Page 11 of The Burdens We Share (Satan’s Angels #3)

He told me to stay in the car when he got out and I obeyed, unsure of what he was doing.

He seemed to look around the car at every angle to ensure that no threats were around and once he felt confident, he opened my door for me and offered me a hand, but I ignored it and got out on my own.

I don’t need a man to do everything for me. Just some things.

A crew member found her way over to us and led us to a trailer with a pink star on the door with my name on it.

I wanted to jump for joy when I saw it but decided to hold my excitement in until she was gone.

She offered me a fat stack of papers and an itinerary and was on her way in the blink of an eye.

I stared up at the star with my name on it for a silent moment and for a split second, it seemed like the entire world around me vanished and all that was left was me and the success I managed to accomplish.

Five years ago I stepped off a musty-smelling public bus with about three dollars to my name and a broken dream that wasn’t even mine.

I took one long look at the city around me, the streets booming with life and with people of all colors, sizes, and backgrounds.

I never planned on making LA my home. I had only planned on staying long enough to chase someone else’s dream before moving to Texas.

Maybe Austin or Houston. I’d never really gotten that far.

With every step I took on that stained and worn-out sidewalk, I knew what I was leaving behind.

A mother who was so lost after the death of her husband that she looked for him in every man she set sight on and a younger brother who struggled with his identity and spiraled out of control like some kind of calamitous tornado.

Knowing I was leaving these things across the country, all the way back in Staten Island, New York, only fueled my steps to grow faster and faster.

In truth, I had absolutely no destination in mind. I just knew this city, Los Angeles, was where I needed to be if I wanted to have even the slightest chance of carrying out my father’s dream of becoming a rock legend. And I achieved that dream and so much more.

I wish my dad were here to see this star with his daughter’s name on it. I did it, Daddy. I made our dream come true.

I feel a warm presence at my side and remember that I’m not alone. Dallas looks down at me and keeps his voice low, “Would you like a moment alone with your trailer?”

I give him the meanest, most menacing glare, “Do you have any idea how hard I worked to be where I am right now? Forgive me if I want to admire the pink star with my name on it.”

He smirks at me and mutters, “Trust me, I know.”

I shake him off and take the first step up the trailer stairs, tracing my fingers over the pink star. I reach into my purse and fish my phone out and immediately start snapping pictures of it. “This is so going on Instagram later,” I announce even though Dallas could care less about my Instagram.

I look down at him and extend my hand out with my phone to him, “Take a picture of me with it. I have to show my mom.”

Dallas looks amused, a look I’m still getting used to on his stony face before he accepts my phone and angles it to take a picture of me.

I can’t help but smile from ear to ear. I take another picture with me pointing at the star.

He takes so many before he hands me back my phone and I stuff it back into my purse.

“Oooh! I wonder if Aria’s star is blue and Brody’s is red?

” I wonder to myself as I open the trailer door and rush inside.

I take one long look at the inside of the trailer and immediately start jumping up and down like a little kid on Christmas morning. Everything is so cozy inside and it’s all decorated in pink! I love it! “Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!” I squeal as I touch any and everything in sight.

Dallas enters behind me and immediately frowns, “Everything is so…pink.”

I give him a doubtful look, “Duh, have you even met me?”

He shakes his head at me but doesn’t try to hide the smile on his lips. I can’t help but smile back and continue to touch everything. “This is a dream come true.”

“You always wanted to be a movie star?” He asks, interest in his tone.

I shrug, “Not a movie star. I wanted to be a model.”

Dallas quirks his head, “So where did the guitar playing and rockstar career come from?”

I dip my chin and suddenly any trace of happiness on my face vanishes, “My dad.”

He opens his mouth to say something else, but then two heads pop into the trailer and my smile immediately returns. “Do you love it?” Brody asks, motioning her hands around the trailer.

Aria climbs inside and tosses her hair over her shoulder, “Mine’s blue!”

Brody hops in behind her and I rush into their open arms. We have a group hug moment that lasts about a minute before Brody whispers into my hair, not as quietly as she thinks, “Why is Dallas Carter in your trailer?”

Aria pulls away from the hug, having heard the whole thing, and glances behind us. “Holy shit. Dallas Carter is in your trailer.” She stares at Dallas in awe as she questions me almost as if she feels she’s being punked.

Dallas raises a dark brow at her, “Hello, Aria. Star in any amateur porn lately?”

Brody bursts out into laughter and Aria scowls at him, “I’m sorry, are you forgetting I was drugged when I starred in that film?”

Dallas looks like he’s about to say something else and for the sake of my sanity, I decide to speak before he can. “Why don’t we look over the script?”

Brody and Aria face me and suddenly any tension in the trailer vanishes. This moment is too exciting for us to be feeling anything but joy. We’ve all been through hell and we somehow managed to survive it and get a fucking movie deal. We’re all eating this up.

Aria plops down on the white couch in the corner and Brody follows her, crossing her legs as she waits for me to join them.

I follow them and place the script down on the table before all of us.

I catch sight of Dallas in my peripheral making his way over to the little kitchen area.

He sits at a barstool and starts typing on his phone.

I guess he’s really not letting me out of his sight.

Brody whispers, “Did you guys hook up?”

Aria adds, “Yeah, why is he here?”

My cheeks turn pink, “No we did not hook up. And you can ask Selene why he’s here.

” I wasn’t sure what to say. The girls couldn’t know about my stalker until Selene said it was okay.

I didn’t want to risk or compromise them finding him.

I know my friends would never share my private business with anyone, but I didn’t want to burden them with my problems.

Aria looks like she’s about to protest, but I stop her, “No. You can ask Selene on your own time. Right now, we are going through this script.”

She rolls her eyes at me and opens the packet to the first page.

The next hour is spent reading through our history.

It’s amazing how Martin captured every moment.

I’m sure Selene gave him the nitty gritty details and that’s why it was so accurate, but to see some of our private thoughts and moments on paper makes this experience more real.

The world is really going to see what we’ve been through and who we are.

It almost reminds me of Brody’s song, “The Masks We Wear” and how she spent so long pretending to be someone she wasn’t just to please other people.

When she took the mask off, she laid herself bare for our fans and for the whole world to see who she was.

It helped them see her as a real person and not just some rockstar celebrity.

Aria kind of did the same when she professed her love for Slater on national television.

Brody smiles at a page as she reads, “I love this scene.”

“Which?” Aria peeks over her shoulder.

“This is the one where we all met,” she looks up at us with nostalgia in her eyes and I immediately get brought back to that day.

I feel the nostalgia myself. “God, that feels like a lifetime ago,” I say in disbelief.

Aria reaches out and runs her fingers through my hair, “Not to me. I remember it like it was yesterday that you showed up at that bar playing that pink bass guitar in your little pink cowboy boots and hat. I even remember you singing in the most off-key and horrible voice I have ever heard in my life.”

I laugh at her and swat her hand away, “So what I can’t sing? You can’t either.”

Aria chuckles, “Yeah, but at least I didn’t pretend I could.”

Brody inserts, “She has a point there, Iv. You sound like a shrieking dolphin.”

We all burst out into laughter and I feel eyes boring into my head.

I turn to find Dallas watching me intently with intrigue on his face as if the concept of me smiling and laughing is foreign to him.

I quickly look away and focus back on the script.

I start chuckling as I read. “Do you guys remember this?”

I flip the page so they can read the scene about our first tour. Brody shakes her head in disappointment, “Do you guys remember any of that tour? I don’t remember any of it.”

Aria smirks, “That’s how you know it was fun.”

Brody snorts a laugh, “God, we must’ve snorted our weight in coke that tour.”

I groan, “We did. My nose was bleeding for a week after.”

Brody makes a retching sound, “Oh my God, and all the whiskey we drank.”

Aria points an accusing finger at her, “You’re the one that drank the whiskey. We kept it classy with the vodka.”

“There was nothing classy about me puking in the parking lot of that pharmacy,” I make a disgusted face thinking about it.

Aria nods, “Okay, you’re right. That was totally disgusting of you.”

Brody sighs, “But we had so much fun.”

I nod, “We did.”

Aria looks up at the ceiling. “Sometimes, I wish we could do it all again.”

“The drugs?” Brody asks, her face paling.

Aria shakes her head, “No. Just having that time together. Fuck the drugs.”