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As Mac leans back in her chair while twirling a purple braid, Cassidy nods at her and clears her throat. I bet she didn’t expect this meeting to be such a nightmare.
Welcome to Murderous Crows.
“Okay. Look, sure, we could go after Nyx, but does she really have anything worth taking? Or is it the principle of the thing? If that’s the case, how much is that principle worth to you? Because it will take a shit load of time and money to pursue without a guaranteed result. I’m just being honest.” She meets each of our gazes, leveling us with her truth. “If we can get her in here, get her to sign an NDA, and maybe pay her a little bit of money to keep quiet--”
“Whoa, wait a minute there,” Jake starts, shaking his head. “You want us to pay her off, too? Reward her for all the bullshit she’s put us through? No way.” He’s just said what we’re all thinking.
“Honey, listen,” she says, grabbing one of his hands with both of hers. Her eyes are almost pleading, and something in my chest aches at the sight of them on the verge of an argument. They never argue. I don’t like it. “The key is to get her to sign the NDA. Once we do that, we can be reasonably confident all of this will be behind us. And if it costs a fraction of what a lawsuit would, I say that’s a good investment. Blackmore is on board with this.” She glances over to Eliza, who nods her agreement.
“I don’t know…” Jake looks over at me in question. As if I have any say in any of this.
The best I can do is shrug. I am so far out of my depth right now, and I don’t know what the hell is up or down anymore.
“I just want this shit to be over with,” I say, running my hands down my face. “I’m tired. I’ll go along with whatever you want, Jake. It’s your call, man.”
He stares at me for a minute, and in that fraction of time, we have the silent conversation we’ve both been avoiding for months since Andy died. All the blame, guilt, sadness, and anger that we both went through alone when we should have been there for each other channels through us. Admissions are made, and forgiveness is given. It’s been a long time coming and way overdue.
Finally, we nod at each other in understanding. We’re in agreement. The past is now behind us, and we need to finally let shit go and move forward. If that means paying off Nyx, so be it.
I don’t like it, but I understand it. It’s a big-picture move because we’re not small-time anymore. We’re no longer an anonymous local Vegas band. We’re in the major leagues now, and it’s not about any one of us. It’s about all of us.
But fuck, if all of this doesn’t piss me off.
“Do it,” I say, and leave the conference room before I explode.
I need a fucking drink, and there’s a beer or ten somewhere out there with my name on it. I want to forget my life entirely for a little while. Erase the feelings. Drown my sorrows, as cliché as that is.
It’s cliché because it’s a classic. And classics never go out of fucking style.
twenty-two
Delirious
Sloane
“It might not be what it looks like at all,” Fiona says, scrolling through her phone across from my desk as I scroll through mine in the morning before classes start. “You can’t believe anything the internet publishes. You know that.”
I do, but it doesn’t change the fact I’m looking at pictures of Cooper making out with and hanging all over some supermodel of a woman last night.
“Oh, did his tongue ‘accidentally’ slide into her mouth?” I hold up my phone, showing a picture of the two kissing while leaning against a car in some parking lot. My stomach lurches. “And his hands slipped and landed on her ass? Come on, Fiona. I get that stories can be made up. That happens all the time. But photos? They don’t lie.”
“Still, there’s got to be some sort of reasonable explanation.”
I appreciate she’s trying to cheer me up or justify the pictures or whatever she’s doing, but it’s not working. There is no explaining this away. He turned down my invitation yesterday and instead went out with someone else. It’s as simple as that.
It shouldn’t hurt so much, but it does. We don’t owe each other anything. We’re not dating. Hell, we haven’t kissed. Despite that, I could have sworn we had a solid connection. We were getting over our bullshit stubborn beginning and building something else. Something real.
I guess I was wrong.
“Just forget about it. I’ll get over it. Don’t worry.” I force a smile, though I’m sure it’s not convincing. “You know me. It’ll take a lot more than Cooper Davies to bring me down.”
She stands and straightens her shoulders, smiling back with the same plastic smile. “Fuck yeah, it will.”
I shut off my phone and get up with her, grabbing my mentoring materials. Classes start soon, and I want to get to the piano studio before Cooper comes in. If I can avoid him, maybe I’ll get through the day. It’s going to be hard in between classes, though. I’ve grown to look forward to our brief flirting sessions in the hallway. Well, look what that got me. A broken heart.
Stupid girl.
Of course, the world is conspiring against me, and I practically run right into him in the hallway. He’s still pretty rough around the edges from the fight on Saturday night, and his bruises and scrapes look worse. If I had to guess, I’d say he was also hungover from his evening with the supermodel.
