“That’s hot.” Saffron remarked, and Nathan shushed her.
“I love it when Scot gets all catty. He’s a pro.” Nathan
sipped his drink. “Go on.”
“After the Toxicity concert, Phillip went a bit mental. One
could argue he went on a long overdue bender. When he sobered
up, he crashed at our place for a few weeks. Phillip Bret, and I virtually lived in the studio throwing down demo tracks. He was
writing a lot of…hostile, dark music. Then one day he comes in
and says we need to cover this old song by The Cult. So we rec-
48
RAGE
orded ‘Fire Woman.’”
“Which turned out to be a major catastrophe.” Cheyenne
blurted.
“Hey! We rocked that song. It’s the video that needs to go,”
Scot argued, pushing his long dark hair out of his face.
“But I love that video. I find it very provocative…sexy.”
Saffron frowned.
“Oh, it is. Too bad it’s the retelling of Phillip and Stepha-
nie’s relationship.” Cheyenne crossed her arms, remembering
Steph’s tirade when she first showed her the video. When Scot
brought the video home and she saw it, Cheyenne flew straight
to Milan to forewarn Steph before Phillip’s “vision” debuted.
Stephanie’s first reaction was to make a snarky comment about
Fury (“Oh, they’re doing covers now? How very retro.”), but
once the images of Phillip re-enacting their private moments
with a pale, red headed model (breaking her camera, the airplane bathroom, the rainstorm kiss), she became completely enraged.
She had a total meltdown and nearly took some pretty impressive
revenge. Cheyenne put a stop to the evil plot and saved Steph
from a move she would have really regretted. She dragged her
out to a nearby café to try to help her gain some perspective.
Three bottles of wine later, Steph broke down and, through una-
bashed tears, confessed to Cheyenne about the loss of her baby.
The way that Steph could barely choke the words out hurt Chey-
enne’s heart. Steph was typically cold as ice, so witnessing her fragility was downright terrifying. Thinking about it even now
pissed Cheyenne off all over again, and she wanted to go scream
in Phillip’s face; however, Stephanie had sworn her to secrecy.
Loyalty had become vitally important to Cheyenne, and she
hadn’t even told Scot. Stephanie was of the opinion that telling Phillip about the baby now would serve no useful purpose.
“Which brings us to the UK Music Video Awards.” Na-
than’s devilish eyes appeared even greener as he laughed mali-
ciously. Scot and Cheyenne exchanged a thoughtful glance, and
49
TAMMY COONS & MICHELLE PACE
Scot shook his head at Cheyenne in warning. Cheyenne simply
looked away. Things were about to take an ugly turn, she was
certain of it.
“What on earth happened there?” Saffron looked from one
person to the next.
“You were there, Nathan. Tell it.” Scot waved an exasperat-
ed hand in the air.
Nathan topped off his drink and sat forward. “Phillip, David
and I were doing shots at the bar when some twat in a suit ap-
proached us. He introduced himself as Steph’s agent and got in
Phillip’s face. I’m not sure what all was said, but he was defi-
nitely spouting off about the Fire Woman video.”
At that moment, Phillip approached them and grabbed a
beer from the mini fridge.
“What’s up?” he asked, pulling out his ear buds. The as-
sembled group exchanged a collective smirk.
“Hey, mate. What was the wanker’s name that shoved you
at the U.K. Awards?” Nathan had clearly chosen to brazen
through the fact that they’d all been talking about him. Phillip leveled an acknowledging gaze at Nathan and glanced awkwardly at Cheyenne. When he visibly puffed up, she shook her head.
“Christopher…something or another.” He shrugged and
tried to look unconcerned.
“Hoult.” Cheyenne informed them all. Scott removed his
arm from around her, and she knew he was pissed at her, but she
didn’t care. “Christopher Hoult.”
“Yes! Phillip told him to piss off and started to walk away,
but the bloke grabbed his shoulder and hit him. Before I knew
what was what, this Christopher dude was on the floor, and Dave
was yanking Phillip off of him.” Nathan held his fist out at Phillip who halfheartedly bumped it.
“Don’t start nothin’, won’t be nothin’.” Scot agreed with a
cocky shrug that was out of character for him. Phillip nodded at Scot in thanks for his obvious support.
50
RAGE
Cheyenne glowered at them both like they were simpletons
and turned to Saffron ready to deliver the coup de grace. “Christopher ended up in the hospital with a broken nose and a frac-
tured rib. Stephanie felt awful that her agent had the crap kicked out of him for trying to stand up for her…defend her honor. So
she went to the hospital to thank him for what she considered
going way above and beyond his job description. Steph was pret-
ty surprised when Christopher told her he needed to resign as her agent because he was having trouble remaining professionally
detached when it came to her. She was shocked, but she refused
his resignation. Then a month later he finally asked her out.”
“No way! Did she say yes? Are they dating now?” Saffron
graced Cheyenne with an impish grin. Cheyenne turned her dark
eyes on Phillip who froze with his beer halfway to his lips, gaping at her words. Steph was no angel, but dammit, he’d messed
with her best friend and needed to be taken down a notch or two.
Phillip seemed glued to the spot, and his blue eyes seemed both
surprised and troubled.
Good.
Out of the corner of her eye Cheyenne watched him tilt his
head to one side and stare at her, waiting for her response. She smiled cheerfully at Saffron.
“At first she said no, but by the holidays he wore her down.
They’ve been seeing each other ever since.”
51
CHAPTER FIVE
Steph pushed back her seat and reclined tiredly. She accept-
ed a beer from the flight attendant with a grateful smile. They
were on the last leg of what had been the never-ending trip to
hell. Sure, hell happened to look a lot like the Garden of Eden, but as Cedric had often reminded her, the devil’s favorite trick was convincing folks he didn’t exist.
Fernando de Noronha. In college she’d drooled over the
photographs in Condé Nast Traveler. She’d been dying to go
