She flicks her hand out, swiping at the air. “Oh I doubt it would have left the confines of the hotel. If we all never spoke of it again, no one else would have known.”
“You don’t think he would have had evidence of everyone's secrets?” I ask, seriously wondering how she sometimes couldn’t see the terrible man her brother was.
“I doubt it, Darling. Surely he had better things to do.” I don’t want to cause an argument over this so I simply nod and shut my mouth. I can’t exactly shake any sense into her, but I fear she's wrong.
“Before summer ends, we should get away, you and I. Go on a little holiday to relax.” She says out of the blue, looking at me with a soft expression.
My heart swells and I run my hand across the back of hers, pressing into her. God I’ve missed her so much these past couple of days. “I’d love that. Honestly I’m fresh out of ideas at the moment for my book, so maybe a little poolside holiday could be just what I need. Read some books, cocktails and you can hit on every pool boy to your heart's content.” We both laugh and she nudges me with her hip.
“Hey I don’t shag everything that moves, unlike someone we know.” I’m so used to these comments and I never cared before. Now it feels like she just took a sledgehammer to my insides.
“Did you go straight to bed after the game on Friday?” I try to change the subject, but she cuts in and that soft expression has dipped into concern as she stops me. Running her palms up my arms, she forces me to look up at her.
“You really should ignore him, Rob. Wren is such a player, it’s a joke. He’s probably just wanting a weekend fling and thinks you’ll be easy for him to conquer because you don’t know his usual tricks.” Again I can’t connect this person she talks about with the man who’s been chiseling away at my heart from the moment I met him.
“I thought you liked him? If you think he’s bad news, why were we trying to get backstage to see him? I thought you were friends?” The questions tumble out of my mouth as my confusion mounts, which clearly pisses her off because she accidentally nips me with the ends of her nails.
“I’m not some pathetic fan, I’m their friend. All the guys like me, I wanted to see them all. Wren is so rude to Willow. He’s an entitled prick. He only wants to get into your bed. One and dump.” She spits, crossing her hands over her chest. For a moment I wonder if he’s done the same to her, especially with how mad she is. We’ve squabled like sisters from time to time when we were younger, but this seems like a new territory. We’ve never argued over a guy.
“Willow is delusional. She used him like a meal ticket and sold his personal stories to the press. Photos too. They never dated.” I say back, not being able to hold my temper as our voices get louder. The forest seems to have gone silent.
“Are you bothered by her because you want to date him? Quiet girls who read all day aren’t exactly his type.”
I flinch back. I want to say so many things but she’s one of the closest people in my life, and we don’t speak to each other like this. Wren may or may not be playing me, but I feel it deep inside that he’s not this bad person she paints him to be.
Sensing my hesitation to say anything more, she smirks, a glint in her eye that I’ve never been on the receiving end of. She’s smug, like she’s won something.
Setting off again, I let her get a couple of steps ahead of me before following until we see the hotel with its grey stone, and climbing ivy up the front. Almost like the universe wants to shit on me further, both Detective Starling and Goldie stand there on the drive in their unfitted suits. With his hands in his pockets, his eyes run over Lily’s exposed skin and his lip twitches under that ridiculous moustache. Despite what she says, flirting withanything that has a pulse is her thing, so it doesn’t surprise me when she flips her hair and sticks out her breasts. After a couple of uncomfortable seconds, his gaze falls on me and hardens.
Goldie has already been tracking me since I came out of the woods.
“Ah, Miss Osbourne. Just wanted to make sure you were still here.”
I try to remain cool. “Why wouldn’t I be? You told us all to stay in the hotel.”
“Just checking. We still have plenty of questions for everyone. Can we speak with you first?” he roams over Lil’s body again, smiling wide as she no doubt flutters her eyelashes.
“Of course Detective.” She purrs, leading them away to the house and up the cobble path. I have no other option but to trail after them, wondering if I can make a break for it now, and make my way home.
Chapter sixteen
Wren
SO,does it really count as stalking if you were already hiding in the bushes when your dream girl walks past? A girl I am royally fucking my chances with by pushing her away out of panic. It almost broke me seeing the hurt I inflicted in those pools of caramel yesterday; I dimmed them to whisky pits and I’ve beaten myself up all night. I was plagued with watching her face fall. Her eyes glazed over, over and over until I ended up laid there in bed, staring at the ceiling in exhausted defeat. The moment the clock in my room showed it was a reasonable time and I knew she’d be up, I sprung out of bed to apologise but couldn’t find Robin anywhere. I’d walked aimlessly around the hotel, stopped for a coffee before I combust with angst and continued my hunt outside for her. It’s not that I was lurking in the bushes waiting, more like I had fallen over my own feet, landed on my arse and felt too tired to get back up for a while. That’s when I spotted her walking down the path, heading into the beat up glass house and I fell in my attempt to stand up straight. For the briefest moment I thought she’d seen me, but I kept still in my embarrassment until she reemerged andLily came out of nowhere. Hearing their voices rising at each other, I’d quickly dusted the dirt off my bare knees and ran down the path, but she’d already disappeared. The leaves didn’t sway today and there was no cool breeze from the lake. It was suffocating.
“Fuck my life.” I whisper to no one, running my hands through my messy hair as I make my way back to the house. With each step my mood sinking, the thoughts becoming louder as they tell me what a mess I am. I can’t stop them, one thought after another, telling me I’ve made this problem with Corbin myself. That I should keep away from her because she’s too good for me. I could help Phin but I couldn’t stop him from making mistakes in the first place. I wasn’t good to anyone. Each thought cuts off the neurons to my brain, making it hard to breathe until I rub my chest in circles. I’ve had panic attacks before and the build up to this one leaves spots dancing in my vision, and I press my back into a large tree. The rough bark grounds me as it rubs through my t-shirt against my skin. I’ve created so much mess and all it would take is for Corbin to have set up leaks to the media to take us all down. He might be dead, but the fucker was making sure we all didn’t leave this hotel in one piece.
I take the path round to the back of the house, where I find the guys standing on the patio. Bran, Mavis and Jay hold towels, dressed in swimwear and all beamed brightly as I walked their way. Phoenix pops up from the sun lounge next to his boyfriend, leaping up in an attempt to catch me off guard.
“There you are you beautiful fucker. We’re all going to go for a swim in the lake before the rain starts.” He slaps my back and I instinctively wrap a palm around his nape to pull his forehead to mine. It started as a form of endearment when we were kids, but into adulthood I always did it to focus on his eyes to see if he was high. His pupils were blown wide now, but he didn’t smell like alcohol.
He wouldn’t have been so stupid as to bring drugs here, so he must have taken prescription drugs that hopefully Merle had given him. It did explain his social mood and how he was functioning, but I’d make sure he stopped soon before that too became a problem. Phin was an addict and anything could keep his attention.
“Perfect. Let’s fucking go.” I say, freeing his neck but throwing an arm over his shoulder as he stirs me towards the end of the garden, which leads to the lake. Everyone follows, Merle collecting his book and Bran practically bound down the steps in one giant leap. Expecting the hit as he jumps onto my back, large arms wrapping around my body and I try to carry him a few steps.
“Wrenny baby, I’ve missed you. Do you reckon the boys miss us? I bet Ottis doesn’t know what to do without us.”
I snort, thinking about our band mates and how they no doubt were freaking the fuck out. “Ottis won’t even know we’ve gone. He’ll have taken some girl he met this weekend to Ibiza, or be trying to swing a royal again to call himself thedick me down Prince Charming.” I also had no doubt that our bassist River was probably at home writing music, or playing those cosy games he was obsessed with. He was more of a homebody and rarely showed interest in anyone, apart from a certain female musician that we weren’t allowed to speak of. He'd been acting strange on our last tour, shutting himself away on the bus and we could never get ahold of him.
