Page 21 of Ballad of Rioting Hearts

“A couple more minutes. Be chill.” I step into the elevator and take it down to the lobby. The constant noise of the casino reaches me while I pull a pair of shades out of my bag and put them on.

I keep my head down as I exit onto the Strip, where the foot traffic is thick. Glances filled with questioned familiarity are shot at me but slide on past. “It’s all fake.”

“What is?”

“The engagement. It’s not real,” I mutter. I’m going to get paranoid real fast if I have to worry about people hearing me out here and Sonatina listening in too. “And I won’t be coming home with Kelsey any time soon.”

“You screwed it up again?” He sighs.

“Yeah. I... hey.” I know now how badly I screwed up, but is he telling me that he knew all along? “What do you mean again?”

“You were kind of a prick to her that weekend.”

“And you didn’t tell me I was fucking up everything good in my life?”

“No. Because there’s always two sides,” he says. “But the three of us tried to help you out. You just weren’t listening.”

“Yeah, well, I should have.” I’m all ears now.

“So, she’s back in your life, huh?” He almost sounds relieved.

“I hope so.” I wipe my palm back and forth on my jeans. I need to find a quiet spot to smoke. I’m so wound up. I could really use the buzz. “It’s really complicated, Rebel. I mean truly fucked up. Especially now.”

“Because you’re engaged to someone else.”

“Because I hurt her and she’s trying to move on,” I say quietly. “And I don’t know how to let her go. Or prove to her I’m worth giving another chance.”

“I tell you what won’t help. Getting engaged to another woman,” he says. Where was this straight to the point brother that weekend? Would things have been different? Would Kelsey and I be married? Would Harlowe be squealing and running around with her cousins?

My chest aches for the future we didn’t get. “Since I don’t know when we’ll be able to come, or if we ever will, I need you to do something for me. And I need you to keep it to yourself. And not ask any questions.”

“What?”

“I mean it, Rebel. It’s important. I screwed up everything else. I have to do this right.”

“Hey...” He must hear the emotion in my voice. “Yeah, of course.”

I give him the information he will need to collect his niece’s ashes. “I need you to bring them to me.”

“It might be a week or two. I have a full calendar between the triplets and the new movie. I have a table read this week going into next. And Summer has a client whose life just crashed. But I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“Yeah, that’s fine.” I just can’t have Harlowe shipped to us like she’s a package. Like she isn’t an important piece of Kelsey and me.

“I’ll let you know when I’m on my way.” He pauses. “You’ll figure it out, you know. If you really want her in your life, you’ll figure it out. I have faith in you.”

So did Kelsey until I broke her heart. “I wish I could be so confident.”

We end the call, and I keep walking along the Strip. I don’t know where the guys would have taken Kelsey. And there’s no way I’m going to go back to the hotel and that predatory bitch.

I wish I had the balls to put her on blast for what she did to me, like Summer did over that wedding weekend with the pricks that harmed her. Or like my friend Rochelle did to the man who violently assaulted her and then made her life a living hell for years.

But it’s different for them. No one looked at them and decided they were pathetic for what they were forced to endure. No one saw them as weak. Or stupid. I didn’t even remember what had happened to me. I let her take advantage of me. I gave her the in. And now I’m playing her loving fiancé?

No one would believe it if I called her out. I’m not sure I would if I had an outside view of this mess. Is that why she’s doing this? Is she steps ahead of me? Did she know I would crumble at any threat to Kelsey, giving her the chance to destroy any credibility I might have had?

I text Bronx.

Riot: Location?