Page 75 of Nothing to Do

“Gin and It,” Roxie murmured and touched their glasses. “Good for every occasion.”

Magnus came striding in. “Let’s straighten this out.”

Who exactly was he appealing to…? Magnus fixated on Zairn during his walk back to the bar, then switched to Zane.

“What is it you’re waiting for?” Roxie asked.

“This is your cousin, Zane, you must want to help.”

Zairn snickered and continued pouring.

“We are helping, Magnus,” Zane said. “You invited the press. That wasn’t us, that was you.” Without the media’s presence, this wouldn’t be such a big deal. But they just had to show off, Roman just had to toot his own horn. Well done, guy, does that still seem like a smart move? “On top of that, there’s no cell signal or Wi-Fi accessible by them. It’s because of us…” Or more specifically Zane, “that right now, this is still under wraps.”

“Excellent!” Roxie declared, raising her glass. “So long as they never leave here, the world will never know. Perfect solution.”

The elder man seemed certain. “We can control this. We can. We call in a couple of favors—”

“We?” Zairn asked and bit into an olive.

“Yeah,” Zane said. “What is thiswe, Magnus? This isn’t an us problem.”

“He’s your cousin.”

“You said that already,” Zairn said, retrieving a bottle of Scotch. “Just what do you think he’s getting at.”

The men snickered, but it was Roxie who tapped her wrist. “He’s talking about the Colliers.”

“Yes!” Magnus leaped on that revelation like he would a life raft. “The Colliers. You have influence, you have pull—”

“Not we anymore? Because you know they’ll never do this. Why would they waste professional capital on a lost cause?”

“He is not a lost cause,” Magnus snapped at Zairn. Interesting choice of action given he wanted the man’s help. Maybe he’d momentarily forgotten that because he quickly pulled back. “Roman needs help. He needs understanding—”

“Rehab and a psych workup,” Zairn said. “We won’t call the Colliers. We will send him to rehab.”

Again. She sighed. It would only work if he wanted it. Hadn’t they figured that out yet?

“If he goes back to rehab, he loses the role. This whole trip will have been for nothing. He’s heartbroken, not high. His sobriety—”

“Collapsed on a private island away from all regular temptations. You really think he’ll keep it together on the continent? Hell, the group is supposed to be leaving for Honolulu tomorrow, what do you think will happen there?”

“We should keep Deacon here.”

“He won’t want to be here,” Roxie said. “Sway’s in Honolulu.”

“Shit,” Zane exhaled. It sounded like maybe Magnus did the same. “So it’s a shitshow waiting to happen.”

“He won’t stay away from her.”

“We can call,” Zairn said. “Keep her concealed or fly her back to LA.”

“She’s in Honolulu waiting for Deacon.”

“Doesn’t that mean even if you miraculously fix whatever happened today with the press, there’s just going to be a bigger, more public blowout tomorrow night?”

“Yes,” Roxie said. “That’s exactly what it means.”

“No, it doesn’t!”

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