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“Well, the world owes Asstral for bringing Blue Divine out. I really can’t wait until you’ve got another show. I better get VIP seats.”
Elijah chuckled, nestling in closer. He threw a bare leg over mine, his knee coming up just against my balls. I felt a rush of warmth flow through me. “I’ll have my people reach out to yours.”
“Oh, that’s how it’s going to be, huh?”
He laughed again, his leg creeping up a little higher. I was almost ready for round two, and his touch only made the embers light even more.
“We’ve all got to hang out,” he said. “Sunshine, Blue, and Asstral. I think we’d have a good time.”
“I’m sure we would. Does he know we’re together? And is that like… drag incest?”
Elijah pursed his lips and gave a “hmph.” “No, I don’t think—drag incest… hmm. That’s a thinker. But no, I’m going with no.” He leaned up a bit, his fingers drawing gentle circles around my chest, playing with the curly hair. “And Billie does know about us. I told him in a drunken stupor. At your place, actually, the night we spent playing board games naked.”
“I remember that night.” A bright red cardinal flew across the sky like a burning comet. “You did get really wine drunk.”
“Best kind of drunk.”
“It is.” Something stuck out at me like a splinter jammed in my palm. “You never called Billie, though. You specifically told me to hide your phone somewhere so you wouldn’t make any drunk phone calls.”
Elijah stopped drawing circles, looking to me. “Really? He said I called him that night and spilled my guts to him. About you.”
“No, I’m positive you didn’t call anyone.”
“Maybe it was another night, then…” His multifaceted green eyes tilted up, clearly consumed by thought.
“What? What are you thinking?” I sat up, sensing a slight shift in the air.
“Nothing. It’s stupid.”
“I don’t believe anything you say or think is stupid.”
Elijah’s eyes widened, his smile twisting into something that worried me. Lines appeared between his expertly plucked brows. “It’s just—okay, this is completely wild, and it might not be stupid, but it definitely is spooky-dooky… When we looked over the footage from the grocery store, I thought I recognized the woman walking away from the pig head. It was so batty, I didn’t really give it much thought. But if I really never told Billie about you and I… well, he knew. He knew, and he definitely doesn’t talk to Amelia, so how did he know?
“And that woman in the grocery store—the body shape, the way they walked. It reminded me of Billie… and… but it can’t… there’s just no way. Right? There’s no way.” Elijah’s breaths started to come in short spurts between the slow realizations that his theory wasn’t stupid or batty at all.
It sounded plausible, and suddenly, I’d become a shark in a chum-filled pool. I could smell blood, and I wanted to chase it.
“Billie’s known you from the beginning. He’s close to you. Close enough to have developed some obsession. The CD had all your beginning songs—”
“Songs Billie helped me choose…”
“And he wouldn’t have seemed out of place going backstage for a second, long enough to leave a message on your mirror.” Another thought hit me. I got up and went for my shorts, digging in my pocket and grabbing my phone. Elijah looked stunned, his face matching the pale white rocks surrounding the pond.
“It can’t be Billie. He’s—Jesus, he’s been there for me from the beginning. He’s… Fuck, I think I’m going to be sick.”
I crouched down and rubbed Elijah’s back, pulling up a number on my phone. He looked at me with colorless cheeks. “What are you doing?”
“I’m calling Jen. From the Queen’s Throne. I need to find out why that lipstick ended up in your dressing room.”
Jen picked up on the second ring. “Detective, what’s up? Need anything?”
“Hey, Jen. Actually, I do need a few minutes of your time. This is going to seem like a small question, but it could cause some huge waves, so please think on it.”
“Please welcome to the stage, Noah Pressure.”
Elijah chuckled at that, Jen’s voice carrying from my phone and through the relative quiet and peacefulness of the farm.
“Kimmy Mowry—she gifted you a lipstick around Halloween of this year. It was a bright red color and was called Bold Blood. Do you remember that?”
There was a heavy moment of silence before being broken by an affirmative from Jen. “I do, yeah.” My heart tumbled down my ribs like a seven-year-old me stumbling down the steps one Christmas morning.
“She gave it to me as a gift, and I had it out by the bar. I remember Asstral Divine spotted it and said she needed to borrow it for her show. We even made a joke about the name of the lipstick because it went with her vampire look. I’m just now realizing I never got it back, that bitch.”
