Page 105 of Double or Nothing

I reach for her, my fingers digging into her hips.

“I want it all.”

Her smile is instant, but unlike Kat’s, it does nothing for me.

“This feels so right,” she says, her lips pressing to my neck.

So wrong. So very fucking wrong.

“Me and you, we’re going to take over the world.” Val presses further against me. The moment her lips meet mine, I shove her off me.

“Sut?” Val pouts, and I can hear the hurt in her voice.

“Not tonight, baby. I’m too fucked in the head tonight.” Christ, I hope she buys that. The truth is, she isn’t Kat, and on the heels of what Kat and I just shared, there’s no way in hell I can touch her.

“Are you sure I can’t make it better?”

“I wish.”

I allow her embrace because I need the comfort. Closing my eyes, I wish it was Kat’s arms around me.

“I’ll get the plane ready for first thing tomorrow.”

“Thanks, Val.”

“This is all for the best.” She kisses my cheek. “You’ll see.”

Rage takes over the moment Val disappears from the room. The glass from the wet bar shatters. The table is on its side. I don’t stop until the room is completely turned upside down. Even now, sitting among the destruction, I don’t feel any better. All I want is the one thing I can’t have—the one person I refuse to destroy.

Walking away now is the best thing I can do for Kat. It’s the only way I can save her. I’ll destroy myself before I ever let anything happen to her.

“Wake up,” a voice shouts.

I blink open my eyes and wonder where I am and why Mac is standing over me, looking more pissed than he ever has. Everything comes flooding back to me. My dad. The fight. Val.

My decision to go on the world tour rather than take the residency.

“You really fucking did it this time.” He glances around the room. “At least it looks like you did it alone.”

“What do you want?” I grumble, refusing to get up from my very uncomfortable spot on the floor.

Mac drops the paper on my lap, and the headline captures my attention: Sutton Cole: Out of Control.

That reporter has no idea just how right he is. I move off the floor to the couch, reading the article as I make my way through the mess I’ve made.

Mac takes the seat next to me, sitting silently for a moment.

“The Sapphire pulled the contract. You violated a clause about personal conduct.”

“Good. Even more reason to get out of Dodge.”

Mac just stares ahead of him. I know there are a million things he wants to say—advice, warnings, verbal lashings—all right there on the tip of his tongue, but he doesn’t let any of it out.

“Just say it already.”

“I’m not going with you.”

Of all the things I expected to hear, that wasn’t one of them.

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