Devin’sfeatures relaxed into an amused smirk. “I wouldn’t put it past you.”
Shrugginghis admittance, Robbie laughed. “Yeah, you’re probably right, but that’s meantto be a compliment,” he insisted, pointing a long finger at Devin and then atme. “You’re a beautiful couple, and that hair, Princess …” He let out a longwhistle. “You’re amotherfuckin’ firecracker. I canonly imagine what—”
“Robbie,”Devin growled his name like a warning.
Heheld up his hands in surrender, waving them frantically. “I’m waving my whiteflag here, man. I’m done being a shithead, all right? Richie Rich slapped mywrist, and I’m ready to behave like a good little boy. I want to befriends.”
Therewas something in his mannerisms. His erratic movements. The near-crazed look onhis face. The sweat beading on his forehead.
Hiseyes shot to look at me, and I noticed his dilated pupils as he grinned in away that edged on maniacal. “Come on, Firecracker,” he said, stepping towardme. “Truce?”
Instincttold me to step back, but I responded, “Yeah, sure.”
Robbieclapped his hands above his head. “Hell yeah. That’s what I like to hear,” andhe turned to Devin. “What about you, big guy? You want to be my buddy?”
Devin’seyes slid over to glance at me as he replied, “Yeah, Robbie. Sure.”
Theslip of a man held a hand up and Devin half-heartedly high-fived him. “This isawesome, man. Fucking awesome. God, Iknewwe could be friends. Party inmy room after the show? What do you kids say?”
Iput on my best smile. “We actually have plans for later. We were actuallydiscussing them just before you walked in.”
Noddingenthusiastically, Robbie shrugged. “Hey, hey, that’s cool. You lovebirds wantto be together after the first official gig on the tour, I get it. Maybe I’llgrab myself a hot-hot-hot piece of ass from the crowd.”
Richardpoked his head in. “Hey guys, five minutes to showtime. Be ready. Oh, and bythe way, Dev, I got off the phone with the hairdresser in Jersey. She’s goingto take you as soon as we arrive tomorrow, okay?”
“Great,”Devin said, putting on an artificial smile. “I’ll be out in a couple minutes.”
Richardnodded with a grin and he was gone, leaving us with theCheshire Catonce again.
“Mustbe nice having the head honcho for a daddy, huh, Firecracker.”
Iwanted to cringe at the nickname. I wanted to dye my hair something plain andmundane. I wanted to take whatever he was using and flush it all down thetoilet. To save him before it was too late.
Ididn’t respond to his comment, and I smiled at Dev. “You better get going. I’llgo find a place in the front.”
Henodded, bending over to kiss me. “I love you, Kylie,” he said quietly againstmy lips.
Robbiewatched, and despite his declaration of friendship, I could’ve sworn I saw hislip begin to curl, snarling in my direction.
“Ilove you too.”
Asthe two of them walked out of the room, Robbie clapped a hand against Devin’sback in the most familiar way, and I cringed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Devin
They were screaming my name.
Myname. Mine.
Ipeeked out through the jungle of amps and wires to catch a glimpse of thecrowd. Richard had been right; there were a lot of them. That debutshowa couple of weeks ago had been a few hundred, tops.While it was overwhelming and surreal that they had known the words to severalof my songs, none of them had chanted my name the way they were right now.
Iput a hand over my mouth, squeezed my eyes shut and willed my stomach to stoppracticing its backflips.
Sebastiancame to stand next to me and gave my shoulder a squeeze. “You okay, dude?”
“Uh,”my jaw hung open, slack and my mouth salivated. “God, I think I might puke.”
