Dorian scowls as he glances down at his vibrating phone. “Fantastic. Someone posted a bunch of shit online about us being here. They’re gonna be swarming the place any minute. Thank fuck we’re getting far the fuck away from here tomorrow.”
Yeah, he’s definitely feeling salty. I wonder what exactly Sinjin did to him to put him in such a foul mood, and I make a mental note to ask Micah later if he can pick up on the nuances of her magic.
“Slight change of plans,” I say, knowing this’ll piss Dorian off even more.
“Since when?” He pushes his shades further up his nose and crosses his arms to face off against me.
Oh, about an hour ago, once I laid eyes on Sin. She may not have thrown herself at my first offer, but that’s fine. When something feels right like this, I’m not easily deterred.
I wasn’t when I formed the band, when it seemed like the right thing for Micah and for me, or when Dorian and Cal joined us. Nor when it became clear that we needed to take a break.
I’m not holding back now. Not when it’s so clear to me that Sin is clearly perfect for this last tour.
We just need to convince her of that.
Or maybe I will stick her over my shoulder and bundle her into the car after all.
Chapter 6
Sin
My head spins as I head down to the lobby. Tonight did not go how I expected it to. I’m unsettled by how the band tracked me down and my feet are already itching with the need to move.
To get away from Willow Ridge.
To hide myself better this time.
Fucking Elara. As pathetic as it is, she’s the closest thing I have to a friend.
And she sold me out at the first opportunity.
As pissed as I am at her, I’m even more annoyed with myself. I’ve grown complacent, staying in a town that doesn’t do much for me just because it felt safe enough. But if Orpheus Underground can track me down, then that means anyone could.
The urge to flee to somewhere new, where nobody knows me, is strong. After tonight, though, I’m also seriously considering fleeing into the anonymity of the band’s tour. I’d imagine they have hundreds of people working for them, and they’ll be traveling around the world, which would help me pick out a new spot to settle.
When I first abandoned my old life, I had nowhere to go. No friends or family. No connections.
My current situation is not all that different. I still have no friends or family. I have a casual hookup in town that I see whenever we both have an itch that needs scratching. And I have Elara.
Elara who communicates mostly in picture form and who I haven’t seen in person in years. Who I clearly can’t trust to keep my secrets safe.
I still don’t have anyone around I’d trust to help me if I needed it.
But this time around, what I have is a possibility. An invitation to join a hugely famous band’s international tour. Four months and they’d pay me enough money to cover a dozen new identities.
The situation is nuts. But I’m not about to kick myself in the face just because it’s weird as hell.
The lobby is quiet as the elevator doors open and I listen out for drunken giggles from the bar area. There’s nothing. I scan the whole lobby, looking for Ally and Lila. My ride home. But they’re not where I left them, and a quick lap of the bar shows they’re not hidden in a corner either.
Shit.
I check my phone to see if I can track them down, but it seems like my location sharing only goes one way. Dammit. I should have given it more thought, but my mind was entirely focused on meeting with the band’s manager.
I park myself on a barstool and start searching online for a way to get home. A cab is gonna eat into my budget massively, but I can’t stay at this hotel forever. And it’s not like I can pop back upstairs to ask the band for an advance on a job I’ve not agreed to do yet.
“I knew you were full of shit,” a female voice says just as a body drops onto the stool beside me. I side-eye the woman who drops her handbag onto the bartop between us with a thud.
“You’re Grizz, seriously? That cutesy little girl on the signs? I knew you were stonewalling me, but I have to say I didn’t expect you to be the one to show up here. I figured you were covering for someone who was hiding out in the back or something.”
