by Evie Drae
Sighing, Cinder pulled his lips into his patented grin and performed a half bow at the waist. “I’m at your service, my dear. Lead the way.”
The girl’s eyes lit up. “Oh, thank you, Cin. I don’t know what I’d do without you. You’re a true godsend.”
When she linked her arm through his and steered him away from the control booth, her familiar use of a nickname only his nearest and dearest ever used sparked a months’-old memory. He stopped in his tracks, causing Suzette Brunswick to trip over her feet and come to a much less graceful and rather immediate halt.
“You’re Ray’s daughter, aren’t you?” Cinder narrowed his eyes when Suzette’s cheeks flushed. Guilty as charged. “Did he send you to distract me or something? What’s going on?” A chill of fear lanced up Cinder’s spine, and he spun around to stare helplessly toward the rafters. “Where’s Ellis? Is he okay?”
“My big dopey stepbrother is fine, don’t worry.” Suzette smiled with such saccharine sweetness it nearly gave Cinder a toothache. “I don’t know what you see in him, Cin. In fact, I think you’re barking up the wrong tree entirely.” The hand still gripping his elbow slid up to give his bicep a squeeze as her lips fell into an exaggerated pout. “I’m the one you’ll make headlines with, not that meathead Ellis. His social anxiety is so bad he can barely string two words together, but me? I was born for the spotlight.”
She tossed her long auburn curls over her shoulder and puckered her lips even further. It was all Cinder could do not to laugh. She may be Ray’s daughter and could possibly be serving a role in keeping him separated from Ellis for some nefarious reason Cinder would rather not think about at this moment, but she wasn’t even legal yet. Nowhere near old enough to be held accountable for her less-than-stellar life decisions.
If Cinder had been expected to carry the mantle of the idiocy that was his late teens and early twenties beyond those years, he’d still be bearing the brunt of his many, many poor choices.
“Listen, doll.” Cinder plucked her fingers from his arm one at a time until her hand fell away and her attempt at a sexy pout turned more churlish in nature. “I’m not sure what Ray asked you to do, but I’m not interested. In any of it. Ellis is the love of my life, and I plan to spend every moment from now until the day I die with him by my side. There’s no doubt he’s the right one for me.”
Suzette’s jaw dropped, her tiny hands balling into fists that planted firmly at her hips. “If your fans knew what a dickwad you were, you wouldn’t have any fans.”
Shrugging, Cinder backed toward the stage. “Feel free to pass on the word. I don’t hide who I am from my fans. They either like me, or they don’t.”
With that, he turned and left Suzette agape and fuming. As much as he wanted to find Ellis to check on him after her little ruse, his opening act was finishing up their second-to-last song and he still had to hit makeup.
Hopefully, Kumiko would be in her usual place stage left to call the cues by the time he had to go on. She’d send someone to check on Ellis for him. Until then, he’d have to hope Ray hadn’t done anything stupider than sending his teeny-bopper daughter to run interference. Because if he’d hurt so much as a hair on Ellis’s head or caused even a moment of emotional unrest, Cinder was done sitting on the sidelines.
If Ray hadn’t liked the thought of Kumiko using her aikido on him, he wouldn’t be a fan of the all-encompassing hellfire that went hand-in-hand with Cinder at his most involved.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Are you sure this is okay?” Ellis’s eyes darted around the space, his hands fidgeting with the hem of his T-shirt. “Who’s taking over my rigging duties? It isn’t safe for—”
“Relax, pumpkin.” Lizbeth patted Ellis’s cheek before returning to the rhythmic circles she’d been rubbing over her belly for the past ten minutes. “Kumiko has everything under control. They moved one of your crewmates into your role. Nothing has been left dangling. My girl is very, very good at what she does.”
Ellis nodded and bit his lip when Lizbeth pointed at another of the sliders marked with tape and instructed him to prep for an adjustment at the end of the current song. Without missing a beat, she launched into her next lesson, always two steps ahead of Ellis’s spiraling brain.
He had no clue how he’d gotten here. The past hour was a complete blur. Snippets of foggy memory ebbed and flowed into his consciousness. A call coming over his headset from his crew leader, ordering him to the ground. Finding Lizbeth waiting for him with an anxious grin stretching her ruby-red lips. Being tugged toward the sound booth. Standing agape as Lizbeth excused Ray’s assistant, who handled the opening act’s sound, and beckoned Ellis into the booth beside her.
Finding out Ray had been fired and Lizbeth was in charge for the remainder of Henry’s limited engagement. Having to ask Lizbeth to repeat herself—twice—when she told him he was being trained to transfer into an audio engineering role yet to be determined. Asking for a third reiteration when she said there was a chance he might be considered for “a pretty important promotion.”
The rest of the show flew by in a similar haze. He followed Lizbeth’s instructions by rote, using the knowledge he’d acquired over the course of a lifetime to carry out her demands without hearing a single word she said.
When the curtains closed on Henry’s final encore, the house lights hummed to life on their dimmest setting—bright enough to allow for safe movement without blinding the audience, whose eyes were used to the darkness by now.
Lizbeth gave Ellis a tight hug, her baby bump pressing into his back. “You’re a natural. I swear. Cin’s bragging was definitely justified for once in his life.”
Head spinning and ears ringing, Ellis slipped off his headset and stared at the bloodred drape separating the backstage area from the house. He’d never been on this side of the curtain when a show ended, at least not in the Colosseum, and certainly not while standing in the sound booth.
“Does Henry…?” Ellis swallowed and cleared his throat, ducking his head when Lizbeth cocked hers in amused inquiry. “Ah, does Henry know? About this? All of this? About Ray, about… me? Being here?”
Lizbeth pressed a hand to the small of her back and hobbled a few steps until she could sink into her chair. She propped her feet up on the seat meant for Ellis, which his nerves had kept him mostly out of, and threaded her fingers together over her stomach. “Cinder was there to hear the good news about your stepfather, but he ran off—presumably to talk to you—before Kumiko told me I’d been laid out for sacrifice.”
Tapping a finger over her pursed lips, Lizbeth shrugged. “He must’ve remembered he had to get his booty into makeup or something. Either way, Kumiko knows my preggo ass doesn’t want the sole responsibility of running this show right now, but she didn’t know what else to do. For the short-term emergency, I agreed, but demanded help. We immediately thought of you, got approval from the tippy top of the food chain, and here we are.”
So Ellis had essentially earned this opportunity for himself. While it was true he only knew Kumiko and Lizbeth through Henry, he’d had the chance to talk shop with Lizbeth and demonstrate a few of his skills during various double date nights over the past few months. He couldn’t fathom her volunteering him to be her assistant if she thought him incapable.
And he couldn’t wait to tell Henry.
As far as the news about Ray? He hadn’t fully processed that yet. What would it mean that Ray no longer worked at the theater? How would that affect… everything? His financial situation? His free time? His whole life?
Stretching, Lizbeth reached out a hand for assistance to her feet. Ellis obliged, offering his arm to see her through the thinning crowd to the backstage entrance. He led her straight to Kumiko, who was busy tying up loose ends, then peered around the stage in hopes of spotting Henry still wandering around the vicinity. They were never done at the same time, and he looked forward to spending almost a full evening together.
As Ellis ambled through the busy backst
age area, Henry was nowhere to be seen, which meant he was either showering or had VIP guests in the green room. Considering Ellis had no desire whatsoever to get trapped by a throng of Henry’s fans, he headed for the room he hadn’t slept in for ages but kept as a place to escape during working hours. No sense in giving it up, seeing as how he still served as off-hours caretaker and would more than likely need the place back once Henry left.
The time alone might be beneficial, anyway. Ellis needed to process through everything that had happened before he could even begin to make sense of it enough to talk with Henry.
When Ellis closed the door to his bedroom, shutting out the post-show chaos he was usually enmeshed in, a movement out of the corner of his eye startled him. He fumbled his cell phone to the floor before he’d even unlocked it to text Henry with his location. But the momentary spark of delight when he assumed the unexpected presence might be Henry there to surprise him sank into a nauseating swirl of dread and despair.
“What are you doing here?” Ellis backed against the door when Ray emerged from behind a stack of boxes, his eyes glinting with that unique amalgam of glassy drunkenness and fiery anger that meant certain trouble.
Despite being an inch or so shorter than Ellis, Ray was broader in the shoulders. A few layers of extra padding covered his muscles, but they were there, and they terrified Ellis. Always had. Even when he surpassed Ray in height and his physique gained more strength than his aging stepfather’s, Ellis remained forever trapped in his traumatized childhood brain whenever he faced Ray. Especially alone.
“You’re done early.” Ray gripped a half-empty bottle of whiskey by the throat as he stumbled toward Ellis’s bed. He fell onto the cot, sending it scraping over the peeling black-and-white checkered linoleum floor. “Suzette says one of the backup riggers was doin’ your work. That ’ave anythin’ to do with your lil’ queer friends gettin’ me fired?”
Ellis swallowed and pressed his palms to the door behind him, a reminder to stay present and not let his fear pull him into the past. “I was assisting Lizbeth with the audio, so yeah, I guess you could call it like that.”
Ray grunted and tossed back a gulp of whiskey, hissing as it no doubt burned down his throat. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and squinted at Ellis. “Quick to take advantage of my downfall, weren’t you, boy?”
Squaring his shoulders, Ellis schooled his voice to remain steady. “I had nothing to do with—”
“Like hell you didn’t.” Ray tsked at the back of his throat and shook his head in theatrical disappointment. “You’ve been goin’ for my job since the day I brought your ungrateful ass on board here.”
Ellis had never wanted to steal Ray’s job. Sure, he’d wanted to get his foot in the door of the audio engineering career, but he only ever wanted to be Ray’s protégé. He wanted to make his stepfather proud of him, not put him out of work. “I never wanted that.”
A derisive snort sent Ray into a coughing fit. He downed another long swallow of whiskey once he collected himself. “Doesn’t matter. It’s done. You’ll ’ave to make it up to me. Another couple grand a month should keep me afloat for now.”
Another couple of grand a month? Panic flared in Ellis’s gut, turning his stomach sour. He already gave Ray most of his income. He didn’t have another two thousand a month to give, even if he wanted to. His job didn’t pay that much.
Scoffing, Ray pointed the mouth of his bottle at Ellis. “Don’t worry, boy. You’ll get a raise with your shiny new position. You can afford to pay your old man a lil’ livin’ money.”
Closing his eyes, Ellis steeled his nerves to take a stand. “I’m sure you can apply for unemployment—”
Ray howled with jeering laughter. “Not when you’re fired for cause, boy. Even if the cause was made up by a group of bigoted queers with an agenda.”
Bigoted queers. Ellis opened his eyes and had to physically stop himself from rolling them. The comedic irony of Ray’s choice of adjective reached a new level of ridiculous. “You know, queer isn’t a slur anymore. The queer community has embraced it as our own again.”
Ray stood on wobbly legs and stalked across the room to shove a finger into Ellis’s chest. “You’re missin’ the fuckin’ point, son. I’ve told you time and again not to associate with the talent. See what happens when you don’t listen? Your little boyfriend gets me fired for no good goddamn reason. That’s on you. This whole fucked-up mess only happened because you couldn’t keep your dick in your pants.”
Whiskey fumes spilled from Ray’s mouth in tandem with his vile words, and Ellis winced at their joint foulness. “This has nothing to do with my relationship with Henry.”
Snarling, Ray grabbed the front of Ellis’s shirt with both hands, allowing his whiskey bottle to clatter to the floor. Thankfully, the glass didn’t break, but the acrid contents splattered the room. Ellis would be surrounded by that horrible olfactory reminder of this moment for a while to come.
“Do you really think you’ll be more’n a blip on that celebrity punk’s radar once he leaves Vegas?” Ray sneered and slapped an open palm across Ellis’s cheek. “Get your shit together. He’s gonna leave you behind and never think about you again.”
Anger simmered and bubbled through Ellis’s blood, but as usual, the fear outweighed anything else, leaving him frozen to the spot. However, this time, he found the will to riposte, if only verbally. “He can’t leave me behind if I go with him when he leaves.”
Shoving away, Ray bent to retrieve his booze, barely managing to stumble back upright and to the bed as his faulty equilibrium battled gravity. Taking another swig, he glared at Ellis over the tipped-up bottom of the bottle. “You really think that’s how this is gonna go down, boy?”
Ellis couldn’t find the strength to respond further, and Ray rumbled out a sour laugh, setting his whiskey on Ellis’s cardboard box nightstand. Standing, he returned to face off against Ellis with a sneer in place. “You aren’t going anywhere. Your family needs you here. Plus, no one else is gonna put up with you like we do. Not for long.”
But Ray was wrong. Not only did Henry want Ellis to go with him, but he’d spent the better part of the past two and a half months trying to talk Ellis into doing just that. “You don’t know that.”
With a snort of laughter, Ray fisted a hand in Ellis’s shirt and yanked him free of his door-shaped safe zone. “Actually, I do. Wanna know how?”
When Ellis shook his head, Ray laid another open-palmed smack across Ellis’s cheek followed by a backhand that sent him stumbling. Because he attempted to turn away this time, it landed against his left ear, and over his eye and cheekbone. The ringing burn stung all the way into his soul.
“I know, because if you even think ’bout leaving your sister and me high and dry, I’ll tell everyone who’ll listen what he did to her. I’ll tell them how he tried to rape poor, underage Suze.” Ray’s eyes narrowed, and he huffed out a laugh. “No, how he did rape her. Your sister’s a good little actress, and her loyalties are with me. She’ll say whatever I tell her to say, and you know it.”
Ray’s grin turned sinister when the cool rush of blood draining from Ellis’s face left him breathless and shaking. “Tha’s right. You leave us, and I’ll destroy your boyfriend. You think he’ll still want you if you’re the reason his fans turn on him, callin’ him a sexual predator? Of a minor, no less? No matter what happens, that kinda scandal will follow him into the ground. His legacy will be forever tarnished.”
“I…” Ellis swallowed, his mind churning with possibilities. Ray would do it. There was no doubt about that. He would lie, and Suzette would back his claim without a second thought. It didn’t matter if Henry would still want him or not after that. Ellis would never do anything to put him at risk in the first place, and Ray knew that. “I’m not going anywhere.”
With a smug smirk, Ray smoothed Ellis’s shirt, then patted his chest. “Didn’t think you were. But you know what else you’re not gonna do?”
Taking a
deliberate step back, so he was out of Ray’s reach, Ellis crossed his arms in a self-hug. “I imagine you’re going to tell me.”
“Tha’s right.” Ray flopped back onto the cot and scooped up his booze with a wide, satisfied grin. He tipped the bottle in a cheers, downed a swallow, then locked his gaze on Ellis’s. “You’re gonna end things with Cinder. You want him to leave Vegas with his rep intact, you’re gonna end it with him. Now. Tonight.”
“But—”
“No fuckin’ buts, boy.” Ray leaned an elbow on his knee and squinted a glassy eye at Ellis. “You got a family to support now that you lost me my job. You don’t have time to mess ’round.”
The cold emptiness of the inevitable spilled over Ellis like a bucket of ice water. He shivered and held himself tighter. If Ellis had to break both their hearts to save Henry’s career and reputation, he would. Henry deserved better than a cliché breakup void of a truthful explanation and a chance to have a say in the matter, but Ellis knew Henry wouldn’t take Ray’s threat seriously if Ellis didn’t do it for him. Because if Ray set his mind to doing something, he rarely—if ever—failed.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Trembling with eager anticipation, Cinder paced the length of the green room. After Kumiko had filled him in on Ellis’s exciting opportunity to pursue his lifelong dream—made available by the removal of that snake Ray Brunswick, making it doubly delightful—Cinder was champing at the bit to celebrate.
However, despite Lizbeth showing up over an hour ago to kiss him goodbye and take her wife home for the evening, Ellis had yet to surface. Cinder was trying to give him time, assuming he might be dealing with some conflicting emotions surrounding his big break coming at the expense of his stepfather’s much deserved demise, but sitting around waiting proved more challenging than Cinder had predicted. Especially when he was bubbling over with the need to sing Ellis’s praises.