“Am I fuck!”
Thomas lifted his gun and handed it to me. “Safety is off. Go ahead. Finish him.”
My hand shook as I took the weapon, and Thomas stepped beside me, walking me to James. I pressed it to his forehead and watched as he crumbled before me.
“Fe, please, don’t. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’ll do anything. Anything. Please don’t kill me.”
“You’re a pathetic piece of shit, James. I hope you rot in hell.” Nodding, I handed the gun back to Thomas with a smile. I had no intention of pulling the trigger and Thomas knew that, but it was the closure I needed.
“There’s a good boy. Now, let’s take that little trip. Stevie, can you drive us?” Thomas grabbed James by the arm. “Did you work out that your driver was one of my team too? You really never stood a chance, did you?”
He threw James in the car, before turning to me and pressing a kiss to my forehead. “You good?” I nodded, just as Sean and Jarrid appeared. “Let them take you home. It’s over though, Fern. You don’t have to worry about him again. Not ever.”
Chapter 38
Charlie - 6 months later
“It still looks like a florist in here,” Archer declared as he and Fox walked into the kitchen.
“Yeap. Cards, flowers, emails, voicenotes… she’s not stopped sending me them.”
“And what do they say?”
I shrugged. “No idea. I’ve not read any of them. I keep telling whoever delivers them to get rid of them, yet they end up in my kitchen every day.”
“I know you’re angry, C, and you have every right to be, but maybe you should at least sit down and talk to her. It doesn’t look like she’s going to give up on you anytime soon.”
I flicked on the kettle, pulling mugs from the cupboard above my head. “Why? I told her how I felt when she said it andnothing has changed. She compared me to James… you know, the wanna be rapist.”
“We know and it was fucked up, but she’d been through such a lot. Can you call it a moment of insanity? Maybe just give her a bit of a break. She misses you.”
I turned, glaring at Archer. “You’ve spoken to her about me?”
“I know you don’t want to hear it and you avoiding her at all costs might be working for you, but we have to see her. We have to see her all the time and the woman is miserable without you.”
“And admit it, C,” Fox added. “You’re miserable without her. We miss you, man. You’re like a shell of yourself. God, we miss your crazy energy.”
I turned my attention back to making tea, hoping that I didn’t have to answer them, but when the silence got too much, I dropped the teaspoon on the side and twisted to look at them.
“Fine, I miss her so much it fucking hurts. I feel like there is a huge hole where my heart used to be. But what she said—”
“Was a shitty thing, but she didn’t mean it.”
I raised my eyebrow before handing them both a mug of steaming tea. Shall we go do some work?
Addi and Dawson stood on the other side of the window in the recording studio as Mav sat at the mixing desk along with the sound engineer.
Although we’d only released a new number one album in the UK and America six months ago, I’d written a song that the boys were obsessed with, so we’d decided to release it as a surprise single.
“Sounds amazing, boys.” Addi smiled as we stepped away from the mics, taking off our headphones.
Mav grinned at us. “You’ve got another hit on your hands… trust me.” Then he winked in my direction. “Heartbreak and cock cages seem to have made you one epic songwriter, Charlie.”
I glared at my bandmates, who held their hands up, pretending it wasn’t them who spilled my secrets and then I flipped Mav my middle finger.
“Hey, whatever works for you, man.”
What I didn’t tell him was it didn’t work… nothing did. I’d not touched my cock since I’d broken up with Fern. I had no desire to put the cage on; I didn’t get hard; I didn’t want to fist myself in the shower, because I was terrified I’d think of her… her breasts, the curve of her hips, her thighs pinning my head in place while she rode my face. Fuck, the idea of her fucking me... And any thought of her felt like my heart was being ripped out, along with my soul.
