The Significant Other (The Relationship Quo Series Book 4)

by Nicole Strycharz

  I was moving past the bar a while later when someone grabbed my wrist and dragged me forward. Jax sat at a stool with soulless eyes and his grip on my wrist felt like steel. “Get off me!” I pulled.

  “You owe me. That price never been paid. Don’t you think I forget that.” He said.

  “What?”

  “Them pills you took. They ain’t gonna pay for themselves.”

  Then I realized, “I’m not Jolee, I’m her twin, Trix. How high are you that you can’t tell the difference? Blue hair and tats? You should know since you forced your disgusting self on her.”

  He stood up still holding my wrist and his face went so tight. I’m a little stupid when it comes to stuff like this. I’m not afraid of men like Jax. I gave him attitude; looking him in the eyes, cocking my eyebrow…

  “I don’t give a shit what sister, pay me. Long as it done get paid. I don’t care how either. By blood or money.” He threatened.

  I stepped closer to him and narrowed my eyes, like he was some speck of dirt, “Go fuck yourself.”

  If I thought he looked deadly before he looked downright lethal now.

  “Hey now,” Blaze came up and burned a hole through Jax’s hold on me, “No touchy.” He said in a sadistic sort of cheer. “That’s not going to end well.”

  I glanced back to see Knox and Diego were at my sides and Liam was walking up from behind Blaze.

  Knox’ gruff voice was like comfort itself, “Move your hand or we’ll break it.” He added.

  Jax took his time but let go. The boys stared him down like he was the size of an ant. Even Liam.

  “You tell your sister, I will get paid.” He swore.

  Zeus came between the guys and Jax to smile at the man, “Remember turf, my friend. You be in the Legends Lair. I don’t think you need that war.” He sounded so false. Such a wide smile but only a threat in his eyes.

  Jax took cold eyes off Zeus to glare at me before leaving. I didn’t realize I was holding my breath.

  As the night went on and closing came I had to fight feeling a little shook. Not for me but for Jolee. Something about Jax is so heavy. He feels like a dark cloud that hangs overhead. She brought him into our lives and now I’m not sure what it will take to remove him.

  I heard a shattering sound come from the bar just then. Chance had dropped a brandy glass and looked ready to level the club over his mistake.

  “I can get it,” I told him in a soft tone. I retrieved the broom and dustpan and went back to where he was to sweep. “No harm done, see?” I said as I worked.

  He wouldn’t look, he just started another task.

  I bit my lip as I worked.

  When I looked back at him I saw he was fisting his hand and working one-handed.

  “Did you hurt yourself?” I asked.

  He shook his head, “Just a cut.”

  I got out the first aid kit we keep in a cubby of the bar and held it up, “Nurse Trix, here to fix,” I chimed.

  He didn’t buckle or smile at all. I came up and patted his arm, “Can I see?”

  He looked so annoyed but he let me check it. He had a thin cut around his index finger but it bled a lot. I wiped it clean with alcohol, which he didn’t even flinch over, then used an antiseptic and as I wrapped the Band-Aid he spoke.

  “I see why he loves you,” he seemed to be wondering out loud.

  I assumed he meant Adam, “I love him too.”

  “Do you?” his question startled me a little.

  “Yeah, with all my heart.” I thought about their time in Hill Ride. “Do you ask him questions like that too or just me?”

  He took his hand back and didn’t even say, thank you. Something happened out there that neither of them is talking about but knowing feels like the lowest thing on my priority list. I should be raging and jealous and curious but instead, I’m not really feeling anything about it at all.

  I know Adam wouldn’t screw around behind my back because he’s too ethical but I think they did maybe think about it or act off it even just for a split second. That or they nearly killed one another.

  ADAM

  March came in like a lion and left like a lamb. There was another blizzard at the start of the month but by time April was nearing the weather reflected spring.

  The same can’t be said for Chance. He returned from our trip like a beast and he’s still that way. He gets angry over small things and for some reason, it’s giving me a bit of satisfaction. I suppose our encounter and my withdrawal has him frustrated.

  I think its minor payback for the torture he dealt me when we met. However, he’s also being very hard on Trix. Making her work doubles and scheduling her for after we perform. He’s written her up for being three minutes late and he’s turned right around and cut her hours before overworking her again.

  I’ve been reluctant to say anything because in the back of my mind I worry he’ll tell her what we did. I’m afraid he’ll stab her with the truth that we kissed while I was gone.

  I came home early from a studio downtown where I record jingles for brand products and upon opening the door, I found Trix sitting at the island with a guy I don’t know and Diego munching from things in our fridge.

  I slammed the door shut with my foot behind me but didn’t take my eyes off the stranger. “Who are you?” I asked. He has a guitar over his knees and it looked like he was composing with my girlfriend. In musician world, she may as well give him a lap dance.

  Trix stood up and bugged her eyes at me for being impolite, “This is my friend, Liam. I told you about him.”

  “The homeless guy?”

  She looked about to slap me. “My friend,” she corrected.

  “I can head out,” Liam stood but I shrugged.

  “Why are you here in the first place?”

  Trix was turning a bright shade of red, “He was working on a song with me. I was going to play it for you when it’s done.”

  “You write the songs and we sing them together, so where does Liam fit into all that?” I asked.

  Liam pressed his lips together then said, “This is actually a song that… Trix wrote for herself.” He explained. “It’s a solo.”

  I looked back at her and crossed my arms. “You want a solo?”

  She just stared at me for a second. “Yeah… I don’t know… I wanted to try it maybe.”

  I looked Liam over, head to toe, then past him to Diego, “Could you give us a minute.”

  Liam and Diego took up their things and started slowly making their way out. I didn’t realize there was a dog with them until it trotted past me. Trix stood with her arms crossed, watching me with fire in her eyes.

  “It’s our band and you can’t come to me about wanting a solo?” I began as soon as I heard the door shut behind me.

  She stood her ground, “You are the singer… You are the lead. It’s your band, not ours and I was afraid to ask.”

  “Why?” I set down my guitar and tossed my bag, “What reason did I ever give you not to come to me? Why would you work with a stranger over me? I would love for you to sing. I’ve mentioned it on several occasions. I could help you if-.”

  “Because it’s about you,” she blurted.

  Even with all the confused feelings I have right now, I worried when she said that. “How is it about me?”

  She shook her head, “Adam, I understand why you don’t trust men but not all men want to hurt you. You see Liam and all you see is someone who wants to hurt me. It’s like you’re my brother, not my lover. Liam, is a friend that wants to help in return for a favor.”

  “What favor?”

  She went silent which told me right away I wouldn’t like it.

  “What favor?” I asked again.

  “While you were gone the snow storm was really bad, it went down into the teens- I invited Liam to stay here.”

  I felt my skin ignite. “You let a homeless guy you just met, stay in the apartment?”

  “The guys were here the whole time and Jolee. He didn’t
sleep here; he slept at the guy’s place. He just had dinner. That’s all.” She defended.

  “And no one in the group brought it up to me, in a month?”

  “We knew how you’d react. He’s not a bad guy. He’s very kind. He just... is having a hard time.”

  “He’s not a stray animal! You can’t just adopt him!”

  “I’m not asking to adopt him…” She brought up her chin in defiance. “But I am thinking he should join the band.”

  I blinked at her like I was dreaming. Then I stepped back and gave an incredulous laugh, “I’m sorry, you think what?”

  “You just said this is our band. If that’s true then I want you to respect my feelings. I want Liam in the band. He and I harmonize well and he helps me with the songs, imagine if we had one more head in the game. One more wiz to help make us better? He’s so talented and he knows all our songs, from all our albums. He would work with you not against you.”

  I shook my head, “No.” I took off my coat, “No we don’t need another member and we definitely don’t need a hobo. If you want to do a solo, fine but I’ll work the music for you, just like always. We’re a team, it’s what we do.”

  She watched me as I hung my coat and put up my guitar. It was a loud silence.

  “You can’t do this song for me.” She said.

  “Why not?”

  “Because I didn’t write it for you… I wrote it about you. About…how you make me feel.”

  “Let me see it.”

  She shook her head, “It’s not done.”

  Her eyes were shining in the dim afternoon light. Unshed tears making them look like glass. She voiced a concern, “It’s not time for you to see it.”

  “So we keep secrets now?”

  She nodded, “Yeah,” her lashes were wet, “Like you not telling me Chance was gay…”

  I wish I knew who told her so I could wrap them around a pole. “What does it matter?”

  “It matters…”

  “Nothing happened so it doesn’t.”

  Trixie held my eyes a long second until I folded under her unspoken question, “We kissed,” I confessed. “That’s all and it was only because we had been drinking. I was tired from the trip and the meeting. It really wasn’t…I stopped it.”

  I expected a slap or a rant or maybe a breakup. I wanted her to do those things maybe but I had to tell the truth because it had been eating at me.

  Instead, she raked a hand through her hair and blew out air from between her lips. “Should we be concerned, that… your waiting to tell me hurts more than what you did?”

  I reached out and tucked hair behind her ear, “I don’t know…”

  She took my hand and pressed it to her cheek. “Should we talk about it?”

  I pulled her into my arms and held her against my chest, “Not yet, Trix.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  ADAM

  Later in the week, I was setting up for a rehearsal when Chance came to the stage front and tapped his watch face, “Where is your girlfriend’s twin? She’s twenty minutes late.”

  “I’m not her keeper. Call her.” I countered.

  This dance between us is old. He gives me orders I have no intention of taking. We don’t talk unless it’s to argue because we need the communication but I won’t allow anything remotely intimate. So we fight.

  “Your girlfriend said she would take full responsibility for Jolee. If she’s late, I’ll hold Trix to that.”

  I jumped down off the stage, “You need to back off with her. She tells me everything and you’ve been treating her like shit.”

  He shrugged, “Tell her to quit. Tell her bitching doesn’t get stuff done.”

  Anger that was white hot just consumed me on the spot. “Don’t pretend Trix and Jolee haven’t been the best two workers you’ve ever had. Jolee is a fucked up mess but she pulls her weight and Trix hasn’t slacked a day in her life. This is the first time Jolee’s been late.”

  Chance started toward the cellar like he was just done talking to me. “Did your little girlfriend tell you who else she was trying to get employed?” He said over his shoulder.

  I’m not sure what the hook was; his comment or his ass. Either way, I followed him down the creaky wooden steps behind the bar, “What are you talking about?”

  “She wants me to hire some bum. A guy she likes.” He was baiting me like always.

  “Liam,” I said. “What does that have to do with anything?”

  We stood in the musty cellar while he searched the stacked crates for a certain brew. “Maybe you weren’t the only one fucking around while we were out of town.”

  I closed in on him, “We didn’t fuck around, that was nothing and Trix would never do something like that. Not to me.”

  “Because women are more trustworthy than men, right?” He smirked before leaning his shoulder into the crates. “Maybe you’re right. You were the one that was doing nothing with me, in a bed and breakfast. Have you told her that? About the nothing that happened?”

  I closed further in but I’m masking arousal with aggression. “Actually, yeah, I did tell her what happened. I love her and that’s what people in love do. They’re honest.”

  His stare is steady, “I’m not chasing you, Adam… It’s not my thing. Eventually, you’re just going to come to me. And when you do…”

  Those words made my insides pull outward and my thoughts go full speed. I felt too close to him. It was like his body was on fire and if I was too close the flames would catch on mine. “Yeah, well I don’t come easily, so,” I said as I backed toward the stairs.

  “You’ll cum very easily with me…”

  His innuendo made me trip up the bottom step of the stairs but I righted myself and pulled it off like that little sexual jab didn’t make my morals weak.

  I went back upstairs to be met by a wide-eyed, Jolee. “Is Chance down there?” She panicked. She looked shook up as hell.

  “Yeah, and he’s pissed. Where were you?”

  She swallowed and averted her eyes, “Just out…lost track of time…” She pushed past me and went down to talk to him.

  As I was heading back to the stage I knocked into a woman that sounded familiar. “Sorry,” She stepped back and winced, “My bad, wasn’t-.” She gasped. “Adam!”

  My brain caught up with my eyes, “Chloe? Chloe from the meeting?” I smiled and shook her hand. “What are you doing in NY? I thought you were from California.”

  “I am! But Chance talked to Elijah Lane back in the Pennsylvania and set it up so I would perform here at the club!”

  My brows rose, “You’re going to pole dance? Here? At the club?”

  “Yeah, the program is funding the temporary reconstruction of the stage. So is my friend.”

  I frowned, “Must be a wealthy friend.”

  “Oh, he is but he’s actually mutual friends with Chance…” She pointed behind me.

  I looked to see Chance emerging from the cellar just as a very tall and good looking guys walked up to laugh and shake his hand. “No fucking way…” I muttered. “Is that…?”

  “Yeah,” she sighed, “Gabe Gilmore, the millionaire. He’s my best friend’s baby daddy and as a Christmas gift last year, he told me he would fund one of my performances. When he found out Chance organized it he dropped everything to fly us out. On his private jet by the way.”

  I zoned out on how Chance gave a typical guy hug to Gabe and how they bantered back and forth. It was making me livid for some reason.

  “Did you bring your boyfriend this time?” I asked her. I smiled because her hotness is a welcome distraction.

  She beamed right away, “We run a bookstore so he can’t be gone too long at a time but his dad will take over in time for him to come see me perform. I go on in three days.”

  I pinched her cheek, “I wanna meet him.”

  Her giggle told it all, “Just don’t steal him from me, k?”

  I pulled my neck back and smiled but frowned at the same time, “How
’d you know? Most people can’t tell.”

  She shrugged and looked me over with those big beautiful green eyes. “I really couldn’t but… at the bed and breakfast, you and Chance…”

  Our moment was in the room and totally private so now I’m curious to see what Chloe saw, “What?”

  “You guys watch each other a lot, I assumed…”

  “I have a girlfriend,” I threw it at her but whenever I say that lately, it feels like I’m convincing myself.

  “Oh,” she looked back at Chance then me, “So you friend zoned the poor guy? I know a thing or two about the friend zone.”

  I laughed, “Poor guy? I can’t imagine Chance as a poor anything.”

  “He’s hot, though.” She bit her lip, “If you guys ever decide to go into gay porn, wanna float me a copy?”

  I laughed again but the idea of having Chance made me squirm.

  “I heard the word hot,” said Gabe as he strolled toward us. “Must be talking about me then.” He said in a smooth British accent.

  “Adam, this is Gabe, Gabe, Adam,” Chloe introduced us and stepped back so we could shake hands.

  “Hello,” I said stiffly.

  Nice to meet you, mate.” Gabe pointed to the main bar, “Mind if we steal your stage in a few nights?”

  “Not at all,” I felt Chance come up along my other side and went tense. “I look forward to seeing Chloe dance,” I said.

  Chloe did a nerdy dance move to be silly, “I’m so excited. This bar is beyond famous.”

  Chance crossed his arms, “You gonna strip?”

  She laughed, “Nope, but I used to strip and it was fun. I’m definitely doing a naughty song or two.”

  “How does your boyfriend handle that?” I asked without thinking. I would never let Trixie do something like this. I’m a naturally jealous man.

  Chance answered first, “Not everyone has to piss on their territory.”

  Gabe and Chloe laughed but then she answered, “Moses knows, at the end of the night, he’s getting a private show.” She waggled her brows.

  Gabe draped his arm around her shoulders in a friendly way, saying, “Chloe and Moses aren’t just a couple. They happen to be best friends. If she did cheat on him, I think he’d be the first she’d call to tell about it.” He teased.