Chapter 7
SEVEN
“Absolutely not,” Adam insists strongly, never breaking eye contact with me. The truth is clear in his blue eyes.
My heart skips a beat, and the tears threatening to fall are different now.
I always thought if any of them found out I wanted to love them all–and have them love me in return–they’d run for the hills and call me all the names I was called in high school.
It was a fucking nightmare to hear that shit from people I didn’t care about, but the chance of hearing it from the people I loved?
Yeah, no chance I was going to let that happen.
I couldn’t bear the thought that my closest friends would turn on me if they found out. Loving four guys equally? Wanting to be shared by them?
I knew what everyone would say if they found out, especially in the Bible Belt.
So I kept my feelings hidden deep down, but every so often a girl would try to get close and they’d be able to see underneath my facade I tried to put on–that the guys and I were simply super close friends and that’s all I wanted them to be–and call me out.
I was always able to handle that shit in private so the guys didn’t find out.
I was always able to make it go away with a few well-told lies.
And now…
Now, I have half of the guys telling me that what I’m feeling is okay? That they…want it too?
Honestly, I’m not prepared for this.
I never thought they'd want me, let alone share me.
Let’s be real–I never thought they’d even want me as anything other than a close friend. Well, up until they left me. Then I knew I wasn’t even that.
That mind-blowing orgasm tells me something different though. That and the obvious worry and desperation on both their faces. Adam’s always was an open-book, and Markus always hid behind his jokes.
Not this time.
“You don’t think it’s wrong?” I whisper, hand touching the doorknob, ready to flee but begging them to give me a reason to stay.
“Being with the person you care about above all others?” Adam smirks and shakes his head. “Not at all.”
“You know what I mean,” I say softly, tilting my head. I’m done talking about this. I don’t– can’t –get my hopes up.
I need some fresh air. Some space from these two who make my brain all hazy with lust and promises of things I’ve always wanted. Unlocking the door and walking out quickly, I push through the edge of the crowd before they can leave the bathroom.
I have too many demons for them. I always wished that they’d have stayed and we would’ve worked out whatever made them so mad they left, but honestly, I’m too fucked up for them now. I drink too much, I get high, I run a successful business, but that’s about the only good thing I have going for me.
Well, that and my killer figure.
No, they have so much going for them that there’s no way I can fuck up their lives with all that is me .
Climbing the stairs, I see the exit and try to talk myself into bolting. They don’t need my bullshit. More than that, they don’t want my bullshit.
Adam and Markus might say that they do, but Kai and Reis? There’s no fucking way. I saw their anger, the disdain and confusion in their eyes.
And I know in my heart that I can’t have some of them without having all of them.
They’re millionaire rockstars now. No, they don’t need me anymore, if they ever did.
I’m doing them a favor by leaving before they can tell me to go.
Decision made, I head towards the door intent to get the fuck out of here, but just as I step forward a hand wraps around my arm. I’m yanked back so hard I lose my footing and fall back off the stairs.
Right into the ring-leader’s arms.
Reisyn.
“Going somewhere, sweetheart?” He snaps cruelly, clenching his jaw and sets me upright. “Can’t get anything from us so you’re cutting your losses, hm?”
My jaw drops in shock. “How fucking dare you say that to me.”
“It’s true.” He shrugs unbothered, and looks at me.
His eyes rake over my form like he’s inspecting me for a weakness, and I repress the shiver climbing up my spine.
Reis was always able to make me feel seen with one glance.
His dark brown eyes, his sharp, strong jaw and that annoyingly perfect brown wavy hair.
He always was able to make my knees weak with how observant and caring he was to me.
I hope he still is, but right now, his fucking attitude is making me want to deck him.
My hands curl into fists at my sides.
“It absolutely is not. And it’s really telling that you think it is,” I snap at him viciously and push forward, intent on getting to the door. He’s making this a lot easier for me to leave.
“Kai!” Reis calls out, and the man magically appears as if he formed out of thin air. Kai stands right in front of me, my face running into his muscular chest. He smells so good; like leather and smoke, with whiskey and vanilla all mixed together. It’s… wow.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Kai’s low voice rumbles in his chest and I fight every part of me that just wants to jump into his arms and kiss him.
“Away from you guys.” I cock an eyebrow and tilting my head in challenge, daring him to try and stop me. Reis crosses his arms over his chest and steps closer like he’s some fucking mob-boss-wannabe. I roll my eyes. “You can save your little intimidation routine. It’s not going to work.”
“Who said it’s a routine?” Kai growls, his hands wrap around my wrists so quickly I don’t even register it until he slaps a metal handcuff over my wrist and the other around his own.
“There, now you’re not going anywhere.” Reis smirks, looking downright fucking giddy. Adam and Markus jog up to where we’re standing and their eyes both widen in shock.
“You can’t be serious, Reis,” Markus says, gesturing to the handcuff on my wrist. “It was a fucking joke!”
“It seemed like a good idea. She was getting ready to bolt.” Reis shrugs, and adjusts a few of the rings on his long fingers while staring at me.
“Dude, I said that years ago, drunk as hell, and missing Melody like the air I needed to breathe. You cannot just handcuff someone to you so they won’t leave.
” Markus steps around Kai and me to get to Reis, and I yank my arm to try and get the cuff off.
Nothing happens except Kai’s arm smacks my stomach and he fucking smiles like a psycho.
“Not getting away from me that easy, baby girl,” he says with a smile, showcasing his straight, white teeth.
Kai is the “guy-next-door” kind of handsome. Classically beautiful with thick blonde hair and a square jaw where you can see his muscle jump when he clenches his teeth. I used to watch him for hours to see what pissed him off or frustrated him enough to make that muscle move.
Sexy as hell.
He’s also a little bit of a secret psychopath. Always one wrong word away from jumping off the ledge or running off on his next adventure. The handcuff thing doesn’t surprise me at all, especially if Reis nudged him along.
“Why do you even care?” I snap, not backing down from his little show of crazy. I have my own brand of crazy and I’m not afraid to show it anymore.
“You know what? Let’s just say I don’t like losing.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
Adam comes to stand by me, wrapping his arm intimately around my waist and Kai growls.
“Don’t you fucking dare.”
“There’s been a new development,” Adam says to Kai, raising one eyebrow. “One you’re really going to like.”
“No, there hasn’t,” I say, looking between the two of them in frustration. “Kai, let me go.”
He just smiles down at me like I’m challenging him. “I don’t think so. Not yet.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means,” Reis snaps, pushing away from Markus to come closer to me, “you’re coming with us, sweetheart.”
Back the fuck up–what?
“Yeah, right. No, that is not happening.”
“Reis, not like this.” Adam looks torn–like he wants to take me, but he doesn’t want to cross some line.
“Exactly like this. It shouldn’t be an issue, should it?
She sees us as her brothers and wants nothing more to do with us.
I think she should get to see just how well the band she didn’t think would make it actually did.
” Reis' words strike me like a punch to the chest because those words… They remind me of what I had to say to Darcy, the lie I had to tell to protect myself. “So, come on, sis . Let’s go home.”
Reis has that look in his eye, the same one he used to get when he couldn’t move on from something; a B+ on a test he knew he aced, the melody to a chorus he couldn’t quite figure out, when he wanted to get shredded and his workout routine wasn’t cutting it anymore.
Focused. Obsessive. Determined without distraction.
It’s like now that he’s seen me again, he’s going to make sure I stay no matter what.
Calling me sis was like a smack across the face, and Adam negates it by slapping my ass in a very non-sister way.
“Looks like you’re coming home with us, Echo.”
Four sets of eyes wait for me to answer, like I have some kind of choice. But we all know the truth; I go quietly, or they make me.
I’ve never had a choice.
“You can’t just–” I start to argue, but Kai just sighs and picks me up. “Put me down!”
“You’re coming with us. And that’s that, Sync, so get used to it.”
They all have a mix of delight and acceptance, as I smack Kai’s back, trying to get him to put me down.
Reis' eyes narrow as a slow, sinister grin covers his face that promises pain.
Adam shakes his head, looking down and biting the collar of his shirt in reluctant acceptance, while Markus follows along.
And not one person watching us tried to help.
“How long am I going to be cuffed to you, Kai?” I ask rudely, being jostled around in the middle of the dark SUV.
Neither Kai or Reis has mentioned my sudden lack of fishnets, but I have caught them checking out my bare legs two or three times each. They must be too occupied fucking kidnapping me to see the difference.