Sarah and Trish had just entered the hotel, back from their shopping trip, when they heard Georgie call from behind them.

He jogged to catch up, kissing Trish on the cheek as he took their bags. "Sam will be along soon. He had a few things he had to do."

Georgie winked at Sarah. "I'm not allowed to tell." He laughed as Sarah tried to grill the secret out of him. "No way, he'd kill me if I told you."

Later, when Sam had returned and they were alone in their room, Sarah tried to coax him into telling her.

Sam just laughed, infuriatingly sounding exactly like Georgie. "You will see, I promise. I can't tell you, it would ruin the surprise." He fell over, onto the bed, bringing Sarah with him.

"I want to surprise you." He whispered as he ran his fingers over her face, then trailed them down, playing with the buttons on her shirt.

"Why don't you model your new clothes for me?" He nuzzled her breast, causing shivers to run through her. "Didn't you tell me that you bought some new lace panties?"

Sarah returned his caresses, her hands running over him lightly; she felt his arousal under her fingers.

She held her hand still, teasing him as he pushed against her. "Do you still want to see my new lace panties?"

"Only if you're wearing them now." Sam said as Sarah unzipped his jeans.

Sarah slid up Sam's body and put her head on his chest as he lay back on the pillows. His eyes were closed, his face flushed, as he breathed hard.

"My god, sweetheart. Where did you learn to be so good at that?" He gasped, then shook his head, laughing. "No, don't tell me. I don't want to know."

Sarah listened to his heart, waiting as it slowed to a normal pace. Sam had his arms wrapped around her as she lay on him. "Sam, I have to tell you something." She said softly.

"Hm-m?"

"I lost the blue glass heart. I'm sorry, but I don't know where it is. I feel so bad, you gave it to me and said it was your heart. I promised to take care of it."

Sam heard the pain in her voice.

"It's ok, Sarah." He whispered as he squeezed his arms tighter around her. "You have the real thing now, you know."

His hands played absently with her braid. His face took on a closed look and Sarah knew his mind was on other things. She waited patiently until he was ready to talk again.

"I was told today that we have to start riding in the tour bus with them." Sam went on bitterly. "Gisette wants us to all be together."

"What about your bike? We can't just leave it here." Sarah asked in surprise.

"We have a couple days break next week, after our show in Minneapolis. I talked Gisette into waiting until then, we can leave right after the show and drive it back to New York, then catch a plane to St. Louis."

"How far is that? Isn't that going to be a long drive?"

"If we leave right after the show, we can stop somewhere for the next evening, then get up early and head out again. We won't have very much time, but we can do it." Sam had put a lot of thought into it.

Sarah shook her head, "Sam, that is too much. Why can't you ship the bike back?" She told him about another student from her school who had done it.

"I wanted to ride with you, and I mean really ride somewhere, not just to the next hotel. I wanted to just be alone with you for awhile." Sam sounded frustrated.

Sarah leaned up from his chest and kissed him, her tongue meeting his, sliding sexily around, teasing him.

She pulled away as she had a sudden thought. "Why don't we take those two days and go away? You can ship the bike back home, we can go off by ourselves, and we can still fly to St. Louis and meet up with the band. No one has to know any different."

Sam grinned. "You have a fiendish mind, you little devil. It sounds like a plan that we can get away with. Where would you like to go?"

Sarah laughed and rolled off him, snuggling into his side. "Surprise me!"

The group met at the restaurant in the hotel for their dinner together. Gisette was really pushing for them to make this a ritual before their shows, and no one seemed to mind. It was a good chance for everyone to be together and talk.

Sarah sat next to Sam, as usual, but was surprised to see Gisette sit on his other side. The past two nights she had sat at the other end of the table, preferring to avoid Sam and Sarah as much as possible. At least Sarah thought she was avoiding both of them.

Another thought caused Sarah to narrow her eyes as she watched Gisette whisper something to Sam. Maybe it was Sarah, herself, that Gisette was avoiding. It was obvious that Gisette and Sam would talk during the day. Gisette went to watch the band practice every day.

Sam's hand slipped over hers, resting it on his leg, as he tilted his head toward Gisette. It was as if he knew what Sarah was thinking.

She squeezed his hand, then slid her finger in to tickle his palm. He flipped their hands over and starting tickling her back.

Sarah giggled, then looked up and saw Trish watching her from across the table.

Trish raised her eyebrows at Sarah and smiled. "What are you two doing under that table?" She asked wickedly.

Sarah shrugged her shoulders and laughed.

Sam turned away from Gisette and glanced over at Trish.

"A little foreplay." He said happily.

"Oh, my god. You two are in that honeymoon phase!" Trish rolled her eyes and nudged Georgie, who was watching them now too. "Remember when we were like that?"

She laughed as she watched her fiance's eyes light up and she added. "Yeah, we couldn't keep our hands off each other."

Georgie put his arm around Trish, pulling her in to him.

"I think we still do pretty good for an old couple." He leaned down and kissed her. "And we have the rest of our lives together."

Sam looked at Sarah, and smiled as she touched his dimple lightly with her fingertip.

Neither of them spoke as they stared into each others eyes.

Gisette had sat, quietly fuming, while this exchange was going on. When she finally spoke up, everyone felt as if the spell had broken. "Sam has agreed to return his bike home and fly out to St. Louis next week."

Georgie frowned and looked across the table at his brother. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

Sam raised his shoulders, tensing under Georgie's stare. "Gisette wants us to be in the bus with the band. I don't have much choice."

Sarah noticed a look passing between the brothers, and sensed the unspoken words. There was some kind of communication going on between them that she couldn't figure out.

Their eyes broke apart then as Sam looked at her. "Besides, taking the bike home gives me and Sarah a chance to be alone." He said this loudly enough that Gisette would hear.

Sarah could hear an unspoken challenge in his voice; she felt the tenseness in his body.

Something was going on but she had no idea what it was.

After the show, they were in Georgie's room again. Sarah sat on the floor beside Sam, his arm curled around her shoulder. She slid her eyes around the crowded room; there were a lot of unfamiliar faces there tonight.

It seemed that the girls outnumbered the guys. She saw Tex and Leon on the bed with three young looking girls. Tex had one on each side of him, his eyes closed as they ran their hands over his body.

She was shocked to see Leon lay back on the bed, and pull the other girl with him. They started heavily making out.

"What's Leon doing? He's married!" Sarah whispered in Sam's ear.

Sam turned his half closed eyes towards the bed, then looked down at Sarah.

"Clea went back home when they got to Columbus."

He passed her the joint he held, and tried to focus his eyes on her face, his words were becoming more slurred. "Some wives don't like to travel with their guys."

Sarah looked away from the couple on the bed, scanning the room again. She saw two girls sitting in a chair, watching her and Sam.

One girl flipped back her long red hair and looked away, saying something to her friend, when she saw Sarah notice her.

But Sarah had seen the look in the red head's eyes when she had stared at Sam. She didn't like what she saw.

Sarah got up to hand the joint to Trish, adding in a whispered voice, "I need to talk to you."

Trish nodded as she hit the joint, then passed it on to Barry, who was sitting next to her. "C'mon, let's go to the bathroom."

The girls each grabbed their drinks and cigarettes; Trish snagged a new joint off the table. With a quick word to Sam, Sarah followed her into the adjoining bathroom.

"What's up?" Trish leaned back on the counter, lighting the joint before passing it to Sarah.

"What's going on out there? There so many girls in our rooms." Sarah sat on the edge of the bathtub.

She put her hands down to steady herself as she felt her butt sliding off. She had smoked a lot tonight and Sam had kept her glass of Jack Daniels full, pouring in more when he saw the level go down.

Trish flipped her hand in the air, "Those are just the groupies. There are always more like this when we play two cities that are so close together. They followed us here from Columbus. The red head calls herself Cherry Fyre, that's fire but with a y." She made hand quotes in the air.

Trish lit a cigarette and watched Sarah sharply through the smoke. "You can't let them bother you."

Sarah gave up her struggle to sit on the tub and slid to the floor instead, leaning back on it. She drank from her glass as she thought about it.

"It does bother me, Trish. How can Leon just forget his wife so soon and be out there with that girl?"

"He hasn't forgotten her. This is his way of coping with it. Some guys do that, you know. This life isn't easy for some. The girls that are around help take their minds off it, relieve the pressure."

Trish looked at Sarah sideways as she said this. She was leery of what Sarah was leading up to.

"I see." Sarah stared at the floor, smoking the joint. "Sam was like that before, wasn't he?" She asked.

"Yeah, but he's not like that now. You have to remember that." Trish spoke with conviction.

"Was he with Cherry before?" Sarah slid her eyes sideways, not wanting to see Trish's face. She hoped the answer was no.

Trish said nothing, just looked at her. "Do you really want to know?"

"Was Georgie like that too? I mean, before you started traveling with him?"

"Georgie and I have been together since high school. I have always traveled with him."

Trish gave a bitter laugh. "It's not easy being with someone 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We argue just like everyone else."

She looked over at Sarah and added sadly, "I have left him before, a few times. I know what he did while I was gone. When I came back after the second or third time, I decided I needed to do something, other than just wait on the sidelines for him. I brought my camera back with me. I spend a lot of time taking pictures."

Trish jerked her head towards the room on the other side of the door. "And I try not to dwell on which one, or more, of those girls he has fucked when I'm not here."

Sarah shook her head, "I don't know if I can do that. It's bad enough that Gisette is around every day."

Trish joined Sarah on the floor, leaning back against the tub side also. "Has she been giving you a hard time?"

She took the joint from Sarah's hand and hit it, holding the smoke in.

"No, in fact, just the opposite. She ignores me, as if I'm not even there." Sarah lit a cigarette, and pulled the ashtray off the counter, putting it between them. "But I know she talks to Sam at practice every day. Today, at the restaurant, was one of the few times, since I've joined the tour, that she's talked to him when he's with me."

Sarah drank more of her drink, noticing that the glass was nearly empty. She stared at it wondering how many times it had been filled tonight. "I know they were together before Sam met me."

"They were together just a couple days ago." Trish clapped her hand to her mouth in horror. "Oh my god! That just slipped out!"

She saw the surprised look come on Sarah's face. "Please, don't tell Sam I told you."

Sarah felt the numbness spread through her body. She tried to speak but her lips refused to move. Her stomach rebelled against the alcohol and she made it to the toilet just in time, retching up the contents.

"Sarah, honey, please! I'm sorry I said that, I've had too much to drink."

Trish rushed to get her a cold wash cloth, fumbling with the faucets, as she tried to turn them on. She knelt beside Sarah, handing her the cloth, and rubbing her back.

"He's with you now, that's what matters."

Sarah wiped her face, grimacing at the sour taste in her mouth. "When? You have to tell me when they were together."

She leaned her head back on the tub, her eyes closed. Taking a deep breath, she asked Trish again. "When were Sam and Gisette together? Listen to me! If I knew that Georgie was fucking around on you, wouldn't you want me to tell you?"

Trish took a drink, shaking her head. "Georgie fucks around on me whenever I'm not here."

She looked at Sarah, and exhaled slowly. "I only know what Georgie has told me. And what I have seen of the two of them. She was in his room the night she and Julien came into town, I saw that myself. And they spent the night together, Georgie was in his room the next morning."

"Sam told me all that. He said nothing happened." Sarah said resolutely.

"Really?" Trish raised her eyebrows as she looked at her. She was pissed that Sam had lied to Sarah.

Her voice went down a couple notches. "Georgie said the sparks have been flying between them at practice. They argue constantly."

Sarah listened as Trish talked, she knew she should be hearing it from Sam, but he hadn't said anything about it. This explained the tension she felt at dinner.

"Go on." She urged Trish, knowing there was more.

"The first time they met, you could see something between them. But when they were together, they were always arguing. This is just so much like that, I can't help wonder about it."

"Wonder about it how?" Sarah asked in a raspy whisper.

Trish looked at Sarah, sharply. "Are you sure you want to hear this?"

"Yes." Sarah was numb to the pain. "I want to hear it all."

"Their arguments would always grow louder, bigger, the steam building up in them. Then finally it would blow up, and always ended in...well, you know...hot and heavy." Trish stopped as she concentrated on putting a roach clip on the joint, then hit off it again, passing it to Sarah. "Please, don't tell Sam I've told you all this. But it really burns my ass that he lied to you about it."

Sarah shook her head, impatiently. "I'm glad you told me about it, but I have to believe Sam was telling me the truth. But there's something else going on. What is it?"

"Georgie told me that Gisette gave Sam a command. He gives up the bike and rides with us and you go home."

Sarah looked at Trish in confusion. "Sam told me that she wanted us to ride the bus, not just him."

"The way it was worded, Gisette wasn't including you. Sam did that on his own. He informed her that you both would be on the bus. I hear it pissed off Gisette pretty bad. She wants you gone, and Sam all to herself, but she wouldn't dare say it outright to Sam."

Trish looked at Sarah with sympathy. "She won't give up on this."

"So what do I do?" Sarah looked around at the smoke haze in the bathroom. "How do I stop her?"

"Just watch her, Sarah. She's sneaky."

"Tell me something." Sarah was curious. "How did she come to be road manager in the first place?"

"I'm not sure exactly how it all came down. Julien is a business partner with their dad, that's how he got involved with the band. Gisette is an only child and very spoiled. She went to college and graduated with a business management degree. But she became a model, you've probably seen her in magazines before. Then she became interested in her father's business, and that's when she met Sam. I think she talked her father into letting her do this. He has her on a trial period, if she does the job right, it's hers permanently. So far, she's shown that she is really smart and knows the business. She is very business savvy."

"Fuck!" Sarah exclaimed. "This is crazy!"

"Yeah, it is." Trish looked at her watch, yawning. "We better get out there, we've been in here awhile. Let's see if the party is dying down."

"Wait, I need some mouthwash." Sarah grabbed the bottle from the counter, and swished it around her mouth. Then she spit it out, and nodded for Trish to open the door.

The room had emptied out while the girls had been gone. Sarah noticed that Tex and Leon were gone, apparently taking the three girls with them.

Her heart thudded as she saw Sam where she had left him. He was slouched against the wall, his head back, eyes closed, it was apparent to her that he had passed out.

What disturbed her the most was the sight of Cherry Fyre, passed out with him, her head resting in his lap, and her hand curled familiarly around his balls. Sam's hands were tangled in her hair.

She heard a small laugh come from the opposite corner of the room and looking around, she saw it had come from Gisette.

"You shouldn't leave him alone for so long." Gisette crossed the room and whispered in her ear. "That's one thing I've learned about Sam. His attention span is short when he's stoned. He'll fuck whoever he is with."

Sarah glared at her, "Not when he's with me!"

Gisette opened the door and turned to Sarah. Her smile faltered, then turned into a sneer. "But you weren't here, were you? Just like Saturday night, you weren't here then, either." She slipped out the door, closing it quietly behind her.

Sarah stood over Sam and Cherry, her blood was boiling. She noticed the coke mirror laying beside them. Traces of white powder wound around the red head's mouth and comingled with the trail of saliva that dribbled down Sam's open zipper.

It didn't take a genius to figure out what had taken place here while she was with Trish. She looked around and saw Trish struggling to get Georgie off the floor and onto the bed.

She shook her head in disgust and headed towards the door.

"Wait!" Trish called out from the bed. "What about Sam? You can't just leave him here!"

"Yeah, I fucking can! Let him sleep it off with Cherry." She looked back at the two, passed out, cozily together against the wall. "Maybe he'll get lucky again."