by Lisa Suzanne
CHAPTER 42: ADAM
We haven’t sealed the deal yet.
Not for lack of trying on my part, but things have just been...chaotic.
We’re four days into the new year and about to board a bus for the next six weeks, and we haven’t had sex yet.
The moment hasn’t been right.
Our New Year’s party went far later than I imagined it would, and Emily was asleep in the car before I even got her home.
I’ve had tour prep with MFB, which seems like it should be old hat by now, but it’s not. There’s a lot of logistics to work out, especially since our tour manager, Mitch, called to let us know he has to take off this leg of our tour. His mom is sick and needs surgery, so he’s staying in Los Angeles to be with her. Kylie said she can pull double duty, but it’s a lot for one person to handle, so the five of us have been devising ways we can split up Mitch’s duties.
And it’s not just that. Our tour prep has also included meetings with our record label regarding new music and the schedule they want us to work on to put it out. It’s aggressive. It’s doable, but it’ll mean long hours of writing and practicing and less time with my bride.
But in six weeks, we get back from the tour just in time for our wedding.
And I have some things planned for our reception.
I’ve already worked out the finer details of the gifts I’ll be giving my bride, but I guess I’m sort of looking toward our wedding as the turning point in our relationship. We’re kind of dating now, even though we’re married, but things are moving quickly. It was a natural progression we fell into when we started faking for the cameras, and even though it was fast, it’s actually been close to fifteen years in the making.
So it hasn’t been that quick.
I’m a little anxious about this trip. The last time we were on a bus together, Emily wasn’t speaking to me. The bunks mean close quarters, and I don’t know how I’m going to keep my hands off her.
And I need to keep my hands off her.
She deserves more than the tight quarters of a bus bunk for our first real time together, a time we’re both going to remember.
I have the perfect plan.
The bus isn’t as quiet and relaxing as usual since we’re all feeling the pressure of our looming deadline. We’ve written about half the songs we’ll need for our next album, which is a good start...but that means the finish line isn’t even close to being in sight.
I give Emily an apologetic look as I’m whisked away to the office, the back room on the bus where the writing always takes place on tour. I know she can fend for herself, and I know she and Kylie have more wedding plans to hammer out, but I still feel bad leaving her mere minutes after the bus turned out of the parking lot.
Usually tour launches are met with a little more fanfare, but truth be told, I think we’re all just tired. We’ve been on tour for months, and this is our last leg. The holiday break was a nice preview of what’s to come after this leg, but we have twenty-two shows over six weeks plus an album to write.
It’s dinnertime when we emerge from the office, and we’re not even halfway from San Diego to our destination in Dallas. It’s a long, boring ride, but that’s a lot of what touring is.
I’m a little worried Emily is going to be miserable. She doesn’t have an official job to do apart from being my assistant, and while she’s getting to know Kylie, she doesn’t exactly have friends on this tour apart from me. This is a whole new world for her, and so I’ve started devising a plan. I just need a few minutes alone with Kylie to explain.
I find Kylie and Emily in the forward cabin watching a movie. They’re each sprawled on recliners like they own the place, which, in some respects, they sort of do. They’re the only women on this tour. Sierra never joins us on tour because she still works a regular job, while Zoey scored a small role in a television show and couldn’t make the tour work with her schedule.
I haven’t yet come to terms with the fact that my sister is dating Rascal, but she’s not on the tour, either. In my own view, it’s because things aren’t serious enough for him to invite her along...but I’m not so sure that’s true. It may have more to do with her work schedule.
I didn’t ask, but I’m wondering if I should.
“Anybody hungry?” I ask, interrupting the movie.
“Starving,” Emily says.
I pull out a bag of food from the fridge marked January 4. We learned on our first tour that you can’t just stuff your face with fast food every night and expect to be able to run around the stage, so I studied healthy eating habits and what meals travel well on the road. It’s not an exact science, but tonight we have a tray of fruits and vegetables along with a selection of chicken wraps. One of Kylie’s responsibilities as our manager is making sure we’re fed every night, and I’ve taken on the responsibility of helping her order healthy meals in every city. Maybe now that I have a personal assistant, I can hand off that duty.
It might give her a sense of purpose along with the other thing I thought of.
My chance to talk to Kylie comes a little later that night after dinner when we pass each other in the office.
“Can I talk to you a minute?”
Her brows draw down. “Of course. What is it?”
“Thanks for taking the time to get to know Emily,” I begin.
She nods. “She’s lovely, and it’s not just because of the sacrifices she’s making for us.”
I nod. “She’s amazing. And she also has a head for numbers. Her dream is to be an accountant.”
Kylie laughs. “That’s adorkable.”
“Isn’t it?” I chuckle at her use of the word she taught me. “Can you let her help you with the finances a little? Maybe just act a little overwhelmed with your task list. It’ll give her something to do.”
She narrows her eyes at me. “It wouldn’t be an act, Adam. With Mitch taking off this leg of the tour last minute for his mother’s surgery, I’m not just MFB’s manager, I’m the tour manager. It’s a lot for one person. But finances?” she asks. “That’s a pretty big responsibility for someone so new to our circle.”
I press my lips together. “She’s not new. I’ve known her over half my life, and I trust her. Besides, she’s my wife.”
She rolls her eyes.
“She’s gonna stick around a while,” I add quietly.
She pins me with one of her scary gazes, but then something changes in her eyes. It seems like I passed whatever test she just doled out. She nods. “Okay. Truth be told, I have been feeling a little slammed lately. Handing over the tour book to someone who knows what she’s doing financially would lift a huge burden.”
I toss my arms around her and hug her.
“Don’t squeeze too tight,” she says. “You’ll crush the baby.” I jump back, and she giggles. “I’m kidding, but you should’ve seen the look on your face. We’re still not telling anyone, so zip those lips.”
I glare at her, and she walks back toward the forward cabin, laughing the entire way.
CHAPTER 43: EMILY
Kylie huffs out an annoyed breath as she studies a binder the next morning.
The guys are back in the office doing whatever it is they’re doing to write new music. I’m lazily scrolling my phone across the table from Kylie as I wonder if it was the chicken wraps or the fruit making me feel a little nauseous this morning.
“Everything okay?” I ask.
“No.” She flips through the pages of her binder and finally tosses her pencil down and looks up at me. “I need to confirm several press spots for the guys after I’m done with the books, but I can’t get these numbers to add up. Adam said you’re a math whiz. Any chance you want to take a look at these records?”
I nod and hold my hand out for her to pass the binder over. It’s been a while since I’ve done anything more exciting than balancing a checkbook, and I miss feeling like I have a purpose aside from being Adam’s assistant, which so far has basically amounted to answering a few emails fo
r him.
I glance up at the camera watching our every move and then back at Kylie.
“What?” she asks.
I shake my head. “Nothing.”
I find a blank sheet of paper in the folder at the back of the binder and debate writing down the question I’m burning to ask her.
She purses her lips at me then stands. “Come on,” she says, rolling her eyes. I follow her to the bunks, where there are no cameras, and we both click off our mic packs. I glance at the closed office door behind her where the band works. We have privacy here, but I don’t know how long it’ll last. “What’s going on?”
“Is it true?” I whisper, nodding toward her stomach.
“Is what true? And why are you whispering?”
“I, um—are you...pregnant?”
Her eyes widen, and she looks like she’s about to deny it but changes her mind. “Yeah. Adam and his stupid big mouth.”
I giggle. “He told me by accident, I swear. He just sort of blurted it out on New Year’s Eve.”
She rolls her eyes. “We’re not telling anyone yet.”
I want to ask why, but it’s her life and her decision. “Well it’s exciting news. Congratulations.”
“Thank you. It is exciting, but I’m just so damn scared.” I’ve never seen her as anything but a strong, fierce woman...and right now, that strong and fierce woman looks like she’s about to cry.
“That’s totally normal,” I say, still keeping my voice low as I reach out and squeeze her arm. “When my brother’s wife was expecting, they waited until twelve weeks before they told anyone.”
“I’m nine weeks now, and the doctor said it’s normal to wait until the second trimester to share the news. We’re just so scared it’ll get out there,” she says, making a wide circle motion with her hands, “and then something bad will happen and it’ll become a news story. But it’s my life.” She places a hand gently on her still very flat belly. “It’s not some celebrity gossip item, you know? It’s just a sweet, innocent little baby.”
We may not be that close—yet—but instinct tells me she needs a hug. I reach out and give her one. “You do what’s right for you. How did Adam find out, anyway?”
She shrugs. “He put two and two together when we announced our wedding date to the guys. Combined with the way Dax and I were pushing so hard for this season to focus on you two, he knew it was because we wanted the heat off us.”
I nod as understanding dawns on me. “So that’s why you pushed so hard to keep us married.”
“It was a little selfish, but it’s also only part of the reason.”
I narrow my eyes in confusion. “What’s the other part?”
“Apart from the love story for the show?” She grips both my biceps in her palms, and I can tell that whatever she’s about to say is genuine. “He’s so damn happy with you, Emily. That’s all I ever wanted for any of these guys.”
“You knew that the morning after we turned up married?”
She smiles and drops her hands. “I knew that the second I saw him standing beside you. He was protective, and not just in a brotherly way. His eyes shined when he looked at you. I’ve never seen him like that.”
I’m sure I blush, and I mumble something about how I’ll get started on the numbers.
And when I do, I find a mess.
It takes me two hours to decode and decipher what I’m looking at with Kylie’s direction. She tells me she didn’t balance the bottom line from the last four shows and that I should start there.
At first, I assumed she’d asked me because Adam put her up to it as a way to make me feel part of the tour. But I could tell from page one that something wasn’t adding up, and by the time I calculated the revenue from MFB’s last show in Oakland, I started getting a bad feeling.
Someone’s been skimming the profits and presumably lining their own pockets with money that should be going to MFB...only I have no idea who.
I don’t know enough about the way a tour works, and my first thought is that it’s Kylie since she’s the one who normally does the books.
But it can’t be Kylie. She’s the band’s manager. She makes plenty of cash for what she does, but it’s more than money. She’s about to marry the lead singer. She’s pregnant with his child. She seems like a genuine person who cares about the success of MFB.
But I’ve also heard how money does funny things to people.
I go over the numbers again. Approximately seventy-four percent of the revenue from the show in Oakland should go to the band after the venue takes its cut along with the promoter and other fixed expenses. With over sixteen thousand tickets sold to the show, that should add up to nearly two million dollars. From there, the money gets divided with certain percentages that go to the five members of the band, Kylie, Mitch, and the roadies...but when I do the math, exactly one hundred thousand dollars is missing off the top.
I run the numbers one more time and come up at the same dead end.
“Kylie?” I say a little timidly.
She stops typing on her laptop to look up at me.
I clear my throat, and then I lose my nerve. What if it is her?
If it is, though, why would she have offered to let me handle finances?
It just doesn’t make sense, but I feel like I should talk to Adam about this first.
I shake my head. “Never mind.”
Her gaze returns to her laptop without missing a beat, but something definitely feels off. And I intend to get to the bottom of it.
Apparently I’m not just a math whiz. I’m also a detective who needs some answers.
CHAPTER 44: ADAM
“A hundred thousand dollars?” I repeat, my voice low so no one else can hear our conversation.
We’re lying in my bunk facing each other, and her eyes are wide with nerves as she tells me the numbers aren’t adding up.
Emily nods, her hair swinging loosely around her shoulders. “Exactly. From both shows in Vegas as well as Sacramento and Oakland. But everything before that adds up, so I know something is wrong here.”
I have a bad feeling about this. “So we just have four hundred thousand dollars unaccounted for?”
“If I’m reading the books right, then yes.”
I grip one of her shoulders. “Before I go accusing Kylie of stealing from the band, are you absolutely sure about this?”
She shakes her head as her eyes fill with tears, and I’m full of regret for putting her in this position. I just wanted her to feel like she was part of the team...I didn’t think she’d find someone embezzling money from us a few hours after she dug into the books. “No, I’m not sure. There’s a very real possibility I’m messing it up, but I don’t know how to ask Kylie without sounding like I’m accusing her.”
“Show me,” I say. I’m not a numbers guy. Guitar has always been my thing, but I have a good enough head on my shoulders to figure out what I’m looking at.
She pulls out her phone and shows me the pictures she took of the pages. She shows me the revenue for our gigs before Vegas, starting with Boston, then Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. And then she shows me our first night in Vegas and explains her math.
And she’s right.
There’s exactly a hundred thousand dollars missing.
“What the fuck?” I mutter. She shows me our second night in Vegas, Sacramento, and Oakland. “I can’t believe someone would skim that much money off the top and think we wouldn’t catch it.”
“Who do you think it is?” she asks.
I can’t believe it when the name leaves my mouth, but I can’t figure out who else it could possibly be. “Kylie?”
“It can’t be.” She shakes her head resolutely. “Why would she possibly do that?”
I lift a shoulder. “An insurance policy for her kid. What if something happens between her and Dax before they get married?”
“You don’t really think...” she trails off.
I climb down from my bunk and storm to the front of the bus. Ev
eryone is gathered up there.
“Kylie?” I yell, my voice thunderous in the small space of the forward cabin.
“Right here,” she says, lifting a hand in the air and pointing to the top of her head. Dax sits beside her as they study something on her laptop.
“Why the fuck is a hundred grand missing from the books for the last four gigs?”
Her brows arch in surprise first and then furrow in confusion. She puts a hand to her chest. “I have no idea. Why don’t you ask the girl who came along out of nowhere and suddenly had access to all of MFB’s finances?”
“You think it was me?” Emily yells as she storms into the forward cabin behind me.
“I didn’t say that,” Kylie spits. “But we hardly know you, and running to Adam accusing a pregnant woman of cooking the books in the neighborhood of half a million seems a little rash, don’t you think?”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Brody says, holding up a hand. He pauses the movie he, Kane, and Rascal were watching. “A pregnant woman?”
Kylie’s eyes widen as she realizes her mistake. She covers her mouth with her hand, and Dax draws in a deep breath. He looks at Kylie and squeezes her hand, and she finally nods.
“Kylie’s pregnant,” Dax says softly. “She’s due at the end of June.”
His announcement is met with a few beats of silence, and then everyone starts talking and cheering and yelling at once. Hugs are issued, and the nearly half a million dollars is forgotten for a minute while we congratulate the happy couple on the first future member of MFB.
“We were waiting to talk about it for a few more weeks,” Kylie confesses, wiping tears from beneath her eyes. “There’s just a lot that can go wrong at the beginning and it’s a little scary.”
Kane leans in and gives her a side hug with his arm around her shoulders. “Whatever happens, good and bad, we’re a family. We deal with it together. I’m so happy for the two of you.”
She smiles up at him, and then the excitement of the announcement starts to die down.
“What’s this about missing money?” Dax asks me.