Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 112917 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112917 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
“Nothing. It’s fine,” I said, not taking my eyes off the shitshow on my screen. My PR team had to already know, but I needed to get back to the house anyway and prepare for a flood of messages and calls.
“’Course it is,” he ground out. “Give me the phone. Is it another threatening email?”
My fingers began to feel numb. I wasn’t sure if it was from the bite in the air or a combination of nerves and embarrassment from being exposed to the world. I’d been through tons of stuff like this before, so you’d think it would get easier.
It never did.
Bear snatched it out of my hand and barked out a curse as soon as he saw what had happened. “That motherfucker.”
Heat flooded my face. Bear probably thought I was an idiot for confessing my virginal secret to someone completely untrustworthy. Hell, I thought I was an idiot for doing it. But at the same time, I hated not being able to connect with people authentically, especially people I was supposed to be able to trust.
“At least he didn’t mention my name,” I said lamely.
“Zane, everyone knows who he’s talking about. I knew this would happen. That motherfucker. He cannot be allowed to do this.”
“He shouldn’t have done it, I know. But… I feel sorry for him.”
Bear turned to me with an almost comical expression of incredulity on his face. “Sorry for him? Him?”
I pulled in another breath of cold air. “He’s a little bit jealous… or maybe a lot bit. Doing stuff like this makes him feel like he’s not the loser in the family… by making me seem like a loser instead.”
Bear’s face was a dark storm, his eyes like lightning bolts aimed right at me. “You are not a loser. You are the opposite of a loser, Zane.”
I felt the intensity in my chest and tried to deflect it with a joke. “So, that makes me a winner?”
Bear refused to be distracted. “That man does not get to use you as currency,” he said, pointing his arm back down the hill as if Barlo, Georgia, was in that direction. For all I knew, it was. “He doesn’t get to sell his connection with you to the highest bidder.”
I knew what he meant. JK had been trying to build up a social media presence in order to make bank from it. The guy was desperate for money, which meant Violet’s security team kept an eye on him, knowing he’d be susceptible to bribes for personal information about me. Fortunately, he hadn’t had much personal information about me that I hadn’t already shared freely with the world…
Until now.
“I’ll offer him money to sign an NDA,” I suggested.
“I’ll offer him something else,” he snapped, punching his fist into his palm with a smack. “And you’re not rewarding him for this behavior. No fucking way.”
“Ryan,” I said firmly. “No. It has to be hard for him. He grew up just like me, and yet I lucked into this big—”
“Lucked? Lucked? No. And don’t you dare Ryan me.” Those brown eyes I could usually curl up in were practically on fire now with anger on my behalf. “Zane, tell me you don’t actually believe that. You work your ass off. Despite your shitty upbringing, you worked hard enough to get a full ride to a great school. You took advantage of it by working harder still and learning as much as you could so you could pursue your music dream. John-Keith couldn’t even keep the job your uncle got him as an HVAC tech. He didn’t want to wake up on time and do the work.”
I was kind of surprised at the level of detail Bear had picked up from bits and pieces of things said in his presence over the past year. He was right, though. JK had been given many opportunities, including several I’d offered him directly. None of them had interested him.
“He has a job. He’s a lawn care tech,” I said.
Bear closed his eyes and took in a breath before responding. “Yes. Correct. And he’s been doing that work for about five minutes, earning much less than he could if he followed in Bart’s footsteps. We all know where his lucrative weed-killer career is going.”
He was right. But I still tried to give JK the benefit of the doubt because if I agreed with Bear and acknowledged even to myself that my cousin was using me… where did that leave me? With one less person I could count on. With one less person who loved me and who I could consider a true friend. Thousands of screaming fans every night, but in the end… it was just me in the Solo Hour.
I started to walk again, hoping to at least wear out my muscles before having to go inside and face the PR disaster. Bear kept up with me, silently simmering with rage.