Page 47 of Goodbye Note

“What?” I dropped to my knees, tugging off his gag. “What the fuck happened? Where are the rest of the guys?” My mind was going a million miles a second.

“No, don’t call the cops.” He was laughing and coughing.

“Do you have fucking Stockholm Syndrome? Who the fuck tied you up.”

Varian laughed so hard he was crying. “Un-fucking-tie me and I’ll explain. I’ve been here for twenty minutes,” he finally managed.

I worked out the knots binding his wrists and ankles. “Fucking explain.”

“The guys and I were joking on the way over here about me being a traitor, so they decided to make good on the joke. They kidnapped Ser and left me. Don’t ask me how they are going to get him to play front man.” Varian sat up when I got his ankles detached from his wrists. He held out his wrists for me to free next. “My motherfucker of a brother got the whole band in on it, and they jumped me as we pulled into park.”

“So I got to steal back my goddamn backup singer?” I picked at the knots and glanced at the clock on the wall. “We only have a few hours.”

“Better get me out of these so I can help.”

I paused and smirked. “Maybe I should leave you tied up so I have collateral… It’ll give me time to figure out if this is a kink of yours, too…”

Varian’s mouth fell open, and he swallowed a few times before he spoke. “How are you going to figure it out?”

I shrugged, breaking the eye contact. “I have my ways.”

A few beats passed before Varian replied, “They don’t want me. They already left me here, best to just keep me.”

I narrowed my eyes, then retrieved a Sharpie and pulled the cap off with my teeth, tugging his zip-up hoodie open to get access to his chest while he couldn’t stop me.

I wrote MINE under his collarbones.

“What did you put?” He tucked his chin, trying to get a look at it.

“I’m not telling you.” I pushed the fabric off his shoulders to expose his arms.

I wrote Property of Arik from forearm to shoulder with a smirk.

He rolled his eyes. “The pictures of this are going to be wild.”

I sat back to work on his binds again. He caught my eyes, and something passed between us. My chest felt full.

Once I got him untied, we grabbed a joint to bribe Dopamine-Fiend with and headed out of the bus to find a couple of girls standing there.

“OMG!” one of them screamed. “Varian is with Arik.”

Varian and I exchanged a glance.

“We are such huge fans of both of you,” another said.

They shoved stuff into our hands to sign and then asked for pictures. We took pictures with them, and they left.

“That was a first,” I said when we were alone.

“What?”

“Someone stalking me to the bus.” We’d done plenty of signing at our merch table and after shows outside. But to find our bus felt like a whole other level.

“They get rabid. I’m shocked you haven’t experienced it yet.”

“We are just starting to blow up. I don’t have big tour experience like you yet. I got to have some of your cool rub off on me.” I knocked my arm into his teasingly.

“They’re at your bus, not mine, star boy.”

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