Lilac

Set the flame and feel it burn

I hear you calling

(Give in to me)It seems no one understands

No one else but you

You’re the vengeance that builds in silence

I’m the demon you wait to freeJust as Braxton was reaching the bridge that led to the fourth verse and the final chorus, Loren’s phone started to ring from where it sat on the table. Neither of us stopped. From my peripheral, however, I saw Loren lean over to check it.

I never questioned or understood how I’d become so attuned to my best friends that I could feel their emotions as if they were my own.

My fingers stopped playing.

Only one person inspired the measure of anger and apprehension I felt rippling off Loren in waves.

Braxton waited for me to tell her why I had stopped, but my focus was on Loren, who was lifting his phone from the table.

“Don’t answer that,” I snapped.

I never even considered if I had the right to come between a father and son. Loren gave me a lazy look like he was bored, but I knew better. He cared about his father calling. And he hated my attempt to strong-arm him into doing what he already knew was best—for everyone.

I didn’t know why Orson chose now to reach out, but it couldn’t have been because he cared. However, Loren’s lack of surprise and the tension radiating off him made me wonder if this wasn’t the first time.

It’s been six years to my recollection.

What had I missed?

“He’s my father,” Loren retorted as if that made a difference.

“Then explain why you’ve only had Rich and me for the past six years?”

“Fuck you, Houston, okay?” He grabbed his phone and stood, making me stand too.

He wasn’t answering that fucking call.

Loren might have forgotten how long it took him to stand on his own feet confidently, but I hadn’t. Five years and he was still waiting for me to apologize for talking them into signing that deal, but I couldn’t.

I just…couldn’t.

As much as I regretted Savant, it wasn’t even close to how much I would have missed my best friend.

I wouldn’t give him up then, and I wouldn’t give him up now.

Holding my gaze, Loren pressed the green button.

The moment he tried to speak, I charged the two steps it took to reach him and packed a lot of power into the fist I drove into his stomach. Loren dropped to one knee, and when his phone hit the ground next to him, I quickly scooped it up.

There was frustration and anger written in the look he gave me as he held his stomach and glared up at me. Braxton and Rich also wore deep frowns, but I didn’t care. I didn’t care if they thought I was being a dick. Frankly, what else was new?

“What the fuck is your problem?” Loren barked once he caught the wind I’d knocked out of him.

“Orson James is my problem. He hasn’t changed, and you fucking know it.”

The muscle in Loren’s jaw ticked. Hitting him and taking away the call with his father hadn’t pissed him off nearly as much as his fear that I might be right.

It was more than a possibility, though. It was a fucking fact.

And it was already driving me crazy to think that I might not be there the next time Orson called, and he would. He didn’t give up easily, but neither did I.

Standing, Loren didn’t break my stare. “What the hell makes you think you’re any different?” he spat, calling me out on my shit. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t do anything other than take it because Loren was right. I wasn’t any better than Orson James. “You’re still a controlling piece of shit. Nothing’s changed.”

Bumping me as he passed to leave the room, I almost followed him to…I don’t know. Loren shot a look over his shoulder just before he disappeared that warned me off.

Rich jumped on me as soon as the door was closed. “Seriously, Morrow?”

My gaze shot to Braxton for some reason before I quickly looked away. Shame, maybe? I was acting like a lunatic and couldn’t explain why. “Drop it.”

Braxton silently stood from the couch and slowly walked by me before quietly leaving the room. I had a hunch she was going to check on Loren despite giving him the cold shoulder.

Dropping down into the armchair Loren had vacated and slouching, I leaned my head against the low back and closed my eyes. I’d barely finished exhaling all the air from my lungs and unknotting my fucking stomach before Rich broke the silence.

“I’m meeting with my lawyer tomorrow,” he quietly announced. I kept my eyes closed since I was too exhausted to know where he was going with this. “And then I’m going to tell Braxton about Emily.”

My eyes shot open at that as I lifted my head.