Insider (Exodus End #1) (11 page)

“What are you so cheery about?” Dare asked him.

“It isn’t because I slept well.” Logan glanced toward the living area where Toni was interrogating Butch without making it blatantly obvious that she was pumping him for information.

“I bet they’re really grateful that you’re always saving their necks,” Toni said with unmistakable earnestness.

Butch actually blushed with pleasure and smiled. “Well, I don’t know about that. They think I do it because I enjoy busting their balls.”

“He’s a total sadist,” Max said, offering his coldest smile.

Toni visibly shuddered.

Uh, not happening, Max.
Logan slipped his shirt on over his head, kicked his drawer shut, and rushed in the direction of his lamb in conservative clothing. He moved to stand between Toni and Max.

“Funny how Butch forgets about all the times he’s fucked things up for us,” Logan said.

He wrapped an arm around Toni’s waist and, with a stern look, telegraphed signals to Max.
Not to be added to your collection of playthings.

Max chuckled and shook his head at Logan. Then he put on his wounded animal face and tugged at Toni’s sleeve to get her attention. “Toni, would you help me with something?” He rubbed his wrist brace as if he’d suffered a war injury rather than a botched carpal tunnel surgery.

“Depends,” she said.

“Could you help me fix my hair? I have a hell of a time getting it to cooperate since I can only use one hand. We’re already late. And golden boy was hogging the bathroom earlier.”

Women would pay cash money for the opportunity to run their fingers through Maximillian Richardson’s hair. Logan watched Toni for her reaction.

“Sounds like a job for Butch,” she said.

Logan could have kissed her. If he wasn’t trying to be on his best behavior, he probably would have.

Max took her wrist in his braced hand and stroked her fingers with his other. “But these are the hands I want to touch me. So soft and gentle.”

Toni stared up at Max as if in some sort of trance. The bus stopped, and Logan took Toni by the shoulders. He turned her toward the exit.

“Too late, Max,” Logan said. “We’re here. You’ll just have to go to breakfast looking like roadkill.”

“If roadkill looked like that, I’d get a job with the highway department and bring my own shovel,” Toni said under her breath.

Max chuckled, looking very pleased with himself.

Shit! Was she attracted to Max? Was any woman
not
attracted to Max? Logan had to regain Toni’s full attention.

“Your hands weren’t so gentle last night when they were tangled in
my
hair.” The second he said it, he wished he could take it back. While it effectively told Max that Logan had claimed her first, it wiped the smile from Toni’s face. She set her jaw in a harsh line. “I
wish
,” he added, hoping to play it off as if he’d been joking instead of bragging.

Max and Steve laughed at his misery. Dare gave him the evil eye. Logan was usually so smooth with women. What in the fuck was wrong with him?

“I guess I’m going to breakfast looking like roadkill,” Max said. He extended an elbow in Toni’s direction. “Care to join me?”

She looked at Max uncertainly for a moment and then slid her hand into the crook of his elbow. Her dazzling smile reappeared.

Logan stifled the urge to say
fuck
repeatedly and followed them off the bus. Their entourage of stage crew, security, and band members meandered toward the restaurant. Toni was asking Max how they’d managed to arrange having the entire place to themselves. Questions Logan wanted to answer for her.

“Sam always does things in a big way. Even before we made it, he insisted on keeping us broke by renting limos and throwing parties we couldn’t afford,” Max said.

“I’m sure you can afford it now,” Toni said.

Max chuckled. “Is that your way of asking how much money we rake in?”

Her eyes widened. “Oh no, I didn’t mean it that way at all. That would be crass.”

“We can afford it,” he said.

Logan really wanted to kick Max in the back of the knee. Why should he get to talk to Toni? Just because he was the lead singer. Bassists were important too. Logan scratched his head. Well, bassists
should
be important. Someone grabbed Logan’s arm and pulled him to a halt. Dare’s piercing green-eyed gaze made him feel about three inches tall.

“Will you stop?” Dare said.

“Stop what?”

“Toying with her.”

“I’m not toying with her.” Logan tossed a hand out toward Toni’s retreating form. “Max is toying with her.”

“Max won’t take it too far. You already took it too far.”

“Why? Because she was a virgin?”

Dare cringed. “I was hoping my suspicions were wrong.”

And Logan had just stuck his foot in his mouth. “Just because I took her virginity—”

“Keep it down,” Dare growled. “I doubt she wants you to broadcast that to the world.”

“I didn’t know, all right? Not until it was over.”

“How could you not know, Logan?”

He didn’t appreciate being berated and belittled by a bandmate. “I’ve never had one before.”

“Just stop thinking with what’s in your pants and try thinking with what’s in your head. If you don’t stop this now, you’re going to hurt her.”

“I couldn’t have hurt her too much. She didn’t cry or anything.”

Dare pinched the bridge of his nose as if he was talking to a toddler and his patience was at its limit. “Okay, let me try this again. You know those girls who you sleep with and they think it means you’re in love with them?”

“Yeah, naïve girls.”

“Who are the most naïve girls on the planet?”

Logan’s face fell. “Virgins.”

Dare nodded. “So unless you want her to think you’re in this for the long run, you have to proceed with caution.”

But maybe he wanted to be in it for the long run. Did the month she’d be on tour with them count as a long run? It did for him. “Got it, boss,” he said.

Once inside the restaurant, Logan was crushed to find that while Dare had been giving him advice he didn’t want or need, Toni had been seated between Max and Steve in a booth at their reserved table. It wasn’t that he wasn’t happy to see her eating with them. What he didn’t like was that she was flanked by two men who weren’t him. He was willing to undergo an experimental cloning procedure just so he could sit on either side of Toni. Reagan was sitting across from the trio chattering away about how she won their rhythm guitarist spot in a contest. Toni took notes on a napkin, her expressive eyes wide with fascination. Max was toying with a strand of Toni’s waist-length, wavy hair, but she didn’t seem to notice. Logan loved how absorbed she got by anything she was focused on. He just wished she was always focused on him.

He slid into the booth next to Reagan, who paused in her soliloquy to give him a hug. “You look tired,” she said. She touched his forehead with her fingertips. “You’re not getting sick, are you?”

He smiled at her concern. “No. Just didn’t sleep well.”

“Are we in a hotel tonight?” Reagan asked.

“Nope. Bus again tonight. Hotel tomorrow night,” Steve said.

“How did you get here, anyway?” Logan asked Reagan.

“Sinners picked up their breakfast here half an hour ago. They left me here to wait for you lamewads.”

Dare slid into the booth next to Logan. He leaned forward so he could talk to Reagan. “I’m surprised my brother let you out of his sight. He knows if he lets his guard down, I’m going to steal you away from him.”

Reagan rolled her eyes at him. “As if I would go for a square like you, Dare Mills.”

Dare laughed and covered his chest with one hand. “Ow. Wounded.”

“He and Ethan were still in bed when I left.” She shot a nervous glance at the journalist in their midst. “All the men on Sinners’ bus sleep until noon.”

There was a tense moment of silence as Toni stared at Reagan, her pen practically quivering with scandal above her stack of napkin notes. Several of the wait staff arrived with their food just then. Reagan released an audible breath of relief.

Toni stared at the servers in confusion. “But we didn’t order yet.”

“It was called in two hours in advance,” a waitress explained as she set a plate in front of Steve.

Today was egg white and veggie omelet day. Tomorrow was fresh fruit, oatmeal, and yogurt day. The next day was scrambled egg whites and turkey sausage with whole grain toast day. Sam fed them more like underwear models than rock stars.
Your bodies are a part of your image
, he’d said as he’d introduced them to their new personal trainer who seconded as part of the road crew. They wouldn’t have time for a workout today, but tomorrow Kirk was sure to kick their asses into shape. He always did.

A plate was set in front of Toni. She stared at it as if her omelet was crawling across her plate. “I don’t think I can eat this,” she said. “It looks disgustingly healthy.”

“It’s good for you,” Max said. “Try it.”

“I’d rather have biscuits and gravy.”

“Me too,” Logan said as his own disgustingly healthy omelet was set before him.

Toni met his eyes across the table and smiled. Logan’s heart thudded in response and then galloped in his chest. Dare’s warning echoed through his thoughts, but he told it to shut the hell up. He wanted her. He would be proceeding without a modicum of caution.

“So where are you from?” Logan asked, craving her attention.

“A rural area outside of Seattle,” she said. “Ever heard of Enumclaw?”

Logan shook his head. “Can’t say that I have.”

“That’s near Mount Rainer, isn’t it?” Steve asked.

Toni lit up with a brilliant smile, and Logan wanted to punch Steve. “Yep. I have the most spectacular view of the mountain from my bedroom window.”

At the mention of a room featuring Toni’s bed, Logan’s jeans seemed to shrink a size in the general crotch area.

“I stayed in a cabin there once,” Steve said.

“Mountain climbing?” Dare asked.

Steve shrugged. “What else?”

“Steve is part mountain goat,” Max said. He only looked up from his self-appointed task of organizing sugar packets by color in the small container on the table when his plate was set before him by the server.

“More like part monkey,” Logan said, which earned him a well-placed kick to the shin.

“Do you climb?” Steve asked.

Logan pictured Toni all bundled up like a snow bunny, standing at the foot of a mountain at Steve’s side. He didn’t like the idea of her having something in common with Steve, and he was very confused as to why he gave a shit.

Toni laughed. “I’m not dexterous enough to climb it. I just like to look at the scenery.”

“It is a gorgeous mountain,” Steve said. “Not too challenging of a climb, but I wouldn’t recommend it for a beginner.”

“So what do you do for fun?” Logan asked, trying to regain her attention.

“Me?” Toni met his eyes across the table.

“You’re the only one here I don’t know well,” Logan said.

She shrugged. “Not much. Studying. Reading.”

“You study for fun?” Logan had never heard of such a thing.

“I like to learn things.” She chuckled. “I guess that’s why I kept changing majors. So I could stay in college for as long as possible.”

“She’s too smart for you, Lo,” Steve said. “He barely made it through high school.”

School had never been his thing, but he admired those who succeeded at it.

“Some people are good at school,” she said. “Some people are good at other things.”

She ducked her head, and Logan noticed the blush spreading up her throat and face. She peeked at him from beneath her long lashes, and he could only hope that she thought he was good in bed, because he very much wanted to impress her with his skills.

“What did you major in?” Logan asked.

She laughed. “The more appropriate question is what
didn’t
I major in?”

He reached across the table and took her hand. He needed to touch her. Needed all the other jack-offs at the table to disappear so he could have her all to himself. “So what didn’t you major in?”

“Physical education.”

He grinned. A subject he excelled at. Getting physical. “I have some expertise in that subject if you’d like lessons.”

“Ugh.” Reagan groaned. “Will you stop with the lame come-ons? I’m trying to eat my disgustingly healthy breakfast.”

Toni squeezed his hand. “If I ever decide I need more physical education, I know who to ask.”

He grinned. “I’m more than happy to teach you all I know. What kind of things can you teach me?”

“Nothing physical.” She laughed. “I started as a pre-law major, tried Russian literature for a while, then changed my focus to computer programming and graphic arts. At the end of my second sophomore year, I decided I liked to write, so I switched to a double major in English and journalism. I ended up with a pretty worthless liberal arts degree.”

“Do you have a hard time making up your mind about things?” he asked.

She shrugged and poked at one of the avocado slices on top of her omelet. “Not really. I just have so many interests.”

“Am I one of your interests?”

“Ugh!” Reagan cried and started hitting Logan repeatedly in the arm. “I can’t take it. Stop hitting on her at the breakfast table.”

“I think you’re the one hitting on
me
,” he complained, unable to avoid her blows since he was trapped in the booth by Dare.

“Logan,” Toni said, “you can hit on me later. In private.”

He grinned. “Can do.”

She tore her gaze from his, and he released her hand so he could concentrate on his breakfast.

“So,” she said, shoving the avocados aside and poking at her spinach and tomato omelet with her fork. “I did all the background research on how the band formed and everything, but I’d like to hear you guys tell it. I don’t want my book’s introduction to read like a Wikipedia entry. I’d love some insider information that has never been shared with the general public before.”

“The band was started by Dare,” Steve said.

“Why didn’t you start a band with your brother?” Toni asked Dare.