Page 113 of The Twisted Beats

There’s a pause and I gaze up.

Livianna gives me an encouraging dip of her chin. “Tell me the rest, Callum.”

“Someone gave me a drink. I went to the bathroom and when I came out, Faith was standing there, waiting for me. Things got really fuzzy at that point. I was dizzy and kind of stumbling, but I wasn’t drunk. She told me she knew of a place where I could get myself together.”

“Let me guess. It was the room where you woke up this morning.” Livianna pushes out of the chair. The blanket around her falls to the floor. She strides to the window and keeps her back to me. “Did you kiss her?”

“She tried, but I remember pushing her away.” I rise to my feet, stand behind Livianna, and place my hands on hershoulders. “She kept telling me to call her Lily. She even smelled like you. It was confusing.”

She turns and faces me. “Did you think you were with me?”

“No, I knew I wasn’t, but I remember thinking maybe you were in the room and my senses were messing with me. The next thing I knew, I was waking up. I thought it was you. Your perfume was all around me.”

“It seems we both got played, Callum.” She releases a sad sigh. “And we fell for it just like they knew we would.”

I barge into my uncle’s hotel suite. “I told you Livianna isn’t supposed to be a part of any of your media manipulations.”

“Good morning to you too, Cash.” He’s lounged back with his feet crossed at his ankles and resting on the coffee table. “Stop overreacting. She’s not part of anything.”

“Then how do you explain letting Faith drug me and get pictures of me to give to the tabloids?”

“Oh, that.” He takes a drag off his cigarette. “That’s part of the spin we’re putting on it.”

“The fuck we are.” I push his legs off the table and tower over him. “Call your contacts and get them off my back.”

“Listen, Cash. The stories from last night will run and we’ll have a news conference where we explain you and Zara were drugged. You both passed out and slept it off. It’ll be fine.”

“Fucking hell, Uncle John. That’s a ridiculous story.”

“No, it’s perfect. We’ll say it was a setup and you were both taken advantage of. We’ll blame someone for trying to make a dime off of screwing you and Zara over. Everyone comes out a winner.”

“How so?”

“Zara stays relevant and you look like a guy who parties hard and people want to get to.” He takes another drag and blows out the smoke. “Something got screwed up because you were only supposed to be photographed talking to her in the hallway alone.”

“Well, that plan went to shit.” I drag my fingers through my hair.

“Yeah, it did. I’ll admit that part. I don’t know how you ended up in a room with her. It had been arranged that I’d find you in the hallway with her. When I went there, you were both gone. I thought you bolted and came back here.”

“Instead, I was sleeping next to Faith and thinking it was Lily. Explain that.”

“I gave Zara some of Livianna’s perfume to entice you into talking to her. I thought it would give your expression a more realistic ease if you were thinking of her.” He stamps out his cigarette. “It worked while you were out on stage. You were magnetized to Zara like it was Livianna.”

“Why the fuck would you arrange that?”

“To give the public something to debate. I never intended for there to bebedroomproof.”

“Nobody will believe a story where I’ve been drugged. Guys don’t get their drinks spiked. Women do.” I throw my hands up. “If anything, they’ll twist it to look like I did that to Faith.”

My uncle cocks his head as his eyes narrow. “You have so much to learn, son. You think you know everything. You’re seventeen and know nothing.”

A pulse of something wretched fills the space between us. I’m at a loss, so I stand in silence.

He rises to his feet with a fiery gaze dialed in on me. “If you think boys like you don’t get taken advantage of in this industry, you have a lifetime of misery waiting to slap the shit out of you, shocking you until you finally see your place in this business.”

“You know, you’re right. I am getting taken advantage of. By you and you’re supposed to have my back.” I jam my finger into his chest. “Call off the stories and fix this mess.”

“Or what?”