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“Helena! They’re gone! There isn’t another show scheduled. They didn’t wake me!” I squeaked in a panic. “Do you know where they went? I-I have to find them!”
A tear fell into my mouth, salty and sour. Impatiently, I wiped it away and waited for her to tell me what was going on.
“Yes, they are gone.” That was all she said.
Helena sat in some sort of office but not the one I interviewed in. A big painting in shades of white and grey took up the space behind her form. Her face was all made up, perfectly done as usual. Her lips gleamed ruby red like the Joker’s smile.
Shock shot through my heart, making me blink and stare. What was going on? The realization that Helena wasn’t surprised stole my ability to think clearly.
“What do you mean they’re gone?” I croaked. “Th-they have a show I didn’t know about? Can I get a flight there?”
Hope made the words begin to tumble ceaselessly. But Helena’s reply was swift and cold.
“The three men known as Hard Fought have left Manhattan, and they have left you. Your services are no longer needed.” Her voice was like ice. “You will receive your severance check via direct deposit.”
A shiver took over my whole body as quivering fingers almost dropped the phone.
“They left me?” I hated how pathetic I sounded but it was impossible to stop. “Why though? They don’t want to keep me around?”
“Apparently not.” A flash of something crossed her face, something that I couldn’t read. “I’m sorry, but your services are no longer needed. Again, a severance will be paid and I’m sure you’ll find it very generous.”
But I didn’t care about money anymore. I cared about my heart, and how it’d been stabbed through the center.
“Oh. I see.” I stared at the screen until my eyes blurred, unable to swallow past the lump in my throat.
And unbidden, the phone fell from my hands and hit the sheets. They were really gone. An icy wind blew through me. Suddenly, I felt like I was slipping and sliding on a desolate and abandoned sheet of ice. A place nobody wanted to make a home. A place everyone eventually left. A sob erupted from my raw throat.
Didn’t I mean anything at all to them? I thought they cared about me, at least a little bit. Maybe I wasn’t the hottest girl but surely, our shared experiences meant something.
And why would they leave me after the perfect night we had? It just didn’t make any sense. Or maybe I was too stupid to get it.
Suddenly, realization hit. Hard Fought used me. The way this was happening confirmed my darkest fears. Because they had Helena as their go-to, and they’d set this all up. No one moves out so fast and quiet without planning it out beforehand. No one has their closer ready with a check without having it all scheduled in preparation.
With trembling hands, I stared at my cell once more. But the screen was blank. Helena had hung up, wiping her hands of this mess.
Call them! Find out what’s going on! a part of me commanded.
But my heart was numb, and my limbs unmoving. Hot tears rushed down my cold cheeks. The room blurred. Everything around me took on a nightmarish quality. That is, everything but the pain. It stabbed into me like a knife to the belly, painful and raw, my guts leaking out.
“Why?” came the shriek from my throat, belted into sheer emptiness. “Why?”
I screamed the question again and again until my vocal cords were scrubbed raw. But there was no one around to hear me much less answer. Sadness clawed at me from the inside out and a great shudder rocked through me very bones.
With their names on my lips, I collapsed in the bed and sobbed, my heart breaking. Everything that made me Kate Baxter seeped away, disappearing into the cracks of the floor. Because these men had transformed me. They’d made me into the woman I was today, sassy and confident, ready to take on the world. But without any warning, they’d ripped it all away in one fell swoop. That was the band’s power, the absolute command Hard Fought had at their fingertips.
And what did it mean for me? I didn’t know, my heart breaking as hot tears poured. Certainly, it felt as if the world was collapsing because everything I’d learned had been based on our mutual love and adoration. Yet now, it was clear that my dreams had been nothing but myths. Our relationship had been a convenience for the band, something that they paid for. And now that the men were done … there was nothing left but ashes.14BrodyI felt like an asshole in the worst way.
My nerves jangled like an out of tune guitar. The leather of the airplane seat squeaked when I settled back with my iPad, trying again to write the song I started a few months back—when we first met Kate.
