Logan stood before them, incongruously polished in their small living room.His bodyguard-black suit probably cost more than their monthly rent.“We tested multiple options in different focus groups.There was a viral Buzzworthy article shared thousands of times that used this name, and it tests the best.”
Ellery looked over at Abe, Selene, and Lorraine.Abe didn’t seem terribly bothered, but he was the most flexible of all of them.He was older, closer to forty, and this was his seventh band.Since they hadn’t been playing over the last few months, he’d taken a gig at a local theater, playing bass in the orchestra during their musical runs.
Selene and Lorraine were another story.They had all risen together, worked together, created the Vendetta from nothing.They had always shared in the band as equals.
Now they sat beside one another, jaws set with what appeared to be resignation.
“I don’t like this.They worked just as hard, harder, even.Selene?Lo?What do you guys think?”Ellery worried at her lip.She wasn’t sure she could make a decision, not one that impacted everyone.Fatigue weighed her muscles and clawed at her brain.She needed to go back to bed.Once this ended, she could rest.Once they came to a decision, she could be done.
Logan glanced toward the two women, but Ellery felt the heat of his gaze on her.
“It makes some sense.”Lorraine’s voice was low, but clear.
“I’m not going to lie—it sucks.”Selene pulled her hair into a knot, then let it fall down her back.“But I agree.If you are okay being the front person, El, we’ll stand with you.Lots of bands do it this way.We’ll try it out.”
Dante covered her hand with his in a supportive, reassuring way.
She didn’t want it.She didn’t want any of this.She wanted to call her mom.She wanted to ask her dad’s opinion.She wanted Samara to roll her eyes and tell her she was being an idiot and to go for it.
Tears pooled behind her eyes, but she hadn’t expected them.Why couldn’t she be the dried-out husk she felt like?
“El?”Dante said quietly, his voice soft against her ear.“You don’t have to decide anything right now.”
She had read once about people experiencing hypothermia.How they got so cold and delirious that they misinterpreted it as heat and started running around, taking off their clothes and freezing to death faster.
That was how she felt.Too cold, too hot, too everything.She was torn in multiple ways and couldn’t put herself back together.
And Dante—wonderful Dante, amazing Dante!—he was going to leave, and there would go another part of her.
She squeezed her eyes shut and then felt a shadow fall over her face, accompanied by a waft of expensive sandalwood cologne.
“Ellery?”Logan said.
She opened her eyes.He knelt before her, his hands on his knees, a soft smile on his face.“I don’t know.I don’t know what the right thing to do is.”
Dante stiffened beside her.“The right thing is what you feel in your heart.”
In her heart?Her heart told her to go back to bed and wallow until she withered.Her heart wanted to take Dante with her, but also knew that she couldn’t.She couldn’t drag him into her mess, no matter how badly she wanted him.He didn’t deserve that.He deserved his own identity, his own life.
“Ellery.”Logan took her hands from Dante and held them.“What would your family want?Would they want you to sit here and hide?Or would they want you to live your life?”
Dante twitched beside her again, but she ignored it.Logan’s question unlocked something in her.Her parents had never wanted her to hide who she was.They had wanted her to be famous.They had wanted her to play her music.
“If the band agrees with it, I will too.Only for a little while.”
CHAPTER31
Then—Dante
Dante paced outsidethe front door of the house, rubbing the words along his forearm.
Logan had coerced her.That was what it was.She wouldn’t have agreed if she hadn’t been coerced.
His phone buzzed with a text from Casper.
How’s it going?How is she?
Despair yawned within him.How was she?She was terrible.She barely made it out of bed.She barely ate.She barely looked at him.
