Staged (Exodus End 3)

Steve so wanted to punch the guy in the throat, but what if he made good on his threat to harm Roux? Steve would never forgive himself for not protecting her and her sisters from that piece of slime. Was there any way he could get the band away from him? He knew Baroquen had signed a contract, and knowing what Sam Baily’s contracts were like from personal experience, he figured it had been signed in blood with provisions about brain donations or something equally horrifying should they break their agreement.

Sam hurried away, looking for someone else to annoy. He settled on some poor stagehand, who he berated for the feedback issues that had plagued the beginning of Baroquen’s set. And then Tamara came running up to him and actually hugged him, smiling a greeting so friendly, Steve thought he might puke. Unable to endure two of his least favorite people within spitting distance, Steve started walking in the direction he’d last seen Baroquen.

“Why is he here?” Zach asked.

Steve had completely forgotten Zach was beside him. “Who the fuck knows? He’s up to no good, that’s for sure.”

“I thought he might say something about me tagging along, but he didn’t so much as look at me.”

“I’m sure he has bigger fish to fry.” Steve huffed out a cynical laugh. “And I’ve always been his whale shark.”

“He does love to annoy you.”

And he was so good at it.

Steve spotted Roux, who had separated from the group looking for a party to crash and was watching him approach while fiddling with the ghost of the bullet she used to wear around her wrist. Though he knew she missed it, she had yet to ask for it back, but he unfastened the chain around his wrist as he walked toward her. He had the feeling she was going to need more comfort than he could publicly offer her.

When he drew to a halt in front of her, she asked, “Were you just talking to Sam Baily?”

“His twin brother,” Zach joked.

Steve secured the bracelet around her wrist, removing the extender he’d added to make it fit his thicker arm. She looked like he’d slapped her.

“Why are you giving this back? You’re not dumping me—”

“Of course not.” He couldn’t stop himself from taking her shoulders between his hands and staring into her eyes, but he showed a huge amount of self-control by not dragging her against his chest and holding her tight. “I thought you might need it to help you deal with the stress Sam’s bound to bring with him.”

“More stress? I don’t have enough already?”

“He knows we’re involved.”

She blinked those long fake lashes. “What?”

It was killing him that he couldn’t comfort her. He wanted to stroke the hair from her face and kiss her wrist and press her fingers against his cheek, but he couldn’t do any of that with so many eyes watching them.

“You should be fine if you do what he says,” he told her. But what would Sam do if they refused?

Roux swallowed, looking pale even with all the makeup on her face. “What does he want me to do?”

“Not you specifically. He’s had some tent set up outside the main stage and wants your band to continue autographing forearms. You’ll probably be there all night and have to miss Sinners’ show.”

“Oh.” She dropped her gaze. “Well, Iona did promise some fans that we’d sign more after our set, but everyone will be devastated that we have to miss Sinners.”

“I’m sure you’ll be able to hear them from the signing tent.”

“Maybe no one will show up for our autographs and we’ll get to leave early.”

She smiled, and he didn’t know whether to tell her he hoped that too, or if he hoped that they were so insanely busy catering to all their new fans that they wouldn’t even realize Sinners was performing.

“I’m guessing that’s not going to happen,” Zach said.

Roux stood on tiptoe and glanced over the crowd, most likely trying to see where her sisters had gone. Her bandmates’ colorful wigs and costumes made them easy to spot in a crowd, especially for Steve, whose height served as an advantage over those less vertically gifted.

“There they are.” Steve pointed.

To his surprise, Roux took his hand and tried to lead him in that direction. Wishing he could let her, but knowing it wasn’t wise, he pulled his hand free of hers. She looked back at him in question.

“I told you Sam knows about us,” he said quietly. “And he’s probably validating Tamara’s suspicions as we speak.”

“Then there’s not much sense in trying to hide our relationship anymore, is there?”

He smiled and took her hand, leading the way. She grabbed Zach’s hand in her free one to keep them from getting separated in the crowd of musicians, stagehands, technicians, and backstage-pass-wielding fans milling about. Steve’s mood lightened now that he had two of his favorite people within spitting distance. Roux and Zach were a marked improvement over Sam Baily and Tamara Brennan.

When they caught up with Roux’s sisters, Roux released Zach’s hand—but not Steve’s—and tugged on Iona’s sleeve.

“Sam Baily is here,” Roux said.

Iona brightened. “He is?”

“Yeah. He’s having a signing tent set up for us outside the main stage’s entrance.”

“I’m sure the event organizers love that,” Lily said with a snort.

Steve forced himself not to stare at her chest. She was even bustier than Toni, and Toni was stacked. He did so enjoy the female anatomy. He squeezed Roux’s hand in case she could read his wandering thoughts, wanting to assure her that her female anatomy was the absolute best.

“Ah, come on,” Azura complained. “Don’t we get to celebrate even a little?”

“We’ll celebrate with the fans,” Iona said. “It will be fun and productive.”

She was so like Max, Steve couldn’t help but chuckle aloud. Lord help them all.

“And lucrative.”

Sam’s voice coming from behind Steve made his neck tense.

“I’ve managed to round up a few cases of CDs for you to sell,” Sam added.

“Awesome,” Iona said.

Roux’s hand had become very damp against Steve’s palm. Or maybe he was the one sweating buckets.

“You okay?” he whispered near her ear.

Her gaze followed Iona and Sam, who were now walking in the direction of the main stage, already deeply immersed in conversation.

“I don’t trust him,” Roux said.

“Because you’re a good judge of character,” he said. “Iona—like Max—is a good judge of opportunity. It’s going to be damn near impossible to convince your sister that her aspiration’s new best friend is bad news.”

She moved close to whisper into his ear. “Maybe if you told me why you’re firing him, I’d have suitable ammunition to sway her opinion.”

“He’s being fired for too many reasons to count,” he said, “but the one that finally pushed Max over the edge . . .”

Her eyes brightened with curiosity.

“I can’t tell you yet. It’s not that I don’t trust you. I just can’t.”

“He won’t tell me either,” Zach said, reminding Steve once again that his favorite third wheel was still hanging around.

“How did he find out about us? And so quickly?” Roux asked. “We were so careful in public.”

Only one possibility made sense to Steve. “Probably some member of our security team.”

“Butch?”

Steve shook his head. “No way. He hates that guy almost as much as I do, and he would never break a confidence. Some of our team aren’t paid directly by us but by the tour company, which Sam runs, so their loyalty is slightly off.”

Roux released a breath and then turned to follow her sisters to the yet-to-be-seen signing tent.

“I’m not sure we could get out of our contract even if we wanted to,” Roux said, apparently not quite ready to drop the subject of Sam. “So maybe it’s a good thing that we don’t know what he’s done.?

??

Steve wrapped an arm around her shoulders, overjoyed when she didn’t resist. So they were really going public? Several heads turned in their direction as they passed, but no one seemed overly surprised that they were together. They must not realize the significance of the seemingly casual interaction, but Steve recognized it.