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“That MGA’s already trashed and burned by now,” Killian finished. “We can’t use ’em. We can’t write songs for someone who’s no longer here.”
Shit. Was he kidding? That meant months of work gone.
“I think it’s time we faced the inevitable.” Killian shrugged. “We’ve got to bury TBD—”
“What? We’re not fucking quitting—” I started, but Killian put his hand up.
“And rise again.”
Rise again? And here I thought I was the one who’d had too much to drink. What the hell did that even mean?
“Like a zombie?” Slade said.
“Nah, man, like Jesus.” Jagger nodded along. “Yeah.”
I glanced between them, my lip curled up. “Why the fuck are you two talking about zombies and Jesus?”
“We’re talking about rising from the ashes,” Jagger said. “TBD’s dead. Tonight made that pretty damn clear. We’ve got to start over.”
“Dead?” I shook my head. “We’re not dead. We just need to—”
“Change,” Killian said firmly. “No one is gonna be able to take Trent’s place; Halo was our best shot. So something’s gotta change.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know.” Killian’s eyes swept over the three of us. “I need time to think about it more, but this…this makes sense.”
Did it? I wasn’t so sure about that. Start over? Change? Throw away ten years of what we’d built? This was all becoming way too much for my brain to handle.
“I need to get outta here.” Shoving up to my feet, I kept a tight grip on my bottle, as I went to walk past Killian to the door.
“Viper. We have to at least try. And if we fail, we fail. We move on.”
I ran a hand through my hair, every fiber in my body resistant toward this idea, even though it was the only thing we really could do at this stage, or MGA would drop our asses.
“Are you with us?” Killian asked. The “us” didn’t escape my attention, because he already knew the other guys’ decisions without having to ask.
“Don’t have much of a choice, do I?” I said, turning around to face him.
“You always have a choice.”
“What, quit?” With a snort, I glanced at Jagger and Slade, who were watching us with caution. They really thought I’d walk? Because of this? “I’m not a fucking quitter. But I’m not promising anything, either. Can I go now?” I said, then raised the bottle between us. “I’d really like to finish this in private.”
Killian nodded, and when I pulled open the door, he held it there and turned back to Slade and Jagger. “How ’bout you two get the hell out too? I’m done for the night, and neither of you are going to be able to help me forget myself for a few hours.”
Knowing Killian could have one, two—hell, five—men up at his hotel suite within thirty minutes, despite what I’d said earlier, I threw a wave in his direction and meandered off down the hall.
I bypassed the door to my suite, not feeling like going in there and sitting in a silent room by myself, and instead took the elevator down to the lobby bar. I knew it was late, but it was Friday night—maybe there’d be stragglers and I could round up another drink.
I made my way to the doors of the bar, and when I noticed them shut, I was about to chalk it up to the perfect end to my shit-tastic day. But as I went to turn away, the faint sound of a piano caught my attention and had my feet rounding back so I could move closer. With the bottle in one hand down by my leg, I reached out with my other to see if the door was unlocked, and when the door pulled back, I stepped inside.
The bar was empty. There were no staff, no customers, completely and utterly empty. But the further I walked inside, the louder the music became, until I rounded a large pillar and my feet came to an abrupt halt.
Sitting at the baby grand piano with his head bent down over the keys was Halo. The softly glowing security lights were the only ones on in the bar right then, but I’d know those blond curls anywhere.
His almost-finished bottle of alcohol from earlier sat on the top of the piano, as his fingers flew across the keys, and he seemed oblivious to the rest of the world as he swayed in time to the music.
My feet moved of their own accord then, drawing me closer. The music he was playing was unlike anything I’d heard before. It was inspired and passionate, and, not wanting to interrupt this moment he was having, I stood as still as I possibly could, completely and utterly blown away by the sheer talent pouring out of Halo.
While we’d all been upstairs licking our wounds and drinking ourselves into a state of numbness, Halo had been down here losing himself in the one thing that should’ve brought all of us solace—his music.
