Daryl inhabited his usual spot in front of the door to Tori’s suite. He looked up when he saw me coming. If I expected any sympathy for my busted lip and the fourteen hours I’d spent in custody, I wasn’t getting it from him.

Pulling the room key out of my pocket, I attempted a carefree swagger. Hard to do since the cops had taken my shoelaces, and my boots were sliding off my feet with every step.

“We need to talk,” he rumbled, blocking my path.

Blinking slowly with heavy lids, I shook my head. “Not now, dude.”

I needed a shower, a warm bed, and Tori. Maybe Tori in the shower. I smiled at that.

Daryl wasn’t amused. “Did you see all those reporters downstairs?”

Glancing down at his fingers coiled around my bicep in a death grip, I raised a brow. “You want to remove that fucking hand, or you want me to remove it for you?”

Unfazed, he spat from behind clenched teeth, “What I really want is for you to tell me why you and Tori went for a sunrise stroll without informing me.”

A stroll?

Images floated through my mind like snowflakes. Tori on her knees in the chapel. The small smile that lifted her lips after she lit the candle. Amber eyes filled with tears.

I inhaled a controlled breath. “She wanted to go to church.”

It was the truth. Sort of.

A vein pulsed in Daryl’s jaw. “I’m supposed to be protecting her.”

Maybe it was the exhaustion or the strain of the day. Or maybe I was tired of pretending. But the truth uncoiled like a snake from deep in my belly. “No, man. I’m supposed to be protecting her!” I jabbed a finger at my chest. “Me! She’s my …”

Everything.

And when did that happen?

A memory of an awful night in an unfamiliar home when a little girl pressed a penny into my hand crowded my thoughts.

Then.

Tori was everything then and she was everything now.

Daryl’s arm dropped to his side. “It’s not your job to protect her.”

I met his gaze. “Maybe not. But I want it to be.”

It was more than I’d admitted to anyone. Even myself. Squaring my shoulders, I waited for Daryl to tell me all the ways I’d fall short of my goal. That I couldn’t protect Tori, not from the reporters downstairs or the darkness that lived behind her eyes. Or from me.

But Daryl merely nodded and then reclaimed his spot against the wall.

I stuck the key in the lock, offering a small, grateful smile before the door slid shut behind me. Pale moonbeams poured through the window, the only light in the suite. Yanking off my T-shirt as I crossed the room, I wrinkled my nose at the dank sent of jail clinging to my skin. It was an odd mix of desperation, sweat, and hopelessness. And maybe a few tears thrown in from the kids who’d wound up behind bars because of one bad choice. That was me once.

Lost in thought, I failed to notice the closed door separating the adjoining suites until I was right in front of it.

What the fuck?

Pain shot from my bruised knuckles as I rapped against the wood. “Tori … open the door.” Getting no answer, I pounded with a closed fist. “Tori!”

The door swung open, and amber eyes locked onto mine. My heart swelled with relief, and I dipped my head to kiss her, but she scrambled back. “I can’t. Just … stay away, Lo.”

A laugh fell from my lips, but it was all wrong. Like this scene. “What do you mean, ‘stay away’?”

Despite the ludicrous request, I propped my shoulder against the doorframe with every intention of following her wishes. Until she rubbed her hip and winced.

She was in pain.

Dropping to my knees in front of her, I ran a hand up her outer thigh. “How bad is it? Show me. Do you need to go to the hospital?”

Tori shuddered, crossing her arms over her chest. “I’m fine. Just a little sore.”

In my periphery, I noticed my duffel bag and my guitar sitting by the chair with my jacket slung over the top. “You want to tell me what’s going on here?”

Spinning around, she stalked to the table and grabbed a handful of papers. “Why don’t you tell me about this first?” She shoved Mac’s contract in my face. “Or were you planning on waiting ‘until’ …”

I sank onto my heels. “Where did you get that?”

Tori’s face crumbled, and in that moment, I knew that she’d hoped for something else. Some kind of declaration to explain away the documents in her hand. Whatever it was that bound us, I felt it snap when she swiped a determined hand over the tear that spilled onto her cheek. “So you’re leaving the band?”

“No.” I shook my head. “Fuck … no … I just …”

“You just what? Failed to mention that the man who wants to destroy me offered you a deal?”

Lifting my gaze, I pleaded without words. “I didn’t know he was trying to destroy you, Victoria.”

“What?” she croaked, incredulous. “You read the contract! It’s all there. All the clauses about Twin Souls and providing information. What did you think Mac was going to use that for?”

My throat closed around the litany of excuses, denying them air. But my silence trapped the truth as well.

I didn’t read it. I couldn’t.

After a long moment, Tori straightened her spine. “I’m going back to Austin,” she said, her tone flat and emotionless. “Trevor thinks it would be a good idea so the story won’t hold any water.”

I blinked up at her, confused. “What story?”

“Us.”