Page 39 of Snared

Well, maybe a little bit.

Fuck me. I sounded like an idiot, picking on a kid—a kid I’d recently signed to my agency—when it was my hormones that caused the issue.

“There he is,” Jax said when I stepped into the green room.

“Everyone good?” I asked, eyes scanning the space and stopping on Charlie.

She was goddamn gorgeous as always, her hair in loose waves that I knew would fly around the minute she started playing. I was mesmerized every time I watched her on her kit. The combination of chaos and control was stunning.

Fuck.

I needed to stop wanting her. That was going to make things exponentially worse. Hell, maybe I only wanted her because she hated me—let’s face it, there was something appealing about the chase—or maybe I was trying to find excuses for why I wanted her when I knew I shouldn’t.

It was honestly pathetic, and she probably would have kicked my ass if she ever heard my thoughts.

I pushed those ideas aside when I registered how nervous she looked. I had to hope like hell this mess wouldn’t fuck with her playing.

“You staying off your phone?” I asked, walking toward her.

Her lips pressed into a thin line. “Why? What happened now? They find video of our idiocy?”

“What? Oh, no. Just people being assholes. It doesn’t mean anything,” I said, hoping to reassure her.

“I’m fine.”

“Damn right you are, Spidey. And we’re going to rock the shit out of Salt Lake,” Jax said, slinging his arm over her shoulder.

There was a small twinge of jealousy at how easily she accepted his touch, even though there was nothing beyond friendship behind it.

I needed to get over these stupid feelings when it came to her because that’s what had gotten us into this charade in the first place.

CHARLIE

“All right, all right. Let’s clear the air, shall we?” Jax said into his mic after we’d finished our first two songs.

I’d shaken off my nerves with the first kick of my bass drum. I’d always been able to zone out when I was behind my kit. It was my ultimate happy place, no matter what nonsense was going on around me, and I’d desperately needed that tonight. The last few days had been insane, and the weight of my engagement ring hanging from my neck didn’t help matters, but I wore it begrudgingly. At least it wasn’t on my damn finger anymore.

“We love you, Jax,” a few fans called out.

“Love you, too. And love is exactly what I wanted to talk about tonight,” he continued.

What. The. Hell.

I met Tristan’s sympathetic gaze and refused to look over in the wings to see if Josh was having a coronary.

“We need to clear the air. I know you all saw the social media pics earlier today and yes, it’s true, our Charlie married our grouchy-ass manager in Vegas. They’ve been in love for ages. Fought it, but I knew.” He paused, tapping on his chest.

Showboating fucker.

“I knew in here that they were destined to fall in love, and they did. Hard. They tried to keep it quiet because they didn’t want the attention. They even refused to have a big wedding. I know. I tried. I would’ve been an epic flower girl, you know it, but they wanted to elope while we were in Vegas. And who am I to stand in the way of true love? I’m a giver like that. So, if you see them, say congrats because we couldn’t be happier that they finally figured their shit out.” Jax turned to me, beaming.

I was going to murder him.

Slowly.

Painfully.

He gave me a wink and then looked toward the wings.

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