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Whatever I have to.

Whatever it takes to keep Kelsey safe. And the band together. And our fans happy.

And me... I need to ruin this bitch, so I don’t feel so damn pathetic about what she did to me. How am I going to be the man Kelsey deserves when I couldn’t be man enough to control my environment? Or my own body?

“Riot?” She touches my arm and my soul quiets. Everything inside me becomes less painful. “What is wrong?”

“Nothing.” I push away the ick that has taken up residence inside me. I can’t tell her the truth. She won’t believe me. She’ll think I’m making excuses and trying to shirk my part in destroying us. It’ll only make things worse between us. “Nothing at all.”

“You’re lying to me,” she says quietly. “Your face gives you away.”

“Christ, Kelsey.” I shake her off and take a long hit from the joint to give myself a second to compose myself. “You don’t have to like that I’m protecting you. You just have to deal with the fact that’s what I’m going to do. We have bigger concerns than me faking an engagement—”

“That’s what you’re going with?” She stiffens.

“Fuck yes, it is.” I drop the remains of my smoke on the ground. Grind it out. Pick it up and flick it at the ashtray nearby.

“Fine. If that’s your decision...”

The glint in her eye makes me want to take a step back. But I won’t. She can be angry all she wants. Think I don’t want her. That I’m letting her down again. “It is.”

“Great.” She flips her hair as she zeroes in on Rook. “Then here’s a choice I can make that doesn’t involve you.”

She saunters toward our bodyguard. “Rook?”

“Yes, Kelsey.” He leaves the spot where he posted himself.

She stops close enough to him that in his current attentive stance they nearly touch. “I need you to do something for me.”

She’s going to leave. But at least she’ll be guarded. He can take her back to the hotel, and she can stew over my decision. Hate me as much as she needs to. I’m going to work out how to make her understand that this is best for all of us.

“What do you need, Kelsey?”

She presses up on the balls of her feet and leans in. She plucks at something on his shirt. “One kiss?”

Rook looks at me almost apologetically. He’s going to concede. “Kelsey—”

“Don’t you fucking dare.” The words come out of somewhere dark inside me. It’s one thing for her to have fun with the guys. It’s not fucking okay for her to mess with our security or anyone else outside the four of us.

Glancing over her shoulder, she narrows her deadly gaze on me before she plants her mouth over his.

My mouth hangs open. I’m sure of it. My heart is pounding in my ears. Knowing she’s fucked around with my bandmates while shutting me out has been one gut punch after another. But I’ve taken them because I’ve deserved them.

This is different. It makes me want to march over and rip her away from Rook.

His hands hover from his sides as he fights to put them on her. Because of course she has that impact on him too.

Mouth snapping shut, I grit my teeth. All the tension the joint had melted from my muscles rushes back in. Spots dance in front of my eyes, turning the image of her slipping her tongue into his mouth a grainy red haze.

And then she’s letting him go. Taking a step back. Brushing imaginary dust from his shoulders.

“Kelsey, I’m old enough to be your father.” His voice is raw. It’s fucking gravel.

“Daddy Rook.” She winks at him. “It suits you.”

He chokes on the title she’s bestowed on him. Starts to cough. Thumps his fist to his chest a couple of times as his eyes bulge.

My eye twitches. She called him that to spite me.