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“Yeah, that’s why I stopped coming around. I was ashamed. He didn’t give me a reason. I came back tonight to try and get my job back but he’s being odd, like—” I feel weird saying out loud what I’m thinking, that it feels like someone else is pulling the strings and Freddy is just a puppet, but I’m pretty confident I’m way overthinking things. “Who’d he hire to replace me?”
“Nobody,” he says, shaking his head. “I don’t know what he thinks he’s doing. He’s just gonna run this place into the ground further.”
“So nobody’s singing?”
“Nope, just the band every night.”
“That doesn’t make sense, does it?”
“It doesn’t.” He looks around to the rest of the guys. “We’ve all said as much but you know Freddy; he won’t listen to us.”
“Now tell us about this husband of yours.” Julio wraps his arm around me. “What man is good enough for our Stella?”
I tell them how we met and about our fast-tracked love story. “Here’s a picture of us on our honeymoon.” I flip to a photo I took that Atlas didn’t know about at the time. He’s sitting in the background on his phone behind me as I smile into the camera. I pass it around, the guys all teasing me, putting a much-needed smile on my face even if it feels like my heart’s being ripped out as I lie about how wonderfully happy we are.
When the phone gets to Clyde, he lets out a laugh. “You sneaky little thing you,” he says, handing me the phone. “I thought you said you didn’t have a crush on that rich man.”
I laugh in confusion. “What?”
“Your husband,” he says, elbowing me playfully as the guys start to head toward the stage for their first set. “That handsome man with those suits I told you about, the bespoke ones like my daddy made. Who knew all that time he was watching you from behind that light you two were falling in love.”
I feel the color drain from my face as the guys continue laughing and walk up onstage. I sit in complete shock, so many questions racing through my mind as I close my eyes and relive every time I remember him sitting up there in the darkness… watching me.
Chapter 20
Atlas
“Where is she?” I shout at Freddy, holding him by the throat as I pin him against the wall of his office.
“I said I don’t know!” he shouts back in a garbled mess of words.
“What did she want when she came in here?” Freddy falls forward, catching himself by his hands on his desk as he chokes on his own air.
“You son of a bitch!” He fumbles, reaching for the gun in his desk drawer again.
“Tsk, tsk,” I click my tongue at him as I reach into the drawer and pull out the revolver. “Now I’m done asking nicely, Freddy.”
“She wanted her job back, you bastard. She said she had money and tried to pay me, but I told her to get fucking lost.”
I tuck the gun into my waistband and pull out a bill of sale, dropping it onto his desk along with a cashier’s check.
“Sign that.”
“What is it?” He looks at it, then back at me.
“Read it,” I say, questioning if he can even do that.
“Freddy’s isn’t for sale.” He tosses the contract back at me.
“Sign it and take the generous offer that’s on that check and get the fuck out of Chicago.”
“I said—” He’s about to lunge toward me when I pull the gun from my waistband and point it at him, cocking the trigger back.
“And I said, sign the fucking contract and get the fuck out of my city.”
He can’t grab a pen fast enough, and he scribbles his name, shoving the check into the pocket of his lapel. I read over where he signed, making sure he’s not attempting to fuck me in some other way.
“I signed it. Now please, don’t kill me!” Tears stream down his face as he falls to his knees, his hands clasped together. I stare down at the pathetic piece of shit in front of me, realizing for the first time that I would kill for Stella. If it came to that, I wouldn’t think twice.
