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I swallowed down my fear, needing to know just how bad this situation was before I decided what I needed to do to help. “Where is he?”
“In the bar.”
Without thinking, I started to move, and Gray wrapped his hand in mine. “He’s not drank anything yet, but I don’t know how much longer he’ll resist. What the fuck happened tonight, Emmy? He was so happy on stage and now, he looks broken.”
“We had a fight because he was a dick to me, but he can’t fall apart every time someone upsets him. This is bollocks. I’m getting tired of this man’s drama.” I sighed, remembering how quickly his mood had flipped tonight and how angry I was when I stormed away from him back to my room.
“Yeah, Ems, maybe don’t start with that. I’m asking for your help. Not to send him diving into a bottle of whiskey.”
“I don’t think he’ll want to see me, Gray. He’s furious with me.”
“I think you’re the only person he wants to see, Em. I don’t know anyone who can get through to him like you do. Please. Try. Before he falls apart,” he begged, fear hanging from his every word.
“Fine,” I fired back.
“You want me to hang about?”
“No, go on. I’ll sort it, Gray. Somehow. Promise.” Deep down I wondered if I could sort it, because nothing I seemed to say to Tanner earlier had helped the situation.
Grayson wrapped his arms around me. “I’m not sure what we ever did without you, Em, but I, for one, am never letting you leave us.”
“I think Shelly might have other ideas.”
“I think I could persuade a tiny tortoise to love me as long as you stayed forever.”
“Such a smooth talker, Gray. You’re going to make a lucky lady so happy one day.”
“Doubt it, but we can chat about my crap love life later. Right now, I need you to save my brother from drowning.” I couldn’t hide the loud sigh that slipped from my lips as I wondered if I had the strength to pull him back from his desire to self-destruct.
He left, and I took the elevator down to the bar, Matt behind me, waiting discreetly nearby while I went to find Tanner. Pulling my robe around me, realizing my feet were bare, I found him in the bar, alone, with only the barman and Rob, who was standing in the shadows.
Tanner was perched on a stool at the bar, a glass of what looked like whiskey in front of him. Shoulders slumped, he stared into his glass, looking defeated. Seeing him like that broke my heart and while I desperately wanted to stay angry with him about earlier, my need to wrap him in my arms and take away his pain outweighed all the other feelings I had. I walked over, touching him lightly on the shoulder, before I sat on the stool next to him.
“I’m going to need Botox if I spend six months with you, rock star. My frown lines are deepening by the day.”
“What are you doing here, angel? You don’t need to see this.”
“And you don’t need to do this. Tell me you haven’t?”
He lifted the highball tumbler, spinning the dark liquid around inside it before he placed it back on the bar. “It would be so easy to fall, Em. One sip, one mouthful, and I’m not sure I could ever pull myself out of it again. I would drown in it. But it would be so much easier. Drinking… the drugs, they made life less raw. All these emotions hurt like hell.”
Taking his hand, I tugged him so he had to turn towards me. “You do this and you’ll lose everything. Is that what you want?” I asked, terrified of what his answer would be.
Holding the glass up to the light, he took a long look at it before he placed it back on the bar, pushing it away from him with two fingers. “Can you take that away?” he asked the barman as I breathed a sigh of relief.
“And don’t give him any more, or I will have you fired,” I barked out, glaring angrily at the man standing nervously behind the bar.
Tanner laughed. “And there you go again, angel. Protecting me, like a project.”
“Protecting you like someone who needs protecting, not a project. I don’t get why it’s suddenly such a big deal, Tan.”
“Tonight I felt happy. I couldn’t wait to see you when I got off stage. To talk to you. Thank you for the foot rub, the pissy tea, the notebook. You changed everything tonight. But then I saw you… oozing confidence, looking like you should be the rock star, a smile so big it lit up your face. I didn’t understand it. I convinced myself that it was because you enjoyed having me to fix; that my issues gave you purpose. I lost my mind.” He reached for the glass that wasn’t there anymore and sighed when he realized there was nothing there to cling to.
Realizing how fragile the relationship we’d been building was, I considered my words before I spoke. “And this is where I lose my mind with you, Tanner. I’m more confident because of you. You made me feel safe. Not just the security, but checking in on me, disguising me so we can go out, listening to my fears because of what happened to me. You told me to stop hiding, and you made me want to be more confident. Now suddenly it’s a bad thing?”
“It’s not a bad thing, angel. I just don’t know how to cope with my feelings.”
“Feelings about what?”
