Another Chance Book I of III

Book III-Chapter 98, The Wild Ride Begins

Prince's POV

Prince woke up with a start. He had been dreaming he guessed of the events from yesterday. It had been a stellar evening. The movie was incredibly well received and the 4 had left the theater amid cheers and applause as they were whisked away to the Arista building to change to perform for the After Party. Typical of Prince, he had blocked out all thoughts of the last two days and focused fully on their performance, determined to give the very best to the people who had come to see it. His effort had paid off as the crowd had gone totally crazy as they played. They danced, they cheered, they cried, they praised the Creator and they were moved by the beauty of what their eyes saw and their ears heard. Bella and Elaine had been almost otherworldly in their performance. And when Prince and Bella had performed Bella's Eyes, he did not think that the applause was ever going to stop. The band had played better than he had ever heard them and when they performed When 2 R In Love, women had rushed the stage trying to get to Prince. His vocalizations had driven them into a sexual frenzy and the combined security teams, Prince's and Arista's were pushed to their limits to contain them... but thankfully they did. They had stayed and mingled after showering and changing back into their outfits and had planned to stay until the end. But Frank and Ray had noticed that a group of fans had begun to gather outside of the Arista building. Within an hour of them noticing the gathering, it had swelled to about 1000 people. Security decided it was important to leave right away and so, they had arranged a decoy drive out of an SUV to distract the crowd and the 4, their security team and their parents then headed to Prince's residence in the Hollywood Hills in separate vehicles immediately by air. Frank was taking no chances and called his Detective friend, David Murrow, at the Sunset Blvd. Police Station and arranged for two police cars to be on duty through the night as additional support in protecting the 4. Ray had taken this all in and was duly impressed with Frank's thoroughness. The band would move the instruments back into rehearsal room 3 tomorrow. Tonight they would simply go home and rest.

The 4 had visited with their parents who were leaving the next day and had enjoyed their time together. Frank said that rather than meeting them at the hotel to head to the airport the next day, they should consider meeting at the VIP terminal to see them off. The less moves the 4 made, the less exposure they had which limited any negative potential. He and his men would get their parents safely there. Because they did not like their freedom curtailed in that or any other way, Prince and Carlos reluctantly agreed to the plan. Prince knew what was coming in terms of how their lives had been changed by the circumstances of last night...but he wasn't sure that the others did. While they had a taste of it on their last tour, he had successfully faced off the paparazzi and had therefore limited some of the discomforting public behavior. He prayed that they would weather this onslaught as well. Bella was so right. There was a price to be paid for all they had been given and part of that price was a huge loss in their ability to wander around in the world without being watched by the fan base and the news outlets 24/7. Their parents had been taken to the Montage at about 2:00 AM. Fortunately their flight did not leave until 11:00 AM. They would land at 6:00 PM Chicago time and drop Alejandro, Nita and Royal and Savannah off and then do the same for David and Kendra and Andy and Linda an hour later. Due to the surge in fans being present as the After Party drew to a close, David had several of his Security people present when the plane landed there and Melvin had arranged for the same in Chicago. The fans had no idea what or where Prince was and David and Melvin rightfully guessed that several of them would be at both airports...and they were both right! In the end they would all get to their homes safely.

Prince sat up slowly, careful not to wake Bella and grabbed his robe and went to the kitchen. Ross was already up and was making the coffee. It was 8:15 AM. "Good morning Ross", Prince said as he sat down at the table and waited for the coffee to finish brewing. "Good morning Prince or should I say good morning Superstar", Ross said with a big smile. Prince smiled back and said..."yeah, it all seems surreal", Prince said. The alarm went off notifying them that the coffee was ready. Prince got up and poured a cup for both himself and Ross. Ross shook his head yes in response to the surreal comment. "I thought I would make some waffles this morning along with some turkey bacon, sausage and eggs". "Sounds good" Prince said and turned on Cloud Stream. Sunday's version of Good Morning LA was on and the weather was being reported and then the Entertainment segment came on.