Chapter 17 Royce
SEVENTEEN
ROYCE
The band playing wasn’t holding my attention.
I felt really shitty saying that, but it was true.
My distraction was warranted, considering the development with the man who’d kissed me senseless earlier.
Ford had pulled up in front of my house to pick me up for work, slowly lowered his sunglasses, and smiled at me.
It had frozen me in place, feet glued to my steps as I took a mental picture.
It was one dipped in rose-colored glass.
I refused to see any red flags that might accompany this new thing that had finally burst between us.
When he dropped me off, he’d held my chin and kissed me breathless. I had walked into work feeling as though I floated in on a cloud, and now I was sitting at the bar, drawing a heart around my name and Ford Ryan’s like I was fourteen again.
“Hey, Royce?” Nick suddenly appeared in front of me, hesitant as if he was nervous about interrupting me. He had messy blond hair that was too shaggy, but otherwise, he wasn’t a bad-looking guy.
“What’s up?” I shut the notebook, heat expanding in my chest that he might have seen it.
Nick glanced over his shoulder toward the hall behind the stage. “Rodney isn’t coming in tonight, and I really need to get something from his office. I know you do the books for him and wondered if you could unlock it for me?”
My brows curved. “Rodney isn’t coming in tonight?”
His hands slipped into his jeans as he shook his head. “No.”
Rodney never took time off work, and more so, he never really left the office unprotected.
I did the books, but he was always hanging around outside the office.
Not that I’d ever felt the need to snoop before, but I did now.
After that ominous warning Ford delivered about not following him, then Connor. I wanted to know what he was up to.
Sliding off the stool, I waved Nick to follow me.
I had the keys to access his office, but there were still a ton of cameras that would track our movements.
It looked way better for me to enter his office with Nick, then it did for me to go in all alone.
We walked around the stage, toward the back where Ford had taken me that day, he’d nearly killed that bass player.
After pulling my keys out, I slid the silver metal into the handle and twisted. The darkened office awaited us, but I quickly found the lamp. Nick walked around me and veered straight for a drawer that held extra cords.
“Thanks, Royce.”
“No problem, I needed to do a quick bookkeeping check anyway.” I waved him off as he slid back out and rushed back to his sound booth.
I glanced around and shut the door to ensure no cameras were watching inside the office.
Then I began snooping. I checked the cabinet for anything out of the ordinary, looking through receipts and files. There didn’t seem to be anything that I could find. Feeling exasperated, I pulled my cell out and called my sister.
“Hello?” Taryn answered.
I pinned the phone to my shoulder and began searching through another large drawer. “I’m snooping in Rodney’s office. What should I be looking for?”
She paused for a second before matching my energy. “Where have you checked so far?”
I began listing everything, and then she hummed in reply. “Okay, check under the desk.”
I eyed the open leg space for where the chair fit. “There’s noth—”
“No, like taped under the desk, Royce.”
“Oh.” I would have eventually figured that out. My hand went to the metal frame, feeling around and then stopping when I got to a lump that was contained by Velcro.
“He has a gun underneath the desk.”
“Not exactly out of the norm,” Taryn mused. I had to agree.
Pulling open the small slot for pens and pencils, I found a matchbook. “There’s something here with an address written onto it.”
“Send me the picture of it and then be sure you put it back,” she urged, and I moved my phone, doing exactly as she said.
Once I texted her, I could hear her further away from the phone, probably on speaker.
“I’m looking it up now.”
I sifted through a few more drawers to see if there was anything else I could find while Taryn looked up the address.
“By the way”—I picked up a notepad and flipped through it—“I kissed Ford Ryan again. I think I’m going to spend the night with him tonight.”
There was a sudden choking sound in the background, then a loud, “What the fuck!”
My eyes bulged as I stared down at the phone. “Taryn, please tell me you’re not in the same room as Dad right now.”
“Uh…I’m sorry! I didn’t know you were going to randomly tell me about hooking up with Ford!”
“I am going to kill him!” Dad yelled in the background. I rubbed my eyebrow. “Are we sure he’s talking about Ford and not some other random completely unrelated thing?”
Taryn whisper yelled, “He was fine two seconds ago, this is definitely about Ford.”
“Dad, stop it!” I yelled, hoping to get his attention.
Taryn’s voice was still a bit of a whisper, “I took you off speakerphone, dork. I’m outside now. Dad is being calmed down by Mom who called Callie.”
“Oh, great. So, this is like a whole thing now. Callie and Wes are going to know that I kissed their son, and may be spending the night with him?”
My sister made a sound that could only be construed as shrieking. “Wait, so you’re together?”
I smiled, slumping into the rolling chair. I’d make a terrible spy if this was all it took for me to give up my search. “Yeah, I think we are. I showed up at his office today and tried to pick a fight with him, but it ended with him kissing me.”
“That’s why he picked you up for work.” Taryn sighed dreamily. “Okay, this is so cute. You’ve had a crush on him for so long. I’m happy for you, Royce.”
“I’m happy for me too.” Although I was also apprehensive about what Connor had warned me about.
I needed to figure out what he meant by that.
I wanted to tell her about it, but Taryn was intense enough that she’d kidnap him or hold him hostage until he confessed to whatever Connor was talking about.
“How bad is Dad freaking out?” I asked, tugging at another random folder.
The sound of a door opening and closing sounded on her end before she answered. “He’s yelling on the phone at someone. It sounds like it might be Ford because he’s using a lot of cuss words. Something about warning him several times.”
Yeah, that sounded about right.
“Also, I looked up the address. It’s a bar near Murdoch, Virginia…which is super close to the border of North Carolina.”
“Are there any pictures of the bar?” I sat up and checked through the glass window into the hall to ensure no one was coming.
Taryn replied with a sigh. “I pulled it up on my laptop. No, there’s not much here. Are we going on a road trip?”
I bit my lip thinking back to what Connor had mentioned about the club that Rodney was working with.
“Not on our own. As much as I hate the idea of it, I need to talk to Ford and then Dad. It might take a day or so for them to calm down and not want to kill each other. Dad’s the president though, so it’s not like Ford has much power there.
Hopefully Dad can’t bully him into breaking up with me. ”
“He better not,” Taryn yelled from somewhere away from the phone. “I will lose my shit on him if he does. But so will Mom, so I think we’re okay.”
My cell lit up with a text against my face.
Nick: Where did you go? The set is nearly finished.
“I gotta go. I brought a change of clothes with me, so I probably won’t go home unless something goes wrong with Ford.”
“I’m so happy for you. Ignore any calls from Dad, love you byyyee.” Taryn called excitedly.
I hung up and rushed out of the office, locking it on my way.
Ford waited at the bar as soon as midnight rolled around.
Nick would lock everything up, so I didn’t have to do anything other than say goodbye to the band.
Once I was finished, I saw Ford standing near the stool I typically perched on, with my bag slung over his chest and my pink helmet in his hand.
He’d brought my helmet for me to use while riding on the back of his bike. I expected his face to be solemn or stern like it always was anytime I saw him, but that famous Ford Ryan smile that other people were lucky enough to receive was now aimed directly at me.
That cloud I had floated in on was seemingly back under my feet, forcing a dopey grin to spread across my face.
“Hey.”
Ford didn’t reply, he just tipped my chin up and kissed me.
Right here, in front of everyone. I suppose he wouldn’t care since he’d kissed me senseless while Johnson watched on.
I gave in to the feel of his mouth on mine, the warmth against my chest as he pressed closer, and the strange feeling of shelter that I’d never experienced before.
He was like one of those weighted blankets Taryn was so obsessed with.
“Ready?” he asked, his voice all gravel.
“Yeah.”
His mouth moved to my ear, and I felt the smile in his voice as he said, “You packed overnight clothes.”
Not a question, but an observation, probably from peeking what was inside my bag. I didn’t feel embarrassed, but a slice of heat slid through my chest.
“I did.”
He wrapped a loose curl around his finger. “See, look at that. We’re already in sync and shit.”
I laughed, pushing at his chest as he walked me out.
The ride over to his house was quick. Honestly, I probably could have walked with how close it was, but I already knew Ford would never allow that.
Instead of parking in front of the house, or behind his construction truck, he pulled something from his pocket and after pushing a button, the garage opened.
With his feet down on the ground, he moved us forward inside the small space and turned off the engine.
The garage door slid shut behind us, and I hopped off first, pushing my helmet up.
“Can I take a shower?”
Ford released a rumble, which sounded like a laugh. “Yeah, baby, you can shower.”