by Raine Thomas
Lily’s stomach had pitched violently enough for her to edge closer to the bathroom as a precaution. “Dane, I can’t afford your attorney. I can’t afford any attorney.”
His expression had darkened. “You won’t have to pay her. I will.”
The temper that had been suppressed by her shock had issued a grand resurgence. “Oh, really? And if Johnathan wins, I assume you’ll pay him for me, too?”
“He won’t win.”
“God,” she said, bringing her hands up and tugging at her hair. “You can’t know that. Believe it or not, you’re not untouchable. And the way my life goes, justice won’t be on my side here.”
He pulled his hands from his pockets and stepped closer to her. “I won’t let anything happen to you. Shelley is the best.”
“Which means she’s expensive,” she had retorted. “I won’t let you pay my way for everything, Dane. Do you know how it makes me feel knowing that I’ve become yet another person in your life who takes your money? Before this tour, I never would have let that happen.”
“It’s not like that,” he argued. “You’re my best friend and the woman I love. You know I’d do anything for you.”
Frustration fused with her anger, brewing like vile poison in her chest. “Of course I know that,” she said, battling back a humiliating round of tears. “I’ve always known that. And I would do anything for you. But lately it feels like my side of the needs scale has offset the balance of our relationship. I hate feeling like I’m an obligation.”
“How could you possibly think that?” he asked, once again reaching for her. His arms lowered when she moved away from him. “Lily, the money isn’t important.”
She shook her head and swallowed more gathering emotion. “It is important, Dane. You’ve just never had to worry about it before and it’s never been part of our equation.”
“Why does it matter?” he had asked in an exasperated tone. “We love each other. That means we take care of each other, whatever it takes. Just think of me spending money on you as a way for me to express my love.”
The first tear had fallen then. Dane’s response told her that he wouldn’t—that he couldn’t—understand her perspective on this. She saw a vast expanse forming between them that she wasn’t sure they’d ever be able to overcome.
“You have no idea how it feels to be in love with someone who can offer you so much when you can’t ever dream of doing the same in return,” she whispered.
His lips parted in surprise.
“I need some time alone,” she said abruptly, heading to the bedroom door.
“Wait,” he said when she opened the bedroom door and strode out. “You can’t leave until we finish discussing this.”
“Well I am.” She grabbed her purse and cell phone off an end table and turned back to him. “It’s too much, Dane. I’ve reached my breaking point. If you don’t give me time and space to process all of this, I’m probably going to do or say something I’ll regret.”
She had placed him right between a rock and a hard place. She knew it and she didn’t care. The last thing she wanted was Dane using his charm to talk her down on something so important to her. He’d done enough of that already.
“I’ll stay with Aria tonight,” she had said as she headed to the door.
He made one last attempt to stop her, rushing forward to get to the door before her. “Please don’t go. I hate that you feel this way. I want—”
“This isn’t about what you want,” she interrupted in an uneven voice. “If you really will do anything for me, you’ll let me go right now.”
The pain in his eyes had almost deterred her. Then she remembered Johnathan’s pending lawsuit and the fact that Dane had kept it from her. She thought of how many times she’d capitulated to Dane since they entered into their relationship...how much her life had changed in ways she still wasn’t happy about.
And she had opened the door and walked out of the hotel room without looking back.
Even then, she wasn’t alone to have her breakdown. Barney had immediately stepped away from Trey in the hallway and followed her. She was just concerned enough about the disturbing e-mail and mysterious floral delivery that she hadn’t bothered telling him to leave her alone. He was joined by Duff with his House of Archer camera the moment he spotted them. She had been forced to seek out a bathroom in the hotel’s lobby to have her crying jag.
Not her proudest moment, especially with guests trailing in and out surely wondering who the sobbing lunatic was in the closed stall.
She hadn’t gone to the concert that evening, the first one she’d missed since joining the tour. As she told Dane she would, she had spent the rest of the day—and a sleepless night—with Aria. Sydney had also skipped the concert, joining Lily and Aria in Aria’s hotel room. Her friends had both listened to Lily’s concerns and offered her their support.
“Johnathan sure acted fast with this lawsuit,” Sydney mused.
It was a solid point. Lily had thought from the moment it happened that Johnathan’s harsh and crude words were outside of his character. It suddenly seemed clear he had planned the entire thing. The knowledge incensed her even more.
“I’ve got to find out what his lawsuit is all about,” Lily had said as she ate another spoonful of the cookie dough ice cream Sydney brought with her. “I can only assume it’s some kind of assault charge.”
“I would think even Johnathan would have more pride than to stand in a courtroom stating that he’d been slapped senseless by a woman,” Aria said as she also dipped into the ice cream.
“Maybe he’s alleging that I hurt his reputation or something since it was all over the news.”
“It’s not like that was your fault,” Sydney pointed out.
Lily scooped more ice cream even though she was starting to feel ill from it. “Whatever it is, it’s going to cost me an arm and a leg to defend myself.”
“We’ll help you figure that out,” Sydney loyally insisted.
Lily had appreciated the unwavering support from her friends. Neither of them tried to convince her she was crazy for refusing Dane’s money. They knew what a hot button it was with her. She couldn’t understand why Dane—who knew her better than anyone—was proving so dense about it.
Of course, now here she was in the middle of another expensive spa treatment that Dane was paying for. The irony wasn’t lost on her. She just hadn’t wanted him to waste his money if they hadn’t shown up for the appointments.
“All right, Lily,” her spa attendant, Debra, said softly. “I need you to close your eyes so I can apply your eye gels.”
Lily had already had her entire body wrapped, scrubbed, polished, waxed, and massaged. Her face was now covered in some kind of green tea and bamboo-infused clay mask. Closing her eyes seemed the least challenging thing she had done all day.
She struggled not to screw her eyes shut when the cool gels were applied. They felt foreign, slightly slimy, and unexpectedly soothing. It wasn’t until then that the past couple days with hardly any sleep fully caught up with her.
“I’ll be back in a few minutes once the mask has set,” Debra told her.
It was the last thing Lily absorbed until a sound startled her awake. The gels prevented her from opening her eyes to see what had brought her back to consciousness. She almost reached up to pull the eye gels off. Her heart pounded uncomfortably fast in her chest, though she wasn’t sure why. It was just Debra returning to the room, she reminded herself.
So why didn’t Debra say anything?
“Debra?” she asked.
“No, my dearest Lily,” a deep voice whispered close to her ear.
Every hair on her head stood on end. She didn’t recognize the voice. A strong scent reached her, like ground cloves mixed with body odor.
She opened her mouth to shout for Barney. A hand silenced her. The scent of latex immediately overwhelmed her, telling her the guy was wearing protective gloves. She tried to reach up to shove him away. Her hands lifte
d less than an inch.
She was bound.
“Don’t panic, my darling,” the man said. “You have nothing to fear. After all, I’m your biggest fan.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Archer sat down to a late lunch with his bandmates and Christopher after completing their Denver-area PR obligations for the day. They were eating in a private dining room in one of the city’s most well-known restaurants. The food was supposed to be spectacular, but Archer studied his menu without much enthusiasm.
His mind wasn’t on food. It was on Lily.
He hadn’t heard from her since her departure from their hotel room the afternoon before. He’d kept tabs on her through Trey by way of Barney. That had been the only thing keeping him from ignoring Lily’s request and hunting her down so he could talk to her.
The inability to plead his case was increasingly maddening. He couldn’t stand knowing that Lily felt like an obligation to him. Hearing that had struck him like an arrow.
Her statement about him not knowing what it was like to love someone who could offer more than she could ever return weighed heavily on his heart. He’d had plenty of time to think of all of the things he should have said in response but hadn’t.
He should have said that she brought more joy to his life than any amount of money ever could.
He should have said that if their relationship was off-balance, it was because he could never possibly measure up to her.
He should have said that he knew exactly what that was like...because he loved Lily, and she had done more for him out of love than he could ever hope to repay.
Instead he had watched her walk out.
“All right,” Christopher said after the server departed to fill their drink orders. “I’m glad I have this time with all of you. I know it’s been a hectic few days but I’ve got some news I wanted to share.”
Archer set his menu down. He watched his bandmates exchange curious glances. The cameras hovering around the table shifted to capture all of their reactions. That prompted Archer to school his expression into an interested one.
“We have officially sold out all of the remaining concerts on the tour,” Christopher announced. “Not just that, but five of the remaining cities want to add dates to the schedule.”
Noelle gasped. “Five?”
“Yes,” Christopher said. His smile spread. “And that isn’t even the best news. I just confirmed on the way here that ‘Welcome to Wonderland’ went double platinum. I think after the first episode or two of House of Archer airs, we’ll likely go triple.”
“Hot damn,” Xander exclaimed, echoing Archer’s thoughts.
Noelle squealed and threw her arms around Sage, who was sitting next to her. Archer exchanged grins with Keith. He instinctively started to reach for his phone so he could call Lily and let her know the big news. His smile faded when he remembered that she wasn’t talking to him.
Seeing Christopher studying him, Archer forced another smile and said, “That’s great news. Guess your suggestion to use it for the theme song was spot-on.”
“I thought you might say so,” Christopher said. “And now I think we should enjoy our celebratory lunch without all of the cameras watching us eat.”
He turned and looked pointedly in the camera lenses aimed at him. It didn’t take long for the crew to take the hint and pack up for the next hour or so. When they were truly alone and everyone had turned their mics off, Christopher looked directly at Archer.
“All right,” he said. “Spill it.”
“Spill what?”
“What’s been bothering you?” Xander asked.
“Yeah,” Noelle added. “And why wasn’t Lily at the show last night?”
“Did you upset her?” Sage wanted to know.
Jesus. When had his band become a bunch of nosy nags? Even Keith was looking at him as though he wanted to know the answer.
“It’s not a band matter,” Archer grumbled.
“I beg to differ,” Christopher argued. “You were off last night. We could all see it. You’re still off today. Did you and Lily have an argument?”
Archer was given a brief reprieve from the barrage of personal questions as the server returned with their drinks and took their orders. He felt everyone’s gazes straying to him and knew he wasn’t going to get out of this without some kind of explanation. When the room lapsed into silence after the server once again departed, his suspicions were confirmed.
“Yes, we had an argument,” he said.
“About what?” Noelle asked. Her eyes narrowed. “Did you say something stupid?”
“No,” he said, his frustration leaking into the word. “I just told her about Johnathan’s lawsuits.”
He’d filled the band in on the lawsuits the day before, knowing it would be in the news soon anyway. They’d all rolled their eyes over the suit against Archer and had been pissed about the suit against Lily. He hadn’t expected otherwise.
“So you were the messenger and she shot you?” Xander asked.
Archer could have left it at that and they probably would have accepted it. But he couldn’t possibly paint Lily as the villain. He also really needed to put it all out there in hopes someone could offer him a solution to this mess.
He needed to fix things with Lily.
“I offered to pay the attorney’s fees,” he responded. “She got angry about it.”
Noelle groaned and shook her head. “You did say something stupid.”
Seeing that everyone agreed with her, he heaved an exasperated sigh. “What’s the big deal? She can’t afford an attorney. She’s going to need one.”
“Lily doesn’t want to spend your money,” Xander said. “You know how she is about that.”
“Well how else is she possibly going to afford an attorney when she makes...” he trailed off, realizing he had no idea. “How much does Lily make, Christopher?”
One of Christopher’s eyebrows lifted. “I’m hardly going to discuss an employee’s salary.”
“That’s bullshit,” Keith said mildly before Archer could speak. “We all basically pay the employees. How much do we pay our social media manager?”
Seeing that everyone was in agreement with Keith, Christopher sighed and replied, “Twelve dollars an hour for twenty-five hours a week.”
Archer laughed.
His amusement ebbed when he saw that Christopher was serious. “You’re telling me that Lily makes...”
“Three hundred dollars a week,” Sage soberly supplied.
“Before taxes,” Noelle tacked on, exchanging a look with Sage. “That’s less than two-fifty take-home in Cali.”
Archer was grateful he was already sitting down. He couldn’t even wrap his head around that. Between his music, the band’s paid appearances and tour income, his television residuals, his current acting income, and his numerous investments, he made that much every few minutes. He couldn’t imagine how anyone could live off so little.
“Believe it or not, that’s standard pay for a band’s social media manager,” Christopher said. “Especially for someone without much experience.”
Xander issued a low whistle. “Jesus. That’s barely more than minimum wage. My cousin makes more than that as a barista at a coffee shop.”
Archer’s stomach turned as he fully processed the enormous gap between his income and Lily’s. No wonder she had freaked out about affording an attorney. Her weekly pay wouldn’t cover more than a couple hours of his attorney’s time.
“But Lily’s with us all the time,” Noelle said with a troubled expression. “She works more than twenty-five hours a week.”
“She only logs time when she’s actively performing social media tasks,” Christopher explained.
“So she’s paid separately for her appearances with the band?” Sage asked.
Christopher shook his head. “Lily isn’t part of the band, so she isn’t paid for appearances. She attends them because she wants to.”
That wasn’t true. Archer knew
Lily didn’t want to be a public figure. In fact, she had always done everything she could to avoid it. No...she did the appearances for the band.
For him.
After a long moment, Noelle said, “Well, she’ll earn money for being on the show, right?”
Christopher glanced at Archer. “I wasn’t there when Lily signed the contract. Was she given a compensation agreement for House of Archer?”
Archer thought back to when Elijah had cornered him and Lily to get her to sign the show’s paperwork. She had signed multiple releases and a nondisclosure agreement, but he didn’t remember seeing or hearing anything about compensation.
His gut tightened more painfully. Why the hell hadn’t he considered that before?
Seeing everyone staring at him expectantly, he shook his head.
“What the fuck?” Keith said, sounding baffled.
“That ain’t right,” Xander said. He sat back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “There wouldn’t be a damn show without Lily.”
“Even the Suddenly Something butt-munches are getting paid for it,” Noelle added. “Lily is featured far more than they are.”
Archer appreciated his band’s support of Lily, even if it made him feel even worse for not thinking of any of this sooner. Lily had been right...money was a non-issue for him, which meant he had really dropped the ball in looking out for her financial well-being.
“I’ll talk to Elijah,” he said. “It won’t stay this way.”
Sage brought a hand up and pinched the bridge of his nose beneath his glasses. “I can’t believe I let her pay for my lunch last week.”
“Listen,” Christopher said in his reasonable way, “we can discuss increasing Lily’s salary if everyone agrees that’s the way to go.”
“Yes,” Noelle immediately replied. Everyone else nodded.
“But Lily isn’t a fool,” Christopher went on. “If we approach her with a raise right after she and Archer argued over money, she’s going to reason out why.”
Archer knew his manager was right. Not only that, but even a substantial increase in her hourly pay wouldn’t give Lily the money she’d need to afford her own attorney.