Ember Read Free Page B

filed a report against him then there’s no evidence. His boss seems to like him around and won’t let him go because of a supposed ‘incident.’
    God, I fucking hate that guy! Not only did Roxie sleep with him behind my back, but he fucking raped her! He blackmailed my girl to the point where she could have seriously hurt herself, or worse, and I still have to fucking see him walking around here like he’s the shit.
    “Ok baby, I’ll catch ya later. Love ya.” Cole hangs up the phone, but I’m surprised to see he doesn’t look his happy self.
    “What’s up with you?” I ask him.
    “That was Lacey,” he obviously points out.
    “Yeah, I gathered that,” I laugh.
    Cole continues to stare at me. “Roxie’s out.”
    His words nearly make me choke on the smoke I have in my mouth.
    “Mase?” he asks, but I don’t say anything.
    What is there to say?
    I blow out the smoke, throw the cigarette on the floor and stomp it out.
    “You fucking hearing me?” Cole gets in my face. “I’m telling you that your fucking woman is out and she’s clean.”
    I shoot him with a glare. I’m fucking shaking right now, and I don’t know if it’s from the shock of hearing that Roxie is fresh out of rehab, or because I’m so angry at Cole for claiming that she’s still my woman.
    “My woman?” I huff. “She ain’t my woman anymore.”
    “Maybe not, but I do know that you still love her,” he replies with smug arrogance.
    I don’t have anything to say to that, so I walk away without another word. I decide I don’t want to go back inside the tour bus, so I go in the direction of the concert venue. As I walk in I hear Tate and Booker doing some sound checks before the gig tonight.
    I hear heavy feet behind me and I know it’s Cole before he speaks.
    “She’s at my place.” My body almost stops from the shock of hearing that. “And we’re going back for the weekend.”
    “Are we now?” I ask, and even I hear the shakiness in my own voice. Shit.
    Hearing that she’s someplace safe with her girls around her makes me happy. I won’t let Cole hear me say that, though.
    “Yeah, dickhead, we are. So get over your shit and man the fuck up,” he growls.
    I shake my head at him and carry on walking. I go to collect my guitar, the only love in my life that will stay true to me.
    “I know what she did was wrong,” Cole says in front of me. “But what Joe did to her wasn’t her fault.”
    I almost drop my guitar to the floor. I step closer to Cole, get right in his face, and he doesn’t even flinch.
    “Don’t you think I fucking know that?” I say through clenched teeth. “She was mine but she went and fucked a fucking roadie! I didn’t know what was happening, but I did see what it was doing to her. I saw her drowning and I did fuck-all! She could have fucking died and it would have been on me! What kind of man does that make me?”
    I’m shaking as I stare at Cole. He doesn’t say anything and that tells me what I need to know.
    I don’t want to be here. I want to be alone. I go to walk around Cole but he stops me.
    “What are you doing?”
    “Leaving, I need to be fucking alone.”
    Cole drops his arm and lets me walk away.
    “I’ll call you when we’re heading back,” he shouts as I walk out the door.
    I raise my hand to let him know I heard him and nearly run to the safety of the tour bus. When I climb aboard, I slam the door behind me and collapse on the sofa. The silence is welcoming. I need this.
    Yeah, ok, I’m hiding, but I need to fucking get myself together. Cole is right, but I don’t want to hear it. I know I’m acting like a pussy but Roxie got herself deep under my skin, and knowing she went behind my back with someone else when I wasn’t even noticing any other woman fucking stung like a bitch. I can’t go running to her rescue and be her knight in shining armour. I can’t let her think she can come back to me and that I will welcome her as if nothing went wrong between us. I