30. Riot
Riot
“Dude, you need to get up,” Bronx tells me from where he’s standing with my door ajar. “We’re going to head to the venue soon, but apparently, Kelsey needs to tell us something important beforehand. Also, you are going to lose your mind.”
“Huh?” I groan. Roadkill is an understatement for how shit I feel. My head hurts like it’s been pulverized. But it’s still better than the come down last night after the Narcan. Still better than how I felt when I found out why she’s really here.
I’ve been such a prick.
“Time to get up.” He raps his knuckles against the frame at an ear-splitting level. “Hurry your ass up.”
I scratch my abs and smack my lips. My mouth is dry and rough as sandpaper. Stumbling out of bed, I find a new T-shirt and drag it down my torso on my way to the bathroom. I need to piss and brush the furry, acidic taste from my mouth.
I have no doubt her important announcement is about Marco.
Her foster brother is after her? Or he is after her and he’s the father?
My brows squishing together on my face physically hurts.
I knew he was obsessed with her back then.
He would hurt her sometimes. She would admit that.
But if I look at it from the lens of an adult, she was hiding marks and bruises way too often for it to be sometimes.
She never wanted to go home. Said she only slept when she was staying at our place. If Rebel had been able to take her on at that time, she never would have gone back to that house.
As it was, she stayed over as often as she could. And when my eldest brother started making money from his acting gigs the couch became a bedroom she could use at her whim. We were seventeen when she moved in. She stayed for an entire year.
Was Marco more than obsessed with her? Was he doing more than hurting her? Why weren’t these questions I was willing to ask when we were friends? I want to ask them now. How bad was her situation?
How can she be okay when she’s willing to put up with me being a cunt to her? Listening to my hate songs at every concert we put on. Hearing us practice them on the bus. Dealing with me being a complete and utter bastard.
Fuck. Me almost dying on her bed.
All after I apparently cheated on her the second she told me she loved me. That has to be some kind of world record. I’ve never wanted to forget and recall something at the same time so damn badly. How can I not remember making the worst decision of my life?
It was literally the worst decision of my life.
She was stealing from me.
That wasn’t in response to my screwing Sonatina. She was robbing me blind before that weekend. She was jeopardizing everything I... we... the band had worked for. Why?
I would have given her anything she wanted. Everything she needed. She had to have known that.
But it’s another reason why her situation must be truly terrible for her to be here.
Her journal is still inside my notebook where I left it yesterday. There might be answers inside it, but so far, I haven’t found any. I scoop it into my backpack, hang the strap over my shoulder.
Perhaps she’ll tell the guys more than she was willing to tell me earlier. They seem to make her feel safe.
Kodiak has a blonde woman tucked under his arm when I enter the communal space behind them.
Bronx is standing, arms folded, facing them.
A backward cap is perched on his head. His fingers drum on his biceps.
Golden has his headphones around his neck and his hands stuffed in the pockets of an oversized hoodie.
Rook is also present. Stoic. Alert. Aware.
“I like this.” Kodiak ruffles the blonde’s hair. “It’s sexy.”
“Liar,” she says.
I freeze mid-step when the voice that comes out of her is Kelsey’s.
“But thanks for trying.” When she turns to smile at him, I get a good look at her profile. What the hell did she do to her hair?
“It’s not terrible.” Golden smiles at her. “It’s just not our girl.”
“That’s unfortunately the point.” She leaves the envelope of Kodiak’s arm to stand. Moves to a point where she can see all five of us. “I need to tell you all why I’m here.”
A muscle in my cheek twitches. I don’t like her hair that color.
It looks terrible. Like Sonatina. Like the images of that night that I can’t seem to shake even though I don’t remember how I ended up sharing a couch with that woman.
Acid rises in my chest; adrenaline has me storming toward her.
I seize Bronx’s cap from his head and drop it on hers.
“Is this a sick joke? Did you do that to get back at me? Revenge for me cheating on you?”
“What the hell?” Bronx’s voice rises.
“You need to step back,” Kodiak is straightening to his feet.
“Believe it or not this is not about you.” Kelsey lifts her chin and stares down her nose at me.
“You’re overreacting, bro,” Golden says.
I stiffen. My stomach is tight to the point I want to throw up. The urge to grab a pair of clippers and shave those awful blonde strands off her head and out of my sight... it’s not an overreaction. It’s fucking insane.
“I didn’t do this to upset you.” She slides her hand down the length of the blonde strands. “We might not like each other. We might not get along. But that you believe I would do this to my hair to get at you…”
I shut my eyes and take a deep breath. “I fucked up. I overreacted. It’s just…”
“It’s awful. And it’s not at all me. Right now, I need to be someone other than me.
” She steps around me. “The night Bronx and I ran into each other I witnessed a double murder. It was committed by a man who I grew up with. A man who is more monster than human. A man who was obsessed with me when we were teens. Who is still obsessed with me.”
She starts to shake.
I come up behind her and rest my hands on her upper arms. She pauses with my touch, but then her back sways into my chest. “He is dangerous. And he wants to make me disappear. Either by kidnapping me or killing me.”
Bronx’s expression is mutinous. Golden and Kodiak’s too. Mine must mirror theirs, since I want to find Marco and rip him limb from limb.
“We have no reason to suspect he knows that she’s here,” Rook takes over. “But it is an issue that we’re taking into account in the way we run your security.”
“You’re safe with us,” Bronx reaches out to hold her hand.
Golden gets up and envelops her in a hug. “No one is fucking with our girl. You hear me, Special K?”
“Yeah, Scary Girl.” Kodiak ambles over and fills in the space the three of us have left. “We’ve got you.”
Rook is the only one outside of our square. He watches over us like we’re all his kids. Though I have no idea if the man has any of his own. “You’re safer here than you would be alone. Surrounded by security. And the public is everywhere we go.”
“If he has worked out where you are,” I tell her. “Coloring your hair... trying to hide... it doesn’t matter. He is never going to get close enough to do anything.”
“I love you, guys.” She shares watery smiles and hugs with Golden, Bronx, and Kodiak. When she turns to me, she offers a tentative smile, but her arms drop to her sides. “It’s only temporary. I won’t stay any longer than I have to.”
Don’t leave. I scrape a hand over my hair, tuck my fingers into my underarm. Forget that. I hurt her. She hurt me. She shouldn’t stay any longer than she has to. “Sure. Not a problem.”
“We should head out,” Bronx says. “Car is waiting.”
In the parking garage we pile into our ride and head over to the concert venue. By the time we leave the concert we’ll be boarding the buses and heading to our next destination.
I send a text to my brother, West. The only one of us born to a different world. One where the silver spoon between his teeth was laced with poison. He has all kinds of contacts.
I need to locate someone.
Friend or foe?
Foe. Can you put me onto that friend of yours. Micah?
I’ll call him. Who are you wanting to keep eyes on?
A guy by the name of Marco DeLuca.
He a problem? Do I need to worry about my baby brother?
Your youngest brother can handle himself. This is someone else’s problem, and I’m making sure they are going to be safe.
This someone else a woman?
Yes. But it’s not like that.
You’re not jealous, and possessive, and wanting to locate this man because you see him as a threat that needs to be dealt with??
I glance at Kelsey. The truth is I am all those things. In wanting to keep her safe from Marco. And in the way West means. I’m not going to tell West that.
He’s dangerous and a threat to her personal safety. That’s all.
How dangerous?
Enough that I might want to do something about it if he finds her.
We should talk. In person. When does your tour swing through town?
“What are you doing?” Kelsey asks.
“Organizing a hairstylist to give you any look you want but that one.” I find the best stylist in the city and organize them to come to the venue to work with Kelsey.
“You hate it that much?” She fluffs the bottom of her hair.
“Remember when you said she was trying to look like you?” My heart starts to race. Sweat breaks out on the back of my neck.
Kelsey presses her lips into a barely visible line.
“You are far too fucking beautiful to even accidentally try to look like her. Do you want the public to assume that’s what you’re doing? Do you want them to talk about it? Speculate on it?”
Kodiak frowns at me.
I don’t care what his problem is right now. If he says one damn word to her about the deal I had to make with Sonatina... I send a warning glare his way. No, I’ll be the one to tell Kelsey. I owe her that.
He gets the message. Keeps his mouth shut.
She grimaces. “Okay, bring in a stylist. But only because I would rather be bald than resemble that bitch in any way.”
“Trust me, she won’t ever compare.” It’s what I should have said from the start. What I should have proved to her back then. I can’t change what happened. I can only start trying to find a way forward with her now.
She wrinkles her nose and turns to the window.
It’s probably hard for her to trust anything that comes out of my mouth. I’ve been lying to us both for years now.
I sit back. Clasping my hands together, I roll one thumb around the other and then reverse direction. What happened between me and Sonatina... it sits like rotten, curdled milk in my gut.
I remember details... tiny flashes... her straddling me... being inside her... only now it’s real... Why can’t I recall how we ended up on that couch together in the first place?
Why was it so easy for me to push those memories into the dark?