“I haven’t heard from him in four weeks, Mama. He hasn’t even tried to explain himself. Left the band without a word. We don’t even know if the original contract is gonna stand.”
I’d found out from Detective Casile the magnitude of the changes that had been made to our contract.
The way it’d given them the right to cut any member loose at any time.
Karl had wanted Richard gone. I shuddered at the thought of the way he’d wanted to have control over me.
Rumors had been running rampant about the dissolution of Mylton Records. That its future was uncertain. We had no idea where we stood, our attorney instructing us to hold tight until he had more information.
Not that the contract was my main concern. But Royce knew how important it was to the band. To my family. That it was what was supposed to have brought us together in the first place.
“The silence speaks volumes, don’t you think?” I said.
Mama touched my face. “Maybe you should listen to what it’s saying.”* * *It was just after seven that evening when I was coming down the stairs and there was a light tapping at the front door. Twilight poured in through the windows, spilling pinks and grays and muted light into the quieted house.
My pulse spiked, drummed an extra beat. I sucked it down, increased my pace as I took the last couple steps to the front door. I peered out the side window onto the porch, trying to fight the unending disappointment that it wasn’t him.
That he’d really left me.
That what I’d thought we’d shared hadn’t been real.
Confusion narrowed my eyes when I saw a woman standing at the door, hair tied in a haphazard knot on top of her head as she peered around, anxiously taking in her surroundings.
Well, a young woman.
A very young woman who was shifting on her feet and chewing at her bottom lip.
I reached for the lock and turned it.
A strange sort of energy lit in the air when I opened the door.
Familiar but different.
She lifted her gaze.
Dark, dark eyes tangled with mine.
The color of onyx.
Though hers didn’t glint white flames. They held a warm, simmering amber.
My chest clutched and my spirit gave, tendrils reaching for her as if it’d found a fiber it didn’t know it’d been missin’.
“Hi,” she said, so quiet, her voice so timid and unsure.
I swallowed around the thickness in my throat, as if it might hold back the emotion rising fast.
A flash flood.
“Hi,” I barely managed.
“I’m . . . I . . .”
I widened the door. “I know who you are.”
Maggie.
I could almost see his eyes glimmer when he’d said it. Compassion and love and loyalty.
“Come in,” I told her, realizing how badly my hands were shaking when she angled past me and I shut the door.
A leather messenger bag strapped across her body, she was wearing simple clothes, jeans and a white tee and white Vans, the girl so sweet and pretty that it was making it hard to remember that hard cruelness of her brother. The only thing I could feel right then was the stunning protectiveness he’d felt for her.
“Would you like something to drink?” I offered.
Awkwardly.
Because what I really wanted to ask was what she was doing here. If Royce was okay. Scream that none of this was fair.
Then I wanted to wrap her up and hug her close and tell her I understood.
But I just stared, watching her carefully, her watching me, as if neither of us knew if the other was going to crack.
“No, thank you. I won’t be here long.”
Was that disappointment that flashed?
“He doesn’t know I’m here. He thinks I’m spending the weekend in Palm Springs with my girlfriends . . . my first trip away by myself,” she admitted, a blush pinking her cheeks as guilt clouded her features. “But I couldn’t not come. Not after everything he’s sacrificed for me.”
I nodded slow. “He cares for you . . . so deeply.”
She laughed out a disbelieving sound, her gaze cast to the floor before she turned it back on me. “I think I could say the same about you.”
Grief clutched every cell in my body, refusing what she claimed and simultaneously wishing that it were true. “He did what he had to do for you, Maggie. I understand it. Have accepted it. I forgive him for it.”
I was willing to be one of those pawns on his fingers if it meant him getting justice for his little sister. That she might be able to step out of her home without a sense of fear. That she might have a chance to fly free.
Lines curled across her brow. “You think he used you?”
She said it as if she were actually disgusted by the thought.
“I’m okay that he did.”
It was only partially a lie.