Hudson was right—Eva was a problem.
I’d walked away once because I didn’t want her to come between me and Levi, but that was when I was never going to see her again. When I could push her to the recesses of my mind and keep her in my dreams.
But could I keep doing it?
Especially after kissing her again.
Fuck.
Everything was so fucking screwed up.
“Are you kidding me right now?” Hudson sneered. “The band is all I have, man, you know that. You, Levi, and Damon are my family, my brothers. You can’t blame me for wanting to protect that.”
Guilt snaked through me. He was right. Of course he was fucking right. We were all each other had; a fact that had kept our heads above water more than once.
“I’ll figure it out.”
“You’d better hurry the fuck up then before this thing goes sideways.” His anger melted away, replaced with a look of longing. “She’s just a girl, Rafe.”
Eva wasn’t just a girl to me though.
Just like I had a feeling Molly wasn’t just a girl to him.
But neither of us were ready to own up to how we really felt.
He stalked off, the walls of the bus closing in around me as I sat there, staring at the article. I usually avoided reading whatever rumor and gossip they printed about us, but I found myself greedily absorbing the words. The article painted Eva as a girl who had found herself plucked out of small-town life and thrown into the lion’s den. It even went as far as to suggest she might be the one to tame Levi’s wild ways. I scoffed at that—it had Alistair written all over it. He wanted to sell Eva as the band’s salvation. But the article walked a fine line between making her sound like a new friend while hinting at her becoming something more. Or maybe I was just crazy jealous every time her name and Levi’s came up in the same sentence.
“Yo, Rafe,” Damon’s voice filtered down the bus. “We have a meeting.”
“Meeting?” No one had said anything about a meeting.
I dropped the magazine on the table and ran a hand through my hair. The last two days had been grueling. There had been back-to-back interviews yesterday and Alistair had arranged for us to visit a local youth center in Dallas the day before. That had been fun, rocking out with their band. Then we’d signed a bunch of merch and taken photos with the amped up kids. We always tried to build in at least a handful of visits to centers such as the Fannie C Harris Youth Center, like the one that brought us together when we were just kids.
Eva and Letty hadn’t come with us. She had her own promotional stuff to do. Interviews. Appearances. The calls for Eva were coming in thick and fast, but she took it all in her stride. It had barely been a week since she joined us, but there was no denying fame looked good on her.
We hadn’t talked about the kiss... in fact, we hadn’t talked much at all. But when I stepped off the bus to find everyone waiting for me, including Eva and Letty, I sensed my attempts at us avoiding each other were over.
“What’s up?” I asked no one in particular.
Levi wore a shit-eating grin while Hudson looked fit to burst. “Do you want to tell him or should I?” Levi looked at Alistair who also seemed unusually happy.
“You can do the honors.” He gave my brother a nod.
“They want us.” Levi looked so freaking happy it hurt.
“They?” I frowned and he mumbled something under his breath before saying, “Masterpiece.”
“You’re shitting me?”
“I’m not.” He shook his head slowly. “It’s the dream, little brother.”
“I...” My head whipped around to Alistair. “It’s true? They want us?”
“It’s not a done deal yet, but yeah, it’s looking pretty solid. So if we’re not interrupting your little pity party for one,” his brow went up and Hudson snickered. “Dowager wants to meet today.”
“Hell yeah,” I choked out.
Masterpiece was the crème de la crème of sound equipment, and the sponsorship deal me and Levi had dreamed of ever since we signed with Razorsharp Records. Over the years, Masterpiece had endorsed some of rock’s biggest names: The Stones, Zeppelin, Ramones, and Pink Floyd but to name a few.
And now they wanted us.
My mind was officially blown. Until I realized Alistair wasn’t done.
“What changed his mind?” I asked.
Tim Dowager, their MD, had been dragging his feet on sealing a deal all because of concerns over our reputation—or more to the point, Levi’s instability. Alistair looked at Eva and I had my answer.
We all did.
“He only wants us if Eva’s part of the deal?” Hudson gawked at him.
“We can discuss this later.”
“That’s some bullshit right there, Ali, and you know it.”
“Hud,” Damon interjected.
“Nah, man, and no offense, Eva, but you’ve been here for two seconds and now Dowager wants to sign us? We’re not a package deal. People seem to be forgetting that Eva isn’t in the fucking band.”
She winced at that but held her ground. “If it makes you feel any better, I had no idea this was going to happen until just now.” Her eyes burned into the side of Alistair’s face.
“Dowager wants to talk. He’s likely to make an offer, an offer we can negotiate. Let’s at least go and see what he’s willing to put on the table.”
“We’re doing it,” Levi said. “We’ve wanted Masterpiece since the beginning. It’s like the holy grail of endorsements, everyone knows that. Are you really going to dig in your heels because they might want Eva to use their stuff for the rest of the tour?”
“Fine, whatever.” Hudson kicked the dirt with his boot. “Let’s see what he has to say.”
“Glad we got that settled.” Alistair strolled toward the Mercedes Van and climbed upfront while Levi and Damon got in the back.
“You agree with this?” Hudson asked me, his eyes flicking to where Eva and Letty stood, deep in hushed conversation.
“I don’t know, but Levi has a point, it’s Masterpiece.” Everything we’d always wanted.
“And if it ties us to her beyond the tour?”
Hudson’s words gave me pause. I’d been so focused on what happened during the tour, I hadn’t really stopped to consider what happened when it ended. Eva wasn’t signed to the label. Once the tour was over so was her contract. That was unlikely to be the case though if Masterpiece wanted her too.
“We’re still Black Hearts Still Beat, Hud, that’s never going to change.” But the second the words were out I felt the lie settle deep in my bones. Things were changing.
Eva was changing us.
And if we stayed on this road who only knew where we would end up.
The ride to Masterpiece’s HQ in downtown LA was tense. Hudson sat beside me, his foot tapping the floor. Usually, I would have put it down to his drummer’s mind, but today, I knew it was because he was agitated.
“Relax,” I whispered, nudging his shoulder.
“Easy for you to say.” His eyes flicked past me to where Eva sat on the other side of me. Letty had squeezed in beside Levi and Damon in the front row, giving me no choice but to sit in the back with Eva and Hudson.