Insider (Exodus End #1) (5 page)

“You bastard!” Victoria-Veronica-whoever screeched. “You had no intention of calling me, did you?”

Steve wrapped his arm around Logan’s shoulders and tugged him against his side. Toni snapped a picture, loving the way they were both grinning indulgently. A moment of connection. Brotherhood. She hoped the shot came out clear. It would make a great addition to the book. Damn, she wished she had her Nikon with her.

“Logan always has good intentions,” Steve said.

“Thank you,” Logan said, and he patted Steve in the center of his bare chest.

“He just never carries through with them,” Steve added.

Steve winced and released Logan to rub his ribs where he’d received a sharp elbow for his barb. Logan moved to stand behind Toni and turned her to face Steve, who was already coming after Logan with clenched fists.

“You wouldn’t hit a female human shield with glasses, would you?”

“We have to get going, guys!” Butch roared over the crowd. “We’ll be off schedule.”

“If it were legal, I think the dude would marry that schedule,” Logan said as he released Toni and turned toward the bus.

“And have children with it.” Steve crinkled his nose in disgust and fell into step with him.

“Even at risk of paper cuts?” Toni asked, scrambling after the pair.

Both men winced and shuddered.

The band members worked at talking their way out of the crowd, signing a few final autographs and saying their goodbyes. Toni was bummed that she hadn’t gotten anything on Max. He was the front man, the leader of the group—she assumed. The heart and soul of the band—she assumed. There had to be a reason women swarmed him like ants on a lollipop. Yes, he was gorgeous. Yes, he was tall and built. Yes, his short, trendy hairstyle was trimmed in the perfect style to accentuate his high forehead and angular jaw. And yes, the few golden highlights in his gelled bangs brought out the gold flecks in his soul-stirring hazel eyes, but there must be something deeper to him than his good looks. Maybe it was that gorgeous leather-encased ass of his that made the women go wild. As Toni trailed behind the group on their way back to the bus, she couldn’t take her eyes off that nicely rounded hunk of deliciousness. Dear lord, you could bounce a quarter off that thing.

The security guards began to make a human wall between the fans and the band. And since Toni had been paying more attention to Max’s ass than what was going on around her, she found herself on the wrong side of the security team.

“Wait! I’m with the band!”

Butch pursed his lips beneath his thick mustache. He assessed her closely—was he considering whether he could leave her behind? None of the band members noticed or cared that she’d disappeared, so it was Butch’s perfect opportunity to ditch her if he wanted. After a long, tense moment, he shrugged and nodded curtly at his men. The crowd yelled in protest when Toni was allowed to follow the band back to the bus while all the other bystanders were corralled to the opposite side of the barrier again.

Two other tour buses, belonging to Sinners, pulled out. Apparently they’d been waiting for the crowd to thin so they could leave. Fans slapped the side of their bus and cheered as it passed. An RV towing a trailer pulled out after the two buses. The words
Aggie’s Custom Corsets
were painted in gothic letters across the trailer. Why would Sinners need corsets? Toni could only guess. Maybe if the book on Exodus End was a success, Toni could propose doing one for Sinners. And then maybe she could work with the opening bands, Twisted Element and Riott Actt. She’d originally thought she’d want to switch to an important political figure for her next biography, but this was already too much fun. She couldn’t help but dream a little. Okay, a lot. Stars in her eyes over an exciting future following one band after another, she hurried to catch up with Exodus End as they returned to their bus. She needed to do a good job with this first book before she started making plans about additional volumes. She wasn’t going to get far if she spent all her time gawking at Steve’s abs and drooling over Max’s ass and wondering if Logan really had slept with five women in one night. Who did that?

The entire band paused outside the bus door and waited for her to catch up. She wasn’t sure if they were being polite—ladies first—or if they always stood outside the door looking lost before they embarked. She stopped next to the group and looked from one man to the next while trying to keep her eyes off Steve’s bare chest, abs, and the tattoos that decorated both. At least Max had his distracting ass pointed away from her.

“Do you have luggage?” Logan asked. He placed a hand on the small of her back, and her entire body—from the soles of her feet to the top of her head—flushed with molten heat.

Whoa. What was that? She was much too young to be having hot flashes.

She turned her head and found him staring at her in bewilderment. Did he feel it too? Continual jolts of excitement buzzed through her flesh at the place where his hand touched her body. His eyes, an icy blue with a dark contrasting rim around the irises, held her gaze for an intense moment. Toni’s mouth went dry, her palms damp. She couldn’t look away. Was he getting closer? Or was she? His breath against her lips made them tingle. Her heart thudded faster. Faster. Blood rushed past her ears with dizzying ferocity. Wait. What was he doing? Was he about to kiss her?

Someone cleared his throat. Followed by someone else. And a third someone.

Toni turned her head to gawk at the other three rock stars. The three who were grinning at Logan and shaking their heads at him.

“I’m sorry. What did you say?” Toni asked. She pressed her fingertips to her face; her skin was on fire. Perhaps she’d contracted malaria, had a fever of 104, and was delirious. A hottie like Logan Schmidt kiss
her
? Yeah, right. No one kissed her unless they were losing at spin the bottle.

“Logan asked if you had any luggage,” Steve said.

“I did?” Logan asked.

His three bandmates laughed.

“I think so,” Toni said.

“Where is it? We need to get going,” Butch said.

“Uh.”
Luggage? What’s luggage?
Why wouldn’t her brain work? She really wasn’t an idiot. Usually. Yet she felt as if she’d checked her brain at the bus door. Oh yes, those suitcasey-type things. Her luggage. “Some guy put it under the bus when I arrived.”

“You won’t have access to it until morning,” Logan said. “If you need something to sleep in . . .” His eyes drifted over her frumpy turtleneck sweater, long corduroy skirt, and brown riding boots. He actually made her feel sexy, when she knew she was anything but. “Unless you sleep naked.”

“No!” she blurted. Was it possible to die of embarrassment? She hadn’t died of intimidation yet, but the combination of the two emotions just might do her in. “I have pajamas in my gym bag. It’s under the bus.”

Laughing, probably about her wearing pajamas, the guys headed up the bus steps in single file. Except Logan. He lifted a hand and touched her cheek with his fingertips. His thumb brushed her trembling lips. “A sweet lamb left to fend for herself in a den of wolves. Whatever will we do with you?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ll see you inside.”

Minutes after he turned and climbed the bus steps, leaving Toni standing there with her heart thudding and her mouth agape, she could still feel the touch of his fingertips on her lips.

Two

Logan grinned as he settled on the sofa next to Dare. “Three hours,” he said.

Dare chuckled. “Three days,” he countered.

“Never,” Steve said.

“Never?” Logan said. “Why would you say that?”

“She’s a good girl. She won’t fall into bed with you in three hours.” Steve raked his fingers through his long damp hair and used a band to tie it back.

“How do you know she’s a good girl?”

“If she wasn’t, she’d have already fallen into bed with me,” Dare said and offered a teasing wink.

“Doesn’t matter. Good girls are easy,” Logan said.

“Logan, don’t fuck with her,” Max said. “This is business, not for your twisted sense of pleasure.”

“I can mix business with pleasure.” Logan peered toward the open bus door. Shouldn’t Toni be climbing the steps now? He hoped he hadn’t scared her away. He found her incredibly attractive. He had a thing for women who understated their beauty, and Toni took understatement to a whole new level. And her rack? God, he could get lost between her enormous tits for hours. He hoped she wasn’t wearing a padded bra under that turtleneck sweater. He planned to find out really soon.

Dare thumped Logan on the side of the head. “You’re so full of shit.”

“Why do you say that?”

“You’re talking smack. You like her.”

“I don’t even know her. How could I like her?”

“Are you talking about me?” a soft, feminine voice said from the top of the bus steps.

Busted.

Logan turned his head and smiled at her. “Of course not.”

“Oh,” she said, her face falling.

“I already know I like you,” he said.

Her hand moved to her mouth. She touched her lips with two fingers, and a pretty blush spread across her face. Sweet, shy, and female, a combination Logan could never resist. Especially the female part. Her fantastic tits were just a bonus.

“Have a seat, Toni,” Dare offered. He stood and took a gym bag from her hand. He set it on the floor next to the spot he’d vacated, making it clear that Toni should sit next to Logan on the sofa. Logan loved the guy. Such a thoughtful son of a bitch. Toni’s dark eyes, hidden behind a pair of thick-rimmed glasses, scanned the interior of the bus as if searching for refuge. Apparently the seat next to Logan was not it. Dare plopped himself down in the only available recliner and extended the leg rest, as if he had no intention of moving for the night.

“Th-thanks,” Toni said, pushing her glasses up her nose with one trembling hand.

Logan wasn’t sure what she was so nervous about all of a sudden. She’d seemed perfectly at ease when they’d been interacting with their fans. Perhaps she’d taken his comment about a lamb in a den of wolves to heart. He’d only been teasing, but he found her skittishness endearing in a world where most women threw all inhibitions to the wind when in the presence of any member of his band, much less all four of them.

The bus rumbled as it rolled forward. They were on the road again. Toni’s hands flew out as the unexpected movement threw her off balance.

She plopped down beside Logan, perching on the edge of a cushion as if the sofa’s back was made of shards of glass. Logan was pretty sure she was looking for the emergency exit. Her gaze settled on Butch, who was standing next to their driver and running over a strict schedule detailing how to get them to their next show in time while making a promotional stop between venues. Their schedule never had an inch of give. Their manager, Sam, was a genius when it came to getting the band the most exposure, but he had the tendency to believe that because they were a metal band, they were made of iron. They didn’t require useless things like down time and rest.

“So tell us more about this book,” Dare said, which was apparently the exact right thing to say to Toni, because her unease evaporated instantly.

“Have you seen the new interactive electronic textbooks?” she asked, her eager gaze moving from Dare to Max to Steve.

Logan was very conscious of the fact that she didn’t look at him once. He’d thought their attraction was mutual, but maybe not. He scooted several inches closer to her because he saw something he wanted and wasn’t one to sacrifice his personal needs for the greater good.

“Textbooks?” Steve asked. “Like for school and shit?”

“Yeah, that’s usually where textbooks are used,” she said, a teasing grin on her lush lips. When no one laughed, her face fell. Logan forced a guffaw about five seconds too late. That got his bandmates laughing. Not at Toni’s understated joke. They were laughing at his blatant stupidity. Nothing new there.

“I can’t say I’ve even seen a textbook since high school,” Steve said.

“These new interactive ones are amazing. Each topic has videos and pictures and links. It presents the information in a way that gets students who are used to constant entertainment excited about learning.”

“So you’re writing a textbook about us?” Dare asked, brows drawn together in a confused scowl.

“What kind of textbook would that be? A manual on mayhem and debauchery?” Toni cringed when no one laughed at that joke either.

Logan guffawed five seconds too late again. He was going to have to pay really close attention to what she said to figure out when she was joking. He didn’t think she lacked a sense of humor, she just looked serious. She’d definitely fit in better at a library than at standup-comedy night.

“The publishing company I work for designs and distributes these interactive textbooks,” she said. “Samuel Baily approached us to make an interactive book about the band, the first of its kind. He’s very forward thinking.”

That got the band laughing. “You might say that,” Max said. “Sometimes he’s a bit too forward thinking. He’s got every minute of our schedules booked for the next eighteen years. He thinks we’re robots or something.”