“That’s the only thing she wanted. The only thing she could see. It got to the point where I knew she didn’t care how she made that happen, just as long as it did. All those years, my mother had worked her magic with manipulative words, getting me in front of anyone in the industry who would give me the time of day.”
She winced. “When Martin came into our lives, she allowed him to take over everything. Including me. He…he…”
If it were possible, her voice got rougher, dipped into fear. “He controlled everything.”
She wavered. Like she needed to decide how much she should say. How much I could tolerate.
“Let’s just say Kallie didn’t fit into that picture. So I ran.”
Guess the girl knew I couldn’t tolerate much. Just that bit of history hit me with yet another urge to jump from this bed and hunt the fucker down. That urge was almost irresistible.
She shook her head like she was shaking off the memories then tipped her chin back up to focus on me. “How did you get messed up with him?”
I almost laughed. It was definitely a mess.
I played with a few strands of her hair. “I knew the second I met Martin Jennings he was nothin’ but a snake, but at the time, none of us cared. The only thing that mattered to the guys and me was Sunder making it big. We didn’t give a shit about how we made that happen. Anthony had hooked us up, asked him to come check us out at a bar we were playing at. Jennings made us big promises we were quick to jump on. It became clear real fast the guy had his fingers dipped in all kinds of illegal shit—”
With that tidbit of information, her bottom lip trembled. More fucking worry added to this unbearable torment. With my thumb, I smoothed it out, hating dragging all this out into the open. Ripping Shea’s wounds open wider. But we didn’t have a whole lot of options.
Not if we were going to start being honest with each other.
No more secrets and lies.
“But it wasn’t so far off base from what my crew had going down, so I didn’t exactly think we had any right to judge. Even though I’d gotten clean, it didn’t mean the rest of the guys had. You know what I mean?”
Shea nodded like it hurt.
“It all came to a head a few months ago when Austin overdosed. There was no question in my mind Jennings somehow had a hand in it. I saw him coming out of our tour bus that night. But Austin wouldn’t fess up, so I’d gone to Jennings’s place and confronted him. While he never admitted involvement, he basically told me my brother was nothing but a punk and the world would be a better place without him in it. I lost it, Shea. Fucking lost it and now he looks like the good guy who was attacked by some deranged delinquent out for blood.”
I pressed on with my explanation, doing all I could not to spit the words. “We were supposed to come to some kind of bullshit terms. My attorneys thought I could pay off the asshole, he would dismiss the charges, and I’d get a lesser sentence…fines and community service or some shit like that. But the bastard hates me as much as I hate him. Things escalated at the mediation we had last week and there was no keeping my hands off him. He warned me I’d regret fucking with him.”
At the time, I’d wanted to laugh in his face and just beg him to bring it on, that any consequence I had to pay would be well worth it.
Now I knew that debt was too steep.
Not if Kallie was the cost.
Guess I’d thought I couldn’t hate him more until I saw that pompous ass driving off with her. Stealing that baby girl from her mother.
From her home.
From me.
“He was after revenge tonight,” I confessed. The words were so choppy they vibrated in my chest.
“On both of us,” Shea said.
“That douchebag is nothing but a narcissist. Can’t believe he’d use a little girl as retaliation. Fuck him,” I gritted out, my rage threatening to boil.
Shea blinked slowly, like she didn’t want to hear her own words. “He’s a sociopath.” Her voice grew desperately quiet. “A psychopath.”
I pushed up onto my elbow so I could see her better, and Shea rolled onto her back. Her face pinched up in pain as if fighting whatever she was feeling inside.
“Tell me.” I couldn’t stop the same earlier demand from leaving my mouth.