Drake Sisters 06 - Turbulent Sea

table and handed the card to Joley while she lifted the lid. Joley bent over her shoulder, ripping open the small card. She glanced at the card, hoping it was from Ilya.
    Die bitch
    The two words were typed in black bold letters across the white linen card. Tish shoved Joley back and dropped the lid. The box spilled out a dozen long-stemmed blackened roses and a grotesque decapitated doll cut into pieces.
    'Okay, that's totally sick,' Tish said.
    Joley looked around the room. 'Maybe it wasn't meant for me. I'm pretty sure I'm not a bitch. Well, at least most of the time.'
    Tish moistened her suddenly dry lips. 'This is crazy, Joley. Who would do this?'
    'I don't know, but they have really poor taste in flowers.' Joley sank down into a chair and looked up at her friend. 'I think I'm done with this life. Really, Tish. I can't deal with the crazies or the paparazzi anymore. Did you see the headlines this morning? There's pictures of me on the ground splashed all over the papers and the Internet. One picture looks as if I'm crawling. The headlines say I'm drunk - too drunk to stand or perform. There's a shot of Brian looking worried and a headline saying he wants intervention to try to save me. They shoved me, Tish, onto the ground and then took the photographs. I wasn't drinking, Brian was worried because he thought I might be hurt. One of them reached down like he was going to help me up, but instead he asked me a question.'
    'I know it's hard right now,' Tish said. 'But you're also upset over other things and that's making it worse.'
    'You mean Ilya.' Joley pushed her head into the heel of her hand. 'He isn't here. I know something's wrong. I feel it.
    He isn't here.' The last came out forlorn. T didn't realize how much I depended on his presence.'
    Tish used a napkin to push the box of dead flowers to the back of the table and replace the lid. 'I'll get the security people to turn that over to whoever takes care of it. In the meantime, Joley, you need makeup. You can't go perform like that.'

    'I don't want to go on tonight.' Joley turned round and put her head back so Tish could apply the makeup. 'Maybe we should say I'm sick.'
    Tish studied her face. 'Are you?'
    Joley sighed.
    'I don't think so. I just feel off. Tired. Exhausted.'
    'You aren't sleeping again.'
    'No. I could sleep when he was there. Why is that? If I don't trust him, why would I be able to fall asleep with him when I can't with anyone else?'
    'Hold still.' Tish frowned as she applied eyeliner. 'You're on the pill, right?'
    Joley nearly fell off the chair. 'Where did that come from? Of course I'm on the pill. Lissa must be putting babies in your brain. I'm just tired, and sick of the whack jobs following me everywhere threatening to kill me because they love me so much.'
    'I don't think whoever sent the flowers feels that way about you. "Die bitch" doesn't seem very loving to me.'
    Joley shoved both hands through her hair. She was still back on Tish's unexpected comment implying she might be feeling sick and miserable because she could be pregnant. She was on the pill and she'd just had sex a few days earlier.
    Tish was nuts. Sheesh. She struggled to bring her mind away from Ilya, sex and babies and keep the focus on whoever had sent her the dead flowers. 'I got a weird phone call on my cell the night we left Red Rocks. Jerry gave me a new cell and number. But Ilya kept that number and phone in case they called back. He said sometimes if they hear your voice it's enough to keep them from escalating.' Joley leaned forward to apply lipstick. 'How much time do I have?'
    'You've got to hurry, hon.' Tish patted Joley's hair and nodded her head in satisfaction. 'Your hair looks great. Very healthy and lots of shine.'
    'That's nice to know. I don't feel shiny. Where're my clothes?' Joley looked around. 'I thought I hung them outside the closet. I don't know where my brain is tonight.' Thinking of Ilya. Worried about him. Worried about the pressing dread that wouldn't go away. She hopped up and stalked across the room to the little clothes closet built into the wall.
    Joley yanked open the closet door impatiently. Tish gasped. There was nothing left of the outfit Joley had planned to wear onstage. It hung in shreds, long thin tails of glittering material. Her special jeans, covered in a dazzling rainbow of rhinestones, were in worse shape.
    She moistened her lips and blinked up at Tish. 'They don't much like the clothes I wear either.' Tears burned behind