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The weight of that reality hung over both of us like a cloud. Ryan leaned on the bar and put his head in his hands.
There was nothing else I could do but wrap my arm around him. He leaned into me, and it turned into a hug. He clung tightly to me, more emotional than I’d ever seen the normally abrasive man. Robbie watched from across the bar like a proud father, and wiped an imaginary tear from his eye. I stuck my tongue out at him.
“Thanks, Nadia,” Ryan said. “I needed this.”
“What else are fuck-buddies good for?”
“You mean besides hot sex?” he asked.
“Obviously.” I gave him a weak smile. “Maybe if we find the saboteur, it’ll exonerate you.”
“Maybe,” he said doubtfully.
The liquor was starting to hit me. So were other aspects of the theater trap.
“It could have been me,” I said. “Atkins suggested Tatiana take a break between songs and let me take one. If I had stepped in, it would have been me who fell through the trapdoor.”
Ryan’s eyes sparkled with thought. “It was awfully strange that Atkins suggested she take a break, wasn’t it?”
“I guess.”
“Tatiana is a drama queen,” Ryan went on. “She would never let the understudy take a song, not while the Times writer was there. Especially not a solo song like More Than Money. So why did Atkins even offer it?”
“At the time, I assumed you or Andy told him how I’d crushed that song last night.” I smiled at the memory. “God, I would have crushed it tonight, too.”
Ryan waved off my thought. There was a fire in his eyes that I’d seen before. “Maybe Atkins knew. Maybe he set the trap for Tatiana to get rid of the show’s weakest link. But then she suddenly starts singing her heart out, showing what she can really do. So Atkins changed his mind, and tried to get you to do it instead.”
I made a face at him. “But wasn’t the trapdoor sensor activated by remote control? That’s what I heard Andy saying. If Atkins did plan the trap, and did change his mind after hearing Tatiana sing, he could have just un-triggered the device. Right?”
“It’s too fishy,” Ryan said. “Atkins was acting weird all night. It has to be him!”
“You’re being silly,” I said. “If it was Atkins, he wouldn’t have needed to break into the theater to leave the note for Tatiana. He literally has one of the only keys to the place. And he just fought to get us those security cameras…”
“All red herrings to throw us off,” Ryan said bitterly.
Any other time, I wouldn’t have pushed back against his ranting. But with a few shots of liquor in me, I had more courage to say what I thought to my new friend. And I was afraid he would do something rash tonight if I didn’t say something to calm him down.
I took Ryan by the hand and waited until he looked me in the eye.
“Ryan, I think you’re upset at getting fired by Atkins. Which is totally understandable! I would be too. But you’re allowing it to cloud your judgement about the saboteur. You’re focused on Atkins and ignoring all other evidence.” I smiled. “And I’m telling you all of this because that’s what a good fuck-buddy would do.”
He was still resistant to my argument, but I could see that I was getting through to him. A little bit of fire had left his eyes. Enough that I didn’t think he would do anything crazy tonight.
He reached into his phone. “Does this place serve food? I’m starving.”
“Afraid not. But there’s a really good Italian place a block over that…” I trailed off.
Italian.
I yanked my phone out of my pocket to check the time. Instead, I saw four missed calls from Braden and a dozen text messages. My phone was still on Do Not Disturb from rehearsal.
And I was late for dinner with Braden’s parents.
“Fuck!” I shouted.
46
Nadia
