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Murray
Red.
Blind fucking rage.
I’d never hit anyone. Never pinned a man to a wall. But seeing Jimmy touch Yael after she repeatedly told him to stop released the beast inside me. I couldn’t hold back. I didn’t know what I would have done if Santiago and Mo hadn’t pulled us apart. A small part of me considered the possibility that I’d do absolutely anything for Yael.
I clutched Yael to my side, turning to answer Mo. She trembled in my arms, I figured both from adrenaline and fear. Fear of her brother. Maybe fear of the outcome of this confrontation.
The same fearsome dread coursed through my veins, the beat of my heart spreading it over my whole body.
“What the fuck is going on?” Mo repeated. “What is this?”
Yael took a breath. “He’s the guy. We’re together.”
Mo’s features contorted, first in confusion, then into anger. “What did you do?” He directed his question only at Yael. “I told you not to do this. I told you you’d fuck everything up. And look!Look!We’ve already got Murray fighting our producer over you. This is exactly what I knew would happen. Disaster. You do this every time, but come on. Not my friend. Not my band.”
If it was possible, Yael shrunk in my arms. She was a flower on backward time lapse, her petals closing tight around her delicate center.
“Yael didn’t do anything wrong. Why do you talk to your sister like that?” I’d heard enough of Mo disparaging Yael. She had her faults, but so did he. This woman practically ran his life, took care of his child, was his best friend, and he called her a disaster? No. That would never stand with me.
Mo rounded on me, his arms crossed in a purely defensive stance. “What are youdoing? Fucking my sister behind my back? You don’t even like her. Hell, you don’t like each other.”
Maeve sucked in a breath between her teeth. “Mo, you’re takin’ this way too far.”
I gave her a slight nod. “Thanks, Mae-Mae. I got it, though.” Then I faced Mo again. “You have words for me? I’ll take them. But youwon’tdisparage Yael. I will not have it.”
It killed me to hear him talk about her this way. And knowing I had something to do with this, that I was the one driving the wedge between them, that was a punch to the gut with brass knuckles.
“Are you kidding me?” He threw his hands up in the air. “Yael, are you even going to speak? You have nothing to say for yourself?”
She shook even harder and reached out with a tremulous hand. “I’m not going to ruin anything. I love you, Moses. I’m sorry we kept this a secret, but—”
He dismissed her with a shake of his head. “So, you’re together, fine, but for how long? A month? Two? Then what? You dump him, break him, and I have to choose between the two of you? I have to choose if you can still work for me or if Murray can stay in the band?”
Santiago placed a hand on Mo’s shoulder, squeezing gently. “Think about what you’re saying. Take a breath.”
Mo shrugged him off, shoveling his hands through his hair. “Fuck. This isn’t okay.”
In the back of my mind, I felt a hand tapping on my arm, but I ignored it. I couldn’t look away from my best friend losing his mind over his sister being with me, and Yael shaking so hard, I was surprised she was still upright.
Shit.
Mo and Yael needed each other. Mo had his own family now, but Yael had always been his pillar of strength just as he’d been hers. I panicked for them both, unwilling and incapable of splitting them apart.
“It doesn’t have to be like this,” I tried, pleading now.
Mo shot me with a look so boiling, it could have melted lava out of existence. His nostrils flared like a bull in a rage, but I couldn’t tell whether the red flag was Yael or me.
“Excuse me, Mr. Murray,” came a small voice from behind me, the same hand touching my arm.
I whipped around, finding the little nanny chick holding my phone out to me. “What?” I barked.
Diego stood behind her, a thunderous expression passing over him before he calmed. “She’s trying to help. Don’t talk to her that way.”
“I’m sorry, but I saw your phone ringing, and I wouldn’t have bothered you right now, but it’s the hospital and—”
I snatched it from her before she could say another word. “This is Alex Murray,” I answered.
