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“So?” Bea and Jo said together.

“I’m not having my music become the sidenote to my personal life and the rumors those piranhas keep going on about. I’m not parading around up there, taking away from everything I’ve worked toward. You think I’ve gotten this far in my career by waving that flag? It’s a target on our backs, not some claiming of identity.” Bunny waved her hand at the outfit again, and the snarl she gave it might stay on her lips forever.

“We’veworked hard,” Piper snapped back, and for a moment, Bunny froze as though caught in the headlights of a vehicle racing toward her. Piper rarely used that tone with her. So rarely in fact that Bunny could count on one hand the number of times Piper had truly yelled at her. “We’veclimbed through every loop we needed to get here. But things aren’t the same as they used to be, Bunny. Times have changed.”

“I refuse to believe you. The same asshole bigots still run the show. They might say the right thing, but when it comes down to it, none of them would think twice about getting rid of us for less controversial artists.” She scowled at all of them, narrowing her eyes harder at Bea. She’d gone over Bunny’s head and gotten the costumes approved by Siena and Allegra, knowing Bunny wouldn’t agree with them. Of course she had. Bunny had fooled herself thinking that Bea might be the first person she’d met without an angle. Of course she had an angle, and here it was, holding a sword over everything Bunny had worked toward.

None of them said anything, and Bunny turned her back on them. Fear raced up her spine, and she dropped her head forward, trying desperately to catch her breath, to see some way through this nightmare. She needed some way through that didn’t leave her career and her life in a pile of cold ashes.

“Asshole bigots like me?” Siena’s voice had Bunny spinning around so fast her equilibrium shifted, making it impossible for her to focus her eyes.

Bunny hadn’t heard the door open. When she focused, she took in Siena, standing with her arms crossed just inside the door, a scowl to match Bunny’s on her lips, and a hurt look on her face.

“I didn’t know you were here.” The words rushed from Bunny’s lips.

“Would it have mattered?” Siena nodded over at the three others.

“I’m sorry,” Bunny muttered.

“Sorry for what?” Siena walked slowly toward them. Each click of her heels against the hard floor sounded like a nail in Bunny’s coffin. “For screaming at your fellow musicians while trying to bully them into your opinion?”Click, click.“For screaming so loud, I could hear you from the front of thestudio?”Click, click.“Or for calling me a bigot?”Click.“Or sorry that I heard you?”

Bunny ran a hand through her hair, tugging at the ends sharply. “I didn’t mean you. You know I would never mean you.”

“I would hope not.” Siena pinned Bunny with her eyes, and for a moment, Bunny felt like a child more than a veteran in the music industry. And then it found its way into Bunny’s fears.

“These costumes, Siena.” Bunny wanted to shut up, but she couldn’t. It was bad enough she had all these sensations pulling her toward Bea, she didn’t need this complication as well. “I can’t wear them.”

“I came down here to check how everything was going,” Siena said, keeping her voice steady though Bunny could hear the anger wavering beneath. “Seems like a good thing I decided on a site visit today.”

“Siena,” Bunny tried again.

“We’ll talk about yourissueswith the costumes later.” Siena cut her another sharp look, thoroughly scolding Bunny. At least Siena was consistent. She never did take shit from anyone.

Bunny couldn’t handle it. She turned on her toes and shoved open the door as hard as she could. She needed some air. She needed the fucking run of a lifetime.

She needed to escape.

EIGHTEEN

bea

“Jo,” Bea called down the corridor of the studio before Jo could leave. Piper had left following Bunny’s outburst with the promise that things would be all right. Bea, however, had her doubts.

Siena hadn’t looked impressed, and Bea’s heart hadn’t stopped stuttering since Bunny had walked out.

“Hey.” Jo stopped walking before she reached the main door. “What’s up?”

“I thought maybe we could grab a pizza and have dinner tonight.”

Jo nodded, threading her arm with Bea’s as they stepped outside of the studio. Bea shivered as the cool evening air embraced her. The parking lot for the studio wasn’t well lit and only one other car remained besides her own and Jo’s.

“Want to follow me to mine or will I follow you to yours?” Bea laughed as they nudged closer together as they walked across the loose gravel. The crunch sounded loud in the dim light, and Bea wished she hadn’t spent last night watching reruns of an old crime show, or that Bunny’s outburst hadn’t affected her so much.

Her heart sank.

After some discussion about logistics, Bea left with Jo following behind her. Thankfully the drive was against the main flow of traffic, so it didn’t take them as long as it usually took Bea to get home.

Once the pizza was ordered and drinks poured, the two sat on cushions on the living room floor, the coffee table between them.