was labeled the villain on day one. Poor little Bianca. Everything I ever say about our breakup gets twisted around to make me look even worse. I just keep my mouth shut these days. Lesson learned.”
Better writers than Toni had tried to give Steve’s side of the story and he was correct—even when he wasn’t portrayed as a complete asshole, he ended up looking like one.
“I could try to put a different slant on it in the book,” she said. “Maybe we could include nice memories of Bianca with the band before your relationship got rocky.” She’d seen photos of Bianca with the band when they’d first started out. If Steve was okay with it, Toni would love to include her as part of the band’s beginnings.
“That relationship was always rocky, but we did have some good times in the beginning.”
“Can I include her in the history of the band?”
“Depends on what you include,” he said with a laugh.
“I’ll run it by you and you can give me some insider information on her part.”
“Maybe,” he said, still looking unconvinced. She knew he’d need time to digest the possibility of portraying Bianca in a good light. They’d been battling each other so long, he probably had a hard time remembering the good times. And that was what Toni was after for the book. The good times.
Shifting gears, Toni asked, “So what about your second wife?”
Steve’s face fell. “Where did you hear—” He shot to his feet and raced to the door. “I’m going to kill him. Dead.”
Toni reacted on instinct, hurrying after him and catching his hand just before he grabbed the handle to slide the door open.
“I’m sorry I asked,” she said. “I didn’t realize it was a touchy subject.”
“Not touchy,” Steve said. “Secret. Logan swore on his life that he’d never tell anyone, so that means I get to kill him.”
“Wait.” It hadn’t been Logan who’d told her.
Steve ignored her plea and slid the door open so hard it crashed into the frame with a loud bang. Like a freed beast, Steve sprang from the room with murder in his eyes.
Toni caught the astonished expression on Logan’s face just before Steve jumped on him. She could add interviewer to her list of things she sucked at. Not only had she asked only one legitimate question during their short interview, she’d managed to send her interviewee into an uncontrollable rage in mere minutes.
As no one else on the bus seemed intent on saving Logan’s life, Toni dashed down the aisle and tried to get a hand on the flailing drummer before he did permanent damage to her squirming boyfriend or justfriend or whatever he wanted to call himself.
Twenty
Logan wasn’t sure why he was suddenly caught up in a brawl, but he wasn’t about to sit there and take a punishing without retaliation. He took several punches to the ribs before he got in a single well-placed blow to Steve’s shoulder.
“You’re a dead man, Schmidt,” Steve yelled.
Logan was sure he’d done something to deserve getting his ass kicked, but hell if he could think of anything.
“What did I do?”
All the air rushed from Logan’s lungs as a body landed on Steve’s back and flattened them both to the floor. He was astonished to see a mass of long brown hair writhing about over Steve’s shoulder. Steve easily tossed Toni off his back by flipping to one side. While Logan took advantage of his opening and tried to scramble from beneath Steve, the drummer caught Logan’s neck in the crook of his elbow and squeezed him into a headlock. Already winded, Logan latched onto Steve’s forearm with both hands and tried to pry his arm loose so he could take a decent breath.
“Please don’t hurt him,” Toni cried, her hands next to his on Steve’s arm.
Technically, he was already hurt, but he didn’t feel that he was truly in danger. It wasn’t as though he and Steve didn’t regularly get into fights. True, they were usually both drunk, so the blows hurt less, but unlike Max and Dare, who preferred to talk through problems like a couple of wimps, he and Steve preferred to let off steam through their fists. Which was why everyone on the bus with the exception of Toni didn’t intervene in Logan’s impending murder.
“Why can’t you ever keep your big mouth shut?” Steve growled.
Logan’s grip loosened as his surroundings began to swim around him.
“I don’t care if you’re screwing her, she’s a goddamned journalist. You have to watch