Page 31 of Tone Deaf

“So am I,” John says while yawning. At least he’s fully dressed.

“I’m joining the party,” Dom says from behind me. I glance over my shoulder. He’s dressed in jeans and a white tank.

God, I love it when he looks so casual and dressed down.

Okay, dick. It’s not the time.

“Each of you grab a headset,” Tobias orders. “Pen and Dom, head around the back. Fig and Jordan hit the left side of the house. John and I will take the right.”

“Let me grab some sweats,” Jordan says before he quickly disappears down the hall.

“Let’s go.” Tobias then heads out the front door with his second following close behind.

Dom and I quietly head to the back of the house through the slider. With practiced ease, because we’ve done this more times lately than I can count, Dom automatically flanks to the left and I go right, edging the backyard’s perimeter—then we zigzag the lawn like a synchronized dance until we meet at the back fencing. There’s no need for a flashlight since we surveyed and marked the backyard when we brought Callum back.

I know every inch of this yard without having to see the three massive, empty planter boxes, the inground covered pool and a hot tub.

“Fuck,” I hear Dom in my ears. “Pen, behind the Ponderosa pine.”

I don’t like his tone and rush over to his location. There, behind the tall pine lay one of Dean’s men. “Is he?—”

“He’s alive, but out cold,” Dom confesses as he’s bent down, two fingers to the pulse point on the man’s neck.

“I found two, and they look tranqed,” Jordan replies over coms.

“I found Joel,” Fig announces. “He’s out cold.”

“We need to reassess what the fuck is going on here,” Tobias says, then adds, “I have to wake up Dean.”

In that moment, I’m glad I’m not the lead. Telling Dean Harper that his best men have been drugged will not be pleasant.

The next several hours are nothing but crazy chaos. Dean’s lead, Joel has been on the phone with Dean, getting his ass chewed out. And Dante is up to their ears with calls from the record label.

The one moment of relief we had was when Dante stumbled out of their room, barefoot and sleep rumpled. None of us had ever seen Dante looking less than their best and, for one full second, there was silence. You could have heard the proverbial pin drop.

Dean’s men finally came to and were pronounced uninjured by Lyric. Dante loudly gloated that they were right to bring Lyric onboard to provide medical help to the band—and, by default, the band’s security.

Callum, thankfully, has slept through this. Tobias wisely steered us all into the game room, which is the room farthest away from Callum’s. We do not need Callum to know right now that the security we promised him has been breached.

Despite the clusterfuck around me, I keep track of Dom and the subtle way he looks at his phone every few minutes. He’s been texting someone, and in between his texts, he’s reading messages. When he caught me watching him, he quickly put his phone back in his pocket and walked out of my sight.

That’s it.I’m tired of waiting for Dom to tell me what’s going on. What could he be hiding that he can’t share with me? I tell him everything. I can’t remain silent any longer. I need to know.

I find him alone in the office, looking over the new security system Dean sent over. Given the risk of others entering, I ask Dom to go outside with me, so we can talk in private.

“All right.” Dom nods and follows me to the deck on the side of the house. With a sideways nod of his head, he tells Dean’s man to leave. “What’s this about, babe?” Dom asks, folding his arms across his chest.

“What are you hiding from me?” I bluntly ask.

His eyes narrow and his body goes taut. “What do you mean? I’m hiding nothing from you.”

“Then why wouldn’t you tell me where you were going the other day? Why haven’t you said anything since you got back? All you said was that you went to help an old friend you used to work with. What the hell kind of explanation was that? I don’t evenknowwhere you used to work! And who do you keep texting? Is it that friend? We’re supposed to be together—share things. Don’t you trust me enough to talk to me?”

The muscles in Dom’s jaw jump before he looks away. He drops his arms to his side and lets out a long exhale.I hit the mark.

With Dom’s shitty excuse for his whereabouts, his words-only apology, and then further lack of communication, my doubt about the depth of his feelings for me runs riot through my head.

“I do trust you, Pen,” he says, finally looking at me. “I don’t know where your doubts are coming from, but I’m not hidinganything from you. I told you the truth. I went to see an old coworker that needed my help. That’s all.”