“Back so soon?” Griff quipped. Her green gaze was assessing as she watched me instead of the show playing on TV. “Why am I not surprised?” She then wrinkled her button nose at my sister’s dress. It really was hideous. “What are you wearing?”

I paused, debating telling Griffin about my new gig before deciding against it—at least for now. Griffin, who worked part-time as a paralegal while studying law, was a bloodhound for secrets. It was nearly impossible to keep anything from her. However, the biggest reason was that my blooming music career rested on my surviving a world tour with three egomaniacs. Carl Cole’s words replayed in my head as if on cue.

“Learn the words, survive the tour, and then we’ll talk. In the meantime, sign this.”

The paper he’d shoved at me had been a short-term contract that lasted until the end of the tour. It basically ensured that I couldn’t quit for any reason without serious financial repercussions.

Translation: He’d sue the fuck out of me.

I still wondered how the agreement could be considered short-term since standard recording contracts only lasted a year. Even I knew that it was career suicide to sign with a label for longer than twelve months at a time. There could be differences in vision between the label and artist too vast to overcome, a lack of funding and influence causing stagnant careers, or corrupt labels who demanded too much and gave almost nothing in return.

“You’re not surprised because you know me well,” I answered my friend.

“That I do. So what happened with your folks?” she asked, referring to my impromptu trip home. It was maybe my third in the four years since I left home.

“Rosalie’s dating an atheist,” I blurted unceremoniously.

Griffin winced before shaking her head. “Poor baby sis.”

“Indeed.”

I shuffled into the living room barely large enough to fit our second-hand coffee table, armchair, and dilapidated couch. The furniture was a little masculine, but none of us minded since we were too poor to be picky, and we’d taken it off a neighbor’s hands for free. His asking price had been two hundred dollars, but Griff worked her magic. Men had a tough time saying no to her, which was ironic since they weren’t her type.

My bones ached from unknown exertion as I flopped next to Griffin on the couch. I then settled onto my side before laying my head in her lap. Staring at the TV but not watching whatever was playing, I replayed the meeting with Bound and Savant Records over and over in my head.

Bound’s reaction to me, a stranger, had been almost violent. I hadn’t done anything to earn it. My only crime was being fashionably late, but they seemed prepared to hate me either way. Curiosity and a little disappointment that my idols turned out to be jerks had me wondering why.

Feeling my head begin to ache, I decided I didn’t care. I had an agenda that was bigger than me, and three overgrown toddlers weren’t going to get in my way.

My mind was a whirlpool of jumbled thoughts and emotions, and any moment, I’d drown. Ever the mind reader, Griffin’s fingers began gliding through my hair, and it took no time at all before my eyes began to close.

“Wake me in a few hours,” I sleepily managed to get out. “I’m meeting someone tonight.”

I felt her fingers pause in my hair, but I was asleep before she could interrogate me.

A quarter past nine, I was rushing through Poison’s doors.

Since the night was young, it was easy to spot Oni sitting at a table furthest from the dance floor. She was sipping the bar’s most lethal drink with the look of someone who’d fucked up royally. It was a far cry from the confidence she’d displayed earlier, but I didn’t take it personally. Witnessing her uncertainty only assured me that I was doing the right thing.

Houston, Loren, and Jericho had been right.

It was their delivery that sucked.

I had no business breathing Bound’s air, much less sharing a stage. I could predict each minute change in Houston’s pitch, the pluck of Loren’s pick, and the pattern of Jericho’s strikes as if I’d choreographed them myself.

It. Wasn’t. Enough.

I didn’t know them. There was a reason they played so beautifully together. The answer was in the name they’d chosen. Houston, Loren, and Jericho were bound, which meant I was trespassing on destiny.

No wonder they hated me.

I powered ahead, pushing through the thin crowd. Spotting me before I could reach her, the hopelessness vanished from Oni’s eyes as she watched me closely. When I finally reached the table, my lips parted, but she quickly held up her hand.

I was silenced before I could even get a syllable out.

“Whatever sad spiel you’re about to give me to try to pull out of this deal, save it. You’re doing the tour.”

“This was a huge mistake,” I admitted anyway. There was no use pretending she hadn’t known exactly what I was thinking. She’d at least saved me from trying to find the right words.

“Probably,” Oni agreed with a shrug. “But it doesn’t matter now, so let me give you a warning that I hope you’ll heed.” She paused to make sure I was listening before continuing. “The last thing you want to do is bare your belly to those assholes. They won’t show you mercy.”

“Thanks.” I dragged myself onto the high stool before snagging her drink and taking a large gulp. I barely knew her, but since we were about to walk through hell holding hands, I figured swapping cooties was the least of our worries. “Speaking of warnings, I could have used one before walking into that room.”

“I wanted to see what you would do when your back was against the wall. Get used to it because what happened today was just the start, and when you’re on the road, there will be no one to play the mediator. I needed to know you could hold your own.”

“Sure.” I still wasn’t happy about being ambushed, but what could I do other than let it go? No one else was beating down my door to give me an opportunity like this. I wanted to make some noise, and now I had my chance. Touring with Bound would reach all corners of the world.

I could take that to the fucking bank.

“Now, for the reason I called you down here.”

“You mean scaring the shit out of me wasn’t the reason?”

“Not even close.”

“Fuck.”

She looked away, toying with a dark curl as she sunk deep in thought. I took the time to check out the band walking on stage now and realized I’d never heard them play before. I wondered if they knew who sat in the audience tonight. Oni was one of many A&R reps at Savant Records, but she was obviously willing to think outside the box, and what she managed to pull off this afternoon was huge. I’m not sure how many strings she pulled behind the scenes, but it seemed so effortless from where I sat. If I weren’t so desperate, I’d be suspicious, but I couldn’t afford to look a gift horse in the mouth.

“Did I ever mention I was the one who discovered them?” she asked after several minutes had passed in silence.

I felt my brows dip as I turned away from the five-piece on stage. “Who?” Surely, she couldn’t mean—

“Bound.”

My eyebrows kissed my hairline. I swore I could feel the strands touching. “Really?”

“Try not to look so surprised,” she tossed back.

“Sorry, it’s just…I had no idea.” I would never have guessed, considering the words they exchanged at the meeting. “They don’t seem very grateful.”

Oni snorted before rolling her eyes. “They’re not. They hate me, themselves, and each other. In my case, the feeling is mutual.”

“But why? Without you—”

“Savant would have never found them,” she finished for me. “They were a lot like you. They weren’t looking for fame. Fame found them. Although they weren’t as hard to convince.”

Oni gave me a pointed look, a reminder of the months she spent wooing me with the promise of a record deal until one day, I simply gave in. I was fine letting her believe that since I preferred my cards close to my chest.

Clearing her throat, Oni looked away, and I had a feeling we’d finally arrived at the real reason we were meeting in secret. “There’s something I’d like you to do for me.”

I should have been ready to do anything for her. I should have been grateful, but the graveness in her tone kept me wary. “Okay…” I drew out instead.

Reaching over the round table, she grabbed my hand and squeezed. My spine was ramrod straight from the unexpected touch and the warmth that, until now, Oni hadn’t shown toward me…or anyone. Oni Sridhar was all business, all the time. “Find a way to keep them together.”

“Keep who together?” Her nostrils flared with impatience, and I realized I was starting to sound like a parrot who’d been crossbred with an owl.

“Bound.” Seeing the question in my eyes, she went on. “When I met them, they were finishing each other’s sentences, and now they can barely stand to be in the same room together.”

“They seemed fine to me,” I mumbled. I couldn’t forget how they had circled and preyed on me the moment I stepped into that room.