Consumed(66)

My car key makes contact with his cheek, and he falls off of me with blood rushing down his face. I stumble to my feet, trying to gather my bearings just long enough to run. In the distance, I can hear someone yelling, but I’m not sure from where.

“Come here, bitch,” the man growls, lunging towards me.

I don’t think.

I act.

My thumb closes down on the pepper spray Sinjin gave me, and I hold it until the man crumbles to the ground, screaming and grasping at his face.

I don’t release the trigger until two men come racing into the parking lot.

Because when I do let go, I lose consciousness altogether.





Lucas





“You’re drinking, Luke.” Arching her eyebrows, Kylie stirs the tip of her finger around her own drink—cranberry juice and Sprite. “A lot. You should call her.”

I down the rest of my beer, my seventh or eighth since coming backstage. “Jesus, I haven’t missed your nagging,” I say. Kylie’s mouth drops open, but I stare straight ahead to where Cal’s grinning for pictures with Brady and a petite brunette. “Five minutes ago you were saying how amazing you thought the show was.”

Sitting her drink on the floor, my sister rests her elbows on her knees and cocks her head, her dark hair falling to one side. “It was amazing. But now you’re getting drunk, and I’m getting worried.”

She’s been saying she was worried since she met up with us in Atlanta this morning. She was worried after talking to Sienna this morning and after we had lunch with our mom and dad. And then again when I missed the sound check late this afternoon.

Nobody had asked where I was, but my sister wore that disappointed, straight face when I ran into her backstage right before going on to perform. She knew I went to Sam, but I didn’t tell her that my ex was nowhere to be found or how I discovered that she really has moved—there are new occupants in that fancy ass apartment I used to pay for. And I sure as f*ck wouldn’t tell Kylie that the reason I went to see Sam had nothing to do with money.

After all this time, she wouldn’t have bought it anyway.

“I’m ready for this shit to be over,” I say, dropping my head back against the couch.

“The tour?”

The tour. This lie I let myself crawl deeper inside. “Yeah.” I release a bitter laugh. “The tour.”

“Ugh. There are so many things I want to say to you—”

“Have I heard them before?”

Kylie is quiet, and I lift my head to challenge her eyes. She lifts her shoulders and then drops them. “Some of it, yes.”

“Then I’m not f*cking interested. I get it. I know where I f*cked up.”

“Lucas—”

I nod at Wyatt who’s talking to two female reporters and ignore the way the quick movement gives me a headache. “You flew here to see your husband, not to babysit me.”

Her cheeks are sucked in as she slides off of the couch, and her brown eyes are hard as she stares me down. “Trust me, babysitting your stubborn ass is the last thing that was on my schedule for tonight.” She stalks off, and when she reaches Wyatt, he glances over her head at me, his expression grim. He places his mouth against the top of her hair for a few moments, and when he looks back up again, he mouths something. A threat.

So I do the only thing that makes sense.

I grab another drink.





For the first time during this tour, I’m not up at seven f*cking AM. I stay in my compartment, in my bed, letting what’s left of Sienna’s sweet scent torture my dreams. She’s everywhere and nowhere, and I know how much I’ve messed up.

I should have just told her.

It would have made everything a hell of a lot easier, and maybe—maybe I’d be able to move on.

My phone vibrating from beneath the pillow is what finally drags my ass out of bed. I swing my legs over the side of the mattress and study the unfamiliar Nashville number on the screen for a few seconds before answering. I’ve heard the voice on the other line before—Sienna’s brother—and it’s not something I want to wake up to at 10AM. I’ve gotten into it with this little shit before, and I’m prepared to do it again, but then I stop and listen to what he’s saying.

That Sienna has been hurt. Badly.

Attacked.

Beaten in a parking lot.

And by one of my fans.