Page 93 of Slayin Villain
Silence.
And then he said it.
“If you don’t want this, then maybe you should go.”
Something cracked in me.
I grabbed my bag.Threw in my jacket.My phone.My keychain with the old club logo on it.
“I will,” I said.
He stepped toward me, expression crumbling.“Wait, Ember, I didn’t mean…”
“You did.And I needed to hear it.”
He reached for me, and I let him touch my arm.Just for a second.
Then I pulled away.
I didn’t weep until I got in my Charger.
Didn’t shake until I hit the edge of Royal Road, lights in the rearview like ghosts chasing me down.
I’d spent too many nights in too many beds trying to be what they needed.Rome’s safe harbor.Villain’s escape.The club’s songbird.
But what about me?
What about Ember?
I pulled into the old gravel lot behind Sassy’s Slop House.A place I used to play three nights a week before all this chaos swallowed me whole.
The lights were off.The stage was dark.But the memories played loud in my head, me and my fiddle, belting out southern rock and blues with fire in my belly and no ring on my finger.
I pulled my phone from my pocket.
Opened a new message.
To Eve: I’m sorry.I gotta go clear my head.Don’t know how long I’ll be gone.Don’t tell the boys.
Then I added…
And I’m keeping the baby.But I’m raising it my way.
Hit send.
Chapter 42
Villain
I was trying to calm Rachel down when my phone lit up.
EMBER:Can we meet?Just talk.Please.
The words hit like gravel in a wound.
Rachel saw the screen before I could turn it over.Her face twisted, stomach already hard with our baby and now curling with something darker.
“She wants to talk?”Rachel asked, eyes narrowing.“Is that code for screw you one more time before I vanish again?”
