Rockstar Romeo - Abbie Zanders Page 0,72
he convinced himself he didn’t need her anymore.”
Ross drained his glass and gave me a wry smile. “Ian was blessed with talent, but God overlooked him when it came to brains. Backstage Pass was just getting off the ground, and I needed Black Raven, but when I found out why she’d left, I nearly killed my brother.”
“What happened?” I asked.
“Short version: Eva took him aside one night after a show and told him she was pregnant. Ian accused her of getting pregnant on purpose, saying she was jealous of him and his talent and that it was her attempt to hold him back. When she went back to the bus, crying, Ian grabbed a couple of groupies, took them back to the bus, and then fucked them right there in front of her for spite. I wasn’t there, but the others told me about it later. They said he spoke words of love and promise to the girls as he screwed them, the same ones that he’d spoken to Eva, to prove they meant nothing.”
“Fuck.” It was worse than I’d thought. I gripped the glass so hard that I feared it might shatter in my hand.
I closed my eyes, the image of a young Eva crying and humiliated. No wonder she had trust issues. Those images morphed into all the ways I wanted to make Ian Flynn pay for that.
“Eva left the group after that. I mean, who could blame her? I assumed she had gone back home, back to her family. It was only later that I discovered that wasn’t the case. Ian eventually let it slip that her parents had forbidden her from being part of a band and that Eva had defied them and run away.
“It took me a while and a good amount of money, but I finally found her in a women’s shelter. She was working two menial, minimum wage jobs. I offered her an alternative. I gave her a place to stay and a job in the office. Made sure she got the prenatal care she needed. I even offered to marry her.”
My mouth dropped open, making Ross chuckle.
“I guess she didn’t tell you that, huh?”
“No, she failed to mention that.”
“Even as broken as she was, Eva told me it wouldn’t be fair to me. That I was a good man and I deserved someone who would love me with more than brotherly affection. And yet, even her ‘brotherly affection’ burned brighter, truer than any other woman’s feelings for me ever had.”
Yeah, I had no trouble believing that.
“Anyway, long story short, Eva became my right hand and eventually my business partner. She’s an invaluable asset to Backstage Pass and all the artists who’ve walked through the doors, including you. She helped me turn my fledgling company into the multibillion-dollar enterprise you see today.”
It was a great story, but in the grand scheme of things, it served no purpose other than to fill in a few blanks and stoke a cold, murderous rage for Ian Flynn in my heart. Yet I also knew that Ross was a clever bastard and did nothing without reason.
“Why are you telling me all this?”
His eyes glittered for a moment, as if he was pleased I’d caught on. “Because you need to know. Just like you need to know that my brother has finally realized the error of his ways and wants Eva back.”
That was unexpected. “What?”
“Ian’s in the twilight of his career, and he knows it. Under different circumstances, it could have gone on for a while yet, but Ian pissed it all away over the years, and not even I can salvage his career at this point. Without it, he has nothing else. No wife, no home, no family. No one who cares if he slips away and is never heard from again. Now that he’s seen Eva again and spent some time with the boys, he’s finally realizing he fucked up, and he wants another chance.”
I swirled the amber liquid in my glass, staring at it as if it held the answers to the universe. “Will that make Eva happy?”
“Christ, I thought you were smarter than that,” Ross barked, shaking his head. “She’s in love with you, not my idiot brother. The question is, what are you going to do about it?”
That was the question, wasn’t it?
“I don’t know. She’s not answering my calls or texts. I’d hoped she’d get my online message—”
“Everyone saw your message, everyone except Eva, until I called and told her about it.