“Remi, she did this,” Skye said.“The proof is going to be on her phone.”
“She didn’t do it,” Remi said.“She wasn’t in the room last night.There were like twenty people in there, and any of them could have done it.I have a fucking headache, so can you for once just stop bitching at everyone?”
Skye slapped him; his stupid fucking sunglasses went flying and clattered on the ground.Someone gasped.Skye didn’t know who.She couldn’t have broken the heated gaze between her and Remi if she tried.
Remi curled his lip and narrowed his eyes.He stepped closer, putting one of his feet between her legs.Skye rose her hand to slap him again, but he grabbed her wrist.“What are you doing, Skye?Trying to turn me on?”
Skye yanked her wrist away and shoved him back against the table.A breath of air whooshed from him, and she grabbed his chin with one hand and glared at him.
“If I was trying to turn you on, you’d know it,” she said.
He didn’t move, just flared his nostrils as the tension built between them.The air crackled with it.
“Remi.”Jillian whined.“The picture really isn’t a big deal.We could do a livestream and explain it if you want?”
Skye blinked and stepped away as Remi slid back into the booth.
“I don’t care,” he said.
Skye just shook her head.Hellfire sparked in her veins, heating her from the inside out.She grabbed her laptop and walked down the hall to the back bedroom, needing to escape from the sound of Jillian’s grating voice.
Skye opened the door to the bedroom.West sat cross-legged on the bed, his head hanging in his hands.He looked up as she closed the door and sat beside him.
“I haven’t seen him like this since Em died,” West whispered.
“I don’t know why he’s acting this way.”
West’s eyes swung over.“Really?You don’t know at all?”
Skye hesitated only a second.“No.”
“I know you got our shows canceled for our summer tour,” West said.“Before we got our record deal.”
Skye’s mouth parted as she started to deny it, but West shook his head.“Don’t lie to me.I heard you.I heard you admit it to Remi.”
Skye wet her lips.“It wasn’t—I didn’t—”
“Look me in the eye and tell me you didn’t manipulate him somehow,” West said.
Skye was a demon.Lying was second nature.“I…” So why couldn’t she do it now?
“If you messed with him before the record deal, then maybe you’re still messing with him.”
“West, I’m not!Remi is crazy.He’s out of control.He’s—”
“I’m not saying you deserve the way he treats you, but I know it’s not as one-sided as you try to make the rest of us think.Whatever you are doing to him—stop.”
“Oh, so blame the girl for how the guy acts?I really expected better from you, West.I’m not responsible for his behavior!You’ve seen the way he talks to me.I only slapped him because he was out of line.”
West tilted his head, and his eye started twitching.“You sound just like her,” he whispered.“I don’t know how I didn’t see it before.”
“What are you talking about?”she asked.
West didn’t answer.He stood up from the bed.“Fix it, Skye.Either you fix whatever the fuck you are doing to make him this way, or I will call a band meeting and get you fired.I can persuade Liam and Ollie of anything.”
“You don’t know what you’re saying,” Skye said.“This tour will fall apart without me.”
“Maybe,” West said, narrowing his eyes.“But I’m willing to risk it.See, I haven’t been sleeping too well.There’s something haunting me, something dark, and the longer I’m sitting next to you, the more I feel like it might be coming from you.”
