Memphis
“I want everyone to touch me.”
Gritting my teeth, I bring the lighter to the end of my cigarette.
What the hell was that?
Nicotine burns my lungs as I take a long drag, unable to get the nagging feeling burrowing in my gut to go away.
No. Fuck this. It’s Josh’s job to look after her.
Only, he’s not.
Images of her sitting on his lap—topless—with his hand up her skirt play like the world’s worst movie in my head.
Something was off with her tonight. It was like she was a concentrated version of herself. Uninhibited.
Hell, if I didn’t know better, I’d say she was intoxicated.
Son-of-a-bitch.
I tell myself not to get involved as I walk down the hall.
She’s his. Not mine.
However, the need to look after her—since that piece of shit isn’t—wins out as I charge into Phoenix’s suite.
The party’s still in full swing, but they’re no longer sitting on the couch.
Scanning the room, I spot the brunette Storm was with earlier by the liquor table. “Where’s Skylar?”
She blinks. “Who?”
“The blonde with the gorgeous tits,” I bite out.
A streak of jealousy clouds my vision. Tits everyone got a full view of tonight.
My hands clench and my jaw locks. Because she was too drunk to say no.
Frowning, she pours some liquor into a cup. “Her man let Storm take her back to his room to have some fun.” She purses her lips. “I wasn’t invited.”
The anger from before morphs into a full-blown torrent of rage.
That motherfucker.
“You’re back,” Phoenix slurs when I brush past him. “Whoa, where are you going?”
To kill our drummer.
I contemplate all the ways I’m going to torture him on the short walk to his room.
Just when I was beginning to trust the asshole.
I know he can’t stand Josh, but taking advantage of his inebriated girlfriend is a punk move.
The rage inside me grows, becoming something dark and ugly.
Sky has always been the exception to my moral compass.
The line I’ll cross, but forbid others to.
I don’t bother knocking when I reach his door. Using my adrenaline and wrath, I kick the fucking thing open.
Storm leaps off the bed when he sees me. “What the hell?”
I charge him like a bull being taunted with a red cape. He’s about to find out what the hell because he’ll be arriving there shortly.
Storm’s a brick shit house, but he’s no match for me in this state.
Wrapping my hand around his throat, I shove him against the wall like he weighs twenty pounds instead of two hundred and twenty. “You’re a fucking dead man.”
“I didn’t do shit,” he croaks, his voice straining against his compressed vocal cords.
I search his face, gauging whether or not he’s lying.
Fortunately for him, he looks sincere.
Sincere, mildly afraid…and turning purple.
“Where is she?”
He tries to speak but can’t on account of my death grip, so I have no choice but to release him.
Gulping air, he clutches his neck. “Bathroom. Fuck.”
I start to head there but pause. “If I find out you hurt her, I will break every bone in your goddamn body and shove them so far up your ass you’ll choke.”
He stares at me in disbelief. “I would never hurt Skylar.” Glowering, he points to the bathroom.
“I’m not sure what happened. One second she was fine, and the next…
something didn’t seem right. But your shithead brother cared more about competing with me than checking in with his girl, so I brought her here.
” He throws up his hands. “Fuck me, right?”
Putting his bitchfit on the back burner, I make my way to the bathroom.
I turn the knob, but it’s locked.
And when I press my ear to the panel…I hear crying.
Fuck.
“Open the door.”
Nothing.
I knock harder. If she doesn’t unlock it in the next three seconds, I’ll kick this motherfucker down, too. “Let me in, Sky.”
“Memphis?”
Her voice is a frail, broken rasp…like shattered glass that lingers after a wreck.
“I’m here.”
Even when I shouldn’t be.
It feels like an eternity goes by before the latch on the door clicks.
I open it and find her curled up in a ball on the floor, shaking like a leaf in a hurricane.
I’ve witnessed enough of her panic attacks to know she’s having one now.
Sinking to the floor, I lean against the wall, fighting the urge to pull her into my arms. Not only because it’s a bad idea in general, but our relationship isn’t on that level anymore.
The connection—the trust—we built is severed and touching her could make things worse for her.
But all that goes out the window when she throws her arms around me.
“It’s okay,” I reassure her as she clings to me like a lifeline. “You’re okay.”
“Hold me,” she cries, soaking my shirt with her tears. “Don’t let me go.”
I never let you go, Sky.
You let me go.
Reluctantly, I wrap an arm around her. I immediately regret it when my fingers skate down the smooth bare skin of her back and I get a whiff of her scent.
Not the time to get turned on, asshole.
“Tighter,” she begs, burying her face in my neck. “Hold me tighter.”
So I do.
I hold her so tight the tremors and tears finally subside.
So tight her breathing evens out.
So tight it puts her back together again…all while tearing me apart.
After she’s calmed down, I take off my shirt and hand it to her. “Put this on.”
Watching her demons terrorize her is bad enough. Having to console her while she’s topless—baring those tits he bought her—is my very own tenth circle of hell.
Her cheeks flush as she slips it over her head. “Thank you.” Closing her eyes, she rubs her cheek against the collar. “It’s so soft.” She sniffs. “And it smells so good.” A small smile touches her lips. “Like home.”
A gnawing feeling twists my guts, and I study her intently.
She’s clenching her jaw, grinding her teeth…and there’s a sheen of sweat covering her face.
I press my fingers to her wrist. Her pulse is racing all over again and she’s burning up.
She doesn’t appear drunk like I originally thought…but she’s under the influence of something.
Her eyes flutter closed and her head lolls to the side. “Don’t stop touching me.”
Gripping her chin, I stare into her dilated pupils. “What are you on?”
Lower lip trembling, she draws back. “Don’t be mad.”
“I’m not mad,” I grit through my teeth. I passed mad a few thousand miles back. “What the fuck did you take, Sky?”
“E,” she whispers. “He said it was me in pill form.”
My blood boils all over again. However, I quell the urge to lose my shit entirely because I want to get my facts straight before I go to jail for the rest of my life.
“Josh gave you ecstasy?”
She nods.
A veil of fury blinds my vision as I move her off me and rise to my feet. “You’re off the tour.”
Josh wants to be an addict and destroy his life? He can go right the fuck ahead.
But over my dead body will I stand by and let him pump her full of drugs and destroy hers.
Fuck that. Fuck him. Fuck this.
I go to open the door, but Skylar tugs on my pant leg. “No.”
This isn’t up for debate. “Your ass is on the next flight home.”
Whether she goes on that plane kicking and screaming is up to her.
“What home?” Tears well in her eyes all over again. “My home is here.”
Ignoring the thawing inside my chest, I step out.
I look at Storm who’s sitting on his bed. “Watch her.”
Wrath is a dangerous cocktail in my veins, burning my insides and accelerating my gait, as I head back to the suite.
The party’s still going full steam. I spy Phoenix dancing—or should I say staggering on account of how drunk he is—with the brunette from earlier.
“Where’s Josh?”
His eyes enlarge when he sees me. “Oh, hey. You’re back. Again.”
It takes everything in me not to punch him. Which is nuts considering Phoenix and I had an instant connection and became fast friends when we first started Sharp Objects.
Until Josh wormed his way in, and Phoenix decided he was the cooler brother.
“Where the fuck is he?”
He starts to shake his head. “I don’t…wait. I do know.” He juts his chin at a door on the far side of the living room. “He said he wanted some alone time with Skylar, so I lent him my room.”
Phoenix is even more shit-faced than I thought given Sky’s been in Storm’s room for the past two hours.
He squeezes my shoulder. “Why don’t you kick back and have a beer, dude?”
I shove him out of my way. “Why don’t you stop lending Josh your room to fuck groupies while his girlfriend is lying on the bathroom floor freaking out because of the drugs he gave her, dude?”
Stunned, his mouth falls open. “Shit. Is she—”
“Fuck off.”
He didn’t give a shit about Sky before. He was too busy crawling up Josh’s ass.
Elbowing past the cluster of drunk idiots in my path, I head for the bedroom on the other side.
When I open the door…I find Josh balls deep inside a blonde.
“Yeah, you like that, you little slut?”
Given his back is to me, he doesn’t see me sneak up behind him.
Grabbing the back of his neck, I pull him off the chick he’s screwing. “I’m gonna rip your eyes out of your fucking skull, you piece of shit.”
Despite having sex with Josh, the girl must have a brain, because she wraps the sheet around her and scrambles out the door.
Squirming out of my hold, he covers his junk with his hand. “What the fuck, bro? I was in the middle of something.”
“Don’t bro me, scumbag.”
Speechless, he opens and closes his mouth like a fish before his eyes narrow into tiny slits. “What the hell is your problem?”
It’s the same problem I’ve had since I was thirteen.
He breaks something, I fix it.
And then he turns right around and breaks it over and over again.
It’s a never-ending cycle of bullshit.
“How the fuck could you do that to her?”
He doesn’t deserve Sky, but I know he loves her. Well, as much as a dirtbag like him is capable of loving someone.
“Do what to who?”
“Skylar. You drugged her.”
He pulls a face. “Did not. She was a willing participant.”
Crossing my arms, I stare him down. “She’s not such a willing participant anymore given she’s on Storm’s bathroom floor having a panic attack.”
Something he’d know if he wasn’t in here…fucking a blonde who’s not his girlfriend.
Concern lines his face. “What? Why?”