Fade to Red

Ian stepped beside him as they walked through the back halls of the auditorium.

“I’ve heard about the mess with Roxie and Leo,” Ian said. “We were at their hotel today swimming and Mirielle stopped by. That woman is a snake, Beck. I wouldn’t trust anything she says.”

“How long have you known about Leo?” Beckham asked.

“I met him the last time he visited Roxie.”

“Fu

Ian held his hands up. “I don’t get why she didn’t tell you about him. Makes no sense to me. She’s so proud of him, I’m shocked she hasn’t talked about him non-stop on this tour, but she hasn’t. She told Sparrow that we’re the only ones who know about Leo because of Journey—she’s wanted to remain professional, but knew we’d understand how much she misses him.” He studied Beckham and gave his hair a tug. “It’s weird, I’ve never thought about Leo looking a thing like you, but I do see similarities. That being said,” he pointed at Beckham, “Roxie is decent, and if she says he’s not, he’s not.”

Beckham stopped walking and glared at Ian. “Nice to know where you stand.”

Ian shook his head. “I’m standing right here beside you, and I’ll also continue standing by Roxie. I haven’t known either of you a helluva long time, but I know you’ve both become good friends to Sparrow and me. If I have to be the one to talk sense into either one of you, I will.” He put his hand on Beckham’s shoulder and gave it a shake.

Beckham returned the favor, shaking Ian a little harder than necessary, until he felt better.

“How are you so laid-back all the time?” Beckham asked.

“Lots and lots of sex with my beautiful wife,” Ian said. “If you and Roxie can get on the same page as each other pretty soon, maybe you can be as copacetic as me.” He was prepared this time when Beckham tried to grab him. He jumped out of the way and laughed all the way down the hall.

Normally Beckham had no trouble getting into the zone, but tonight he felt all over the place. When he wasn’t thinking obsessively about what it would be like to have a son, he was trying to cloud out the images of Roxie that had taken over his mind. Her skin, her hair falling down her silky back. Her breasts in his hands and mouth. Her whimpering his name. The look on her face when she shattered around him.

Ever since being with her, his body craved her. How had everything gone so haywire?

His body ached. His head hurt. His throat had a solid lump in it that wasn’t going away. Maybe he was coming down with something. If thousands of people weren’t counting on him to show up, he’d cancel the show. There was no way he could get away with that, not this late.

Sierra found him in the dressing room. He knew she’d heard about what happened. She didn’t say anything, just came over to where he was sitting and hugged him.

Nate came in a couple of times and walked back out each time when he saw they were still sitting there.

“What are you going to do?” she finally asked.

“Find out the truth and take him to Italy with us.”

She leaned back. “If he’s yours, you mean. And even if he is, you can’t just take him from her, Beck.”

He heard what she was saying and he knew she was right, but … if she’d really kept him from his son all these years, he was absolutely going to make sure he spent the rest of his life making up for lost time. Whatever it took.

There was a brisk knock on Roxie’s hotel door. She opened it to find Anthony standing there, holding up a dress. “Here, put this on. We’ve been waiting on you. The show starts in thirty minutes!”

Her eyes widened. “Beckham still wants me to do the show?”

“You know the saying—it must go on, baby!”

“This is all too much.” She shook her head. “I’m not ready,” she told him. “And I told you earlier I’m not doing it.”

“You can throw on more makeup on the ride over. Suza

“Whatever happened to Tracy? She did my makeup the best. I miss her.”

“She was the best, but she flaked and didn’t show after her little sick break. You only get one chance with me.”

Roxie lifted an eyebrow.

“Besides you, I guess.” He rolled his eyes. “Come on, hurry up. We don’t have time to dilly-dally. Beckham sent me over to get you. I told him about your concerns and he said he was taking care of more security.”

“You guys are insane, you know that, right?” She scowled at Anthony and then looked at Chloe and Leo. “I really just want to be with them. It’s been a crazy day. We were going to hang out together…” Her eyes filled with tears. “If he manages to somehow take my son…” she whispered. “Leo is not his, Anthony.”

“Then there shouldn’t be any problem,” he said simply. “We’ll take them to my bus. It’s all pla

“I don’t know. I’d rather him not…” Roxie crossed her arms over her chest.

“Put the dress on and let’s all go. I will personally keep Leo and Chloe company tonight,” Anthony promised.

“Yay!” Leo said. “And Beck said I needed to visit his bus!”

Roxie bit down on her tongue to keep from yelling. She changed into the dress, brushed her teeth, and they took off.

It’d be interesting to see what kind of show they managed to pull off under such chaos.

Roxie crawled into bed that night, exhausted. They were still on Anthony’s bus. Leo had fallen asleep before the show was over, and Anthony thought it would be best for Roxie if they all stayed put. Nate usually stayed on this bus too, but they never saw him. She figured he had moved to another one for the night.

Being with Beckham on a normal night was already like playing Chutes and Ladders—colorful, making progress then sudden drop offs, and having to go back to the begi

She kept thinking of his face and felt her insides tremble. He’d looked like he wanted to murder her and devour her all at once. And then to make things worse, they’d been carted off during the intermission to get their mouths swabbed, making her feel like a guest on Maury. The more she thought about it, the more she felt very justified in her growing outrage at Beckham, not to mention the non-stop news shows that were discussing the possibility of Leo being Beckham’s love child.

She’d made the mistake of turning the TV on to see what they were saying and had seen a picture of her dancing with Beckham five and a half years earlier. How had they managed to find that? And one of her ‘friends’ from school was giving interviews about how obsessed Roxie had been with Beckham Woods throughout high school, making her sound like a star-crazed groupie who had co

Even more uncomfortable, everyone was mad at her. She’d been on the other bus during intermission and they’d taken their turns at saying their piece. Vanessa was hurt that she didn’t tell them about Leo and was in disbelief that he was Beckham’s. Brooke just sat at the table and scowled at her, the fury palpable from across the room. The guys were mad at her for the tension she’d caused. The bus had never felt so small.

She didn’t bother defending herself. The test results would take care of that. She walked out, stu

And Sierra … it broke her heart that her new friendship with Sierra had been reduced to quiet distrust. She’d tried to pull Sierra aside to tell her the whole story, but Sierra had just said she needed to stick by her brother on this one. She seemed sorry, but resolute.

She couldn’t imagine ever being any more humiliated than this. It stirred up the hurt from years before that she’d thought she was finally begi