Coming Undone Read Free Page B

her.
    Ben’s sigh filtered down the line. “If you ever come to your senses I’ll put the proper spin on all the shit that’s been flying around. Until then I thought if you had to have an escort, you might at least prefer someone who was once good to you.”
    “Right this minute, Ben, I regret telling you about him at all.” She’d only done so because he’d insisted on hearing everything that might be used against her. Revealing that time in her life had led to mentioning the boy who’d kept a scared-to-death thirteen-year-old girl from losing all hope. That, in turn, had given her such a warm, fuzzy rush that she’d then confided how John Miglionni and Jared’s sister, Tori, had rescued them.
    “The truth is, I didn’t expect your old friend to be assigned to the case. A business like mine doesn’t generate the need to locate private eyes or security specialists as a rule. But when this came up I remembered you mentioning the Semper Fi agency, and I thought it might at least be a place to start.”
    Well, I guess that’ll teach me to be so damn chatty, she thought bitterly.
    “I actually had the owner in mind to handle this—figuring someone you once admired might make the situation more bearable. I didn’t know Hamilton worked there until Miglionni called to let me know how the agency planned to handle the assignment,” Ben said. “And I’m sorry for the necessity, Priscilla, but Wild Wind insists. This is your big break—”
    “I thought that was when I won the Grammy.”
    “That was your first break. This tour is the one that’s going to put you on the map. So I’m afraid you’re just going to have to suck it up and do what your label wants.”
    She managed to hang on to her temper long enough to get off the phone, but she was seething by the time she hung up.
    She’d worked one job or another since she was fifteen years old. She had been the family breadwinner more often than not, and WildWind dared suggest she couldn’t be trusted to show up for a series of contracted concerts?
    Staring out the window, she scowled at Jared, who lounged against the wall on the shady side of the court, his hands in his pockets and one foot propped against the faded cinderblock. He had an eye on her room and, catching her peering out the window, he straightened and headed across the lot.
    Her spine snapped as straight and steely as a length of rebar. Enough was enough. Mama was sufficient trouble all on her own—P.J. didn’t need the embarrassment of a watchdog on top of it.
    She’d had it with handlers and people telling her what to do. She wasn’t stupid—singing was the only thing she could call her own and she had every intention of showing up for her shows.
    But the tour didn’t start for a couple weeks, and she needed some alone time to lick her wounds and get centered and focused before it began. She sure as hell didn’t need her one-time best friend to herd her toward her first gig like a blue heeler with one calf. And while it appeared she had no choice but to put up with him once the tour began, she saw no reason to tolerate his escort until then.
    So let him catch up with her in Portland. Because the first opportunity she got, she was shaking Jared Hamilton from her heels like the dust of all those dinky towns she’d left behind.

CHAPTER TWO
    Mama claims Priscilla Jayne has a history of running away when the going gets tough. Stay tuned for our interview with Jodeen Morgan following our eye-in-the-sky traffic report.
    —Jay Pollen, morning DJ of KXPS, Kickin’ Country Radio
    S TANDING IN THE Wind Blew Inn parking lot, Jared thought for sure the feeble light from the quarter moon riding the western sky was playing tricks on his eyes. His gut said it wasn’t, however, and staring at the four flat tires on his rented Lexus, he swore like a sailor and kicked one of the hubcaps above the flattened rubber.
    Then his reaction brought him up short. What the hell was he doing? He didn’t lose