“I’m still surprised she let you take this assignment. It’s not like you’ll be living in the company of the Vienna Boys’ Choir for the next month. I’m sure my life is tame when compared to the exploits of a bunch of rock stars, and she’s always giving me that stare of disapproval.”
Toni knew that stare all too well. “You know what Mom said when I asked for the assignment? I suppose it is time you get a life,” she said, mimicking her mother’s typical bored-sounding drawl. But Toni did have a life. Being twenty-five and still living at home didn’t bother her nearly as much as it bothered everyone else.
“Your mom is right. You do need to get a life.”
Toni scowled. Why did everyone assume that because she wasn’t some wild party animal or some socialite debutante that she wasn’t happy? “I happen to love my life. Birdie means everything to me.”
Someone honked behind them. Toni opened the door, but Julian grabbed her arm again to keep her from fleeing.
“Whether you realize it or not, you need more than your little sister to make your life complete. And if you come back from this trip still a virgin, I’m going to do something about it.”
She blinked at him. “You’re going to do something about it? You? The man who fears vaginas?”
“Hey, I’d probably do a better job of it than the last idiot who failed you, but no, I’ve no plans to contaminate my junk with girl juice.”
Toni covered her eyes with one hand as if it would shield her from Julian’s crazy schemes.
“If you’re still a virgin next time I see you, I will promptly kidnap you, haul your ass to Vegas in the trunk of my car, and buy you a bona fide man-whore to remove your V-chip.”
She jerked her hand off her flaming face a gaped at him. “You wouldn’t!”
He snorted. “You know I would. And when he’s finished with you, he can do me.”
Toni shook her head at his ornery grin. “You scare me sometimes.”
“I scare me too. But I always have a good time. I refuse to let life pass me by. Now give me a smooch. I think the guy behind me is about to ram the car.” Julian presented his cheek, and Toni supplied it with a begrudged peck. “Have fun. I’ll call you in a few days to get all the juicy details.”
“I wouldn’t give you any juicy details even if I had them.” She supposed. Heck, she didn’t know. It wasn’t like she had many juicy details to share. And in those rare incidences that she did, Julian was always the instigator and the star witness.
“We’ll see. Text me as soon as you lose your virginity. So, like tonight.” He winked at her and shoved her toward the passenger door. “Now go.”
So she went with her knees knocking together like a pair of billiard balls. Even with her press pass, it took a bit of convincing to get through security. Apparently no one took one look at her and thought, Wow, this woman has her shit together. She obviously belongs here.
By some miracle, she reached her destination without being kicked to the curb.
As Toni stepped onto Exodus End’s tour bus, her stomach took residence in her calf-hugging boots. The churning sensation of guilt and worry that had plagued her from the moment she’d left Birdie in the care of her domestically-challenged mother had moved past the lurching flips of her car ride with Julian to what must have been her liver using her stomach as a trampoline as she’d worked her way through security, and now that she’d finally located her home for the next month, the overwrought organ had decided to embark on a skydiving adventure. If this kept up, she was going to need an appointment with a gastroenterologist.
Deep breath, Toni. Susan is wrong. You can do this.
She clutched the strap of her messenger bag and tried to swallow her queasiness. Could she pull this off? Could she spend the next four weeks with one of the most famous rock bands on the planet, or was it possible for a person to die from sheer intimidation? The wall of muscle and mean that suddenly appeared in her path did nothing to put her at ease.
“No fans on the bus,” the big guy said, taking her firmly by one arm and spinning her back toward the open bus door she’d just entered.
“I’m not a fan,” she blurted, which wasn’t exactly true. She enjoyed Exodus End’s music and had gained an even greater appreciation for it when she did her background research for this job. She scrambled to grab the press pass on the lanyard around her neck and thrust it in his general direction. It had gotten her through the barricades; surely it would work now. “I’m Toni Nichols. Samuel Baily said to meet up with the bus tonight and join the tour. I was told you’d be expecting me.”
She’d made it here, she was living her dream; yet the stars she reached for had never seemed so distant.
The security guard released her arm to take her press pass and scrutinize it. Toni forced herself to meet the suspicious gaze of the giant in a neon-yellow T-shirt as he assessed her press pass and then her. Her press pass again. Her once more. His brown mustache twitched, but the scowl never left his fleshy face. She wondered if fans pretended to be members of the press to get on the bus. This guy obviously wasn’t buying her story, even though she was telling the truth. She’d never have been able to muster the courage to actually lie and sneak her way onto a tour bus. Who did that?
“Sam sent you?” he said gruffly. “He didn’t clear this with me. He knows he’s supposed to clear everything with me. Everything.” Big-and-Beefy pulled a cellphone out of his pocket. “Don’t move an inch,” he demanded as he dialed.
Well, that would be absolutely no problem. It wasn’t as if she could walk on the limp noodles that had replaced her legs.
The man turned away, and she stared at the word SECURITY printed across the back of his T-shirt while he checked out her credentials with Mr. Baily. Toni figured she should probably be taking in her surroundings and forming first impressions of Exodus End’s lavish tour bus, but she feared if she so much as glanced at anything belonging to the band, laser beams would shoot from the security guy’s eye sockets and roast her alive.
“Do the guys know she’s coming? I don’t think they’re going to like this much.” He paused. “Yeah, she. Toni’s a chick.”
Toni stiffened. The band’s manager, Mr. Baily, had assured her mother’s publishing house that everything would go smoothly. She’d been told that the guys were excited to be a part of the interactive biography that Mr. Baily had sold to her mom’s company for a seven-figure advance. Though Nichols Publishing had a lot of money tied up in this venture, Toni wouldn’t be getting rich off book sales. She was just the contract-for-hire writer who also happened to be the photographer, videographer, and programmer for the project. Those in charge were supposed to have cleared everything with the band ahead of time. So what was going on?
A walkie-talkie on the security guard’s belt screeched. “Butch, the guys are headed your way,” said a voice from the device.
Toni pressed her lips together to stifle a grin. His name was Butch? Fitting. A little too fitting.
Butch said goodbye to Mr. Baily and hung up. “Go sit on the sofa until I figure out what to do with you,” he said to Toni before reaching for his walkie-talkie.
He didn’t need to figure out what to do with her. She knew how to do her job. She was supposed to interview the band members. Take note of how they lived while on the road. Get some candid shots of them in their everyday environment. Catch them being themselves in photos, video clips, and audio clips. Then, once she had all the pieces, combine those varied elements into a one-of-a-kind interactive electronic biography. That was what she was supposed to do—hang out with the band for a month and become an insider. The hard part would be fitting in with them. She was no rock star. Not by any stretch of her overactive imagination. “Excuse me, but I—”
Butch waved her toward the comfortable-looking leather sofa situated along one side of the bus and spoke into his walkie-talkie. “Send them out.” He stomped off the bus, leaving Toni standing there feeling like she’d walked into an episode of The Twilight Zone just as the big plot twist was about to reveal itself. The bus was really a spaceship and the band members were actually flesh-eating aliens who’d set her up so they’d have something tasty to snack on while they journeyed to their next destination. And you thought you were following your dreams, you fool! It was pretty obvious that Butch didn’t appreciate her unexpected appearance. She doubted the band would be any more amicable about her interruption to their lives. Unless they really were flesh-eating space aliens.