“You’re a pig.” I’d laughed.

“Oink, oink.”

Back in New York, we parked the bus for the roadies to clean out, and a limo took us to the hotel. Upon check-in, Sheri asked the concierge about a nearby Laundromat, and he’d given directions to the closest facility.

I’d discovered a new appreciation for what the job of a groupie entailed. The women who tagged along with the bands weren’t there to just look pretty and provide wet holes for the guys. They did the menial grunt work, such as running errands, cleaning up after the guys on the bus, and laundry.

Eyeballing the mountain of filthy clothes Phil and I had accumulated, I rather wished I’d had my own groupie.

A roadie named Steve helped me schlep four huge duffel bags, each of us carrying two, loaded with dirty laundry, down to the lobby where I sat and waited for Alys and Lili to come down with their own clothes. A van was supposed to show up and take us to the Laundromat so that we could spend the entire day washing stinky wrecked duds. Lucky for us, Sheri had called the establishment and had paid for our exclusive use for the day, so we wouldn’t have to fight with other customers over the washers and dryers.

Our Boys didn’t do laundry. They were in a band meeting.

Thumbing through a magazine, I waited for my minions to show themselves.

“Fancy seeing you here, Doc.”

Irritated, I looked up to see Devon looming over me. “What do you want?”

“I’m heading to Newark to pick up a friend. I saw you and thought I’d say hi.”

“Hi,” I snapped, looking back down at my magazine.

He crouched down so that we were eye level with each other. “I want to apologize to you,” he said softly.

“About what?”

“About what I did when Phil and I…you need to know that when I’d said that you deserved to be hit and spit on, it wasn’t personal.”

“How could it have been? You’d never met me.”

He nodded. “I thought that maybe if he saw you as just a woman with nothing to offer, then maybe he’d get over his obsession with you. It had the opposite effect, and it destroyed our friendship. At first, I thought he just needed some time to cool down, and then I could tell him it wasn’t real—”

“What?”

He blinked. “It wasn’t real. She was never hurt, the blood and all that. They were props—”

My anger boiled over. “You tricked him like that?”

“I tried to tell him, but he wouldn’t listen to me. Kenna—”

“You assholes get off on treating women like shit, and I’m sick of hearing about it!” I hissed. “The horror stories that surround your fucking band are sickening! I know that NOLA’s Junk wasn’t much better, but you fuckfaces take it to a whole other level!”

Devon recoiled as though I’d punched him.

“Phil was horrified that his best friend could beat a woman half out of her head! You repulsed him to the point where he couldn’t stand to look at you, and he still can’t!”

“I know. It…it repulsed me, too. But Jürgen…” Devon closed his eyes and breathed heavily out of his nose. “Is there any way I can sit down and talk to you, Kenna? I need you to know I’m not like that, and it’s the reason I don’t stay in the same hotel with the rest of the band. I don’t enjoy treating women like that.”

“Why this hotel?” I demanded.

“You know why.”

“I can’t make him talk to you, Devon. And every time you talk to me, you’re risking my relationship with the man I love. I know it means nothing to you, but he means the world to me. He doesn’t want me near you, and I respect that. But you’re pretty much ensuring that I’ll end up having a blowout with him.”

“I don’t want that for you, honestly. I just don’t know how to get through to him.”

“Maybe you just need to let it go.”

He shook his head. “I can’t.”

“Why not?”

Bleak and beautiful, his eyes spoke a wealth of regret and pain. “Because…he was the best friend I ever had. Our friendship was real. Even if I can’t have that back, I need him to know that I valued him.”

“I wish you luck with that. I really do. But I need you to leave before someone sees us, and I get into trouble.”

“All right.” He sighed and stood. “You have a nice day, Doc.”

“You, too,” I replied.

Alys, Lili, and I made it back to the hotel a little before eight o’clock. I was sweaty, stiff from inactivity, and bored out of my skull.

Unfortunately, when boredom ensured, I thought about Devon and the insights he had given me. The fact that the whole scene that had destroyed his and Phil’s friendship had been staged, that Jürgen had had something to do with it…

None of this makes any fucking sense. Why trick Phil like that? What was the purpose?

As badly as the desire to speak of it to my two best friends was, I kept it to myself. Dangerously intrigued, I found myself wondering how I could talk to Devon without being busted. Not a good thing.

“Ugh. Everything is creaking,” groaned Lili as she dragged a huge bag of laundry behind her.

We had Steve and a dude named Gordy helping us out.

The elevators up to our rooms were separate from the lobby, most likely because these rooms were for famous visitors, and one could avoid the eyes of the prying public. I’d called Phil to let him know we were back, and he and Lewis stood next to the elevators, waiting for us.

I was a filthy, sweaty, stinky mess. My rumpled tank top and baggy jeans no doubt made me look like an urchin. My hair was piled high on my head in a frizz-bomb, and my exhausted demeanor had me sagging into my own body. By the state of Alys and Lili, they didn’t appear any better.

Lewis burst into laughter upon the sight of his ladylove.

“Shut up, asshole!” snapped Lili, giving him a thunderous scowl. “Next time, you can do your own fucking laundry!”

That only made him laugh harder.

Phil smiled, giving me dimples, and away the last eight boring hours of my life went. He’d promised we’d go for steak dinners, just the two of us.

“Hey, Baby Girl,” he said warmly, turning my insides to simmering jelly.

“Hey, babe.”

Pulling me into a huge hug, he said, “I missed you.”

“I missed you, too. How was the meeting?”

“Boring. We had practice after, which wasn’t so bad. Flipper went to go pick up Viv at the airport.”

“Sweet.”

The elevator dinged, letting us know it had reached the lobby, and Phil grabbed one of the bigger sacks, hefting it over his shoulder. The doors opened.

And there stood Devon, dressed in dark blue relaxed-fit jeans, black boots, and a black button-down shirt. He looked handsome with a stunning petite blonde dripping off his arm.

Damn, she was so gorgeous that I had to blink a couple of times. She had a poise about her that usually accompanied supermodels although she didn’t reach much taller than five-eight in her shiny black stilettoes. Her long hair hung to the middle of her back, and I had the feeling it wasn’t naturally that blonde. Nice rack and curvy hips looked phenomenal in her black mini dress, and her skin was flawless cream. Her soft heart-shaped face with her large cornflower-blue eyes fringed with thick lashes, a cute little nose, and big puffy lips were just the epitome of a classic beauty. She looked perfect with Devon’s own gorgeous self.

Next to me, Phil stiffened, and I was gearing up to hold him back.

The blonde’s eyes widened in surprise. “Phil?”

Shut the fuck up.

Devon’s face registered surprise, too. His line of vision darted to me, silently asking if I knew anything about this.

“Brigid?” Phil’s stunned voice echoed, bouncing around the enclosed space.

No, really. Shut the fuck up.

Lili squeaked with shock.

Brigid launched herself at Phil, and he hugged her back. But the look on his face as he stared at Devon for a few seconds was ferocious. Tentatively, Devon exited the elevator, eyeing Phil as though he were dealing with a dangerous caged beast.