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“Bloody hell, you’re fucking dramatic. You’re not quitting. She’s got loads of potential and natural talent, mate. Something you’ve known for a while, but she needs help. We don’t have time, and no one knows her better than you.”
“She’s not going to listen to me.”
“Make her listen.” Angel stands and leans over the desk. “Just like she did for the better part of a year.” Well, he put the timeline together, anyway. Or at least the part where we were together and not just randomly fucking each other’s brains out. “And while you’re at it, use the opportunity to tell her the truth about everything.”
“You think I haven’t tried,” I grumble. “I tried for months. Why do you care anyway?”
“Just help her.” He turns and walks out without saying more. Maddox and Ryder nod, then follow.
And I’m alone again. Stuck in my thoughts. The idea of working on music again makes me nauseous, but it’s with her. She’s the only person I’ve played for in ten years. I can do this for her.
***
I click the alarm on my key fob and follow the sound in the parking garage to my Tahoe. This level is reserved for Sin Records’ employees, but there is a lot more than you’d expect, considering Maddox and Ryder didn’t officially take over until today.
“Wait up.” Turning around, I spot Henry coming toward me, wearing the suit and tie he only dons when he’s meeting clients. I know he met with the guys today, but he wouldn’t put on the get-up for them, so this must’ve been his last stop. “Heard about your promotion. It’s about goddamn time, brother. Congratulations.” We shake hands as he pulls me in for a rough hug.
“You’ve been talking with a certain group of assholes?”
He nods and laughs. “They’re trying to get me on full-time here. They made a compelling argument, but I convinced them to just hire us to handle security. It’ll be the same thing as having in-house security, anyway.”
“They seem determined to have everything right here. No outsourcing.” I glance at him from the corner of my eye as we continue to our vehicles. “Did you also hear about my first new artist?”
“Might’ve.” His lips pull between his teeth to contain his amusement. He must be loving this, considering he’s always found sick pleasure in giving me hell over Lily after I gave him hell over his drunken one-night-stand with his now girlfriend, who is twelve years his junior.. “I told you months ago they knew.” And he did, among many other things he’s had to say on the matter. Things I wish I’d listened to back then, but the asshole has been my best friend for twenty years. He knew I wouldn’t listen to him any more than he’d ever listened to me. “I’m guessing since you’re not suffering from third-degree burns, she didn’t set you on fire.” We stop when we reach our vehicles. He leans against his old black truck, eyeing mine. “Doesn’t look like she made it down here either.” He nods at my undamaged SUV. My insurance company should be thrilled.
“She didn’t say much of anything, to be honest, but after I-uh-sort of set her off, if she’d had matches, I wouldn’t be standing here.”
“What the hell did you do now?”
I scratch the side of my face and stare at a flickering light in the corner of the garage. “She was going to tell Maddox we can’t work together, so I might have told her—”
“You son of a bitch,” he cuts me off, shoving me against my truck with a clenched jaw and narrowed eyes. “You get her alone for the first time in months, and you go right back to that shit? Liam, I love you, man. You know I do, but I swear, one of these days, I am going to kick your fucking ass.”
Over the last year, Henry has become a fan of Lily. A protector of sorts, I guess, because he thinks she’s good for me and hates how I handled things. He wasn’t wrong, but I was too stubborn. I hold my hands up in surrender before my best friend starts swinging because I will retaliate. “She can’t go to Maddox. It will—”
“It will what? Raise too many questions? Make people talk? Make you look like a creep?”
“Will you shut up and let me—”
“Let you what? Hurt her some more because you can’t get over your hang-ups? Because you won’t deal with your actual issues?” Disgust, I don’t blame him for rolling off him as his chin dips and head shakes.
“If you’d shut up for two seconds, you fucking hothead…” I shake my head and roll my eyes. “I’m trying to tell you she can’t go to Maddox because I don’t want her working with someone else. This is my chance to make her listen.”
“I thought you said you were done with her. That if she wouldn’t listen, then you were done chasing her.”
I did say that a few weeks ago, after spending nearly every weekend outside her dad’s house like a fucking stalker. And calling her twice a day. And texting. It was getting me nowhere, and each trip and avoided call pissed me off more.
“I thought I was too, but when I saw that fucking ring on her finger… When she was standing right in front of me, I knew I would never be done.”
“So you do remember she’s engaged.”
“Think I could forget it? I don’t care whose ring is on her finger. She’s mine, Henry.”
“Okay, so assuming you can get her to listen to you and believe you… Let’s pretend for a minute she’d take your sorry ass back, then what? You go back to hiding her away?”
He seems to forget the hiding wasn’t all me. At least not at first when we went from the occasional fun night to… Fuck, I still don’t know what to call it, but I’m not arguing with him about that right now.
“I told you, and I told her before she ever left, I was going to tell everyone.”
