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“I know you don’t.” I wish I’d worked it out so much sooner. I was such a damn idiot. “Because you never took it. Sonatina took the money. And blamed it on Kelsey.”

Kelsey’s eyes widen. “That bitch did what?”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Golden says.

I hear Bronx’s sharp breath. “Why would she do that?”

“To paint Kelsey in a bad light.” And I fell for it because I needed a reason beyond how I’d treated her for why she left me. I will never be able to show her how truly sorry I am for not taking her side. “Probably so Carmine would have a legitimate reason to blacklist you, Kelsey.”

“You think Carmine doesn’t know what his princess is up to.” Golden frowns.

“He might. He might not. Sonatina is always super sweet around him so there’s a chance he doesn’t know what his daughter is really like. But I doubt it. Either way, he’s devoted to his daughter. Kelsey assaulted her. He still would have gone after her for that. Having a valid reason to get rid of her and keep us in line just made it easier.” And I have been toeing the line ever since. I’ll keep doing so until everything that matters to me is safe. Kelsey from Sonatina. And L.A. Riot from being dropped by the label. Not sure how I’m going to pull both of those off together. “But that’s not the priority right now.”

Kodiak wraps a hand around Kelsey’s. “Go on.”

I focus on Kelsey once more. I need her to understand. “That’s why I’m going along with this engagement scheme of hers. Because I don’t have a choice. She threatened to take the theft to the cops.”

It’s not the first time she’s used Kelsey’s crime to keep me in line. But it is the first time she’s threatened to bring law enforcement into it. I have to take it seriously.

“So? I didn’t do it.” She’s practically levitating with her anger.

“I don’t think you get what she’s capable of,” I say.

“She had evidence.” Bronx glances at me and Golden. He hunkers into himself, even though he was the first of us to realize what bullshit we’d been spun. “We all saw it. Except Kodiak. He wasn’t around yet. It was legitimately believable, Kels. Enough that we questioned it.”

“Holy shit.” She’s statue still as she processes. Her voice is devastatingly low, full of hurt. “You mean you questioned me.”

“If you’d seen the evidence they had,” Golden starts.

“No. It shouldn’t have mattered. You knew me. You knew how much I cared about the band. And each of you. We were friends.”

“Kels—” he tries again. “You walked—”

“Fuck you. I would never have questioned you.” She shuts him down hard. Shuts us all down with a look of pure hurt. She stands slowly, lifting her jaw as she straightens. “I would have questioned the evidence. The people behind it. I would have fought for you. For all of you.”

Her mouth contorts as she tries to keep her emotions under control, but they fight to break through anyway. She turns to Bronx. “And fuck you too. You should have told me all of this before you convinced me to come back.”

“I knew you didn’t do it. I asked you about it... and you had no idea, plus the state of you... it was obvious you didn’t take it,” he says sadly. “But if I’d told you, you wouldn’t have come—”

“You’re damn right I wouldn’t have.”

“He believed you weren’t at fault before the rest of us,” I stand up for Bronx, but we—as a band and as her friends—have a lot to make up for. I have so much to make up for. “He’d already decided when he brought you home to us. But we all should have known better.”

“Mostly, fuck you.” She glares at me as Kodiak climbs to his feet, ready for whatever comes next. Probably a hasty exit. “Fuck you for sleeping with her. Fuck you for believing her and Carmine over me. I was your best friend long before I was your manager or your girlfriend. You knew me better than anyone in this world, Riot. You knew I would never do anything to hurt you. That should have counted for something. But it wasn’t enough for you to trust me, was it?”

She presses her fingertips to her eyes and lets out a controlled and quiet roar that tells me she has so much more she wants to say. Things that we all deserve to hear and take the blame for. Especially me.

Getting up, I limp to her. She once said that all we had to do was stick together and nothing would be able to get between us. I failed her. I let Sonatina come between us. Not because of what happened at the wedding. But because of what I didn’t do afterward. I should have stood up for her. I should have believed in her. I was so hurt by her leaving that I forgot how to be her friend.

Well, not anymore. I grasp her upper arms gently and close the gap between us, but not all the way because if that’s to happen it has to be up to her. “I’m going to find the truth. Evidence that Sonatina was behind the missing money. I promise I’m going to make sure she can’t hurt you anymore.”

“By being engaged to her?” She stands stiffly in front of me. “By making me watch you two act like you’re in love. Don’t you see how screwed up that is?”

“It’s the only way—”

“I don’t believe that.” She steps out of my reach and into Kodiak’s arms, her back finding his chest. She puts her trust and safety in his hands instead of mine. And I can’t even argue because she’s making what she sees as the smart choice.

But I’m making the right choice for us too. Even if she can’t see that yet. “I need to keep Sonatina appeased until we have the weapon to bring her down. I’m not giving up on us. I’m—”