CHAPTER THIRTEEN
TRAVIS

“How’d you manage to get out without the entourage following you?” Roni asks, leaning her head against my shoulder. Her hand has been intertwined with mine since we left her hotel room. The only time she let go was when I had to jog around to let myself in the driver’s side. I’m getting used to the feeling of her fingers wrapped around mine.

“I borrowed Maddox’s car,” I laugh as I pull the four-door sedan with a car seat still in the back into an empty space at the front of the unlit parking lot. “They were trying to scale the fence on the other side of the camp when I pulled out. If I hadn’t wanted to stay undercover so badly, I would have flipped them all off and honked the horn.”

She laughs and the sweet sound fills the car’s cabin. Her smile stays behind even after the laughter fades, and it makes my heart soar. “Where are we?” she finally asks breaking her gaze away from mine so she can peer out through the windshield. “I don’t see any signs.”

“You don’t?” I ask, trying to sound as innocent as possible. “That’s weird.”

“What did you do?” she deadpans.

I shrug and hop out, jogging around to her side before she can get the door for herself. Her eyes widen as her mouth gapes just slightly, like she’s about to say something but then decides not to. “Come on. I’ll show you.” I reach out for her to take my hand again, which she does immediately restoring the warm feeling of her skin against mine. It’s only her hand in mine, but it makes me feel like I could take on anything having her by my side. She lets out a soft giggle as we step up on the curb of the sidewalk leading to the main gate. “Are you nervous?”

“A little,” she admits, burying her face in my shoulder as we finally reach the entrance. They’ve stationed two guards, one at each side of the gate, who are waiting for us when we finally get there.

“Miller?” The older of the two asks. “Right this way,” he ushers us through the gate without waiting for my response.

She laughs and squeezes my hand just a little tighter. “That must be nice,” she says.

“What’s that?”

“He didn’t need to wait for you to respond, because he recognized your face.”

It’s never really been an issue before, but I’m glad it worked in my favor tonight. It helped us make our way to the spot I have set up even faster. “That is a definite perk,” I admit.

Her eyes dart from one end of the paved trail to the other and then she glances behind us. “Are we at the zoo?” she asks, returning her gaze to the walkway stretched out in front of us.

“Uh-huh.” I nod.

“But… it’s closed,” she observes.

I nod, again. “Closed, because I reserved it.”

“You reserved the entire zoo?”

“Yep,” I say feeling the grin spreading across my face.

“As in, you bought the zoo for us… for the entire night?”

“I sure did.” I catch a glimpse of her reaction out of the corner of my eye and I could be wrong but I’m pretty sure she’s blushing. I wrap my arm around her and tuck her in close to me. “I wanted to spend some time with you and JT said you love animals.” I cringe as soon as the words roll off my tongue, realizing I never told her I was contacting her friend to get intel on her.

“JT?”

Caught red handed. I give my best innocent look and hope she’s in a forgiving mood.

She laughs out loud, letting herself lean into me as our steps fall in sync with one another. “That explains why he seemed to think he knew so much about us.”

“Us?” I ask, suddenly realizing how much I like the sound of that word.

“Uh… you know what I mean… he seemed to know a lot about you when we were talking earlier.”

Yes! “You were talking about me?”

“I’m covering you for a story and he’s, my proofreader.” She rolls her eyes and sticks out her tongue. “I have to talk about you for the job.”

“Right,” I say, clicking my tongue against my teeth. “Sure. For the job.” I wink twice, making sure to over-exaggerate the movement. She slaps my arm and laughs as her cheeks turn a soft shade of pink. When she glances up and meets my gaze, the feeling washes over me like a tidal wave. “Roni… I… uh,” I stammer.

“Yeah?” she leans in like she’s anticipating something. I want to lean in to kiss her but get stuck in a cycle of swirling thoughts.

Does she feel the same way about me?

Does she want me to kiss her?

What if I kiss her and she didn’t want me to?

If that happens then I’m screwed.

She’d never talk to me again. Or worse… she would, and we’d try to finish the project, but it would be weird as fuck.

“What were you going to say, Travis?” she asks, coaxing me out of my self-inflicted misery.

“We’re here,” I say, chickening out and nodding toward the area the zoo’s staff has set up for us. It’s the exotic plants garden, so it’s already the most beautiful exhibit here. They’ve accentuated it with white string lights swooping around the wooden pergola. The lights drape like a swag curtain over the entrance leading to the single dining table set with goldware and ivory dishes.

“Travis,” her hand covers her mouth as she lets out a barely audible gasp. “It’s beautiful.”

It is. “They did a great job, huh?” I nod toward the staff members who are waiting just out of the way, so they don’t interrupt our date.

“You did all of this for me?” she asks in a whisper.

Of course, I did. There’s something about her… I know she’s special, even if she doesn’t know it yet; but instead of telling her that I just nod and let my hand fall to the curve in her back guiding her to one of the chairs at the perfectly set dining table. “Shall we?”

She takes her seat and as the catering team hops into motion bringing us our first course, she leans back in her chair with a confused look on her face.

“What’s on your mind?” I ask, leaning back to let the young man place my appetizer on the table just in front of me.

“You’re not what I expected.”

“What did you expect?” I ask, popping a bite of the ornately plated food in my mouth. I almost feel bad for messing up their perfect design. Almost.

She shrugs and tilts her head to the side as her eyes seem to study my expression. “I’m not sure. It was definitely someone else though.”

“Should I be offended, right now?” I tease.

A gentle shake of her head followed by a nervous giggle tells me everything I need to know.

“What about you?”  I ask.

“What about me?”

Maybe I can start to find out a little more about those secrets, which I know she’s hiding just beneath the surface. “Why did you get into journalism? You’re not exactly the stereotypical reporter, yourself.”

She purses her lips together. “Touché,” she says with a shrug. “I think I wanted to help people. It seemed like such a romantic concept, traveling all over the world to share the stories of those who didn’t have the platform to share it on their own.”

“So, how’d you end up at Entertainment4You?”

Her mouth forms a tight line, and I can tell she’s debating if she should tell me the real answer right now, or not. She lets out a long heavy sigh. “I stepped on toes, and they showed me the door. I needed money, so I took the only freelance gig I could find that still let me do what I love.”

“Following famous rock bands around the country?” I snort.

She rolls her eyes and takes a bite of her food. “Uh-uh.”

“Writing?”

“Bingo,” she says.

I can’t help but wonder what she means about stepping on toes, but I’ve probably pushed the issue enough for one night.

“And I needed a quick payday,” she continues.

“Mortgage?”

“No. I mean, rent… yes. But it’s not me I’m concerned about.”

“What do you mean?”

“My parents own a resort in Mexico. They’ve been struggling since the lockdowns and quarantines with travel restrictions all went into place. They were thriving before, but now they’ve used up all their savings to keep the place afloat over the last two years and the bank is closing in on them.”

I shake my head and let out a low whistle. “That’s such a shitty place to be in. We’ve been there with the label, ourselves. If the first single hadn’t taken off, I’m not sure that we wouldn’t have all had to go get a nine-to-five.”

“They’ve got a lot of staff counting on them, and I want to help them as much as I can so I’ve been chasing those big paydays to save up and I’m hoping to send them enough they can pay off their mortgage before the final date the bank gave them the last time, they talked with them.”

“Wow.” She never ceases to amaze me and I’ve only known her a few days. “That’s a lot of weight for one person to carry.”

She just shrugs and goes back to her poking at her food. “What is this?” she leans over the table whispering, glancing back at the staff probably afraid of offending them.

I let out a loud guffaw and throw my hands out to my side. “You’ve got me. But it is delicious.” I stab the matching piece of food on my plate and pop it into my mouth, which makes her laugh just before she tries the one from her serving.

“Mmm,” she sighs letting her eyes roll back in my head. “I’m impressed.”Yes! With any luck that’ll be enough to score me enough points she’ll let me keep getting to know her before it’s time for this assignment to come to an end.

---

I promised Roni I would sit through another audition even though it is the last thing in the world I want to do. But…

I never break a promise, so here we are.

I haven’t seen a single face that’s walked through those doors. Instead, my focus is locked onto the woman sitting beside me. Truthfully, I haven’t been able to think about anything but her since I left her room last night; and now she’s right beside me, in those cut off denim shorts and that meticulously shredded vintage band tee, which she’s just letting drape off her shoulder, showing just enough skin to drive me crazy.

She’s tapping her pencil against the device perched on a stand just in front of her. I noticed she does that when she’s anxious, and I’ve also learned her anxiety seems to come in stages. 

This is the beginning stage.

If we don’t take a break soon then we’re going to veer off into the obsessively straightening things portion of her nervous habits. Maybe we should just close for the day. I check the time on my phone. “Psst,” I whisper.

“Hmm?” she mumbles, without looking away from the headshots she’s sorting through.

“You’re not going to find her in there.”

“You’ve mentioned that,” she says under her breath.

I tap the screen on my phone, drawing her attention to the time. “There’s just enough time between now and the show for us to steal some time alone before I have to be back for our pre-show rituals.”

“Uh-huh.”

“We’ve been at this for hours,” I whisper in her ear, letting myself lean a little further than necessary to make sure my lips brush against her skin. I watch her reaction as I pull away. Her cheeks turn a soft shade of pink. I can’t help but hope she feels the connection between us, too.

“If you want me to help you find your mystery woman,” she says, slowly crossing her legs toward me, “then I need you to cooperate.”

“I’m cooperating,” I say, noticing my voice ramped up an octave or two. Damn it.

“Not even a little,” she groans.

“Maybe I don’t feel like I need to find her anymore,” I admit, surprising myself. I hadn’t planned on putting myself out there quite that much.

“How can you say that?” her eyes narrow as she stares into mine.

“Because I…” Gulp. “Maybe we—” 

Mira bursts into the room and rushes across the floor, putting both hands out in front of her on the table right in front of us.

“Mira, this is the worst possible time—”

“Shh!” she hisses.

“Why does everyone keep shushing me?”

Roni laughs and shrugs. “Maybe that’s something we should look a little deeper into.”

Sigh.

Mira leans down and whispers, “One of the opening acts is Narcissus.”

“What?” I groan. “Stone Thompson has a restraining order against him for Amaryllis and everyone in our camp.”

“I know,” she shrieks. “They listed all of the opening acts as TBD on the roster when we confirmed this booking for Amaryllis. We never would have—”

“It’s fine,” I say, holding up both hands. “We’ll just keep to ourselves in the back lot, until they finish their set. Since it’s an open-air arena, there should be more than enough space we won’t violate the order.”

“What if they don’t—” Mira starts, but I don’t give her a chance to finish. We have to assume the best and not give any room for the worst outcomes here.

“Devon will make sure they do,” I remind her.

Roni’s eyes are darting back and forth between me and Mira. “Can you tell me what’s going on?”

“Narcissus is The Machine’s answer to Amaryllis. It’s been a constant push-pull in the market ever since.”

“And they’re on tour, which means they have a new release and a new marketing kit going out…” her voice trails off as she seems to tick off items on an invisible checklist.

I shrug. “Honestly, I haven’t kept up with Stone or the band. I try to avoid anything that has to do with him at all costs, but I would assume they have a press kit circling since they’re on tour.”

“I’ll be right back,” she says, bolting out of her seat and disappearing through the doorway.

“Okay,” I mumble noticing she forgot her tablet, which she left sitting on the table. “Don’t worry, Mira. I’ll talk to Nash and Griffin. It’ll be fine.” I reach over to grab Roni’s tablet to bring it to her, just as it lights up with a notification. Email received from Alan Richards.

Alan Richards? Why would he be contacting Roni? My curiosity gets the better of me as Mira is wrapping up the audition and ushering the women through the exit at the back of the room. I tap the notification on her screen to see what the message says. Guilt hits me in the chest as I do, but I have to know.

Amaryllis falls tonight, or you’re fired!

The breath sticks in the back of my throat. I reread the words several times before they register in my brain, because I don’t want to believe what this means…

She’s been working against us the whole time.

No wonder she hasn’t sent in the article yet, she’s trying to find a headline that could take us down. Joke’s on her. She won’t find that headline here.

She’s tapping the screen on her phone as she walks back into the room, probably ending whatever call she just made to create the headline of a lifetime. “I’m sorry about that,” she says, having the nerve to smile at me as she takes the seat beside me again. 

How could I have been so stupid?

“Who’s next?” she asks, looking through the headshots saved on her phone. She looks up and notices the empty seats in front of us. “Where did everyone go?”

I can’t do this.

“We’re done here,” I say, shoving the chair away from me, letting it topple over, landing with a thud on the floor.

“Wait,” her chair screeches against the floor as she stands up to follow me. “What happened?”

“You tell me,” I say, spinning around on my heel. “How long did you think it would take me to figure out you were just like the rest of them?”

“I’m not—”

She’s really got the innocent eyes down, but I’m not falling for the same thing twice. “Don’t lie to me. You’re working overtime to get a story that could end our career.”

“No, I’m—”

“And good ol’ gullible Travis,” I scoff, “I just opened the door and invited you in.”

She takes another step closer to me. “That’s not—”

“It’s my fault,” I hold both hands up to keep her from coming any closer. “I should’ve trusted my gut. Never trust the press.”

“Wait—” she reaches out to grab my arm.

“Don’t touch me.”

“Will you just let me explain?” She grabs my arm and tries to stop me from moving past her, but I jerk my arm away and let the door to the room slam behind me. 

I’m out of here. I shove the door open and let it slam behind me loud enough it makes the equipment rattle that’s being wheeled up beside the venue. They’re going to have to turn it over to the venue’s security team since we’ll have to vacate while Narcissus performs. This turned into one hell of a day. “Got another set of gloves?” I ask Adair, as I push the door open to the workout room.

“Since when do you work out with me?” he asks, slinging an extra set of gloves across the room.

I shove my hands into them and pull the laces tight with my teeth. “Since now.” I attack the punching bag like it will somehow make everything screaming inside of me go quiet.

It’s not working.

Adair is standing behind me, still staring. “What happened, dude?”

“Nothing.” I let my fists slam into the bag again, and again…

“Uh-huh,” he grunts. I can feel his eyes following my every move, and it’s really pissing me off.

“Are you going to do something, or just stand there all day?” My knee connects to the bag as it flings back and forth on its chain. The clang and rattle of the metal links hitting the hook it is suspended from echoes through the room. It’s almost loud enough to drown out my thoughts. Almost. “I’m not in the mood for talking.”

He shrugs and goes back to his own bag in the opposite corner. “Sounds good to me.”

And that makes my skin crawl. The last thing anyone ever wants is for Adair to agree with the way their handling a situation. “She’s not who I thought she was, man.”

“I thought we agreed no talking,” he grumbles, punching his bag with a fast combo attack.

“Maybe I need to.”

“Words make things harder, because we leave words up to the interpretation of whoever is listening.”

What? “Okay, Buddha.”

“I’m serious,” he says, throwing a towel across the room and letting it slap me in the side of my face.

“You better be glad this isn’t used, or I would kick your ass right now.”

He rolls his eyes as he makes his way across the floor to where the kettlebell is resting against the wall. “Just…stop talking,” he strains as he lifts it off the floor, “Try listening.”

“Wait.” I stop hitting the bag and spin around to make sure I’m talking to Adair, because him telling me to listen is laughable. “You never listen to anyone.”

“I listen to everyone, all the time.”

“No, you don’t.”

“I listen to everyone’s words. And those words get mixed up because—”

Sigh. “Interpretation.”

“Which is why I stick with music.”

That’s fair.

“So, what happened anyway?” he asks.

I cringe, wondering if I should tell him or not. Of course, I should tell him. If she’s working with that piece of human waste, Alan Richards, to sabotage our careers.

If…

I wipe the towel over my face and decide to skip the shower. “Hey, man. I’ll be back. There’s something I need to do…”

He grunts and nods while focusing on not losing control of the kettlebell.

What if I was wrong?

Worse yet, what if Adair is right?

Adair being right isn’t a common theme but if he is, then maybe I just overreacted and there’s a very simple explanation for everything. Hope swells in my chest as I’m jogging across the parking lot that’s been turned into our hub until tomorrow afternoon when I spot her. She’s leaning against one of the busses.

She stuck around. I’m not sure I would have stayed if I were her. Maybe I misjudged her. “Roni!” I call out her name, just as I realize she’s talking to someone else whose hand is resting on her shoulder, like he’s consoling her. Who is that? I slow my pace as I get closer to the bus, so they don’t see me before I’m ready for them to. Just as I’m about to call her name again, she shifts to the side, giving me a full view of Jimmy Jenkins, the piece of hot garbage who she said she wanted nothing to do with. By the looks of it, she’s had a change of heart. Jenkins pulls her into him and presses his mouth to hers, which makes my blood boil inside my veins. My fists ball up at my sides and everything inside of me wants to storm over to him and tell him to get off her. She’s mine…

But I have to let this one go.

She isn’t who I thought she was.

Well, at least there’s a silver lining, I tell myself as I turn around and head back to the workout room. Adair is still wrong. There was no misunderstanding, and there’s no simple way to fix it. She’s just not the person for me.

“Wait!” her voice calls out from behind me.

I refuse to stop.

“Travis, wait!”

Nope. If I do, I might not be able to control myself and I don’t want to give her any more material than she’s already gotten from me for her headlines. 

“Travis! Please, stop.”

“No,” I call back over my shoulder. “Absolutely not.”

“I can explain everything,” she yells over the sounds of our crew setting up.

“There’s nothing else for you to explain.” I should have listened to Nash and done more research before bringing someone else into our world. “It was my fault. I never should have asked you to do this.”

Her eyes glisten as the last word falls off my tongue. I choke back the rest of what I want to say, or I might really lose my temper and I never want to be that guy. I swallow hard and take two deep breaths to calm myself down.

“It’s not what it looks like. I swear.”

“Really?” I scoff. “Because it looks like you and your boyfriend were playing good cop, bad cop with us to make sure at least one of you got the story.”

“I know that’s how it looks…”

I nod and bite my tongue.

“If you believe any of that about me, then why haven’t you told the others?”

I can’t answer that and I’m not sure I would want to if I could. “That’s not my job. It’s yours.” I don’t mean to be heartless, but she’s the one who put us here. She needs to be the one to let them down. Not me.

She purses her lips together and fidgets with the ring attached to her phone case. “I didn’t—”

“Guys!” Griffin barrels out of the Amaryllis makeshift headquarters and waves his phone in the air over his head. “You’re never going to believe this.”

“Actually, I think we have something we need—”

“We got nominated for album of the year!” He spins around on his heels and jumps in the air. “Woo!”

Adair pops his head out of the building, just barely peeking around the door. He looks like Joey did in that late thanksgiving episode. “What the hell is going on out here?”

“We did it! We fucking did it!” Griffin is still pumping his fist in the air.

“Did what?” Adair grabs his phone out of his hand and looks at the screen. “Holy shit!”

“As much as I’d like to join in the celebration, guys, we need to talk—”

“Shh,” Adair says, holding his finger to my mouth. Why does everyone keep doing that? Ugh! “Amaryllis didn’t even get that nomination when we were with The Machine. “We’ve officially made it!”

Nash bursts through the door of his bus with his arms out at his sides and his hands balled into fists. “Woo!” he yells. “Did you guys see the news?”

“Just did,” Adair says, running over and giving him a high-five in the air.

“I have to admit,” Nash adds, “I was skeptical about bringing you on board, but those stories you’ve been putting out have been helping us push the album and probably helped us land this nomination.”

Griffin nods.

Adair does the cool douchebag scowl of acknowledgement.

“What stories? You told me you hadn’t turned anything in, yet.”

“Actually—” she starts. Maybe she was going to tell them the truth about her mission here but who knows since Griffin interrupts her and hands her Amaryllis Crew backstage pass.

“This pass will get you into any event we’re part of, even the award show. Maybe that will help pay you back for all the good you’ve done for us while you’ve been here.” He pats me on the back and nods toward Roni. “You should ask her what she’s putting out there about us. If you haven’t seen it yet, of course.”

She doesn’t reach out for it at first and for a split-second I believe she might tell them all the truth. Instead, she accepts the pass and locks her gaze onto mine, as if challenging me when she says, “Thank you. I’m glad I could help while I was here.”

“I’m out of here,” I growl and push my way past Veronica and my brothers. Just as I’m making my way around one of the busses, Mira’s coming around the other side and crashes into me. 

“Damn it.”

“I’m sorry,” she stammers. “I didn’t mean—”

“I’m not mad at you, Mira.” I yell at myself internally for being a complete dick. “Are you okay?”

She nods. “I’m fine. I was just coming from checking out the local talent who are warming up the crowd.”

“Checking them out, huh?” I try to tease her like I would any other day, but my words are heavy, and I know she can tell that I’m not myself right now.

“You know what I mean.” She blushes and looks away, letting her eyes dart around until she finds one of the band members who just left the stage making their way to the tents set up on the other side of the grounds. “See that guy over there?”

I nod.

“He’s with Wicked Intent. they did a great job of getting the crowd ready for you guys. If you’re looking to sign any new talent, I think they might be worth auditioning.”

She’s never led me astray before. “Get the audio files and forward them over to me or Griffin if you think they’re Amaryllis material.

“They are.” Something in the way her eyes light up when she talks about them tells me there is more to this story than just a good band opening the show for us. I hope for her sake she’s not getting her heart involved.

That never goes well, does it?