Anything to dull this disorder that wouldn’t settle.
This feeling that something was off.
Something wicked gathering strength in the distance. Encroaching fast.
The band trailed off when Royce got to the podium, and he lifted his glass to the room. “Have a little something I would like to say.”
That was all it took for the conversations to die out as everyone turned their attention to him.
He cleared his throat. “First off, I want to say thank you to everyone for being here to celebrate with us tonight. I know some of you traveled great distances to be here, and for that, we are grateful. Means more than you could know to look out on this crowd and see the people who are most important to us. Ones who we love, and the ones who love us back.”
A round of cheers went up.
Royce glanced at my sister before he looked back out to the crowd.
“Some of you might have questioned the way I came to know Emily.”
His eyes traveled to meet hers, their hands held tight between them.
Royce glanced around. “But I want everyone to know that what I saw in Emily was instant. I saw greatness. I saw beauty. I saw a talent unmeasured.”
His words thickened. “I fell in love with her when I probably shouldn’t have. But the thing is, not loving this girl would be impossible.”
A shock of joy pressed against the anxiety that gripped me by the throat—for my sister—for the fact she’d gotten free. For the truth of what shone in her eyes. It was the only thing I wanted, happiness for those that I loved. The ones I’d do anything for.
Live and die and destroy for.
“You showed me what it was like to live again, Emily,” he continued. “What it was like to love again. You gave me a second chance when I’d thought I’d hit a dead end. Because of you, there is music in my life. There is hope in my spirit. There is love in my soul. You are my everything, and I cannot wait to spend my life with you.”
Happiness radiating from her, my sister reached out and touched his cheek. “I tried my hardest not to fall in love with you, Royce Reed. It seemed crazy, the way I felt when we met. But the thing was, you were sent to make me remember what it’s like to sing. To remind me what it’s like to truly feel and how to fully trust. You helped me remember who I am and who I want to be. And I can’t wait to be that person with you at my side, raisin’ our children together.”
I thought maybe he’d planned to say more, but he was setting his flute aside, wrapping her up, and kissin’ her in a way that was pretty much inappropriate considering the crowd.
No doubt, my poor great aunt Shirley was going to be scandalized by the way the ominous-looking rocker was feasting on my sister right out in the open.
“Get a room!” This from Rhys, our bassist, who was up close to the front.
Our number one heckler.
Royce pulled himself away with a smug grin on his face. “Already got one. Right upstairs. You know where we’ll be if you can’t find us.”
Everyone laughed and cheered.
While I itched.
That same feeling that something was off burned hot across my flesh. Something sticky making me tug at the neck of my shirt.
Suffocating.
Never should have come to this hotel. Too many ghosts lurked in the shadows. Memories I’d tried to bury that just kept getting dredged with every second that passed.
Wouldn’t have shown for anyone else other than Emily and Royce. It wasn’t like there were a whole lot of options in Dalton, though.
My eyes searched, roving over the guests from where I remained standing at the back of the room, readying myself for the attack.
My attention kept moving to where these heavy floor-to-ceiling drapes hung behind where the band was set up.
Area nothin’ but shadows.
Didn’t make a damned difference.
I saw her—saw her hiding at the edge of the crowd, timid and wary, eyes darting around like she wasn’t sure if she belonged there or not.
My guts clenched, and the air punched from my lungs, so hard I might as well have been kicked in the stomach.
No question, she absolutely did not.
She shouldn’t be there.
She couldn’t be.
Uncertainty ran fierce, nothing but a slick of fear that warned this was fucking bad. That I had to get her out of there. Push her far, far away.
What the hell did she think she was doing there?
My teeth gritted, and my feet were moving, unable to stop this frenzy that took me over. I wound through the crowd.
Shouldering through the crush.
Surely I was comin’ off a prick.
But I couldn’t stop.
I was unable to see.
Unable to feel.
My only sense was the destruction that pounded out from the middle of me.
Knew the second she felt me. The way she went rigid, frozen to the spot before her attention whipped my way.
Girl held in shock, like she hadn’t expected to see me there and had expected it all the same.
Guilt and something I didn’t want to recognize clouding her face.
This was dangerous. Two planets orbiting too close. A collision seconds from happening.
Hurt poured from her stare, and that body rocked in recognition.
A fireball that blazed, burning through the air and eating up the oxygen.
Wisps of black hair fell out of the twist and caressed her cherub face.
Defined cheeks pinked and glossy lips parted.
And fuck it all, my stomach twisted in a gnarl of lust.
The girl looked like a fairy made of blown glass.
Gorgeous and fragile and so strong you wondered if she was really made of stone.
Raven eyes stared back while I made my way toward the girl with the most mysterious eyes.
Pupils surrounded by a starburst of crystallized violet and splintering out to a darkened eternity.
Two blinding thunderbolts.
It was like looking into a kaleidoscope that sucked me into the past.
That sucked me into regret.
She wore this flowy floral dress that hit her at mid-thigh, nothing but toned legs and tight, gorgeous body.
Temptation.
Destruction.
My ruin.
Still, I moved for her.
Unable to stop.
She fidgeted, wavered, her attention darting everywhere before she finally made a choice and turned to run.
I chased her out into the lobby.
Bright lights shined from glittering tiered chandeliers that hung from the three-story ceiling. Lighting her up in sparkles and dust.
She rushed toward the main doors.
Her name dropped from my lips in a hiss. Problem was, I didn’t know if it was in anger or pure desperation. “Violet.”
Three
Violet
What did I think I was gonna achieve, comin’ here?
I’d known better. Known so much better, but I’d somehow been delusional enough to convince myself I could slip in, witness the joy without anyone noticing me, partake in it in the only way that I could, and slip right back out.
Delusional enough to think I would manage not to get my heart slaughtered anew from a single, scathing look.
In this stupid hotel I’d avoided like the plague, nonetheless.
From behind, my name hit me like a stone.
“Violet.”
Hatred flowed through his voice, as stark as the betrayal in his presence.