Page 27 of Forever Country (Forever Bluegrass #24)
“ B ro, stop looking at your phone. Annaleigh is fine.” Knox rolled his eyes at him and shoved a red plastic cup into his hand filled with very good bourbon.
“She doesn’t know anyone, Knox. She might be nervous or want to leave early.”
“Sloane has already claimed her as her new BFF. They’ll practically be sisters by the end of the night.” Gabe sat down in the chair next to Holt on the large back patio of the distillery.
“He’s been moping since we snuck him out of the café in fireman's gear,” Colton said, glaring at Holt.
“Good thing the paparazzi don’t know Keeneston or they’d never believe the Rose sisters would accidentally start a fire in the kitchen,” Landon said with a laugh.
“Did you see the whack Miss Lily got on that one guy with her broom? Pretty good for someone who claims to have arthritis,” Talon said with a grin. Poppy and Zinnia had used the fire as a reason to close early and join the girls’ night.
“I like when they threatened to go to the judge and sue, and my mom said go ahead. Boy, they’ll be in for a surprise when they file charges tomorrow,” Carter smirked.
“Doubly so when they realize one of the people using the fire hose was the sheriff.” Matt held up his red cup in salute to the others who had helped Holt get out unseen.
“I’m sorry for bringing all this trouble to Keeneston,” Holt told them.
“Ha!” Kale laughed. “You think this is trouble? Do you remember when I brought trouble to town? I needed domestic and international military support for that one. Some paparazzi is nothing. Besides, I think people are having fun with it. The Rose sisters were giggling. It makes me almost feel sorry for whatever they have in store for them next.”
Holt glanced at his phone again, but there was no message from Annaleigh. He took a deep breath. She was safe. Those women were his friends. He’d grown up with them, heck, some had even babysat him. They would see exactly why Holt had fallen in love with Annaleigh and would love her too.
“Ugh!” Knox groaned. “Look at that lovesick look on Holt’s face. Am I going to be the only single man left in all of Keeneston?”
Holt laughed. He was proud of that look on his face because he was in love and he wasn’t afraid to tell everyone that he was. “Watch out, brother. You might be next.”
“Run,” Sophie said to a woman who had been introduced as Blythe. Blythe’s wife, Veronica, was with the guys tonight. They alternated so they got to spend time with everyone.
Annaleigh’s mouth dropped open as a laser beam shot from the rocket launcher and was pointed right at Blythe.
“Is she going to shoot her?” Annaleigh gasped as she grabbed onto Abby’s arm.
Then something that looked like foam shot out of the rocket launcher and splashed onto Blythe.
Blythe made it three more steps until she was frozen in place.
The foam was pooled at her feet holding her as still as if she were in cement.
“Well, that’s one way to prevent my sugarbear from trying to sneak out when there’s dishes to do,” Aniyah said into the shocked silence making everyone laugh.
“Then you just spray this solution,” Sophie said, holding up a spray bottle and spraying the ground where the foam had hardened. “And it releases them.”
Ten seconds later, Blythe was free.
“I need that for when suspects flee,” Abby called out and Sophie nodded as others lined up to try it, either as runners or shooters. “How is your stalker thing going?” Abby asked, turning to where Annaleigh was still gripping her.
Annaleigh looked down at her phone and dropped her hand. “No updates. Sheriff Walz called me and said he’s working with Nashville, but nothing yet. Holt said Cassidy is having issues finding anything too. I mean, how is this guy, or gal, able to stay off the radar?”
“Oh, I can help here,” Sienna said, joining them after Abby had motioned her to join them.
“I looked over everything and have an idea.” Annaleigh almost reached out for Abby again, but instead clasped her nervous hands together.
“See, stalkers are broken into several categories. First is the Intimacy Seeker. This is usually someone you don’t even know.
They see you and decide you’re their soulmate.
In his mind, you two are already in a relationship and his love is returned.
Second is an Incompetent Stalker. That’s someone who is socially awkward and hopes their stalker behavior will get your attention.
And three is the Predatorial Stalker. That’s the classic stalker who wants to terrorize to have power over the victim, usually through fear and sexual power. ”
Annaleigh was shaking her head. “None of these line up with the actions or the notes I’ve seen. Well, maybe incompetent.”
“Agreed, kind of,” Sienna told her. “Which leaves two other types of stalkers. Rejected Stalkers, who asked you out or tried to get your attention and you rejected them. And then Resentful Stalkers. They feel an injustice has been done by you not being with them. They see themselves as the victim and want to get revenge against you instead of wanting a relationship, like the other stalkers want. Plus, most stalkers are someone you know.”
“Resentful Stalker sounds like what I’m going through for sure,” Annaleigh said, feeling a little bit more in control just understanding the why.
“I’ll explain,” Sienna told her. “In the beginning, they were trying to woo you with flowers and notes. They were more of an incompetent stalker. When pictures of you and Holt went public, they saw that as a rejection of their wooing. Even though you didn’t reject them to their face, you rejected them through your relationship with Holt.
This incompetent stalker turned into a rejected one, and when no reconciliation happened after they came to see you at your property, they then took that rejection and weaponized it into wanting revenge.
They are no longer trying to have a relationship with you, but instead are trying to punish you for your rejection of them.
So, have you turned anyone down recently? ”
“That makes sense, but the only person I’ve turned down is Benton and he never seems upset about it. He just thinks I’ll get into my right mind soon because no woman can turn him down,” Annaleigh told the growing crowd.
“Which one is Benton?” Abby asked.
“He’s another agent at my parents’ company.”
“On it,” Cassidy said, causing Annaleigh to jump when she turned to find the woman standing directly behind her.
Annaleigh put her hand to her heart and gasped for air. “You have got to stop doing that!”
“Sorry, habit.” Cassidy didn’t look sorry.
Annaleigh’s mind went to all the times Benton hit on her and then she remembered. “Benton is sitting next to me at the awards!”
“Not anymore,” Layne told her. “I heard my mom, Morgan, on speaker phone when I stopped over earlier. I heard her changing your seat so you can sit next to Holt since you’re a couple.
Whoever she was talking to said they’d already changed it for the press since you and Holt are melting the internet with your swoon-worthy kiss.
Then my mom asked if Holt could have the whole row and any extra seats nearby. I don’t know what that means though.”
“I’ll have to ask him. But I’m relieved to not be near my family. Especially since news that Maddie and I are opening our own agency will break soon,” Annaleigh told them. “I’m going to check out the location when we go to Nashville in a couple of days for the festival and the show.”
Suddenly all their phones went off except for Annaleigh’s. Abby turned hers for Annaleigh to see live video from downtown. “Who is taking that?”
“Probably my dad. He loves his drones.” Abby rolled her eyes as Layne explained that Ahmed used drones to follow Abby on her dates.
The drone was hovering over a group of paparazzi sitting on and around the statue of a horse downtown. Then something happened. The drone dropped a bunch of stuff on them that looked a lot like mini-sausages.
“What am I looking at?” Annaleigh asked.
Everyone shook their heads until the next moment, when everything they were watching made sense.
Dogs. A pack of dogs came running toward the paparazzi straight down Main Street.
Police dogs were in the lead until a couple of red dogs shot past them.
Behind them, a dog the same height as the others in the lead but with flowing gray and white hair and a pink bow on its head, was running.
The hairy dog was barking as the paparazzi screamed and she moved side to side to keep the dogs in front of it in a straight line.
Behind the hairy dog came two enormous ugly dogs who let loose deep bone-rattling barks, their jowls flapping as they ran.
Quite a distance behind them a little white dog with long white hair and a camo bow brought up the rear.
“That’s my dog, Hooch,” Sienna said, laughing, at the ugliest dog Annaleigh had ever seen. “I’m guessing from the text I got from Ryan asking why I didn’t tell them about this plan that my father-in-law broke into my house to borrow our dog.”
“And that’s mine,” Evie said of the other big dog with the pushed-in face. “Her name is Bliss and Jackson just asked me the same.”
“The little white one is my Fluffy Puppy,” Layne added in.
“It looks as if they broke into all of our houses and took our dogs and added them to the military dogs,” Sydney said as they watched the paparazzi scatter, dogs chasing after each of them.
“Princess,” Cady said, pointing to the big Bearded Collie with the pink bow, “is herding all the paparazzi out of town.” The dogs weren’t biting the paparazzi, but licking them and eating the sausages off the street.
Annaleigh’s phone buzzed with a message from an unknown number. Downtown is cleared. It’s safe for you and Holt to head home.