Those big, blue angel eyes were wide and playful, and she whispered so only I could hear. “For the record, your friends are crazy.” She pointed at Ash. “That one…bat-shit.”
With the way she was looking at me? Everything inside went haywire. All abuzz and alive and excited.
Fuck.
I liked her.
“But you love them,” I countered, one corner of my mouth lifting.
Everything about her softened. “Yeah. I do.”
I touched her face and she sighed a breathy sigh, and my dick twitched again. Fuck, maybe it was me who was twisted. Because I wanted this girl in a way that just wasn’t right.
“I’ll match that, Zee,” Shea said, still messing with my crew. “Two hundred bucks says Ash is going to be painting all the upstairs bedrooms pink and blue.”
“You’re on,” Zee shot back.
Tamar’s smile was soft and hinting at things I didn’t want to see. At things I couldn’t give, and again I was wondering just what the fuck I’d gotten myself into and how the hell I was going to get out of it.
Still, I got stuck there, in that warmth of those wells of blue, trapped by the body of a red-headed enchantress.
Temptation.
I felt it in my gut and trembling around my blackened heart.
I looked away, to the ground.
Loyalty.
That was the one thing I had. The one thing I got to count as good. I had to cling to that.
My phone buzzed in my pocket. Three times in quick succession.
Blowing out a breath, I dug it out and swiped across the screen. I tried to hide the irritation I felt flash across my face.
Motherfucker.
I told this asshole not to bother me again. Appeared he didn’t get the message.
I scrolled through his texts.
Have you thought any more about our offer?
Have it on good word your boy Stone is about to split.
Don’t let this opportunity pass you by.
What the hell? This guy had to have been a used car salesman in a former life.
And it didn’t matter what he had to say. What he threatened Baz might do. Still, I felt it in the knots that suddenly tied my insides, this thick band of defensiveness for my crew all mixed up with a dangling thread of dread.
With a dry chuckle, I tapped out an answer.
Fuck off.
That was about as clear as I could be.
“Care to let us in on the joke?” Ash asked.
Probably should have before. In private with just the guys. But I guess now was as good a time as any.
“Joke is, this bastard Banik…the manager of Tokens of Time?” I said it like a question, talking while I looked down at my phone and pressed send. “He somehow thinks I’m gonna up and leave Sunder and pick up for their piece-of-shit lead who left the rest of the band high and dry.”
Funny they were basically asking me to do the same.
Silence fell over the entire living room. Tension whipped through and filled up the old walls, a dense cloud of it sagging from the ceiling, making it hard to breathe.
Guess I really should have said something earlier. Their shock was palpable.
Stagnant.
As if any of them could think for even a second I could walk away.
Confusion and anger pulled tight across Ash’s face. “And why the fuck does he think you’d go and do something like that?”
Warily, I looked around the room, gauging how much to say. Sebastian was on the couch, still as stone, like he was preparing himself for what I was getting ready to say.
I gestured to him with my chin. “Banik seems to think Baz isn’t going to stick around all that long, and I might as well cut my losses before Sunder goes south.”
And maybe it was fucked up, because I was staring Baz down while I said it, searching for his reaction, just waiting for which way this was going to play out. Wondering how I was going to feel.
Because I was willing to let him go.
I wouldn’t even put up a fight.
Maybe it was more of that selfishness. The need to pay off a little part of my debt. Or maybe it was because I cared enough that I actually wanted him happy. Part of me wanted him to make a break for it because I’d been feeling him needing to cut ties for a long damned time.
Why wouldn’t he when he had something so damned good?
Baz shook his head. “Asshole has not a clue what he’s talking about.” His gaze bounced between Zee and Ash and me. “Any of you really think I’d up and leave without warning? Without talking this through? We’ve been through too much shit together for that to ever happen. Banik is full of shit. Anything he’s trying to lure Lyrik away with is nothin’ but assumption.”
My eyes flicked between him and Shea and her belly, and the words were tumbling out before I could stop them. “Baz, man, you know we’ve got your back. Whatever you decide. None of us are going to blame you for leaving, because songs aren’t ever going to be as important as family. We owe you that.”
Five years ago, I’d promised him I’d be there while he was in jail. I’d promised I’d take care of the band in his place. Watch over his brother. Make sure everything didn’t fall apart when he’d sacrificed and gave me the one moment I wasn’t ever supposed to have.
I’d do it again. And I’d keep doing it.