Page 84 of Whirlwind

“Hell, yeah.”

“What does she get out of this though?”

“Other than my fucking favorite pair of boots? Her moment in the sun. A very brief moment of fame and glory and sizzle.”

“It doesn’t matter that it’s a lie.”

“Nope. She gets her golden moment which will crash around her at some point, but right now she’s shining bright.”

“Have you talked to Myles?”

“He doesn’t believe me. He and I were already having problems, and now he fucking hates my guts more than ever before.”

“What are you feeling?”

He let out a laugh. “Does it even fucking matter?”

“Yes, it matters. It matters to me.”

“I don’t know what I feel.” His voice was low, tired.

“Violated?”

“Heavy word.” He let out a groan. “Thing is, I can’t do anything about any of this. It doesn’t fucking matter.”

“She’s nuts, Beck. You’ve done nothing wrong, nothing.”

“I don’t know where to begin with this, what I’m supposed to do, what I’m supposed to say. Photographers and reporters are crawling up my ass again, but they don’t want to hear the truth. They want to believe the lie ‘cause the lie is hot and sparkly, the lie is—”

“Good theater.”

“Yeah. And she staged it all so meticulously. She stole my fucking boots the last night of the tour and has been waiting for the right time ever since.”

“You inspired obsession.”

“Terrific.” The grimness in his voice had me pressing my lips together. “Last year, two teenage girls stalked me across the country. They broke into my hotel room in Minneapolis, they took pics, stole shit, told the press we’d had sex, and one of them was fifteen. Luckily, there were witnesses that came forward to blast their bullshit out of the water. We had to beef up security after that.

“But this? This was someone in my circle of safe. Someone I knew, someone important to my bandmate. And all this time all this crazy shit was going on in her head, and it was all real to her. That’s what’s freaky. Myles is blaming me. Guess that’s easier than dealing with his own relationship shit. Things were just starting to settle down, and now, here I am at the center of another fucking clusterfuck.”

Everybody wanted a piece of Beck Lanier.

“I’m so sorry. What does your PR person say?”

“She’s handling it. I hate having to be handled. I hate all of this.”

“But it’s part of the package, right?”

“Yeah.”

“So what’s next, a secret sex video with your stepmom?”

“Ah, Violet…” He laughed hard but the laughter faded quickly. Silence but for his breathing on the line. I could still feel those humid warm breaths on my skin.

“So what’s new with you?” he asked, his tone sharper. “Did you pick out your wedding dress yet?”

A blazing arrow stuck in my chest. “He’s not my fiancé. He was mad at me and wanted to make a statement.”

“Is he still your boyfriend? He still wants to marry you?”

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