Broken Fairytales Series Box Set (Broken Fairytales, Buried Castles, Shattered Crowns)

by Monica Alexander

  I then saw Molly sidle up next to Jen and put her arm around her. I wasn’t expecting to see her there that night. I nudged Chase and watched him nod when he saw her. I wondered if they still talked and if he knew she was going to be there that night.

  Zack winked at Kristin before addressing the crowd, and I felt a pang when the reality of the situation hit me. Regardless of what Zack had done with a CD and my car, he had a girlfriend. I needed to keep that fact in the back of my mind.

  When the crowd quieted down, Zack took over, and I lost all concept of time and space.

  “How’s everyone doing tonight?” Cheers went up from the crowd, as all eyes shifted to him. “We’re Liar’s Edge, and we want to thank all of you for coming out to support The Claws, a favorite band of ours.” More cheers and raised glasses. Zack chuckled. “We’ll get them out here for you in a few minutes, but first we figure we’ll play a few songs for you. How about that?”

  God he was good at this. His accent curled gently around the words, making him sound incredibly sexy. I’d missed hearing his voice.

  The club suddenly erupted in cheers, as Andrew started to play a few chords on his guitar. It was just a slow, indistinct riff that provided background noise as Zack continued to warm up the crowd. Then they launched into Traitor, a more upbeat song from their first album.

  They played a few songs and a few covers, including the acoustic version of Brick by Boring Brick, which Zack introduced in an extremely cryptic way.

  “This next song I hadn’t heard up until a few months ago, but someone told me I had to listen to it, so I did,” he said, pausing to take a sip from the water bottle he’d left on top of his amp. “I liked Paramore, and it was a catchy tune, but what this person wanted me to hear was the lyrics. So I listened, and I heard what she was talking about. So tonight, we’re playing it for the girl who lives in a fairytale.”

  With that, his gaze shifted to Kristin and she grinned, and I was completely confused. Rachel raised her eyebrow at me, but I just blew her off. We both knew that was my song, so why was he looking at Kristin? I’d been the one who’d told him to listen to it.

  Hearing the song on the CD he’d made had been amazing, but hearing it live took my breath away. I’d listened to those lyrics for years, but to see the emotion on his face as he belted out the words I loved was more than intense. He finished the song with his eyes closed and let the final note hang out there in the silence after the guys stopped playing.

  “This next song,” Zack said after a few seconds of dead quiet, “is about taking a leap of faith when the world’s crashing down around you. It’s called Jump.”

  I swallowed as my eyes glanced toward Zack’s arm where the chorus to that very song was tattooed. I read the lines in my mind, having read them from his skin so many times, as Zack sung them out loud. Then Rachel grabbed my hand, turned my wrist up and shoved the sleeve of my jacket back so she could see it.

  Her eyes met mine, and she looked at me skeptically. “This is a song lyric. It’s from this song,” she said, looking down at my wrist where my tattoo of the flower Chase had designed resided along with Zack’s lyrics.

  “All you can do is jump,” I said, reciting what I’d had inked on my arm when I’d felt like the world had been crashing down around me.

  Rachel looked back up at me, waiting for me to explain.

  “Zack played it for me this summer,” I said, opting not to tell her about his tattoo. “He wrote it after the band broke up, which is why it isn’t on their first CD.”

  She nodded and released my hand. She didn’t say anything else as the song continued, but I knew she wanted to ask more questions. She’d wait until we were alone.

  After Jump, Zack stepped up to the microphone and said, “This next song has a lot of meaning to me. I wrote it for someone very special. I hope you like it.”

  I swallowed hard, as I waited for the first bars to drop. Zack sang clearly and perfectly a song about love and loss, and I knew instantly it was for his mom. As he belted out the heartbreaking lyrics, I wanted to cry.

  I reached out for Rachel’s hand across the table, needing something to hold onto. She squeezed it in return, never taking her eyes off of Zack. God, he must have been in so much pain when he wrote this song, and I couldn’t help but wonder how much of that he was still feeling. Then I heard the chorus and felt like my heart was going to shatter.

  Without you, I’m lost, fumbling and falling

  Missing so much of what we had

  If I could change the past, I’d take it all back

  I’d turn back time, I’d take away the pain

  I’d make sure I didn’t leave – without you

  “Are you going to talk to him?” Rachel asked when the guys left the stage to raucous cheers from the audience. They’d killed it.

  I nodded. “I’ll wait for them to come out, but yeah. I have to.”

  I sat there while Rachel and Chase listened to The Claws, not really hearing the music, as I kept one eye scanning the room for Zack or Leo or even Molly, who’d disappeared before the end of the set. My stomach was in knots.

  “Hey you,” Jen said, surprising me as she slid into the booth next to me. “What are you doing here?”

  “Hey Jen,” I said, hugging her. “Live music. You know I love it. What are you doing in Charlotte?”

  She didn’t know about Zack and me, so I couldn’t tell her the real reason I was at the show. She also didn’t know I knew she knew the guys in Liar’s Edge, so it stood to reason that I’d be surprised to see her there.

  “My boyfriend is the guitarist,” she said, gesturing to the stage.

  “Of The Claws?” I asked, wondering if I could fake enthusiasm. Their guitarist wasn’t very attractive.

  She grinned and shook her head. “Oh, no. I have much better taste than that. He’s in Liar’s Edge. He was the blond – Andrew.”

  “Oh he’s cute.”

  Although my eyes never left the lead singer, so I barely glanced at Andrew. I couldn’t tell you what he looked like if you paid me to.

  “Are you guys fans of Liar’s Edge, or did you just happen to get lucky and see them tonight,” Jen asked. “Not that I’m biased, but I guess I am a little. I am sleeping with the guitarist and my brother’s the drummer.”

  And your baby-daddy is the lead singer, but you don’t know that I know that.

  Yeah, I knew all of what she’d just told me, but I wasn’t going to admit it. Thankfully, Rachel and Chase were out of earshot. I didn’t need them piping in that they knew Derrick. That wasn’t something I was prepared to explain to Jen, especially since Chase would be guaranteed to make a snarky comment about the guy who he’d had to practically fight to keep him away from Rachel.

  “That’s so cool that your brother is in the band,” I said, feigning enthusiasm. “I actually do like them. Rach and I saw them perform a few years ago and have been fans ever since. We’re really excited that they got back together and we got to see them tonight.”

  “Do you want me to introduce you?” Jen asked then, throwing me off.

  She was being genuinely nice, but I couldn’t let her do that. I couldn’t let her take me backstage, because I wouldn’t be able to fake it when Zack, Leo and Derrick recognized me, and then I’d have to explain that I’d slept with Zack, who I now knew was Lily’s dad, and that would be really awkward. And frankly, Jen might be a little upset that I’d never told her, so it was probably best if she never found out.

  “Oh, um, that’s so sweet, Jen, but we’re okay. I really want to see The Claws.”

  Jen smiled, but I could see that maybe I’d offended her. There was something behind her smile that I couldn’t read.

  “Hey, so where’s Lily tonight?” I asked, changing the subject. “Is she in town with you?”

  “She’s with her grandparents.” Jen smiled and pulled her phone out of her pocket. I could see ‘Zack Easton’ lit up on the screen and the text, ‘Where R U?’ and my heart skipped a beat.
Jen looked back up at me. “Sorry, I’ve got to go. It was good seeing you,” she said, as she hugged me again.

  As I was walking out of the bathroom a while later, I took a moment to check my phone, so I wasn’t paying attention to what was going on at the end of the hallway. When I looked up, I stopped short.

  Zack was leaning against the wall a few feet from me. Leo stood across from him, and Kristin was next to Leo. She was saying something that had Zack’s attention captivated. His gaze was locked on her with a sort of amused expression playing on his lips. I watched as she finished whatever story she was telling and then watched Leo and Zach burst out laughing.

  Leo was folded over, clutching his stomach. Zack just shook his head, but kept his sparkling eyes on her the whole time. My eyes went wide as I saw him reach across the hallway with his leg and kick her on the side of her leg in an affectionate way. She smiled widely at him and shrugged.

  I was so engrossed that it was too late to look away when Kristin saw me standing there staring. She stepped across the hallway and said something to Zack that caused him to stop laughing and look over at me, a serious expression suddenly clouding his face.

  “Dammit,” I cursed under my breath, my resolve for bravery fading. I hadn’t wanted him to see me ogling him and dissecting their little exchange. I needed to talk to him, but I hadn’t wanted his girlfriend to know that. Now I’d either have to pull him away from her or talk to him in front of her – which was not going to happen.

  “Emily,” Zack breathed out quickly, crossing the distance between us before I could run.

  “Hey, sorry, I didn’t mean to be staring. Great show. You guys were really good,” I said in a rush, my dignity pretty much shot to hell.

  I started to turn away from him, eager to get back to our table, my resolve for talking to him shattered, but he grabbed my arm, holding me back from leaving. I looked back at him, not liking the feeling in the pit of my stomach. He was getting to me. I glanced down at my arm that his fingers were still wrapped around and then up at him. The heat from his hand felt like it was searing into my flesh, and I simultaneously wanted to pull away and step closer. The conflicted look on my face made him drop my arm.

  “Don’t run off again. Please.”

  As soon as he said that, I turned to face him, stood up straighter and squared my shoulders, feeling a boost of confidence surge within me.

  “Seriously?” I asked, raising my eyebrows at him.

  He was breaking my heart and killing me at the same time, so of course, I walked the three steps that were separating us and stood in front of him, wishing I could just let him go already. Or wrap my arms around him and kiss him. I was, as always, incredibly conflicted over him.

  “Yeah,” he said, cracking the smile that always made me melt.

  Stay strong, stay strong, I chanted to myself even though I was starting to wilt.

  “I’m glad you’re here,” he said. “You ran off the last time, and we didn’t get to really talk.”

  “Oh, forgive me for doing exactly what you did this summer,” I snapped, knowing I sounded bitter, but I didn’t care. “Taking off without an explanation should be a gesture you recognize.”

  I watched him swallow hard. “That’s what I want to talk to you about,” he said. “Can we go somewhere? Away from this?” He gestured to the noise and commotion all around us.

  We were in a tiny hallway where the bathrooms were located, but the music from the band could still be heard and there were people milling all around. It was definitely not the place for a serious conversation, especially with his girlfriend in earshot.

  He looked back at Kristin and Leo. Kristin was watching us intently. I hated that she knew all about me, and probably knew exactly what Zack was going to talk to me about. Leo nodded once, probably giving Zack the indication that he’d hang out with Kristin if Zack wanted to talk to me.

  “Zack,” I said, realizing that it hurt just to say his name out loud. When he looked back at me expectantly after I’d said his name, I lost my resolve to turn him down. “I don’t know if I should.” It was a weak protestation, and he knew it.

  “Please,” he said in a pleading tone that he probably knew I couldn’t say no to.

  My stomach flipped over and I caved. I closed my eyes and nodded once, telling myself that talking to him was what I’d come here to do, and if I didn’t, I’d be pissed at myself for a long time. It might hurt in the moment, but getting closure was what I needed.

  “Thanks,” he said, and I thought I saw pity in his eyes. If he had pity for me, I didn’t want it.

  I nodded and took a deep breath, pushing myself not to show how I was truly feeling. “Yeah. Sure. Whatever.”

  “Okay. Great,” he said, smiling at me. “I’ll meet you out front in five minutes. I just need to get my guitar.”

  I nodded and felt my knees go weak at his smile. I wasn’t sure how I made my way back to our table, but I did. I definitely wasn’t sticking around to see him kiss Kristin, ‘I dress like a rock star’s girlfriend because I am’. I didn’t need to be tortured like that.

  Back at our table, Molly was camped out in my vacated seat, chatting with Chase and Rachel.

  “Emily!” she said, standing to kiss me on the cheek when she saw me approach. “How are you?”

  “Hi Molly,” I said, trying to feign excitement. Ordinarily, I would have been thrilled to see my friend from the summer, but I couldn’t focus on anything but Zack in that moment.

  “Are you leaving?” Rachel asked expectantly, and I wondered if she could read what was going on just by my expression.

  “Yeah,” I said gruffly. “Zack and I are going somewhere to talk.”

  “Good,” Rachel said, leaning back in her seat.

  “Finally,” Molly said. “You two need to talk.”

  “Yeah, I guess,” I said, not wanting to linger much longer at the table. My nerves were eating me alive.

  “Good luck,” Rachel said, and she smiled in encouragement. I wished I could bring her with me, so I wouldn’t feel so freaked out.

  “Thanks. Molly,” I said, turning to her and remembering my manners, “it was really good seeing you. Call me so we can catch up, okay?”

  “Absolutely,” she said, grinning wickedly at me, like she had a secret. “Talk soon.”

  Five minutes later, I was standing out front wondering if I was a complete and total fool. I checked my phone. Three missed calls – all from Ben, no surprise there. I shoved my phone back into my pocket and focused on what was happening. I lit a cigarette while I waited, taking comfort in the calm that started to wash over me, as I inhaled a few drags and wrapped my jacket around me. It was freezing, but my nerves were making me colder. I was about to be in an enclosed space with a guy I used to sleep with, who I still had very strong feelings for, who also had a new girlfriend. I sort of wanted to vomit.

  A black F150 pulled up in front of the club and the window rolled down. Zack leaned over and said, “Come on, get in. It’s freezing.”

  “No motorcycle?” I called back.

  “Nah, it’s too cold,” he said, a smirk appearing on his lips, and I wondered what he was thinking about.

  Taking a deep breath, I tossed my cigarette on the ground and stubbed it out with my boot. I hesitantly took a step forward, and before I knew it, I was in Zack’s truck zooming away from the safety of the club. I was instantly overwhelmed by my proximity to him, but more than that, his scent filled the cab of the truck and invaded my nostrils. I tried not to breathe it in, not to give in to the intoxicatingly sexy smell, but I couldn’t do it. In the end, I just gave in and relished in the scent I’d wanted to recreate so many times over the past few months.

  We were silent the whole car ride. It was strange to believe that someone who I’d told my deepest and darkest secrets to, who I’d never shut up around before, was intimidating me so much that I couldn’t speak. Although, he wasn’t saying much either. I couldn’t tell if he was nervous or not. His expressi
on seemed placid and relaxed, and it sort of pissed me off since my stomach was churning with nerves.

  Zack drove to the coffee shop where we’d first met and parked out front. I instantly felt like an idiot. As I got out of his truck, my glance flashed to the backseat to something I hadn’t noticed when I’d gotten in – a baby seat. Thankfully Zack didn’t know I’d seen it, and I remained silent about it as we walked inside, wrestling with the feelings that were suddenly warring inside of me.

  “Go get a seat,” he said. “I’ll get you a drink.”

  I nodded, thinking that he had no idea what I would want, but it didn’t really matter. I probably wouldn’t be able to taste it anyway.

  I looked around the café, trying to locate the best place to sit. I opted for a small table by the front entrance, thinking I could bolt quickly, if needed. I settled into the seat and glanced back at Zack, wishing I hadn’t done that. Looking at him still conjured up the same feelings it had over the summer. I was disappointed to realize that my feelings hadn’t changed one iota. I still loved him.

  I forced myself to look away, glancing out the window at the trees that were newly decorated with twinkle lights for the holidays.

  “When did you start smoking?” Zack asked, setting my coffee down and startling me.

  “A few months ago, but um, I – I uh, I only do it once and a while when I drink,” I stuttered, realizing that I couldn’t tell him the truth.

  He raised his eyebrows at me, almost giving me a look that said he didn’t approve.

  “What?” I asked, thinking he was quite the hypocrite. “You smoke.” I raised my eyebrows at him, almost challenging him.

  “I don’t really smoke anymore,” he said, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms in front of his chest.

  “Uh, okay, then what’s that?” I asked, pointing to the brown cigarette behind his left ear.

  A smile quirked on his face. “Precautionary measure,” he said. “I quit about a month ago. My mom always hated it, so I figured I’d finally quit, but I’m not always as strong as I’d like to be. Old habits die hard.”