46. To The Fuck Ups #2
She follows my line of sight. Julian stands at the bar while the bartender prepares two drinks. Radhika looks toward Natalia. Then back at me. Julian picks up both glasses. One is amber whiskey. The other is clear with ice and lime. He starts toward the couch and my body goes cold.
Radhika's still demanding to know what's happening when I set down my glass.
“I’ll be right back.”
I cross the room fast enough that people move without understanding why. Natalia is sitting where I last saw her, checking something on her phone. Julian reaches her first and offers the clear drink.
“Thought you’d abandoned me,” she says.
“Never.”
She takes the glass. I arrive as she lifts it toward her mouth. My hand closes around it.
Natalia jerks in surprise.
“What the fuck?”
“I want to try it.”
I pull the drink from her hand. Julian’s smile disappears.
“I can get you one of your own.”
“I want this one.”
Natalia stares at me.
“Kiri, give it back.”
“No.”
Julian steps closer.
“This is none of your business.”
I look at him and crack my neck with a practiced tilt of my head. If he wants to make it physical, I'm ready. I've been ready all night. He glances across the room toward Radhika, who's watching us now.
“Don’t you have Miss Malhotra to entertain?”
“I heard you in the bathroom arranging to fucking drug someone.”
Natalia freezes and her eyes go wide. Julian’s face barely changes. That tells me more than panic would. Movement shifts behind me. Rithy arrives first, then Rafe and Ronan, drawn by my tone before anyone calls them. Rafe steps beside me.
“What’s happening?”
I keep my eyes on Julian.
“I heard him on the phone asking someone to bring him something. Said he had someone on the hook. Then I watched him meet the guy by the doors before he brought Nat this drink.”
Rafe’s expression transforms, Ronan looks at the glass in my hand while Rithy moves closer to Natalia.
Julian laughs. It sounds controlled, but I see the tension in his jaw.
“This is absurd.”
“Drink it,” I say.
His eyes flash. I hold the glass toward him.
“I don’t have to prove anything to you.”
“You brought it over. You drink it.”
Natalia stands. Her face has gone pale.
“Kiri—”
Kasia appears beside her and takes her arm. Rafe tells her what's happening without looking away from Julian.
“He may have put something in Nat’s drink.”
Kasia’s grip tightens.
Natalia looks at Julian as though she’s trying to reconcile the man she's been talking to tonight with the one standing in front of us now. Julian takes another step toward me.
“You’re making a serious accusation.”
“I’m giving you a simple way to clear it up.”
He tries to knock the drink from my hand. I shove him and his back hits the edge of a table. Glasses jump and people gasp. Security has started looking toward us. Rafe takes the drink from my hand and passes it to Kasia.
“Keep that.”
She nods. Julian straightens his jacket. His face is flushed now.
“You’re finished,” he says to me. “Do you understand that? You don’t put your hands on me.”
“Then stop trying to drug women at our party.”
“Your party?” He laughs. “You’re talent. This is the label’s room. Who the fuck do you think pays for all this?”
Rafe steps forward. Something in his eyes finally makes Julian hesitate. The crowd around us grows and phones begin to appear. Elise, our long-suffering tour manager, is pushing her way through from the far side of the ballroom with Stefan behind her, both of them already looking horrified.
Rithy pulls harder on my arm.
“Let management handle it.”
Kasia has moved Natalia several feet back. Natalia’s eyes remain on me. I force myself to step away.
Rafe keeps himself between Julian and the women while Ronan guides me toward the others. We turn.
“Walk,” Rithy says quietly.
Behind us, Julian laughs.
“That’s what I thought, run back to Miss Malhotra. Glad to see she still has a heart for charity.”
I stop. Every person around me feels it happen.
I turn. Julian is smiling, a small, satisfied curve of his mouth because he thinks I’ve remembered who has the power here.
I cross the space before Rithy can stop me.
My hand closes on Julian’s collar and I drive him into the wall.
The impact shakes a framed tour photograph beside his head. My forearm presses across his throat.
“What did you fucking say?”
His smile twitches.
“You heard me.”
I lean harder. The laugh disappears when his air does. His hands grip my arm, trying to pull it away.
People shout behind me. Rithy reaches us first, one hand on my shoulder.
“That’s enough.”
Julian’s face is reddening beneath mine.
“Say it again,” I tell him. “Come on.”
He tries to speak but can’t. Rafe’s voice cuts through the noise.
“Kiri, let's go. We need to get the ladies out of here.”
Something in it finally reaches me. I step back. Julian folds forward, coughing, one hand at his throat. Rithy pushes me several feet away.
“That’s it. We’re done.”
Julian drags in a breath. Then another. He looks up at me with hatred burning through his face.
“You’re risking your entire career for what?” His voice is shredded. “Some easy influencer pussy?”
Natalia flinches. The room goes silent around the words. Julian laughs again, still trying to breathe.
“There’s cheap cunt like hers on every street corner in L.A.”
I hit him.
There’s no warning.
No thought.
One second he’s standing there. The next, my fist connects cleanly with his jaw.
His eyes go empty before his body does. Julian drops straight to the floor. A woman screams. Then the room explodes and Stefan shouts my name.
Elise says, “Oh my fucking God,” with the despair of someone watching several months of crisis management materialize in real time.
Security rushes forward. Someone yells for a medic. Stefan says he's calling Dawn. Phones rise everywhere. Rithy grabs the back of my jacket and hauls me away from Julian’s unconscious body.
“You had to knock him out?”
“He was still talking.”
Rafe steps in front of security.
“Our manager is handling it.”
“Your bassist assaulted a label executive.”
“Our bassist stopped a label executive from drugging a guest.”
Kasia still has the drink. She holds it up.
“This needs to be secured and tested.”
That changes the security supervisor’s expression. Stefan hears it too. His anger slides into something colder. He points toward a side corridor.
“Everyone involved. Move. Now.”
We retreat through a service door before the whole party can close around us.
Elise follows while speaking rapidly into her phone.
Stefan remains behind to deal with security, the label executives gathering like vultures around fresh meat.
The service corridor is bright, narrow, and completely silent once the door shuts.
My hand throbs. Blood beads along one knuckle.
Natalia stands beside Kasia with both arms wrapped around herself. I look at her.
“I’m sorry.”
She lets out a shaky laugh, then crosses the space between us and takes my hand in both of hers. Her eyes move over the split skin and the swelling already rising beneath it.
“That’s going to bruise.”
“Probably.”
She turns my hand carefully, testing my fingers with hers.
“I don’t think anything’s broken,” I say.
Her grip tightens anyway.
“Sorry huh, for which part?”
“All of it.”
“That narrows it down.” Her voice trembles despite the sarcasm as she drops my hand. My stomach drops with the loss of her touch. Kasia rubs Natalia's arm.
Radhika stands several feet away, taking in the scene.
Her eyes move from Natalia to me, then back again.
She understands, maybe not every detail, but enough.
She saw my face when Julian touched Natalia.
Saw me leave her side the moment I thought Natalia was in danger.
Watched the exact moment Julian’s insult became something I couldn’t walk away from.
I don’t know what expression is on my face now, but Radhika reads that too. She's always been able to.
“I’m sorry,” I say to everyone.
Ronan looks at me.
“You should be. Your form was terrible.”
Rithy stares at him.
“Seriously?”
“He dropped his shoulder. My eyes had to witness it.”
“He still knocked him unconscious with one hit.”
“Doesn’t mean we just abandon technique.”
A laugh breaks out of Kasia before she can stop it. It sounds close to hysteria. Rafe looks at me.
“Fuck the technique. You should’ve hit the motherfucker harder. Broken his nose, maybe his spine.” His mouth twists. “Left the asshole with a permanent souvenir from The Riven Altar.”
That does it. Rithy laughs, then Ronan. Even Natalia makes a small sound behind one hand, though her eyes still look shaken. The tension releases as each laugh breaks free.
Rafe straightens his jacket.
“All right.” He looks around the corridor. “It's time for a terrible diner with burnt coffee and huge waffles. It fixes everything.”
“That sounds wonderful, but I think I’m going home,” Radhika says.
The laughter fades. She looks at me without accusation or even hurt, though she has every right to both. There’s only that same quiet understanding Mr. Malhotra always seemed to carry, the kind that speaks without needing words.
“I’ll take you,” I say. I owe her that much. That, and a real conversation.
Natalia’s gaze snaps toward us. I feel it without looking. Radhika hesitates, then nods.
“Okay.”
I turn toward Radhika. She falls into step beside me. Before we reach the end of the corridor, I glance back. Natalia is watching us leave. Her expression is flat, perfectly indifferent. Except I know her now. I know how much effort that face costs her, because it costs me just as much.
Then the door closes between us.