CHAPTER 13

JARED

“Why am I even here, man?” Caleb asked me, his eyes darting around the private room of Club Navarro. He looked somewhat confused as he raised his shot of Patron. I mirrored his actions, clinked my glass to his, and slammed it back, both of our glasses double-tapping on the table when we were done.

“Why not? I invited you because I wanted to spend some time with you. What’s wrong with that?” Club Navarro was one of the hottest clubs in town at the moment, and scoring a private room was a feat that I was proud of. Caleb didn’t seem too impressed.

The room was decked out with its own bar, a small stage in the center, a couple of booths around it, and the same music that was playing in the club pounded through sunken speakers. There was the option to choose your own music, but Caleb and I had agreed on keeping it this way for now.

Lights with red shades around them were affixed to the wall, causing everything, including Caleb’s hair, to take on a faintly reddish glow. Combined with the scowl on his face, it made him look slightly devilish. Funny as fuck. Not that he’d think so.

Taking a long pull of his Beringer’s, a crease appeared between his dark eyebrows as he repeated my question back to me. “Why not? Because we haven’t hung out, just the two of us, in forever. So why now?”

My feet tapped to the rhythm of the music as I spun my tumbler of Scotch on the table between us. “Things have been strained for a while now. I know that. I just want to be on good terms with my brother. That’s all. I need to know that you’re okay, little bro. I haven’t liked the way that things have been going down between us lately, and I thought partying together would help us work shit out.”

It was just Caleb and me tonight. I hadn’t invited the other guys. The booze was flowing, and while one of my missions was making sure that Caleb and I were okay, the other was getting him laid. I was preparing to invite some woman into the room with us, but Caleb was fidgeting with his drink and looked like he needed to get something off his chest.

“What’s eating at you?” I asked him, pouring the last of my drink down my throat and signaling to our personal bartender for another. “Talk to me.”

The faint light in the private room played off Caleb’s features, making him seem more like my little brother and less like the brooding, moody rocker that the world knew him as now. He seemed to be thinking of how he wanted to say whatever it was he needed to.

“I just kind of liked it better before, you know? Before we really made it big, when we knew we had enough money to keep us going and enough gigs lined up to keep us on stage, but without all the drama and fanfare.”

“The last few years have been kind of crazy, haven’t they?” It had been just over two years since we had our first big break, but time had both flown and crawled by in the meantime. In a way, I thought we were all still coming to grips with fame, while in another way, the old days felt so far off that they almost belonged to a different lifetime.

Caleb nodded, his eyes locked on his drink. The bartender delivered my new one and had the foresight of mind to bring another for Caleb as well. We both nodded our thanks to the man and nursed our drinks as we thought.

“Crazy is one way of putting it,” he said, taking another long drink. “Downright fucking insane is another. But it never seems to overwhelm you.”

“I just don’t think about before, all that often. We busted our balls to get here. I remember a time that your fingers actually bled from practicing for so many hours nonstop. This is what we were working toward. Why doesn’t it look like you’re enjoying it?”

“I am,” Caleb protested, too fast to be entirely believable. “It’s just, I know how much we wanted this. I remember how hard we worked for it. Sometimes, everything we went through to get here is nothing but a vague memory. It just feels like everything is going so fast.”

“Life in the fast lane.” I smirked. “It’s what we wanted.”

“I know, but it all feels so new sometimes. I guess I’m just still settling into the insanity of all this, and it gets to me.” The heavy weight of admission seemed to lift from his shoulders and make him sit a little bit taller.

Nodding slowly, I was relieved that his profile was a little less hunched, and I was determined to make him leave here never having to carry that weight again. “I know. It feels like one day we were nobodies, and the next, we were this sensation that everybody wanted a piece of. Doesn’t matter whether it’s a piece of our bodies, money, or fame. Everybody wants a part of us. I get how that feels.”

Caleb’s elbow was propped on the table, his glass hanging from his fingers as he took in my expression. “If you get that, why does it always look like you’re having the time of your life and never worried about any of it?”

“Because I am having the time of my life. I’m trying to enjoy every fucking second of it. It doesn’t get to me because I don’t let it. I just don’t let myself think about it that way. I drink, I get laid, and I don’t worry about everything so much. I’m strapped into this rollercoaster, I chose the front seat, and I’m not hanging onto the safety bar, wishing it will be over soon.”

Caleb shifted in his seat, took a sip of his drink, and tipped his chin to give me a meaningful look. “It’s not that easy. And it’s not like I’m wishing the ride was over. I’m just struggling with not wanting to grab onto the safety bar. The world is watching, so it’s not like I can hang onto it and scream like a little girl.”

“Of course, you can. Fuck what anyone else thinks. Pretty sure anyone who knows you can see that you’re struggling. It doesn’t matter what anyone who doesn’t know you thinks, anyway. You want my advice?”

He didn’t say anything for a minute, didn’t nod or shake his head. He simply stared at the clear liquid in his glass before lifting his eyes to mine. “Sure, why not? Have at it.”

Taking a sip of my drink, I was relieved to find that we were past the point of the evening where it burned on its way down, my throat numbed by all the drinks and shots that had come before it. “Follow my example. Drink whatever you want, fuck whoever you want, and try not to worry about things that are out of our control. We made it this far, and we have the album coming out soon. Beyond that, man, just live your life and try to enjoy it a little in the meantime. Hang onto your balls and jump in.”

“Okay, let’s say that I agree to trying to do things your way. Where do you suggest we start?” If skepticism had a face, it would’ve been my brother’s right now.

I downed what was left in my tumbler and stood up. “We go find some women to fill this room with, and we have a good fucking time. Stick with me, bro. I’ll make you famous.”

Caleb laughed, tossed the rest of his drink down his throat, and slammed his glass down. “Isn’t that kind of the problem? But yeah, let’s go find some girls to party with. I’m getting kind of bored with you, anyway.”

Delivering a light punch to his shoulder, I led the way out of the private room and back into the crowded club. “That’s what I’m talking about.”

Caleb and I made our way to the dance floor, where bodies were writhing to the pulsing beat of the dance music under the flashing lights overhead. It didn’t take us long to zero in on some targets and invite them back to our room.

After more than a few selfies taken with fans and a couple of body parts autographed, we had at least a half-dozen women in tow, and we made it back to the safety of our private enclave.

An exotic beauty stood next to me at our bar. She had on a tiny little black dress that matched her eyes and her hair. Her hips swayed to the music as she ordered a vodka tonic. I chatted with her for a while, waited until my drink was refilled, and moved on to drink with and talk to some of the other ladies in attendance. Caleb and I were both working the room, careful to keep clear of any woman the other had his eye on. It was a dance we’d perfected a long time ago, and we fell into its rhythm easily.

The exotic girl trailed behind me, stabbing at the lime in her drink with a swizzle stick. I got settled in one of the booths and motioned her over. I was horny as fuck, and I was seriously considering her as a contender to sleep with.

“What’s your name, babe?” I asked her, my thigh brushing up against hers lightly underneath the table. The pleasantries we’d exchanged at the bar hadn’t covered names yet.

She kept stabbing at that lime and seemed almost too nervous to meet my eyes. “It’s Genevieve. You don’t need to tell me yours. I know who you are, Jared Larsen.”

“Well, it’s nice to meet you Genevieve. That lime do something to offend you?”

A giggle erupted from her pink lips, but she shook her head. “No, I just never thought that I would meet you, like, you know, in the flesh. Now I’m here with both Larsen brothers, and it seems kind of crazy.”

Her eyes alternated between Caleb and myself, and I knew that she was feeling a bit star struck. It wasn’t anything that I hadn’t dealt with before, so I knew that getting this one to my bed was going to mean putting in a little bit more effort than some of the others might have taken. I was going to have to get her to loosen up first.

But I was up for the challenge and figured the extra effort would be well worth my while. As opposed to fucking another seasoned groupie with an agenda and a fake smile.

An hour later, though, I was confused and frustrated that she hadn’t succumbed to my charms yet. The only upside was that Caleb was heading out with a bubbly blonde who’d been perched in his lap for nearly half an hour.

I was pleased that Mission: Get-Caleb-Laid seemed to be venturing into the territory of success, but my dick didn’t like that we weren’t on the fast track to joining that territory. The door shut behind Caleb and his girl, and I was leaning forward to up my game with Genevieve when a commotion from the other side of the door caught my attention. I was on my feet in the same second, yanking it open to find Caleb scuffling with some preppy-looking guy.

Another guy was rounding on Caleb, clearly about to jump on him, when I entered the melee. Without even having to think about it, my fist was flying toward the other guy’s face, and it connected with a satisfying crunch against his nose.

The guy was wearing a surprised expression, blood pouring from his nostrils as he collapsed in a heap on the floor. Moving to get my brother’s back, I pulled the guy off him and caught him in a chokehold before shouting to my brother, “What the fuck, dude? Calm down, would ya?”

I shoved the guy away from us with a warning. “Get the fuck out of here.”

Then I went for my brother, placing my hands on his shoulders to keep him from going after the asshole. “It’s not worth it. Let him go.”

Caleb kept struggling against me until security arrived, and he fought against them, too, still desperate to go after the other guy. My immediate protective instincts for him and the rage boiling my blood from seeing someone go after my little brother calmed down enough for me to notice the phones pointed in our direction, filming every minute of what was happening.

Fuck.

Even if I had been thinking about my bet with Alicia when I saw those guys get the jump on Caleb, I still would have jumped in to get his back. It sucked to lose, and now, I had a few calls that I needed to make.