Page 16 of Wild

Where they see darkness I see light.

Her midnight eyes are my salvation.

My promise.

My promise of something more.”

My heart jumps as he sings. His voice is not at all what I expected. The song softer and more a ballad than the rock I expected. With his raspy melancholy tone, it’s perfect. Chills snake up my spine and I shiver. Beside me Rush gives me a small smile as if he knows what the song is doing to me.

But he can’t know.

He can’t know how it breathes life into me.

How I feel every word reverberate through my body.

“Be afraid, they tell me.

Those midnight eyes will swallow you wide.

She’ll swallow you whole.

Lies, they’re all lies, lies spoken from fear.

She uses her beauty as a weapon, those midnight eyes piercing the soul, but I see her.

I see her, the real her, the true her.

They can say what they want to say, but I know, ohhh I know, those midnight eyes will never hurt me.”

I feel a tear fall onto my cheek and I wipe it away in the hope no one sees.

I dash from the room before Hollis is done singing. I need to collect myself.

My feet carry me to the break room and I search for anything I can busy myself with but there’s nothing. Not even the counters need cleaning. I never expected to be affected by a song in such a way. Music has always spoken to my soul, sure, but never like that. In the studio, magic is being woven. I’m sure of it. It’s easy to see what my dad saw in them, why he wanted to snatch them up before anyone else could.

“Did you not like the song?”

At the sound of Hollis’s voice, I whirl around and face him.

I swallow thickly. I want to tell him I hated it, that I thought it was ridiculous, but I can’t lie. It was too perfect, too beautiful, for me to lie.

“No,” I say, my voice no more than a whisper. “It was the most beautiful song I’ve ever heard. It wasn’t what I was expecting.”

Hollis smiles. It’s a genuine smile and it makes him look younger, more boyish. The light shines on his hair, showing honey and chestnut tones interspersed with the brown. It’s unique.

“I’m glad you liked it.”

“It was truly amazing,” I admit. “You should be proud. I see why my dad wanted to sign you guys.” Giving him a compliment is … difficult. I still don’t like him. It’s easy to see he’s a cocky womanizer, but talent is talent.

He turns and walks away, back to the studio, and I stand there for a moment longer replaying the song in my head, the lyrics, his voice, letting it seep into me where it will stay forever.

CHAPTER4

HOLLIS

It shouldn’t fill me with so much joy that she liked our song, but it does. I have the feeling Mia Hayes is a hard person to win over and shelovedour song. She thinks no one saw, but even from the booth, I saw the single tear she wiped away.

For me, I’ve always hoped to move someone with my music. Yeah, I’ve enjoyed the perks of women throwing themselves at me, the parties, the booze—but at the end of the day, in my heart, the music is all that matters. It comes first, always.

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