“Nope.”
“Brothers,” she muttered, holding out a mug toward me. As she did so, her sleeve rose up her forearm, revealing a ring of dark bruises that looked like finger marks.
Ugly suspicion took hold. I was a glass-half-empty kind of gal, you know. I took the mug and Autumn dropped her arm out of sight, ignoring my questioning gaze.
Not wanting to scare her off, but feeling my heart rate quicken as worry took root, I sat on the couch as she slid onto a stool at the island.
“So, how’s the boyfriend? What was his name again?”
Was that too obvious?
Autumn looked down into her mug, her expression withdrawn. Again, something highly unusual for her. “Darren. We broke up.”
Why? Because he was leaving bruises on her? Fury heated my blood at the mere thought of anyone hurting Autumn. How could anyone hurt Autumn? She was the sweetest, kindest person on the planet. “Oh.” I struggled to keep emotion out of my tone. “What happened?”
“It didn’t work out.”
“That’s too bad. Why not?”
“Just didn’t.” She slammed the mug down on the island. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
Autumn didn’t want to talk about it? Okay. There was definitely something going on. Autumn wanted to talk about everything!
“How’s the album going?” She changed the subject.
“Hmm?”
She smirked. “The album? You know, that thing you and Killian have been working on night and day?”
“Oh. Right. Um . . . yeah, well, I can’t start recording until the wrist is healed enough to play guitar.” I waved it at her. “I tried yesterday and it brought on a world of pain.”
Her eyes brightened with sympathy. “If you were in pain, you should have called.”
“Thanks, but there’s nothing to do about it but take some painkillers and keep doing the wrist exercises the physio told me to do.”
“True.” She stood, kicked off her boots, and curled up on the chair across from me. “So, you went to the label. You met Uncle James.”
“Ah, you heard about that.”
“Eve told me.” Autumn grinned. “She also couldn’t stop talking about how she embarrassed herself by fangirling over you. But she was very proud that she curbed the urge to tell you that you have the most amazing eyes and were so nice. Girl-crush alert.”
I laughed at Autumn’s teasing. “She’s a sweet kid.”
My friend smiled at me quizzically. “Kid? Eve’s twenty-one. She’s only a few years younger than you.”
“She seemed really young. Or maybe I’m an old twenty-four-year-old. I didn’t mean to sound condescending. Eve’s nice.”
“I know. I hired her.” She grinned mischievously.
I burst out laughing. “I knew O’Dea couldn’t have hired her.”
“Well, the man needs to lighten up. I thought Eve would do the trick.”
“Have I told you lately that I love you?”
Autumn chuckled. “It’s so much fun to finally have someone who enjoys irritating my brother as much as I do.”
“You were never friendly with his girlfriends?” The question popped out before I could filter it.
If she was surprised by it, she didn’t let on. “Not really. Killian chooses to be in relationships with shallow, insipid women because he knows he’ll never get attached to someone like that. That’s why his relationships never last. He’s a workaholic. It always comes first.”
“Is that why he and Yasmin broke up?”
“He told you about Yasmin? Oh, good. I didn’t mention her because he hadn’t mentioned her and I didn’t think she was important. Which was true because it ended. He said she was getting clingy, so he broke it off.” She gazed at me with a knowing gleam in her eyes. “However, I’m pretty sure she wasn’t the reason he broke up with her.”
At Autumn’s insinuation that I was somehow the reason, I decided, just like I’d decided with her brother, that I was done beating around the bush. “He didn’t break up with her because of me. We’re putting out an album together. I’m his golden ticket. Nothing else.”
Her expression fell. “Okay, I’m not liking how bitter you sound.” Understanding dawned on her expression. “And Killian is walking around snapping at everyone like a wounded animal. What happened between you two?”
Just like that, my anger spewed out of me. “I let myself be vulnerable with him. Told him shit I haven’t told anyone. I made the mistake of thinking we were friends.” I twisted my lips in distaste. “He informed me otherwise, and he wasn’t nice about it.”
Fuck.
I regretted the words as soon as they were out of my mouth. “I shouldn’t have said that to you. Christ. You’re his sister. I shouldn’t have said that.”
Anger flushed Autumn’s cheeks. “What is wrong with him? I could slap him silly sometimes!”
Oh no, no, no. “Autumn, don’t say that. And don’t say anything to your brother. You’re the only person he really cares about. If he thought I was trying to turn you against him, he’d hate me.”
She raised an eyebrow. “And would you care?”
Thankfully, her cell rang before I had to answer that. It lay on the island and she had her feet tucked under her so I stood up to get it for her.
“Leave it,” she said, trying to untangle herself.
But I was already up.
DARREN
Calling
I held up the phone to her, suddenly no longer distracted from the suspicious bruising on her forearm. “The ex?”
Her expression tightened and I saw the flash of something I really did not like in her dark eyes. “Ignore it. I’ll talk to him later.”
The phone rang off in my hand anyway.
Then it rang again.
I stared at her as she stared at the phone, growing paler by the second. Eventually Darren stopped calling. But then it started ringing immediately again.
“If you two have split up, why is he calling you so persistently?”
She swallowed hard. “Oh, he left some of his stuff at my place. We need to arrange for him to collect it.”
Autumn O’Dea needed a lesson in how to lie.
Her phone buzzed and a message from Darren popped up.
If you don’t pick up . . .
Damn! I was only getting the preview. Was that a threatening message?
“Give me the phone.”
“What does his text say?”
Autumn frowned. “Nosy much?”
Okay, something was wrong. My gut told me so.
Reading my expression, she looked past me and into the kitchen. “Is that the time? Wow. I . . . uh . . . I told Killian I’d come into the office to give him an opinion on . . . on something.” She got up and put her mug on the island before scrambling to get her boots back on.
She didn’t look at me the entire time.
“Autumn . . .”
“You’ll call if you need me?” She kissed my cheek, not meeting my eyes, and was out of the apartment within seconds.
Shit.
I gazed across the room at my cell.
There was nothing on this earth that could compel me to call Killian.
Except fear for his little sister’s safety.
What if I was wrong though? I bit my lip. What if my gut was wrong that some guy she’d dumped for manhandling her didn’t know how to back off? Killian had proven he was willing to get his hands dirty to protect someone, and I was sure whatever he dealt out on Autumn’s behalf would be a hundred times worse.
If I didn’t make him aware that there was possibly something to be worried about, and then this guy did turn out to be dangerous, I’d never forgive myself.
And honestly, I knew I was right.
Autumn was acting jumpy, the bruising, the persistent calling, the possibly threatening text . . .
Screw it. I crossed the room and grabbed my cell. My hands shook a little as I pressed speed dial and held the cell up to my ear.
It rang.
He was ignoring me?
I didn’t know why that surprised or hurt me, but it freaking did. Scrolling through my contacts, I dialed his office.
“Good morning, Skyscraper Records, Mr. O’Dea’s office, how may I help?” Eve answered on the second ring.
“Eve, it’s Skylar. I need to speak to O’Dea.”
“Oh, hi, Skylar,” her voice got a little high-pitched with excitement. “It’s great to hear from you.”
“Uh, thanks, you too.”
There was an awkward silence.