“I didn’t do shit. I was with you all weekend. Did you see me do anything I shouldn’t?”
“Point taken. Better answer it before she starts breathing fire again.”
Cursing under my breath, I swiped my thumb over the screen and lifted it to my ear. “Hello?”
“Good, you’re on the ground. I’ve been trying to call you for about an hour but figured your phone was on airplane mode.” Her voice as cool, clipped, but I couldn’t tell if she was pissed at me or not. “Come to my office. We need to talk.”
“Can it wait? I’m on my way to see my girl,” I told her.
“No, it can’t wait. Not even an hour. Come straight up to my office as soon as you get here. We have a situation regarding our friend Judge Blaylock.”
It took me a second to place the name, but when I did, I stiffened. “What the fuck does he want? I thought you took care of him and his whiny little bitch of a grandson.”
“We can discuss that when you get here. Hurry your ass up.”
“Emmie—” But she’d already hung up on me.
Cash was holding the door open to the cab he’d hailed for us. “Problems?”
“Fuck if I know,” I muttered, tossing my carry-on in the trunk and climbing in beside him. Leaning forward, I gave the driver Emmie’s office address even as I pulled up Roanna’s contact information. It rang twice before going to voice mail.
At least her damn phone was on now. She’d had it powered off all weekend, and I’d been pushed straight to voice mail every time.
Gotta go to Emmie’s office for a second. I’ll stop by your place when I’m done. Missed you, sweet girl.
I hit send on the text and almost immediately saw that she read it, but I waited in vain for her to reply.
Emmie’s office was closer than Cash’s apartment, so I was dropped off first.
Even though it was late afternoon on a Sunday, there was a security guard sitting at the desk when I walked in. Seeing me, he gave me a nod in greeting and pointed to the elevators. “She’s expecting you.”
“Yeah,” I grumbled. “The woman’s got a stick up her ass today.”
He grinned in agreement as I stabbed the call button for the elevator. “When doesn’t she?”
“Fuck if I know.”
Most of the floor Emmie’s actual office was on was dark, but I knew the place pretty well and found my way without having to turn on the lights. Her secretary wasn’t at her desk, so I knocked before opening the door when she yelled for me to come in.
Pushing the door open, I took two steps inside and stopped in my tracks when I saw Roanna sitting in one of the chairs in front of Emmie’s desk. Beside her, a short but fit guy in his late forties sat with a stack of files on his lap.
Emmie waved me in when I just stood there eating up the sight of Roanna. Her face was pale, her lips cracked, and she was wearing those damn Nightmare Before Christmas pajama pants that always made her ass pop, with a matching themed hoodie. Her hair was pulled up into a messy knot on top of her head as she flipped through her own stack of files.
“Barrie Lewis, meet Tate Sinclair.” The guy lifted his head, smiling grimly in greeting before pulling a few pieces of paper from the top file on his lap and offering them to Roanna.
She took them and scanned them, pretending I wasn’t even in the room.
“What’s this about?” I demanded, crossing to Roanna. She hadn’t looked at me once since I walked in. Crouching down beside her, I touched her leg. “Hey, what’s wrong?”
Her fingers clenched around the files in her hand, and she stared straight ahead as she spoke. “Did you have a good time?”
“It was a fun weekend, but I missed you. I wished you were with me the entire time.” I rubbed my hand up the back of her calf, feeling her tremble, and my heart jumped in triumph that she couldn’t hide her reaction to me.
“Good,” she said with a nod. “Glad it was fun.”
“We have a situation, Sin,” Emmie stated, pulling my eyes to her. “Judge Blaylock has been having you followed.”
“And?” What the fuck did that have to do with anything? “I haven’t done shit to be ashamed of or that could hurt the band, so what’s the problem?”
My manager picked up a stack of papers from her desk and offered them to me. Pissed I had to move away from Roanna, I straightened and took them from her. It wasn’t actually a stack of papers, but pictures, almost half an inch thick. Pictures of me and the guys.
At the strip club.
Goddamn it.
I flipped through them, my stomach knotting more and more with each one I saw.
Cursing, I threw them back on her desk and pulled Roanna up from her chair. The files on her lap fell to the floor, scattering papers in every direction. I cupped her face, my fingers shaking as I tilted her head up so she had to meet my gaze. “That stripper came over, and Cash was being an ass. He told her to give me a lap dance. Those damn pictures don’t tell the whole story. They don’t show when I pushed her off me and told her to leave me the fuck alone.”
“Okay,” she said calmly.
Too calm.
Why wasn’t she yelling at me? Why wasn’t she more upset? If the roles were reversed and it were me being blindsided with pictures of someone grinding on her lap, I would have been tearing the place apart in a jealous rage.
“Those pictures were delivered to Roanna earlier today,” Emmie informed me. “Mr. Lewis here was hired on her behalf by Judge Blaylock to follow you around and find proof that you were stepping out on her.”
That goddamn bastard. He couldn’t touch Roanna or me because Emmie had friends in high places, so he was trying to sabotage our relationship.
“I didn’t. The only reason we were at that damn club was because of Harris and Lucy.” I dared to take my eyes off Roanna long enough to look at the redhead. “Something they said you set up.”
She nodded. “I did, and I don’t need any details about anything that happened concerning Lucy. I would much rather keep those images of my niece out of my head, thank you.”
“No one has any of those images but Harris,” I assured her.
“Maybe you should tell us what was going on in those pictures. I can’t tell if you were just really drunk or…yeah. From what Lewis has told us, only his man and Roanna have a copy of the pictures, but just in case I suddenly get calls from the vultures, I need to have at least a little of the truth to tell them.”
I turned my gaze back to Roanna, still cupping her face, still unsettled by her calmness. “I was drunk. We went to a bar before the club, and I overdid it during the whiskey tasting Jace set up. Then when we got to the strip club, I drank a lot of beer. By the time those pictures were taken, I was fucked up. But I didn’t touch her, Ro.”
“Okay.”
That damn word again. But hearing it again, I noticed her voice sounded hoarse. I stroked a thumb over her bottom lip. It was cracked pretty badly, and her complexion was off. “Are you sick?”
“I’ve had strep throat all weekend. I just started feeling better this morning.”
“Baby, you should have told me. I would have come home and taken care of you.”
She shook her head. “Which was why I didn’t tell you. You wanted to go to Vegas with your friends, and I wasn’t going to be the reason you didn’t.”
“You’re more important than a stupid trip,” I said, pressing my lips to her forehead.
“If I may?” I stiffened at the sound of Lewis’s voice for the first time. Looking over at him, I saw he was shuffling the files in his hands. “Sorry to interrupt, but I had a feeling you were about to grab your girl and go, sir. Judge Blaylock asked me to put a full file together on you, Mr. Sinclair. Luckily for us both, I hadn’t turned it over to him yet.”
“Shit,” I muttered, knowing what he’d probably found from my past. Roanna already knew about Brandi, but no one else did except for Dad.
“My guy was able to l
ocate and speak by phone with a Mrs. Brandi Sinclair. After discussing your run-in with the judge with Mrs. Armstrong, I think it’s safe to say no one wants anything from that conversation falling into the man’s hands.”
“I’m going to kill him,” I seethed.
“There was also mention of a boy,” Lewis continued as if I hadn’t spoken. “There was a question of paternity in which you were ruled out as the father after a DNA test. But based on the fact that there was a question who fathered the child, I gather that would create a media field day all its own.”
“Emmie,” I gritted out. “I want the judge to go away, or I’m seriously going to kill the old fuck. It’s bad enough that he was trying to put my relationship with Ro in jeopardy. Now he’s digging into my past and stirring up things I will commit murder to keep there if that’s what it takes.”
“I’m already on it,” she assured me. “Lewis here is good at his job, as are his employees, but I have my own guy on retainer. I did a full background check on the judge and his grandson after what happened at the movies that night. Seller is meticulous. I have so much dirt on Blaylock, he will be begging for mercy by the time I’m finished with him. Looks like he didn’t get the message last time when I turned over a little of what I have on him to his rival. But that was just the tip of the iceberg.”
She pulled something from her desk and handed it to Lewis. “This is a nondisclosure agreement.” As he signed it, she handed him a check. “This is for your services. Give the judge his money back or not, I don’t care, but this is for the work you did.”
The man barely put up an argument over the money and was out the door minutes later. The entire time, I just stood there, holding on to Roanna. She was stiff as a board in my arms. Those walls I tore down were back up, reinforced and encased in steel.
Fuck that.
I’d take a blow torch to them if I had to.
I couldn’t lose her over this.
I wouldn’t lose her.
Ever.
Chapter 26
Roanna
Sin pulled my car into its regular parking spot and turned it off.
“I wish you would grab a few things and come home with me,” he said as he handed me the keys.
I shook my head, knowing if I went home with him, I would give in, and I still didn’t know how I felt about those pictures of him with the stripper now that I had an explanation. I wanted to believe him, but my trust had already taken a beating when he didn’t tell me he was going to Vegas. A few days would be needed to digest everything.
“I’m still not feeling myself,” I told him. “I need to rest so I can sing Thursday.”
“Even more reason for you to come home with me,” he argued, cupping the left side of my face, his eyes imploring me to give in. “Let me take care of you, Ro. We can just lie in bed for the next few days, and I can rub your back.”
“I don’t need you to take care of me,” I choked out as I pulled my head back and reached for the door.
He was out of the car and around to my side before I could even close the door. “Baby, I know you’re pissed, but I swear to you, nothing happened. Ask Cash or any of the other guys. Fuck, ask Kin. You know she won’t lie for me.”
“I know.” But I wasn’t going to ask Kin about it. If I was going to trust him, I needed to be able to do so with my heart. I either took his word for it, or…
Something painful clenched in my stomach just thinking of the “or.”
Or we broke up.
I was upset, my heart hurting and my head clouded with the events of the last few days. I just wanted a little time to sort through my emotions before I did something I would regret, damn it.
Pushing up onto my tiptoes, I kissed him. “I believe you when you say you missed me. I missed you too. But the last few days are all jumbled up in my head, and I’m still getting over this damn strep. Just give me a few days, Sin. We can talk then.”
His arms snaked around my waist as he pressed his face into my neck. “If I leave you alone that long, you’re going to break up with me,” he muttered in a rough voice. “I know I fucked up not telling you about the trip, but I swear to God, I won’t do that shit again, sweet girl. All weekend, you were all I could think about. Please, just… I don’t know… Just don’t break my heart, Ro.”
Tears blurred my vision, and I clenched my eyes closed. “Breaking your heart will only break mine too,” I whispered emotionally.
He blew out a shuddery breath. “I’m so fucking sorry.” Pulling back, he touched my face with fingers that trembled. “I love you, Roanna. Forgive me.”
The air was suddenly stuck in my throat. Had he really just said that?
Those same words I’d struggled to keep contained for months fell so easily from his lips, sounding so perfectly right, they made my heart sing.
“Y-You love me?”
His brow furrowed. “You didn’t know? Baby, I tell you every night.”
I shook my head. “Maybe in your head you tell me, but I’ve never heard you say those words out loud.”
“I thought you were just pretending to be asleep so you didn’t have to say it back. But I’ve told you hundreds of times.” He rubbed his thumb over my cheek.
“Maybe start telling me before you fuck me into a coma instead of after,” I suggested with a grin, happiness making it feel like my entire body was glowing.
“Fuck, I’ll tell you every hour of the day. I love you, sweet girl.” He brushed his nose against mine. “Before I met you, the world seemed gray. There was no color, no warmth. You make everything better just by being mine.”
I melted against him. Just a moment before, my heart had been aching, cold and empty. Now, it felt like there was a flame in the middle of my chest. Who knew three little words could be so powerful?
“Sin—”
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the trip. I’m sorry you saw those pictures.”
“Sin—"
“I’ll make it up to you, I promise you I will.”
“Sin!” I cried his name when he kept interrupting me.
“What?” he said with the beginnings of a cute pout.
“I love you too.”
All the oxygen seemed to rush out of him out once. “Really?”
“Yes. I’ve loved you for so long, but I was afraid of saying it out loud. When I’m with you, the past doesn’t have a hold on me anymore. You make everything better, no matter what’s going on in my life. And for someone who tends to be a complete bastard at times, you make me feel like I’m the only person in the world who matters.” I pressed my hand to the center of his chest. “I want your whole heart, because you already own mine.”
His heart began to pound harder under my fingers, his hand covering mine. “Please come home with me. I’ve been aching to hear you say you love me for months, baby. Now that you have, it’s taking every ounce of willpower I have not to press you up against this damn car and slide into you.”
“I-I need to grab my things,” I told him, anticipation making my legs turn to jelly. “I have to get my meds and a change of clothes.”
“Let’s go, then.”
Laughing happily, I let him take my hand and hurry me inside.
Upstairs, the others were up and eating Mexican takeout when we walked in. “Where did you go?” Aubree demanded as she looked up from her burrito covered in queso.
“Just had to take care of something for Sin,” I evaded, not wanting to pull them into the whole thing with Judge Blaylock. “I’m going to spend a few days at his place.”
“Yo, Sin,” London said with a grin. “You have really good taste in flowers.”
“What do you mean?” I demanded, pausing on my way to my room.
“Take a look in the kitchen.”
Curious, I walked into our tiny kitchen and stopped at the sight of the huge bouquet of white and red flowers in a vase with a logo on it from the florist a few blocks over. Sin w
alked in behind me, a smirk on his handsome face as I grabbed the white card from the middle of beautiful flowers.
I’m sorry, sweet girl. <3 Sin
“Do you like them?” he asked, wrapping his arms around me from behind and touching his lips to my temple.
I nodded. “They’re gorgeous. Thank you.”
“You’re the first chick I ever sent flowers to. I didn’t know what to put on the card, so I’m hoping it’s enough to show you just how sorry I really am, babe.”
I leaned back into him. “If you ever keep anything else from me again, I’m going to let Aubree kick your ass.”
I felt his lips turn up in a grin as he kissed my neck. “Noted, sweet girl. Now, hurry. I need you.”
Sin
Hours later, I sat in bed with Roanna’s head in my lap. Her hair was spread over my legs as I rubbed my fingertips up and down her bare back. Her eyes were closed, but from her breathing, I could tell she wasn’t asleep.
I was enjoying the feel of her under my fingers and the peaceful silence of the apartment as I replayed the moment she confessed she loved me over and over, savoring her presence.
I was a lucky bastard to have her love me.
“I’m hungry,” she said with a yawn as she turned her head on my lap.
I grabbed my phone. “What do you want?”
“Don’t care as long as we don’t have to move from this spot,” she said with a contented smile, her back arching like a cat as she pressed against my stroking fingers. “I love your touch. Can we just do this the rest of the week until I have to go to work?”
“Whatever you want, sweet girl,” I promised, drawing circles on her shoulder as I flipped through the list of her favorite takeout menus saved to my phone. “You want that vegan Thai burger you like so much?”
“That sounds really good. With sweet potato tots?”
“Yeah, babe.” Distractedly, I made an Uber Eats order before tossing my phone on the nightstand and bending to kiss the shoulder I was still rubbing. “We have an hour before the food gets here,” I murmured as I trailed my fingertips down her bare back and over her ass. She was completely naked, but I’d put on a pair of sweats after my shower earlier to wash away the stickiness of my flight.
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