Page 56 of Unbound
“It’s my business when you start destroying Tony’s place. Knock it off.” My hurt, it finds a target and I push him. It’s his breaking point.
Without thinking, he honors his last warning when he told me if I ever pushed him again, he’d fuckin’ deck me.
I don’t even try to deflect the hit. I take it like I fucking deserve it, because I do right then. It knocks me against the wall and I slide down it. Not because I can’t stand but because I don’t want to anymore.
I smile, wiping the back of my hand over my bleeding mouth, more blood pooling in my cheek. “Happy now? You’ve wanted to do that your entire life, haven’t you?”
And then I laugh, because I can’t fucking help it. Nothing about this is funny. Nothing.
Tony comes out of the kitchen, eyes wide at the scene before him. “Uh, we’re closed for the night. Dinners on me.” And then he begins to usher everyone out of the restaurant, and I feel even more like shit that I’ve ruined everyone’s night again.
Let’s face it. This is me. It’s what I do. Ruin everything.
I attempt to get up but my body won’t allow it, and my arms give out against the wall. “I’m just going to stay down here, where I belong. On the goddamn floor.” And then I laugh to the point where I’m the brunt of my own sick joke.
Red glances at the papers on the ground, then to me. “What the fuck is this?”
“Why are you even here? Why are you always around when I’m at my worst?”
“I was here because they’re catering my fucking wedding in three days, you little shit.” And then he points to the door with an angry jab. “I warned you not to break her heart and you did it, again. So tell me what the hell this shit is!”
“I don’t know.” I run my hands through my hair, shaking my head and then grip a fistful of hair. “I don’t fucking know.”
He reads through the papers and then glares at me. “You signed over your parental rights to Lyric?”
I laugh again. “Do you honestly think I’d do that?” And he gives me that look, the one he always gives me and the reason why he’s always so much better than me. “You know what”—I wave my hand around—“don’t answer that. I know the answer.”
“If you didn’t, who did?”
“Sam. My manager.”
Tony walks back in after locking the doors and sits down at a table with a bottle of wine. He eyes the wine, then stands up. “This won’t do.”
Red and I both look to one another and shrug, but within a minute, Tony returns from the kitchen with a bottle of what looks to be bourbon and sets in on the table. “You two look like you could use a drink.”
I crawl over to the table since it’s only a few feet away and reach for one of the three shot glasses. Standing up, I slide into the chair across from Tony.
Red pulls out a chair, dragging it slowly over the tile floor and then sits, tossing the papers on the table. Reaching for his own shot glass, we take two shots each in complete silence.
“So how’d this come about then?” Red nods to the papers when he sets his shot glass down for a third time with a thud.
I shrug. “I don’t know. I talked to Nick on Saturday, or Sunday, I don’t remember. Anyway, I was asking about the schedule and he told me we had five shows left on our contract with him. I told him I was a father now and told him my high school girlfriend was the mother. I didn’t even know he knew about Sophie.”
“That’s all he said?”
“Well, he said, we’ll take care of it… but I thought he was talking about the remaining shows and that we could possibly work something out where I didn’t have to be gone so much.”
“If that’s true and this guy went behind your back, you can’t trust him.”
I laugh again and pour myself another shot. “I know I can’t, but I signed a contract.”
Red blows out a breath, his hand running down his jaw like he’s honestly trying to find a way to help me out. “Do you know anyone in the industry who can help you with how to get out of the contract or maybe see what to do about this?”
I think back to Dylan and how adamant he was that we not sign with Sam, but we did. “I could call Dylan. He’s the owner of the bar we play in a lot. I think he’s had some run ins with Sam too.”
Red nods. “Okay, call him and see what he can do. I’ll talk to Sophie. She’ll believe me.”
I don’t want him talking to her. I want to tell her and have her believe me, but I know that’s not going to happen.
