Ty’s face drained of color, he looked like he was about to faint.
“Zoey, baby. I need to tell you something.”
“Excuse me—” Ronni softly knocked on the door interrupting my tirade.
“What?” I whirled around and screeched at her, and then found my manners. “I’m sorry, it’s just been—”
“I understand.” She smiled warmly at me. “Believe me I’ve been there.”
“Oh, that’s right. You also think it’s fine to have your publicists plant a bunch of fake shit.”
Ronni’s face froze into a fake smile.
“We’ll be right out, Ronni,” Ty said, never taking his eyes off me.
“Katherine has been trying to get you, she just called me. I just wanted to give you your phone.” Ronni handed it to Ty. “Zoey, Sienna said she has something for you to approve before she sends it out. I’ll leave you both alone, I’ll be in Connor’s suite across the hall.”
“Ronni, I’m sorry. I’ve been rude to you, it’s not personal. I just—”
“Don’t worry about it. Everyone has the same reaction the first time something like this happens, then you get thicker skin.” She smiled and pinched her arm before exiting the bedroom, and then the suite.
Well at least Ronni did seem nice.
“I need to call Katherine back,” Ty implored. “Then I need to talk to you, It’s important.”
“Fine. I’ll go see what Sienna wants to show me.”
The poignant look on Ty’s face made me stop. “No matter what happens, we’re in this together, Z. If you want to go home and hibernate, say the word. You are the most valuable part of my life. Nothing is more important to me than making sure you’re okay. I’m going to fire them as soon as I get off the phone.”
I sighed and left Ty in the bedroom and shuffled out to see the enemy, who was sitting on the windowsill waiting for her prey. Andrew was nowhere to be seen.
“What is it?” My voice was weary. Defeated.
“Ty never told you about us, did he?” Sienna’s cold gaze narrowed as I approached.
Walking out into the living area, I thought I was at the bottom of the well. What happened next closed the lid on top of it.
Sienna turned her tablet around to a video of her giving Ty a blowjob. Red lips suctioned the same magnificent cock that I’d memorized every millimeter of. Despite the jerky motions of the camera, his face was slack with pleasure. I couldn’t look away, which meant that I saw her suck him off to completion. My mind felt like a vortex of agony. A million icepicks pierced my body at the same time that a billion shards of glass cut me to shreds.
My stomach lurched. I turned and ran for the door, knowing I was going to throw up. I had to get far away from this room and Ty or I would literally implode. Bursting into the hallway, I bolted for the elevator. I could hear Sienna’s laugh trail behind me when the door slammed shut. I must have taken Sergey by surprise because I was already inside the elevator, pressing the button for the lobby when he figured out that I was doing a runner.
I turned and glared at him, hoping he didn’t dare follow.
He ignored me but stood on the other side of the cab. We rode down in uncomfortable silence. The second the door opened, before he could grab me, I sprinted into the lobby where I was besieged by a swarm of camera flashes. Desperate to get away, I whirled around, saw a side exit, and made a beeline for it.
I knew Sergey was close behind, but I managed to escape to the street where I hoped to blend into the crowd and disappear. Even I should have known it was a terrible plan. More paparazzi accosted me, closing in and screaming my name. Fighting my way through the crowd like a panicked mustang, I found an opening and burst through. My momentum carried me into oncoming traffic. The last thing I remember was a taxi barreling toward me.
Because after that everything went black.
Chapter 30
TYSON
A couple of hours out of surgery, my fragile butterfly lay in her hospital bed, sedated and sleeping. Sergey was in the room down the hall. He’d taken the brunt of the impact of the taxi and suffered a fractured hip, but he’d saved her life. Zoey tore a ligament in her shoulder, broke her arm and three ribs, and suffered pretty gnarly road rash. Thank God they expected she’d fully recover, but the nurses and doctor wouldn’t tell me much about her condition other than that.
They wouldn’t let me sit with her. Or even see her. According to the hospital, I was technically nothing to Zoey. The doctors and nurses recognized me from the band but, apparently, my insistence that she was my live-in girlfriend needed verification. Destroyed and helpless, I had to make do by pacing the waiting room and peering into the glass panel of her door.
While she was in the operating room, I’d made the horrific phone call to her parents letting them know she had been injured and that a chartered plane was waiting to get them here as soon as possible. I played the celebrity card and Seattle’s best orthopedic specialist was also on the flight. They’d all be landing soon. It was the least I could do. Zoey and Sergey were both injured because of me. It was my responsibility to make sure they both had the very best medical care here and back at home.
Zoey’s outburst at the hotel had shocked me with some cold-hard truth. It also snapped me out of abdicating responsibility for my life, yet again, to people other than myself. After my call with Katherine, I’d gone into the living room to
