Cid stopped. “I’ve seen it before.” He faced off with them. “You hired me because I’ve got the experience. Trust me, the bitch is making trouble, and it affected the show.” He stepped closer to Syon. “Let me do my job. You’ll thank me tomorrow.”

“Kate isn’t jilted,” Syon said softly. “We had a fight, that’s all.”

Cid laughed. “Is that why she was bawling her eyes out?” Cid shook his head. “Not a chance. She knows you spent the night somewhere else. With someone else. Not that I blame you. Those were some premium babes. Would have loved a taste myself.”

Syon, Ramsey, and Taz all turned to look at her. She groaned, her face feeling like it was catching fire.

“I spent the night with Taz,” Syon offered softly. “He was drunk and needed a wingman.”

“The girls were with me and Drake,” Ramsey told her. “Swear it.”

“Yeah,” Drake added. “Syon owed Taz, so we left him to it.”

Relief poured through her, as well as a moment of surprise.

Of course! The girl in the restaurant flashed through her mind. The encounter had set Taz on his ear. Bad.

“It doesn’t matter where you spent the night.” Cid grabbed Syon by the shoulders and turned him back to face him. “You don’t need a relationship to get laid. She’s in the way. You guys are hot, and the fans love you. Relationships don’t belong in rock. Why should you toe the line? You aren’t men; you’re gods! Live like it.”

“Sounds like she’s in your way.” Syon shook off Cid’s hold.

Cid wasn’t willing to back down. His complexion darkened. “I know this business. You’re the new kids, so better listen up.” He pointed a finger at them. “You can fall just as fast as you’ve risen. The fans want to see you living the life they can’t have. So you’re going to be wild and fuck a lot. Because that’s what the fans want. The whole package.”

Syon smacked Cid’s hand away. “You’re employed to manage the tour. Not my dick.”

Cid threw his head back and laughed. “It’s part of the deal. You’ve got the music skills, but that won’t cut it in today’s market. You’ve got to have the image. As it is, you’ve already got one deadbeat on this team.” Cid flung an open-handed gesture toward Taz. “You could both take some notes from Ramsey.”

There was a blur of motion from the side. A hard smack, and Cid went stumbling across the suite. Drake stood there, his fist still in the air. “No one trashes my teammates or Kate.”

The polo-shirted crew members had backed off. Cid made the mistake of looking toward them. His expression tightened when he realized they were sitting it out—waiting it out, actually. They were going with the winner. He jerked his suit jacket down and faced off with the members of Toxsin.

“I’ve worked with the best,” he snarled. “Mega-superstars! And I know how to make sure they stay that way.”

“Yeah, your résumé is impressive,” Syon drawled. “Unless I consider the fact that none of those heavy hitters kept you.”

“I’m getting a clue why that might be,” Ramsey added.

“Do you have any clue what a bitch like that one can take from you?” Cid pointed at her. “She’s going to want to play house. A divorce will cost you a bundle, even with a prenuptial.”

“You’re getting the cart in front of the horse,” Kate interjected. She started toward Cid, but he sniffed at her, dismissing her.

But Syon had gone deadly still. “Did you have that roofie slipped to her?”

Cid paled. “Don’t be ridiculous.” But a trickle of sweat made its way down the side of his face, his poise suddenly faltering. Just a smidgen, but enough to outrage her. Kate took one step toward him, only to have Yoon slip an arm around her and pull her back.

Syon pulled his arm back and punched Cid straight on the jaw. Cid went down, unable to recover, and ended up sprawled on his butt.

“Anything to protect your meal ticket,” Syon said in disgust. “She could have been killed.”

“You can’t accuse me of that.” Cid was back on his feet.

“I just did,” Syon said, cutting through Cid’s argument. “You’re the only one with an agenda that needs Kate out of my life. You had motive, opportunity, and as you’re so fond of telling me, you can get anything.”

Syon suddenly moved. He jerked one of bags out of the hand of one of Cid’s entourage members. He opened it and dumped the contents onto the dressing-room table. He grabbed a small plastic ziplock bag that had a white pill in it.

“You forget, Cid, I’m not an idiot. I know what this is.” He looked back at the table. “As well as a couple of those other mystery bags.”

Cid pointed at the girl who was carrying the bag. “That wasn’t in my pocket bag. I’ll toss her out too.”

The girl gasped, shocked to her core by the betrayal. Cid didn’t even blink. “But you told me—”

“Oh, please.” Cid cut her a hard look. “I’m a professional. I wouldn’t have told any team member to bring drugs into a performance area.”

“You did!” The girl insisted, looking toward Syon. “He wanted to scare her, make her think you were the one who liked to party hard. He’d heard about her rules. Thought she’d leave if there were drugs here.”

“Shut up!” Cid snapped. “You’re just trying to deflect. The dope was in your purse. I have managed mega—”

“You are full of shit,” Syon snarled. “No wonder you were looking for a new band. What did you do? Get a gag order to shut up your last client? Is that why the background check came back clean?”

“You fucking asshole,” Ramsey hissed. “We don’t drug our women.”

“You need your ass kicked,” Taz added.

“And how.” Drake had lost every last bit of his British composure.

Cid’s complexion turned gray. He looked around again, but no one was coming to his rescue. The girl was sobbing, babbling about how he’d told her to buy the drugs. The tension in the air was twisting tighter, Syon and his bandmates looking like they were getting ready to spring.

Kate didn’t have an ounce of pity for him. He suddenly stiffened, some of his confidence returning.

“Go on,” Cid said smugly. “In a court of law, I’ll win over the four of you any day. All I need is a hospital report.” He cast a glance at Kate. “A bitch who has pictures of her tits all over the Internet sure isn’t going to generate much sympathy as the reason for an assault. No one is going to believe she didn’t take the dope herself, or that one of you didn’t give it to her so she’d go for double time. It won’t be hard to get pictures of the three of you on that dance floor groping each other. Drunk or high, it looks the same to a jury.”

Syon pulled his arm back, but Ramsey stopped him. “He isn’t worth it.”

Syon was fighting. She could see him battling the urge to tear Cid apart. Part of her needed to see it, needed the balm for her wounded pride.

But the rational side of Kate’s brain couldn’t let Syon put himself at risk either. “He’s an opportunist prick. Don’t give him the evidence for a lawsuit and a gag order. Just can his ass and enjoy knowing you can tell the truth to the next people he tries to work for.”

Cid snorted at her. “Good luck. My contract is ironclad. It will cost you a bundle to get rid of me without hard evidence, which you don’t have.”

Cid went skidding across the performers’ room floor, a hard hit on the jaw from Syon sending him reeling.

“Don’t ever insult my fiancée.”

“My friend,” Ramsey added as he popped his knuckles.

“Mine too,” Taz said.

“Definitely,” Drake chimed in.

“Let me remind you what else is in your contract.” Syon stood over Cid. “A no-tolerance clause for drugs, which includes any personal assistant you have. She”—he pointed at the girl—“is your personal assistant. She has dope in her possession. I’ve got plenty of witnesses, and if you’re smart, you’ll get out of here before I call up Deputy Jenson.”

Syon looked at the girl. “Will you testify against him?”

She’d stopped crying, realizing it was a lost cause. Syon’s question made her eyes brighten. “You bet your ass I will.”