Salem snorts. Houston gives him a look. Salem lifts his hands, innocent-ish.
Knox looks tired. “If I knew you were struggling this hard, we would’ve gotten you anger management instead of kicking you out of the band.”
Clean words. No spin. They redraw the room. I look at Troy. “You told me you left. You said it was creative differences.”
“Same thing.”
“No, it’s not. You lied to me.”
He shrugs. “Does it matter?”
“It matters if the person I sleep next to tells the truth.” I turn to the brothers. “Two months ago, he told me he was in Tokyo with you on a secret project. Was he?”
Houston shakes his head once. “No.”
Knox says, “Wewere in Tokyo. He wasn’t.”
Salem leans on the frame. “We’d have noticed. Troy makes a mess wherever he goes. He would have left Tokyo like Godzilla.”
I look back at Troy. “Where were you?”
“If you must know…” He folds his arms over his chest, smirking. “Ibiza.”
“Doing what?”
“Partying. Yacht. Making connections. Things you’d understand if you were in the business. That’s why I didn’t tell you. You never understand me, Lou.”
I think about those two weeks. I waited at his house like a pet at the door. I watered plants. Picked up his mail. I turned down work because I didn’t know when he’d walk in and tell me to drop everything. I need quiet to do my best. I can’t start if I’m waiting to be interrupted.
He knew that. He counted on it.
“You lied to me.”
“It’s the business.”
“This isn’t business. This is you on a boat with strangers while I keep your life from falling apart.”
“You want to see business?” He swipes, grins, holds the screen up, and shoves it in my face.
Girls in bikinis with his arms around them. Touching them. Kissing… What the fuck?
He swipes again, proud like a kid with a good report card. “I don’t remember their names. But I remember what they looked like naked.”
Something old in me folds up and walks out. “It’s not the first time, is it?”
He doesn’t blink. “No. I figured you knew.”
I look at him and see the person I kept drawing on top of him. He isn’t here. Maybe he never was. “Thanks for telling me.”
He frowns. “That’s it?”
“You said you thought I knew. What reaction did you expect?”
“I don’t know.” He looks so disappointed. “Something else.”
“Well, now we’re both disappointed.”
There’s a glint in his eye. “You knew what this was, what I am.”
