And for the first time, I let myself wonder what it would feel like to stop fighting and fall into Finn.
34
KATE
THIS WASN’T IN THE SETLIST
“Ain’tit just like you to show up now/Kickin' dust and stirrin' doubt/You ain't love, you’re just bad news/Lookin' for a heart to bruise.” Kate Riggs
I’m tired. Strike that. I’m overly tired. I’ve been on the road, and the show went longer than expected due to lighting issues, and now, I just want to get to my damn room.
My feet ache from standing too long in my worn boots, my throat’s still raw from the show, and my brain is fried from smiling too hard at too many people. Sometimes, the fact that everyone is a stranger is a bit depressing. But that’s the business. My rising star power hasn’t changed that.
The second I step off the elevator, I tug my jacket tighter around me, ready to collapse face-first into the hotel bed. But I don’t even make it down the hallway when my past confronts me. I anticipated running into a band member or a fan, nothim.
“Kate.”
The voice makes me freeze. He’s a man now, but he’s smoother than he used to be, and he’s got that smug look on his face. Even hisaccent and charm are fake. He moves as if he’s in an AI-generated commercial.
Wade.
I whip around, my pulse is thrumming in my chest. He’s leaning against the wall like he owns it with his hands in his pockets. His eyes are roving over me like I’m a piece of meat. I shiver because the thought of speaking to him makes my skin crawl.
“What the hell are you doing here?” My voice is louder than I intended because my ears are still full of the band’s music and the sound of the fans who sang along with me, but I don’t care. I think it’s fantastic that they know my lyrics.
“Relax,” he says, pushing off the wall and strolling toward me like we planned this meeting. “I just wanted to talk.”
“I’ve got nothing to say to you.” It comes out with a southern accent. He reminds me of home, which brings back all the nuances of my life that I left behind when I boarded the plane to Vegas over a month ago.
But something about Wade that sets my ass on fire. He’s told lies about me. He tried to discredit me, and I can’t forgive him.
I glance toward my room, calculating how fast I can get to the door. But Wade is cunning and steps in, blocking my path.
“You’ve been avoiding me,” he says, his smile slipping into something darker, eyes narrowing. “You’re famous now, and you forget your roots? You forget the people who were there for you before the big paychecks and bright lights?”
He’s playing the martyr. My stomach turns, but I pull my shoulders back and lift my chin.
“Yeah, I’ve been avoidingyou,” I snap. “Because you sold your lies to the tabloids, Wade. You’re an asshole.”
He just smirks, and he moves in closer. “Oh, come on,Heavenleigh. We both know I wasn’t lying about everything.” The way he says my name is a dig. He knows I don’t like it.
I flinch because his sickeningly sweet voice grates on my nerves.
“You should go,” I spat out, my voice shaking with rage and fueledby adrenaline. I haven’t decompressed, which is why I wanted to hide in my room for an hour.
“In case you didn’t hear me the first time….Leave. Now.”
But he doesn’t move. No, the dumbass steps even closer, and my temper flares. But by the time I realize I’m cornered, he steps closer.
“Don’t act like you’re too good for me now,” Wade mutters, his voice dripping with bitterness and regret. “You loved me once, remember? Before all this.”
I open my mouth to yell at him—but suddenly, another voice cuts through the thick air.
“She said, leave.”
Finn.
His voice is low, steady, but dangerous—like a stick of dynamite that’s ready to blow. I whip my head toward him, in relief and dread that tangles in my chest.
