“Let me guess, Miss Texas?”
“Was it my Southern twang that gave me away?”
“Lil’ bit.” I use my fingers as a measurement.
She nods. “Yes, sir, it tends to do that. Can I be honest with ya?”
“Sure thing, Miss Texas.”
“I’ve never met a rock star before. Would you mind terribly if I took a picture with ya’ll?”
“Why peaches and cream, I’ve never met a Southern belle before. Get on over here,” I say, and she giggles. Miss Texas moves closer, sitting on my lap as she pulls out her cell phone and takes selfies of us together.
“So, peaches, what’s your actual name?” I ask as she continues to snap pictures of us.
She sighs and rolls her eyes. “Well, my daddy calls me Delilah-May, but I hate that, so my friends pretty much call me Lilah.”
“Well, Lilah, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Ryan.”
She giggles. “I know who you are, Mr. Recoil man. I may be from the South, but I still like rock and roll.”
“You’re my kinda girl, peaches.”
She giggles and leans to take more selfies with me. I can’t help but notice Danger looking over at me and frowning. I ignore the twisting in my stomach and push it aside. Lilah is a nice girl, and I’m not going to let him get in the way of me forming a friendship.
Lilah and I happily chat when a ruckus forms at the top of the VIP stairs. I glance over and notice Debt Money and his crew coming in, including Melody and Harmony, the two girls who caused all the trouble for us last time. I tense up, looking over at Danger, who stands, his muscles clenching.
Lilah looks at me. “Hm… I’m sensin’ you guys don’t get along too well?”
“No, not overly.”
Danger steps up next to me, and I glance up to look at him. He practically has smoke billowing from his ears. “Danger, how do you wanna play this?”
“I don’t wanna get in another fight, but I don’t want to get walked all over again either,” he says as Declan steps up beside us.
“Is that Debt Money?” he asks.
“Yeah,” I simply reply.
“Well, this time, you have us. He won’t get near you guys. Don’t worry,” Declan tells us.
Debt Money spots us straight away. A slow grin creeps up on his face.
I grab Lilah’s waist and slowly lift her up and off my lap as I stand. “Lilah, maybe go stand with the girls for a bit.”
She nods and walks away as Debt Money and his crew stride over to us. I stand taller as Danger squeezes his fists beside him. Matt and Nate are over the other side of the room, oblivious to what’s even going down right now—probably a good thing, as they can be more than a little hot-headed.
“Well, well… if it isn’t my two favoritedogs,” Debt Money sneers.
Danger takes a step forward, and I place my hand on his chest, holding him back. “Listen, we don’t want a fight,” I say.
He chuckles. “Yeah, I bet you don’t, ’cause you know I’ll whoop your ass—”
“I’d like to see you try. If you didn’t have the jump on us, you lowly scum-sucking fucking prick,” Danger grits, edging forward again, and I pull him back more as Debt Money grins, showing his gold grills.
“You got fight, dog. I like that. But you see, you bitches got the upper hand now. The public, for some fucked up reason, is on your side. If I fuck you up, my popularity will fall. I can’t be having that. So we need to unify. We need to reconcile our differences. Maybe we should collaborate, you and I? What do ya say?”
I scoff, and Danger lets out a loud laugh. “You want to do a song together?”
