“Ramsey,” Royce grated just as my brother was getting ready to step back into the room.
My brother paused, looked over his shoulder.
“Just to be clear . . . from here on out? If someone touches her without her permission? They lose their hands. And if anyone pushes her before she’s ready? That becomes my problem. Do you understand?”
Richard shook his head in disgust. “Fuck you, Royce, if you don’t think I want what’s best for my sister. What’s best for this band.”
The door slammed closed behind him, and I exhaled a heavy sound.
Unable to keep up with the events of the night.
Soaring to the highest high before I’d been sent crashing to the lowest low.
A free fall I wasn’t sure I was ever gonna recover from.
“You don’t have to get in the middle of me and my brother, Royce. I know you want me to sign as badly as Rich does.”
For a beat, Royce stood with his back to me before he slowly turned around.
Eyes stared back as if he could see right into the heart of me.
Molten fire.
My soul on display.
I wanted to gather it up.
Cover it.
“I’m a big girl. I can handle it.” The words shook loose of my tongue.
He swiveled the rest of the way around and slowly started my way.
One step.
Two.
The click of his dress shoes on the cement floor sent bursts of energy through the air.
They struck my body like little lightning pulses.
One of the first songs I’d ever written played in a slow drone that crawled in from the recesses of the dingy music hall.
As if maybe it were calling me back.
My voice barely distinct enough to touch our ears. It was a sad, sad love song. Edged in longing and painted in faith that things would one day be better.
Turn out the way they were always meant to be.
I just wished it were the truth.
“I’m not here for Richard.” Royce’s voice was a sharp barb.
I nodded quick, tongue darting out to wet my lips. “I know . . . you’re here for the band.”
He reached out and brushed a lock of hair from my face, those fingertips riding down my cheek in a coarse caress.
It buzzed all the way to my center. “No, I’m here for you.”
My mouth dropped open. Attraction alive. No longer did I know where I was standing.
Flying. Falling. Hoping. Weeping.
“I . . . I don’t understand what you mean.”
The tattoo on his throat bobbed. “You changed everything,” he murmured, like admitting it caused him physical distress.
“You don’t even know me,” I whispered.
“Are you sure about that?” he challenged.
My mouth trembled, and my tongue almost managed to form another lie, but instead the hint of a truth was breaking free. “I don’t want to be afraid, anymore, Royce. I don’t want to feel powerless.”
“You are the strongest person I know,” he grated hard.
My head shook. “No. I’ve been breaking apart for a long time now.”
“No, Emily, you’re searching for a way to be whole.”
I blinked at him, unable to process, to understand how he could know that about me. “I’m trying. I really am.”
“You have to be willing to destroy whatever it is that is holding you back.” He gazed back at me as if he had a first-row seat to all my secrets. Like he knew them better than me.
My mouth flapped open, my senses going haywire, this feeling that he could really see to the vile stain in me. “I want to be. Strong. Like you said.”
A big hand stroked across my jaw.
Shivers raced. Heart stampeding.
But it was in a whole different way than with that jerk inside.
“You are, Precious. Brave. Strong. I see it in you. No one can stop you.”
“I don’t want to let wickedness reign.” How was I admitting this to him, as vague as it was? But it felt natural.
Trusting him when I’d thought he was the last person that I could.
Felt so right after I’d been the brunt of such a lie.
“Then don’t,” he almost demanded.
“My standing up means knocking down someone powerful. It’s not gonna be easy.”
“But is it worth it?”
“Yes,” I whispered so fast. I’d never heard a truth ring so loud. I couldn’t allow Cory Douglas to remain free after what he’d done. Sickness tremored through my body when I thought about him doing it again. Hurting someone innocent. Someone who couldn’t fight back.
Royce’s eyes flashed. The blackest black. That white fire burning fury. “Then you take the motherfucker down.”
“I . . . I’m almost ready. Almost there.”
He blinked long, his lips twisting in something that looked like guilt. “We should get you out of here. I shouldn’t be out here with you.”
My teeth raked my bottom lip, not sure that I wanted to give up on the connection. The feeling that maybe someone got me on a level no one else could. As if he’d been sent to make me see myself in a different light.