No wonder I’m fucking exhausted.
The screens flicker again as Gemma pauses behind the couch. Mads looks up from beside Kade and drags his hand over his throat, signaling that they’re about to cut the feed, and I nod.
“Dudes, I think we’ve overheated it,” I say, playing it off.
“Shit, is that what’s happening?” Reed asks.
“Yeah, I’m fucking beat. Probably a good time to call it anyway,” Zeb says, and I swear there’s relief in his voice.
It goes again.
“Everyone say a quick bye!” I say as Mads enters the room again.
We huddle around each other and thank every person on the stream—apart from Rad—just in time. The screen eventually goes dark, and I think we all collectively sigh.
“Fuck…” Reed says, looking between us with wide eyes. “That was epic and horrifying all at once.”
“Horrifying is one way to put it,” Mads says as he leads us out of the room and into the living area.
Gemma’s gaze meets mine as we enter, and I swear I see her chest fall as it did earlier when I walked into the kitchen.
There’s something about that little motion that twists my stomach.
“You guys okay?” Kade asks. “Sorry, I didn’t cut it sooner. Kicking him out wasn’t the hard part. He was just going to create more names. I was trying to find a way to ban him completely.”
“That’s cool. We were getting beat anyway,” Zeb says.
“Yeah,” I agree. “I feel like it definitely could have been worse.”
“I’m checking out any personal DMs in case he decided to try and chat with any fans that were in there,” Kade says, scratching his head.
“Oh shit,” Reed says, sinking onto the couch. “He can do that?”
“Potentially,” Kade replies. “Part of our job is also to protect your fans when it involves this shit. We’ll figure it out.”
All of us look at Gemma then for anything she might have to add, and my body tenses at the rage in her eyes. She’s chewing her bottom lip and staring at the floor by my feet. We’re stillwaiting for her to speak when her phone rings, and she finally moves.
“No one goes near him without me,” she says sternly, raising her phone to her ear. “No one.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
GEMMA
“—I mean, come on. Their music has been going downhill since Mads started hooking up with Reed’s sister. I don’t really blame him. Chick is hot. I’d be slacking too if I was hitting that every night—”
I shakemy head at the video Rad just posted, then swipe over to my message thread with Kade.
Take it down before Mads goes to jail for murder again.
He won’t get as lucky pleading self-defense for this one.
KADE
Already on it.
Flagging his account, too.
Do you want another text to Bonnie while you’re driving this morning?
