“I’m sorry.” His voice was gruff, his eyes closed when he touched his forehead to mine. “I’ll try to do better. I swear.”
My eyelids fell shut for a brief moment and I sighed with relief. “Thank you.” I pulled back enough for him to see the honesty on my face. “I’m in this with you, Garrett. You have to trust that. I don’t want to be anywhere else.”
His face changed, like the weight of the world had been lifted from his shoulders. He seemed lighter as he opened his mouth to speak. Unfortunately our moment was interrupted.
“Uh… Mr. Wilder, you have a visitor.”
“Christ, Sylvie,” he grunted, still holding on to me but turning us to face the door. “Not now. Tell whoever it is to fuck off.”
“But sir, it’s your manager. And he’s rather… insistent he speak with you.”
Garrett raked a hand through his hair and grumbled, “Fuckin’ Chris,” under his breath before grabbing my hand and pulling me out of the room behind him. I had to jog to keep up as we quickly descended the stairs.
Chris stood just in the entry, his head shooting up at the sound of our arrival. His expression went from mild irritation to straight-up pissed when he saw Garrett dragging me along.
“Sylvie, keep an eye on Liddy, will you?” Garrett asked. “This won’t take long.”
Sylvie flittered off to the living room, and from the way Chris’s cheeks began to turn from red to purple, he was none too happy with Garrett’s blatant disregard.
I stood as far back from the two men as I could, seeing as Garrett was still holding my hand. Chris looked like his head was about to explode, and I didn’t want to be in the line of fire.
“Why are you here?” Garrett asked, his voice flat and dull.
“You knowexactlywhy I’m here.” Well, that left me the only one in the dark. Not awkward at all.
“I already told you, the answer is no. So back the fuck off.”
Chris’s laughter was full of venom. I had absolutelyno idea what was going on, but whatever it was, I had a feeling Chris thought it was my fault, judging by the narrow-eyed glare he shot me.
“You know, you’ve changed since she came back into the picture,” he spat hatefully, causing all the little hairs on my body to stand on end.
“Leave her outta this.” Garrett’s warning sent a chill up my spine. “Swear to God, Chris. She has nothing to do with it.”
“She haseverythingto do with it!” He laughed bitterly. “It’s the goddamn American Music Awards, Garrett! And you’re saying that not only will you not perform, but you’re not even going. Civil Corruption’s nominated for favorite rock album, for Christ’s sake!”
“You are?” I broke in. “Why won’t you go if you’re nominated? That’s crazy.”
“No shit,” Chris snapped bitterly. “Andyou’rethe reason he won’t go, sweetheart.” I wanted to knock his teeth down his throat for calling me sweetheart, but I didn’t think Liddy was at the age that “do as I say, not as I do” would work on her. “You’re the reason he won’t go to the goddamn award show, why he doesn’t want to release another album and tour. He doesn’t want to leave you behind, but you won’t make your relationship public so you can tag along. Way to fuck up my top-earning band, Yoko.”
Garrett lunged, but before he could reach Chris and do God knew what, I beat him to the punch. Literally. I punched Chris in the nose as hard as I could. The sound of bone crunching was insanely gratifying, and it worked wonders to take my mind off the shooting pain in my hand.
“Son of a bitch!” Chris wailed, hunching forward and cupping both hands over his bleeding nose. “You broke my goddamn nose!”
“She did,” Garrett answered. “And if you don’t get the fuck out in the next five seconds, I’m gonna break both your legs.”
“This is bullshit!” he continued to rant. “I’m your manager! I’m trying to help you.”
Garrett moved to the front door and threw it open. “No, you’re trying to help yourself. Only reason you want us putting out another album so soon is so you can line your own damn pockets. You don’t give a shit about us. You only care about yourself. And if you want to keep your job, I suggest you get. The. Fuck. Out.”
Chris leaving was punctuated by the sound of the front door slamming, pulling me from my thoughts. “Hey,” Garrett said softly, taking the hand I was cradling against my chest and bringing it to his face for closer inspection. “You okay? Think you broke anything?”
“I’m fine. Garrett, was he telling the truth?”
He didn’t meet my eyes as he slowly uncurled my fist and gently poked at the bones. “Maybe we should take you to the hospital, get an X-ray.”
“It’s fine,” I repeated, pulling my hand from his. “Nothing’s broken, see?” I flexed my fingers, only wincing slightly. “Now answer my question.”
He blinked slowly, pulling air in through his nose. “It’s not a big deal,” he replied, trying to shrug it off.
