Page 73 of The Final Beat

“When do you start then?” I asked, trying to get my head around Destiny’s news. She was about to go on a world tour with a boy band and would be gone for almost eight months. I knew I was going to be in L.A. for six of those eight months, but I’d had an idea building. I’d thought that maybe I could persuade her to come out and visit. Then I realised that even when she was in the U.S. we wouldn’t be able to get together. As she landed there I would be leaving to come home.

“Two weeks.” She ran her finger around the rim of her beer bottle. “We go to Japan first.”

“They do like a boy band over there.”

“Tell me about it,” she said, shaking her head. “They’ve sold out five nights in a forty-thousand-seater stadium.”

“Fucking hell. Maybe I should persuade the lads that we need to swap to pop music.”

“I think you might be a bit old for a boy band.” She smirked and it was one of those dirty smirks that made me wish I was inside her head, knowing what she was thinking. “You’re far too experienced.”

Adjusting myself and thankful for the table hiding my hard on, I held up my bottle. “Another.” Destiny didn’t answer but looked over my shoulder. Her eyes were staring while her hand white knuckled her bottle.

“Daisy?” I turned my head to see what she was looking at. When I saw him I let out a groan. No wonder she looked so stunned. “Fuck. What the hell is he doing here?” My gaze swung back to Destiny. “D-do you want me to get him thrown out? Ididn’t even know Beau knew him. I’m fucking sure that Simmy doesn’t.”

Shaking her head slowly, Destiny continued to gape in silence. I didn’t think I’d ever seen her so shocked, or as quiet. She always had something to say,always.

I pushed up from my chair. “I’ll get him thr?—”

“No,” she snapped. “No, Joey. I don’t want him thrown out.” She aimed a steely glare on me. “I want to talk to him.”

Flopping back down into my chair I couldn’t believe what she was saying. “You can’t talk to him.” I pointed in his direction. “Hewas Vinny’s band mate.Heknew what that animal was doing to you. Didn’t he? Didn’t you say that?”

“I did. He was, and he did.” Her emerald eyes had lost the sparkle of earlier. It had been replaced with pure rage. I knew because I’d seen it plenty of times.

“Daisy,” I said in a warning tone. “What are you going to do?”

“I told you. I’m going to talk to him.”

Before I had a chance to stop her she was up, out of her seat, and striding across the restaurant. I followed her as quickly as I could, but she was clearly on a mission and stopping in front of Wes Clemente, Vinny’s brother, and former bandmate. Wes played bass guitar and, like the other members of their band, was in the rock n roll hall of fame. He was a brilliant musician in his own right as well as writing all their songs. Without him most people felt that Anderson Shelter would have folded years before. Ifhe’ddied they certainly wouldn’t have held auditions to replace him like they had with Vinny.

“Destiny?” he sounded surprised to see her. “What are you doing here?”

“I’ve worked with Warrior Creek for years.” She thrust her hands to her hips. “Not that you care seeing as you let your brother get away with beating me black and blue.”

He scratched the back of his neck and at least had the decency to look ashamed. “I do care, Destiny. I do. I did. I just… You know you did tend to wind him up.”

I took a step closer, my hand clenched into a fist, ready to punch him, but then a memory flashed through my head. I moved back and let Destiny deal with him just like I should have done with the lighting rigger.

“I wound him up?” she exclaimed. “So, you’re saying I deserved everything that he did to me?”

“No, but you and him were, well?—”

Destiny held up a finger. “Don’t even try and justify what that bastard did to me. How he beat me, the pain that he put me through. The fact,” she hissed leaning in closer, “that he stole my future, any choices that I had.”

I saw it. The way Wes flinched. He knew exactly what his brother had done to her.

“You all knew what he was doing to me on a daily fucking basis, yet not once did you step in and stop him.”

“Daily?” I whispered, and Destiny’s eyes flicked to me. Wes' gaze followed hers and flashed the beginnings of a smile. When I lifted my chin and ground my teeth together he must have seen that I wasn’t going to laugh and break fucking bread with him, because he quickly dropped it from his face.

“We’re all sorry about that,” Wes said, his attention back on Destiny. “It’s just that he was my brother and?—”

“No fucking excuse,” I hissed and then checked myself when Destiny’s back stiffened.

“Like he said,” Destiny pointed at me. “No fucking excuse. He was twice my size. He was a man, and I had no way of protecting myself. All I had were the four of you and each one of you knew what he was doing and chose to ignore it. You,” she stabbed a finger in his chest, “were the worst of the four of you because he was your brother. You were the closest to him and you knewexactly what he was doing to me. It wasyournephew or niece growing inside of me that he murdered.”

Puke rose in my throat. I knew as soon as Belle and Amber had found out they were pregnant they’d loved their babies instantly. The pain and suffering must have been horrendous for her. The devastation. It was no wonder her walls were higher than the Great Wall of China.

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