He had a point, but I didn’t want to admit it. They’d wronged me too many times; I owed them a little payback. “That’s just it. We were never a team! There was you guys and then there was me. You never gave me a chance, so I had to go make one on my own.” I pointed at myself with my thumb. “It’s my time now.”

“You’re an asshole!” Matt snapped.

“Fuck you!” I retaliated. “You put me in a box and I’m suffocating. You can’t blame me for wanting a little air.”

“Yeah…we can.” Matt’s eyes were cold pebbles of steel in his blazing face. I’d never seen him so pissed.

Even though his hand was shaking with rage, Evan placed it on Matt’s shoulder in an attempt to soothe him. Kellan shook his head. “Did you even think about what this would do to the band? The media circus you’ve just created. The album, the tour, the future…Did any of that enter your mind? Or were you too busy thinking about how awesome you were to care?”

I shot Kellan a glare. “It’s really easy to be super judgey when you’ve got the entire world eating out of the palm of your hand. You’ve never had to be in your shadow, so you have no idea how I feel.”

Kellan raised his hands. “Do you think that maybe you could have talked to me about it? Instead of being…well, you?”

“This is pointless.” Grabbing my jacket off the couch, I swung it over my shoulder and prepared to leave. “What’s done is done.”

Evan was blocking the door. Looking up at his stone face, I snipped, “Want to get out of my way?”

He shook his head. “You’ve been a part of this band since the beginning. You can’t just up and leave.”

My lips compressed. If they’d wanted me to stay so bad, they shouldn’t have treated me like I was an irritant. Something they all just put up with. “I never swore I’d stay.”

“You signed a contract,” Matt countered.

Glancing at him, I shook my head. “Not the same thing. We both know I can get out of that easily enough. I’m free to come or go as I please, that’s how I live my life.” I raised my chin, defying him to tell me what to do again.

Matt sniffed, then indicated the door. “Well then, by all means…go and be free.”

Looking away from me, Evan stepped aside so I could open the door, and without saying another word, I left the D-Bags behind.

The minute my plane landed in Seattle, I was bombarded by phone calls and voicemails. At least five of them were from Denny. Call me was the gist of his message. I didn’t plan to. I knew exactly what he’d say—You’re making a mistake, you should have run this by me, you need to publicly take back what you said, blah, blah, blah. I didn’t want to hear any of those things, so I didn’t need to see or speak to him.

Denny disagreed.

When I opened the front door of my house, he was standing there in the entryway, waiting for me. “Oh, fuck no. What the hell are you doing here?” I asked, tired and annoyed.

Denny indicated Anna beside him; Anna looked as ragged as I felt, worn to the bone, like she hadn’t slept a wink. “Your wife let me in. She seemed to think it might be a good idea if you and I talked.” Anna had her arms crossed over her chest, and her lips were compressed into firm, flat lines. Listen to him was being broadcasted from her so loudly it made my ears ache. That was about the last thing I wanted to do though.

I held up a hand. “No need. I know exactly what I’m doing, and I don’t need your advice or opinion.”

Denny took a step forward. “I know about the TV show. The guy approached me before he approached you. I said no. It wasn’t a good deal, it still isn’t.”

My jaw dropped open. “You said no? Why the fuck would you do that without consulting us first? We don’t pay you half our earnings so you can withhold information from us.”

Sighing, Denny shook his head. “For the umpteenth time, you don’t pay me fifty percent. But regardless, I did mention this. We had a group meeting about it. Don’t you remember that conversation?”

I tried to think back to what he was talking about, but I was jet-lagged, frustrated, and mentally depleted. And besides, his meetings were always so boring. I usually tuned him out after the first five minutes. “Can we do this later? I’m wasted.” I left the door open so he could exit, but he didn’t leave. Instead, he crossed his arms over his chest, in a mirror image of my agitated wife. Stubborn fucker.

“Fine,” I sneered. Slamming the door closed, I dropped my bags in the entryway and raised my hands. “Go ahead, I’m listening. Say what you have to say.”

Denny glanced at Anna, then back to me. “Anna told me he approached you at Pete’s. Don’t you think it’s weird that he met you in a bar instead of going through your agent?” I furrowed my brows but didn’t say anything to that. I guess it was kind of weird. Taking my silence as agreement, Denny continued. “He contacted me about Kellan doing it first, and I declined for him. Then he called back for Matt, and then for Evan, and then, eventually, for you. He asked for all the guys, and I declined for each of you. We had a group meeting once I realized he was just fishing for a name to sell the show. You pay me to keep your best interest in mind, and that is exactly what I did.”

His words tickled something dark inside of me. They asked for Kellan and the others first? I was last choice? No…that couldn’t be true. They wanted me and only me. He’d said so. “You don’t know what you’re talking about, man. We must be talking about different deals.”