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“Viper,” I said between gritted teeth. Was he insane? The last thing I needed was for him to air my abysmal failures to the rest of these guys. It was also—I had no doubt—the last thing Levi was in the mood to hear.
“What? It’s the fucking truth.” Viper got to his feet, and for a split second I wondered if this would be the second fight I was going to get into within the last twenty-four hours. “Here he is all high and mighty telling us that our relationships are causing problems for the band. Yet, if I’m not mistaken, he is the reason you landed the punch we’ve all wanted to for the past ten years.”
Levi sat uncharacteristically quiet as I glared up at Viper. I wasn’t about to get into this. Not here and not now. “Sit down.”
“No,” Viper said, stubborn to the end. “If Levi here wants the family to all kiss and make up, then I think it’s time he admitted that he’s just as much a part of this problem as the rest of us.”
I got to my feet, about to haul Viper somewhere out of earshot where I could tell him to shut his fucking mouth. But as I turned in his direction, I heard, “He’s right.”
Forty
Levi
AT THE SOUND of my voice everyone froze, and Killian turned to see me getting to my feet.
“What did you just say?”
“Viper, he’s right,” I said. “Here I’ve been getting all up on you guys about your relationships and how they’re tearing this band apart, when I’ve taken the one person who used to be the calming force of this chaos and turned him into—”
“Rocky Balboa?” Jagger piped up, making me look his way. “What? I saw the clip. You got to admit, Kill landed a solid hit to that fucker’s face. Made me proud.”
It made me want to vomit. The idea that I’d driven Killian to the point of violence or that something regarding me had? Well, that just made me want to hit something myself. Jonny, if I were being honest.
“So you two are…what, exactly?” asked Halo, who up until now had been sitting silently, watching the havoc unfold. “Friends with benefits? What? I mean, since we’re all disclosing our business for everyone to have an opinion.”
“We’re nothing,” Killian said with a finality that gutted me. But I had no one to blame for his response except myself. That had been my plan all along, right? To take us back to square one? To take us back to where we were nothing more than friends, nothing more than band manager and bassist.
Yeah, that had been the plan. It’d been a really great one, too, until I read the song he’d left behind.
Jagger slowly got to his feet then and looked between the two of us. “I don’t know about that, Kill. I think I’m going to side with Viper on this one and call bullshit.”
Slade bounced up to his feet too, and moved with Jagger to stand by Viper and Halo.
“Yeah. You two are full of it. What’s really going on here?” Slade said as he eyed Killian.
Amazing—it was the first time in days since these guys had said shit to each other, and the first time they were all united was over whether Killian and I were…what? A couple?
I was not about to have this conversation here, and I certainly wasn’t going to have it in front of the four fools grinning in mine and Killian’s direction.
“What’s really going on is exactly what I said: nothing,” Killian said, and that was it. I was done.
“Killian, can I talk to you for a minute, please?”
“Uh oh,” Halo said, as he looked at Viper, and I couldn’t help but think how far Fallen Angel’s lead singer had come. When I first arrived on the scene, he’d been shy, sweet, and much more manageable. But as he waggled his eyebrows at his boyfriend, I couldn’t see any hint of that now. “I think Killian’s in trouble.”
Fucking Viper’s influence right there.
Viper chuckled and slung an arm around Halo’s shoulders. “Somehow I don’t think he’s gonna mind this particular spanking, Angel.”
“Oh for the love of— You,” I said, pointing at Killian, my patience now reaching its limit. “Outside, now.”
As I turned on my heel and marched toward Killian’s front door, I didn’t wait to see if he was following. But when the catcalls and girly oooohs met my ears, I knew he had to be close on my heels.
Once I was out in the hall, I paced back and forth, trying to decide what to say first. But when I heard the door click shut and turned to see Killian staring at me, all of my thoughts and well-planned arguments scattered like leaves in the wind.
God, he was beautiful, the most handsome man I’d ever seen in my life, and as I stood there trying to remember how to speak, all I could think was what a fool I’d been. What a complete and utter fool.
