Page 2 of Saving Mr. Bell

“What club?” I shrugged before realizing she couldn’t see it. “Dunno. I don’t even know what country I’m in.”

“Austria, Rudolf. You’re in Austria. You’ve been in Austria for three days. You were meant to take part in a charity concert, remember? Only, after what happened in Germany, we had to tell everyone you were ill. A story which isn’t holding any weight because you’ve done nothing but get pissed and high since then.”

“Right… Austria. I knew that.”

“You can’t keep screwing up like this. We need to sit down and discuss which rehab facility would be best—”

“I’m not going to rehab!”

“I don’t see any alternative. You can’t go on like this. There’s only so many times I can do damage limitation before your name becomes mud and no one will touch you.”

“I’m. Not. Going. To. Rehab.”

“I’ll talk to your father. See what he has to say about it.”

I closed my eyes against the wave of fatigue washing over me. My father would say yes. He and Jade always agreed, and I didn’t get a say, even though it was my life. It had been the same for years. In his eyes, he’d shaped me; he’d hired all the best music teachers; he’d surrounded me with all the things I needed to be an enormous success.

In my eyes, it was a cage. One I couldn’t escape from. All I could do was numb myself against it by whatever means necessary. Drink. Drugs. Sex. None of it helped. Because the merry-go-round my life had become was still there waiting for me when I came out the other side.

“Rudolf!” The sharpness in Jade’s voice told me it wasn’t the first time she’d said my name.

I sighed. “I just need a car to take me back to the hotel. That’s why I called.”

“I can’t send one if I don’t know where to send it, can I? I need something from you, Rudolf. A clue where you are. A smoke signal. Carrier pigeon. Something.”

Snarky bitch.I focused on the neon sign across from me, the letters blurring together until I finally deciphered them, the process giving me a headache. “Lugeck-Alm.” No doubt I’d butchered the pronunciation. Thankfully, she didn’t ask me to spell it or I’d probably have gone for F-U-C-K Y-O-U.

“It’s on its way,” she said after a slight pause. “It’ll be there in ten minutes.”

Ten minutes sounded good to me. Spotting the restroom, I headed that way, my bladder reminding me that even the most enthusiastic of dancers couldn’t sweat out all the vodka.

“What’s that noise?” Jade asked.

“I’m taking a piss,” I answered honestly.

“Lovely.”

“Don’t ask if you don’t want to know the answer.” I left a pause, enjoying the release it gave me to empty my bladder and knowing she wouldn’t hang up. “How much do I pay you?”

“What’s that got to do with anything?”

“I just figure it’s enough that you can put up with this.”

“You don’t pay me. Your father does.”

The surge of anger was immediate. “It’s my money,” I gritted out.

“There’s no point in trying to reason with you when you’re drunk. We’ll talk tomorrow.” And then, as if to prove I didn’t know her as well as I thought I did, she did hang up, leaving me glaring at my phone.

The cold when I spilled out onto the street was biting. It might as well have been the Arctic. Or the Antarctic. Whichever one we were closer to, my geographical knowledge not the best even without the vodka sloshing around in my system. Even more jarring than the cold, though, was the immediate flash of cameras, the burst of light bright enough that I lifted my hand to shade my eyes.

Never had the sight of the car idling at the curb been a more welcome sight, and no doubt Jade—and Veronica, my publicist—would thank me for giving the paparazzi as few drunken pictures as I could manage. At least none of them tried to talk to me, as I almost skidded across the pavement and threw myself into the back of the car.

“Drive,” I said as soon as the door closed. “Get me the fuck out of here.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Something about the way those words were said was off, but I was too busy watching the reporters get smaller in the rearview mirror to give it much more than a passing thought. I relaxed back against the seat, my hangover already making itself known.

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