“You don’t need to know my name,” he hissed.
Yeah, there was definitely something off about this guy.
But Coral was ready for him. “His name is Carr Evanston. He and Stone had an altercation a while back. And I think he was the one to spread the rumor about Stone.”
“Fuck off, bitch,” he spat, and took off.
I started after him, but Coral grabbed me. “Not now, Ennis. We need to get you onstage.”
As he walked out of sight, he turned several times to look back over his shoulder.
“C’mon,” she said.
While we hustled toward the rest of the band, I was dying to take Coral’s hand. There would be nothing appropriate about that in a public setting, especially when she was clearly our publicist and working so hard to spruce up our image, but I just wanted to touch her, however briefly.
So just before I jumped up on stage, I ran my hand over her red hair, shiny and warm from the sun.
“Thank you for helping with Arianna’s Pantry. It feels really good. After a busy day like this, the guys and I would usually go party it up. I don’t know what you’ve done to us, Coral, but that’s not even on the table right now.”
A shy smile spread across her face. She grabbed a couple of my fingers and gave them a quick squeeze.
“Of course, Stone’s the same asshole he’s always been. You can only work so many miracles.”
She dropped her head back and laughed.
Hours later, on the quick drive home, I lay my head back on the seat, exhausted. “How did we used to go out and party after a day like this? All I can think about is having a drink and chilling by the pool.”
The guys nodded. But Coral frowned, her gaze glued to her phone screen.
“Something up, sweetie?” Hugh asked.
She sighed deeply and popped her phone back into her purse. “Stone, do you think there’s a chance you can get just one of your poker friends to vouch for you?”
He nodded slowly. “Possibly. I do think there’s one guy who will do me a solid. I just gotta track him down.”
She looked between the two other guys. Was she avoiding my gaze?
What the hell?
“I just got word that there’s a new story hitting about the band. It’s not pretty.”
There were stories about the band all the time. But something about Coral’s expression indicated that this was one of the less pleasant ones.
And what could be less pleasant than Stone’s accusation, anyway?
Finally, her gaze settled on me.
“Ennis, they’re saying you’re using the death of your sister and launch of the foundation to improve your standing. And that the car wreck was your fault.”
Chapter 37
CORAL
Cripes. How did a day that started out so promising end up so fucked?
Oh wait. I’d had a day just like this one in New York, barely forty-eight hours ago.
I didn’t know what it was with Dirty Bandit. I mean, did they have a goddamn black cloud hanging over their heads?
Or maybe this was the way it was when you were at the top. There was just no end to the people wanting to take you down.
But I had a strong feeling I knew who was behind these setbacks.
If there was one positive thing coming out of the shit show that was Dirty Bandit’s public life, it was that it was pulling the four of us closer together.
Did I just say the four of us?
I needed to have my head examined.
After we’d gotten back to Ennis’s house, there was not a happy face in the room.
Stone pounded his fist on the arm of the chair where he sat. “It’s like we’re at the bottom of some pit trying to crawl out and some fucker just keeps dumping more dirt on top of us.”
I took a seat next to Ennis and rubbed his thigh. “Don’t worry. We’ll take care of this.”
Stone was pacing the living room, looking past the pool to the hills, where I think we all would have liked to have been hiding at the moment.
“Ennis, you know it’s not your fault. Dude, you gotta shake that shit off,” he said. “You know there are haters out there. We’ve dealt with them since day one. They’ll never go away, so long as we’re on top. If it’s not this, it’s something else.”
Ennis looked down at his hands and shook his head the slightest amount.
He didn’t need to say a word. I could feel his pain, and I knew what it was like to try to shake something off that would just never go away.
“I’ll be fine,” he said in a voice so quiet I barely heard him.
I took his hand. “I’m sorry this happened, Ennis.”
Hugh walked up and crouched in front of him. “You know how this is, man. You’ve been through it before.”
Now that I’d been around the guys for a while, I could see they really had been through a lot, both together and on their own. For all their good luck and fortune, they still had problems just like anybody else.
Ennis rose to his feet. “I’m going for a swim,” he said, dropping his T-shirt on the floor as he walked. When he reached the French doors, his jeans dropped to his ankles. Stepping out of them, he kicked them aside, just like he had his workout clothes that day on the bus.
Which seemed like a year ago, but in reality had been only days.
“Great idea, man,” Hugh said, running after him with Stone close behind.
Within seconds, there were three nude men in Ennis’s pool. Maybe they had room for one more person?
But before I could join them, my phone rang. “Hi, Randall,” I said to my boss.
“Hey, Coral. Crazy day, huh?” he said.
I guess he’d heard. I guess everybody in the world had heard, actually.
I lowered my voice. “The guys just can’t seem to get a break. First Stone, then this bullshit about Ennis.”
“Sounds like someone’s losing their objectivity,” he quipped.
What the hell was that supposed to mean?
“Randall. They’re our client. Of course we are biased toward them.”
I kicked off my shoes. The guys were having too much fun in the pool not to join them.
Time to wrap up my call.
“Mmmm hmm,” he said quietly.
What was going on?
“I know you’ve worked hard on this client, Coral.”
“Yes, I have. It’s a great opportunity for us and the firm, right?”
At least that’s what he’d told me when he first assigned the account to me. But something in his tone was off.
“Coral, I don’t know whether we should continue with these guys.”
Huh?
My stomach flipped and a wave of angry heat blasted across my face. Not continue? What the hell did that mean?
I lowered my voice. “What guys? You mean the band?”
I looked outside to make sure they were still splashing around in the pool and moved to the far side of the living room in case someone came in and heard me.
“Yeah. I mean Dirty Bandit. They have one problem after another. Serious problems. At some point it’s going to reflect badly on the firm to keep a client accused of underage sex and being responsible for a car crash that killed a sister.”
I sank onto a funky Mexican stool in the corner of the living room where I could see everyone coming and going.