Page 46 of Pretty Little Rocker

She nodded, lightly tapping the drumstick to a rhythm that was familiar but I couldn’t name because a whirlwind was swirling around in my brain. Her hands moved like magic, creating sounds that should have no rhyme or reason, but opened the creative part of my mind, made me want to put words to paper. For her. With her. Because of her.

“As your band members?” Sparks asked quietly.

“Poppy already knows I’m a member of Autumn’s Slumber,” she said, still lightly beating out the song.

“As friends?” I asked. “That’s what you told your brother earlier. That you were staying with ‘friends.’”

She huffed, her eyes rolling hard, the sarcasm thick in her voice. “Yeah, because the first person I want to tell about my relationship with you three is my baby brother. Evan may look like our dad, but he’s a lot more like our godfather, Jace. Neither of them can keep a secret to save their lives. No, the first person I would normally tell something this fundamental about my life would be Abi. Then Poppy.” She smiled to herself, tucking a few ringlets behind her ears. “But Abi is going through a lot right now. She’s only just starting to cope with the new changes in her life. So, that leaves Poppy.”

Sucking her bottom lip between her lips, she kept tapping with her drumsticks, as if the song she was playing soothed her. “I mean… Well, if you guys are ready. Maybe I’m wrong. We can wait, if that’s what you want. I’m okay with that, if you’re not comfortable going public. Not that telling my family means we have to go public. They’re really supportive. Normally. No one will go around selling gossip about us to anyone waving a handful of cash around.”

Realizing she was rambling, I caught one of her drumsticks in my hand. “Tell who you want, when you want, Hayat. We’re ready to show the world that you are ours. No shame. No dirty secrets. Just us. The four of us, ready to be a unit.”

One side of her mouth tipped up, and she looked at Jamie. “We’re a unit.”

He grinned. “For eternity, Hellion.”

Sparks hugged his arms around her chest from behind, holding her arms at her sides. She laid her head on his shoulder, giving him perfect access to touch his lips to her ear. “Whenever you’re ready to share what we are to one another with the people who mean the most to you, we will be right there with you, goddess.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

Ky

The ASM building had a hidden garage entrance. Something Hayat explained to us on the ride over in the car with the driver who had been sent to collect us for the meeting. It was to protect client privacy since Emmie Armstrong managed so many celebrities, and she didn’t want to have to deal with vulture photographers every day.

Opening the door, the driver held out his hand to Hayat. I grunted and moved so that I was the first one out of the back of the limo. When I held my hand out for her, she rolled her eyes at me but placed her elegant fingers in mine. She’d been doing that a lot. Rolling those beautiful aquamarine eyes at me. I took it as a good sign—hey, at least she wasn’t telling me to fuck off or that she was done with me.

Jamie climbed out next, followed by Sparks, who carried the gear we would need if we did get into the studio to record later. Maddie wanted to go live if that happened today, and because we wanted to keep our identities a secret, we could put on our masks and makeup beforehand.

But for a simple meeting, we felt like it was more appropriate to go in as the real us. Let them see who Ky, Jamie, and Sparks Carver truly were without the paint and makeup before the music began.

Two security guards stood by an elevator. One used a wand to wave over each of us, Hayat included. She was familiar with both men and made small talk with them, laughing and teasing. They joked with her, grinning at her sense of humor. Jamie and Sparks grumbled under their breath the entire time, but I stayed silent. My eyes never left the two guys in jeans and black polos with SECURITY written in yellow across the front and back.

One of them punched in a code to unlock the doors then used another code that was supposed to take us straight to the floor where we would be meeting with Maddie Dawson.

“See ya later, boys!” Hayat called, stepping into the elevator with us right behind her. “Don’t work too hard.”

“You’ve been the highlight of our day so far, Hayat,” one of them told her, his eyes grazing over her in appreciation. “Stop back for a chat before you leave, huh?”

“Fuck off,” Jamie snarled as the doors closed.

Hayat lost her grin. “What was that about?” Her eyes snapped from Jamie to Sparks and then to me. “Do not start this meeting off by being assholes.”

“You seem awfully friendly with the security staff,” I commented, crossing my arms over my chest, trying my best not to glare at her.

“I’m a friendly person. Typically.” She crossed the elevator as it ascended, putting distance between the three of us. Sparks started to follow her, but she pointed a finger straight in his face, hissing at us, “If you’re going to be alphaholes, you can stay on your side of the metal box.”

“Alphaholes?” Jamie repeated with a smirk. “I kind of like that. Hellion, how about you bend over and let me be an alphahole while I tan that lush ass of yours.”

“Keep your hands to yourself, Jamie Carver,” she snapped. The elevator slowed, and she shot us one more glower, a warning, before the doors slid open.

Stomping off, she walked past another set of security guards and straight to a reception desk. “Could you please tell Maddie Autumn’s Slumber is here,” she groused at the twentysomething girl seated behind the desk, forcing a smile so she didn’t intimidate the poor girl.

The girl’s eyes were wide when she looked at the four of us, but Hayat had told us earlier that anyone who worked for Emmie had to sign an NDA. They weren’t allowed to talk about anyone who came into the building or anything they might overhear or read. Not even to other employees within the company. If they did break the NDA, they wouldn’t be able to find a job in any industry, including fast food.

“I—um… J-just a moment, p-please.” She picked up a phone, but her eyes kept flickering over Sparks, Jamie, and me in a way we were all familiar with. Appreciation. Interest. Hunger.

Hayat’s jaw clenched, and she began to tap her foot impatiently.

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