Page 34 of Snared

I groaned as Charlie turned to glare at him.

“Call me that again and I’ll remove your balls with my drumsticks,” she said matter-of-factly.

Every man in the room flinched. I, for one, had no doubt she would skewer me if I fucked up again.

“Got it,” Jax said, saluting.

This time I knocked him upside the head.

“Ouch, CH. Comic relief, remember?” he said.

“Get out. Finish packing. We need to be on the bus within the hour,” I barked, trying to inject some normalcy into this absurdity. I couldn’t wait to get Vegas in my rearview.

But what happened here definitely wasn’t staying here. Far from it. And now I was going to have to deal with the repercussions of opening my stupid mouth last night.

Charlie gave me one last glare before she walked out of the room.

“Look, Josh, I’m not saying this is the best option, but if you want to sell this, you’re gonna have to remove that stick from your ass and start being nicer to Charlie than you’ve been since she joined the band. Otherwise, no one is going to believe this charade. And Josh, if you fuck this up, we’re going to have a nice long chat about your relationship with the band. This is definitely strike two,” Bash said.

I ground my teeth and nodded. Between this sham marriage and James’ parentage slipping out because of my carelessness, I had epically failed on two counts, but I would fix this and fix my relationship with the guys, as well.

I couldn’t afford not to.

My phone pinged after the rest of the guys left, and I braced myself for the next hit. It was my father again.

When do I get to meet my new DIL? Gorgeous piece. Of course, there was no need to buy the milk.

I tossed my phone on the bed and clenched my fist. I wasn’t going to let my father anywhere near Charlie. She deserved at least that much.

CHARLIE

I can do this.

Ihaveto do this.

I repeated that mantra as I packed up my bag and stepped out of my hotel room. My bandmates and myhusband—I held back my nausea while I practiced saying and thinking that with ease—waited outside my door, and we headed down the hallway to the elevators together, with me making sure I was nowhere near Josh. I needed a breather, one last moment, to pretend that none of this had happened. That I wasn’t going to have to put a smile on my face and act like I was okay pretending to be married to Josh.

Fucking hell. I could not believe we were all going through with this ruse.

“You have to at least act like you like each other,” Jax murmured in my ear as we got closer to our security guards waiting near the elevators.

Jax was right. The fewer people who knew the truth, the better chance we had of convincing everyone that Josh and I were truly in love. Our security guards would be the first audience for our ruse, and I had to remember to be on.

Bile rose in my throat and I had to swallow it back.

“Fine,” I grumbled.

“Yeah, it sucks, but you know the paps excel at sniffing out bullshit, and they’re already swarming downstairs,” Bash said.

“Fuck, I’m never drinking again,” I grumbled.

“We’ll get through this, Charlie. I promise,” Bash said.

I caught his glare directed at Josh and watched as Josh swallowed hard.

Good. He should be nervous. Stupid asshole.

“Yeah, it’ll be fine,” Josh said woodenly.

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