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“You’re behaving like a bloody kid, Pierce.” Jake again. He never called me Foxy. “Grow up or ship out.”
I squinted at him. He was joking, wasn’t he? Apparently not from the stern expression on his face. Fuck!
“We don’t want to lose you.” Axel’s dark eyes narrowed. “But you came in late on the downbeat in a couple of songs at the concert last night. You were wasted before we went on stage.”
I shook my head, grimacing at the pain. I needed a drink. Needed to anaesthetize myself. I took in a long, slow breath. There was a stash in my suitcase back in the hotel room…
“We know you drink in secret.” Rhys’ Welsh accent was deep and melodic. He tucked a strand of the long dark hair that had come lose from his pony behind his ear. “I heard bottles clinking as you wheeled your case down the corridor yesterday.”
There was nothing I could say, so I kept silent and zoned out again.
Jake snapped his fingers in front of my eyes. I blinked and pain ricocheted behind my temples. “What?” I groaned.
“I’ve had an idea.” He stroked his chin. “Hayley Wilson could keep an eye on you for us instead of you going into rehab.” He smiled at the others. “What do you think?”
I got in first. “I don’t need a bloody babysitter.”
“It’s either that or rehab,” Zach muttered. He was the quiet one out of the four of us. When he spoke, it was always to the point.
Jake’s lips mashed into a flat line. “If you don’t go for one or the other, you’ll have to leave the band…”
“Let’s vote on it,” Axel interjected, flipping his dark blond hair out of his eyes. “All in favor of Foxy needing to sober up or ship out say aye.”
I heard my bandmates basically flip me the bird as they echoed their agreement to the ultimatum. Sudden shame swept through me that it had come to this. ChiMera was my life, my miserable Godforsaken life. If I didn’t have the band, I’d have nothing. How sad was that? Without them I’d have been even more fucked-up than I was already.
“Okay.” I struggled to find the right words. “Yankee Girl can be my nanny.”
Jake got to his feet “I’ll go and ask her. Everyone wait here.”
The door closed and the others gave me despairing glances.
“It’s for your own good,” Rhys said.
“Yeah.” Axel’s dark eyes filled with sudden sadness. “We don’t want you to end up like Ella.”
My lips curved into a smile of deliberate reassurance. “There was never any danger of that…”
Zach shook his head. “You are not invincible. No one is.”
And the truth of his words pierced me like the blade of a knife.Chapter 3Hayley“I’m not a babysitter,” I said to Jake.
He’d knocked at the door of my hotel room, waking me from my nap, and had breezed in to offer me double my salary for what he’d called a ‘promotion’. Said promotion meant I’d have to stick to Pierce like glue, rooming with him when we were back in LA, then not letting him out of my sight while we were touring in New Zealand, Australia and the Far East. Jake had promised that Joe, CM’s trusted bodyguard, would move in with us to help…otherwise I wouldn’t have considered the proposition.
“I’m a stylist,” I reminded Jake, tapping my foot on the carpeted floor. “How will Camila manage on her own?”
“She won’t be on her own. You can still do Pierce’s hair, stage make-up and dress him. She’ll have three of the band instead of two. We’ll make it worth her while and it’s not like her current workload is that taxing.” He ran a hand through his slicked-back hair. “Megan does all four of Vanilla Sky without batting an eyelid.” Megan was a new addition to the team and had joined us at the start of the tour.
I made a hmmm noise. Not only would I be able to more than cover Dad’s nursing home fees, but I’d have enough left over to save up for a rainy day. I chewed on my lip, weighing the pros and cons.
Go for it, Hayley, my inner voice urged. You’d be stupid if you didn’t, and Pierce clearly needs help. But what if I can’t cope with him? Be careful, girl. You could drown in his impish dark blue eyes.
“Can I think about it?” I asked.
Jake leaned his full weight against the doorjamb. “Sorry. We need you to start right away. Take charge of Pierce from the outset. Starting with getting him to pour the contents of his stash of bottles down the sink.”
“You want me to boss him?” I drew my brows together. “Don’t think he’ll like that.”
“He has no choice.” Jake’s tone was harsh. “We’ve given him a warning. Either he sobers up or he’s out of the band.”
