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CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Royal

Her hand is still trembling as we walk out of the office, but her expression is calm.

Hell, considering the blow she’s just taken, she’s remarkably together.

Wiping her tears, getting on board with a plan, walking back out here with her head held high.

“Everything okay?” Briar asks as we approach the table.

“Not really,” I mutter, and watch the alarm sweep across her face. I put up a hand. “I’ll fill you in later. For now, I want to get Jade home.”

“I’m all right,” she says, her fingers squeezing around mine.

Around my bad hand.

And for once, it doesn’t feel wrong.

“We can stay until you’re ready to go.”

I press a kiss to the top of her head, draw her closer. “We’re going.”

“I—”

“We’re going. ”

She huffs out a sigh, shakes her head, but I don’t miss the relief that creeps into her beautiful gray eyes.

Dash stands up, his affable, careless playboy demeanor immediately shifting to work mode. “Let’s call your team,” he says quietly. “Get your car right at the back door and get you two home.”

“Th-thanks, Hudson,” Jade murmurs.

“Dash,” he corrects gently, lightly squeezing her arm. “Remember? All my friends call me Dash.”

More emotions in those gray eyes—happiness and hurt, pleasure and reticence, joy and sadness.

“Dash,” she corrects, her voice quiet.

He tugs at a strand of her hair. “You guys hang here while I call the crew.” His eyes meet mine and then he flicks them to the side.

I get the silent message, and so does Briar.

“Jade,” she says, holding up her phone. “Was this the shade of lipstick we were talking about earlier?”

“I—”

“I’ll be right back,” I tell her, nudging her toward the booth.

“I—”

I cup her jaw. “Just a minute, Shortcake, okay?”

Her lips part on a shaky exhale, but then she nods and joins Aspen and Briar in the booth, Banks slipping out to join us.

Dash tilts his head toward the hall, and we both silently follow him.

“Fill me in.” It’s the brusque order of a man whose life is this business, so I don’t hesitate to tell him what’s happened, the skeleton of what our plan is. Banks is listening closely too, but I don’t hold anything back. I trust him with my life, and if said life’s about to hit the shitter—in the media, that is—then it’s good for him to be aware.

God, the last thing I need is for some asshole sports blogger with a bone to pick to surprise him with a question about the tape during a game.

“Damn,” Dash says. “Nice friend of hers.”

“We’re going to bury him.” Or, well, Atlas, Maddie, and Kate are, but I’m going to pay them very well to make sure it’s properly done.

“Can’t wait,” he mutters, then sighs and claps me on the shoulder. “Anything you need, man. Anytime.”

There’s an odd tight feeling in my chest.

I’ve been such a fuckup, such an asshole.

Taking my family for granted, avoiding them whenever I could, content to sit in my misery.

And they?—

Well, they refused to let me remain in the darkness, and they held tight when I was determined to fall.

But it was Jade who pulled me out.

I’m not fucking going back.

Not when she’s become my world.

“Thank you,” I rasp.

He nods, lifts his phone to his ear, and I hear him barking out orders.

First Atlas. Then Dash.

Banks bumps his shoulder against mine. “Let’s get you back to Jade.”

I nod, start walking. “Banksy?”

He looks over at me. “Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“Yeah,” I mutter. “You did. You have .”

Understanding slides through his expression, and he exhales. Then he squeezes me roughly on the shoulder. “You’re family.” A tilt of his head to Jade. “And she is too. We’ll close ranks, keep her safe.”

I know they will—though that doesn’t make the tightness in my chest go away.

But it makes it bearable.

Because Jade is the most important thing in my life—more than avoiding the press, more than music, more than my fucking hand not working properly, more than…

Everything.

“Th—”

His fingers on my shoulder tighten. “No thanks needed.” His eyes pierce into mine. “Not ever. ”

I close my eyes, just for a heartbeat, then open them again. “I need to get back to Jade.”

He drops his hand, and then we’re both exiting the hallway, moving back over to the table.

I don’t make it there, though, because when I’m less than five feet away, a hand grips my arm and drags me to a halt.

Wrong—the touch is completely wrong.

Long nails dig into my skin.

Expensive perfume clogs my nose.

Fake tits press into my arm.

What the fuck?

“Royal, darling, is that you?”

The voice is nails on a chalkboard and a bucket of ice cold water dumped over me, all at once.

Banks curses and I slowly spin to face her.

Amber.

Christ, she looks even more plastic than before—still beautiful, but any of the soft beauty she once had has been replaced by fillers and Botox. Objectively gorgeous, but I prefer a certain petite brunette with a sprinkle of freckles across the bridge of her nose.

“I’m pretty sure I didn’t approve your membership,” I say dryly, brushing her hand away and taking a deliberate step back.

“I know we didn’t,” Banks mutters.

“Well, no matter,” Amber says. “I don’t have a membership.” She waves a hand nonchalantly through the air. “My boyfriend does.”

“Great.” I turn away from her, lock eyes with Jade.

“Aren’t you even curious about who I’m with?” she asks. “I mean, I used to be your wife and all.”

I glance at her over my shoulder. “I stopped caring about who you fuck when you divorced my crippled ass.”

She waves her hand again, as though those words were a small detail.

And fuck, I forgot how much I used to hate when she did that.

“I thought you’d be overjoyed that I found someone worthy of me,” she drawls.

“You thought wrong.”

Her eyes are calculating, but I don’t have time to deal with her particular brand of bullshit today. I start for the table again.

“I don’t think I’m wrong.”

The calculation has reached her voice now, and my lungs grow tight, my stomach knots. When she gets like this…she’s mean as a snake.

I need to get Jade the fuck out of here.

Now.

But my feet aren’t obeying that thought.

Slowly, I turn back to face her.

Amber’s smile is?—

Decidedly snake-like.

And, of fucking course, that’s exactly when I feel Jade’s hand slide into mine, the contrast between her touch and Amber’s as she comes close, as she presses into my side almost comical.

Right and wrong.

Amber’s dark brown eyes slide to the side, drift down, and her smile widens. “Who’s this?” she asks, as though talking about a child or a dog.

“I’m Jade Cantrell.” She sticks out her hand.

Amber doesn’t shake it, just wrinkles her nose slightly as she eyes her up and down. Then she glances back at me. “You’re dating country bumpkins now?”

“Classic, Amber,” I snap, drawing Jade closer. “Spreading your venom everywhere.” I meet Jade’s eyes. “Let’s go.”

She nods, but her feet don’t move.

Instead, she glares over at Amber.

“You had the most precious gift in the world,” she says, “and you squandered it.”

My heart pulses.

But I don’t have time to respond to that, to kiss her, to tell her what that means to me.

Because Amber splashes some more of that venom around.

“Ah, there you are, baby,” she croons and I watch as she plasters herself against—fucking hell, is that Tony Blackthorn? She kisses him with enough tongue that Banks makes a sound of disgust from next to me. “I was just telling them the good news.”

I don’t bite.

She wants me to know, wants to fuck with me, wants to hurt me.

“About the baby?” he asks, smoothing his hand over Amber’s still flat stomach.

I go still, that cold sliding down my spine again.

We were trying for a baby when she…

I grind my teeth together.

When she left .

“Congrats,” I mutter. “I’m sure you’ll be great parents.” My sarcasm is about as evident as her venom, and I know she clocks it because her eyes narrow and her cold ass smile spreads. But before she can retort, Tony tugs her against him and proceeds to shove his tongue down her throat.

“Gross,” Jade whispers.

“I wasn’t just telling them about the baby,” Amber says coyly after they finally break apart.

That snaps me out of it, and I turn to the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with—and in case anyone is wondering, that’s sure as shit not the woman who was tongue fucking a sleezy guitar player with a rap sheet a mile long and a trail of NDAs signed in his wake.

It’s Jade.

“Let’s go,” I tell her again.

She nods and we turn to leave.

But Amber’s not done with us yet.

“Oh Royal, darling…”

My stomach sinks, but I start walking, keep walking, even though her next words are a vicious blow that nearly takes me to my knees.

“Don’t you want to meet the new guitarist of Midnight Sun?”