“Is that what you think will happen?”
“He does hang the moon on you, Cheri. I don’t know how he would react if he found us together. For all I know, he could haul out a shotgun and drag us to a justice of the peace.”
“Well, that wouldn’t work,” laughed Cheri.
“It wouldn’t?”
“No. Usually, there are blood tests and permits. Can take days.”
“I don’t know if that would matter to Rory, him being armed and dangerous.”
Cheri laughed at the ridiculous images Dev was stirring in her mind. She tried to imagine Rory holding a gun. But she couldn’t get past how she scared him when she was little by jumping out from behind the couch and firing a water pistol at him.
“Stop now,” said Cheri with a grin. “Rory would most likely hurt himself with a gun than anyone else.”
“Still the problem remains,” said Dev in a low voice staring at her intently. “He and I are like brothers. It would kill me to lose that, and I think it would kill him too.”
She knew he was right. Dev had been a safe space for Rory growing up. Whenever Rory had gotten a beating, he’d pedal over to Dev’s and, while they never talked about it, Dev had been there. To shoot hoops with, or make him a frozen pizza. A lifeline…something to show Rory that someone outside their miserable little house cared about him.
It was part of the reason she loved him. He was a good man and an even better friend.
“I know it’s wrong and we’ve got to work through some things, but I just…” She shrugged helplessly and slid her arms around his waist. “I just want you.”
He swallowed a groan and pressed his lips to hers, devouring them like a starving man.
“Cheri, Cheri,” he whispered as his mouth moved over the tender skin of her throat. He found the back of her ear and nibbled, sending shivers of delight through her body. She moaned.
“Oh god, Dev.”
“You’re so hot, Cheri, so fucking hot.”
He cupped her breasts with his hands and stroked the delicate peaks through her bra and shirt. They hardened under his touch, and Cheri whimpered.
“What are we doing?” she whispered.
“Whatever we want to,” he growled, right before he pulled up her t-shirt and pressed his face between her breasts. He rocked his hips against her, his erection straining against the fabric of his jeans as he licked and nibbled her creamy breasts.
“Not enough,” he whispered. “Not nearly.”
He turned and locked the door and then turned back, his face a mask of need.
He reached out and worked the top button of her jeans open, pulling them down to pool around her feet. She stood before him with only her panties stretched across her hips. Dev stared at her as if she was the last woman on earth, and she shuddered with the weight of his desire.
He reached out for the small chair that sat at the dressing table and pulled it toward him. Cheri stared, wide-eyed, not knowing what to expect.
He pulled Cheri forward by her wrist.
“Bend over,” he rasped. “Hold on to the chair. Good. Now spread your legs. Yes.”
He stood behind her now and her heart was hammering so loud, she could hear it reverberating in her head.
“You are so fucking beautiful,” he said, “every inch of you. God, I love your ass.”
He bent over her neck, giving her flesh quick nips that made her quiver, while he rubbed, and then sharply pinched her bottom.
“A little pain with your pleasure, babe,” he whispered hotly into her ear. “Not much. No. Just enough to make you, ah, yeah,” he said with satisfaction as she arched her back when he pinched her bottom again. “Yes. I love this view, your pretty pink lips wet and glistening.”
The dirty talk drove her need into overdrive. Her pulse thrummed as he kissed and nibbled along her spine. At the same time he reached around and delved past her panties into her soft folds, finding her clit to stroke it, his fingers slick with her wetness.
“Your scent is driving me crazy,” he continued. “All I want to do is to dive into you, but I can’t, I can’t. Do you know why?”
“No,” she whimpered.
“Because now I know how fucking tight you are. Last time, when you came on my hand, I nearly came right along with you because of that feeling…that tight little pussy gripping me like a fist. So I know you aren’t ready for me, not yet. But I’m going to make you ready. Do you want me to make you ready, Cheri?”
“Yes.”
She wanted to say more but she was beyond words. Everything he did made her body clench and want to roll her hips, but he was holding her so tight around her waist, she couldn’t move.
He reached for her hair and then wound it around his wrist, pulling her head back gently.
“Look at you,” he rasped. “I feel your pussy quivering against my hand. I can’t stand how much you want me. You’re killing me, Cheri, sweet Cheri.”
He kissed her throat again, angling his head to send a long lick down the front of her slender throat.
“So tasty.”
His wet tongue made another long slide, this time down her back, making her shake.
“Please, Dev,” she begged, though she wasn’t sure what she was begging for.
“Oh, I’ll please you. That’s job one,” he said. His tongue met the crack of her ass and licked there as well. Cheri was ready to explode, to crawl out of her skin because each thing he did felt better than the last. She never knew such pleasure was possible, and her initial discomfort over bending over the chair was replaced by unstoppable, quaking lust. She reveled in each lash of his tongue, every tug of her hair. She was suspended in pleasure, her mind floating from one sensation to the next.
“Perfect,” he murmured, though Cheri was so beyond herself she barely heard his words. Something entered her, just a little bit, then more, and Cheri realized it was his finger, questing inside her folds, dragging along her heated flesh. Then he drew it out again, and she whimpered at the loss of that sweet delight, but it came back again, fuller.
“I have two fingers in you, babe. So indescribably soft,” he said. “But see how tight you are? You’re gripping two fingers like a vise. Ride my fingers, baby, ride them like you’d ride my cock.”
Cheri needed no encouragement. Dev stopped holding her waist. Instead, he held his fingers inside her and his other hand was working the folds around her clit. His bulge was pressed against her, and each time she rocked back she felt that thick cock against her ass.
She couldn’t take it. She bucked, riding his fingers, her pussy pulsing with pleasure and need. She climbed higher, his fingers filling her, coaxing her. She heard the zip of his fly and Dev groaned as her hips stilled, waiting for him. His breathing was rapid as he draped his body across her back. The head of his cock was so broad and so thick, she gasped as he pressed it against her.
“Yes, please, I--”
A loud chirping sound echoed through the room and they both stilled.
Dev’s phone.
He moved to silence it, but then hers followed, both phones ringing at once.
“God damned son of a bitch,” he groaned as he stared down at his screen.
“What,” she said as she pulled on her jeans. Her phone buzzed again with a text message and she yanked it out of her pocket.
Bus one now!
It was from Rory.
“What is this?” said Cheri.
Dev knelt and hurriedly helped her with her sneakers.
“Fucking Bill cleaned out our bank account,” he gritted through his teeth. Fury rolled off him in waves as they hurried out of the venue and toward the buses idling in the parking lot.
Dev and Cheri mounted the steps of the bus to find grim-faced Rory, Connor, Quinn and Mac sitting at the table. They were so embroiling in the drama that no one even questioned where they’d been.
“What happened?” said Dev.
“A staffer complained about not getting his direct deposit today,” said
Rory, “and then Gina mentioned something too, so I looked into it and found goose eggs in the band’s account.”
“And Bill?”
“Gone,” spit Rory. “Everything of his gone from the bus. Someone in security said he took a taxi during the show.”
“Fuck,” said Dev.
“How could he do this to us?” said Mac.
“What the hell do we do now?” said Connor.
“We’re going to get some fucking help, that’s what we’re going to do,” said Dev. “Cheri, it’s time you put those accounting skills of yours to use. See what you can find out about what he did. Check the other accounts, hell, check our personal ones too, and see what the fuck he did.”
“You don’t have to bother about our personal accounts,” said Rory. “The fucker hadn’t paid us since before the tour.”
“What?” said Dev. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me?”
“He was good at the bullshit, told me the money was held in escrow and shit. It wasn’t until you got all that stuff for Cheri did I realize that you were the only one of us getting paid. But when I asked him about it, he gave me some more bullshit, told me I’d get my money today. And now he’s gone.”
“The signs were there,” said Mac, “and we fucking ignored them.”
“Yeah,” said Rory. “Gina complained about the per diems today, said she’s been talking to him all along about it.”
“And he was so fucking cheap about everything,” said Connor. “Just getting as much money together before he split.”
Cheri stood with her back to the wall of the bus, feeling like shit. She had heard the complaints, the grousing about Bill, but her head was so full of Dev, that she couldn’t put two and two together. Maybe if she didn’t put all her energy into him, she would have seen how fucked up Bill was, and sounded the alarm.
She looked to Dev, her heart squeezing at the devastation on his face. No matter that it wasn’t his fault any more than it was hers, he was going to blame himself. Believing he’d missed all the signs and hadn’t protected the band as their front man was going to kill him.
Hell, a blow like this could even kill the band as a whole.
But the part that had her stomach churning even worse was that it just might kill any chance she had of ever being with him again.
God damn you, Bill.
Chapter 14
Betrayed and robbed blind.
Emphasis on blind. How had he not seen it? He felt sick to his stomach. Here he was, screwing around with Cheri, with his head so up into her that he’d lost track of what was going on in his band.
Mac, Connor, and Quinn shot him worried glances as Cheri sat in front of the computer and went through the band account and accessed the online bookkeeping program. Her face was pale and tight with concentration as she stared at the information on the screen before her.
“Is this the band’s main account with twelve dollars in it?” asked Rory, his tone sharp with rising panic.
“Yes,” she said.
“Fuck,” said Dev softly.
“Gina came to me to tell me her last paycheck never made it into the bank. I went to the account to transfer her the money, and it was all gone.”
“What the hell,” said Dev. “Where is Richard?”
“Bus two,” said Rory. “The crew just finished load-out and headed out on the town, but he and Saldano said they had to go over some things.”
Rory raised his fingers to air quote “go over some things” like he doubted they were actually working, but that was the least of any of their concerns right now.
Dev walked out into the night air to the crew bus and pounded on the double doors.
“Hey,” he shouted, “if you two are done in there, we have an emergency.”
“What’s up?” asked Richard as he opened the door.
“Come to our bus. A shit-storm has hit.”
“What?” said Gina. She grunted and Dev assumed she was pulling on clothes. When she poked her head out above Richard’s her hair was mussed.
“You come too,” said Dev gruffly. “We’ve got to figure the best way to handle this mess.”
Dev turned and walked away, his fury rising as he strode back to the bus.
Gina’s heels clattered as they hit the bus stairs.
“What mess?” Gina said.
Reality hit and Dev’s world fell away. Everything he and his friends worked for was gone, stolen by a fucker he should have had his eye on. No. He was too worried about his dick instead of taking care of business. What was going to happen now? Dev was worldly enough to know that recovery of the money was unlikely, even if they managed to find the little prick. He was probably en route to a casino or halfway to Mexico by now, spending like it was his last day on earth.
And if Dev had anything to say about it, it would be.
Grimly, he strode onto the bus to see a very worried Cheri staring at her laptop.
The guys crowded around her, but the look in her eyes said everything.
Richard and Gina entered the bus. They sat and glanced around in silence until Dev spoke.
“What did you find?” he asked Cheri.
“All the money in the band’s account was transferred to an account at five this morning. From what I could find, it’s an account in the Bahamas, which makes resolving this difficult. Their privacy laws are very strict and they don’t cooperate well with U. S. Banking investigations.”
“What about the other accounts? How much of our money is gone?” asked Rory.
“I don’t have an exact figure. Bill’s books…” She shook her head. “Let’s just say they wouldn’t stand up to an audit, not even mine, and I’m not a forensic accountant.”
Cheri ran her hand through her hair.
“I’m not sure how much he took, total. But not everything. There seems to be a delay in the last couple payments from Cyclone Productions. There are some ranting emails from Bill to the promotion company, but they appeared to have ignored him. Still, from what I can see of other emails, Bill was not paying our creditors either. So I have no idea if we’re in the red, or the black. It’s going to be awhile before I can straighten it out. Once these payments clear, we’ll have about fifty thousand in there to cover some expenses at least.”
Dev took out his phone, put it on speaker and dialed their contact with the promotion company. Despite the time, the guy sounded cheery, like he was wide-awake.
“Dev! How’s it going?”
“I’m here with the band and Richard Hawkins, Gina Saldano, and Cheri Galveston. Our band manager is no longer with us. We are trying to straighten out the books. I understand you’ve withheld some payments?”
“Yes.”
Everyone in the bus sighed with relief.
“And the reason is?”
“Let’s just say I smelled a rat, and I didn’t want my hottest band to get burned. I was going to talk to you about it once I poked around a little more because I didn’t want to distract you while you were on tour without something concrete.”
“You smelled right. Bill was, indeed, a rate. We appreciate you trying to look out for us. Later today I will send you new bank information and we hope the money will be transferred immediately.”
“I understand. You’ll get an email with the transfer information but it will take a few days to clear.”
“We’ll figure things out until then.”
“Good. You guys good to go for tonight?”
“Yes. You don’t have to worry about that.”
“After you’ve had a break and dealt with all this, we should talk. I definitely want to talk to you about another tour. Longer, bigger, something flashy.”
“We’ll be in touch.” Dev clicked off the call and looked around the table. It was great that he wanted to do more business with them, but he couldn’t even find the heart to celebrate until they figured out what the fuck they were going to do to get their money back.
“Okay, what do we do about Bill?”
“It’s never good,” said Gina, “to publicize that your band manager ran off with your money.”
Richard nodded his agreement. “It makes you look like suckers.”
“Well, we can’t just let him get away with it,” snapped Connor.
“I have contacts in the white collar crime division of the FBI,” said Richard. “I’ll get in touch and see if they can get someone to open a case. Unfortunately, scummy managers are a given in this business.”
“Now you tell us,” muttered Rory.
Richard shrugged. “As I found out, there’s no way to know until it happens. I’ve had a few opportunities to make a few friends and learn some things. If he committed his crimes while crossing state lines then it’s a Federal matter. If I can get them to move on it fast they’ll put his name on the no-fly list. Hopefully, he hasn’t left the country yet. Cheri, can you get me a list of dates when money was deposited and withdrawn?”
“Yes. I’ll see what I can do.”
“It’s a good thing,” said Richard, “that you’re making good money on record sales. But I suggest that you get out a new album as quickly as possible. You don’t know yet how many of your creditors Bill burned and you may have to take out a loan to cover those expenses.”
“Can a band get a loan?” said Connor.
“I have a house,” said Rory. “If need be, I’ll take out a home equity loan.”
God no. That house was the one asset Rory had. Dev wouldn’t allow him to put it at risk for the band.
“I’m not going to let you do that,” said Dev. “We’ll figure it out.”
“I’m just saying, it’s there if we need it,” said Rory.
“Look,” said Richard. “I’m only putting possibilities out there. We won’t know what we need to do until we get a good audit of the books.”
“We will do everything we can to keep the band solid,” said Mac. “That being said, we have an immediate need--a new band manager.”
The guys nodded their heads.
“Any ideas?” said Dev.
Each one of them turned to look at Richard. He stood back, mouth agape.
“I-I uh, that’s not what I do, guys. It’s…”
“It’s a great idea,” said Gina. “You can stop whoring your talents and settle down with one band. They’ll make an honest man out of you. You’ve got lots of all-around experience and there’s no one they trust more. Right now, that’s key. More than anything else.”
Hard Sell: A Bad-Boy, Rock Star Romance Page 28
