Chapter 27
Kellan
I run my hands down my face. Fuck! I think I just fucked up the best thing to ever happen to me. I punch the wall, before walking out of the bedroom.
All the guys are there, staring at me.
“Don’t say anything. I need time to think.”
“I think you need more than time to think, you ass.” I hear murmured as I exit the bus.
That night Maddox has us in a hotel instead of on the bus. He got Katy her own room, which is fine with me. I need the time to get my head on straight.
I’m in my room getting ready for the show when there is a knock on the door.
Opening it, Maddox is standing there.
“We’re leaving in five to head to the venue. The car is waiting,” is all he says before turning and leaving. I know he is pissed at me, hel al the guys are. I just can’t seem to wrap my head around everything.
I don’t see Katy again, before we have got to go on. I know, I fucked up royally.
I’m in the artist lounge, about a half of bottle of vodka in, when two women walk into the room.
“Can I help you?”
They look at each other, before sauntering over toward me. “Sure, you can.”
I wake to the sound of commotion. I reach for Katy, and when I catch the scent of the woman beside me, I know it’s not Katy.
My eyes spring open and I sit straight up, just as the door opens.
“Katy, wait!”
“Maddox, I need to talk to him.”
“Kel…”
Oh fuck! I look to the woman in my bed, then back to the door, where Katy is now standing, looking at me.
“I can explain…I think.”
Katy doesn’t say anything, just turns and walks back out the door, slamming it shut.
“Katy, wait!!” I yel at the door.
The woman that is beside me, gets up, looks at me, says, “my job here is done,” grabs her clothes and leaves the room.
What in the hel does that mean? I honestly don’t know, but my head is hurting so bad right now, I surprised my eyes are still open.
Later that day, I am sitting on the couch in my room, when my phone rings. Hoping it’s Katy, I look down at it, it’s Bradley. I answer it.
I don’t even say hello. “You got news?”
“Dude, these people are seriously crazy.”
“Why, what did you find.”
“Let’s start with Colt first.”
“Ok.”
“His name is Colt Harrison Black. He doesn’t stay in one place long. It appears he is a con artist. He prays on older rich people. Once he gets them to trust him and sign over some, if not all of their millions, he leaves and moves on to the next.”
“What about Ms. Black?” I ask.
“She is the sister of Mr. Colt Black.
She apparently is his side kick for lack of a better word. Those papers she gave you are fake and she was only doing it so that Katy would leave you and go back to Colt. She is married to a high-profile Senator.”
“Send me everything you have.
Thanks dude.”
“Yeap.”
I go to find Katy, when I don’t find her in her room, I assume she is on the bus, so, I head that way. When I step on, Maddox puts a hand on my chest.
I look down at his hand, before saying,
“What?”
“You’re one of my best friends and it’s a good thing you are, otherwise I would kick the crap out of you, right now.”
“I know I fucked up, but I have to make this right with Katy first.”
He nods, and I head toward the bedroom.
Opening the door, I see it’s empty. There’s a note on the bed.
Kellan,
I’ve gone home. I’m sorry all of this happened, mostly I’m sorry about us. When you told me that I didn’t love you and didn’t know the meaning of the word, that really hurt me. I’ve only wanted you for so long, it’s crazy really. I thought you knew me better than anyone else, but from what you
said to me, I have concluded I was wrong.
Just when I thought we could work through this, I come into your room and find you with another woman. I love you, but cheating is the one thing I can’t forgive or forget, besides that, you don’t trust me or believe me. What we had these past several months, I wil never forget. So, I believe best if we end this now before it gets any worse.
It crushes me to say that, but I think it’s what’s best. I love you and always wil . I hope someday we can be friends again but for now, I’m asking that you give me some space.
Love always,
Katy
I crush the letter as I feel my heart shatter into a million pieces. This is all my fault.
I’ve tried to call Katy every day for the last week, to no avail. It either isn’t turned on or she is hitting ignore as it goes
straight to voicemail. I even called the store, only to be told she was off.
I’m sitting on the bus with my head leaned back against the back of the couch when someone sits beside me. Turning my head, Dane is staring at me.
“What?”
“How bad did you fuck up?”
I turn my head back around, “real bad.”
“What happened?”
“You all know we got into a fight on the bus, and let’s just say, I said some really awful stuff and I ended up in the bed with someone else, and she walked in on us.
Funny thing is, I don’t know how I even got to bed. The last thing I remember is being in the artist lounge.”
“She loves you, just give her some time. If you’re lucky she might forgive you.”
I squeeze my eyes closed, “I don’t know. I told her she didn’t know what the word
love meant and that since I caught her kissing that prick, that I knew she was lying to me, and was probably telling Colt the same thing.”
Dane lets out a smal laugh, “Dude when you fuck up, you do it good, huh? Listen, the first thing I want you to do is really think, ok?”
“Yeah, ok.”
“When you came out of the back
door, what did you really see? Not, what you thought you saw, but what you really saw?”
I close my eyes and think back to that night.
I opened the door, saw Katy pressed up against the bus her hands-on Colt’s shoulders, but she wasn’t pul ing him closer, no she was…fuck! I sit straight up. I look at Dane. “She was trying to push him away.”
Dane just smiles, “Kel an. Katy has been in love with you for a long time and you were
the only one who didn’t know it. She would never do anything to jeopardize losing you.”
“Now, the second thing I want you to do is think back to the night in the artist lounge. What were you doing when the woman came in? If you can retrace your steps maybe you can put the events together.”
Then, he hands me a magazine. I look down at it. On the front page is a picture of me punching Colt with Katy standing in the background eyes wide. Fuck, here we go with the stories. I remember the look on Katy’s face when I was throwing hateful words at her, and then the look on her face when she saw me in bed with that chick.
It’s time I fixed this mess. I can’t lose her.
“I need to call a band meeting. I need the rest of the guys.”
Once we are al gathered back on the bus, I start. “Look, I’m sorry about all this mess. I have to fix it and I need your help.”
I tell them about what Bradley told me.
Then, I tel them about that night on the bus, and the artist lounge, al the way up until Katy walked into my room, followed by my plan to get her back.
Two days later, I have a meeting with Colt and Ms. Brown. I wait for them to enter the restaurant before I go in.
Just as I’m about to open the door, Maddox steps into my path.
“I need to tell you something before you go in there.”
“Ok, go ahead. I’m listening.”
“That girl, the one you were in bed with. Wel , I tracked her down. Her name is Sara, she’s twenty-two and works for one Mrs. Brown. Actually, her husband but anyways Mrs. Brown paid her two thousand dollars to make it look like you cheated on Katy.”
“What the hel ?”
“Oh, and another thing. You didn’t actually sleep with her. She said you were too drunk to actually do anything, so she made it look like you did.”
“Wel son of a bitch!”
I look down at the copy of papers in my hands that Bradley sent me, then back to Maddox. Wel , here goes nothing.
When Colt sees me, he rises. Mrs. Brown just stares at me.
“Sit.”
“We have nothing to talk about.”
“Sure, we do. Sit.”
“I’m meeting someone.”
“You’re looking at that someone.
Katy’s not coming.”
He stares at me for a minute before final y, slowly, sitting. “What do you want?”
I glance over at Mrs. Brown, she has a smirk on her face.
“Did you enjoy that little girl the other night?”
Wel , shit! I wasn’t expecting her to bring it up but since she did, I wil be damned if I let her know she accomplished exactly what she set out to do. So instead of answering her, I turn my attention back to Colt.
“See, here’s the deal. I know that you are a con and that your bitch of a sister here, is also a con. I also know that she is married to a Senator. So, you are going to leave Katy alone and I won’t expose you and what you do to everyone.”
I turn and face Mrs. Brown.
“You are going to leave and never show your face around again. You are to never bother me or Katy ever again. If you don’t, I wil take every piece of evidence to your husband and expose you.”
The color drains from her face.
“You can’t be serious? All of this over some bitch. I didn’t see anything about her that is so great.”
I grit my teeth. “First, she is not a bitch and if you call her that again, I will call your husband right now and send him a copy of the paper I have that proves you had an abortion last year without his knowledge.”
Now, her mouth is hanging open.
“Second, I have papers right here that you both are going to sign, guaranteeing that you will leave us alone.”
I hand them the papers.
“And if we don’t do this?”
I smile. “Then, everyone will know exactly who you are and what you do and your sister here, well I already told her, however I also have pictures of her leaving and entering the abortion clinic. I also know that the baby wasn’t her husbands, but his best friends. Do you think once everyone knows, that you will still have a job or will be able
to get another one? That the people you have screwed wil leave this alone? I don’t. I think they will be after you before you can even get on a plane to run.”
He goes pale. “Fine.”
I watch as they both sign the papers.
I take the papers back and stand, leaving them sitting there. One problem corrected, now on to the other. I just hope it works.
When I get home, Maddox is already waiting. We waste no time getting to work on the next part of my plan.