Total pages in book: 15
Estimated words: 13338 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 67(@200wpm)___ 53(@250wpm)___ 44(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 13338 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 67(@200wpm)___ 53(@250wpm)___ 44(@300wpm)
Hours passed, and by the time evening rolled around, Cassidy’s feet hurt and she couldn’t wait to go home, eat dinner, take a hot bath, and crawl into bed. It was only once she’d settled in the back seat of the vehicle taking her home that she had time to look at her phone.
Once again, she’d missed a call from Dash, and though the message was sweet, a glance at her watch told her he was now on stage. She sighed in frustration. He never called her after a show, knowing she’d have been sleeping for hours. Sleep she needed since she had an early day on set. She shot off an I miss you text, knowing there’d be no talking to Dash tonight, either.
* * *
Dash hadn’t been awake for more than a couple of hours and he was already beat. The tour was wearing on him, much more than it had when he was single and into the partying scene. He missed his family, his home, and most of all, his wife.
On top of it all, he had a young singer who was being sexually harassed by her manager to deal with. Peyton reminded Dash of his half-sister, Aurora, when Linc had found her in Florida and brought her home to her family in New York. Young, green, and alone. Peyton needed protection, and for some reason, she trusted Dash and the guys in the band with the fact that her manager had propositioned her and was pushing her to sleep with him.
No matter how many times Dash or the others threatened to reveal the slimy bastard’s demand for sexual favors, Peyton made them promise to wait. She didn’t want negative attention during the tour. Or what she called the opportunity of a lifetime.
The news would overshadow the tour and possibly make her a liability in the eyes of another management company. The entire band vehemently disagreed. Anyone who didn’t want to work with Peyton because she went public about the bastard wasn’t a company she’d want to associate with anyway.
But in the end, the timing was Peyton’s choice, not theirs. Dash had offered to hire a bodyguard, but she didn’t want to trust her safety to an unknown man. The female bodyguards at the company the Original Kings used were already on assignment.
Peyton was shaky and insistent she didn’t want a stranger around her. Axel had already planned his trip home, Mac had a sick grandmother in the area, and it was obvious to everyone Jagger was avoiding being alone with Peyton.
He wouldn’t say why. But having been in the man’s position after sleeping with Cassidy, Dash had a clue. And it was none of his business. But the situation left Dash as the sole person the young star trusted to have her back until their shows came to an end.
Dash and the band no longer had a manager, having fired their manipulative handler a few years ago. But Dash had an old friend he trusted, and he’d already spoken to Alicia about potentially representing Peyton. But the young woman’s refusal to fire her manager or go public with the allegations kept Dash tied to their concert sites because Russ Holmes was always around.
He had five minutes before he had to leave for a photo shoot, one he had no desire to do, but he took the time to try his wife. He needed to hear her voice but the call went directly to voicemail. He left her a message and met up with the bodyguard who stood outside his hotel suite to escort him to the car that was waiting.
He sat in the back of the limousine, tapping his foot impatiently as the driver maneuvered through LA traffic. When his cell rang, startling him, he pulled it out of his pocket, grateful for the distraction.
“Axel! How’s home?” Jealousy filled him at the thought of his drummer being in the same room as his wife, not struggling to connect long distance.
“Everyone here is good. But have you seen the tabloids?” Axel asked.
Dash frowned. “You know I avoid that shit like the plague.” Ever since a pregnancy scare a couple of years ago had dominated the news, he’d cleaned up his act. Part of that had included bringing Cassidy into his life to rehab his reputation on social media. Once they’d gotten together for good, he’d hired a good social media manager and let them handle the necessary band posts. He didn’t need to linger on trash.
“Well, you’ve got a problem. You and Peyton have become the main topic of gossip on national news, and your wife isn’t happy.”
Dash closed his eyes and groaned. “Cassidy has to know there’s nothing going on between me and a twenty-two-year-old. Hell, me and any other woman.”
For years, he’d taken advantage of what the groupies offered—free pussy in whatever city or town the band played. He’d enjoyed it… until he hadn’t. His brothers and sister had started to settle down, and his own restlessness had kicked in.