Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 76205 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 381(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76205 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 381(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
“Doesn’t matter. I’ve been in this business a long time. It’s best to stay away from addicts. They always let you down.”
Oh. My. God.
Does he not realize that Dragon is a friend of mine? He picked the wrong person to say this—
Rory slides between us, holding out her hand to Derek. “We can’t thank you enough for stepping in.”
Derek skates his gaze over Rory in a way that makes my skin crawl. Good thing she’s got that massive pink ring on her left hand.
“Anything for you, pretty lady.” Derek smiles at Rory.
“Yeah, you have our gratitude.” I yank Rory away from Derek and out of earshot. “I officially hate him.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Jess. He’s saving our ass.”
“He said some shitty things about Dragon. About addicts in general. And I didn’t like the way he was looking at you.”
“You’re just being a big brother,” she says. “He was perfectly respectful, and he couldn’t say enough about you and me singing together.”
“I didn’t hear any of that.”
“Maybe he just said it to me.”
“Yeah. I’ll bet he did.”
“Knock all this off, Jess. Christ.”
She’s right. I’ll put up with Derek and his snide comments about Dragon. I’ll even put up with him looking like he’d like to have Rory for lunch.
I don’t have a choice.
Besides, we have other things to figure out.
“I know you and Brock took care of the contractual issues,” I say to her. “How much is it going to cost us? To have Derek play?”
“That’s the beauty of it, Jess,” she says. “Jett and Heather feel so badly about what happened to Dragon that they’re covering the performance hours for Derek for the remainder of the UK portion of the tour.”
I shake my head. “That’s not right, Rory.”
“You’re so much like Mom and Dad.” She squeezes my shoulder. “Sometimes it’s okay to take a gift when it’s offered. We worked hard for this, Jesse. And we don’t deserve to have our lives screwed over because Dragon couldn’t stay away from two groupies.”
She’s right, of course.
“And this isn’t your fault,” she continues, reading my mind. “We all thought Dragon had a hold on his addiction.”
I narrow my gaze. “He did, Ror. He had to have been drugged.”
“We won’t know that for sure until he wakes up…which should be happening any time now.”
I grab my phone out of my pocket to check the time. “I should get over to the hospital. He’s going to want to talk to me.”
“Jesse, no.” She grips my shoulders. “You need to stay here. You need to meditate or do whatever you do before a concert. Maddie and Brianna are there. They can take care of him.”
“You don’t understand.” I shake my head. “I know things about Dragon that no one knows. And I—”
She shakes me, still holding my shoulders. Literally shakes me. Even though I’m close to twice her weight.
“Stop it. We’re lucky we can go on tonight without Dragon. You need to be here. Focused. Dragon is fine. We know he’s going to be okay. You can go see him tomorrow before we leave for Edinburgh.”
Again, I know she’s right. But I’m tense. So damned tense. I could see if the spa could get me in for another massage.
No. Then I would be too relaxed to sing well.
A certain amount of tension is necessary before you perform—at least it is for me. It’s that tension that keeps you on your toes, keeps you from screwing up when you’re onstage.
“I know you’re right,” I say, “but Dragon and I have a connection that I don’t have with the rest of you guys.”
Rory tilts her head to the side, as if she’s trying to figure out what I mean.
“I know that sounds weird, but it’s just… He trusts me, Ror. He trusts me, and I can’t let him down.”
“But he’s letting us down. Don’t you see?”
“Not if it wasn’t his fault.”
“It may not be his fault that he got drugged, Jesse, but it was his fault that he took two women he didn’t know to bed.”
She’s not wrong, and it could’ve easily been me as well. And then what would we have done? The drummer may be replaceable, but the lead singer is not.
No more groupies for me. Not ever.
Cage and I talked about screwing our way across Europe, but that won’t be happening. Which means I won’t be screwing at all, because I have to stay away from Brianna Steel.
She wants more than I can give her.
I heave out a sigh. “All right.”
“You and I are going to have a little chat with Cage and Jake,” Rory says. “And then we’re going to get a light dinner sent up to Brock’s and my suite. Okay?”
I nod and follow her to the elevator. When it arrives on her floor, we head to Rory’s suite.
Cage and Jake are waiting outside the door.