Page 73 of Animal Beats

I stumble into the bedroom, leaving my sandals and the rest of my clothes on the floor. Collapsing onto the bed, I stare at the ceiling. Damn good thing I didn’t break my rule and have sex with her face to face. Hayden was the only one—ever—who tempted me to try it. Now she’s gone.

I take a deep breath, inhale her citrus scent, and succumb to sleep.

A phone rings. My hand reaches for the receiver. “Hello?”

“Good evening, Mr. Sullivan. This is your wake-up call. Time to get ready for your big concert tonight.”

“Thanks.” I hang up on the cheerful woman on the other end of the hotel phone. So not in the mood.

I blink several times, remembering Coop telling me he would schedule the alarm for me when we were at the bar. Good thing he’s the responsible one. Yawning, I get out of bed and turn on the shower’s hot water. Inside, I notice Hayden’s shampoo.

While the water streams over my body, I unscrew the bottle. Put it under my nose. Inhale deeply. Hayden’s scent overtakes my nostrils and settles into my soul.

She can’t be gone.

I can’t have ruined the best thing to happen to me.

I was pissed Mother called me because Hayden gave her my telephone number, but that’s all she did.

Gave. Her. My. Number.

She didn’t tell her to hit me up for rent money. That’s all on Mother. It was wrong of me to blame Hayden.

Who saw me get shitfaced on the boat. Flirt with some chick. There was something else … oh yeah, fall into the river. Shit. Even pissed at me, she jumped in and helped me back onto the boat. Where I treated her worse than yesterday’s garbage.

My fingers clench around the shampoo bottle.

She didn’t deserve any of this. How I treated her. Me.

I shouldn’t have gotten drunk. Luke pounded this rule into my skull, then assigned Hayden to babysit me once our label threatened to replace me. Look what I did—trashed all their hard work—and myself.

Frankly, the label can take a hike, but Hayden … I don’t want her to leave me. She makes me want to try harder.

Even when I fail.

I bring her shampoo bottle to my nose and inhale. She can’t leave me now.

With renewed vigor, I shower and shave and dress and style my hair for the gig. I’m going to get my girl back tonight. Whatever it takes.

Searching in the various pockets of the cargo shorts I wore earlier, I grab my cell. It looks weird. I try to turn it on and… nothing. Crap! It must’ve gone into the river with me.

Shit, shit, shit.

Latching onto the hotel phone, I request Elias’s room. Our head of security picks up on the first ring.

“Hi, it’s Río. I need a new phone. And number. Turns out, my old one didn’t like swimming.”

“Not a problem. I’ll have it ready for you after tonight’s gig.”

“Thanks, man. Don’t know what I would do without you.” I’m about to hang up when I a thought occurs. “Hey, Elias. Can you get me two phones?”

“Sure thing. Same info on both?”

I shake my head—which, of course, he can’t see. “No. Just pre-program the second one with two numbers, Hayden’s and mine. But title my contact ‘Mr. River.’” A thought occurs. “Please put parental controls on that one.”

“You got it.”

In the lobby a full ten minutes early, I look around for Hayden, but she’s nowhere to be seen. I approach Luke. “I seem to have lost my babysitter.”