Page 104 of Kiss Marry Kill
“Jason.”
“Hey, boss. Sorry to bother you, but Nelly wants to talk to you. Says it’s important.”
“Put her on.”
Jax hit the speaker and Megan slid in next to him.
“Hi, Jax. How’s Megan?”
“I’m good, Nell. I’m here. You’re on speaker.”
“Hi, Meg. We miss you. It’s not the same without you on the bus.” Nelly said.
“I miss you too. I can’t wait for this nightmare to be over.”
“So, I’ve been going crazy thinking where I knew this Ryan guy from. I’ve been going over it in my head, looking at photos to see if it jogged my memory, and then it hit me all of a sudden.”
“Nell,” Jax interrupted, “before you say anything else, where are you? Who’s by you?”
“Just Jason. We stopped for dinner. I’m still on the bus. Everyone else, even the driver, is out.”
“Okay, go ahead.”
“So, before you came along there was this— Oh, wait, Taylor just walked in . . .”
“Left my phone in here. Hey, whatcha guys doing?” Taylor asked, and there was silence, probably because Nell wasn’t sure what to say.
“Hi, Taylor. I’m on speaker with Nelly,” Megan said, and Jax shot her daggers. “I trust them, Jackson! They’re family.”
“Wait! What? Are we suspects now too?” Taylor shrieked. “What the hell?”
“No. No! Jax is just being overly cautious, is all. Nelly was just about to tell us she remembers where she’s seen Ryan before.”
“I don’t like this. It’s tearing us apart. You know Nelly and I would never hurt you.” Taylor continued.
“I know,” Meg said, and elbowed Jax.
“Calm down,” Jackson said. “Just keep going, Nelly, and shut the door of that damn bus. I don’t want everyone knowing what we’re talking about. Jason, I want the door secured. No one else walks in until we’ve hung up. You hear me?”
“Yes, boss.”
“Okay so as I was saying—and Taylor may remember better than me. Taylor, remember those gigs we used to play around Florida before Megan came along? We didn’t know anything about the lights, and Jeff, our old manager, kept saying that it was important to look professional, so we hired that company to help us.”
“Of course, what about it?” Taylor asked. “Oh shit . . .”
“Yes!” Nelly said, excitedly. “You remember, right? That lighting guy, never knew his name.”
“Oh yeah, of course. Yes, oh my god, that’s him. Oh fuck, wait a second.” There was silence.
“Taylor?” Nell asked, concern lacing her voice.
“Fuck. I knew there was something up with that bitch. I knew not to trust her,” Taylor said, sounding as if she was talking mostly to herself.
“What?” Jax stood and barked at the phone. “What is it?”
“Tamara. Tamara slept with that guy. Remember that lighting guy who she disappeared with and went on a two-day binge? You took over that night, Megan.”
“Oh my god, yes!” Megan covered her mouth. “That’s the day I met him. I didn’t remember that. I thought I’d met him at the Amsterdam concert. Oh shit, I remember. He was a lot thinner back then and he was wearing glasses.”
