I sneer. “Your girl, huh?”
He nods, trying to act hard when I know he’s a scared little bitch. “Yeah, my girl.”
That little smirk pisses me off and I can’t help it. Without warning, I snatch him up by the front of his shirt and slam him against the wall.
“Hey!” Erica cries, getting up from her seat, startled by my violent behavior. “Stop it!”
I ignore her, set in getting my point across. “You might not have been legally drunk, so the cops might be done with you, but you could’ve seriously hurt Sophie. I’m just going to say this once. Stay the fuck away from my sister or I’m going to come back here, and next time, I won’t be so nice. You won’t need a girl, because you’ll be missing a set of balls,” I growl menacingly in his face. “You understand me?”
Jax gasps, his face turning a dark shade of red as he nods violently. “Yes, I understand! I won’t touch her, I swear!”
I hold him in place for a moment longer, letting him feel true terror, then let him go. He comes away with a gasp, grabbing his throat. “Good,” I growl. “I don’t want to have to come back here again.”
“What the hell was that for?” Erica demands as I step away, running forward to wrap her arm around Jax’s shoulder as he wheezes.
“Dude’s an asshole, and I’ve had enough of him getting my little sister into things she shouldn’t be in,” I say. “Ask him about last weekend.”
With that said, I turn and walk back to the cab. Behind me, I hear her demand of Jax, “What the hell is he talking about?”
As I get in the cab and he starts the engine, I witness the two arguing, gesturing wildly at each other. The cabbie turns back and gives me a questioning look, but he doesn’t say a word. Before we pull off, I see that Erica’s had enough. She slaps Jax across the face, spins on her heels, and walks off.
Chuckling, we drive off, and I can’t stop the smile that forms on my face.
The apartment is silent as a tomb when I walk in, and except for the hum of the fridge in the kitchen, I can’t hear anything.
“Sophie?” I ask, pulling off my suit jacket and draping it over the empty sofa. The remote for the TV is untouched, right where I left it this morning to check the news, and I grow more worried. I dropped her off this morning but sent a driver to pick her up after school. I didn’t hear anything about a problem, but still . . .
I check my home office. Sophie uses my desktop computer from time to time. Nothing, and I grow more worried. Walking down the hallway, I stop outside her room, relief rushing through me as I hear something inside. I almost decide to let her be, but instead I knock softly. “Sophie?”
There’s no answer, and I’m about to turn away when there’s a soft reply from the other side. “Come in.”
I open the door and see her stretched out on her bed, watching one of the stupid Real Housewives shows. Way too much unneeded drama for me. “Hey.”
“Hey,” she says, sitting up, and to my relief, turning off the TV. “You’re home early. For you, at least.”
I think of making a wiseass remark, but instead I stop. This isn’t the time for it. “I came home because I wanted to see how you were doing. Whatcha been up to?”
Sophie flops back, waving a hand at the TV. “Just watching TV. Jax tried to call me but I didn’t answer.”
I step into her room, sitting on the edge of the bed and raising an eyebrow. “Why not?”
Sophie looks embarrassed, and deep down, I see a little bit of hurt, too. “I saw him with some chick at a party on Instagram. I know of her. She’s a total skank.”
“Oh,” I say quietly, glad that Sophie figured out that Jax is no good for her but sad that she’s hurt.
Sophie reaches over, putting a hand on my arm. “I’m sorry, Jake.”
She starts trembling, and I pull her up, giving her a hug. “I’m sorry too, Sophie. Because you’re right—you’re my sister and I should have given you more attention.”
Sophie hugs me back. “I should’ve listened to you. You were right. He’s a piece of shit.”
I hold in my grin. I’m happy I paid the little fucker a visit, though she doesn’t need to know that. “We all make mistakes,” I reply. “I think I’ve made one or two in my life.” It feels good to be hugging her again, like we’re back on the right path, the two of us against the world like it’s always been.
Sophie chuckles, and I notice that I haven’t eaten. “You hungry? How about I make dinner for us?”
“I could eat,” Sophie says, letting go. “I’ll help.”
We go out to the kitchen, where I pull out some kale and bell peppers while Sophie roots around in the fridge. “Pork chops?”
“Anything would be delicious for me,” I reply, washing the greens. Sophie nods, and silence falls over the kitchen. I want to make sure everything is smoothed over, but I don’t know how to start. Finally, I clear my throat. “Sophie, you’ve always been my number one priority, and as much time as the club and work take me away, I do it for us so that we can have a good life. I’m trying to do right by Mom and Dad and give you the life they’d want for you. But I don’t know what I’m doing, so I need you to help me here. Talk to me because I sure as fuck don’t know the first thing about teenage girls.”
Sophie takes out the kitchen knife and starts butterflying the chops. “I know you’re trying your best, Jake. You’ve done well by me. I mean, you took me to get my first training bra. How many brothers can say that?”
I chuckle, shaking my head. “Yeah . . . but seriously, Sophie, you are number one to me. Listen, I’m gonna promise you now that I’m going to spend more time with you. Just the two of us, like it used to be.”
“But what about Roxy? Have you talked to her?” she asks.
Just hearing Roxy’s name hurts, and I shake my head. “After I left your room, I said some pretty stupid shit to her in the hallway. I basically told her that all of this was her fault. I don’t think she wants to hear from me.”
Sophie sets the knife down, turning to look at me. “You haven’t tried to talk to her since? What the hell are you waiting for?”
“Oh, I tried,” I say quietly. “She’s not picking up her phone, and she wasn’t in the office today.”
“And you just give up?” Sophie asks, turning back and picking up the knife. She butterflies the other chop, shaking her head. “That’s not like you, Jake. You could do more.”
I glance over at Sophie. She’s dead serious. She puts the knife back down and goes to get the skillets. “You think so? And you’re okay with that?”
“Me?” Sophie says, looking down. “Of course I am. I said some things I didn’t mean, too. I was talking out of anger and I’m sorry. I’m turning seventeen soon, Jake. I’ve got a year and some change of high school left, then hopefully I’m going to college. You need someone you can spend the rest of your life with. If you think she’s it, stop wasting time. You deserve it.”
She’s right. No more waiting for her to answer the phone.
Roxy
“Get up, Roxy!” I hear someone say. In the near week that I’ve been calling off work, I’ve rarely left my room, preferring instead to spend as much time as I can wrapped in the blackness of my blanket and sleep.
I groan from underneath the covers, barely awake. “Leave me alone,” I moan. “I took a shower yesterday!”
“No!” snaps the voice, whom I finally recognize as Mindy. “I’m not going away. I have to leave in a few days and you’re being disrespectful to your family. Now get up!”
I look at Mindy, but my tirade dies on my lips as I see her. She’s standing there, her hands on her hips, pissed like I haven’t seen her in a very long time. “Look at you. You look a hot mess. You’ve fallen apart. I already checked with Hannah. You won’t go to work. You haven’t eaten in three days. And why?”
“Because I—”
Mindy cuts me off. “Because you feel sorry for yourself! I know you feel bad about what happened, but you can’t let it control your
life.”
Her words hit me hard, and I look down, catching a whiff of myself. I am a fucking mess. I feel so horrible, guilty and ashamed that my family came all this way to see me, and here I am avoiding them because I can’t deal with the shame and hurt I feel. “Mindy . . .”
Mindy won’t relent. “The past five days, every time we called, you wouldn’t answer. I called your home phone and even talked with Hannah, trying to get you to come to the hotel. Then I come by today, only to find out that Hannah hasn’t even been able to get your ass out of bed? Your room smells like the zombie apocalypse, and I’m not putting up with it anymore!”
I feel like the worst person in the world. I swear I’ve almost had a mental breakdown over what happened. Starting a fire in the club, feeling responsible for Sophie getting in a crash, the music guy telling me I was done, and I feel like I’ve lost Jake. I’m just ready to give up. “I’m sorry,” I whisper, tears trickling down my cheeks. “I just feel terrible for causing a shit storm.”
Mindy reaches down, pulling me to my feet. “Well, we’re changing everything starting now. Do you know what today is?”
“What?” I ask, and Mindy wipes a tear from my cheek with her thumb, just like she used to do when we were kids.
“The day you said you were going to the studio to record that song you wrote.”
I immediately shake my head, trying to pull back. “No way, not that. What’s the point? That’s a waste of time.”
Besides, the man I love and wrote it for won’t even be there. He’s never going to hear it. It hurts to even think about Jake. When Mindy says I haven’t eaten, that’s why. I think about Jake, and my stomach hurts so much that I can’t even imagine food.
“Yes, you are. You’re going to shower and eat, and we’re heading downtown to record that song.”
“There’s no point!” I protest. “You heard that asshole. That was my one and only chance!”
Mindy grabs me by the shoulders, looking into my eyes. “The point is, you owe it to yourself. Do it for you. Fuck everything and everyone else. You go in there, and you put that thing on disc for you. Or so help me God, I’m going to introduce you to realms of pain you can’t even imagine!”
Her corny line breaks through, and I smirk. “Oh, how’s that? I’ve already heard you sing.”
“Yeah, but you’ve never heard Gavin sing,” Mindy says. “Don’t make me get ugly on you.”
You better bring it, boy,
I’ve only got tonight
I’m leaving town tomorrow, I can’t stay the night
Have places to go, Catching an early flight
If you want me to stay, you gotta come correct
My heart’s almost yours, take that final step
Heartstopper, Heartstopper
Can you feel it in my chest?
Heartstopper, Heartstopper,
Fingers on my breast
Your touch is electric,
Has been from the start
Give it to me, baby,
Or I’ma stop your heart.
I let out a breath, gasping for air as I sing the last note and the club banging beat plays in the background. I don’t know how they got the music mixed so perfectly so quickly, but it’s amazing.
Maybe I’m wasting my time. Maybe this is nothing more than a final middle finger to anyone who’s doubted me. But for the past hour and forty-five minutes that I’ve been in the recording booth, I’ve felt a change coming over me. All the worries and pains I’ve been going through fell away. It was just me, the music, and my heart.
“That’s the one!” Oliver shouts in elation to the studio engineer, a nerdy looking blond guy with tiger-striped wide-rim glasses sitting beside him in the system room. “You got what you need. Get to work!”
I tilt my head, watching as Gavin and Oliver start chatting together excitedly while the studio engineer gets his computers together. Scowling, I pull off my headphones and talk into the mic. “What the hell are you two so excited about?”
I seriously don’t know what these two are up to. They’re nearly buzzing as they come into the studio.
They both grin at me like a pair of mischievous school boys, not saying a word.
“Spit it out!” I beg as their smiles become infectious. “Or I’ma make Mindy come up in here and sing Barney.”
They both laugh at me, but Oliver is the one to speak. “Gavin and I have decided to invest a little in you using what I like to call ‘fuck you money’. Tomorrow, in ten different time slots on the local radio, Heartstopper is going to be played.”
“Yeah,” adds Gavin. “Not only that, but we’re going to release it on iTunes, Amazon, all that. You don’t need a label to self-publish.”
I blink, shocked. “You two . . . you’re batshit crazy!” I exclaim heatedly. “You realize this isn’t going to sell shit, right?”
“Who cares?” Gavin says with a shrug. “This isn’t about the sales.”
“I care!” I protest. “Guys, I tried iTunes already. I put a whole album on there. It sold exactly one hundred copies, and I suspect five of them were you guys!”
“Seven,” Gavin says matter-of-factly. “I wanted it to be a round number.”
“See!” I say. “You prove my point!”
“Girl, stop with all that fussing. You’re amazing,” Mindy, who’s been out in the hallway and talking with the sound guy, says, coming in. “It’s going on there or so help me God, I’m going to turn into Iggy Azalea and treat you guys to my first rap song.”
I throw my hands up in immediate surrender. “Oh, hell no. You win!”
Everyone in the studio laughs and Mindy says, “Girl, I promise you, Leigh’s going to be singing all the lyrics and copying her auntie’s twerk routine by lunch tomorrow.”
I grin, the first one I’ve had in awhile. It feels unfamiliar on my face—that’s how down I’ve been over the past few days. “Well, someone has to teach your daughter some life skills.”
Everyone laughs while we close up the studio, turning in the keys to the front desk.
“Mindy,” I say as we leave the studio. “Wait up.”
“Sure,” she says, waving Oliver and Gavin on. “You two go. We’ll see you at the hotel.” The guys leave, and she turns to me, smiling. “What’s up?”
“I can’t go back to my job,” I say, shaking my head.
“Is it the job or is it Jake?” Mindy asks, and I shrug. She pulls me in for a hug, and I gotta admit, it feels good. “I see. Well, if you find that you can't, why don’t you quit your job and come back home with us?”
“After what happened, I feel so guilty. I can’t face Jake. I just can’t. Not only because of the club, but it will just be so awkward after what we had going.”
Mindy nods. “We can help you back on your feet. Hell, I might even have a job for you in the cafe.”
When I think about it, what is here for me if there’s no Jake? Work is going to be so awkward. I just can’t imagine it. I want to go to Jake, but now I can’t bear to look at him, not after destroying his hard work and his relationship with his sister.
“I think I might take you up on that offer. Give me the weekend to think about it.”
Jake
Coming into the office Friday morning, the first thing I do when I get off the elevator is look over at Roxy’s desk.
Empty.
Again.
I sigh and go into my office, setting my briefcase down on my desk before slumping into my chair. I rub at my temples. It’s only eight forty-five and I’ve already got a headache. I know why, too. Sure, Sophie’s talking to me and the club’s cleaned out now, but there’s an aching hole in my chest. The same hole that’s in a cubicle just outside my office.
Elena drops off something for me to look over. I don’t really give a damn. A familiar figure goes by the office, and I look up, but it’s just Hannah. I can’t stand this any longer. I pick up my phone. “Elena?”
“Yes, sir?”
“Have Hannah Fowler r
eport to my office immediately, please.”
“Of course, sir,” Elena says in that tone of voice that says Great, he’s doing something crazy again. FML.
Still, Elena’s a professional, and fewer than five minutes later, Hannah knocks on my office door. “You wanted to see me, sir?”
I nod at the chair. “Relax, Hannah. I think you know what this is about. How is she doing? I haven’t seen her all week and she isn’t answering my texts. I miss her.”
“There isn’t much I can tell you,” Hannah says. “Mindy dragged her out of the apartment Wednesday, and she hasn’t been back since. Honestly, I’m sort of glad she’s out for a while. Her room was getting funky.”
I nod, and it breaks my heart to hear that. “Do you have any idea what she’s doing?”
Hannah shakes her head. “Sorry. She sent me a text last night saying to keep my ears open and that she’d have more information for me today, but that’s it.”
I swallow, leaning back. “Okay. Well, if you see her, talk to her, whatever . . . tell her I’d like to get in touch?”
“Of course,” Hannah says. “Will that be all?”
“Yes, thank you,” I say, when suddenly, my office door opens, and Elena’s there.
“Turn on the radio!” Elena says, running over to the old-fashioned FM radio that came with my office. “You have to hear this!”
She switches on the stereo, punching in 97.3, the local pop station. She cranks the volume and turns, giving me a look as the DJ goes on. “ . . . so after the recent fire, Roxy decided she needed to say she was sorry for the incident. And as a thanks to her fans from Club Jasmine, here’s the song that she was going to debut a week ago. Heartstopper.”
I jump to my feet as the background track that I’d heard only once before starts bumping and thumping on my stereo. Seconds later, Roxy’s pure, sensual voice fills my office.
It’s been too long, gotta get out
Hittin up the new spot with my girl
Lookin’ sexy as hell, workin’ the floor
Hoping to give this place a whirl
Dirty Laundry Page 49
