Текст книги "Insider"

Автор книги: Olivia Cunning

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Текущая страница: 19 (всего у книги 34 страниц)

Twenty-One

Once he’d regained his composure, Logan helped Toni into her panties. He was unable to stop himself from caressing her silky thighs before she hid them beneath her unflattering skirt, which in his opinion was the most fantastic skirt in existence. He was the only one who knew what delights the thick brown fabric concealed.

“Crap!” she said, reaching over to grab her audio recorder from the table. She cringed as she pressed the pause button.

“Was that thing recording the entire time?”

She nodded. “I forgot it even existed. You have a way of making me forget anything exists but you.”

His heart fluttered, and a knot formed in his throat. He coughed, trying to dislodge the discomfort and hoping he wasn’t coming down with a cold. The tour had just started and after another month in North America, they were heading to Europe, Asia, South America, Australia and even South Africa. He wanted to enjoy every minute of the tour, not spend his time blowing his nose and being the whiny pain in the ass he knew he was when he was sick.

“Don’t worry,” she said. “I’ll erase it.”

He snatched the device out of her hand and searched for the reverse button. After rewinding several minutes’ worth of recording, he pressed play. The sexy sounds of Toni finding orgasm with his cock in her mouth greeted his eager ears. His dick twitched with renewed interest.

“Oh God, is that really what I sound like?” Toni asked, her pretty face screwed up with displeasure. “Delete it.”

“Hell no, I’m not deleting it. I’m making it your ringtone.”

Her mouth dropped open, but she quickly recovered her shock and dove for the device. He yanked it out of her reach just in time.

“Logan,” she pleaded, her big brown eyes full of turmoil. “Please don’t embarrass me.”

“There’s absolutely nothing to be embarrassed about.”

He rewound the bit of audio and played it again. He produced a delighted full-body shudder at the sound of her getting off. “You have to promise to call me every five minutes so I can hear this over and over again.”

“You are not making that my ringtone.”

“Uh, yeah, I am.”

“You can’t,” she said, fist planted on either hip. There was something sexy about her standing her ground, but that didn’t mean he was going to back down.

“You bet your fine ass, I can.”

She shook her head. “You don’t even have my number.”

Stunned that she was correct, his teasing grin faded. He didn’t have his own girlfriend’s—um,  new friend’s—phone number? He’d completely neglected his phone—quite unusual for him—since he’d met Toni. The woman was a constant distraction.

“We’re going to remedy that right now,” he said. And he rushed into the corridor to retrieve his phone from under his pillow.

Knowing she would erase the cock-thickening sound of her sexy vocalizations at her first opportunity, Logan played it back and recorded the sounds onto his phone through the mic. It would lose some of the sound quality, but that was better than losing it entirely.

“What are you doing?” Dare asked. He was lying in his bunk, watching the TV built into the underside of Max’s top bunk.

“Retaining evidence,” Logan said with a wink.

He grabbed a cola out of the refrigerator and hurried back to the lounge, flipping through a series of text messages, Facebook notifications, and missed calls that didn’t interest him in the least.

“I brought you something to wash the taste of my cum out of your mouth,” he said, trying to embarrass Toni. She didn’t so much as blush. She was too busy scowling down at her smartphone.

“What’s wrong?”

He handed her the bottle of cola. She opened it and took a long swallow, but avoided his inquisitive gaze.

“Toni?”

She set her phone and the bottle aside so she could massage her temples. “It’s nothing.”

It obviously wasn’t nothing. She was upset. “You can tell me.”

“It’s just the mean things my editor says to me. Rattles my confidence.”

“Shouldn’t your editor support you?”

Toni laughed hollowly. “Not when I took her dream assignment away from her.”

Logan lifted her phone from the table and read the string of messages still displayed on her screen beneath the name Susan Brennan. Brennan? Why did that name sound familiar?

His jaw dropped several additional inches with each text message he read.

Are you on your way home yet? I have my bag packed and ready to go. We both know you don’t have what it takes.

Good thing your mom owns the company. There’s no way you would have been hired for the job if you had to prove your worth.

Are you not answering my messages because you know I’m right or because you’re too ashamed to admit you’ve already failed?

Logan couldn’t believe anyone would be so mean to someone as sweet as his Toni.

“What a bitch!” he said.

He began typing a response. Listen, bitch, IDK who u think u r bu—

Toni jerked her phone out of his hand and started backspacing to delete his message.

“Why are you deleting that?”

“You can’t send her a text like that. She’s my boss! I owe her my respect.”

Logan covered his eyes with one hand. “Your respect? She obviously doesn’t respect you. You don’t owe her a goddamned thing.”

“But she’s right.” Toni wrung her hands together in her lap. Her hair slid forward to hide her troubled expression. “I wouldn’t have this job if my mom didn’t own the company. I don’t have any experience. I do suck at this.”

He sat beside her and rubbed her back. “What are you talking about? You’re doing a great job.”

She shook her head. “I’m having too much fun to be doing a great job.”

“Just because work is fun doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong. Unless you think my entire band is a failure.”

Her head snapped up. “Of course I don’t think that!”

“And I don’t think you’re going to fail. I hate to brag, but I’m an excellent judge of talent, and you, Ms. Nichols, are talented. Just look at how fast you learned how to give a fantastic hummer.”

“I’ll add it to my resume,” she said glumly.

He wasn’t going to let this drop until she was happy and smiling again, so she might as well stop resisting his attempts at a pep talk.

“Do you know how hard it is to get my bandmates to talk about their personal lives?”

She opened her eyes wide and nodded.

“And yet you got each of them to talk to you about things they never discuss with members of the press.”

“That’s because they don’t see me as a real journalist, so I’m obviously doing it wrong.”

“Or you’re doing it right and just don’t realize it. Like when we have sex. You worry that you aren’t doing it like everyone else does it, but when you forget to be anxious, you’re amazing.”

“I am?”

“Amazing.”

She smiled, and he swore the roof of the bus opened up, letting in rays of sunshine to brighten his day.

“Not that you’re an expert yet,” he said. “I do still have a lot to teach you in the bedroom.”

“You haven’t taught me a thing in the bedroom yet.”

He gaped at her. “What? I’ve taught you plenty. I mean, you went for that sixty-nine all on your own—very nice, by the way—but the other stuff—”

“Didn’t happen in a bedroom. It happened in this lounge and a limo and your bunk . . .”

He chuckled. “I guess it is time to introduce you to a real bed.”

“Tonight,” she promised, giving him a chaste kiss on the lips. “But first I need to interview Reagan.”

“Because you don’t suck at this?” He wanted her to believe it. Wanted to hear her say it. Still wanted to text her bitch of an editor and put her in her place.

“Because if I don’t keep trying, I’ll never gain the experience I need to be successful.”

Logan nodded and patted her knee. Her confidence was still shaky, but it would strengthen with time. He turned his head to yell down the corridor, “You’re up, Reagan! Do you think you can unlock your lips from Trey’s long enough to answer Toni’s expert interview questions?”

“Not really,” Reagan’s voice carried into the room.

“Then Toni’s going to make up a bunch of shit about you!” Logan yelled. “And I’m going to put ideas in her head.”

“I’ll be right there!”

Logan rose from the sofa and bent to press a kiss to Toni's forehead. “You’ve got this, lamb.”

She smiled and nodded. She lifted her chin a notch, and his chest swelled with pride, which was the weirdest-fucking emotion he’d ever experienced in all his thirty-two years.

Reagan bounded into the room and tackle-hugged Toni on the sectional. “Are you really going to include me in the book?”

“Of course I am,” Toni said. She patted Reagan’s shoulder as she tried to sit upright. “You’re part of Exodus End, aren’t you?”

“Not really, but I do appreciate the gesture.”

Logan rolled his eyes and shook his head. Did Reagan still feel excluded? He supposed he would have to fuck with her more so she felt like one of the guys. Or perhaps they should forbid her from riding on Sinners’ tour bus. She spent more time with Trey’s band than her own.

“If you two start making out, holler for me,” Logan said as he stepped into the corridor to give the women privacy. “I wouldn’t want to miss that.”

Toni’s eyes widened when Reagan shifted to straddle Toni’s lap and gave his justfriend’s boobs a squeeze.

“I always wanted a pair like these,” Reagan said. “If I can’t have my own, I might as well play with someone else’s.”

Logan reentered the lounge and made a beeline for the sectional. “Yes, I’d love to watch. Thanks for asking.”

“I promise not to molest your girlfriend,” Reagan said, scrambling from Toni’s lap and shoving Logan out of the room. Smiling brightly, she made a peace sign. Then she turned her symbol of good will against her face to flick her tongue between her index and middle finger and slid the door shut an inch from his nose.

Logan groaned and rested his forehead against the cool surface of the door. Surely Reagan had her hands full with two men. She couldn’t possibly need to add a woman to her stable of full-time lovers, could she?

with Reagan Elliot

“I just can’t resist fucking with that guy,” Reagan said, breezing past Toni and flopping onto the sofa. She propped her bare feet on the coffee table and patted the cushion next to her.

The same cushion that Logan had been lying on when he’d come in Toni’s mouth moments before. Toni reached for the cola Logan had so thoughtfully brought her and took another swig.

She was going to have to start staging her interviews in a different location. She couldn’t stop the X-rated images from filtering through her thoughts.

“He is fun.” Toni scooted closer to Reagan, her nearly empty beverage clasped between her hands. Maybe she’d have more luck keeping on track while interviewing a woman. She hadn’t planned on doing any additional interviews, having decided Dare’s advice to just talk to them was her best move, but now that she felt she needed to prove herself to Logan as well as her mother and Susan, Toni decided she should at least attempt all the preplanned formal interviews, even if they didn’t amount to much.

“We can finally have that girl talk,” Reagan said, grabbing the bottle out of Toni’s hands and taking a drink.

Toni cringed, thinking that if Reagan knew where her mouth had just been, she would not want to share.

“What’s that face?” Reagan said, lowering the bottle and eyeing her with suspicious gray-blue eyes.

Toni shook her head. “N-nothing.”

“Did you just suck Logan’s dick or something?”

Heat flooded Toni’s face. “Maybe.”

Reagan crinkled her nose and shoved the nearly empty bottle into Toni’s chest. “And you let me drink after you?”

“I’m sorry.”

Reagan shook her head and went still when her gaze landed on something on the floor. “And you just leave your sex toys lying around on the carpet?”

So much for her interview with Reagan staying on track. “I found that under the sofa when I was hunting for my pen.”

“Sure you did.”

Toni was so embarrassed that she didn’t know whether to hide under the cushions or cry, so she laughed uneasily. “Honest. I didn’t even know what that thing was until Logan explained it to me.”

Reagan cocked her head at her, her dirty-blond bangs sliding over her face to cover one eye. “So are you two serious or just having a good time?”

Toni wasn’t sure how to answer that. She wanted them to be serious, and he made her feel like he was serious about her, but she was pretty sure she was just clueless about these things and reading more into his actions and words than was really there.

Reagan touched the back of Toni’s hand, and Toni looked up into a pair of concerned eyes. “Don’t let him play you unless you’re playing him right back.”

“I don’t know if he’s playing me. And I wouldn’t know how to play him if I had an instruction manual and a tutor. Not that I want to play him.” She just wanted to love him. She shook her head and planted her face in her palms. It was much too soon for that. Even she realized that.

“Oh, honey, you didn’t do something as stupid as fall in love with him, did you?”

Toni nodded miserably.

“Because falling for someone too quickly . . .”

Toni steeled her heart for the advice she knew would follow. She knew the coming words were true. She just didn’t want the truth voiced aloud, because that would make it real and then she’d have to face it.

“. . . is the most amazing experience ever!” Reagan said.

Thinking she needed to clean out her ears, Toni lifted her face from her hands and arched a brow at Reagan. “Huh?”

“Are you recording this?” Reagan nodded to the recorder on the table.

Toni shook her head.

“This is just between you and me, okay? Don’t go selling it to the tabloids or printing it in your book.”

Toni nodded mutely.

“I fell in love with Trey so fast—like soooo fast it was ridiculous and I convinced myself it was hormones—because the guy is sex on a stick.”

Toni nodded.

“But it’s so much deeper than that. It was from the first moment we met. Sometimes you just click with someone”—Reagan snapped her fingers—“and you know on a biological and psychological level that this is the one. Or the two . . .” Reagan’s gaze shifted to the wall and she cleared her throat. “So if you feel that instantaneous connection with Logan, don’t immediately discredit it. Just because it’s a fast-burning love doesn’t mean it can’t be a long-lasting love. You just have to keep fueling the fire. Right?”

Toni had no idea. “I guess.”

“Right.” Reagan slapped her on the arm.

“How do I go about fueling the fire, exactly?” Toni asked. Sex? The answer had to be sex. Maybe anal sex. She still wasn’t keen on the idea, but if that was what it took to keep Logan’s interest, she’d allow it.

“You have to make him feel like he’s important to you.”

Well, that would be easy enough. She could see herself overdoing it, though. “But then won’t he think I’m being clingy? Or obsessed?”

“You don’t have to be all up in his face about it.”

Reagan’s nose was suddenly an inch from Toni’s as she peered into her eyes. Toni laughed at the irony. She’d never met anyone as in your face—both literally and figuratively—as Reagan Elliot.

“Even little things can make a big difference,” Reagan said.

“But what if he doesn’t feel as strongly about me as I do about him?”

“Just keep being marvelous, sweetie. He’ll come around.”

She sure hoped so.

“So are we going to do this interview or what?”

“Can I ask you something first? Completely off the record.” Toni’s curiosity had gotten the better of her. She couldn’t keep this question to herself for another second.

“Sure.”

“Are you cheating on Trey with your bodyguard?”

Reagan gaped at her. Toni couldn’t tell if she was shocked because her secret had been discovered or because someone thought she was capable of being unfaithful.

“No,” she said flatly.

Either Reagan was lying or Toni’s power of observation was less honed than she realized.

“I’m sorry if I offended you.”

“I dated Ethan before I met Trey.”

“So I guess Ethan still has feelings for you. I’ve seen the way he looks at you.” She’d also seen the way he looked at Trey, but she was obviously reading that incorrectly. Though she had been around enough gay guys to recognize attraction between two men and there was definitely attraction between those two men. Unless . . . “Wait,” Toni said as something overtly sneaky occurred to her. “Are you a cover for a relationship between Trey and Ethan?” But that didn’t explain all she’d seen either. The intimacy she’d witnessed between Trey and Reagan was obviously not fabricated.

“Wrong again.” Reagan grinned. “Can you keep a secret?”

Toni’s heart thudded, and she nodded eagerly.

“What am I saying? Of course, you can’t keep a secret,” Reagan said. “You’re a fucking journalist.”

“Except I’m not,” Toni said. “At all.”

“And that’s why you’re doing interviews and recording footage and sticking your nose in everyone’s business.”

Toni shouldn’t have felt hurt that Reagan didn’t trust her—she completely understood why Reagan would have reservations about sharing personal information—but she wanted Reagan to feel that she could confide in her and believe that Toni would keep her promises. Her integrity was worth more to her than a few lines in a tabloid or a few dollars for an incriminating picture.

“I don’t mean to be intrusive,” Toni said. “I’m just trying to get an inside look at the lives of the members of Exodus End and share that look with the world. I absolutely do not want anything in the book that could hurt any of you. I haven’t known you all long, but I consider you my friends, and I would never betray a friend’s trust.”

Reagan eyed her warily and then sighed. “Normally if a member of the media spouted that kind of nonsense in my direction, I wouldn’t hesitate to call them a liar—”

Toni cringed.

“—but for some reason, I don’t think you’re capable of being a vindictive bitch, so I’ll tell you, and you can either affirm my faith in humanity or get the shit beat out of you for betraying my trust.”

Toni swallowed hard. She wouldn’t betray Reagan’s trust, not because of Reagan’s violent threats—fabricated as they seemed—but because to be counted among the back-stabbing bitches of the world would eat Toni alive from the inside out.

“Trey is my boyfriend,” Reagan said.

Oddly, Toni was relieved that the truth wasn’t any more scandalous than that.

“And he knows that Ethan is my lover,” Reagan continued.

Okay, so maybe it was more scandalous.

“Because Ethan and Trey are lovers too.”

Jaw meet floor.

Reagan let out a deep sigh.

“I don’t know why, but it feels kind of good to tell you that,” Reagan admitted while Toni tried to remember how to blink. “I wish the world was open to polyamorous relationships. It’s becoming more open to homosexual ones, so maybe, given time . . .” Reagan tilted her head at Toni. “Are you going to pass out?”

Toni shook her head and took her first breath in over a minute. Questions began to race through her thoughts.

“So you have sex with Trey. And with Ethan. And they’re both okay with that?” Toni asked. Why was her voice so squeaky? She sounded like a mouse huffing helium.

Reagan laughed and crossed her legs, looking surprisingly at ease. “Well, yeah, since most of the time they’re both there.”

More questions bombarded Toni’s psyche. “And they do each other in front of you?”

Reagan laughed. “If I’m lucky.”

The logistics were completely out of Toni’s grasp. She had a hard enough time figuring out what to do with one cock; she’d have no idea how to keep two satisfied. But even more than the mind-bending sexual positions, Toni was struggling to grasp the emotional connection. If Logan had sex with some other woman—or man—she’d be heartbroken. She didn’t know if she’d ever be able to move past infidelity, no matter how much she loved him. But not everyone had the same ideas of sex and love as she did, and she was okay with that. She didn’t have to participate in a certain lifestyle to accept it. “So you’re in love with Trey and Ethan’s just there as a sex partner?”

“You know, it started out that way,” Reagan said, chewing on the end of her finger thoughtfully. “But nope, we’re all emotionally invested now.”

“That’s wild,” Toni said for lack of anything more poignant to add.

“It just feels natural to us. But the rest of the world doesn’t get it. They might never get it. So that’s why I try to hide it.”

Toni nodded. She didn’t get it, so she was sure plenty of folks out there were unable to grasp the concept. She didn’t hold their unique lifestyle against them—love was love—but she knew there were a lot of people in the world who would hold it against them. And try to destroy what they had. So Toni completely understood why Reagan was keeping the truth about her complicated love life a secret.

“I won’t tell anyone,” Toni said. Though she would like to discuss it with Logan, her sex instructor. Maybe he could explain some of the sexual parts of a polyamorous relationship to her. “Does Logan know?”

“Yeah. All the guys in Sinners know and all the guys in Exodus End know, but no one else.”

“Not even Butch?”

“Of course Butch knows. He helps us hide it more than anyone. But no one else knows. Well, except Myrna and Jessica. Um, and Rebekah Sticks and Jace’s fiancée, Aggie.” Reagan cringed. “And a couple of the security team. Shit. I didn’t realize how many people know about us. It’s kind of scary, you know?”

Toni nodded. She didn’t plan to talk about it in front of anyone—with the exception of Logan—but it was good to know who was privy to the information, just in case something slipped or the trio needed help covering their trail. Toni would do her best to help Reagan keep her secret.

“What does your family think about it?”

Reagan paled. “My family definitely doesn’t know. And I hope they never will. My father would die. And he’d take me with him.”

“He’d probably freak out at first, but I’m sure he just wants you to be happy.”

Reagan shook her head. “Nope. He wants me to be like you when I grow up.”

Toni tilted her head, wondering what she meant by that. “Like me?”

“A sweet and charming good girl.”

Well, that didn’t sound very fun. Toni scowled.

“Who has been irreparably damaged by a very, very bad boy.” Reagan laughed. “Don’t look so glum, sweetie. Same thing happened to me. I just happened to be fifteen at the time.”

“I’m a late bloomer,” Toni said and laughed.

“Those bad boys are an addictive adrenaline rush. Once you’re hooked, you’ll keep going back for more.”

“Until it takes two to feed your addiction?”

Mouth open, Reagan blinked at her in astonishment. But before Toni could utter the quick apology on her tongue, Reagan burst out laughing.

“I never thought of it that way, but I think you might be right.”

The door slid open. “That doesn’t sound like making out to me,” Logan said, peeking in at them from between the doorframe and the edge of the sliding door.

“Privacy!” Reagan tossed a pillow that hit him square in the face.

“We’re stopping for sandwiches, and Butch told me to ask Toni what she wants.”

Steve’s head appeared over the top of Logan’s head as he stood on tiptoe to peer in at them.

“He means Butch was headed back to ask Toni what she wants, but at the mention of her name, Logan tackled Butch to the floor and sprinted to the back of the bus because he’s obsessed.”

Logan frowned, turned to shove Steve off his back, and then smiled into the lounge again. “So what would you like?” he asked Toni, his gaze so intense she could almost feel it against her skin.

“Oh my God, he is obsessed!” Reagan shouted.

“Shut up! The woman has to eat.”

“What do they have?” Toni asked, trying not to grin at the way Logan’s bandmates were teasing him.

“Cold cut subs.”

“Turkey on wheat with extra jalapeños.”

“You won’t want her to suck your dick tonight,” Steve joked. “It’ll burn so bad, you’ll need a fire extinguisher.”

Logan covered Steve’s face with his splayed hand and shoved him out of view again.

“Oh.” Toni nibbled on her lower lip. She hadn’t considered what effect eating jalapeños would have on Logan’s anatomy. “Hold the jalapeños.”

Logan grinned and winked at her before turning away. “Guess who’s getting his dick sucked?” he said to Steve as he slid the door shut. “Again.”

Toni’s face flamed much hotter than any jalapeño that had ever existed. “Are guys always that embarrassing?”

“Pretty much.”

Toni lifted her recording device. “I’m going to turn this on now,” she warned, “so anything you say is fair game for the book.”

Reagan nodded, and Toni pressed the record button.

“How did you get picked to play guitar for Exodus End?”

“Their manager, Sam Baily, thought it would be good publicity to do a contest. So hundreds, maybe thousands, of hopeful guitarists sent in demos of their work. I actually entered on a dare. Anyway, the top five were selected by Sam—which I didn’t realize until recently. Have you met Sam yet?”

Toni shook her head.

“That would explain why you’re still here.”

Before Toni could ask what Reagan meant by that, Reagan continued her story.

“The top five had to audition live for the band, except the guys couldn’t see us. They had to base their pick solely on our sound.”

“So I’m assuming you won?”

“Yeah. I couldn’t believe it. And neither could Pyre Vamp, apparently.” Reagan’s lip curled and she lifted a hand to cover her throat.

“The guitarist for Hell’s Crypt?”

“Yep, that’s the guy.”

“Didn’t they unexpectedly pull out of the tour last month?” Toni had run across that tidbit when she’d been preparing for her trip. The details of Hell’s Crypt leaving the tour had been vague.

“They sure did. Because of this.” She traced a faded yellow mark on her neck.

“Is it that a bruise?” Toni had no idea how a bruise would lead to an up-and-coming band pulling out of a career-changing tour with Exodus End.

“It’s almost gone now. You should have seen it a week ago.”

Toni leaned in for a closer inspection. The fading mark completely circled Reagan’s neck.

“How didn’t I notice that before?” Toni asked. It was faded, but hard to overlook.

“I’ve been putting makeup on it to cover it. Is it still noticeable?”

Toni nodded. “It looks like you tried to hang yourself.”

“Dude tried to strangle me with a guitar string. Pyre did this.”

“No shit?” Toni blurted. “You must have been terrified.”

Reagan shrugged. “I was unconscious for most of it. Anyway, his band got fired from the tour, obviously—your lead guitarist tries to kill someone and that’s bound to happen—so lucky for us Steve is close with the guys of Twisted Element. They’ve done an awesome job filling in with no time to prepare a show.”

“I had no idea that’s why they were on tour with you guys. How did I miss that story? I scoured the Internet for news about the band just days ago. I didn’t read anything about this.” Reagan wasn’t a pathological liar, was she?

“Sam said it would be better if we kept the controversy under the rug.”

“Seriously? That guy could have killed you.”

“But you can put it in the book,” Reagan said. “It won’t come out until next year, right?”

“Right. Why is that important?”

“I won’t be under Sam’s ridiculous contract anymore. So I can’t make a stink about this now without getting my ass sued, but you better believe I’m going to shout it from the rafters after that contract expires.”

“What do the guys think about you being hushed?” Toni couldn’t imagine they’d side with Sam, but she didn’t know Sam or how tightly he ruled the bands he managed.

“They think it’s better not to expose this incident to the press for my sake. I guess they think Pyre Vamp is in jail for thirty days, so he learned his lesson. When it comes to their image, it’s like Sam has them brainwashed. I don’t know why they listen to him.”

“Maybe it’s in their contract.”

Reagan’s eyes widened. “I didn’t even think of that. You’re probably right. You know, Sinners basically manage themselves. They have a manager, but he’s very hands off, not like Sam at all. If I ever form my own band, that’s the kind of manager I want. The mostly absent kind.”

“But look at Exodus End’s success. You don’t get as big as they do without a good team to back you.”

“Maybe,” Reagan said. “But at what cost?”

“Do you think Sam’s control stifles their creativity?”

“I hope not. I haven’t been with them long enough to know.” Reagan pondered quietly for a moment and then patted Toni’s knee. “We got way off track on your interview question. So yeah, contest. I won. I was so excited I signed a beast of a contract without reading it. But I’m touring with Exodus End, so I’ll grin and bear it.” Reagan grinned so broadly, Toni feared her face might crack in half. “You’re a little too easy to talk to, you know? You’re going to get me in trouble.”

Toni tucked her hair behind her ears, smiling to herself. She was glad she was easy to talk to. That made her job so much easier. And maybe she was doing it right, even though it still didn’t feel like she knew what the hell she was doing. She decided her toughest undertaking would be sifting through all the information she was collecting for material she could actually use in the book.

“Are you sure you want me to include the story about Pyre trying to strangle you?”

“Yeah. And be sure to say the reason he did it was because he lost the Exodus End Guitarist for a Year Contest. To a girl.”

“What a turd.” Toni pursed her lips to refrain from calling him more derogatory names.

“I’m done thinking about him for today. Next question,” Reagan prompted.

Toni glanced toward her legal pad of Susan-prepared questions and shook her head. “So,” she asked, “what’s the most difficult thing about being on the road with a bunch of guys?”

“Lack of bathroom space,” she said without hesitation.

“Yeah, that does suck,” Toni agreed with a nod.

“These guys have been so great about accepting me into their fold, so I really don’t have anything to complain about. And this whole three days on the road followed by two nights in a cushy hotel is fabulous. I was on tour with Sinners for a few weeks, and those guys never take a day off while they’re on tour. I don’t know how they stay sane.”

“You talk about Sinners a lot,” Toni noted.

“You know, you should write a book about them when you’re finished with Exodus End.”

“I’ve thought about it,” Toni admitted. But first she had to prove to herself and the rest of the world that she could do right by Exodus End.

The bus shuddered as it came to a stop.

“I think it’s time to eat,” Reagan said. “We didn’t get very far in your interview.”