I flinch.Unprofessional. That's goddamn laughable right now. Still, he’s not wrong. Dissonance was our livelihood. Even if we have enough money to disappear for years, it was stillours. Practically, a limb. And now it’s just…severed. “Yeah. I know.”
“How’s Jude?” Kami cuts in, chewing a black-painted fingernail. “Have you heard from him?”
“I don’t know how Jude is, Kam,” I say, nausea surging inside me at that. “He’s been taken to Russia by Nolan, Adriana, and some fucking scary Russian bastard named Alexei.”
Her jaw drops. “What? Took? As in...kidnapped?Micah...what?”
“Explain,” Finnick interjects.
I inhale slowly.This is it.I’m about to vomit up secrets I’ve been swallowing for years.Fucking fuck.“Nolan isn’t just a manager,” I say. “He’s involved in drug trafficking. Money laundering. That's why he handles all of our tours and bookings himself. He’s a criminal.”
Silence.
Their faces shift into confusion.
“What?” Kami whispers.
“Keep going,” Finnick says.
I lean forward, elbows on my knees. “You already know how Nolan and Adriana recruited Jude back when he was twenty. Flew him out to L.A. They told him he’d be meeting some other industry execs interested in his music.” I swallow. “He did.But they got him drunk and high as fuck." I pause, feeling my heart beat harder in my chest. "And when he woke up the next morning, he was covered in blood.”
Kami’s hand flies to her mouth.
“Nolan told him he killed a man who tried to hurt him. He said that they could make it all disappear, and that he was too talented towaste on prison.”
Their jaws drop.
“He...killedsomeone?” Kami’s voice fractures.
I almost laugh. Multiple fucking someones, unfortunately. “That’s what they told him.”
Finnick presses his knuckles against his teeth.
“The blackmail started that night. And the drugs. They made sure he stayed dependent.” My voice feels raw. “They recruited me not long after that. I was a junkie in Chicago. An easy target, honestly. They said I had a rare and amazing talent and that they were trying to build something incredible. And for a while, I believed it. I didn’t see what they really were until after we met you two at that bar. By then…” I shake my head. “Jude was already trapped. Soon after, I was, too.”
“So Nolanforcedhim to do things?” Finnick asks quietly. “Like what?”
I bite the inside of my cheek. “Violence. Intimidation. Moving product through our tours. Laundering money through solo performances because it was easy. And yes…killing.”
Silence swallows us.
Kami shakes her head slowly. “I knew he was struggling. I didn’t know it was…I—didn't know it was—”
“Neither did we,” I say. “Not at first.”
“How do we help?” she asks, eyes glassy. “What can we do?”
I glance at Finnick. He’s frozen, elbows on his knees, hands clasped in front of his mouth like he’s praying.
“I don’t know,” I admit.
“Are you kidding me?” Kami snaps, anger bleeding through the shock. “Nolanusedus as a front? For drugs? Forcrimes?And we just—”
“And what about you, Micah?” Finnick cuts in.
“Fin—” Kami starts.
He waves her off. “Youlivedthrough it with him. Yousawwhat they were. Why didn’t you tell us? Why didn’t you try to run?”