Page 70 of Edge of Heaven

“Wait—I didn’t know about this,” Jonny says, looking up.

“Just came to light yesterday,” Angus says. “Haven’t had a chance to tell you everything I found out. Anyway, their fans are essentially as big of assholes as the band is. Not all of them, obviously, but they have fan clubs who go out of their way to bash their opening acts unless it’s someone Karnal Death personally asks them not to.”

“What the fuck?” I mutter. “That’s bullshit.”

“Exactly.” Sam nods. “So that’s why we’re trying to get the hell out. We have a platinum album, so we really didn’t want to do a club tour, but that’s looking like our only option for the summer.”

“Is that bad?” Taryn asks. “I mean, clubs are smaller, so you’ll sell less tickets, but they’re probably less expensive?”

Angus nods. “That’s the thing. Sasha is running numbers to figure out how many nights we have to play to pay all our expenses. We don’t pay transportation costs right now because that was part of the deal—our equipment travels with Karnal Death’s. That was a big selling point. Now we’re going to have to hire trucks and drivers and whatnot to go solo. Costs go up exponentially.”

He could singlehandedly run a tour for us himself—he’s richer than God—but we agreed that Angus wouldn’t throw his money around unless we’re desperate for it. We want to do this without him. So to speak.

“I didn’t realize,” Taryn is saying. “I guess there’s a lot to touring that most of us don’t know anything about. I’m going to miss you guys, though. You’ve made this leg of the tour bearable.” She glances at me, and I lean over.

“We’ll figure something out for us,” I say against her ear.

“I’m working on an exit plan,” she whispers back.

“We’ll talk later. Stay with me tonight?”

She nods. “Absolutely.”

I know the others are watching and listening, but I don’t care. They might give me shit privately, but they won’t embarrass Taryn or do anything to get her into trouble with Callum. I trust these guys with my life, so she can too.

* * *

It’safter four when we get back to the hotel.

We’re all tired, but Adam brings us in through the shipping doors and puts us on the freight elevator again. My room is on the eighth floor, and we head in that direction as we all say good night.

“You look tired, babe,” I tell Taryn after I close the door behind us.

“I’m exhausted,” she admits, sinking into a chair and kicking off her heels. “But we don’t get to spend much time together, so I don’t want to sleep.”

“Okay.” I pull off my shirt, toe off my Chucks, and make my way to the bed. “Come here. We can talk while we get comfortable.”

“I better set an alarm, in case we fall asleep,” she says. “I can’t be gone when Callum gets back.”

“Do what you need to do.” I fluff up a few pillows and then lean back against them. She types something into her phone and when she’s finished, I hold out my arms.

She slides onto the bed and immediately nestles against my chest.

We sit like that for a few minutes, and I stroke her arm, waiting for her to say something. I’m wiped out, but she’s right that we get so little time together.

“How long do we have before you leave the tour?” she asks finally.

“Around the first week of June.”

“I may have to move up my timetable,” she says quietly.

“What timetable?”

“I have about twelve grand in my savings account. I’m getting a few thousand from Alexa, and just under a grand from Rock Vibe. That other photo shoot I did will bring in another fifteen hundred, so that’ll put me around fifteen, so with my mom’s help, I should be able to pay the last two months of Toby’s treatment without Callum.”

“Babe, let me help you so you can get out now. I can ask Angus or?—”

“No. Please.” She sits up, shaking her head. “Look, you’re important to me. Like, probably the most important person in my life other than my son. And I don’t want us to start a relationship based on…me needing you. I want us to be together because we’re in love. Because we can’t stand to be away from each other. I don’t want there to be this money thing hanging over our heads.”

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