Angel (Fallen Angel, #3)(19)

Was this guy kidding with this shit? But before I could answer, Halo spoke up.

“He doesn’t take orders from anyone, and neither do I. So if you’re about to tell us we can’t be together, then you need a better strategy.”

I whipped my head to the side, my mouth all but falling open at Halo’s ballsy answer, and I felt the tension in my shoulders ease a little. It seemed the angel and I were on the same page. It also seemed like I wasn’t the only one Levi had to impress with this particular answer.

“First of all, let’s clear something up,” Levi said. “I’m not your mother or your father. I’m not about to tell you who you can and can’t date. Nor will I play matchmaker or pimp,” he said, looking to the rest of the guys. “That’s not my style. My job is to make you look good. To make the band look good. I am here to make sure the world sees the best possible version of yourselves, no matter who you’re dating. And that means getting ahead of anybody out there who wants to make you look less than perfect. Capiche?”

Well, okay then. As silence descended around the table, I looked to Killian, who arched an eyebrow as if to say, See? Told you he was good, and I had to admit, this little speech of Levi’s was the best thing that’d come out of his mouth so far.

The last thing we needed was another Brian who had not only wanted to run the band but also our private lives. I wasn’t about to hire anyone who was determined to make Halo and me hide our relationship.

“Okay,” I said, and leaned back in my chair, throwing my arm up along the back of the booth so I could finger Halo’s hair. “You’ve got my attention.”

“Oh, thank God. I was worried for a minute there that you didn’t like me,” Levi said, a glint in his eye.

“Okay, okay,” Killian said, shaking his head as he let out a sigh. “Back to what you were saying, Levi, about smoothing things over with these two and focusing on the band. How would you go about that?”

Levi nodded, but before he could say anything, Jagger interrupted. “Yeah, how about you tell us what you think will happen when this hits stands next week.”

Jagger tossed his early release of Rolling Stone on the table in front of Levi, where my and Halo’s relationship was about as in your face as it could be.

A low whistle filled the air as Levi picked up the magazine, his eyes roving over every inch of skin displayed on the cover. “Nice.”

Halo made an unintelligible sound that had Levi raising his eyes, and the cheeky smile led me to believe this guy was holding back when he said to Halo, “You don’t like it?”

“I…” Halo started, and then Levi looked to me.

“Let me guess: you love it.”

“Wouldn’t you? Halo’s fucking hot.”

“Viper,” Halo said, and rolled his eyes, as the rest of the guys groaned.

Levi dropped his gaze back to the image and nodded. “As much as I know you’re going to hate this, Viper,” he said in a totally detached voice as he studied the cover more closely, “I agree with you. Halo is hot. But so are you. And together? Well, let’s just say Rolling Stone knows when they’ve got a winner on their hands. This is going to sell like hotcakes.”

I turned to Halo to see his cheeks were flushed as he stared in disbelief at Levi, who was now flipping through the magazine. “What’d I tell you? The cover is hot, Angel. We’ve got nothing to worry about.”

Levi took a moment to read over the article and look at the rest of the images, and then he shut the magazine and looked at all of us. “Okay, so here’s what I’d do. We need to take the story back.”

“Take it back?” Slade said, frowning. “But you just said the article will sell.”

“No, no.” Levi chuckled. “Not the article. This story,” he said, pointing between me and Halo. “After the prerelease party, all anyone can talk about is Viper’s grand declaration of love, and once this hits stands, it will only fuel that fire, because they are all out there speculating about the two of you. What happened after the party? Are they still together? Has the bad boy of TBD finally been tamed? So we need to take the story back. We need to control it.”

That actually made sense. Okay, so maybe this Levi guy was smarter than I first thought…maybe.

“I think the best thing to do is set up an interview with one show, have you two set the record straight—or not so straight, in this case.” Levi winked. “Say as little or as much as you want to about the relationship; you can decide later. Then, after you tell the story, you all go on to talk about the band. Voilà. That way you’re killing two birds with one stone, and after the story is out there, you no longer need to talk about it. You grant this one interview about your personal lives, get it done and over with, and after that, you stipulate you will only do interviews about the band.”

“Do you think that would really work?” Halo said.

“I do,” I said, surprising both Killian and Levi, who nodded.

“And anytime someone comes to you after the interview wanting a comment or photograph,” Levi said, “or you see something you don’t want getting around, you tell me and I’ll put a stop to it.”

“Just like that? No questions or arguments, you’ll just deal with it?” I asked, remembering the many showdowns I’d had with Brian.