by Erin Osborne
“What the fuck happened?” I ask, jumping up from the couch.
“It doesn’t matter. Knight, what do you want? I’m tired and want to go back to bed,” she asks.
“We’re gonna be going back on the road soon. You’re coming with us. And you need to finish the last two songs on the album,” I tell her.
“No, I don’t. I’m not going to sing anymore. Use what you’ve got and figure out a way to make my voice sing the last two songs. You have enough technology to use my recordings while you’re on tour. You don’t need me with you and Isabella doesn’t want me around,” she says, walking away from me.
“Onyx, we want you on the album and on tour with us. What are you so afraid of?” I ask her.
Onyx stops in her tracks and slowly turns to face me. There’s pain in her eyes like I’ve never seen before. Pain I want to take away and make sure never comes back to her again.
“Knight, I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, trying to get me out of my shell, and I’ve loved singing with you and the guys. It’s just not in the cards for me. You wanna know who did this to me? It was my dad. He found out I was singing and said I was the band’s ‘whore’. Who do you think told him that? My guess is Isabella, considering she was on the phone just before I left the studio and got attacked by my dad. I’m done. He’s never going to stop, so I’m selling everything and I’ll be moving back to his house. He wins, as always,” she says, tears beginning to fall down her pale face.
Onyx is wearing her hair down again and she lets it fall in her face as if closing a curtain to the outside world. I walk over to her and pull her into my arms. She collapses against me and absorbs the strength I’m offering her. For several minutes, I do nothing but hold this young woman against my body and let her cry out her frustration, pain, anger, and fear.
If she’s right, and Isabella had something to do with this, I’m going to fire her ass on the spot. No one is going to get to Onyx if I can help it.
“I want to take you to the studio to finish the songs and then we’ll talk more about the tour,” I tell her, pulling her away from me so I can see her face.
“I don’t know, Knight,” she says, pulling away from me.
“Just finish the songs. It won’t take long and we’ll be back here before you know it,” I tell her. “Let me call the guys and we’ll head out.”
Onyx nods her head and turns to her room. She changes quickly and leads me from her apartment. We take her SUV to the studio where the guys and Isabella are waiting for us. I messaged the guys to meet us here. I’m not sure why Isabella’s here though. I’m not happy with her at all at the moment. If she had something to do with Onyx being attacked by her dad, she’s done.
“What the fuck?” Diesel bellows, seeing the marks on Onyx.
“I’m fine. It’s over and done with,” she says letting her hair cover her once again.
Isabella walks into the booth. She takes a look at Onyx and an emotion I’m not sure of covers her face before quickly disappearing. I don’t have time for her shit today.
“What happened?” she asks, feigning innocence.
“Nothing,” I say, not letting Onyx say a word.
My voice is cold as ice and Isabella notices it. I motion for the guys to follow me into the other side of the booth so Onyx can record her part of the songs. It won’t be the same as when we’re all in there together, but it’s the only thing we can do now. The rest of the songs are already recorded.
Once we’re all closed in the recording portion of the booth, the guys controlling the sound board cue the music and let the song play. Onyx sings her parts perfectly as we all listen to her. Not once does she look up at us or let her eyes flit in our direction. She’s spacing out and keeping her attention focused on the wall across from herself.
She’s standing at the mic sideways and keeping part of her back to us. Usually, she looks around the room while she sings, never keeping her gaze on one thing too long. Not today. Today it’s as if something’s broken in her and she doesn’t want to let us in to fix it.
“She okay?” Diesel asks, coming to stand next to me.
“I don’t know. She broke down when she finally let me in her apartment. Other than that, she’s been quiet and pulling back,” I answer as Isabella comes to stand next to us.
“This is exactly what you don’t need in the band. Onyx isn’t ready to go on tour, handle press conferences, or do photo shoots. She needs to stay home this time around and maybe come on the next tour,” Isabella says. “Besides, do you really want someone like her to be associated with the band?”
“What the hell does that mean?” Memphis asks, letting his normally cool façade disappear.
“She obviously needs help and unwanted attention isn’t going to help whatever’s going on in her life. Onyx is no good for the band,” Isabella says.
“We want her here and she came back with little to no convincing. Not to mention some other things she said. Guys, I’ll fill you in on that later,” I say evasively.
“If it’s about me, I deserve the right to defend myself,” Isabella says, shooting daggers at me.
“You don’t have the right for shit,” I yell at her. “What you need to do is shut your mouth and do your job. The band is our concern and the members are all going on tour or none of us are going. Do you fucking understand me?”
Isabella stands down. For now. She takes a seat on the couch while I turn my attention back to Onyx singing her heart out. Diesel and Damon stick to my side because they know I’m pissed like I’ve never been pissed before. I won’t hurt Isabella, and they know this, but I will fire her ass with no hesitation.
The second Onyx is done recording her parts of the song, she’s out of the studio. Isabella shoots us a look as if saying ‘I told you so’, and follows her out the door. Memphis follows the bitch out to make sure she leaves our girl alone while the rest of us listen to playback.
Onyx never gives her opinion on the recordings when they’re played, but this is something else entirely. She’s never fled the studio before like this and looking back, it’s not the first time. The first time was the day we all showed up here after her. Isabella said something to her that day, I’m sure of it. Onyx just won’t say a word about it to any of us.
“We need to figure out what’s going on with her,” Diesel says to me. “You know what happened to her?”
“I do. Remember the last time she was here and Isabella got a phone call and walked away from us?” I ask, waiting for them to nod. “She was attacked by her dad as soon as she got to the complex. He’s the one who marked her like that. She seems to think Isabella was on the phone with him because he knew about her singing and being our ‘whore’.”
“The fuck?” Damon yells as Memphis comes back in.
“That’s what I’m saying. I know Onyx doesn’t have a good relationship with her dad and her mom isn’t in the picture. This is a whole new level though. It’s something else entirely, especially if the bitch had anything to do with it,” I tell them.
“Isabella was on her way to say something to Onyx when I walked out. She quickly changed direction and went to her car before leaving,” he informs us.
“Onyx doesn’t want to go on tour with us. She told me she’s done,” I tell the guys.
“That’s not gonna work. Either she goes or none of us go,” Tyson says.
“We need to talk to her about it. How about we head over there and see what’s going on?” I ask the guys as we all head out.
We pile in Diesel’s SUV and make our way to the complex Onyx and I live in. Damon orders dinner on our way over there and pays for it while he’s still on the phone with the pizza place. I don’t even know what he’s ordered and I don’t care. All I care about right now is getting to Onyx and finding out exactly where her heads at.
We pull in and Diesel parks right next to Onyx’s SUV. I scour the parking lot on our way inside and stop to talk to the security guard on duty. Instead of just standing the
re, someone needs to make rounds of the parking lot because nothing will ever happen to the girl upstairs again. I’ll do anything I have to in order to make sure of that.
As we all pile onto the elevator, the guys and I remain silent. We’re all lost in our own thoughts of the girl we’re about to go see. She’s wormed her way into each and every one of our hearts and none of us want to see her in pain or as dejected as she looked today while singing.
Knocking on her door, we wait for her to open it up for us. I hear her walking toward it and wait as she looks through the peephole before turning the locks. It says a lot as the guys and I look at one another she’s locked herself inside. This entire situation has spooked her more than any of us realized. Now, we just need to get her to open up about it.
“What are you guys doing here?” she asks, barely opening the door.
“We need to talk. Told you before we left we were gonna be talking when you were done,” I answer.
“I’m not up for company. I just want to go to bed,” she says. “Thank you for stopping by though. And letting me sing with you all. It was more fun than I’ve ever had in my life.”
Onyx moves to shut the door and before I can make a move, Diesel steps in and places his hand on the side of the door so she’ll shut his hand inside if she manages to close it.
“I know you’re scared, sweetheart. We want to help you and we need to talk to you about a few other things,” he tells her. “Please, don’t shut us out. Not now. You have us at your back but we can’t help if we don’t know what’s going on.”
I watch as the tears begin to fall down her face. Her grip loosens on the door and Diesel picks her up in his arms to move her into the living room. Once I’m next to her, I look at my best friend and give him the look to back the hell off of her. They all know I feel something more for Onyx. Even if I haven’t said a word about it to anyone. Or fully processed it myself.
“We got dinner coming. For now, I want to know what’s been going on. With Isabella and whoever thought it was okay to put their hands on you,” Diesel tells her as the guys crowd in the living room.
Onyx tells her story. About Isabella telling her we couldn’t record the last time because we were supposedly hung over and making sure she saw the tabloid with my picture on the front page with a woman hanging on me. I know exactly what picture she’s talking about. We went out to the club and this woman wouldn’t leave me alone. One of her friends took the picture as I was trying to get rid of her. In the picture, it definitely looks as if more is going on between us. I’m sure it was all arranged by them to try to make some story up. It’s not the first time it’s happened and it sure as hell won’t be the last.
She goes on to tell about Isabella being on the phone and then meeting her dad in the parking garage. What he said to her and then how he attacked her. I can feel the rage, a need for revenge on her behalf, and pain filling the apartment. My arm is wrapped around her shoulders as she gets done and sags into my embrace. At the same time, there’s a knock on the door.
Damon gets up to get the food and sets it in the kitchen. I remain on the couch with Onyx while the guys load up plates of pizza, wings, garlic bread, and whatever else they got. Onyx and I just remain sitting in the same spot while the guys bring us plates over.
We eat our food and none of us say a word. Onyx is folded in on herself while we’re all surrounding her. I stay seated as close to her as I can possibly get and let her take in my strength and body heat while she nibbles on her food. She needs to eat, but I understand her emotions are all over the place right now, so I nudge her with my shoulder gently so as not to jar her and nod down to her food.
“Onyx, we’ve made a decision,” Damon says, setting his plate aside for a second. “If you don’t come out on tour with us, none of us are going. You’re part of the band and it won’t be right if you don’t come out with us.”
“No, I’m not. You guys need to go on tour. You’re contracted out. I’m not. I’m not even supposed to be on the new album,” she begins, hiding behind her hair again. “You have more than enough equipment for my parts to be played through the sound system.”
“Damon’s not lying. If you’re not with us, we’re not going,” Byron speaks up.
Onyx looks at all of us. She sees the serious looks on all of our faces and I can see the second she realizes she’s not getting out of this. She’ll be on tour with us. If she’s learned anything in the short time with us, she knows we’ll cancel the tour if it’s what we feel we need to do. It’s not the best decision, but she’s part of our family now and we’re not letting her go. I’m definitely not letting her go.
“Fine. But you know Isabella doesn’t want me there,” she finally murmurs.
“We’ll handle her,” I tell her adamantly. “You don’t worry about that bitch another second.”
“Don’t do something you’ll regret for me,” she tells me, pleading with her eyes.
“I won’t.”
For the next few hours, we all hang out and talk about the tour. A small band we heard a demo from, Someday Never Comes, will be our opening act. It’s a group of four guys and they’re amazing from what we hear. Memphis runs to my place and grabs the CD of them for Onyx to listen to. We each have a copy and I’ll make sure she gets one too.
Once the rest of the guys leave, I stay behind. I’m not ready to leave Onyx on her own just yet. She’ll go back inside her head and I want to be here when that happens. She walks to her room and I follow her after making sure everything is locked up tight for the night and the mess is cleaned up. Once in her bed, I pull her in my arms and feel a peace I only find when she’s near me. When she’s in my arms and we’re alone.
Chapter Fifteen
Onyx
IT’S BEEN A week since the guys talked to me about going on tour with them. There’s no way in hell I’m going to be the reason they lose their career or the fan base they’ve worked so hard to reach during their careers, so I had no choice but to agree to go on tour with them.
I don’t want to go because of Isabella. She’s the only reason I’m terrified to go on the road. For whatever reason, she thinks I’m stepping on her toes and I don’t know why. I’m not. If she wants Knight, she can have him. He’ll never be interested in a girl like me— plain, ordinary, and boring as hell.
Knight hasn’t left my side. We’ve been holed up in my apartment since the rest of the guys left. We spend our time talking, laughing, and he has been pulling me further from my shell. I love spending time with him and I honestly fall a little more in love with him daily.
I know it’s too soon to even think I’m in love with a rock star of Knight’s caliber, but I can’t help how I feel either. I don’t have to worry about it though because I’ll never let him know how I feel. I’ll keep it bottled up inside and I’ll be the only one who knows. I’m used to keeping everything inside anyway.
Today, we have a photo shoot for the upcoming album release. I’ll also be announced as part of the band. Isabella messaged me earlier with the time and place of the shoot and I’m on my way there now. I was told by Knight to just dress in something simple because they’ll have wardrobe, make-up, and hair there for me, so I’m wearing a pair of shorts and a tank top. My hair is left hanging against my face as I leave the apartment and head down to the garage.
Once I begin to make my way out to my SUV, I’m followed by the security guard from the outside. He’s never done it before. This must be something Knight made sure is happening to ensure I’m not attacked here again. It’s the one place I should be safe and the one place I was assaulted.
Turning to face him, I say thank you as he waits until I’m inside the vehicle and the doors are locked behind me. I turn it on and make sure my phone is hooked up to the Bluetooth in my truck before heading out. I’m just turning on the road when my phone begins ringing.
“Hello?” I ask.
“Onyx, where are you?” Knight asks as his voice fills my SUV.
“I�
�m on my way. Did you need something?” I ask, not sure why he’s asking.
“You’re supposed to be here already. Actually like a half hour ago,” he answers.
“What?” I shriek. “The message I got says I still have an hour to get there. I’m so sorry, Knight.”
“What message?” he asks.
“From Isabella. I’ll be right there,” I tell him, hanging up the phone.
Pushing the accelerator down a little further, I drive through town until I’m heading out toward the studio. The place we’re having the photo shoot done is about fifteen to twenty minutes past the studio based on my GPS. I can’t believe she’s trying to make sure I’m not going to make it there for the photo shoot. This is a new low for her. And that’s saying something considering she told my dad what’s been going on with me and it lead to the assault of me.
I pay close attention to the traffic on the road because I’m not used to it. When I don’t see anyone else coming at me or behind me, I go a little faster so I can cut down the time it takes me to get there. I still have to get through wardrobe, make-up, and hair before I’ll be ready for the shoot. Damn it!
Pulling into the parking lot, I see Knight standing outside with Memphis. They’re talking and I know it’s about me as they keep looking at the entrance of the parking lot. They’re probably ready to tell me to forget everything regarding band and I don’t blame them one bit. Honestly, the only thing I’m doing is coming between them and their manager. At least that’s the way it feels to me.
I park and jump out of the door after Knight opens it for me.
“I’m so sorry,” I say before they can say a word.
“Nothing to be sorry about, Onyx,” Memphis says. “Can I see the message you got?”
I pull out my phone and pull up the message from Isabella. Knight and Memphis read it and let out curses before handing it back to me.
“Photo shoot is on hold until you’re ready,” Knight tells me.
“You didn’t have to do that,” I try saying as I rush inside the building and Knight directs me where I have to go.