AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Bullshit. They want people to come to them. You have a good pair of kneepads?”
Kneepads?Was he serious? “Jesus Christ, Rome, I’m not giving out sexual favors to get a book deal. So if that’s what you’re insinuating—”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, who said anything about sexual favors?”
“You just did by telling me to get out kneepads.”
“Hudson, I meant tobeg. You know, like get on your knees and beg?” He laughed and scrubbed a hand over his face. “I like where your mind went, though. Hell, those rock guys are hot, so if sexual favors are what it takes, I wouldn’t turn it down.”
“Remind me never to ask you if you’ve hit the casting couch for a role.”
“Not once. Though there was this one time when I was starting out when—”
I plugged my ears. “I’m not trying to hear this. I don’t think this truffle butter filet would be half as good coming back up as it was going down.”
“Truffle butter? Oh, that does sound good.” Rome leaned over the table, picked up my knife and fork, and sliced himself off a large bite. Once the meat hit his tongue, he closed his eyes and moaned. “This is heaven. Probably why I couldn’t get anything close to it in Hell.”
“You’re listening to WZNY 105.7 FM, New York’s hottest mix of whatever the hell I want.”
The voice booming through the speakers belonged to my middle brother, but Sawyer sounded nothing like his usual happy-go-lucky self.
“This next song goes out to everyone who’s had their heart smashed by a conniving, cheating man-whore. The station lawyers are telling me to warn you we don’t condoneactuallykeying a man-whore’s car and slashing his tires, but if it’s good enough for Carrie Underwood…”
“Wow, it’s worse than I thought,” Rome said. “Has anyone offered him some Prozac?”
“For all we know, that could be himonProzac.”
“Good point.” He took another long gulp of wine, and after almost half a bottle, he had to be feeling a little warmer and less on edge, or whatever it was that had landed him in my apartment instead of his own. “Hmm. Sawyer’s got an ex now, and you’re talking about yours again—”
“I’m not—”
“You brought him up, so let’s get back to this Drew thing for a minute. What did you mean by battling it out with him?”
“He wants Viper’s book. Everyone does.”
“But you said Drew specifically…why? Did he call you?”
“No.” I tried to ignore Rome’s pointed stare, but everywhere I turned, he moved into my line of sight until finally I threw my hands up. “I saw him at the Fallen Angel concert, we both quick-pitched Viper, had a few words, called it a night. There, happy?”
“I will be if you tell me there was a knee to his testicles.”
“Rome—”
“Ugh, okay, fine. So what do we do?”
“About Drew? Ignore him.”
“No, about Viper.”
“Oh.” I pushed my plate toward Rome and shrugged. “We wait. He’s got our business cards, so it’s a matter of when and if he decides to reach out.”
“That’s bullshit,” he said, spearing another forkful of food. “I say we find out where he lives, show up on his doorstep, charm his pants off—not literally—and while we’re making the deal, we send someone to take out Drew.”
“Take him out?” I shook my head. “You’ve been in Hell too long.”
“Don’t I know it. Fuckin’Hell,” he muttered around chews.
I sat back, absently stroking the scruff along my jaw as I thought over what my next step should be. Unlike Rome—or Drew—I wasn’t forceful in my business or personal dealings. We had a great company, and clients usually came to us, not the other way around. Chasing a book deal wasn’t up my alley, but then again, this wasn’t just any book or any celebrity. Which meant I needed to think outside the box, because if there was one thing knowing Drew had taught me, it was that he was utterly shameless at getting what he wanted. I just never thought it would be something he could use against me—not back then and not now.
