Page 71 of The Final Deal

“Welcome back,” Adrian tells him with a handshake.

Jay, Abjured’s heavily-tattooed vocalist, is shirtless and nonchalantly showing off the product of his weightlifting hobby as he approaches. He hands me a cold can of beer with a beam that glows like his golden skin; the movement makes the two silver bars piercing his nipples wink. Rumor has it he’s hiding one below the waistband of his black gym shorts, too. “Good seein’ you again.”

I cough the unexpected curiosity away, forcing myself to avoid examining his shorts. “Yeah, you, too. Where’s Trip?”

Jay hands Zak and Dree their own beers. “Backstage.”

“Ah,” I sound. “Little early, but alright.”

“What, like you’d want sweaty drummer balls in your face after a show?” their bassist Martin retorts. He glances over at Adrian. “Well, maybeyouwould…”

A low groan passes through the group on stage, and I chuckle uncomfortably in response.

Adrian tosses an empty beer can at him while Zak wraps an arm around my shoulder. “A little respect for the lady, please,” he warns with a tone that says, “Make a comment like that again and I’ll drop kick your ass.”

“Sorry, sorry,” Martin says as he throws his hands up in the air. He casts me an apologetic look. “I’m sorry. Didn’t mean any disrespect.”

“Yeah, he’s just socially awkward and really bad with jokes,” Charlie offers with a stern glare someone would throw at their coworker while apologizing to their boss to cover up a blunder. “So when can we expect the next Timeless single to drop? My eardrums are bleeding from the wait.”

Zak answers, “Eh, it’ll be a bit. Figured with Rob’s kid on the way and all of us dealing with personal shit, it’d be a good time to take a breather and get a handle on things.”

“Might be a long break, then.”

My eyes widen and my jaw clenches. I know that fucking voice.

Charlie peers past me. Recognition lights up his face. “Oh, hey, thought you were back in Atlanta.”

The twins spin around quickly. Both stiffen as I force myself to turn around.

Ty approaches from the side stage with a devious smile. “Yeah, I went to grab my stuff.”

“The fuck are you doing here?” Zak questions with venom loaded in his tone.

He comes to a stop directly in front of me. The truth spills from his stupid fucking face as he focuses solely on me. “I live in town now. Me and Steph are opening a new venue together.”

My jaw drops in disbelief. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

“What the fuck?” Zak raises his voice. His dark eyes are full of fury and hurt, the heartbreak creeping over his features until it totally takes over.

My mouth opens and closes, desperate for some sort of explanation when Ty’s surprise announcement has thrown me off my guard. “Hon, I… This wasn’t…”

“Get used to seein’ me around, boys,” Ty interjects, “’cause I ain’t goin’ nowhere.”

Zak storms off, shoving Ty’s shoulder with his own as he heads for the side stage. Adrian flips him a middle finger as he follows.

Ty grins at me. Unthinking, my hand balls up into a fist, my arm cocks back, and I throw a punch at Ty’s face so hard that his nose cracks.

Chairs scrape behind me. “Oh, shit!”

He stumbles, covering his face as a stream of blood trickles down his chin.

“You stupid,” I begin, following as he falls to the floor and throwing my beer at him, “worthless piece of shit!”

I land a solid kick to his stomach before someone pulls me away and yells for me to stop. But I elbow them in the ribs to get away and pause over Ty to spit on him. “Fuck you.”

I run off the stage, hurrying down the hall where the metal door leading to the parking lot slams shut. My legs burn from the force and my feet hurt from running in flat shoes, but I have to get to them—I have to make them understand.

The metal door is heavy as I shove it open. It cracks loudly against the brick of the building, garnering the twins’ attention as they head for the Hellcat.

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