The thin little man swallowed hard and nodded his head hastily. “Y-yes sir, Mr. Cutter. I’ll be sure and put that in our files.”
“Smart man.” Turning, I faced the simmering beauty and her wide-eyed sister. “You obviously wanted to see me pretty badly, Nat. Not that I’m complaining, but I’m wondering why.” Especially since she had barely spoken to me at all the day before. Although she’d had plenty to talk about to Rhett Fucking Tomlinson.
“I’m just making sure you’re ready to leave in the morning. Harris said he was all packed and ready for the van to pick him up in the morning, but I wanted to check that you were, too.” She ran her hands through her short hair, grimaced, and dropped her hands by her sides almost angrily.
“I still have a few things to throw in my case, but otherwise I’m ready to go.” I thrust my hands into the front pockets of my jeans, watching her closely. Her nostrils flared and I knew that she had caught the scent of my cologne. I’d only put on a little this morning, thinking I wouldn’t get to see her, but I’d sure as hell been hoping. “Want to come up and check for yourself?”
“No,” she snapped and turned for the elevator.
“Then where are you going?” I demanded, following after her. The elevator opened and five people stepped off. Natalie didn’t answer as she stepped into the elevator and Jenna followed. I glared at them both as I got into the little tin box with them. When Natalie hit the fourteenth floor, I clenched my jaw. Of course. I should have known.
Fucking Z. Just the thought of her going to my ex-best friend’s hotel room, whether she had Jenna with her or not, made me see red. My hands balled into fists at my side as I ached to punch that fucker in the face over and over again.
Once, a lifetime ago, Zander had been my best friend. He’d had my back through so much shit and I’d gladly had his back in return. But all it had taken was one little slip of a chick and our friendship was tossed out a window. A window that hadn’t even been open, leaving our friendship not only broken on the ground, but with a huge chunk of glass sticking right through its heart.
He’d known that I’d had feelings for Natalie before he’d even suggested that stupid-ass bet. It wasn’t like his feelings had been involved. Just his fucking dick and his pride when I’d won our bet within a week of the tour starting. I’d won and even cashed in on the bet, yet weeks later when I’d realized that I didn’t just care about Natalie but loved her, I’d told Zander that I didn’t want the prize. Didn’t need those stupid signed drumsticks by one of my idols. All I’d wanted was to forget about the damned bet and never let Natalie know about it.
Two days later Zander had punched his fist into my chest and ripped out my heart when he’d told Natalie about what we’d been doing. He’d only had his pride stomped on, but I’d been given a deathblow. That’s how I felt without Natalie. Dead.
When the elevator stopped, Natalie and Jenna stepped off and I could do nothing but follow them. Zander had issues, OCD issues. Like he would only stay on the fourteenth floor and he had to stay in room 1414 or he couldn’t sleep in a hotel. He was fucked up in the head when it came to the number fourteen, but I wasn’t going to get into his reasons for it.
When Natalie stood outside of room 1414 she lifted her hand and knocked. Fourteen damned times. I leaned back against the wall across from the room, folding my arms over my chest as she softly counted each knock to herself. It killed me—fucking killed me—that she still cared about him enough to go that far just to get him to come to the damned door. Before the shit had hit the fan, Zander and Natalie had been good friends. I didn’t know how close they were now, but I’d never really asked.
After a brief pause, I heard Zander curse followed by the sound of him stumbling. Moments later the door opened and a completely naked Zander stood there, rubbing sleep out of his eyes. “Nat? What—”
“For real?” Jenna squeaked and covered her eyes with her hands. “Go put Mister Happy away, Zander. I do not want to see it waving around like a flag.”
“Ah fuck, Jenna.” Zander shut the door and stumbled around inside again. It was a long while before the door opened again. He had on a pair of jeans, unbuttoned and hanging open, but at least his dick was put away. He glared from Jenna to Natalie and then he turned that killer glare on me. “What the hell do you three want?”
Natalie lifted a brow at him. “I’m just checking to make sure that you’re ready to leave in the morning. Are you packed?”
Zander’s eyes narrowed on her. “Nope.”
“You are so damn lazy, Z,” Natalie snapped. “You’d better not leave this damn hotel until your shit is packed. I’m not gonna do it for you. Either your case gets packed or you won’t have anything to wear. I don’t fucking care which it is.”
“Stop busting my balls, Nat. It’ll fucking get done.” I pushed away from the wall, stepping behind Natalie and giving my ex-best friend a look that had him glaring up at me but he took a step back. She could talk to him any way she damned well pleased, but he was not going to talk to her like that. “Was there anything else? Or are we done here?”
“Definitely done,” Natalie muttered and turned to walk away. “The van will be here to pick you up at four in the morning. Don’t be late or you’ll have to face Emmie’s wrath.”
“Big deal,” Zander grumbled, but there was no steam in his tone. That fucker was just as much a pussy when it came to Emmie Armstrong as me or any other member of OtherWorld. Shit, every man was a pussy when it came to having to face down that little redhead’s wrath. That didn’t make us cowards. Just smart.
Very, very smart.
Natalie
When my alarm went off I headed straight for the bathroom. My head was killing me from lack of sleep and my stomach was tossing and turning with anxiety. Today was just the beginning of my fourteen-week imprisonment on a bus with OtherWorld. I would have loved to have been riding on Rhett’s bus, or even one of my brothers’ buses, but Emmie had told me I had to stop avoiding OtherWorld and especially Zander and Devlin. Otherwise my brothers would start getting suspicious and before I knew it Drake and Shane would know just how big of douchebags their friends really were. And then I would have two dead rockers and two rockers in jail.
A shower helped with my headache. I dried in record time since there was hardly any hair left before putting on some comfortable clothes. When I walked into the living room, mentally doing a check of the apartment—windows locked, lights turned off, gas off, everything I needed packed and not lying around—it was to find Marissa in a pair of sweats sitting on the couch. She looked hung over, and after the two bottles of wine she had consumed, minus the one glass she had poured me and I’d left untouched, it was little wonder.