Trace is going to fire you, you know that, right?"

"Respectfully, Riley, I don't work for Trace, I work for the label—just like he does," Dawes sneers.

Now it's my parents turn to look confused. "What are you saying?" my dad asks Riley.

"Trace had no idea that you knew of his arrangement with Ashlynn. And he certainly didn't ask Dawes to liason with you. He married her, yes, but their arrangement is strictly platonic. I was in Trace's house every day that Ashlynn lived there. Trace tried to keep her clean, that's it, I assure you," Riley looks at me, when he says this, but then he switches gaze to my parents again. "But then they had a misunderstanding about a year ago, and she left. She's still struggling with her addiction and he's struggling to help her. She hasn't lived in his house in nearly a year—she refuses to return to rehab or even to live consistently with him. He's spent nearly a nine figures this past year, funding her remotely but also in investigators to keep tabs on her and sometimes even to extricate her from dangerous situations, without her even realizing that people were looking out for her. The bulk of my job is to maintain the Ashlynn safe-guard network."

My mother goes pale beneath her warm skin. "Oh my baby." She puts a hand over her mouth. My dad puts his arm around her.

I turn to Dawes. "Why would you do that? Lie to Trace? Lie to my parents?"

He shrugged. "My job is to keep the talent happy, not tell him the truth. It was the easiest way to manage the situation. He doesn't need a hassle from in-laws, especially ones that aren't even real. Back in the beginning, when Ashlynn first started coming around, he knew that their investigator was looking into him as a potential resource Ashlynn might tap, and I promised him I would throw the guy off the idea that he was associated with Ashlynn. But the guy couldn't be bribed, and he found out that they were married. So I went a different way with my trouble-shooting of the problem—managing your parents."

"You're a real fucking piece of work, Dawes," Adam says. "This ain't gonna stand, man."

"Heartsly, you can shove righteous indignation up your ass. Do you know how much shit I have done for you guys? Hell right now, all your fucking sponsors want to bail because Trace is coming off in the media like a goddamn sex offender. I'm lying through my teeth all day every day just to keep you guys solvent. If your endorsements pull out, your tour will fold and you are likely to get sued by the promoters. You'll all be washed up and bankrupt without my special skill set."

Leed and Adam exchange a worried look, but say nothing.

"So where is Ashlynn right now?" my mother screams.

Riley lips press thin, and he looks uncomfortable.

Leed and Adam look at one another, in silent exchange. Adam shrugs, and Leed sighs. "She's in a hospital, in Tennessee," Leed admits. "She had a car accident--ran off the road in a very rural area. She wasn't badly hurt in the car accident—a mild concussion, and bruised up, but she's detoxing pretty hard. Trace just got there an hour ago. When he called me—a half hour ago, he hadn't seen her doctors yet."

"I'm sorry, you are?" My dad asks.

"Leed Lawson, I'm with the band. I know your daughter from LA," Leed steps forward and shakes my dad's hand. "Listen Mr. Ballard, I know you don't have reason to listen to me, considering I'm one of Trace's best friends and you don't know me at all, but he really has tried to help Ashlynn. He's just not...equipped. The medical stuff she's done in the past hasn't helped her, either. She's got some work to do, if she wants get on top of her pain and her addiction, but she's gonna have to think out of the box and try something different—maybe holistic healing might help her. Meditation, yoga, acupuncture."

Adam and I are blinking and staring at one another. Who the hell is this guy? Where is typical arrogant, chill, eccentric Leed Lawson, frontman of Soundcrush? Mac is smiling at the ground, smugly, like she's not as surprised as we are.

"You're right, Lawson. I don't know you," My dad is saying, " And everybody has a fucking opinion. I'd really like to speak to the one person who seems to have had the most direct knowledge of my daughter in the last two years—her husband. But apparently Trace is the same punk he used to be...an immature kid that likes to drag my daughters way in over their head and then walk off from situations without taking responsibility for the messes he makes."

Leed purses his lips and shoves his hands in pockets, his read hair falling forward around his face as he tips his head down. "Yeah, I could see why it looks that way to you. But like you said—everybody has a fucking opinion." To everyone's surprise, he pulls his phone out. From where I stand I can see he's calling Trace.

"Hey," he says calmly. "Yeah," his eyes dart to me. "She's surprisingly ok. Hates you, I'm pretty sure." Leed listens and smiles bitterly. "I'll ask." Leed looks at me. "Will you speak to Trace? He really wants to talk to you."

I shake my head. I have a lot of fucking things I want to say to him, but I don't trust myself to choose the right ones. Not yet.

"She ain't about you right now," he says to Trace. "Why did I call then? Because your in-laws are standing here frantic. All the secrets are out, and the only thing that matters is healing. It's time y'all work together to help Ashlynn."

He listens for a long moment, and then he puts switches to speakerphone.

Trace's voice is grim, but calm. "Hey, Mr and Mrs Ballard, this is Trace. I know...look, I know, I seem like an asshole that's out to destroy your family. I have never wanted to...to pull either one of your daughters away from you. I just...I've screwed up. Ashlynn and I aren't in love, we never have been. She was...in a bad way, and I really only wanted to help Ashlynn get healthy. And I...I tried to do right by her, but also by Kat. I knew Kat was too young to deal with my lifestlye, and all this stuff going on. But she's older now, andstrong, and she's still my best friend. In fact she is everything to me, but I'm pretty sure that's not what anybody wants to hear right now. So, if you want to talk about Ashlynn's condition I'll tell you everything I know, including the address of this hospital. If you want to see her, you can come, but you aren't seeing her without me. I vowed I would protect her. Even from you."

My dad takes the phone from Leed in one hand, and takes my mother's hand with the other. Leed opens the door to the second bedroom for privacy. My dad dips his blond head at me. "Honey, please?"

I shake my head. "No, " my voice is hoarse. "You lied to me. Trace lied to me. Ashlynn lied to me." My mother's face crumples for a second, and it reminds me of my own reflection in the mirror a little while ago. Then she puts a hand to her mouth and recovers, and pats my father's arm to push him into the bedroom. Leed closes the door and his eyes meet mine with sympathy, like he knows exactly what I'm thinking.

I look around the room. "Everyone in this room lied to me."

Leed nods, "Yes, we did. And that's a shitty thing." The others nod sullenly and look embarrassed.

I don't really feel much about that, though. "I don't blame you. I get it. You're Trace's family, not mine."

"You're family, Sister," Adam says. "But families fight, and lie, and make mistakes. And apologize, and work to make things right, which is what we should do for you." Adam looks around. Leed nods a solemn agreement.

Mac is crying. "Still I'm sorry for keeping this from you. It wasn't my secret to tell, but...you're a great person, and it's a terrible situation. I know...Trace loves you."

I don't even know what to say to that. If Trace loves me, then maybe his love is the killin' kind. "No offense, but none of you guys are in this. This is between me and Trace. And Ashlynn."

Riley sniffs loudly, "Right, well heaping our guilt on Kat is not doing her any good." He claps his hands, smartly, looking at Dawes. "Don't you all have bloody jobs to do? You're short a lead guitarist for the show. Shouldn't you all be somewhere else, figuring out what to do about that?"

"Yeah," Dawes says. "Adam—"

Adam has his phone out. "This town is full of musicians. It might be a shitty show with no guitar solos, but the show will go on. I'm on it."

They all head out the door, Leed turns, "Riley-"

"I'll bring your phone when they are done, Lawson. God knows you're going to need it. I'll get you the contacts you might not have. You've got to a lot of nervous brands to reassure that you are the face of Soundcrush, not Trace." Riley looks a bit troubled, but his tone is stoic.

Leed shrugs, "I am the face of Soundcrush. But it will always be Trace's band. I know that." He follows the others out the door.

Riley turns to me. He looks both wild, with his dark spiky hair, and sad, like a lost puppy. "Well, it's time for me to do my job. You can go see your sister, you can go home, you can take a mental health week in Maui. Or you can do anything else you want. Trace wants you to know, you have options, although he feels like, for the moment at least, he only has one.

"Ashlynn," I say. I don't really succeed in keeping the bitterness out of my tone.

"He has to be there, at least until she's through the worst part of her detox and he can get her to agree to going to a long-term rehab. Despite the hell she puts him through, he's the only person she actually trusts, Kat. She's your sister. Would you have him abandon her, even for you?"

The answer is no, but I don't give him the satisfaction. Instead I turn to the one person in the room that hasn't lied to me.

Colin.

He's leaning against the wall, arms and feet crossed, staring into the distance. When I turn to him, his eyes meet mine, and but they are guarded, not full of the trust that used to be there. I get that. That's the way I feel about everyone else in this room but him. Everything is totally fucked.

Still, he pushes away from wall and stands in front of me. I broke us, but he's a very good guy, and he's going to see me through right now, any way he can. It's just the way he is.

"I want to go home, now," I say to him. "But not with them." I can't bear a flight, a drive, a millisecond with my parents right now. Their betrayal cuts deeper Trace's in a way. I spent the last two and half years of my life trying to be something I wasn't to take away their grief, and they were lying to me the whole time, letting me lose myself, not even seeing what they were doing to me.

Colin nods, and pushes away from the wall. "Get your stuff. I'll see about renting us a car?"

"I'll handle the travel. Commercial flight ok?" Riley says automatically. "It will be quicker than a private jet—they would have to file a flight plan."

"She doesn't need anything from him," Colin says.

"Commercial is fine," I correct. "I just want to get home as quickly as possible. He spent a million dollars taking care of his wife. A couple of grand to send his side-piece home means nothing to him, right Riley?"

"Kat—" Riley begins but I cut him off.

"Fuck you, Riley. I know you work for him, I know you don't deserve it, but just...fuck you, okay?"

"No love, I deserve it," he sighs. "We all do. I'll have the car to take you to the airport here within the hour."

Well, this is a bad situation. Not only is Trace married to Ashlynn--now he's abandoned Kat to rush to Ashlynn's side and left Kat to face the music ALONE! What do you think--is Trace an idiot, or he is just between a rock and a hard place? We'll find out what Trace is thinking, next chapter....

Plus a HUGE twist in Trace's circumstances I highly doubt you will see comin', tee-hee-hee....I kinda want to post the next chapter today....what do you guys think? Double update today, or save the drama for Friday?