Page 26 of Israel

But he couldn’t stand the thought of Ashley losing her dream. She’d be devastated.

Israel said, “I think it’s premature to talk about shutting down the tour—”

“Well, maybe you don’t get a vote on that,” Enzo said. “This is your fault. There was nothing but letters for weeks, and then you show up and suddenly it’s Lilac Central all up in here.”

“Yeah,” Carlos said. “The Purple Man’s pissed off that Ashley has a personal bodyguard. He probably saw that bodyguard movie and figured Ashley and Israel were doing the boinkety-boink.”

Israel rolled his eyes. “First off,” he said,” I know you were onboard with Ashley having a bodyguard, so don’t suddenly pretend you were smart enough to see this coming. And second, this stunt took a shitload of preparation. No way he pulled it together in the time since I arrived this morning.”

“Exactly,” Carlos said. “He knew you were coming, and this was a form of protest.”

“You made him escalate,” Julio said. “So maybe you should go.”

“So maybe you should shut the fuck up,” Israel said. “I’m not leaving Ashley unprotected. Especially after this.”

“He’s right,” Harrison said. “Whatever triggered this guy to escalate, he’s not going to de-escalate now, whatever Israel does. Ashley’s a hell of a lot safer with him here.”

“Not if they’re fucking,” Enzo said.

Israel rose to his feet, growling, and Enzo rose to face him, his knife appearing in his hand. But before they could get into it, Ashley stomped into view, wearing a too-large set of sweats.

“For God’s sake, Enzo, sit down. Israel and I are not fucking,” she snapped. “And this stalker guy is delusional.”

She stared around the room. “Don’t you get it? It doesn’t matter what I do or don’t do, he’s going to think what he wants. My relationship with him is in his head. Me fucking Israel is in his head. Hell, I could be a nun with a sealed-up vagina and he and half my other fans will think I’m fucking everyone, including Israel and the three of you and Harrison and probably Alicia and Tiffany too, just for good measure. And Avery the bus driver.”

At that moment, Avery peeked his head around the door. “Hey,” he said. “Ready to leave whenever you are.”

He glanced at Carlos and Julio, who were glaring at him. “And, um, not fucking Ashley. You know. For the record.” He disappeared again.

Enzo was still glowering at Israel, flipping his knife, tossing it in the air and catching it again by the handle.

“Stop that,” Ashley said. She turned on Harrison. “They’re right about this bodyguard thing, though. I told you it was a bad idea. Now you’ve just made everything worse.”

“Ashley—” Israel began.

She barely let him get a word out. “I suppose you think I should cancel the tour, too.” Her furious gaze took in the whole room. “Well, I’m not. You all get paid to run this tour and make sure shit like this doesn’t happen, so you need to get your asses in gear and take this guy down. Or I’ll sit alone in my dressing room until he comes after me and do it myself.”

“Ashley, calm down,” Harrison said. “Why don’t you just go back and—”

Israel thought she was going to explode. “Don’t fucking tell me to calm down! And don’t tell me to go to the back of the bus and wait. Don’t I get a say in any of this?”

Israel could see her shaking. She was going to lose it any second. Or he would. His wolf growled louder.

“That’s it,” he said. “Ashley, just go and—”

“I know,” she yelled. “Go in the back of the bus and wait until all the penis-peopledecide what’s going to happen to me and my tour. Fine. Fuck you all, each and every last one of you.”

She turned and stomped away.

Damn it, that wasn’t what he meant. It was all Israel could do not to run after her and gather her in his arms, but he knew she probably would stab him with his headset this time.

“Well, that went well.” Harrison sighed and ran his hands through his rumpled tawny hair in frustration.

“You can hardly blame her,” Israel said. “Everything’s out of control, the people who are supposed to be protecting her are dropping the ball—including me, so don’t get all offended—and she’s right, she gets no say in any of it.”

“I know,” Harrison said. “I hope to hell the security cameras come up with something. We’ve got to stop this fucker. He’s too close.”

“You’re telling me,” Israel said. “I’m getting Ashley out of here, and—”

At that moment, the other passengers started piling on the bus, breathless and harried. Alicia and Tiffany and the skinny birdlike woman Israel had met this morning, and two or three other people.

Twelve bunks, Israel thought. Shit. This bus really did carry eight or ten people, and they were all looking for Ashley, wanting to hug her and ask her questions and exclaim in horror at how awful it all was.

Damn it all to hell. Just having him hovering over her had made her feel suffocated. A whole crowd of them would make her implode.

It was time for him to start earning his mate credentials.