Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
LUCA
“Luca, wake up.”
I swatted at the hand shaking me awake, my hangover making itself known before I even had my eyes open. “Fuck off.”
Bright light streamed into the room, making me groan loudly. “Jesus, Kai. You’re killing me here.”
“Nope, you’re doing that to yourself.” I could hear him rummaging through something. “For fuck’s sake, Luca, did you drink for three days straight?”
I pinched my brow, begging the room to stop spinning. “Maybe.”
“Idiot.”
I pulled myself into a sitting position, wincing at the state the room was in. While I hadn’t trashed it, I hadn’t tidied up after myself either. I needed to leave a massive tip for housekeeping.
“Here.” Kai thrust a mug into my hand. His warm brown eyes were full of pity and understanding. “Drink this.”
“Thanks,” I muttered. The caffeine hit my tongue and forced my hangover back a few inches. “What day is it?”
“Friday. We’ve got a show tonight.” His gaze drifted to my phone, plugged in on my bedside table. “You heard from him?”
I shook my head sharply. It’d been a week since I’d seen him.
A week since I’d heard his voice. Touched his face.
Kissed his lips. Pride had kept me from reaching out, but I wouldn’t risk missing a message or call from Ollie.
Even with everything Kevin had told me, I couldn’t help but wish I could hear his voice. Just once more.
I missed him…even though I knew I shouldn’t. That was not how heartbreak worked though.
“What happened?”
I sighed. I hadn’t told the others what had happened, but I couldn’t put it off forever.
Really, I was grateful they’d given me this much space.
I wouldn’t have been so generous if it was the other way around.
“What you predicted. He just wanted a fling. He was looking for an excuse to call it off.”
“What a fucking cunt.”
I winced at Kai’s harsh words. “Don’t call him that.”
Kai raised a brow at me, folding his arms over his chest. “Why not? He’s been shitty to you, so why shouldn’t I badmouth him?”
“Would you like it if I said the same about Silas?”
Kai scoffed. “That’s different. He hasn’t hurt me.”
Now it was my turn to raise a brow. “Hasn’t he?”
A muscle worked in Kai’s jaw before he gave a huff. “Fine. I’ll keep my thoughts to myself. What did Ollie say before he left?”
“Nothing.” I took another sip of coffee, hoping that would squash the swirling nausea. “Nothing to me anyway.”
I filled him in on what Kevin had said, Kai stiffening with every word. “So that’s it. It came down to me or his job, and I wasn’t the thing he chose. You were right. Ollie doesn’t feel the same way I do. I thought it was just him struggling to open up, but…”
Kai shifted on his feet. “I know what I said, but don’t you think it’s odd that you only heard that from Kevin?”
“What do you mean?”
He shrugged. “Just seems odd he wouldn’t tell you that to your face. Ollie doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy to take the easy route out. But hey, maybe we didn’t really know him.”
Kai’s words made me pause. Why hadn’t Ollie come to me directly? Why had he gone to Kevin, of all people?
I shook myself, offering Kai a thin smile. “I guess you’re right. I guess we didn’t really know him at all.”
Another week passed. The end of the tour should’ve been in sight, but thanks to Kevin, we now had a handful more UK dates. He’d announced this like it was something we should be grateful for, despite the fact we were all clearly exhausted.
Silas and Kai had gone so far as to argue against the additions, which had pissed Kevin off. I’d watched him carefully as he’d ranted and raved about how ungrateful we were being, noting the smug expression when my bandmates backed down.
How long had we been letting Kevin manipulate us like this?
Knowledge dawned on me as I recalled Ollie questioning the level of involvement Kevin had in our lives. How much of it was normal?
I was still stewing over it several hours later when Arlo dragged me into an empty dressing room. “I need to talk to you. Sit down.”
I sat on the sofa, one of my arms stretching over the back of it. “What’s up?”
Arlo perched on the table in front of me, his fingers twitching on his legs. “Why did Ollie leave?”
I sighed. “Come on. I know Kai filled you in.”
Not wanting to go over the story multiple times, I’d asked Kai to tell the others.
“I know what Kai said happened, but I want to hear it from you. What happened before Ollie left your room that night?”
I quickly outlined the argument, from Ollie’s jealousy to his unwillingness to commit to anything once the tour ended.
When I finished, Arlo was flat-out glaring at me. “You, Luca, are a fucking idiot.”
“Don’t sugarcoat it,” I said sarcastically.
He smirked. “That’s not how we do it here. You should know that by now. Let’s start with the fact he was jealous. Why did that piss you off?”
“Why wouldn’t it piss me off? Ollie should trust me. I’d never fuck around with someone else. The only reason I was even doing that was to draw attention away from us because he was worried about his job.”
“Did you tell him that?”
“About me technically being his boss? Don’t be stupid.”
Arlo kicked me lightly in the shin. “I’m not the stupid one here. You should’ve come clean with Ollie weeks ago about all that crap. But that’s not what I meant. Did you tell him why you behaved that way on stage?”
The yes was on the tip of my tongue…but had I? Or had I just jumped straight to the defensive? “Fuck.”
“Even if you had, shouldn’t Ollie be entitled to his feelings? He was betrayed by his best friend and long-term girlfriend. The guy’s bound to have some trust issues.”
“How do you know about that?”
“He told me,” he said simply. “We talk. Or at least, we did, until he pulled a vanishing act in the middle of the night.”
I grunted, a headache beginning to brew behind my eyes. “Still…he should’ve trusted me. There was no need for him to get jealous.”
There was a sharp tug on my ear. I let out a howl, grabbing the lobe and glaring at Arlo. “What the fuck was that for?”
Arlo was unrepentant. “Do you hear yourself now? Ollie has no need to get jealous? Remind me—how did you behave whenever the makeup artist cosied up to him? Unless I’m wrong, you physically dragged him from his seat on the plane and to the bedroom.
Twice. You weren’t subtle, Luca. Everyone, including Marta, knew what you’d done and why. ”
My shoulders slumped. “Shit. You’re right. I’m such a hypocrite.”
“And as for the rest of it.” Arlo was on his feet now, hands on his hips as he glared at me. “Did Ollie actually tell you he didn’t want anything after the tour?”
“Yes.” That much I was sure about. “I pushed him to tell me, and he reminded me we’d agreed it’d only last as long as the tour did.”
“He told you he didn’t want anything else?”
“No, but it was pretty obvious… Why are you glaring at me like that? I’m not the one in the wrong here.”
Arlo’s expression didn’t change. “Would love to agree with you, but you definitely are. You get that he has difficulties opening up, right?”
“Of course.”
“Yet the first time you pushed him to open up, instead of giving him a chance, you told him to leave? Do you really think that’s what he wanted?”
The fracture in my heart grew a little wider. “No…that’s not…”
The memory of Ollie’s final question echoed through my mind.
“Is that what you want?”
He didn’t say he didn’t want it.
He asked me if it was what I wanted.
“But he didn’t fight for me,” I said desperately. “He just…left.”
“Because you weren’t fighting for him.” Arlo’s voice gentled as he crouched in front of me. “Take it from someone who knows. It’s near impossible to fight for someone if you think they don’t care for you.”
“Ollie knows I care for him.”
“Does he? Did you tell him that?”
“No, but…he had to have known.” He couldn’t have mistaken all my behaviour towards him as anything other than me falling for him…right?
Arlo blew out a breath. “I probably shouldn’t be breaking his confidence like this, but fuck it. I can’t watch you mope around any longer. Before the show, Ollie told me he cared for you but had difficulty opening up to people.”
My chest tightened painfully. How could he tell Arlo that but not me? “Maybe I’d believe you if he hadn’t vanished like a thief in the night. You didn’t hear what he told Kevin. He was…using me. When it got too real for him, he ditched.”
“About that…” Arlo stood, striding for the door. Puzzled, I readied myself to follow him. He held up a hand, pity shining in his eyes. “You’re going to want to be sitting down for this. Trust me.”
Puzzled, I watched as Arlo stuck his head into the hallway, his words too low to be discernible. He stepped back as Steve entered with Jack close behind him.
The two guards came to stand opposite me while Arlo perched on the sofa beside me. His hand rested on my knee like he was offering me support.
Steve’s face was a ruddy red, his eyes fixed on the floor. He was trembling slightly, his hands fisted at his sides. Meanwhile, Jack glared at his colleague with undisguised fury and disgust.
“What’s going on?”
“Tell him,” Jack barked. My eyes widened. I’d never heard that tone on him before.
Steve shifted on his feet. “Ollie came back to your room that night you argued. Kevin told me to text him if he appeared and not to let him in.”
Everything in me went still. “What?”
Steve continued, his voice so quiet it was barely above a murmur. That wasn’t a problem though. I could hear him loud and clear. “Kevin came out. He told Ollie you’d given instructions for him to leave.”
Blood roared in my ears, but Steve wasn’t finished. “Ollie tried to argue, to insist he speak to you directly, but…Kevin lied. He told Ollie he couldn’t go in there because you weren’t alone. That you’d called someone up to keep you company.”
“No,” I said in disbelief. “Ollie wouldn’t have believed that.”
Steve hesitated. “He didn’t…not at first, anyway. But Kevin was pretty convincing. He made it sound like you do this all the time. That you’d used him and replaced him just as easily.”
My hands pulled at my hair as I sank back against the sofa. I turned back to Steve. “What happened then?”
Steve gulped, his eyes darting up to Jack. My usually stoic guard bared his teeth at him. “Tell him. Now.”
He paled, his eyes flicking around the room but never landing on me. Like the shame was eating him alive. “I took him to the airport. He was…devastated. He tried to pretend he wasn’t, but…”
I let out a roar, leaping to my feet. Steve jumped back in alarm, but my rage wasn’t directed at him. Well…not only him.
I got in his face, forcing him to finally meet my gaze. “You’ve known about this the whole time and didn’t think to say anything?”
“Kevin made me promise…told me he’d fire me,” Steve said hastily. “I didn’t have a choice.”
Arlo’s clipped voice came over my shoulder. “Like I said earlier, if you’d come to us, we would’ve protected you from Kevin. It shouldn’t have taken both me and Jack to get this information out of you.”
I stepped back, looking between the drummer and guard with confusion. They’d worked together to help me?
“You’re fired,” I said to Steve hoarsely. “I’ll give you a reference, but I can’t trust you going forward.”
Steve nodded. “That’s more than I expected. Thank you.”
He took a step towards the door, but Jack stopped him. “Remember, not a word to Kevin.”
Steve nodded once more before slinking from the room.
“Kevin orchestrated all of this.”
“Yes,” Arlo said, grabbing my shoulder.
“Why?”
Arlo glanced over at where Jack now leaned against the door. He was staring at Arlo, doing nothing to disguise it.
Arlo turned back to me, his lips set in a grim line. “Because he wants to control us. The last thing he wants is for any of us to be in a stable long-term relationship. Not when we are more marketable if we’re single.”
“Such a backwards way of thinking. He’s so fucking fired.” I grabbed my phone out of my pocket. “First, though, I need to phone Ollie. I need to sort this out right now.”
“Wait.” Arlo pulled his own phone out, his body tense as he brought something up on his screen.
“Before you do, there’s something else you need to know.
I think there’s another reason Kevin wanted Ollie gone.
I think he knew he was getting close to the truth.
Close to fucking everything up for him.”
“What do you mean?”
“Here.” He thrust his phone into my hands. “Read this.”
My breath hitched as I took in the headline.
JUST WHO POCKETED THE PROFITS FROM CAFFEINE DAYDREAMS LAST TOUR?
According to figures released by the band’s management, the Dreamers tour grossed profits clearing a billion pounds. The public tax returns for the band don’t reflect anything near this figure.
So where has this money gone? Identity’s Ollie Winters investigates.
“Is this true?” I barked even as I continued reading. Jesus, Ollie had really gone to town on the evidence. Even without Arlo’s confirmation, there was no arguing with the data in front of me. “How the fuck could we not notice?”
Arlo huffed a breath. “Let’s be honest, none of us are good at that shit. When was the last time you even checked your bank account? That’s why we have Malcolm.”
Malcolm was our accountant…and Kevin’s brother-in-law. “They’ve been fucking us over.”
“Yep,” Arlo said, indicating to Jack. The bodyguard opened the door, and Kai and Silas filed in with matching thunderous expressions.
“I know you need to sort shit out with Ollie, but we need to take care of this first. He doesn’t name Kevin in the article, but it’s pretty fucking obvious who he’s alluding to. ”
“Agreed,” I muttered, handing Arlo his phone back. “We need to come up with a plan to deal with Kevin and Malcolm and make sure none of this blows back on Ollie.”
Just saying his name made pain lance through my chest. I closed my eyes. This was beyond fucked up. What if Ollie wouldn’t give me another chance? With everything Kevin had told him, I wouldn’t blame him.
I opened my eyes to see my bandmates all studying me, varying degrees of fury and determination on their faces. I knew without a shadow of a doubt they’d have my back.
First, we’d deal with Kevin. Then, I was going after Ollie.
“I have a plan.”