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Sam chuckled. “Just keep the drunken lurching to a minimum.” His eyes met mine. “Are you coming into the studio tomorrow?”

I shook my head. “Not much point. I’ll do it at my home studio. It’ll work for what I need.”

“Want me to come over?” Boomer asked.

“I can come too,” Sam offered. “I could bring Jolie.”

My heart warmed because I knew they were trying to support me and take my mind off all the negative stalker bullshit. “Thanks, but you should make the most of your day off. I won’t be working for long, and it’s not like we get much time to ourselves these days.”

“Sooo,” Jonny murmured delicately, throwing a cracker at Sam. “You gonna tell us about this girl of yours?”

Sam dodged the cheesy Goldfish, picked it up, and threw it back at Jonny’s head. “What can I say. She’s beautiful, sweet, and smart.”

Jonny grinned, waggling his eyebrows. “Sure she is. You’re with her for her intelligence, right?”

“I wouldn’t date her if she had nothing to say for herself.” He grinned. “But I’d still fuck her. She’s hot.”

I shot the boys a glare. “Can we not talk about women like they’re sex objects? I thought I’d enlightened you assholes about that years ago.”

Boomer nudged me. “To be fair, Saint, she opens and closes Victoria’s Secret shows, and she’s got good tits. I’m more than a little curious about her.”

“So, meet her and ask her about her life,” I bit out.

“You don’t have to do what these guys do and talk about her like a fuck toy.

Women are here to do more than service your dicks, and to downplay her for just being a model with good tits is disrespectful.

She’s probably got more brains than all three of you pricks put together, seeing as those tits you love so much are earning her a damned fortune.

Maybe think of that before you degrade her to a fuck toy.

” Through my anger, I didn’t notice the door opening behind me.

Jonny rolled his eyes. “Chill out, babe. You on the rag or somethin’?”

“Jonnyyy,” Boomer murmured, drawing the name out with warning in his tone.

“No, I’m not, shithead,” I snapped. “Are you? I mean, you are acting like a little bitch.”

“That’s a fuckin’ joke, comin’ from the biggest bitch of them all,” Jonny shot back. “You think you’re so much better than everyone else, but you’re just another wannabe riding the coattails. In an alternate universe, you’d be a groupie, sweetheart. In this one, you just got lucky.”

“Shut your fuckin’ mouth, Jonny,” Boomer warned, eyeing something over my shoulder.

“Who made you the fuckin’ boss? You’re getting as whiny as that cunt,” Jonny spat out, nodding toward me.

I went to launch myself at the asshole when suddenly, I was pushed out of the way. My head whipped around to see Jacob stalking across the room, and in a flash, he had Jonny hauled up against the wall.

“Who the fuck are you calling a cunt?” Jacob rasped, his face in Jonny’s with his hand gripping his throat.

Jonny J’s eyes bugged from the pressure of Jacob’s hand.

The other security guys all moved toward the two men, closing in.

“Let him go, Ice,” Gambit ordered.

Jake’s growl came from deep in his chest.

“I think he should strangle the fucker,” Sam said dryly, lounging across the couch nonchalantly, clearly enjoying the drama that was unfolding.

“Not helping, brother,” Boomer muttered.

Without missing a beat, Jacob’s grip tightened on Jonny’s throat, his icy blue eyes blazing with fury, and he rasped low and menacing, “Say it again, fucknut. I dare ya.”

Jonny struggled against Jacob’s hold, gasping for air as the other security guys hovered. Trick, Jonny’s bodyguard, moved in closer, his expression taut. “Put him down, Ice. You don’t know where he’s been.”

But Jacob wasn’t having a bar of it. His jaw clenched, and his muscles bunched as if he were about to do a lot more than choke the air out of Jonny .

Sam barked a laugh. “This is the most fun I’ve had all week.”

Boomer shot Sam a look of disbelief before turning back to Jacob. “Come on, man. Let him go. Jonny’s not normally this much of an asshole. He’s coming down from a high and taking it out on the wrong person.”

Jacob’s glower never left Jonny J. “Say sorry,” he snarled.

Jonny fought for air.

“Maybe loosen your grip a little, Iceman,” Trick suggested with a hint of laughter in his tone. “He can’t grovel while you’re choking him to death.”

I watched, fascinated, as Jacob’s hand relaxed, and he begrudgingly dropped his arm.

Jonny sucked in air and doubled over, coughing uncontrollably.

A loud harrumph came from the door, and Talia’s voice demanded, “What the fuck’s going on?”

“Nothing,” Sam called out breezily. “Security’s about to murder Jonny, is all.”

I looked around to see Talia stomp toward the men. She popped her hip, folded her arms across her chest, and snapped, “What the fuck did you do now?”

Jonny J, still bent double, stretched a hand out and pointed at Jacob. “I want him fired,” he rasped.

“Oh, stop being a big baby,” Tally retorted, rolling her eyes. “You were lucky Jacob got to you before Saint did. She’d have kicked your balls so far up your stomach that they’d be tickling your tonsils right about now. What did you do this time?” She looked around the room and demanded, “Well?”

“He called me a cunt,” I told her, lips twitching.

Talia rolled her eyes. “That’s rich coming from the biggest cunt in the room.” Her glare slid back to Jonny, and she cocked an eyebrow. “Do I need to book you into rehab? ”

His lips thinned frustratedly, and he shook his head curtly.

“Any more shit from you, and I’ll ship you out to the Arizona desert so quickly you’ll think you’ve been transported by tractor beam,” Tally warned. “If you’re struggling with booze and pills, speak up. I can’t help you unless you talk to me.”

“I’m good,” Jonny muttered. “Just need an early night.

“Well, that’s tough,” she argued. “You’ve got the Dischordium party tonight. I suggest you all go home, grab a couple of hours' rest, then turn up for the cameras refreshed and rejuvenated.”

Jacob stood there, his expression unreadable as he folded his muscled arms across his bulky chest. The short sleeves of his shirt tightened around his tattooed biceps that popped out as he tensed his arms.

My belly wobbled.

I could sense he was fighting to get himself back under control. His mouth was an angry line, and a muscle ticked in his jaw with suppressed rage.

It was moments like these when I was reminded of the raw power that lay dormant underneath Jacob’s friendly demeanor.

He had a way about him that put everybody around him at ease, but another side of him simmered under the surface.

It was the side that made me feel as if he’d burn the world down before he ever let anything hurt me.

The same side that made me feel safe.

“That’s enough drama for one day, boys,” Talia declared, her firm tone holding a hint of exasperation. “Let’s focus on the real threat at hand instead of bickering amongst ourselves.”

Jonny straightened to his full height, and his hand went to his neck, still red with the force of Jacob’s hold. “I mean it, Talia. I want him out. ”

Our manager’s stare slashed toward him. “And I mean it when I tell you that if you continue to abuse the woman in this band the way you just did, I’ll replace you quicker than the time it takes you to shoot your cum into a groupie with a golden snatch.

Then I’ll sue your scrawny, spoiled, entitled, booze-ridden ass for every penny you haven’t already wasted by snorting it up your good-for-nothing nose.

Since when did it become acceptable for you to call the woman who writes the songs that keep you in booze and drugs a cunt?

Since when did it become okay for you to speak to anybody in this band with that much disrespect?

You can banter all day long, Jonny; it’s all good with me.

But when you take it to a place where security has to pin you against a wall by the throat, you start becoming a fucking liability.

I hired Iceman to protect Saint. He did his job.

End of. Get it? Got it? Good. Now, do yourself a favor, and move the fuck on because I’m starting to lose patience. ”

The room fell completely silent except for Sam, who barked out another laugh.

Jonny’s eyes narrowed on our manager, and then he pushed off the wall and stormed out the door, slamming it behind him.

Tally looked to the heavens, letting out an audible sigh.

Jacob’s eyes turned on me, still blazing from his altercation with Jonny, and he rasped, “You okay?”

I beamed. “Yep!”

The angry flush faded from his neck, and I watched his shoulders slump as he physically relaxed. “I get it if you want me off the job,” he declared. “But none of us are the type of men who’ll stand by and watch any asshole speak to women in that way when they’ve done nothing to deserve it.”

“Agreed,” Trick muttered in his hybrid American-Irish accent. “If Ice goes, we all do. ”

“Nobody’s going anywhere,” Talia announced.

“Jonny’s got to get his booze and drug problem under control.

It was only a matter of time before something like this happened.

He’s been getting out of hand to the point where me and Boomer have to organize damage control every time we let him loose.

Jonny has to either wake the fuck up or get the fuck to rehab.

If being pinned against a wall by a burly fucker with shovels for hands doesn’t give him the wake-up call he needs, I don’t know what will.

” She huffed out a breath. “Though if you attack him again, make sure you don’t break his fingers.

He needs to be able to hold his drumsticks. ”

Boomer chuckled. “You’re all heart, Tally.”

Her eyes twinkled with humor. “You know me, Boom. Full of sweetness and light.” She clapped her hands together twice.

“Come on. Let’s get the fuck outta here.

I’ve got to go get myself beautified for tonight’s star-studded party.

After Jonny’s performance, I’ve decided I don’t want to work anymore, so I need to find myself a sugar daddy.

Better still, if he’s too old to want any sugar.

” She gave us big eyes. “I need to look extra pretty if I’m gonna reel that decrepit fucker in. ”

The boys all began to laugh, except for Trick, who stared at Talia with open admiration.

“Come on, assholes,” she yelled. “Let’s get moving. Time’s a ticking.”

Jacob walked up beside me. “You ready?”

I nodded, smiling, still warmed by the way he had my back. “Yeah. Just need to get my purse. It’s in the sound room.”

“I’ll grab it,” he offered, giving his team chin lifts as they shouted out their goodbyes.

The second everyone had left, Talia sidled up to me. “Dunno what’s going on with Iceman, babe, but he’s acting like a man on a mission. I think we chose correctly when we picked SDSS to look after you all. For a hot minute there, I thought he was going to rip Jonny’s head off.”

“I know,” I murmured, biting my lip thoughtfully.

“It gave me cunt flutters,” she added, staring in the direction Jacob had disappeared to.

“I know,” I repeated, turning to her and making an ‘eek’ face.

“You’re gonna have to jump on that D soon, babe,” she warned. ‘Cause if you don’t, I will.”

I sighed wistfully. “He’s married, remember?”

Talia actually looked crestfallen. “I forgot about that.”

“Lucky you,” I drawled. “It’s all I’ve thought about for the last two years.”

Her eyes sparkled with mischief. “At least tonight you can make the fucker jealous.”

My eyebrows pulled together. “How am I going to do that?”

“Spoke to Hunter just before I arrived here,” she announced.

“He’s going to the party with you. I explained how Jacob ‘Iceman’ Irons fucked you over.

He’s on board to make some memories with his beautiful singer-songwriter girlfriend and in full view of her bodyguard, too.

” Her lips twisted in amusement. “I’ve arranged to get some outfits sent over to your place in an hour, so you better hurry home. ”

Slowly, I closed my eyes, and my heart sank. “Tally,” I wailed softly. “What did you do?”

“You can thank me later, sweet Saint,” she crowed. “Because by the end of tonight, Jacob Irons will know exactly what he’s missing, and he won’t be able to stand it.” An evil grin spread across her face. “Hunter’s going to make sure of that.”