“Hud...”
“Shit, man, this is why I always told you never to get in deep with a girl. It screws everything up.”
I pressed my lips together, refusing to humor him. I wasn’t in deep with Eva, I was in deep with life. Trying to hold together the fragile pieces of everything.
“Come on, lover boy.” Hudson roped his arm around my neck. “Levi wants to go over a couple more songs.”
Of course he did.
I didn’t protest though, I knew the drill by now.
What Levi wanted, Levi usually got.
Eva
“Now for the fun part.” Letty waggled her brows as she stepped to one side, revealing a rack of outfits. “What do you think?”
“I... wow.” I stepped closer, running my fingers over the denim and leather, plaid and lace. There were jackets and miniskirts, jeans and shirts, even a dress or two.
“It’s awesome, right?” She could barely contain her excitement. “I mean, I had fun helping style the guys last year but I’m itching to get to work on you.”
My eyes widened as Letty grabbed a denim shirt off the rack and held it up against my body. “It’s not usually an assistant’s role to help style an artist, but I told Alistair you’d probably feel more comfortable with me than a team of stylists.”
“Thank you. I feel so out of my depth,” I admitted.
“Get a couple of shows under your belt and you’ll be fine. You sounded great out there during soundcheck.”
“It’s like a switch flips and the music takes over. But performin’ to a few stage crew, and you and Riley, isn’t a crowd of seventeen thousand people.”
Seventeen. Thousand. People.
The words ricocheted around my head like gun fire. It seemed unquantifiable. Impossible. Too surreal for words. But tomorrow night, I’d perform my opening set for not a few hundred people, not even a few thousand. Seventeen. Thousand. People. Sure, they were coming to see Black Hearts. I was just the unknown special guest. But they would still be out there, listening to my songs, casting judgment on my performance, probably my worthiness to be on the same stage as their idols. The four guys they worshipped.
“Whoa, are you okay?” Letty touched my arm. “You’ve gone as white as a sheet.”
“How am I supposed to do this?”
“Try on a few outfits?” She frowned.
“Perform, on stage, Letty, to all those people. People who paid good money to see them, not me.”
“Listen to me, and listen good, Eva Star Walker. You really think you’d be stepping foot anywhere near that stage if Ali and the label didn’t see something special in you?” Her brow rose. “Well, do you?”
“I… I guess not.”
“Pfft,” she muttered. “I can handle you being overwhelmed. I can even handle you denying there’s anything between you and Rafe, but what I can’t handle is you pretending you don’t know how talented you are.”
I smashed my lips together to stop myself from saying something that was only going to make Letty more irritated. She draped the shirt over the back of a chair and grabbed my shoulders. “This is your moment to shine, Eva. Do you know how many people would kill to be in your position right now? Don’t go out there thinking you don’t deserve it; go out there with something to prove.”
“Has anyone ever told you you’d make a great motivational speaker?”
“It has been said before.” She grinned, backing up to give me some space. “Feeling better?” I nodded. “Ready to pick out some killer outfits for the opening show?” Another nod. “Good. Because by the time I’m finished with you, the guys won’t know what’s hit them.” Letty winked before snatching another outfit off the rack and ushering me behind the changing screen. “We should pick out something for tonight too.”
“Tonight?” I asked as I shimmied out of my jeans.
“Yeah, for the launch party.”
“Funny, my assistant never mentioned any party to me.”
Letty’s soft laughter filled the room. “You should ask Alistair for a better one.”
“Oh, I don’t know, she’s growin’ on me.”
“You’re not so bad yourself.” Letty appeared around the screen and I scrambled to pull down the shirt.
Letty rolled her eyes. “You need to get used to having people in your space, Eva. Here let me.” She unbuttoned the last two buttons of the shirt, grabbed the ends and tied them into a knot.
“Much better. It’ll look as cute as hell with that leather jacket.”
“So where is this launch party?”
“At a club downtown. It’s very exclusive. There won’t be a huge crowd but if the Die Hearts get wind of the location, it’ll be a security nightmare.”
“The Die Hearts?”
She snickered. “Yeah, it’s what we call the rabid fans. The ones who would sell their left kidney to get up close and personal with the guys.”
“They sound... delightful.”
“They’re ten shades of crazy is what they are.” Her expression grew serious. “You should be prepared for them.”
“Prepared how?”
“I know you’re only here because the label asked you, but these girls think they have some kind of ownership over the band. They’re very protective. You’re going to be seen with the band, it’s inevitable. There’s already—” She dropped her gaze, and a bolt of dread shot through me.
“Already what, Letty?”
“There’s been a lot of speculation about the mystery guest joining the tour in the press already.”
“But they promised me anonymity until the first show.” Which was less than a day away, but still, I wasn’t quite ready to be outed.
“They shouldn’t have,” she said, her lips pressed into a thin line. “There’s no such thing as anonymity in this world. But once it is out, you can get to work on winning them over with that huge Southern heart of yours.”
I didn’t share Letty’s enthusiasm. Instead, a pit carved deep inside my stomach. I’d been foolish to think I’d stay anonymous forever. Of course people would learn it was me, Evangeline Star Walker, supporting Black Hearts Still Beat on tour. But ever since Alistair had called me all those weeks ago to offer me the gig, I hadn’t allowed myself much time or space to think about the what ifs and maybes. All I knew was I needed the money and I had to do this. Regardless of the consequences, regardless of whether tomorrow my name became splashed over newspapers up and down Charlotte... and then Orlando... and Houston.
But I knew what Letty was saying. She was warning me about the darker side of the business. The side where girls vilified female artists and shamed their appearance… their talent… their personalities. I was supposed to be here to win over the band’s alienated crowd. But I had a whole other crowd to contend with. A crowd that was possessive of their Black Hearts boys.
What the hell had I gotten myself into?
“I’ll give you a minute,” Letty announced, sensing my façade crumbling.
“Thanks.”