Page 5 of The Bitter Words

“I’ve traveled with you long enough.” She struts before me. “I think I’ve learned your sleep patterns as we fly.”

“You probably have.”

We get back to the seating area where I usually sit. There’s a magazine on the table.

She reaches for it. “Sorry, I was lounging here while you were sleeping and wasted my time with one of my guilty vices.”

“Reading tabloids?”

“Yes.” She turns red.

I smile to alleviate any of her embarrassment, glancing at the cover. “We all have them, so?—”

The image on the front stops me in my tracks. It’s a picture of Livianna. The headline catches my attention. I read it as fast as I can. It takes a few moments for it to compute.

The blood in my veins goes cold. There’s no way she would’ve done what they’re saying. There’s no possibility of it.

She wouldn’t.

All the work she’s done on herself disappears in the blink of an eye. I was only gone for two and a half weeks, but that’s all it took for her to be taken from me.

My hopes of a delightful reconciliation crash to the center of the earth. My heart turns to stone, knowing my return will be anything but pleasant.

Chapter Two

CALLUM/CASH

Then - Rewind Six Months

Probation Paper Cuts & The Ghost She Swore Was Real

The second I taste betrayal, the fuse is already lit…and I’m the one holding the match.

Ipull my phone out of the side compartment of the slide-out bunk bed where I’m resting on our tour bus to check my messages. I tense when one from Livianna stares up at me.

Lily:I’ve seen and read enough. Well done, mate. Once again, you’ve shown me who you really are. But don’t worry. You’ve never lied to me about that, so I don’t hold it against you. Oh, and one more thing. The name Mayhem is fitting. So true to you and all you bring by being in your life. Goodbye, Cash.

Fucking hell.

She used my stage name to prove to me how angry she is with me. Our conversation today is gonna be a nightmare.

I huff out a heavy sigh and go out to the common areawhere all the band members mingle and have meals. Bren’s shoving cereal into his mouth. I swear the dude is always eating when he has nothing better to do.

I slide into the space across from him. “How is it you stay so fit when all you do is cram shit down your pipe?”

He covers a laugh as he swallows. “Nothing goes down my throat that isn’t supposed to.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Yeah, but I had a visual come to mind of what I did to that chick last night before we pulled out of town. My cock was choking the fuck out of her and she was loving it.” He adjusts his dick. “She came before I did just by sucking me off.”

“You always say your tool is a gift.”

“It can’t be denied.” He rests his arm along the back of the seat. “Your uncle plowed the other one until she couldn’t move.”

“Yeah, I know.” I reach for a paper bowl that’s near the wall on the table where we’re sitting. “We all heard you guys. This space is compact. It’s easy to picture what’s going on in that room even when the door is shut.”

“Guess so.”