“Wait, again?”Chase asked.“What are you talking about?”
Lark cocked a hip.“Alice wrote their whole debut album.Only Parker got his panties in a wad when she started getting attention.Parker didn’t like the idea of playing second fiddle to Alice’s awesomeness, so he convinced the rest of the group to kick her out before they signed with their label.And he kept all her songwriting notebooks and music since they’d been living together.She didn’t get one credit or a single penny from all the work she’d done.And now he’s doing it again.”
“Holy shit.”Chase turned to Noah.“Did you know about this?”
“I knew about the earlier shit, but not this latest song.”
Dimly I could hear Chase, Noah, and Lark talking, but between the blood whooshing in my ears and the sinking sensation in my chest, it was amazing that I was still standing.
“Tyler!Get our lawyer on the phone,” Chase shouted down the hall.
“What’s going on now?”Tyler popped up behind Chase.
My eyes darted between Tyler and Noah, and I whimpered as my literal nightmare played out in front of me.The best and worst things ever to happen to me were colliding in real time.
“They should call their own lawyer.”Tyler turned to Lark.“Who do you guys have looking over the contract?”
“Contract?”Noah repeated.
“Yeah.I offered to represent the Monarchs.But we’re still negotiating the contract.”He turned back to Lark.“I have to say though, this whole song stealing news is concerning.Do you guys have proof that you wrote the song?”
I could feel the weight of Noah’s gaze on me as I stepped forward.But I couldn’t bear to look at him and see his disappointment that I’d kept this from him.I should’ve found a way to tell him sooner.“I have all my notebooks and music sheets at home, and I registered the copyright before we even sang the song in public—months ago.So there’s no way Parker can claim it’s his.Iwrote it.”
“That’ll go a long way toward the lawsuit you all should file.”Tyler sent me a sympathetic smile.“But you should act fast.Get your lawyer on the phone and have her file against them ASAP.”
“And your offer of representation?”I asked with my heart in my throat.“Has that been rescinded?Or paused?”
“Absolutely not.”Tyler scoffed.“I still want to sign your group.Because as horrible as this bullshit is, we can use it to springboard your launch.I predict we’ll have labels calling left and right to sign the group so good that Alien Attraction stole from them.”
Chase grinned and slapped Tyler on the back.“That’s the shark we’ve all come to know and mostly love.”
“Lark, can you—”
She cut me off, “Already on it.”
Lark walked away to talk on her phone, presumably to our lawyer, and I turned to Noah.
“Surprise.”I waved weakly with lame spirit fingers.“I’ve been trying to talk to you since it happened, but Tyler came to our show two days ago and—”
“I know.”Noah smiled sadly as he shook his head.“We talked about it at laser tag.It was Xander’s idea, actually.He thought you were good and told Tyler he should check you guys out.”
“Oh.”
“And I agreed,” Noah rushed to explain.“I would’ve brought it up to him sooner, but you were being all weird about people knowing about us.I didn’t want to rock the boat, I guess.”
“Right.I, uh, one of the things I’ve been trying to talk to you the last few days was us.”
“Oh.”Noah’s face shut down and he leaned back with his hands shoved in his pockets.
“No.No!Not that.I just mean…I’ve been thinking about us and the whole secret thing.I was being ridiculous.You’re an amazing man, and I’m proud to say that you’re mine.”
Then I squealed as Noah all but tackled me.His arms came around me, and then he was kissing me.And I kissed him back.
“Uh, guys?”Jesse said behind us.
Noah kept kissing me.My cheeks heated with my blush, but I didn’t make him stop.Noah clearly needed this public claiming, and I was going to let him have it…as long as he didn’t gettooout of control.
After another minute of kissing, Noah pulled back and looked down at me.“You’re fucking fantastic, and I’m proud to call you mine too.”
