Rocking Kin (Lucy & Harris, #3) - Terri Anne Browning Page 0,44

and orders. “Tell Mr. Cutter to go fuck himself,” I snapped at the girl. “If he wants to see her so damn bad, he knows where he can find her.”

While the waitress’s mouth twitched and her eyes widened, I turned my attention back to my songs. Fuck Harris Cutter. If he’d hurt my friend he would have me to deal with. I’d cut his balls off and hand them on a platter for Lucy to do whatever she pleased with them…

I felt his presence long before his shadow crossed our table. My heart stopped for a second when I realized Jace was at the club, only to start racing when I felt his gaze on me. My fingers tightened around the pen I was making notes with to keep them from trembling.

Damn it.

I hadn’t let myself think about Jace that day—something that was nearly impossible ninety percent of the time. Other than one or two times, I hadn’t seen him since the night he’d sucked face with a random groupie. I’d done my best to ignore him since then, but that hadn’t stopped him from texting or leaving me voice messages daily. Until the last two days, that is. I hadn’t heard a word from him in the last two days…

I wasn’t upset about it.

Really.

So what if he had given up. That was what I wanted.

Really.

Jace paused at our table and I could feel his blue eyes drilling into the top of my head as I forced myself to concentrate on the song I wanted to sing later. It wasn’t perfect yet and I wanted to make sure it was before I got on stage.

I heard him blow out a harsh breath through his nose, but when he spoke it was to Lucy, not me. “Harris wants to know why you won’t come back to see him.”

“It probably has something to do with him being a dickhead,” Lucy assured him. “Better be careful, I hear it’s contagious.” She let out a surprised gasp and I lifted my eyes enough to watch her through my lashes. “Oh, wait, too late. You’ve already caught it.”

I couldn’t hold back the snicker that bubbled up. Fuck, I loved Lucy Thornton. She was the best friend any chick could have. That girl was just as protective of me as I was of her.

“Been taking lessons from Kin?” Jace asked and I could hear the grin in his voice.

I lowered my eyes back to the notebook, refusing to feel pleasure at the odd compliment I heard in his tone.

“Probably the other way around,” Lucy told him with a sass that had been absent over the last week. “If you want to sit with me while Kin preforms, that’s cool. When you aren’t trying to stomp on her heart and pride, I actually like you.”

My hand tightened on my pen, but I was quick to assure her I was fine. “Just my pride, Lu. My heart is no longer involved.”

It was the biggest lie I had ever spoken, but Jace didn’t need to know that even if I was sure that Lucy suspected.

I heard Jace inhale deeply again and gritted my teeth at how aware of him I was. “I’ll come sit with you, Lucy. If you come back and talk to Harris.”

“See you later, Jace. It was good talking to you. Maybe we’ll see you next Wednesday.” Lucy was quick to dismiss him. I watched out of the corner of my eye while she pulled out her phone, ignoring Jace now.

“You aren’t coming tomorrow night to watch Tainted Knights?” He sounded disappointed.

“I’ve seen you and your band play before,” Lucy told him, her gaze still on her phone. “I’m sure I’m not going to miss anything important. The only reason I’m even here now is because of Kin. As soon as she’s done, we’re leaving.”

“Damn it, Lucy. Harris wants to see you.” His tone was full of frustration, but there was no way I was just going to sit there and let him talk to her like that.

I stiffened and lifted my head to find Lucy calmly meeting Jace’s gaze, not even fazed by his tone. “I’m right here.”

“He’s busy, Lucy. Give the guy a break. He’s had a rough week.”

“I wouldn’t know anything about that,” Lucy assured him with a shrug that should have looked careless, but to me looked like she was hurting. “He hasn’t called or texted me in over a week.”

The chair between me and Lucy was pulled back, and Jace sat