She was pretty tired of having other people tell her what to do. Being an adult should give her a certain amount of autonomy. She’d never imagined that signing one contract would give it all away.
Breathing in, she realized she’d have to fight this battle later.
The damage was already done anyway. How many millions in circulation did the magazine have? Whatever the number, those subscribers had all read that headline, seen her ass cheeks hanging out of that bathing suit, and believed the news about her engagement.
Pushing that horror away, she focused on what was really important. There was something far more pressing on today’s schedule.
“Remember, I have that doctor’s appointment today. You booked the town car, right?” she asked.
Daniel glanced up from his cell phone. “Uh, no. Not yet.”
Luna felt the deep frown form between her brows. “Not yet? Why not?”
“Because you really can’t afford to devote hours traveling to the city to see a doctor, and then hours back again. You have a show tonight.”
“That’s why I made the appointment early, so I’d be back in time.” She needed that car here in an hour. That was why she made sure he knew to book in advance.
Dammit.
Daniel watched as she strode toward the phone and shook his head. “Why do you insist on driving to Manhattan to see a doctor during your tour? It’s almost over. Wait until you get back to Miami. Don’t you want to go to your own doctor at home?”
She glared at him. “I can’t wait.”
“Why not?” he asked.
She hesitated, holding back the words on the tip of her tongue. “You wouldn’t understand.”
Damn Aunt Camila for insisting she not tell Daniel about her diagnosis until the tour was over and he was back in Florida near her.
Luna wouldn’t have even known about her aunt’s cancer herself if her aunt hadn’t been acting so weird on their last phone call.
She’d insisted her aunt tell her what was wrong. But once she knew, she wished she didn’t know.
Breast cancer. Two words that twisted her gut every single time she heard them.
It had been what had killed her mother when Luna had been only fifteen. And now, ten years later, her aunt had it too.
Two sisters with the same diagnosis—it was obvious. It ran in her family.
The doctors had caught her aunt’s cancer early. Much earlier than her mother’s. The prognosis was good. But it was proof that Luna needed to find out sooner rather than later. She had to know now if she had the gene mutation.
And if she was going to get the BRCA gene test and consider the worst-case scenario, she was going to do it at a world class medical facility. Tour or no tour.
If the record label was going to force her to perform at every one of the many, many colleges in New York State, she was going to take advantage of it and get the test done in Manhattan while she was here.
She wouldn’t let down her fans. She’d finish the tour. But she had to know if she had the gene. The sooner, the better. Her life could literally depend on it.
And in the midst of worrying about her aunt, and her own health, and maintaining this grueling schedule, and her “engagement” news, she had to deal with Daniel and his not understanding her need to see the doctor.
“Daniel, I love you, but this is not up for debate. I’m going.” She reached for the receiver on the desk phone and pressed the button for the hotel’s operator.
“Who are you calling?” he asked.
“The concierge to book me a car.”
“I can—”
“No.” She held up one hand to stop his protest. “I’ll do it.”
Sadly, she no longer trusted him to handle it.
Daniel was the one person in her professional life who was supposed to be completely on her side. He was blood. Family. The boy who’d been like a brother to her after her mother died and Aunt Camila had taken her in.
And now she couldn’t depend on him to do what was best for her. Even something as small as ordering a car. Never mind that he’d all but sold her into matrimony, like she was chattel in the medieval feudal days.
As the operator answered, she glanced at Daniel. He continued to look unhappy with her.
She ignored him and said, “Hi. I’m sorry this is so last minute, but I need to book a car to take me to Manhattan leaving in one hour. Is that something you can do for me?”
Luna might be able to survive the worst from her DNA test, but she wasn’t sure she could survive being completely alone in this world. A world where it was becoming apparent no one—no one—had her back.
She was on her own. That was fine. She could handle it.
“We can get you a car at eleven,” the person on the phone informed her.
Straightening her spine, she gripped the receiver tighter and answered, “No. I’m sorry. That’s too late. I need it here in an hour.”
“Hold, please.”
She sighed and waited. Finally, after another lengthy hold, the person came back on the line. “It will be here in an hour. Shall I ring your room when it arrives?”
“Yes. Please. Thank you.” Relieved, she felt like superwoman as she hung up the phone and shot Daniel a glare. “It will be here in an hour.”
Yup. She’d be fine. Even if she were all alone.
four
“Hey, we’ve got a couple of hours before dinner. You wanna stop at the Muddy River Inn for a cold one before heading home?” Kyle’s brother Kurt glanced over at him in the passenger seat of the truck before focusing back on the highway.
Kyle shook his head. “Nah. Not today. Let’s just go straight to the house.”
“What?” Kurt shot him a surprised look. “You never say no to a beer at the MRI.”
Kyle lifted one shoulder. “I don’t do a lot of things I used to since this shit happened.”
He lifted his chin toward the ankle that throbbed in time with the beat of the old eighties song playing on the local radio station.
“Yeah. About that. How did you break your ankle anyway?” Kurt asked, eying the big black boot.
Kyle scowled at his older brother’s question. It squashed any lift in spirits he’d felt at finally landing at New York’s Albany International Airport.
The last thing he wanted to admit was that he was just a klutz. Make that a lazy klutz. That his foot had landed wrong and the bone snapped. And that was because he’d tucked in the laces on his boots rather than tying them tight, which would have given his ankle more support.
But it had happened when he’d been running over rocky terrain to leap into the helicopter that was their exfil, all while being shot at in a place they technically weren’t supposed to be.
That made it not a lie when he answered, “It’s classified.”
Thank goodness his ankle had twisted on the last step as he’d jumped up and grabbed the bird’s landing gear. If he’d broken it even a few steps back it likely would have cost him his life. Or that of his teammates when they got back off the bird to save him.
Kurt, looking less than happy at not getting his answer, eyed the crutches, which were crowding Kyle in the passenger seat of the truck’s cab. “How long you gonna be on those?”