Page 160 of Ice Me Out

The thought of twelve-year-old Vera behind a kit had already fucked with my head. But fourteen-year-old Vera walking backstage after the biggest performance of her life, only to learn her mother was dead? That was something else entirely.

I tried to imagine what that did to a kid. It wasn’t difficult, considering how I found my mother, but I never blamed myself. I never had the best night of my life permanently welded to the worst one.

Of course Vera never performed again. It probably didn’t matter how many times someone told her the accident wasn’t her fault. Grief wasn’t reasonable, and guilt sure as hell wasn’t. Somewhere inside that stubborn head of hers, she’d probably drawn a straight line from I begged my mom to come to Mom died because she came.

Vera had built an entirely new life because she’d decided she wasn’t allowed to have the one she wanted, and that bothered the shit out of me.

“I have a question, and please feel free to tell me to mind my business and shut the fuck up, but… where is Vera’s money?”

Snoh’s right brow shot up. “Why the fuck are you interested in her money?”

I waved a hand between us. “Chill, man. I’m not some gold-digging douche. I’m asking because she has expenses and I’ve been covering them. Obsydian Trip has been active for nearly a decade, and Vera has been credited as their songwriter; she should be getting some sort of royalty split or something.”

For a moment, Snoh’s expression morphed from deeply offended to apologetic. “She told me you paid her tuition, and that pisses me off more than you know.”

“Why?”

“Because our dad should’ve been covering her, and because I don’t want you two getting in a fight later down the road and you throw that shit in her face.

Briefly, my mouth dropped in horror. “I would never do that.”

“Yeah, you say that now until she hurts your feelings. That girl is mean as fuck.”

I smirked. “Yeah… that’s one of the things I love about her.”

“Sick fuck.”

“I’ve been called worse.”

He snorted. “Ain’t that the truth,” he agreed, sitting up. “All of Vera’s Obsydian Trip money goes into an ironclad trust account that she will gain access to at 25.”

“I understand, but shouldn’t she be receiving some sort of stipend? She’s a rich broke girl, and the math isn’t mathing.”

“Our dad was supposed to be covering her expenses, especially after that fuckery he pulled.”

“What fuckery?”

For a moment, he seemed deeply hesitant, but what the fuck was he hesitating for? He’d already spilled the beans on some significant family lore. Not to mention, revealed that my girlfriend was a secret rock star of my favorite band. Why clam up now?

I took a moment to breathe and remind myself that I wasn’t entitled to anything that Snoh was giving me. Was it weird that he was serving me the Gray family secrets on a silver platter like he was lying on his therapist’s couch? Absolutely. But maybe he finally met his breaking point and just needed someone to talk to.

“Hart… I’m about to tell you something Vera doesn’t know, and I never want her to know. If she finds out, it’s because you told her, and then I’ll know you’re a lying piece of shit who can’t be trusted. Do you understand?”

I nodded.

“I understand.”

He assessed me for a few seconds before continuing. “By the time Vera was 16, she’d amassed a mini fortune, and our father was managing her funds. Bo became suspicious. Dad was spending a little more money than usual, and Bo discovered that Dad had fired Vera’s accountant around the same time the excess spending had started.”

“No,” I said, shaking my head as tears stung behind my eyes. My chest constricted, feeling the devastation of betrayal as if it had happened to me. But that’s what happens when you love someone—when they hurt, you hurt—and after the shock, you scramble to do whatever you can to fix it. But I couldn’t fix this, no matter how much I wanted to.

“Yep. He was stealing from her. First, he claimed it was expensive to maintain Vera’s lifestyle. There was some truth to that. Vera has lived her life receiving rock star princess treatment, but Bo wasn’t buying it. He demanded a full audit of Vera’s accounts—a couple million were missing.”

“Holy shit,” I said instead of using the Lord’s name in vain again.

“He claimed he was just borrowing the money, and he planned on returning it, but Bo knew he was on some bullshit. Bo seized control of Vera’s assets and locked them down. He even replaced the money that Dad stole. Everyone thinks Dad doesn’t come around because of some petty conflict that happened one year at Thanksgiving, but he doesn’t come around because he feels guilty for what he did and he can’t face Bo.”

“I… I don’t know what to say.”