Insider (Exodus End #1) (48 page)

Logan hunted the stage wing for any sign of Toni’s glasses. The main problem was that it was dark and the flashes of light from the performance onstage kept momentarily blinding him. He was seeing so many spots, it was a wonder he ever found the elusive eyewear. But he did find them. With his foot.
Crunch!
He cringed as he lifted his shoe and spotted the familiar glasses. The lenses were intact, but the frame had been snapped in two at the center of the nosepiece.

“Oh no,” he said and lifted the separate pieces up to his eyes. Maybe she wouldn’t notice.

He waved off his useless assistant and returned to the corridor where he’d left Toni. Broken camera in her lap, she was staring down at it, her hand clenched in the thick material of her skirt and avoiding the curious gazes of anyone who glanced her way. He sat beside her and bumped her arm with his.

She looked up from her demolished camera and smiled hopefully at him. “Did you find them?”

He cringed and handed her the broken pair of glasses.

“What happened?” she said as she took them from his hand and tried fitting the two pieces together, as if the frame would meld back together if she lined it up just right.

“There was this icicle and it fell off the roof and it, and it, hit me in the eye. And it, broke your glasses.” He made fake crying noises, not sure if she was familiar with the movie he was quasi-quoting.

“You’ll shoot your eye out, kid,” she said miserably.

Yep, she was familiar with the movie.

He rubbed her back, liking her a little more with each interaction they shared. “Do you have another pair?”

She nodded. “At home.”

“I’m sure we’ll have time to get you a new pair on our off day,” he said, “until then, we’ll probably just have to glue them together.”

“I hope it holds,” she said. “I can’t—”

“See a thing without my glasses,” he finished for her.

Logan grabbed a passerby and sent him on a mission for superglue.

“You never explained what happened to make you fall,” Logan said. All he knew was that she’d been lying on the stage with the wind knocked out of her. He had no idea how she’d gotten that way.

“I was trying to get a good shot of you down in the crowd, so I climbed up on a riser and some security guard tackled me to the ground.”

Fists clenched, Logan jumped to his feet. “Someone fucking
tackled
you?”

She nodded. “I should have gotten permission to climb up there. I’m sure they thought I was a deranged lunatic and a danger to the band.”

“Tell me who did it. After I beat the shit out of him, I’ll make sure he’s fired.”

Toni grabbed Logan’s wrist and pulled him toward the equipment case, encouraging him to sit beside her again.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” she said. “He was only doing his job.”

“And you were only doing yours,” Logan pointed out. He was still as far from calm as he could be. No one put his hands on Toni.

“Lesson learned,” she said. “I won’t be doing that again.”

Logan wasn’t sure how he was going to keep her safe so she could have the run of the place while she collected footage for her book, but he would find a way.

The glue retriever returned with a roll of white tape. “No one had any superglue. Will this work?”

Toni groaned and shook her head. “Seriously? Please tell me you’re joking.”

“Why would I be joking?” The guy handed her the roll of white tape and hurried away.

“Tape won’t work?”

She sighed and had Logan hold the pieces of her glasses together while she wrapped tape around the nosepiece.

When she was finished, she put her glasses on and turned to him. “Revenge of the nerds. Heh heh heh,” she said, doing an excellent impression of Lewis from the movie.

He burst out laughing and grabbed her in a tight hug. “God, I love you,” he bellowed, and then he went still when he realized what he’d said. “I mean as a friend,” he quickly amended, though he knew
friend
didn’t measure the depth of his feelings for her.

She pushed him away and stood. “I need to go to the bus. I have another camera in my bag. I’ll run and get it before the show starts.”

“I’ll come with you,” he said.

She had her back to him, so he couldn’t see her expression, but she shook her head. “I’ll go on my own. You should probably do your job and return to the meet and greet.”

“It’s over.” And if he got Toni alone on the bus for a few minutes, maybe they’d have time to explore the more lustful feelings of their developing
friendship
.

“Please don’t follow me,” she said and hurried off.

He stared after her in puzzlement until she disappeared around a corner. Was she still upset? He was sure she had plenty to be upset about after being tackled to the stage by an idiot—and he would find out who had assaulted her. He might not punch the guy, but Logan would be sure the man was reprimanded or, if the douche bag wasn’t apologetic enough for Logan’s tastes, fired.

No one hurt someone he cared about and got away with it.

Sinners had already taken the stage when Logan’s worry finally got the better of him and he went to check on Toni. It shouldn’t take over an hour just to collect a camera from the bus. He found her in the lounge with her laptop open. Her nose was red, and her eyes glassy, but she didn’t appear to have slipped into a concussion-induced coma.

“What are you doing?” he asked, entering the room and sitting beside her on the sofa. “I was worried.”

“I’m okay.” She didn’t even take her eyes from her computer screen to look at him. “Really.”

“You’ve been crying again.” He nodded toward the pile of wadded tissues on the coffee table.

“I stopped.”

“Will you tell me why?”

When she didn’t respond, he closed the lid of her laptop on her hands.

“I’m trying to work,” she said.

“Did I do something wrong?”

She pursed her lips together and shook her head. Alarmed by the tears suddenly flooding her eyes, Logan slid a hand along the top of her back, not sure if he should hug her or what.

“You’re perfectly wonderful to me.” She yanked a tissue out of the nearby box and dabbed at her eyes. “Sorry.”

“Will you please tell me what’s wrong? Are you in pain?”

“Yes and no,” she said. “When that medic tried to force that oxygen mask over my face, I kept seeing my father the day he died. They tried everything to resuscitate him, but that oxygen mask didn’t do him a bit of good. The paramedics didn’t do him a bit of good.
I
didn’t do him a bit of good.”

“I didn’t realize that’s why you didn’t want assistance.”

“How could you?”

He stroked her hair from her face, and she lifted her head, eyes streaming. When she sucked in her lips to stifle a sob, he scooped her onto his lap and pressed her face into the crook of his neck. He couldn’t stand to see the pain in her expression.

“Thinking about Dad made me really miss my sister. I just needed to hear her cheery voice, so I called home.” She laughed hollowly. “That was a mistake.”

Toni had told him about her little sister’s heart condition and her weak immune system. Was that the real reason she was so upset. “Is your sister okay?”

“She’s fine. I asked my mom if she could drop my spare set of glasses in the mail.”

“Good idea.”

“Not really. She decided she’d deliver them in person. She’ll be at our hotel on Saturday.”

The bottom dropped out of Logan’s stomach. “She’s coming to Denver?”

“And she’s bringing my sister.”

“Oh.” Logan tried to pull his shit together before she caught on to his distress. “I look forward to meeting them.” Sure, having to entertain uninvited guests would cut into the time they’d planned to fuck like maniacs, but he knew Toni’s family meant a lot to her. And he really was curious about them. Even though he normally had a rule about meeting mothers.

“And worse, my editor’s coming too.” Toni’s body trembled uncontrollably until he tightened his embrace and she snuggled closer.

“That bitch Susan?” Maybe he’d have the opportunity to tell her off in person.

Toni nodded. “You know she wants this job for herself,” Toni said. “She doesn’t think I’m capable of doing it properly. And as much goofing off as I’ve been doing thus far, I don’t have much to show her to prove that I’m capable of producing professional results.” Toni sat back on his knees and met his gaze. “Mom says if I can’t demonstrate I’m making good progress on this assignment, Susan will take my place in Denver and I have to go home.”

Like hell!

“You haven’t even been working at it for a week,” Logan said. “I’m sure you have tons of material for the book already.”

“But it’s not organized. At all. I’ve got notes on napkins. And release forms shoved into my messenger bag. Half of my photos are on the video card in my broken camera. My boobs are blocking the periphery of some of my backstage footage.”

“And you have sex sounds on your interview recording.”

She flushed and threw her hands in the air. “Exactly!”

“I’ll help you organize it,” he said. “We’ll put together a presentation that will wow the socks off your mom. And Susan can go to hell.”

“You’ll help me?”

“Of course.”

She beamed at him and wrapped him in an enthusiastic hug. “Thank you!”

He wasn’t sure why her happiness and thankfulness filled him with overwhelming joy. But he wasn’t going to dwell on it, simply enjoy the sensation. Smiling down into her lovely face, he cupped the back of her head and claimed her lips in a deeply satisfying kiss.

When he pulled away, she blinked up at him. “Why are you helping me?” she asked, squinting her eyes at him suspiciously.

“Because I don’t want you to leave.” It was probably the most open and honest thing he’d ever said to her, and she rewarded him with a dazzling smile.

“Oh,” she said. “I thought maybe you were going to use your generosity to coerce me into having anal sex.”

He lifted his brows at her, wondering why he hadn’t thought of that. “Would it have worked?”

“Maybe.” She grinned. “But it’s too late for that now. I know the truth. You want me to stay.”

Of course he did. How could he not? She was unequivocally marvelous.

“Logan! Are you on the bus?” Butch called from up the corridor.

“Yeah!”

“Curtain call, buddy. I hope you’ve finished with her.”

He hoped he never finished with her.

“We’re just talking!” Toni called.

“Then hurry up,” Butch yelled. “You’re late.”

“Are you coming to the show?” Logan asked as he helped her slide from his lap.

“I’d like to,” she said, “but I need to try to salvage the data off my memory card.”

“You can do that tomorrow.”

“Please don’t force me to go out in public with taped glasses.”

She gazed up at him with imploring brown eyes, and he melted on the spot.

“You look cute.” She always looked cute.

She gave him a look that called bullshit.

“Logan! What’s taking you so long?” Butch bellowed.

“You’d better be at my next show,” he said, backing out of the room.

“Find some superglue to fix these glasses, and I promise I won’t miss it.”

He smiled at her. She gave him so much and asked for so little. Something bounced off the back of his head, and he turned to find Butch glaring at him from the aisle. “Get a move on. She isn’t going anywhere.”

Not if he could help it.

Logan raced out of the bus with Butch on his heels. “I need superglue,” Logan said as they dashed toward the arena.

“By now, I know better than to ask you why.”

Backstage, someone handed Logan his bass guitar and sound equipment, and then shoved him toward the access door beneath the stage. He hurried to his platform, finding his place just as Steve’s drum kit began to rise. Logan rushed to put his instrument in place while a technician switched on his amplifier. His heart thudded with panic when he missed the first note of the song, but he caught up on the second chord and braced himself as the platform beneath him shuddered and began to lift him toward the stage. It moved even slower than usual, rising until it reached the enclosed area of his chute. The platform produced an earsplitting shriek and then stopped with a thud. Logan kept playing as the rest of the band entered the stage, and he wondered if his platform was ever going to start moving again. He was trapped in the chute, the stage several feet above his head and the open side of the chute that allowed him to get on his platform inaccessible from this height. He kept his eyes trained upward to the open space above him so that panicky feeling of being trapped in a small enclosure didn’t get the better of him.

Well wasn’t this just great?

He wondered if anyone had even noticed that he was stuck. He was just the bassist after all. Max’s head appeared far above. He pointed down at Logan as he sang the chorus of “Ovation” and Logan played the bass line as though he weren’t trapped in a hole.

Reagan checked on him next and finding that he wasn’t dead, hopped away to keep her newfound fans entertained. The song ended, and Logan reached up to see if he could touch the edge of the stage above. It was much too far for him to climb out. Maybe if he wedged his back against the metal wall, he could press his feet against the opposite wall and inch his way out of this hell.

“What are you doing, Schmidt?” Max asked, peering down at him from the stage above.

“I’m stuck.” Logan jumped and tried to get a hand on the edge of the stage to pull himself out of his pit, but he missed his mark by at least a foot. “A little help here, guys.”

Max and Dare were too busy laughing to offer him a hand and Reagan did nothing but stand at the edge of his hole and shake her head at him.

Toni should have followed him onstage tonight after all. Surely she’d want to include this fiasco in her book.

May 6

Dear Journal,

Busy, busy day. We started with an album signing, and then everyone participated in a crazy sound check that was a lot of fun. I’m sure the stuff with Mad Dog and Rebekah is going to turn out awesome in the book. I interviewed a few fans backstage and got footage of Logan enjoying a mosh pit before I was tackled to the stage. I hurt my pride more than my ass, but unfortunately my glasses ended up broken. Somehow Logan found some superglue and fixed them for me. He’s such a sweetie. Don’t tell him I said that. Apparently he got stuck in his stage chute and they had to use a ladder to rescue him. Poor baby. He brushed it off as funny, but I’m sure it was scary.