Page 69 of Edge of Heaven

“I’ll hold you to it!”

We climb into a van that pulls around the corner. Even from here, we can hear the sirens and I’m eternally grateful I got out of there. Getting arrested during a drug raid would be disastrous in my bid for custody, not to mention a blow to my reputation. Supermodels aren’t necessarily meant to be angels—there are certainly a ton of them who’ve behaved badly over the years—but I don’t want to be one of them.

That’s not the image I want for myself or the example I want to set for my son.

I’m so thankful that Mick’s first thought was to get me out of there, because there’s no doubt in my mind I would be in jail right now if he hadn’t.

And I have to take some time to think about what that really means.

Chapter23

Mick

We drivein silence for a while, everyone seemingly lost in thought. I can’t tell what Taryn is thinking, but she’s nestled against my side, her fingers still twined with mine. I feel like I need to say something, an explanation of sorts, but I can’t.

So we just sit there for a bit until Angus says, “My buddy just texted. There are a lot of arrests. I asked him to see if he can find out specifically about Callum, and he said yes. He and Dusty were just taken out in handcuffs.”

“What does that mean?” Taryn asks quietly. “Can he get out tonight?”

“Probably not. They’ll arraign in the morning.”

She lets out a sigh of obvious relief. “Thank fuck.”

“Any other news?” Tate asks.

Angus types something into his phone. “It’s a clusterfuck. Adam says they’re arresting everyone they can round up. People scattered, like we did, but they arrested at least twenty-five or thirty people. Including the band.”

“Thank you for getting me out of there,” Taryn says quietly. “It could have been a disaster for me if I’d been arrested. Both personally and professionally.”

Angus nods. “You’re welcome.”

“And thank you.” She looks at me, a soft smile on her face.

“You think I’d leave you behind? Not in a million years.”

“Are we just going to drive around?” Sam asks, looking out the window. “It’s late.”

“Adam says we need to give them about an hour to clear out the police and such.”

“I might take a nap,” Ryleigh says, yawning and resting her head on his shoulder. “I’m not used to all this excitement.”

“We really need to get the fuck off this tour,” Sam mutters.

“A couple more weeks,” Jonny says.

“A couple more weeks?” Taryn asks, confusion on her face. “Are you leaving the tour?”

Crap.

I haven’t had a chance to talk to her about this.

“Yeah,” I say gently. “Things haven’t been going well for us.”

“The crowds have been rough on you,” she says, nodding. “But I didn’t realize you could just… leave the tour.”

“It’s not that simple,” Angus says, “but we can’t keep playing to crowds who boo us. The fact of the matter is, we were never a good fit with Karnal Death. They play speed metal with a much harder edge. Our music is a lot more melodic, contemporary rock, for lack of a better term. Our fan bases are totally different. But with Nobody’s Fool and Onyx Knight both on hiatus, our label couldn’t find us a tour we could just step into. And they offered us a sweet deal with merch and such.”

“But now we know why,” Sam says. “I’ve done some digging, along with Angus, and it turns out no one likes touring with them.”

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