Page 27 of Heart Break Her

“I’m just saying, with this tape and all the fallout. And you being Myth’s sister. We can’t…” He doesn’t finish the thought, but I know what he’s saying.

He’s drawing a line in the sand. One and done. After all, rock gods get enough pussy that they don’t need to come back for seconds.

“Then what exactly are you asking me?”

“To let me help you.” His eyes move to my front window, where the curtains are closed.

Paparazzi started gathering first thing this morning. Even now, I can hear them like a hive of bees buzzing.

“The press are vultures,” Sebastian says with a dark look on his face. “It’s going to be a media circus for a while, and trust me, they don’t quit. I have security, a team, people who can keep them off you. And, like you said, your work just put you on a paid sabbatical. Come along for a bit while this shit dies down and we figure out what the fuck is going on. Chill with Merry and the crew, they’re good people. And when you have to come home or get back to work, then go.”

I’m not sure what’s more dangerous, the press outside my door or putting myself within constant arm’s length of Sebastian Kane.

I know what my brother would say. To lock myself in my room and never come out. That placing my hand on the stove was bad enough, but don’t go climbing in the oven and letting him cook me all the way through.

Myth would tell me to stay as far away as possible.

But I already went and stirred the pot. How much worse could it actually get?

Am I dumb enough to ask myself that question?

“Why?” I ask, genuinely confused. “What’s in it for you?”

I know I’m not the first girl to be caught with him on camera. Sure, with the other girls, it wasn’t sex or anything close to what we did. But Sebastian is no stranger to having inappropriate photos of himself with half naked women circulating. I’m sure he didn’t hold their hands through the fallout. What makes me any different?

Sebastian’s eyes search mine, and I wish I knew what they were looking for, so I could open myself up and hand it over before he sees what his stare does to my insides.

“Because,” he sighs. “I owe this to Myth.”

Of course, my brother.

I’m not sure what I expected his answer to be, but it wasn’t that. Sebastian’s eyes heat, and I swear I feel my heart trying to climb out of my chest to get to him. Or maybe it’s my stomach clawing deeper in an effort to keep away. But I feel suspended in this moment, on the edge of throwing my life into chaos.

“Myth tried to keep me away from you,” I say, honestly. “He wouldn’t want me to go on tour.”

Sebastian nods his head. “I know.”

“Then how is this for him?”

“Myth was a friend, mybestfriend.” Sebastian shifts a fraction away, but his hands are still planted firmly beside me. “I know he didn’t want his sister around this shit, and it’s my fault this happened.”

Sebastian dips his chin and for a moment I think it’s defeat I’m sensing, which is surprising from a man who is nearly untouchable.

“I didn’t know who you were when we met, and that’s on me,” Sebastian says. “But now we’re here, and everything Myth tried to keep you out of, I dragged you into. I need to fix it, and I don’t know how to do that when you’re across the fucking country. I owe it to him to try. It’s what he would do. He’d protect you.”

He sounds almost desperate. Enough that I actually believe him. And it’s not guilt or pity. It’s something deeper I can’t put a name to. Sebastian looks terrified and raw. Everything I’m feeling inside is being reflected back at me through him. And even if I know it’s a bad decision, and Myth wouldn’t want it, I can’t deny the look on Sebastian’s face.

Tour, the one place Myth never wanted me to be, a place he disappeared into. Slowly fading until there was nothing left. And as frightening as it may be, it’s also the one place I might find the closure I’ve been looking for. Because the band and the roadies are the people who were around him in his final months. When the phone calls tapered off, and he started cutting his family out of his life. They were the ones who were there right before I lost him.

If I can understand how it all fell apart, maybe I’ll be able to find the closure I’ve been looking for.

And in that, maybe I’ll be able to put myself back together from my own mess.

“Okay,” I say. “I’ll go.”

Even if I have to suffer the consequences of this decision later.

8

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