“Thank you for your time, for flying me out here. For everything. I really appreciate it.”
“Wait!” Clay calls after me. “Ryder, if this is about the advance, we can get you more money—”
“It’s not about the money.” I stop in the threshold. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, there’s somewhere else I have to be.”
Someone else I have to see.
As I walk out the door, a grin tugs at my mouth. A real goddamned grin, for the first time since I left Nashville. I should probably be feeling crushed beneath the magnitude of what I’m giving up… but as I make my way down a hallway lined with platinum records on the walls, the only thing I feel is free.
“Ryder!” Lacey shrieks, running after me. She catches me just before I reach the elevator, her eyes flashing with absolute fury. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
“I told you. I’m leaving.”
“Are youinsane? Get back in that room and apologize to Clay!” she hisses, clamping onto my arm with her hot pink talons. “Go fix this, before they decide we’re not worth the effort and drop us from the label!”
Clenching my teeth, I reach down and forcibly remove her nails from my skin. “Lacey… this whole thing was wrong, right from the start. We never should’ve come out here in the first place. Not without Aiden and Lincoln. We never should’ve split up the band. If you can’t see that, I don’t know what to tell you.”
“Oh, cry me a fucking river! You and your bleeding heart are getting really boring.”
“That’s your plan — insult me till I change my mind and agree to stay?” I scoff. “Let me know how that works out for you.”
She glares at me. “You’re going to regret this.”
“Maybe.” I shrug. “But I’d regret staying here with you far more.”
“That’s because you’re not thinking clearly.”
“My head’s never been clearer, actually.” I turn away from her and punch the button to call the elevator.
A frustrated scream splits the air. “No one sane walks away from this kind of money, Ryder.No one.”
“A few weeks ago, I might’ve agreed with you. Hell, a few days ago I might’ve agreed with you. But money isn’t everything, Lacey. It takes losing something you can’t buy to realize that.”
“Do you realize how epically you’re fucking me over here?!” Her expression flickers and for the first time, I see fear beneath the furious facade.
“I’m not trying to fuck you over. You can stay. You’ve already signed the contract. By all means, make an album with Red Machine. Fill your wardrobe with clothes they pick out, fill your social life with people they approve. I hope it makes you happy.”
“They won’t keep me on the label without you! You write all my damn songs!”
I shrug. “There are plenty of other songwriters in Los Angeles, Lacey. Find one.”
“You can’t do this to me!” She screeches. “You can’t just screw me over because you miss your precious friends. You can’t give up everything because you’re pussy-whipped over some plain little barmaid back in Nashville. Do us both a favor — take that elevator down to the nearest bar, grab the first hot girl you stumble across, and screw your way out of this funk before you ruin both our lives.”
I was going to be calm. Civil. Even after she clawed into my arm and called me every nasty name she could come up with using her somewhat limited vocabulary. But as soon as she directs her venom at Felicity, I’m done playing nice.
I lean into her space, my voice dropping to a whisper.
“They’remysongs, Lacey. They were never yours. You’re just a mouthpiece in cut-off shorts.”
She’s still standing there gaping at me when I board the elevator and head down to the exits.
I’ve got a plane to catch.
* * *
My hands drum restlesslyagainst the arm rests for the entire flight. The woman in the seat beside mine watches me warily, as though I’m about to highjack the plane. I don’t even have it in me to shoot her a reassuringI’m-not-a-terroristsmile. I’m full of too much nervous energy to sit still.
Four and a half hours never felt so damn long.