“Responsible?What the fuck is this then?”West asked, shoving his phone in Remi’s face.
Remi lifted his sunglasses; big dark circles cratered under his eyes.He squinted at the screen for a long minute.He let the sunglasses drop back down on his face and turned away.
“I didn’t do it,” Remi said, taking a bowl and cereal out of the cabinet.
“You swear?You swear to god?”West said.“Because I know we’ve all been indulging a little hard in the rock star life, but we agreed heroin and meth were off the table.”
“What do you want from me?Do you want me to take a drug test?”Remi exploded, holding up a jug of milk from the fridge.“You’ll find a shit ton of stuff, but you won’t find dope.”
He poured cereal into a bowl and splashed milk over it, then sat down at the table, hunching over his breakfast.
There was a stilted silence on the bus, only interrupted by Remi crunching his cereal and thetink tinkof the spoon against the bowl.
Skye tried to catch West’s gaze, but he wasn’t looking at her.She’d never seen him as frantic as she had this morning.He’d snapped at her more than a few times when she questioned him about what happened with Remi last night.
But they were all under a lot of stress, and this picture wasn’t helping anyone’s mood, even if Remi hadn’t done it.
West shook his head and walked away, disappearing into the back bedroom.
“We all here, Skye?”Larry called out as the bus’s engine roared to life.
Skye waited a beat for Remi to notice his live-in groupie wasn’t here, but he only ate his cereal.She considered for a brief second leaving Jillian, but she had enough bullshit to deal with and didn’t need Remi pissed with her for anything else.
“We’re waiting for one more—” Skye said, but the tour bus door opened with its squeaky hinges, and Jillian hopped up the stairs, fingers flying over her phone and gum smacking in her mouth.“Yeah, Larry, we’re all here.”
The bus groaned as it pulled out of the hotel parking lot.Skye held on to the back of the booth to steady herself.
“Did you see this?”Jillian asked, sliding into the seat on the opposite side of the table.She turned her phone to Remi and showed him the picture they’d all been freaking out over for the last two hours.
“Yeah,” Remi grunted, barely glancing at it.“I didn’t do it.”
“Can you get that photo taken down, Jillian?”Skye asked.“You know, since you’re the band’s publicist now.”
Jillian didn’t look at Skye but furrowed her brows.“Why would I do that?”
“Because he looks like a druggie,” Skye said.“Everything the band does—no matter how good they play—will be overshadowed by this.Get rid of it.”
She really shouldn’t need to explain this to the band’s publicist.It should be fucking obvious.
Jillian shrugged one shoulder.“It’s good publicity.Remi is a real rock star now.He’s got street cred.”
Skye rubbed her temples.“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”She was already trying to hold everything together for the tour, on top of double-checking everyone else’s jobs just in case the bargain started deteriorating again, and now she had to babysit the publicist, who wasn’t even really a—
Skye’s jaw dropped as the realization dawned on her.“You did this,” she said.“You fucking did this.”
Jillian stared blankly at Skye.“Did what?”
“You took the picture.You leaked it,” Skye said.“Are you trying to sabotage the band?”
Remi snorted.“No, that’s your job, Skye.”
She ignored him.“Give me your phone.”She put a hand out to Jillian.
“No.Fuck off.”
“Give it to me,” Skye said, towering over her.
Remi stood up and stepped in front of Skye.“Just leave her alone.”
