I glared at her as she walked away, and asked War as he put his arms around me, “Who’s Bullet?”
“Never mind.” War moved one of his hands to my face, turning my head. “Can you focus on me, babe? I’m trying to ask you something.”
“Huh?” I said, blinking at him distractedly. I spotted Bryan at the end of the hall, just as Scarlett and her crew circled him.
Was Bryan “Bullet”? Why would they call him that? What did it mean?
“Will you be my date for prom?” War asked me.
“You’re my boyfriend.”
“Yeah, but I don’t take you for granted. Or at least I try not to.” His brow creased. “So, will you go to prom with me?”
“Yes.” I went up on my toes and pressed my lips to his. “I’d love to.”
War
“How’s Lace?” Looking concerned, King glanced over his big shoulder toward the house.
“She’s still pretty shook up,” I said, though I didn’t get it. Not really, beyond her being blindsided by the news.
“She inside the house?” Sager asked, looking more serious than usual.
“No. She went to the cemetery with Diz and Bry.”
“Thought you’d talked her out of doing that,” King said. The overhead lights in the garage casting shadows on his full face, he studied me closely.
“I thought I had too.”
Lace’s old lady was dead. Overdosed, unsurprisingly. But gone was gone. Good riddance, in my opinion, with a mother like that. Why visit her grave?
“But you know Lace. Stubborn as shit.” I shrugged as if it weren’t a big deal her going and Bryan tagging along, even after I’d strongly advised against it.
“They gonna be back in time for practice?” King asked.
“Not likely.” And that was another reason I was pissed.
“Why are we here then?” Sager asked, and he and King exchanged a look.
“I wanted to talk to both of you.”
“About what?” King planted his tree-trunk legs and crossed his thick arms over his wide chest.
“The band,” I said. “And the offers we’ve been getting.”
“We know about them. Everyone’s talking about it at school. Has something changed?” Sager’s dark brown brows knitted together. “Must be something that you don’t want the others to know, apparently.”
“Yeah, Sage.” I nodded at him. He was way too smart. “The Black Cat rep got wind of my friendship with Kyle, et cetera, and got a stick up her ass about it.”
King frowned. “Weren’t you paying attention when Vanessa mentioned a drug test being a requirement before Black Cat would give us an advance?”
I glared at him. “What I put in my body isn’t anyone’s business but my own.”
“If it gets out of hand, it’s band business, ese.” King glared back at me.
“Fuck Black Cat.” Why was everybody disrespecting my authority today? It was my band. I needed to rein in the subordinates. “It’s either Zenith or RCA now.”
“Two’s not bad,” Sager said.
“It’s trickier.”
“Why?” he asked.
“Only two to play off each other.” Plus, Vanessa might not have wanted Lace in the band, but she liked her. The remaining two, on the other hand, weren’t ambivalent about Lace. They were directly opposed.
“I can see where that might be more difficult.” King stroked his whiskery chin.
“They’re both in the two fifty range. Probably won’t go much higher until we have a recorded album to negotiate with. RCA is flying us down to LA to have a chat. Zenith too. Both are paying for our expenses.”
“Field trip. LA and San Fran.” Sage nodded approvingly.
“Órale!” King pumped a fist in the air. “When?”
“Soon,” I said. “We’ll have to be out of school a couple of days. That work for you two?”
King nodded. “Yeah, we’re in. But what about Lace? School’s important to her.”
“She’s not coming,” I said. “Tests and all.”
Truthfully, the labels hadn’t invited Lace. Her tests being the week we were scheduled to go made for a convenient excuse.
I wasn’t ready to tell her or the guys that all the offers unanimously excluded her. Selfishly, I wanted to wait until after prom to break the news. I didn’t want anything interfering with making her mine.
• • •
“No, War,” Lace said firmly later that night at Footit’s.
“C’mon, Lacey.” I backed her against the dressing room wall. I’d sent away the others, leaving just the two of us.
“I’m too emotional.” Tears brimmed in her amber eyes, but she blinked quickly to clear them.
“I told you not to go to the cemetery. What the fuck did you hope to accomplish?”
Stubbornly, she lifted her chin. “I needed the closure.”
“Yeah, like a kick to the head, maybe.” I frowned, seeing the strain