Page 116 of On The Edge
When my eyes open, I lock onto Mel.
Kai climbs over Markus, and Markus carefully extracts himself from Melody, tucking her in as he leaves. I watch her lips move as she whispers to Markus, but then she flips over and tucks closer into Adam.
Lucky bastard.
Kai knocks the laptop, gesturing for me to pull off the headphones. “So?”
“There’s,” I look down to check the video before looking back at him, “at least two minutes and forty-five seconds of audio ofus all together. No way to explain it away, or to keep her name out of it.”
“Did she send it to anyone?” Markus asks quietly, the rage seeping through him.
“I haven’t even looked that far yet.” I shake my head angrily.
“Check the ChatSnap,” Kai demands, grabbing the phone connected to my laptop and opens the app. “Nothing. Thank fuck. No new images or messages since we took off. Nothing in Messengers, or DMs. So she’s not a total idiot.”
“Email? Uploads?” Markus asks, looking over his shoulder. A few swipes later, Kai’s anger deepens.
“Ah,” Kai says roughly, “She was trying to upload it to her Cloud. But the connection was interrupted.”
“Good,” I snap before opening the account on my laptop to make sure that upload doesn’t happen.
“What are we going to do?” Markus asks.
“Break her fucking knees,” Kai growls, but I shake my head.
“She almost ruined what’s ours. Now, we make sure she’s ruined.” I shrug, pulling up a new browser and sending off an email to our team. I explain how Sarah won’t be allowed anywhere near us. I made sure they understoodexactlywhat will happen if she’s near us in any way.
“There,” I say, closing my laptop. “She’s gone. Done. I grabbed some water and some snacks, but one of you will have to go out and grab more if we need it.”
I don’t tell them it’s because I’m so mad especiallyknowingwhat she had on her phone… I might put the whole band in danger.
“We’ll send Markus this time.” Kai nudges the only one of us that hasn’t had to deal with her and gives him a look that says, ‘Nut up or shut up’. Markus rolls his eyes and nods.
His eyes turn to the bed longingly. Markus says, “Can we sleep now? I’d like to be on UK time before we get there somaybe we can sneak away for an hour before the concert. I want to show Melody something, not just the venues or the hotels.”
My eyes soften, and my gaze turns to her.
The beautiful, sweet gremlin that I owe more than I can express. Who I love more than I can even comprehend. And I understand Markus, I want that too. I want to see her eyes light up when she sees all that London has to offer. I want to make her first trip abroad memorable, not just backstage.
“Louis isn’t going to like it,” I say softly, almost under my breath.
“I really could not care less,” Kai answers, his gaze also on our sleeping girl in Adam’s arms.
“How is she still asleep?Do we need to be worried?” I ask, helping get Mel into the backseat of the SUV, and she smacks me in the chest.
“I can hear you,” she mutters.
“You’re barely conscious and you slept the whole way.”
“I’m tired! Give a girl a break!” She grumbles, sliding into the middle seat with Kai on her other side. She immediately snuggles into his side.
“Hey, hey, come here,” I say, stealing her back from Kai. “My turn.” They all climbed onto that full-sized bed like a dog pile and slept most of the way. And I, for the first time in a while, felt the inspiration to write.
The stanzas flew out of me so easily it was like I could barely keep up with the words flowing through my pen. And then, whenI took a moment to breathe, I would look at her, look at my brothers, and keep writing.
“Welcome to London!” The driver says cheerily, looking at us in the mirror. “I’ve been told to take you directly to the hotel. Is that right?”
“No,” I say quickly. “We actually wanted to stop by The Eye first.”
