Page 8 of Wasted

That voice.Her voice.

This is a dream.

My gaze slowly lifted.

Taylor.

It wasn't a dream because, in my dreams, she still looked exactly the same as the day she told me she was marrying my brother. Her hair was a darker shade of blonde and a little shorter, but her eyes were the same striking blue they'd always been. She was still just as beautiful as I remembered.

Her blonde hair was a mess like she'd just woken up, her eyes sleepy, and she wore black sleep shorts and a tank top. This was definitely a dream because there was no way the girl who ripped my heart out and stomped on it in front of my entire family spent the night here in my hotel room with me.

Except it wasn't a dream. She was here.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" She opened her mouth but slammed it shut when I started jerking against the cuffs. "Uncuff me now."

"Cole..."

"Don't," I cut her off, avoiding eye contact. My jaw clenched. "Don't." I shifted on the bed, tugging on the cuffs. "I don't know what you're doing here, but you need to leave."

"I'm not leaving." Taylor's jaw clenched, her tone sharp and biting. Gone was the softness from moments ago.

My eyes widened as I stared at her.Was she serious?

She squared her shoulders as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Everyone is worried about you."

I huffed out a humorless laugh. "And you were their best choice for an intervention?"

Everyone had lost their minds.

"Cole, if you don't pull yourself together, you're going to lose everything." A bitter laugh escaped me. Rich, coming from the woman who'd taken everything from me two years ago.

Anger raced through my veins. "I haven't seen you in two years, Taylor," I growled. "You don't know a fucking thing about my life."

"I know that your daughter is in Bridgewater with your parents, and when Kylie leaves Nashville, she's not coming back with her because she doesn't want River to see you like this. I know that after this tour, your record label will barely break even between the money they've had to pour into the PR nightmares you've caused and the canceled shows, and they're on the fence about dropping you after. I know that your reputation is ruined, but it's not unfixable yet."

Confusion spread across my face. "Kylie can't take River."

"She can, and she did. There's not a judge in the world who would side with you right now."

It was no secret that I'd fucked up more times than I could count… Since the day I'd left Bridgewater, I'd been on a downward spiral, but bringing the reason for that spiral here wasn't going to help anything.

"Why didn't Kylie tell me this? Why didn't Wyatt tell me? Why you?" Of all the people in the world, why would they call her?

"I guess they thought I would get your attention." Well, they were right. She had my attention. "It would suck to have gone through all of that for you to throw it all away."

I frowned. "Go through all of what?"

The door flew open with a bang. Wyatt strode in, a grin plastered on his face.

"Oh, thank god." Relief flooded through me. I rattled the cuffs against the metal bars, the loud clank echoing in the room. "Get me out of these and call the police. She kidnapped me."

They both ignored me.

"I brought food." He held up a brown bag. "Taylor..."

"What the fuck, man?" I cut him off. "Are you in on this?"

"Taylor," he continued to ignore me, "I wasn't sure what you liked, so I grabbed a few things. I'll bring some more drinks and snacks up in a little while."

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