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“ W hat is it?” she asked, sounding breathless. Was he going to kiss her lips?

Did she want that?

Yes.

“We need to chat about what happened,” he told her as he reached into the medicine bag and drew out some stuff to clean her arm.

“What? Me choking?”

“Before that,” he said.

Oh cupcakes.

She really didn’t want to talk about that.

“I’m not sure that there’s anything we need to talk about,” she told him as he finished cleaning the tiny scratches.

“No? How about the fact that bit—woman grabbed you, hurting you?” His face darkened as he spoke.

Had he been about to call her a bitch?

“She didn’t hurt me,” Immy told him, holding out her arm. “I’m fine. I mark easily. I think she just grabbed hold of my arm and her nails accidentally pressed against me. They are incredibly long and sharp. I wonder how easy it is for her to go to the bathroom.”

“I didn’t think of that,” he grumbled. “Now, it’s going to be burned into my brain.”

She let out a surprised giggle. “Sorry.”

“You should be.” He sent her a stern look.

For a moment she was worried that he was serious, then he winked at her.

“Still going to tell Jenner,” he said.

“Don’t,” she said quickly.

He raised his eyebrows, but didn’t say anything.

Immy let out a deep breath. “She didn’t mean to mark me and I don’t want her to get into trouble for an accident.”

“What if it wasn’t an accident?”

What? Was he saying that Lauren had been trying to hurt her?

She shook her head. “She’s just intense. I know she’s trying to do her best for Jenner.”

“By throwing that other woman at him? Didn’t realize he needed a pimp. How often has she wanted him to take that other singer out?”

Lauren had done that, even though Jenner refused each time.

“Tobias! She’s not . . . she’s not trying to pimp him!” she said, horrified by his insinuation.

“No? Kind of seems that way.”

“Promise me you won’t tell him,” she begged. Because that would be a disaster.

He just eyed her.

“Tobias, you can’t tell him. She didn’t mean to hurt me, you’re imagining things. All she wants is to do a good job and she is. I don’t want to make things tense between her and Jenner.”

“What happened wasn’t your fault, Immy,” he said to her. “And any consequences for her won’t be your fault.”

“Just don’t tell Jenner. Or Sampson. Or Abe and Isaiah. Cat. Just don’t tell anyone!” she cried.

“I’ll think about it.”

It wasn’t a no, but it wasn’t a yes, either.

She’d take it.

A knock on the door surprised her as she was setting up her snack station for the movie. She’d ordered a whole lot of snacks online and they’d just gotten delivered.

Instead of a bath, she’d had a quick shower after putting in her order. So now she was in her pajamas and she had braided her hair.

Tobias walked to the door, waving her back. He checked the peephole. Then he opened the door.

Jenner walked in.

“Jenner!” she greeted him. “What are you doing here? I thought you had commitments after the concert?”

He waved his hand dismissively as he walked into the room. “Don’t worry about that. What is going on?” Stopping in front of her, he cupped her face. “Are you all right? You look pale. Is that why you left so early?”

“I’m fine. I just had a small headache.”

His frown deepened. Uh-oh.

“A small headache? Have you taken some painkillers? Why aren’t you in bed? What is all this?”

“Well, Tobias and I were going to watch a movie. Can you believe that he hasn’t seen Harry Potter?”

“Baby, the last thing you need is all this sugar and to watch a movie! You need to get into bed. I’ll rub your head and we’ll turn out the lights so you can sleep. She can’t eat all this junk food,” he said to Tobias. “It’s not good for her at any time, but especially not when she’s ill.”

“But I’m not ill!” she protested as he tried to lead her to the bed. “Tobias! Tell him that I’m not ill.”

“She’s not ill. She had a slight headache so I brought her back here and she took some painkillers.”

“See? And now we’re going to?—”

“But she did pretend her headache was worse than it was to get me to leave,” Tobias interrupted her.

“Tobias!”

“Why would she want that?” Jenner asked.

She glared at Tobias. He better not say anything if he knew what was good for him.

“She was worried I was going to cause a scene after what Lauren did.”

“Tobias, you promised not to tell him!”

“Not to tell me what?” Jenner asked. “What is going on? What happened with Lauren?”

Jenner’s phone started ringing and he silenced it.

“Shouldn’t you take that?” she asked.

“Nope. Tell me what’s going on. Now, Immy,” Jenner said sternly.

She sighed. “I was backstage when Lauren came up to me and said I shouldn’t be there. Guess she thought I was a distraction. When I refused to leave, she grabbed my arm. It was really nothing.”

“Show him your arm,” Tobias told her.

Seriously. What part of ‘don’t tell Jenner’ didn’t he understand? Someone really wanted more peanut butter in their sheets. Or perhaps their shoes this time.

“Immy,” Jenner said in a warning voice. “Show. Me.”

“Fine,” she grumbled, holding out her arm. It really didn’t look that bad.

But the way Jenner sucked in a breath, you would have thought she’d been beaten.

His phone started vibrating in his hand and she glanced down to see Lauren was calling.

“Lauren did this to you?” Jenner asked.

“And afterward, she wasn’t sorry,” Tobias said. “Bitch meant to hurt her.”

“Tobias!” she cried.

Tobias gave her an unrepentant look.

Jenner answered the call and brought the phone to his ear. “You touched Immy.”

She couldn’t hear what Lauren was saying, but Jenner’s face could have been carved in white marble.

“No, you listen. You’re fired. I’ll get Abe to sort whatever needs sorted with our lawyer. But I do not want to see you again or hear from you. Understand? No, I don’t care your reasons. You don’t ever hurt my family and you never, ever touch Immy.”

He ended the call.

For some stupid reason, Immy wanted to cry.

“Jenner,” she said in a hoarse voice. “You can’t fire her.”

“Of course I can. She hurt you, she’s gone. Simple as that.”

“It’s not really that simple, though?—”

“It is,” he said firmly. “But I’m not happy with you, Immy.”

“Me? Why?”

“You should have told me straight away what happened.”

“You were singing,” she said lamely.

“Then as soon as I stopped singing, you should have told me. Were you planning to tell me?” Jenner asked.

“Umm.”

“She wasn’t,” Tobias said.

Immy glared at him. “You’re just a chatterbox today, aren’t you?”

Tobias shrugged his thick shoulders. “I’m supposed to be looking after you. This is me doing that.”

Cupcakes.

Jenner cupped her chin in his hand. “You come first, Immy. You always come first. Before everything.”

There was a strange look on his face. One she couldn’t decipher and she swallowed heavily.

“Understand?”

“I understand,” she said.

“Now, I understand we’re watching a movie.” He dropped his hand from her chin and she watched as he headed over to the snack pile. “Yeah, you’re not eating all of this.”

“What? Why not?” she cried as he messaged someone.

“Too much sugar. And have you been drinking water? Is that why you had a headache?” Jenner asked.

“I’ve been drinking water,” she protested as Jenner walked to the mini-fridge.

“Not much,” Tobias said.

She glared over at him. “I am going to find something to gag you with.”

Tobias just winked at her.

What the heck did that mean?

Men. They were so difficult to understand.

There was a knock on the door and Tobias let Abe and Sampson in.

“What’s this about you firing Lauren?” Abe asked as Jenner strode toward her, holding a bottle of water.

Jenner pointed at the sofa in front of the TV. “Sit. Drink this. All of it needs to be gone before you eat any snacks or drink that diet soda.”

She sat and took the water. What a party pooper. But she sipped on her water as she really needed some sugar.

“What the hell?” Abe said, his face growing stonelike after Tobias and Jenner explained everything.

Sampson stomped over to her. “Show me your arm.”

Immy sighed and held out her arm to him.

“That fucking bitch!” Sampson roared.

“See what you’ve done,” she said to Tobias.

“I’m gonna go have a chat with her.” Sampson headed to the door.

“Shit!” Abe jumped in front of him. “Wait, you can’t!”

“Why the fuck not?”

“Because we do not want her suing us. Just let me handle her, all right?” Abe said to him.

Sampson grumbled but moved away from the door. He then plonked himself down beside her on the sofa. “So? What are we watching?” He grabbed a couple of Twizzlers.

“Hey! Those are mine,” she told Sampson.

“You have about thirty of them.”

“Yeah, and they’re all mine.”

“You are not eating all of those Twizzlers,” Jenner told her, sitting on her other side. “You can have three.”

“Three? What did I do?” she cried.

“You didn’t tell me what that bitch did to you.”

She gave a disgruntled sigh as Abe and Tobias sat as well. “I don’t think I invited you all to my movie night.”

“That’s the thing, family doesn’t need an invite,” Jenner told her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

It was the sweetest sort of torture.

And one she never wanted to end.