That didn’t sound like Annie. Bristol had gotten used to her sending little texts at the end of the night and looked forward to them more than she realized. Maybe Lizzy was lying. Maybe she wanted Bristol to focus solely on the tour and not on the cute musician. It was hard enough to keep up the pretense of working on an album when there were so many moles on tour with them. Lizzy probably didn’t want to deal with another Natasha Breeze on top of that. “I can just talk to her backstage tonight. I’m sure she’ll tell me,” Bristol said.

“You look tired. Why don’t you try to get some rest?”

Bristol couldn’t remember the last time she’d slept. She was too amped up to sleep from Vegas to Los Angeles. Too many thoughts were spinning in her head, and she couldn’t just focus on one thing, so she gave up and let her mind wander for five hours. Most of her happy thoughts led her back to Annie, but some of the bitter ones did, too. She should have elaborated more about her relationship with Sterling to Annie. She didn’t hate Sterling because she broke her heart. It was because she preyed on people. She took advantage of Bristol and so many others.

Tyson Mayfield didn’t care. He encouraged his daughter’s shady tactics. He was a numbers guy who wanted a fat wallet and bragging rights. He had plenty of both. When Bristol worked up enough nerve to tell him she didn’t want to work with Denny Briggs, Tyson promised she wouldn’t have to, but the exact opposite happened. Denny ended up producing her next two albums. If it wasn’t for Lizzy sitting in on every session, Bristol didn’t want to think what Denny would have tried to do to her. Actually, she knew exactly what he would have done. The same thing he did to Ruby Delgado. Sterling knew exactly what was happening to Ruby and did nothing to prevent it. She and Tyson were disgusting. Bristol couldn’t wait to finish the tour and shove any contract they tried baiting her with right in their faces.

Bristol felt a wave of gratitude for Lizzy. “You know you’re the best, right?”

Lizzy looked concerned but masked it with a smile. “We’re almost done. What’s the countdown now?”

“Eleven. Only eleven more shows.”

“That’s less than three weeks.” Lizzy held her hands up for Bristol to slap. Bristol smacked them with enough force they both shook their hands from the sting. “Top Shelf has been asking about signing a contract for that fake album I told them you’ve been working on all tour. I have a feeling they’re going to hold us hostage on the last concert.”