Ember

26 - Why would she do that?!

Marco

“You can’t go off like that here, Marco. Too many people have eyes on us.”

Colin knows only too well that I have a temper. Bob and Saint have also witnessed it a fair few times in the past. I try to control it the best I can, and I think I’ve been doing pretty well lately.

But seeing that asshole and the way he had Ember pinned to the side of his tour bus, I’ll admit, I almost lost it. If it weren’t for Ember, I’d have broken Nate’s damn neck! The man is obsessed with Ember. Every chance he gets, he pulls her to one side. Colin even caught Nate cornering Ember before we went on stage a couple of days ago. Of course, Colin flipped his lid and told Nate to stay the hell away. But it seems that it doesn’t matter who warns Nate, nor how many times; he won’t stop until he takes what he wants from Ember.

No matter what I have to do, I’ll get us through the last leg of this tour and protect Ember from Nate. He can threaten what he likes and even follow through with it, but he’s not getting his hands on Ember. Scandals happen every day, yet tomorrow the attention will be elsewhere.

I don’t give a damn what Nate does to me, but these guys in front of me don’t deserve anything but good things. They’ve worked so hard all these years to get to where they are right now. I can’t let Nate Rigby fuc.k this up for them.

No matter what you do, Marco, things will be fucke.d up for all of you.

“He was a lot calmer the second Ember touched his arm,” Bob smirks at me, but I don’t answer him. I’m too busy looking at the sun setting slowly behind him.

I didn’t go far after I left Ember by the bus. I walked for a few minutes before the guys caught up with me. Ember seemed to think that I was angry with her, and I couldn’t correct her because I was scared of what I’d say. I wasn’t angry with her; I could never be. She did nothing wrong, but Nate pissed me off!

“I know this thing with Nate is getting to you, Marco. His obsession with Ember is bordering on crazy and pissing us all off. But we have to ignore him and get on with things.”

I narrow my eyes at Colin. “Ignore him? Am I supposed to ignore Nate when he corners Ember? Puts his hands on her? Blackmails her?” I yell. “I’m pretty sure you’d break his spine if he told Hannah she had to sleep with him, or he’d ruin us.”

Colin’s eyes widen, and I shake my head. Colin knows full well that he’d kill Nate if he messed with Hannah.

Why is Ember any different?

She’s a woman, my woman one day, if I have my way, and no one will get away with threatening her!

“Marco’s got a point,” Saint tells Colin. “Ember is one of us now, and we can’t let Nate keep doing this to her or us.”

“Ember can tell Nate no all she likes,” Bob says. I run my hand through my hair and stare at him. “But everyone knows he always comes good on his threats.”

“He can do what he wants, but he’s not touching her!” I will honestly kill the man before I let him touch one hair on Ember’s head.

“We’re not suggesting that he does, Marco,” Colin raises his eyebrow at me, silently telling me I should already know that. Deep down, I did know.

“We need to speak to Caren about how we go about things. Isn’t that why Mike McKinley sent her to us?”

Saint is right; that is why the record company boss sent Caren to us. She’s a fixer, though I don’t have a clue what she can do about Nate. But I’ll try anything right now.

“We have six gigs left on this tour,” Colin points out the obvious. “I say we keep close to Ember at all times. That way, Nate won’t get the chance to be alone with her. I also think we should stay at hotels during each stop. Staying on the bus, with all these others around us, gives Nate too much opportunity to get Ember alone.”

As crazy as that sounds, Colin is right. With each tour bus comes roadies, and camera crews, filming all the damn time for some DVD about Canyons Reef. There are so many people around that no one would notice Nate drag Ember onto his tour bus.

“Can we afford that right now?” Bob points out. “We may have signed a record deal, but the check’s not in the bank yet.”

“It won’t cost the rest of you anything. If you guys stay on the bus, I’ll take Ember to a hotel and make sure she’s safe.”

Each one of them raises an eyebrow. I know what they’re thinking, but they’re wrong.

“Do you think that’s a good idea?” Colin stares at me as if to say, Well, do you? “We all know how you feel about Ember, Marco. It’s written all over your face each time you look at her. You and Ember in a hotel alone is not a good idea. Hannah and I will take Ember. You stay on the bus with the others.”

I want to argue with Colin, but I know he’s right. It would be better for him to take Ember. I’m falling for that girl, and I’m falling hard. If we were alone together, I’m not sure I could stop myself from telling her how I feel.

“What if Nate starts making trouble for us?”

“Then nothing we say or do will stop him, Saint.” I shrug. “To be honest, I don’t care what he does. People will talk for a few days, and we’ll do whatever it takes to fix what Nate Rigby believes he’s broken. But we don’t just roll over and take it.”

“I guess that’s all we can do.” Bob rubs his hand over his tired face.

I won’t kid myself into thinking people won’t see us in a different light if Nate starts shooting his mouth off. But I do know that nothing is more important to me right now than Ember. The boys and I talk for a while longer before heading back to the bus. My head is a little clearer, and I guess I just needed an hour with my best friends.

Hannah and Caren are sitting on the couch, and neither of them looks happy.

“Hannah? Everything okay?”

Hannah looks from Colin to Caren, who nods her head. “We were just talking about this Nate thing.”

“We’ll sort it,” I tell them.

Caren shakes her head. “That won’t be necessary.”

“And why is that?” Saint narrows his eyes while folding his arms around his chest.

Hannah gets out of her seat and walks into Colin’s arms.

Something is not right here.

“Where’s Ember?”

“In her room,” Caren coughs to clear her throat. “You don’t need to worry about Nate because Ember gave him what he wanted.”

It takes a moment for it to register what Caren said. Ember slept with Nate Rigby. I feel sick to my stomach because I know Ember did it for the band.

“She made a call to someone and then left.” Hannah looks at me when she speaks. “She came back around twenty minutes later. Her clothes were torn, her hair a mess, and she had a bruised cheek.”

My blood is at boiling point. Colin looks at me and shakes his head, warning me not to do anything stupid. Easy for him to say!

I roll my neck and feel the pop. My palms are itching to kill Nate Rigby!

What gave him the right to force Ember’s hand the way he did?

Fuckin.g celebrities!

“We asked if she was okay,” Caren continues. “But Ember told us that she’d fixed everything, and Nate wouldn’t be bothering her or any of you again. It doesn’t take a genius to work out what Ember had done. She took off to the shower and came out ten minutes later. She put her clothes in a trash bag and tossed them out. After that, Ember took to her room a few minutes before you guys walked through the door. I warned Ember not to go to Nate. I guess she thought it was the only way to make him back off you guys.” Caren shrugs.

No one says anything for a while, and Caren soon makes her excuses to leave. She has business with Matt before we leave. I want to check on Ember, but I’m too angry to do so. I’m not angry with Ember; I’m angry that she had to stoop to such a low act for us.

* * *

I can’t sleep, so I’m sitting on the couch alone and writing angry lyrics. I also wish that I hadn’t walked away from Ember when I did. If I’d come on board and stayed with her, maybe Ember would have spoken to me about what she planned to do. Perhaps then I could have talked her out of this madness.

I reach my arm over the side of the couch and grab my beer from the table. It’s my sixth beer inside of an hour, and it’s hitting me hard.

Alcohol will have that effect when you’ve not touched it in a while, Marco. But then, maybe it has something to do with the half bottle of whiskey you’ve already consumed.

Probably, but I don’t give a fuc.k right now.

“I guess you’re still angry with me.”

I look over at Ember while swigging my beer. I don’t answer her as I put my now empty beer bottle next to the other empties at my feet and grab another. I twist the cap off the new bottle, but Ember snatches it out of my hand.

“What the fuc.k?”

I watch as she takes the bottle over to the sink and pours out the contents. I can’t believe she just did that!

Ember collects the empties and discards them in the trash before taking a seat beside me with a raised eyebrow. “Why on this earth are you drinking like this?”

“Helps me write lyrics,” I shrug.

Ember sighs. “Marco, you haven’t drunk like this in a while. Why now? Is it because of what happened earlier?”

I stare at Ember for a moment. The alcohol has gone to my head, and I’m drunk enough to say something dumb, something I won’t be able to take back.

Who doesn’t when they’re intoxicated?

God, help me, and don’t let me upset this beautiful woman. It would kill me if she walked away from me and our friendship.