Page 58 of Rebooting Conor Flynn

She lifted her shoulders to her ears. “I was no longer working on the Five2Go tour. Those numbers were need-to-know. Can you imagine if every musician, stylist, producer, and PR person kept your numbers forever? Of course, they were going to swap out your phones with new numbers at some point.”

“But you weren’t just any PR person.” I swept my tongue along my lower lip, and she followed the motion as if it were a hypnotist’s watch—except I was the one falling under her spell. “You were mine...my...our publicist for that first tour.”

“Assistant publicist, and the important word there is first. I never was going to work the Australia tour. Baker Street made that clear to me. And they drove home the point by telling me if I followed you, I’d be out of a job.”

I banged my fist against the kitchen enclosure, and Rhys and Jade glanced up from their private conversation. “All this time, I thought you chose your career over...me.”

Her lashes fluttered as she put a hand to her throat. “I thought the same about you.”

Anger, heat, and confusion surged through my body. “How did that happen? How did the wrong number get transferred over?”

Her lips formed a thin line and her eye twitched at one corner. She didn’t want to say what we were both thinking.

Pinching the bridge of my nose, I said, “Do you think Gordo did it on purpose? Once the numbers transferred to the new phones, he could’ve gone into mine and manually changed one digit of your number to make sure my messages never reached you.”

“I don’t know.” She crossed her arms, tucking her hands against her body. “What happened when you texted me? Did anyone ever respond with hey, mate, I’m Bruce not Noelle, but I’ll come to Australia if you want me to.”

I didn’t even crack a smile at her attempted joke. I couldn’t laugh about this. “No. And before you ask, the message didn’t bounce back as undelivered, either. It went through as if someone received them on the other end—and chose not to respond.”

“That seems odd. What are the chances Gordon swapped out a digit and the number was legit, but the person with that number never responded to messages from an obvious stranger? I mean, wouldn’t you respond to a series of messages from a stranger to let the poor fool know he had the wrong number? I would.”

“Are you saying the number he entered for you belonged to someone at Baker Street? Someone he instructed not to reply?” My hands fisted at my side, and I wanted to punch something.

“I never said that.” She waved her hands in front of her face. “I don’t want to throw around accusations without proof. All I know is that I never received any communication from you once you went to Australia—not even a phone call.”

“That’s not on me.” I patted my chest. “We weren’t allowed to make phone calls from those phones. When we wanted to speak with our families, we used management’s phones.”

“That’s...convenient.”

I massaged my temples with the tips of my fingers. “Wait, wait. We can apply the same logic to your messages. If you were texting my old number, how come your messages didn’t bounce back?”

“I don’t know, but they didn’t. It looked like they all went through, but I never got any response from you.”

“This sounds...diabolical, Noelle.” I squeezed past her to pace the length of the bus, ignoring Rhys and Jade. When I returned to her, some of the anger had drained from my body. “What exactly did Baker Street tell you about following us...me to Australia? Why didn’t they want you to go?”

“Gordon told me the agency needed me in London. They were trying to make another boyband happen, and they wanted me to recreate the magic of Five2Go.”

“And you turned that down?”

“They had no magic.” A little smile curved her lip.

“You skipped that opportunity to be with me—and then there was no me, no us. What did you do when you thought I wasn’t replying to your messages?”

She shrugged. “Went back to the States. Baker Street was generous. They gave me severance pay, even though I was the one who quit, and they found me another job in LA—with Odyssey Promotions.”

“I’m glad you landed on your feet after all that, but this is shite, Noelle. I think Baker Street interfered because they didn’t want me to have a girlfriend—at least not one I chose on my own. We all suffered through PR stunts in those days.”

Swallowing hard, she studied her folded hands, and I brushed off the fact that she was doing the same thing to me right now.

“I’m not gonna let this go.” I pressed my lips together. “It’s one thing to suggest a young artist not get involved with someone, but it’s a whole other level when the suggestion turns into lying and tampering with someone’s phone to trick people.”

“We can’t be positive that happened, Con.” She didn’t sound so sure this time. “Besides, what are you going to do about it?”

“I’m at least going to get the truth.”

“How? Are you going to ask Gordon? Are you even in touch with him?”

“Gordo and I touch base sometimes.”