Page 11 of A Billionaire Rebel

As the others cleared out, I pushed everything else out of my mind and brought all of my attention to the notes and words in my head. I needed this to work. I needed it to be perfect. Maybe, just maybe, if I managed to get it exactly right, I’d finally lose the feeling that I was fooling everyone into thinking that I had any talent at all.

* * *

I caughtthe towel one of the roadies threw at me and gave him a quickthank youbefore wiping the sweat from my face. Anyone who’d spent any time on stage would agree that it never mattered how much the air conditioning ran at a venue, performers would be sweating by the end. Nights like this always made it worth the effort, though.

“That was fucking awesome!” Bair practically bounced down the stairs behind me. “Twoencores!”

He threw his hands into the air like he’d just won a boxing match, and I joined everyone else in laughing at his antics. For once, I didn’t think alcohol had anything to do with why Bair was grinning and clapping roadies on the shoulder.

Tonight had been one of the best concerts we’d ever had, and that was saying something. The crowd’s energy had been off the charts, feeding into us and looping back to them until the entire stadium had practically been buzzing with electricity.

“That was amazing,” Otis said, his smile stretching from ear to ear.

It was rare to see him smile like that, no hint of an edge to it, and that meant almost as much to me as the roar of the people still cheering for us.

“It was,” I agreed. “You guys hit every beat, every note.”

Otis shook his head, laughing at me. “You gotta start taking credit where credit is due, man.”

“We need to celebrate.” Bair’s interruption kept me from having to come up with a response to Otis’s statement. “We’re in Sin City. Let’s have some fun!”

“Let me guess,” Kalini said, appearing with Hawk. “Strip club?”

“Jealous?” Bair slung his arm around Kalini’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, we’d prefer to see you strip if you’re offering.”

Hawk shoved Bair’s arm away from Kalini. “Don’t be an ass.”

“But I’m so good at it.” Bair lunged for Hawk, who dodged him.

The two began wrestling around, scuffling and cursing. Hawk was usually pretty even-tempered, but the one way to get under his skin was to harass Kalini. If there was something Bair liked almost as much as drinking, it was antagonizing Hawk.

After another minute of watching the two scrapping, Otis sighed and intervened, just like he always did. He grabbed the backs of their shirts and yanked them apart, giving them both a shake. All three were laughing, a little disheveled but not any worse for the wear.

“Done measuring your dicks?” Kalini asked mildly.

“Yup,” Bair announced cheerfully. “I won.”

“Fuck off,” Hawk muttered.

What would it be like, I wondered, to have that sort of easy, joking relationship with my brothers? Granted, these guys weren’t biological brothers, but they spent more time together than a lot of adult siblings did.

“So, are we going out?” Bair asked as Otis released his shirt. “We’re in Vegas. Let’s party!”

“I could go for a couple drinks,” Otis said. “Isn’t this why we’d decided not to fly out until Sunday morning? To give us some time to have fun before we go home?”

“I’m actually leaving tomorrow morning,” I said. When they looked at me, I explained, “Cynthia’s birthday party is Sunday afternoon. I don’t want to miss it.”

“Sure, sure.” Bair grabbed me around the neck and rubbed my head like I was a child. “You just don’t want to be seen with us. Afraid we’ll ruin your good family name.”

I drove my elbow into his gut, knocking the wind out of him and making him stagger back. “Yes, Bair, that’s exactly it.”

“Can’t really blame him,” Kalini said. “You are an asshat, Bair.”

He grinned and made a sweeping bow. “But a dashing one, you have to admit.”

The banter went back and forth as we headed out for the half hour or so we usually did autographs at the end of every show. Once that was done, I’d go back to the hotel to finish packing and get some sleep. My flight was scheduled to leave first thing in the morning.

It was time to go home. For now, at least.

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