Chapter One
Maud
“Get on the fucking bus.”
“I’ll walk.” I folded my arms over my chest and narrowed my eyes at Harrison.
“You’re walking to Spokane?” Harrison drawled.
It wasn’t that far. A hundred miles? I could make it there before the show. If I became the roadrunner. “I’m not getting on the bus, Harrison.”
“Why the fuck not?” he thundered.
Jonas Rowe.
He was on that damn bus, and I was not riding to Spokane with him on it.
“I’ll get an Uber.” I pulled out my phone and swiped the app.
Harrison grabbed my phone. “You got money flowing out of your butthole I don’t know about? An Uber to Spokane, Maud?”
I growled and tried to snatch my phone from him. “I’m not broke, Harrison. None of us are. It’s not like two years ago when we were all living in your parent's basement.” Things had been progressively getting better for the Wild Preacher’s Club. We were on our tour's final leg that we had actually made a pretty penny off of. Not to mention, our fanbase had almost tripled in the past year.
Touring non-stop for almost a year would do that.
Once Harrison had pulled his head out of his ass, we had set off on what would have been a two-month tour, which turned into a year-long tour.
All I had to do was get on the bus, and we would be at our fourth to last stop before Thanksgiving.
But, as I mentioned before, Jonas Rowe was on the bus.
My tour bus.
The bus for the band I was a part of.
The band he didn’t like.
“It’s too crowded on there, Harrison. I’ll just find my own way to Spokane.”
Harrison squinted and leaned toward me. “You wanna elaborate on that for me. The only difference from when we pulled into Murray, Idaho is Ruby’s brother climbed those stairs.”
I fought back my lip curling. “Crowded,” I growled.
“Tell me what the fuck is going on in your head, or I am going to pick you up and physically put you on that bus.”
Fucking Harrison. I didn’t want to tell him the real reason why I didn’t want to get on the bus. “Just leave me.”
He shook his head. “You got ten seconds to tell me what the hell is going on, or I’m going to scream at the top of my lungs ‘Maud Parker lip-syncs and can’t play a guitar’.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” I growled. Those were the two bullshit things said to me online and in-person that drove me absolutely fucking insane. “I will punch you in the nuts if you do it.”
Harrison stepped back and held up a finger. “One.” He added another finger, “Two.”
I gritted my teeth. “You’re supposed to be my family.”
He added one more finger. “Three.”
I glared at him as he kept counting and added five more fingers to his count.
“Almost to nine, Maud. You ready to tell the whole world that they are right about you?” He looked around. “There is a bit of a crowd here. You know how social media works, too. It’ll be all over the interwebs and in the fan group before we cross the city limit sign.”
“You’re not my family anymore.”
He shrugged. “Nine,” he drawled as he held up on more finger.
His eyes connected with mine. He wasn’t going to stop. He was going to yell to everyone around the lies the internet loved to spew about me.
“T-t-t,” he stuttered.
“Fine!” I hissed. “We dated, and he dumped me, okay?” I leaned toward him. “Are you happy?” I was still finding my own way to Spokane. The conditions of me telling him why I didn’t want to get on the bus had nothing to do with me actually getting on the bus.
I grabbed my guitar case and pointed at the bus. “Better get on before they leave without you.” I stepped back and smiled. “I’ll see you in Spokane.”
Harrison shook his head and laughed. “Not so fast, Maud.” He lunged forward, planted his shoulder in my stomach, and lifted me.
“Harrison!” I screeched. We weren’t little kids anymore who horse played all of the time. I was twenty-seven years old, and I didn’t need to be lifted in the air like a damn child. “Put my ass back down right now!”
“Your ass is getting to Spokane on the bus, and I don’t want to hear another damn word about it.”
“You are the worst cousin ever,” I whined. “Darius is now my favorite!”
“Good, then he can deal with your ornery ass from now on.” Harrison stomped up the steps of the bus, the guitar case banged against the steps, and then he dumped me on the long seat at the front of the bus. “Hit it, Rico. Get this bus to Spokane,” Harrison shouted.
The doors to the bus swung shut, and we were rolling before I could plant my feet on the floor and stand. “Stop the bus!”
A chorus of moans went up, and the bus picked up speed.
“No such luck, little lady,” Rico drawled. “Door is shut, and we ain’t stopping till Spokane.”
I growled and stomped my foot.
“Sit your ass down, Maud, and quit your bitching,” Niko shouted.
I didn’t want to turn around.
I didn’t want to sit down.
Jonas Rowe was sitting a few feet away from me. I had caught a glimpse of him when Harrison had tossed me down.
One glimpse was more than enough.
The same air of arrogance.
The same smile always playing on his lips.
The same man who had left me with barely a word. “This isn’t going to work.”
Yeah, that was all I got. Four months of basically pure bliss, and then the next second, I was out on my ass alone because Jonas and I weren’t going to work.
Why? I didn’t have a damn clue.
I folded my arms over my chest and huffed. What the hell was I going to do being trapped on a bus with Jonas Rowe. Who, by the way, no one on this bus had a clue that we had actually dated.
Harrison knew now, and it was going to only be a matter of time before the whole band knew. Though I hoped they wouldn’t find out until I got the hell off of this bus.
I spun around, my eyes focused down the narrow hallway, and I marched like a damn soldier past Jonas Rowe.
No eye contact.
No acknowledgment of him being.
Not one damn feeling directed toward him.
Jonas didn’t deserve anything from me.
I ducked into my bunk and pulled the small curtain shut.
The only thing between Jonas and I was a small curtain and a whole bunch of hurt and hate.
I laid my head on the pillow and closed my eyes.
Two hours until I was off this bus and far, far away from Jonas Rowe.
*
Chapter Two
Jonas
Ruby eyed me warily.
“Don’t, Ruby.” I did not want to get into whatever the hell she was thinking. Maud and I were off-limits.
Ruby held up her hands. “I’m just sitting here. Just watching.”
“There isn’t a damn thing to be watching,” I grumbled.
I knew coming here that Maud was going to be very much in my face.
Did I think she would refuse to get on the bus?