Page 29 of Follow the Rhythm (Fairview City Omegaverse #2)

A s soon as we landed in Fairview, Echelon Records demanded I come to the office and sign an NDA.

Kieran, Grace, and Ellis were there too, along with Johnny.

Ellis sat at the far end of the table, studiously ignoring everyone else, like he was voluntarily quarantining himself.

The cut on his lip hadn’t fully healed, but he’d found the time to style his hair perfectly.

Johnny, whom I hadn’t seen in weeks, kept trying to get them to talk to each other, but it didn’t work.

Charlie and Stevie rounded out the group.

Karen Carlson, the head of the label, arrived a few minutes later and walked into complete silence.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” she said, not sounding sorry at all, and sat at the opposite end of the table from Ellis. “Let’s cut to the chase. We’re losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue on this tour, and I don’t think it’ll surprise anyone that I’m not thrilled about that.”

“Right, but if you’ll just let me talk to-” Johnny said. Karen raised her hand to cut him off.

“If my sources are correct, you haven’t even been in attendance for the vast majority of the show dates. Which is interesting, since we’ve been paying you a stipend for travel expenses. But we’ll come back to that.” Johnny’s face turned purplish-white.

Karen sighed. “Fortunately for me, this isn’t the first time we’ve had to cut our losses and pivot.

You’re all here today to sign NDAs about what happened.

No selling your stories to the press, no tell-all videos, no goddamn podcast interviews, nothing.

I’ve already had the crew sign them, but I wanted to impress the importance of this on each of you specifically.

The official story is that Ellis needs vocal cord surgery.

If I see you? saying anything else publicly, I will bring the full weight of the Echelon legal department down on you. Understand?”

I nodded along with everyone else.

“I need verbal confirmation.”

I murmured a “yes.” Grace met my eyes with a bewildered expression.

Karen gestured to the door, and a harried-looking young man carried in a stack of papers. We each signed the document under Karen’s beady eye.

“Wonderful. Thank you all so much for your valuable time,” she said sarcastically. “Johnny? With me, please.”

She swept from the conference room, Johnny trailing her like a kicked dog.

“What the hell was that?” Grace asked Kieran and me.

I watched Ellis for a moment, who seemed completely unsurprised by the news that he was getting fake vocal cord surgery as he strolled out without a word.

“I think they’re hoping he can still be their golden boy, so they don’t want us to completely ruin his reputation,” I said.

“But that’s crazy. He’s a fucking lunatic.”

Kieran scowled. “They definitely want a solo album.”

“And being an asshole doesn’t keep you from being successful.” Charlie had approached without my noticing. “Can I talk to you for a second?”

“Oh, yeah, I guess so,” I said, a bit surprised. I hadn’t spoken to him, other than telling him where Ellis was hiding the night he blew everything up. I followed him out into the hallway, aware of Kieran’s eyes on my back.

“Are you alright?” Charlie asked. We had stopped just out of sight of the conference room door.

“Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I wasn’t sure if… Nevermind. Um… I’m probably going to be going back to L.A. soon.” He rubbed the back of his neck and looked at me through his lashes.

“Okay. Good for you. What does that have to do with me?” The sooner he left, the better. I could pretend this whole weird part of my life was just a nightmare.

“Oh. Right. I just wanted to - before I left - make sure that, you know, you didn’t want to…” he trailed off again, looking a bit lost.

“Yes?” I prompted.

Charlie looked at me carefully. I had gotten used to how handsome he was, mostly, but sometimes it still hit me like a truck.

His cherry scent was strong in the narrow hallway, and he was clearly anxious about something because it had gone slightly medicinal.

I shut down the Omega instinct to comfort him.

He wasn’t mine to comfort, no matter what my hormones said.

“Does this conversation have a point?” I asked, more annoyed at my reaction than at him.

Charlie sighed and visibly deflated. “No. I guess not.”

“Great. I’ll see you around then. Or not.” I stalked back towards the conference room. Kieran was waiting outside the door, watching us.

“Everything okay?” he asked.

“It’s fine,” I said, then took a deep breath. “Can we just get out of here?”

Kieran’s apartment was incredible: an open-floor-plan marvel of dark wood, white marble, and soft cream upholstery. His sweet strawberry scent had permeated everything, and the mint note tickled my nose when I sat down on the couch.

He moved efficiently around the kitchen, making a pot of tea. I didn’t have the energy to tell him I hated tea and had frequently referred to it as “dirt water.” I just wouldn’t drink it.

Instead, I looked out the window at Fairview in the late afternoon. His apartment was high ?enough to see the bay, glinting under the cloudless summer sky. It felt strange being back in the city. Or maybe I just felt different.

He set a cup of tea in front of me with a clunk that broke me out of my reverie. He sat next to me, close enough that I could feel the heat from his body.

“You’ll have to talk to me eventually, love. Could it be now? Please?”

I heard the note of anxiety in his voice, and my heart sank. I wanted to deny it or play dumb, but he was right.

I’d avoided serious conversation ?until then. Kieran bought me a plane ticket home, which I’d tried to refuse. I should’ve known better than to even try. He’d wanted me to stay with him at his place, but I’d convinced him I needed some time alone to decompress after so much traveling.

I hated that Ellis’s drunken rant had affected me so much. It made me feel seventeen years old, letting him break my heart all over again.

I’d woken up the morning that Ellis had fucked up everything happier than I’d been in years.

I’d been snuggled in Kieran’s arms, basking in the warmth of his skin and scent, and filled with deluded hope that maybe, just maybe, I’d found my person.

But if what Ellis said was true, if Kieran was just going to get sick of me like so many other women before me…

“Did I do something wrong?” Kieran asked, touching my hand briefly.

“No. Maybe. I don’t know,” I paused briefly. “Ellis said some things that got into my head.”

Kieran’s face darkened. “What did he say?”

I met his gaze, anger flaring in my chest. I held tight to it. Anger was much easier to deal with than feeling like a pathetic little girl. “Basically, that I was just another groupie chasing after you.”

“Ah. I see.” His voice was tight with anger.

“Is that true? Am I just another conquest?”

“Absolutely not. I’m not proud of my past behavior, love. But in my defense, I never gave anyone the wrong idea.” He tried to take my hand, but I pulled away.

“Right, okay, but what makes me, us, this -” I gestured between us, “any different?”

Kieran stared at me. “Everything. I’m a completely different person now.”

“But for how long? How long will this new version of you last? What happens when you’re not mourning Michael anymore?”

“Michael has nothing to do with it,” he growled.

“I don’t believe you,” I said vehemently. “No matter what you say, you barely know me. How do you know you won’t get sick of me?”

Kieran pulled me closer to him, his grip tight on my wrist. He pressed my hand to his chest, above the thumping of his heart. “Do you not feel this? It’s beating for you . You are mine, love. You must feel that, too.”

The most terrifying part was I did. I could feel that connection between us, and it paralyzed me. His heart kicked beneath my palm, and mine drummed in response. I knew in that moment that Kieran could hurt me much worse than Ellis ever had.

“I need some space. It’s too much,” I said, my voice choked with fear. I pulled my hand from his grasp. “I’m sorry.”

Kieran’s face hardened. “Don’t do this, Jess. Just talk to me. Please.”

I shook my head.

“Why are you so ready to believe the worst of me?” he asked.

I made myself look him in the eyes. I’m sure he thought things would be different for us. But he was an Alpha, and I was my mother’s daughter, and I could picture our future with unsettling clarity. I would not repeat her mistakes.

“I am sorry. But I need to go.”

I made it to the door before I heard him say, “You still haven’t scared me off.”

I didn’t respond. I just left in total silence, surprised I couldn’t hear my heart shattering into a million tiny fragments.

The train ride back to my apartment felt like a funeral march. But I made it without bursting into tears on the train, which I counted as a win. Grace had texted me, asking if I wanted to hang out, but I declined. I needed to be alone.

Henry, the doorman, looked concerned as I approached my building. “Are you alright, Miss Moretti?”

“Yes, everything is fucking wonderful. Can’t you tell?”

After such a long time away, my apartment seemed new all over again. I drew the curtains shut. The view from the windows - that tiny slice of the sparkling bay - just reminded me of the view from Kieran’s place.

I’d get over this. It was better to make a clean break now rather than wait for him to do the honors.

I had some freelance work waiting for me I’d picked up the night before, but I crawled into the tiny nest in my closet. Even with new sheets and descenter, there was still a whiff of Charlie’s cherry scent that made my heart contract painfully. I burrowed into the blankets. I still didn’t cry.

Two days passed. I ate a bit, sent a few emails, responded to Austin and Grace’s texts enough to keep them off my back, but mostly I slept. I told myself I was just tired from the tour.