rack.
“At Bar None, hopefully not hooking up,” I state.
“Are you ready to talk about what happened to you?” Henry asks and points his cue toward Vance. “This brooding shit is something I expect from him. Not you. Drinking yourself stupid was irresponsible. Should I be concerned about alcohol or drug abuse?”
“Can we stop the lecture?” I ask. “It’s something I don’t often do. I. Am. Clean. In fact, I need to stay drug and alcohol-free or I get fired.”
I almost flinch as I say the last words. I hope they don’t look too closely into that statement. Musicians and celebrities do whatever the fuck they want, and they don’t get fired. They might lose their fans, contracts, or sponsorships.
Pierce stares at me intently. He wants to say something, but he just shrugs it off and sets the balls on the pool table. Since The Organization began to look into his family’s firm, he’s been asking too many questions. He swears I’m part of the people who are investigating his mother. I work for them, but I haven’t done any work for that case.
“We just want to understand you,” Hayes explains. “Personally, I feel like I have less than a year left to prove myself to all of you or I’ll lose you permanently.”
Henry clears his throat. “I’m staying in this forsaken town with you.”
“Well, Henry and Pierce are a different story.” He points at Mills, Vance, and me. “You three are closed up to us. I’m still wondering why you and Mills stayed in touch. You could reach out to him but not to us too.”
“I read in the paper that his grandfather died and called him. You didn’t give a fuck,” Mills answers, but it’s more like a growl. “It was all over the news. No one reached out to him. Not even William—but I expected that from him.”
Everyone nods in agreement.
“It’s like with his injury,” I snarl as I point to Mills. “Everyone knew he was hurt. It’s the second time it happened, and you couldn’t reach out. You didn’t even care to accept him as your patient after the team’s doctor reached out to you.”
Hayes scowls. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
Mills shakes his head. “Let it go, dude.”
“His doctor tried to get an appointment with you,” I explain, puffing my chest and ignoring Mills. I’ve been wanting to punch him since Mills told me about this. “Your excuse was your long-ass waitlist. He’s your fucking brother.”
He looks at Mills and shakes his head. “I had no idea. My assistant never mentioned it to me. I’m sorry about that. I wish I had followed your career closer. I can’t fix what happened before our father died.”
Pierce glances at me and shakes his head. “No matter what I say or do, I can’t make you trust me. I’m not giving up on you, Beacon, but maybe you want to give in a little?”
“We take responsibility for what we did wrong,” Henry says. “But it’s time for you to stop using it as an excuse to keep us at arm’s length.”
Vance huffs. “Typical Henry, just trying to close a deal. This time it’s getting his younger brothers to trust him. Your wife needs to teach you to keep your family out of your goal board. We’re not some weird five-year plan.”
“Year five, organize the annual Aldridge family summer trip,” Mills jokes. I high five him.
I’m impressed that instead of trying to punch one of us or yell at us, Henry asks, “How else can I prove to you that I’m here for the long run?”
I take this as the perfect moment to bring up the tour. “Well, the guys and I want to organize some gigs for this upcoming year. A small tour. Most of them will happen only on the West Coast. We might go to Vegas if we think the times line up with my curfew.”
“We agreed you wouldn’t go on tour until this is over.” Henry is the first one to protest.
He can’t trust me. According to him, I’m a loose canyon which is precisely what I want him to think. He doesn’t know I’m methodical. I can be ten times more demanding than him. Unlike him, I’m not fastidious as fuck.
“Which means you don’t think I’ll be back on time because you can’t trust the kid,” I taunt him.
“You were drunk at your secret house for days. If Parrish learns about it, we’re fucked,” he growls.
“I had that covered,” I growl. “You just think