Down to My Soul (Soul Series Book 2)(101)

Marlon looks from my phone to my face and then to Malcolm before tapping the screen.

“Open the one from Bristol.” I keep my face as expressionless as I can, but the pain in my hand only intensifies every moment this guy needs convincing. “Give it to him.”

Malcolm studies the phone, eyes widening then lifting to narrow on my face. I know what he sees. Bristol has attached signed letters of intent from every one of Malcolm’s investors.

“If you release that tape, it would be embarrassing for Kai.” I keep my words low and smooth. “But you’re right, she’d get past it. She’s talented and beautiful and in some twisted way, it could make her more popular. You, on the other hand, will have nothing.”

My face cements into implacable lines.

“You, on the other hand, won’t be able to take advantage of any positive effects because I’ll take everything from you.” I nod toward the phone in his hand. “I’m just one email away from doing it already.”

“But if I give you all copies of the tape and release Kai from her contract, this goes away?”

“And Luke.” I level a hard stare at him. “I want Luke away from you, too.”

“That’s ridiculous. You’d leave me with nothing.”

“Not nothing.” I wave toward my phone still in his hand. “You’d have all your investors, and you’d have your freedom. We wouldn’t prosecute you for blackmail.”

“You can’t prove a thing.” His voice is more certain than his eyes.

“I’m sure Drex wouldn’t mind testifying for me since some of Gep’s hacker friends have already tapped into his cloud and found several sex tapes, none of which, I’m guessing, had consent.” I turn to Drex. “Am I right about that?”

Drex swallows and drops his eyes to the floor.

“I won’t let you get away with this.” Malcolm struggles to get the words out past his rage.

“Let me?” My breath comes quick and shallow, anger rupturing the calm I’m barely holding on to. “At what point in this conversation did you become confused? I hold all the cards. Every scenario is one I’ve designed. Every outcome gets me something I want, even if that’s just you broke and behind bars. Kai will weather any storm that comes with exposure. I’ll make sure of that, but you won’t.”

Malcolm’s marble eyes shift like a rat’s from Drex to Gep to me and back again. A cornered rodent, looking for a way out. But there isn’t a way out. I’ve blocked all his escape routes. Even though my hand is throbbing, discolored, and limp, I can’t focus on the pain because I see how close he is to caving.

“And if I give you all copies of the tape—”

“And release Kai and Luke from their contracts,” I insert.

“And release Kai and Luke from their contracts,” he concedes, lips tightening and eyes slitting like a snake’s. “Then you withdraw your offer from my investors? And I just go on about my business?”

I won’t mention just now that I have wheels in motion to undercut the contracts he has with the remaining artists on his roster. I won’t mention it because he won’t know I was behind it.

“Yeah. On about your business.”

What’s left of it.

Neither of these low life parasites will have much left by the time we’re done, but at least they won’t be in jail, which by all rights they should be. If it weren’t for the public spectacle that would become for Kai, I would press for that. We don’t always get everything we want precisely the way we want it, but I can live with this. Knowing Gep and Bristol, they’re already setting up contingencies to protect our interests. This is as fixed as it will get for now. Now to fix my hand.

And then finally to fix things with Kai.





I WAKE UP PIECE BY PIECE, my body sounding no alarms, but languidly shaking sleep from one limb at a time until I’m fully aware. The bedside lamp I left on still shines a dim, soft arc of light across the bed. I’m huddled under the covers, basically the same position I passed out in after I took my meds. Bristol left to work on whatever she works on for Rhyson soon after our conversation in the kitchen, and I’ve been here at the house all day waiting for calls that never came. Information about what’s happening. Confirmation that Rhyson is okay. I fell asleep alone and anxious.

But I wake up with him beside me. He’s sitting up, shoulders against the headboard, his eyes pewter-dark and set on me.

“It’s kind of creepy waking up to you watching me like that.” I toss back to him the words he said to me what feels like a millennium ago in this very bed, hoping it lightens the air between us. “But I could get used to it.”

One side of his mouth tips up a degree, but his eyes remain sober. I brace myself for whatever he has to say. If the tape is coming out, I can take that. It would be humiliating and debasing, but I can withstand that. If I have to stay with Malcolm for two years, I can endure that. Or if I’ll be sidelined, unable to perform and back at the Note slinging overcooked burgers, I’ll do that, too. Whatever the outcome that has him looking so serious, I can take it. As long as he doesn’t say we’re over. As long as he can forgive me for lying to him and keeping this all a secret. That is the only scenario from which I’d never recover.