“How did you hear about the meeting?”
Cooper’s hand clamped on my shoulder, but he wasn’t fast enough to stop my mouth.
I winced. “I mean, we made a mistake, but—”
“But I wasn’t supposed to know about it.” Lila flashed a thin smile. “I got that message quite well.”
Noah aimed a steely glance over my head. It wasn’t difficult to guess who it was directed at. “As did I.”
“Look, we made a decision. When the call came in, we figured if Teagan met with Priscilla, maybe she could get a line on if she was really who she said she was.”
“Did you get that line?”
Cooper shuffled his feet. “No. She never showed.”
“Wonder why? Could it be that she saw you and my brother-in-law loitering out front? Not your bodyguard though, because you gave him the slip. He thought you were at home in bed. Meanwhile, Teagan and my sister-in-law were walking into a potentially dangerous situation to meet with someone who may or may not be who she says she is. Who most likely doctored Zane’s drink.”
“Ricki told you?” Cooper asked. “Fuck.”
Even I knew to cover my face at that one. “She didn’t know she wasn’t supposed to talk about it.”
“She knew we slipped our security though.”
“So sorry you neglected to fill her in on the full secrecy surrounding your idiotic plan.”
“Or the rest of us,” Noah added. “I thought you called me because you were worried about Teagan. Instead, you were just sending me off to spin my wheels.”
“What do you mean he called you?” I craned my neck to look up at Cooper. He had already paced away to brace his hands on the frame of the window across the aisle. “When?”
“When you were sleeping,” he replied before returning his attention to Noah. “And I told you the truth. We had—have—suspicions that woman isn’t really Priscilla Jones. I did a preliminary search and couldn’t get anywhere. So, I figured you had resources I don’t. Stupid me, thinking that you’d be willing to help.”
“I did get somewhere. We will exhaust all our resources to find out if she is truly who she says she is. But I should have known about that meeting.”
“We both should have known,” Lila put in. “Period.”
I was still pissed. No one appeared to care how I felt, but I was going to voice it, anyway. “I woke up looking for you, and you weren’t there. I was having a panic attack, and you were on the phone, plotting with Noah? Talking about things you should have talked about with me first?”
Silently, Lindsey laid a hand on my arm in support.
“You needed rest.”
“You needed to be straight with me, if what you found warranted a phone call to Noah.”
“Did you just hear me? I said I didn’t get anywhere. And I intended to tell you about talking to Noah, but you woke up first, and you were freaking out. I wasn’t thinking about the pissing match I’d just had with him.” Cooper jerked a thumb toward Noah.
I frowned. “What do you mean?” I looked at Noah. “What kind of pissing match?”
Noah tucked his fists under his arms. “Ask your boyfriend.”
“Excuse me.” Jamie slapped a hand on the table. “I feel like we’re not being told a hell of a lot here. The band knew about the trouble Zane got into, except who? Lindz, me, and Oz?”
Oz scraped a hand through his long hair. “I knew. He called me, and I told him I was busy.”
“Busy busting a nut. Some friend.”
“Watch it, asshole.”
“Coop was doing the same thing, and he still helped me out.”
Oz smirked. “What, into his hand?”
I reached across the table and thwapped him in the head. “He was with me.”
“What?” He looked between Cooper and I then let out a whistle. “Well, that’s new. How did I miss that?”
Lindsey shook her head. “Save it for later, Captain Oblivious.”
Oz shrugged. “Anyway, I called Zane later and found out he’d joined the Rockettes the night before.” He cleared his throat as literally everyone glared at him. “Bad joke.”
“This is bullshit.” Jamie scooped a hand through her hair and then tied it on top of her head with quick jerks of her wrists. “First, we have the hookup twins over there skating out early. Fine, whatever, fuck like rabbits, your business.”
I was still stuck on Cooper sneaking around to call Noah. Wasn’t that information I should’ve had? He’d never even mentioned it. We’d spent a beyond incredible day together yesterday, never mind today, and he hadn’t said a word.
I was just annoyed enough at being fretted over and protected again that I lifted my chin and met Jamie’s gaze. “It’s not anyone else’s concern unless we want it to be.”
Zane laughed. “Good luck there, sister.”
“Then there’s this Zane situation,” Lindsey said, effortlessly picking up where Jamie left off. “I’m not interested in who is swapping beds unless it’s a problem for the band.” She slanted me a cool look. “Thus far, it isn’t. But why weren’t we apprised of what Zane was dealing with? He mentioned having a record.”
Zane gazed down at his feet miserably. “Coop got me out.”
“And your manager is trying to help you, again way late and a dollar short. I don’t know who told any of you that you could behave as if this is any other time without any thought to the larger repercussions. Guess what? It isn’t.”
But Lindsey wasn’t done yet.
“Again, why weren’t we notified? I don’t like to pull rank here, since from the beginning, Brooklyn Dawn has been a collaborative effort. But Jamie and I started it. We were the ones there from the ground up. If things are happening that affect the band, we should be made aware. If not immediately, shortly thereafter. Not several days after the fact as part of a rant.”
“You think I’m ranting? Trust me, I haven’t even started, Ms. York.”
Lindsey took a long breath. “I get that there’s a lot going on.
