Reckless (40 page)

This was unfortunately a sticky point for us. Joey hadn’t made a peep. She hadn’t come out to fight for her right as the proud participant in the video. She hadn’t basked in
the glow of Kellan’s spotlight. She hadn’t snatched her claim to fame. The only thing she’d done so far was stay quiet as a mouse and let Sienna take all her “glory.”
It seemed completely unlike Joey to me.

Kellan stammered on his answer. “I don’t . . . I don’t know.” Knowing he was digging himself into a hole, Kellan turned around and glanced at Tory, silently asking her to
shift the conversation.

A female in a back booth chimed in with her thoughts. “I think it’s sweet that he protects Sienna by denying it. It’s chivalrous.” She pointed at the two DJs. “You
guys could learn a thing a two.” I wanted to stab the girl with a pen. How much clearer did Kellan have to be?

Tory stepped forward and made a cutting motion with her hand over her throat. The implication was clear to the DJs:
End this line of questioning, or I pull my talent
. They quickly
redirected the interview toward the band’s concert that night, and Kellan visibly relaxed.

When the interview was over, Kellan walked over to me, his expression glum. He really hated that he couldn’t steer the public’s perception of him. He was a puppet, along for the
ride, but not really a part of it. No, this show belonged entirely to Nick and Sienna. I patted his arm in sympathy, then I dropped my hand to my side. I was keeping public affection to a minimum.
Not only did I still not want the world’s attention focused on me, but things with “Kell-Sex” were just too crazy at the moment. And if Kellan couldn’t control what people
thought about
him,
then he definitely couldn’t control what people thought about
me
. If the gossipers figured out who I was, they’d never leave us alone. They would
paint me as the other woman in the Kell-Sex love affair. I would be hated, reviled, possibly even egged. Being in an across-the-globe scandal freaked me out so much that I had even asked Kellan to
switch his wedding ring to his right hand when we were out. I just didn’t want to cause unnecessary problems for myself. The waters just needed to calm a little bit. And they would, as soon
as this tour was over.

In an absurd way, I was Kellan’s dirty little secret. It was a disturbingly familiar feeling, one I didn’t care for. I had no idea how we were going to keep our wedding in December
quiet. Or if we even could. Marriage licenses were a matter of public record, right? Anyone searching deep enough for info on Kellan would find it.

Since we had rolled into town this morning but the show wasn’t until tonight, the bands were being put up in a hotel room. Kellan and I had decided to abandon our bus love nest for a
spacious suite with a Jacuzzi. As an obscenely oversized SUV transported the D-Bags and company back to the hotel, my phone rang. Rummaging through my bag, I found my cell shoved between the pages
of a book I was trying to read in my spare time. I was so busy writing that I would have had more luck reading an entire novel if Kellan read it to me. Actually, that wasn’t a bad idea.

Glancing at the screen, I answered with, “Hey, sis. What’s up?”

“Where are you?”

Looking out the window, I told her, “Atlanta, why?”

My sister huffed. “I know you’re in Atlanta. Where in Atlanta are you right at this very second?”

“We’re on the road. We just left the radio station and we’re heading to the hotel, some swanky place in Buckheel, Buckhead, something like that. Why?”

My sister’s tone brightened. “Oh, good! I’m coming to the show tonight. Can you flip a bitch and swing by the airport to pick me up?”

It took me a minute to register what she was saying. “You’re in Georgia?”

Twisting around from the front seat, Griffin echoed my question. “Anna’s in Georgia?” His eyes damn near sparkled with the news. “Awesome. Where is she?”

I answered Griffin with “Airport,” while my sister answered me. “Yep! My flight just arrived.”

Dumbfounded, my only thought was, “Why are you in Georgia?” My second thought was
Swing by?
The airport was nowhere near our hotel. In fact, our hotel was a bit north of the
heart of Atlanta, where the concert was tonight, while the airport was south. Going to get her was way out of our way. But I wouldn’t abandon her at the airport. Neither would Griffin; he was
already telling the driver to turn around.

Anna snorted before she answered my question. “I just told you why. Now come get me. Love you!” Then she disconnected. I shook my head as I shoved the phone back in my purse. Of
course my sister would travel over halfway across the country on a whim to watch a concert.

My spontaneous, erratic, fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants sister arrived with a half-dozen pieces of luggage. Just by the look of her, I had a feeling she was staying for more than
one
concert. And her belly had grown so much bigger since the last time I’d seen her. Her waddle had turned genuine. As I wrapped my arms around her, the baby pressed against my
stomach. Giggling, I leaned down and placed a hand over the protrusion. “Hi, Max,” I cooed.

“It’s Maximus,” Griffin interrupted, brushing me aside to collect Anna into his arms. Grabbing her face, he greeted her with his tongue. It was a little over the top on the PDA
scale, but I’d been watching Griffin ever since his admission that he hadn’t been with anyone else since Anna told him she was pregnant, and from all I’d seen, he was telling the
truth. And that was a lot of abstinence for the horn dog; he had to be practically dying on a daily basis.

When they pulled apart, my sister’s deep green eyes scoured Griffin’s body like she was starving and he was a prime rib dinner. She’d been “abstaining” too, and had
a sex drive just as insatiable as Griffin’s. Great. Unless I locked myself away somewhere, there was no way I’d be able to avoid hearing, and possibly seeing, their sex-ploits. This was
going to be a long visit.

The two of them were all hands and lips in the car. Grimacing as he sat beside the pair, Matt asked, “We
are
going straight back to the hotel, right?”

Kellan and Evan laughed while I did my best to ignore the fact that Griffin and my sister were panting. I was keeping my gaze strictly on the scenery flying past, but I could hear clothes
rustling. God, I hoped they were both still fully dressed. If I heard a zipper, I was out of the car, regardless if it was speeding down the freeway or not.

The behemoth of an SUV finally arrived at the St. Regis Atlanta. The posh hotel was a tall, stately building that screamed elegance and opulence. A fountain in front highlighted a covered
drop-off area paved with what looked like slabs of slate. Everything about the architecture was designed to intimidate and impress. But the beauty of the building was lost on me at that moment; I
didn’t care how nice the hotel was, I just wanted out of the car. When the vehicle stopped, band members poured out of it like something toxic had been released inside. Evan and Kellan were
still chuckling as they started gathering Anna’s luggage from the back. Matt looked ill. Anna and Griffin didn’t get out of the car.

A bellhop magically appeared with a luggage rack, and our driver took over the unpacking job from Evan and Kellan. We had a handful of drivers available to us whenever we went anywhere. All of
them were arranged by the label. This one’s name was Paul. He was polite, competent, and most of all silent; he only spoke to us if we asked him a direct question. I was sure that was why the
label employed him. Who knows how many nondisclosures he’d had to sign.

Evan and Matt walked away with the bellhop while Paul went back to the driver’s side and climbed inside. I stood by the back with Kellan, waiting for my sister to get out of the car.
Seconds turned into minutes. The weather there was beautiful for late October. While back home it would be starting to bluster, rain, and turn frigid at night, here it felt like a perfectly breezy
spring day. Still, I did not feel like spending the entire day waiting for my sister to get out of the damn car.

Paul was sitting behind the wheel, politely waiting for the rock star to finish . . . whatever he was doing to Anna. Not wanting to interrupt them myself, I twisted to Kellan. “Can you . .
. ?” I indicated the backseat of the tank in front of us.

Kellan smirked, payback in his eyes. “I would love to.”

He strutted over to the door, swung it wide open, and reached inside. God, I really hoped they were still dressed. A second later, Kellan reemerged with a disheveled Griffin. Griffin glowered at
Kellan, pushing his hands away from him. His jeans were open. The sight made my stomach tighten. Griffin was just about to launch into a curse-filled rant when my sister slid out of the door. She
kissed Griffin’s cheek as she readjusted the clingy maternity dress she was wearing. Griffin’s objections immediately died off. Anna walked over to me and looped her arm around mine
like she hadn’t just been rounding third base in the back of an occupied vehicle.

“This is going to be so much fun, Kiera!” she squealed, squeezing me tight. As she pulled me toward the hotel, I looked behind us. Griffin’s eyes were glued on her ass; he
still hadn’t zipped up his pants.

The bellhop was waiting for us when we entered the lobby. I had to give this hotel high scores in the Wow department. The lobby looked straight out of
Gone With the Wind
—sweeping
grand staircases, crystal chandeliers, hardwood floors, and exquisitely detailed rugs. While Anna gaped at the luxury around us, Matt and Evan made arrangements for her at the front desk. It warmed
me that the boys so easily accepted girlfriends and wives joining them, whether for short or long bursts. As far as twenty-something rock stars went, the guys weren’t your stereotypical
hotel-room trashing, groupie-banging, party-all-night divas. Well, most of the guys weren’t, and they kept Griffin in line.

When the bellhop got the okay to lead Anna to our rooms, we made our way to the elevator. Kellan and Griffin were back by that time, but they had to wait for the next car. This hotel was plusher
than any hotel I’d been in back home, ten times nicer than my honeymoon suite with Kellan. The inner doors of the elevator were made of burnished brass, and Anna’s and my reflection
stared back at us. Anna preened while I examined her belly. “I’m thrilled to see you, Anna, but should you really be traveling in your condition?”

Anna stopped running her fingers through her board-straight, dark brown locks. “Condition? I’m not diseased.”

The bellhop’s lips twitched. His head was facing straight forward, but the reflective doors made it pretty obvious that his gaze was blatantly fixed on Anna’s ample chest. Sort of
wanting to block his view, I told my sister, “Yeah, but what if you went into labor early, on the plane or something?”

Anna gave me a humoring smile as she wrapped her arm around me. “You worry too much. Besides, how awesome would that story be?” Her fingers spread in the air like she was reading a
headline. “‘Baby Boy Delivered at 30,000 Feet.’ Film at eleven.”

The bellhop snorted, switching it to a cough. Anna flashed him an award-winning smile. I couldn’t help feeling just a tiny smidge of jealousy. Ah, to be as breezy as my sister. Somehow,
the I-don’t-give-a-crap gene had skipped me. The elevator dinged to a stop, and the bellhop politely indicated for us to go first. I wasn’t sure if that was his training or if he wanted
a peek at the backside that had Griffin poised for action.

As we walked along the thick carpet, I glanced at the copious amount of luggage my sister had decided she couldn’t live without. “You sure brought a lot of stuff for one
concert,” I murmured.

Grasping my hand in hers, Anna giggled. “Actually, I’m staying.”

All of the muscles in my jaw stopped working. “You are? But, what about your job?” Anna worked at the “family” restaurant, Hooters. Her manager had spent a lot of time
and energy mentoring her on the business side of the restaurant. Up until, well, yesterday, Anna’s plan had been to get into management after the baby. Had she up and quit her job? Actually,
that would not surprise me in the least.

Not a care in the world, Anna shrugged. “I decided to go on maternity leave.”

We arrived at the end of the hallway where the rock star’s rooms were. The D-Bags and I had two rooms on one side of the hall, and the three members of Holeshot had one room on the other
side. Sienna had the entire penthouse suite. I had a feeling that Anna and Griffin would be confiscating one of the D-Bags’ rooms, and the rest of us were going to be very cozy for a while.
Maybe Kellan and I would return to our bus sanctuary quicker than I thought.

Still a little shocked, I sputtered, “But you have a month left,” as I used my key to unlock one of the rooms.

Anna walked through like she owned the place. “I know! Just one month to be wild and crazy and completely carefree.” Walking over to a crisply made bed, she sprawled herself across
the elaborately brocaded cover. “Why would I want to waste my last chance at freedom being shackled to a restaurant when I could be touring the country with a bunch of rock stars?” She
raised an eyebrow at me, like I should completely understand. I did. I just also understood the reality of her situation.

I sat beside her as her luggage was wheeled into the room. “But what about the baby? Where are you going to have him?”

Her face turned droll. “Call me crazy, but I was planning on having him in a hospital.”

I shook my head. “What if we’re not near one when you go into labor? What if we’re in the middle of nowhere?” Oh God, was I going to have to deliver my sister’s
baby? On a tour bus? I felt a little sick just thinking about it. I was not a blood, mucus, and gore-friendly person.

She waved my concerns away. “It will be fine, Kiera. Don’t stress so much.”

I knew that the delivery part of having a baby actually did worry my carefree sister, and I started to wonder if that was the real reason for her escape from Seattle. My sister could do denial
better than anyone.