Logan smiled and scooted even closer to her. “While that would have been amazing, it’s not your fault it didn’t work. It’s not your fault some jerk in the audience recorded our song and posted it online.”
“But it happened, and now everything’s a mess for you.” Wylder twisted her hands in her lap, unable to meet his intense gaze. “All those comments… what people are saying about you and—”
“It sucks.” Logan closed the remaining distance between them. “But I’ll get over it.” He took her hands in his. “I hurt Luke when I walked onto that stage with you. I didn’t even realize you thought I was mad at you. I had to go home and be there for Luke.”
“It’s not like we had a choice, you know? Luke has to understand that.” It was like Logan didn’t have a clue what Luke thought about all of this. Had they not talked it out between themselves?
“You’re right about that. I just wish I’d handled it better. Thought it through before we wrote that song together. Everything I do reflects on my brother. I’m supposed to lie low and keep quiet so he gets to do what he loves, and I get to write songs and record the music I love. We’ve worked so hard to get where we are, and I jeopardized that.”
“I’m really sorry.” Wylder squeezed his hand. It was kind of sweet the way the brothers looked out for each other. They were each more concerned about the other than themselves. There had to be a way to fix this. To set the rumors to rest.
“You don’t know this about me, but I don’t abandon my friends, even when they stalk me all the way to Nashville when I’m trying to hide.”
“Are we friends?” Wylder chanced a glance at him.
He smiled. “Well, I think you’re stuck with me now.”
“I think I’m okay with that.” Wylder returned his smile. “But since we’re friends now, can I ask you something?”
“Shoot.” Logan leaned back in his chair but stayed close to her side.
“How did this even happen? You and Luke and the whole set up?”
“That’s a long story.”
“I’ve got time.”
Logan glanced at Killian’s door. “Hey, Killer, we’re going out, you can have the room back.”
“Thanks!” Killian called from his room.
“Where are we going?” Wylder stood.
“Coffee run.” He glanced down at her unicorn clad feet.
“I go everywhere in these.” Wylder shrugged. “Unless you’re embarrassed to be seen with the girl in the unicorn slippers.”
Logan chuckled. “I’m happy to be seen with you, Wylds.” He grabbed his jacket, and they headed out for the coffee shop at the center of campus.
Wylder shuffled down the sidewalk beside him, ignoring the stares. “So, long story?”
“Yeah.” Logan sighed. “Sometimes even I don’t know how it happened. But I guess it started when our mom died. She overdosed. We were twelve, and Bash was seventeen.”
“That must have been awful. How did he manage to keep you all together when he was so young?”
“Bash is smart. You know that. He’d already graduated high school when Mom died. We lived with our uncle at first, but he wasn’t exactly equipped for raising his junkie sister’s children. Uncle Bruce and Bash butted heads. Our uncle wanted to put me and Luke in boarding school, and he wanted Bash to go away to college so he didn’t have to deal with raising any of us.
“Our grandparents left enough money to pay for Bash’s school and a trust fund for me and Logan when we turn eighteen, but that was it. There wasn’t money for boarding school, so Uncle Bruce wanted to use Bash’s college fund for us and promised to help Bash with his expenses for going to a state school.”
“Didn’t he go to school online, mostly?” Wylder walked slowly beside Logan, not wanting to push him too much, but she needed to know how this all happened. That was the only way she would be able to help them out of it.
“He did later. But Our grandparents made huge sacrifices to send him to an Ivy League school. Bash was smart enough to really make something of himself, and they wanted that for him. But Uncle Bruce… he wasn’t the parenting type. He wanted to do right by us, but he wasn’t in it for the long haul, day to day with twins who were barely in middle school at the time. So we left.
“Bash got himself emancipated at seventeen, and he petitioned the court for full custody of us. It got kind of nasty there for a while, but he fought to keep us together.” Logan let out a big sigh. “Bash got a job, used his college fund to get us a decent place to live, and for a few years we scraped by while Bash took online classes and kept us clothed and fed.”
“Wow, that’s kind of amazing. Most brothers wouldn’t do that.” Wylder was lucky enough to have a brother who would have moved heaven and earth to keep them together had they lost their parents at a young age, but not everyone had that.
“We didn’t get along with Uncle Bruce back then.” Logan held the door to the coffee shop open for her. “Not that we get along with him much better these days.”
Wylder and Logan approached the counter and ordered vanilla lattes and cinnamon scones.
“We were dirt poor back then. Bash held us together, but I don’t think we ever knew just how bad it got. He was desperate to finish school and get a decent job. Between his crap jobs and school, we hardly saw him except when he was yelling at us to do better in school.”
“How did music enter into the equation?” Wylder took her drink from the barista, and they headed to a corner table.
“Luke and I used to spend a lot of time together at home, and we both loved music. We’d write songs together, and then we’d play them for Bash whenever he was home. We didn’t have a television or a stereo, so we entertained ourselves.
“The thing is, Luke can sing. He’s good.”
“But you’re better.” Wylder picked at her scone.
“That’s what the music people always said when we really started pursuing a career. Bash dragged us all over Memphis—that’s where we lived at the time. I think it was his desperation that drove us. We were fifteen, and he still had a year of college to finish, and we were broke. Dead broke and hungry. You can imagine three young guys eating nothing but Ramen and dry cereal.”
“What about your uncle? Didn’t he help?”
“Uncle Bruce wasn’t in the picture then.” Logan picked at the cardboard sleeve of his cup. “We were good enough to make it, Wylder. Everyone who heard us said so, but my stage fright was crippling. We had so much riding on it, but I couldn’t handle the pressure. We were the perfect performer… if you could take Luke’s stage presence and my voice.”
“And that’s what you did.”
“Not at first. Bash went to our uncle for help. Bruce is an entertainment lawyer. He’d moved to Nashville after he and Bash stopped speaking. Bash thought he might know some professionals we could work with to help us with our individual weaknesses. He moved us to Nashville and pestered Uncle Bruce until he finally agreed to hear us sing.
“All he saw were dollar signs when he looked at Luke. It was his idea, just to get our foot in the door. It was supposed to be a gimmick to get us in front of the right people so they could see our potential as a duo. We wrote our songs together. Luke played guitar, and I recorded our demos. But Luke went to the meetings and the auditions without me.”
“He was good with the schmoozing.” Wylder could understand it now. “And it snowballed from there.”
Logan nodded. “Everything happened so fast. Before we knew it, we were in over our heads, and our manager was in on it.”
“Does the label know?” Wylder took a sip of her tepid coffee, hardly tasting it.
“No. Luke’s manager sets the whole thing up for concerts. I’m sure people on stage with him suspect, but it’s never leaked.”
“Until now.” Wylder sighed.
“Until now.” Logan echoed her sigh.
“Well, we’ll just have to figure out a plan to fix it.”
“We, huh?” Logan smiled.
<
br /> “Yes, we. I know it’s not my fault but I still feel partially responsible, so we’re going to fix this. Somehow.”
“Any ideas? Because we’ve got nothing.”
“I’ll come up with something. I’m nothing if not resourceful.”
9
Wylder hadn’t been able to get Logan’s story out of her mind for days, and yet, she still didn’t know why he was back. It made sense now, why he’d left in the first place. When the world they knew blew up, the Cook brothers had to be together to handle the fallout. So, why had two of them returned to Defiance Academy?
Logan hadn’t mentioned anything Wylder said to Sebastian or Luke. Did he even know about the conversations she had with both brothers? Conversations that made her understand him so much more than before.
But if she knew one thing about Logan, it was that he revealed things in his own time, never all at once. It was like peeling back layers of a boy who’d had to keep too many secrets for too long.
Sebastian stood at the front of the class talking all things Beowulf, and though Wylder was grateful he was giving them all a second chance on their test, she couldn’t concentrate on his words. Instead, she doodled weird designs across her notebook as her mind wandered to the problem at hand.
The fans learning about Luke and Logan’s deal wasn’t nearly as bad as the label finding out. The big question was if they believed it. No one had concrete proof, only a now-deleted YouTube video and a bunch of rumors. The kids at school seemed to have no trouble thinking the rumors were true.
Wylder heard the things they said about Logan. They weren’t bad things, necessarily, just curious. They weren’t so kind with Luke’s name. Against every natural inclination, Wylder couldn’t help feeling kind of bad for Luke. Now, with his brothers back in Ohio, he was alone in Nashville with only his uncle, an uncle who’d once sought to use the boys.
And no one would ever think of the famous twin the same way. Even once the rumors faded, the damage had been done. She pictured him sitting beside her in her car, having an honest discussion about Logan, more honest than she’d ever expected from someone she’d once despised.
She looked down at her knuckles, a smile lifting the corners of her mouth. She definitely didn’t regret hitting him. The bruises on her hand hadn’t lasted long, but the memory would last forever.
“Why are you smiling?” Logan whispered, glancing toward where Sebastian had turned to write on the board.
“No reason.”
“Liar.” Since showing up in class two days ago as if he’d never left, Logan had been more talkative than normal… nicer, somehow. Gone were the biting remarks she’d loved so much. It was like the real Logan had disappeared, leaving a Stepford version in his place.
The classroom door opened, and Ms. Jones stepped through, followed by her secretary. “Mr. Cook, I need to see you and your brother in my office, as well as Miss Anderson. Mrs. McDougal will fill in for the rest of your class.”
Sebastian looked like he’d been expecting this, no surprise showing on his face. He set the chalk down and turned a smile on the class. “Be good, class.” He winked, and Wylder swore half the girls swooned. Probably some of the guys too. “Wylder, Logan, you’re needed as well.”
Wylder hated being called to Ms. Jones’ office. It always felt like she was in trouble. As she gathered her books, shoving them into her messenger bag, and followed Sebastian out, she wracked her brain, trying to figure out what she’d done this time.
Nothing. She came up with nothing. She’d been a perfect angel for at least twenty-four hours.
They walked outside into the bright November day, and she zipped up her coat before shoving her hands in the pockets. The quad was pretty quiet this morning. Everyone was in the early classes the school tortured them with.
They crossed the red brick walkways, skirting frost-coated grassy areas. Yep, winter was definitely almost here. And in Ohio, that meant way too many months of frigid cold with gray skies and the overall sense that every person wanted to be somewhere else.
In the administration building, Wylder froze. Two familiar figures huddled together in conversation on the couch in the sitting area outside Ms. Jones’ office.
“Dad.” Wylder rushed forward. “Mom. I didn’t do it, I swear.”
Her dad gave her an indulgent grin. “Didn’t do what?”
“Whatever you’ve been called here for.”
The doors opened again, letting in a blast of cold air as two uniformed police officers walked through. Wylder’s eyes widened. Did they know she’d been stealing from the dining hall? “It was only some French toast,” she said. “And maybe some chips and ice cream and—”
“Wylds.” Her dad put a hand on each shoulder as he stood. “You’re not in trouble.”
“Oh.” Relief flooded her. “Right. I knew that.”
“But do we need to have a chat about why you started listing off foods?”
“Absolutely not.”
Her stepmom stood and pulled her into the kind of hug Wylder missed living at the academy.
“Oh, this is nice.” Wylder hugged her back. She caught Logan’s eye over her stepmom’s shoulder, and some emotion she couldn’t place flashed across his face. She pulled back and turned to Logan.
“Mom, Dad, this is Logan Cook and his older brother Sebastian.” It should have been weird, her parents meeting the teacher she’d had a relationship with. But Sebastian was all professional.
He stuck out his hand. “It’s nice to meet you both. Wylder is a bright girl.”
Her dad clasped Sebastian’s hand. “I’ve been saying that for years. It’s nice to hear she finally has teachers who believe it too.”
Hello, embarrassment.
Wylder’s cheeks flamed at the insinuation all her previous teachers had written her off. It wasn’t untrue, but she didn’t need Sebastian’s pity.
“Why don’t we go into my office?” Ms. Jones, Wylder’s saving grace.
They crowded into the office that had once seemed gigantic and now felt way too small. Wylder let her parents take the two available chairs and stood to the right of them with Logan, the boy who wouldn’t look at her.
She elbowed him, “What’s wrong?”
He only shrugged and focused on the two officers who stood across the room with Sebastian.
Ms. Jones sat behind her desk and folded her hands. “Thank you all for joining me today. Here at Defiance Academy, we take a breach of privacy very seriously because we know how it can affect the influential families who send their children here. Breaking an NDA is not officially a crime, but the Riverpass Police force has offered their help to determine who the culprit is. It’s imperative we find the breach in our security. Have no doubt, this is a security issue.” She nodded to the officers, and one of them stepped forward.
“I’m Officer Sarish,” she said, her voice slightly accented. “You’ve all been asked to come here so we can assure you we will do everything in our power to protect your children.”
Wylder’s dad rubbed his chin. “How did this even happen?”
“I can assure you, Mr. Anderson, we are looking into that. For now, Defiance Academy events will continue, but with strict security measures in place. Students will no longer be allowed to enter school events with electronic devices. At least, for the time being.”
Wylder shared an alarmed look with Logan. Their classmates were going to be so angry. They were obsessed with their phones. What would the annoying girls do if they couldn’t sit in the arena and ignore the hockey game by scrolling on their phones? The horror! “Are you sure this is the right path, Ms. Jones?” She tried to keep her voice even.
Ms. Jones offered her a smile of understanding. “Yes. This incident has caused damage to the Cook family, and we are sorry for that. But kids, we have students here who are the children of politicians, foreign operatives, and other high-profile people. Defiance Academy was chosen because of our ability to keep their lives secret. It’s much more tha
n careers at stake for some of them. It’s their safety. We cannot let this happen again and will take all necessary steps—even those our students will not like—to prevent a recurrence.”
Wylder leaned back against the wall, shrinking away from the conversation as her parents and Sebastian continued speaking with the police about the next steps. She didn’t look up until Ms. Jones said her name.
“Wylder, we need a list of anyone you think may have done this. People who might have wanted others to see your wonderful performance.”
“No.” She shook her head. “There’s no one. No one likes me.”
The adults in the room shared looks like they were waiting to see if she was kidding.
Ms. Jones cleared her throat. “Enemies then. People who’d have wanted to hurt you. Logan, we need a list from you too.”
Wylder hugged her arms across her chest. “I could just give you a yearbook. That would be my list. Oh, and I’d start with the security guards. They hate me the most.” She kept her eyes on her feet, unable to look at her parents. She’d never had an easy time being liked, but she’d never been embarrassed about it before.
The meeting ended before she could say anything else to make them feel sorry for her, and she followed her parents outside to the visitor’s parking lot. Suddenly, she didn’t want them to go.
“Honey.” Her stepmom wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “We love you.”
Her dad wedged her between them, squeezing her tightly. “And we know none of this is your fault.” He leaned down. “Plus, maybe that Luke kid deserves all of this for fighting with my boy on Twitter.”
If Wylder wasn’t utterly exhausted by all of this, she’d laugh at the idea of her dad following Becks’ Twitter war. “No, Dad. No one deserves this.” Not even Luke Cook. “Love you guys too. Can I come home for dinner sometime?”
“Of course, honey.” Her stepmom released her. “All you have to do is ask, and we’ll call in to get you a gate pass. Any day, any time. We miss you.”
“I miss you guys too.” She’d been so busy the last few weeks, so wrapped up in her own problems, she hadn’t taken the time to go see her parents. But they’d never hold that against her.
Wylder and the Almost Rockstar (Reluctant Rockstars Book 2) Page 7
