Page 51 of Living on the Edge

“Time heals all wounds, right?” Tate asks, shrugging. “I mean, our first full album just came out, we’re on tour with Nobody’s Fool, and we’re starting to get airplay. The only way to go is forward.”

“This is a business,” Jonny says, speaking up for the first time. “We don’t have to be friends—we just have to play the music.”

I try to keep my face neutral, because I’m a little shocked that he would say that in an interview.

“How does that work?” I ask him. “You just walk away from years of friendship?”

He shrugs. “I don’t know that there was really a friendship. You don’t lie to your friends.”

“You’ve never told a lie?” I ask pointedly.

He hesitates. “Not to anyone that mattered to me.”

“Come on, man.” Tate makes a face. Then he turns to me. “Will you turn that off for a minute? Please?”

“Of course.” I quickly stop recording.

“Did you seriously just say that to a journalist?” Tate stares at Jonny in obvious frustration. “That’s going in her story—why would you do that?”

“She asked me a question and I answered honestly,” he replies. “Was I supposed to lie? That’s what we’re here for, right? To give both sides of the story. His side—” He jerks a thumb in Angus’s direction. “—is that he’s a poor little rich kid who was afraid people would be mean to him. My side is that someone I considered a friend—abrother—fucking lied to my face every day for three years. That’s the truth. That’s reality. If you want me to lie, just say so.” Jonny gets to his feet. “I don’t have anything else to say.”

No one says a word, and I stare down at my lap, unwilling to get involved.

This is absolutely off the record.

I almost wish I wasn’t here.

As a journalist, this is good shit, but I’m incredibly uncomfortable. I don’t want to witness this. I love this band, and the last thing I want is to watch them fall apart.

Especially since this was my doing.

I would do anything to go back in time and not tell Rich what I heard. I’d been so annoyed that Angus turned me down when I asked him to talk about the theatrics of his drum performances, I made a knee-jerk decision. One I truly wish I could take back.

My damn temper gets me every time.

I have to be more careful in the future, especially when it comes to Angus and the band.

“If you tell me how to make this right, I’ll do my damnedest,” Angus says quietly, watching as Jonny heads to the door.

Jonny pauses, his hand on the doorknob. “I think it’s too late for that.”

He opens the door and slips out without looking back.

Much like Angus did to me two nights ago.

And I don’t like it now any more than I did then.

Chapter15

Angus

I don’t knowwhat feels worse—the things Jonny said or the fact that Ryleigh won’t even look at me. I’ve made a whole mess of my life, and it doesn’t look like there’s a way to fix any of it. Tate and Sam think Jonny will get over it but there’s a distance in the band that’s never been here before. Tate’s coming around, and while Sam and Mick are polite, they’re also not going out of their way to spend time with me.

It’s been a week since the news of my real identity broke and we haven’t partied together once. Everyone on the tour has noticed, and Bobby’s started hovering like a mother hen. I appreciate his loyalty, but he’s always known who I am. The others don’t seem to know exactly how to behave.

There have already been tons of opinion pieces out there about why the heir to the Holland-Burke dynasty is playing rock and roll, why I changed my name, and whether or not my father is financing the band.

Ryleigh’s interview will answer many of those questions but that probably won’t come out for a couple of months. I don’t know anything about her schedule or the publication dates, and I’m not in a position to ask either. I could probably ask Sasha to find out, but that’s not usually how it works.

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