Page 42 of Follow the Rhythm (Fairview City Omegaverse #2)

“I owe you an apology, too. There’s no excuse for how I’ve treated everyone, but I thought I was protecting you from my mess.” He looked so earnest and genuine, like the Ellis I remembered.

I couldn’t help myself any longer. I pushed through Kieran and wrapped my arms around him, pressing my face into his chest. He let out a little “oof,” then circled me with his arms, too. His scent surrounded me, familiar and strange all at the same time.

“I forgive you,” I murmured. “Just don’t fucking do it again, okay?”

He buried his face in my hair. “I won’t. I promise.”

I nodded into his chest, then pulled back. He smiled crookedly down at me, his eyes still red rimmed, and he took my breath away, just like he did when I was seventeen.

“Friends?” he asked, tapping my shoulder with his finger.

My heart sank, but I smiled instead. “Friends.”

“There’s one more thing,” Ellis said, looking back at Kieran. “I negotiated for the rights to Reward . I couldn’t get the masters for the other albums, but they can’t sue anyone for the leak now.”

Kieran stared at him. “How the hell did you manage that?”

“He sold his soul,” Charlie said with an ironic smile. “Three solo albums, with a recoupment clause that includes all the lost tour revenue. I told him it was a terrible idea, but he insisted.”

“Jesus, Ellis. You didn’t have to do that,” Kieran said.

“Yeah, I did,” Ellis said.

After that, things were easier. Kieran called Johnny back in and told him and his lawyer to fuck off. I took ?spiteful pleasure in the bewildered look on Johnny’s face.

We agreed to walk to a diner down the street to finish talking. Somehow, I ended up walking with Charlie.

“So, you and Ellis?” I asked, not sounding as casual as I wanted.

He smiled sheepishly. “It kind of just happened. I don’t think either of us planned on it.”

“Well. Congratulations,” I said, my voice clipped.

He smiled even wider. “Wait. Are you jealous?”

My heart skipped a beat. “No. Absolutely not. Jealous? Please. Why would I be jealous?”

“Sure, very convincing.” Charlie didn’t even have the decency to keep a straight face.

I bumped my shoulder against him. “Seriously, though. I’m glad he had you to talk to about all this.”

Charlie looked up to where Ellis and Kieran were talking, easier than I’d ever seen them together. “Yeah, me too.”

Around a booth in the classic movie monster-themed diner, Kieran and Ellis made a plan, with some input from Charlie and me.

They agreed to put out a statement acknowledging the leak and denying involvement, without addressing the speculation around Michael’s death.

A dark part of me thought Bea might have been helpful in constructing the statement, but I would not complain that she seemed to be well and truly out of the picture.

“But, about the leak. You don’t know who did it?” I asked.

Ellis sighed. “The only people with the files are Kieran and me, obviously, the production team, and some people at the label. And Johnny.”

“It had to have been him, then,” I said. He was sleazy enough to do it.

“I thought so, too. But there’s no incentive for him to leak it. He makes money on royalties, and a leaked album doesn’t generate any revenue,” Charlie said.

I furrowed my brow in thought. “He seemed set on the band breaking up, too, which is weird, right?”

Kieran nodded. “That was strange. I reckon if we looked through those documents he wanted us to sign, we’d find something about him being Ellis’s manager for any solo projects.”

Ellis laughed bleakly. “Good luck to him. At my current rate, I’ll be lucky to see a cent from my solo albums in about sixty years.”

My blood boiled. Were all record labels so cutthroat? It seemed like a poor way to repay the musicians who made them all their money. “There’s got to be a way to get you out of that contract. It’s so unfair,” I said.

“I agree,” Kieran said. “But we need to focus on one problem at a time. Claire and Deb are coming to town.”

I looked at him quizzically. “Michael’s mums,” he explained.

I choked on the fry I was eating. He’d kept that quiet.

“Fuck,” Ellis whispered. “I hate all this getting dragged up again, for them especially.”

“Absolutely,” Kieran agreed, pounding my back while I chugged water. “But they deserve a say in what we tell the press.”

Silence fell for a moment. “Can’t we just tell the press to fuck off?” Ellis asked.

“If you say nothing, they’ll make things up. We learned that the hard way with my dad,” Charlie said.

Ellis sighed, but nodded.

“Come to my flat for dinner tomorrow to talk to them, then. Both of you,” Kieran said, nodding at Charlie.

We said our goodbyes outside the diner. Ellis held out his arms to me, and I rolled my eyes before giving him a tight hug. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said when I stepped back, and it sounded like a promise.

I nodded. Then, without thinking, I embraced Charlie, too.

Charlie held me close and inhaled deeply.

His scent inflamed me like it always did, stirred up the baser instincts that always felt close to the surface as my heat approached.

I pressed my face into the hollow of his throat.

His skin was warm against my nose and cheek, and I felt the faintest vibration of a purr or growl in his throat.

I had to bite back my answering whimper.

We stayed that way a heartbeat too long, but as soon as I moved, he released me. I was panting as if I’d run a mile.

“Tomorrow,” I said, and walked blindly towards the car, hoping Kieran would follow me.

He did. He caught up to me and captured my hand, with a raised eyebrow and a smirk.

“Don’t,” I said, scowling.

“I didn’t say a thing,” he said, still smirking.

He was quiet on the ride home, still processing things, I guessed. It wasn’t until we were back at his apartment, snuggled in bed, that I finally asked.

“Are you okay?”

He hummed in my hair. “Define ‘okay.’”

“Good point,” I said.

“I’m alright. But when Johnny said we were going to dissolve the band officially, it scared me. I knew things were heading that way, but Velvet Howl is - was - my life. I have no idea what happens next.”

“We’ll figure it out together,” I promised. And I meant it.