Page 85 of Hard Rock Deceit

"I don't think it's about guts." I looked down at my lap, hair falling to cover my face. "It's about friendship. And loyalty.Andlove."

Damonsnorted.

"Should we start fighting over who cares aboutAugustmore?"

"You all care about him. That was never indoubt."

"Andyou?"

I shot my head up,panicked.

"What do youmean,me?"

Damon cockedhishead.

"You care aboutAugust."

A statement, not aquestion.

Heart thumping madly in my chest, I thoughtquickly.

"Of course. He's been a good mentor. A good friend. I didn't want to see him get hurt,either."

Damon seemed to accept the answer. Maybe he didn't suspectanything.

"Have you spoken with him?" Damonasked.

"No. He won't answer my calls. Or return mytexts."

"The others haven't heard from him either. The only reason we know he got home safe is because our manager called us. We had to tell her everything over the phone. She nearly had ananeurism."

"Is she nice? Your manager? Will she look after him? Make sure he's taking care ofhimself?"

"She'll try. Don't know if he'lllether."

We both went silent, thinking about how stubbornAugustwas.

"I should show you something." Damon took my laptop and typed quickly in the search bar, clicking the first link. He tilted the screen to show me. "It's the article that journalist wrote about you. The interview where you nearlythrewup."

"I didn't almostthrowup."

But as soon as I saw the photo accompanying the article, bile rose in mythroat.

A picture of Darkest Days, with me in the center, wide-eyed in terror, clutching my camera in a white-knuckledgrip.

"Don't really like my hair in that picture." Damon flashed me a grin. "But youlookcute."

"Right, that deer-in-the-headlights look sure isappealing."

"Some guys go for the doe-eyed Bambi thing." Damon's phone beeped. "Ian says the guitar tech wants to see us. At least he's still talkingtome."

"I'm sure he'll come around. Him andCameron."

Damon craned his head to the front ofthebus.

"Yeah, Cam's been kind of an ass. He's really giving Noah some competition these days." Damon gave me a rueful look. "It's only a few more weeks, right? Then we're back home and we can see how August is doing and figure things out fromthere."

"Only a few more weeks," Iagreed.