A Love Song for Always - Piper Lawson Page 0,37

believe it.”

Squawking has me looking over toward Hugo’s cage. Sophie’s talking to him, and I go over to her.

“He doesn’t like it,” she informs me, peering up.

“Sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to do. It’s for the best.”

I turn my back as Rae comes up behind me.

“Tell me you didn’t know,” she says, her voice strangely flat.

I blink. “What are you talking about?”

But her hurt expression has my throat drying even before she says, “Harrison King is the CEO of the company that owns Echo Entertainment.”

Breath burns my lungs. “I was planning to tell you.”

“When? After the wedding so I didn’t make a scene?” Her eyes flash with pain.

“That’s not why I didn’t…” I trail off. Maybe in part that was why I didn’t tell her. “Rae, I’m sorry.”

My friend shakes her head. “I know this week hasn’t been easy for you, but I thought you had my back.”

“What’s going on?” Pen demands, crossing to me as Rae turns and heads away from us and from Harrison.

I curse through my unsteady breathing, hands clenching into fists at my sides. “I wanted this to be perfect. All our family and friends came together from all over the world.” Tears slip down my face. “We all hustle our asses off, but I wanted to put it all aside and just be about love. To celebrate how we’ve all gone through shit but we love each other and we’re here. Is that too much to ask?”

A squawking sound at my back has me whirling to see the door to Hugo’s cage is open.

The cage is empty.

I gasp. “Sophie, what did you do?”

“He didn’t like it in there.” Her pout is defensive.

Scanning the sky, I search for any sign of movement against the fading colors. “There he is!”

Hugo’s a dozen feet in the air, struggling to fly.

“Probably flying back to the cove,” the attendant weighs in. “Where his mate is.”

“So, that’s good?”

The attendant can’t keep the sadness out of her voice. “He’s not healed yet. He probably won’t survive.”

My chest aches as I watch him. I’ve spent a lot of my life feeling out of control, but I can’t come to grips with it right now.

Standing on a beach in a beautiful dress with words in my heart… and no one to say them to.

I watch Hugo flap, lurching and eventually disappearing around the trees and rocks.

No. I’m not letting this happen.

I scan the beach, my gaze landing on a jet ski.

21

The windowless room was supposed to be for privacy, a way to get this deal done and stave off exhaustion. I didn’t expect it to be this hard. I was naive maybe—Jax has been in this industry for two decades, and he makes it look easy. I’m used to being able to make things happen myself. Army of one.

“That’s it. Wicked’s ownership hasn’t come back by now, they’re not going to.” I shove out of my chair.

“If they do and you’re not here to sign, this will be over,” the lawyer weighs in. “Exclusivity will lapse, and everything we’ve worked on will be for nothing.”

He doesn’t say all the money you’ve spent will be wasted, but it’s implied.

A knock comes at the door.

“Yeah,” I bark out.

It opens a few inches, and a man appears with a silver cart covered with bottles.

“Apologies, Mr. Adams, we customarily bring a bar for our VIP guests before dinner.”

I jerk upright. Dinner?

“What time is it?”

He tells me, and the blood drains from my face.

I lean against the wall, flexing my hand. The scars have faded over the past three years since that night in New York changed everything. Now, my eyes crossing from fatigue, the white lines blur.

The image etched in the broken skin—delicate black lines, twisting and weaving—remains clear and steadfast.

The rose, its petals swooping over the back of my hand, its leaves stretching toward my fingers, its vines curling around my wrist.

Annie. She’s what matters. When things are going well, but especially when they’re not.

Fuck. I’m worried about doing right by artists I don’t even know, but I’m not doing right by the most important person in my life.

The truth of that rings through me.

“I need to be with Annie.” I roll down my sleeves and start for the door. While the bar attendant hurries to get out of the way, Jax grabs my arm.

He’s as frustrated as I am. “Don’t make this decision lightly. I know this is the last place you want to be right now. But sometimes the world is