Page 75 of Rock & Roll Nights: The Lila and Rivers Edit
“I’m going out,” I repeated. “I’m not tired. I don’t want to sleep. And I need to check on something.”
She grabbed at my arm again and spun me around, her eyes narrowed and her lips pressed tightly together. “You mean you want to check on someone.”
I could have lied to her. I could have said I didn’t know what she was talking about. I could even have called her insane and told her that she was imagining things or something like that. But Anna was my best friend in the world. Closer to me than at least two of my sisters, when you came right down to it, and the person I had always shared everything with. I couldn’t remember a single secret that I hadn’t told her when we were growing up. The girl was my soulmate. I couldn’t stand the thought of lying to her, and even if I managed it, she’d see right through me.
“Anna, he’s in pain. He needs a friend. And I think I’m the closest thing he’s got to that.”
“He’s trouble, Lila. Everyone says so. Taylor’s on the verge of dropping him, and he’s not going to do anything good for your reputation. If people see you together in the middle of the night?—”
“They’ll think we’re out for a midnight rendezvous,” I interrupted. “Which is exactly what we’re supposed to be doing. I have a deal with Taylor, remember? Our contract actually depends on that deal, in case you’ve forgotten.”
I stared into her eyes, praying she wasn’t going to fight me on this one. I wasn’t lying; my deal with Taylor was still in place, as far as I knew, so going to find Rivers could be counted a responsibility to that fake relationship plan.
That wasn’t why I was going to find him. But I’d use it to get Anna off my case if I could.
Her eyes grew even narrower, which I would have said was impossible, but she let go of my arm. “I’m not going to argue with you about that one. I know you well enough to know that you’re going to do it regardless of what I think. But promise me one thing, Lila Potter.”
Her sudden capitulation caught me off balance, and when I tried to answer her, I found that my voice had fled. So I just nodded, my eyes wet with tears.
She nodded back, seeming like she knew exactly what I was going through. “Be careful. He’s trouble, and I don’t want to have to kill him for hurting you.”
That made me laugh and I pulled her into a quick, intense hug. “I will,” I whispered into her hair. “I swear I know what I’m doing.”
“Stop lying to me. You know you’re no good at it.”
I pulled back, gave her a quick grin of acknowledgement—because she was right—and then turned and headed for the door, my mind already on my mission. Rivers hadn’t left the hotel yet. Matt had told me earlier that he was planning to stay the whole night.
Which meant he was somewhere in the building. Just waiting for me to find him.
* * *
He was in the second place I looked.
I checked the bar first because obviously. But after wading through a number of well-dressed businessmen and their dates—some of them already so drunk they could barely stand up—I realized that Rivers wasn’t with them. I left the room feeling half relieved and half disappointed and wondering where else I was going to search when I saw a darkened café across the lobby. The place was done in 50s style, all pink leather and neon signs, now dark and sleeping. The overhead lights were off but the place was still dimly lit by the lights from the lobby, and there in the corner booth I saw a figure hunched over the table.
A figure with dark hair and even darker stubble, his eyes on his hands in front of him and a piece of pie sitting on a plate in the middle of the table.
I didn’t think twice about it. I didn’t even have to pause. I rushed to that side of the lobby, ignoring several bellhops who asked me if I needed help, and burst through the swinging gate the separated the diner from the rest of the hotel. The place was darker once I got into it—strange—but that didn’t stop me. I only had eyes for the guy in the corner booth.
I’d known he needed a friend, but my God, looking at him now, I thought he needed a whole village. His shoulders were rounded in what looked like defeat and I could see from here that his eyes were closed, leaving him alone with whatever demons raged in his head. He was trapped in there listening to them with no one to save him, and the thought broke my heart clean in two.
He needed a whole team of people to save him.
And I was the only one coming to his rescue.
I didn’t even know if he’d want me. I might arrive to find him so stuck in his own world that he sent me back away. He might be angry to see me. He might not even want the help.
But I’d never found a broken bird I didn’t want to save, and Rivers Shine was no different. He was a little bigger than a bird, a little darker and potentially more damaged.
And I wasn’t going to leave him here to try to heal on his own.
I marched up to him and took his hand as gently as possible. When he looked up at me his eyes were shadowed. Haunted. They focused on me and he frowned, opening his mouth like he was, in fact, going to tell me to leave him alone.
I put a finger to his lips. “Let’s go,” I said, pulling him up.
“Where?”
“Outside. We’re going to take a walk, and you’re going to tell me what the hell is wrong, and I’m not taking ‘no’ for an answer.”
