Page 49 of Reckless

“I’m gonna wash up, then we should eat before we set off. We can have a proper meal when we get to the campground, but I’m hungry.”

“Me too.” His eyes rake me up and down. “I’m starving.”

It takes great effort, but I pull the sliding door shut, cutting off anything else he is about to say.

Chapter 13

Krista is doing her part in taking my mind off this shit going on back in LA. In fact, a few times I forgot all about it because she keeps me laughing as we make the two-hour drive across the state.

Seeing Krista so carefree and enjoying herself is my new favorite thing.

Solene has texted periodically as we’ve been driving. She’s incredulous I’ve chosen not to fly back home. There isn’t anything I can do right now. Solene was talking about all kinds of legal things, saying we might get pulled into a court case.

I’m not convinced that will happen. Cody took money out of our pocket, yes, but he originally stole from the label, who then pay us. It will be the label’s legal team who deal with it, not us.

I told Solene to go hang out with her friends, let it go for now because I’m done talking about it.

My phone rings again. I groan, but it isn’t Solene. It’s Paul. We haven’t spoken in a couple of weeks, but I guess this is something we can’t avoid.

Krista glances over. “I should get this,” I say, and she smiles, but there is a tightness to it. She’s worried. That takes some more of the sting out of the situation, knowing she cares. Though I hate her worrying about me.

I pop the seatbelt and head back through the RV. I consider going to the bedroom, but when I spend any time in that room, it will not be on the phone to my band mate.

Paul is the quieter one out of the group. For him, the band is his life. He doesn’t have any family and when he’s not with us, he is with friends from other bands, working with them. He’s co-produced a new band's EP and is talking about doing a solo album. Which I, for one, have no problem with. As long as he’s happy. We all need a bit of happiness right now.

Paul is a good-looking fucker and has tons of female fans. He plays up to it, but our biggest kept secret in the band is Paul isn’t into women. I get why he doesn’t want to go public. Ultimately, it’s no one’s fucking business. It’s his choice. I would never force him to do anything he doesn’t want to do.

The label wants to keep it quiet, so it’s a non-issue where that is concerned, but I worry sometimes how heavily it weighs on him. Concealing your real identity from a few people is hard. Keeping it from the world… I can’t even imagine.

Given the way things have gone and how stressed out we all are, it’s got to have been harder for him, having this secret on top of it all. I feel bad for not reaching out, even though Paul hasn’t been vocal on the band taking time out. He has his own reasons for that, and I won’t downplay them.

When I answer, he gets right to it.

“This is a fucking mess,” he says. Stating the obvious.

“What’s it like there? I’ve only heard from Solene.”

“David isn’t happy,” he sighs, referring to the head of Quicksilver Entertainment, our label. “He lost his shit when it first came out. He wants to throw every charge they can at him.”

“It’s fucked up,” I slide down onto the dining table chair facing the back of the RV.

“I always knew there was something shady about him. Guess now we know.”

“Has anyone said how big the loss is?” I ask.

“We’re talking hundreds of thousands, not sure it’s quite a mill, but that’s still big change.”

“Christ.”

“What’s going on with you? Sol said you’re not coming home. You’re on some road trip or something?”

“Just for a couple of weeks. I’m not sure what I can add to the situation by coming back.”

“Nothing, I wouldn’t bother. If anything, they want to keep us out of the spotlight. Although you being missing is still big news.”

“I had nothing to do with that.”

“Yeah, it was Cody’s idea to let it go unanswered. I guess it added to the hype, his long-term plan to cash in on it when you came back.”

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