“Fuck.” It was worse than I’d thought. I gripped the glass so hard that I feared it might shatter in my hand.
I closed my eyes, the image of a young Eva crying and humiliated. No wonder she had trust issues. Those images morphed into all the ways I wanted to make Ian Flynn pay for that.
“Eva left the group after that. I mean, who could blame her? I assumed she had gone back home, back to her family. It was only later that I discovered that wasn’t the case. Ian eventually let it slip that her parents had forbidden her from being part of a band and that Eva had defied them and run away.
“It took me a while and a good amount of money, but I finally found her in a women’s shelter. She was working two menial, minimum wage jobs. I offered her an alternative. I gave her a place to stay and a job in the office. Made sure she got the prenatal care she needed. I even offered to marry her.”
My mouth dropped open, making Ross chuckle.
“I guess she didn’t tell you that, huh?”
“No, she failed to mention that.”
“Even as broken as she was, Eva told me it wouldn’t be fair to me. That I was a good man and I deserved someone who would love me with more than brotherly affection. And yet, even her ‘brotherly affection’ burned brighter, truer than any other woman’s feelings for me ever had.”
Yeah, I had no trouble believing that.
“Anyway, long story short, Eva became my right hand and eventually my business partner. She’s an invaluable asset to Backstage Pass and all the artists who’ve walked through the doors, including you. She helped me turn my fledgling company into the multibillion-dollar enterprise you see today.”
It was a great story, but in the grand scheme of things, it served no purpose other than to fill in a few blanks and stoke a cold, murderous rage for Ian Flynn in my heart. Yet I also knew that Ross was a clever bastard and did nothing without reason.
“Why are you telling me all this?”
His eyes glittered for a moment, as if he was pleased I’d caught on. “Because you need to know. Just like you need to know that my brother has finally realized the error of his ways and wants Eva back.”
That was unexpected. “What?”
“Ian’s in the twilight of his career, and he knows it. Under different circumstances, it could have gone on for a while yet, but Ian pissed it all away over the years, and not even I can salvage his career at this point. Without it, he has nothing else. No wife, no home, no family. No one who cares if he slips away and is never heard from again. Now that he’s seen Eva again and spent some time with the boys, he’s finally realizing he fucked up, and he wants another chance.”
I swirled the amber liquid in my glass, staring at it as if it held the answers to the universe. “Will that make Eva happy?”
“Christ, I thought you were smarter than that,” Ross barked, shaking his head. “She’s in love with you, not my idiot brother. The question is, what are you going to do about it?”
That was the question, wasn’t it?
“I don’t know. She’s not answering my calls or texts. I’d hoped she’d get my online message—”
“Everyone saw your message, everyone except Eva, until I called and told her about it. At least, I’m assuming she did. Her online presence is practically nonexistent these days.”
I lifted my arms in surrender. “Well, I’m open for ideas.”
“Ian is my little brother. I’ve looked out for him his whole life, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to let him hurt Eva again. She doesn’t love him anymore, but he’s always known how to push her buttons. He’ll appeal to her big heart, her compassion, and their history. Tell her he wants the chance to be a father, to get to know the boys, be a better man. He’ll do anything and everything he can to worm his way back into her life.”
“Eva’s not stupid enough to buy into that.”
“Stupid? No, Eva’s not stupid, but she is incredibly vulnerable, and Ian knows that. He’ll weasel himself into her home, promise he’s going to go straight, and then take advantage of her kindness and generosity.”
Like hell. I slammed the glass on the desk. “Not gonna happen.”
Approval glimmered in Ross’s eyes. He didn’t look quite so tired anymore. “What are you willing to do to see that doesn’t happen?”
I answered immediately and with absolute conviction, “Anything.”
“I was hoping you’d say that,” Ross said with a smile and a calculating gleam in his eye. “Now, listen, I know Eva better than she knows herself, and what we’re going to have to do is ...”
~ * ~
Eva
The town was abuzz with activity in preparation for the annual harvest festival. Wooden stands were erected in the park at the center of town and decorated in the vibrant colors of the season. Most of them were devoted to food in some fashion. Every local restaurant and tavern was involved as well as the nearby farmers and orchard owners. There would be delicacies, primarily Italian in origin, like the population, but also grand showings by the pockets of Irish, Polish, and German immigrants who had settled in the area decades ago as well. The result was a multicultural culinary event that brought people from nearby communities to Bear Run in droves.
Thousands of twinkling lights had been weaved and threaded through the peak foliage of the park; old-fashioned gaslights of copper and cast iron had been polished until they gleamed. Truckloads of fall flowers—mums, asters, and decorative kale—had been brought in and artfully arranged with freshly chipped mulch along the scrubbed and tiled walkways.
It was truly beautiful. And I couldn’t bring myself to care beyond a vague, mild sense of appreciation because inside, I felt hollow. Some of that was offset by reconnecting with my parents. Erasing two decades of hurt and worry wasn’t something that could be accomplished overnight, but we’d made significant progress.
Life lesson: forgiveness was a powerful thing.
That might sound as if I was stating the obvious, but let me tell you, saying you forgave someone and actually letting go of the pain you’d held in your heart were two very different animals. It wasn’t easy. Even harder? Keeping yourself open enough to fill the void, especially when there was so much other pain camped out just beyond the walls, chomping at the bit to get in.
I’d firmly believed that I’d done the right thing in walking away from Jace, but now, I wasn’t so sure. If Dark Wing really was calling it quits, then I might have sacrificed my chance at happiness for nothing.
If was the operative word. Plenty of bands said they were retiring, went all out on a farewell tour, and then decided they weren’t quite ready to call it quits after all. Performing was like an addictive drug in that respect. The more successful a band was and the longer they’d been around, the harder it was to walk away.
That was one of the reasons I’d made the decision I did. Dark Wing had been riding the wave for a long time. How could I ever hope to compete with that?
And yet ... part of me wanted desperately to believe it was possible.
The truth was, I missed Jace terribly. His cocky smile. His golden eyes twinkling with mischief and passion. I missed the conversations we’d had, the meals we’d shared, the way he’d mastered my body, and the sounds he’d made when he came.