Series: Cobalt Empire Series by Krista Ritchie
Total pages in book: 220
Estimated words: 215301 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1077(@200wpm)___ 861(@250wpm)___ 718(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 215301 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1077(@200wpm)___ 861(@250wpm)___ 718(@300wpm)
My pulse quickens.
“Ben!” Harriet tries to come into the room, but a couple bodyguards are blocking her. She kneels, then crawls through a gap between their legs.
I don’t see her reunite with Ben because Phoenix is cupping my jaw with a strong hand and turning my face to his. He’s inspecting my injury, and it sucks that he’s so blurry. He has a good face. One that doesn’t deserve to be out of focus.
“Open your eye, Tom,” he encourages.
I didn’t realize I had it closed. I blink through the sharp pain.
“Can you see?” he asks.
“You have a nose. A mouth. Two eyes with central heterochromia. Brown-blue eyes. Really pretty eyes.”
“That tells me nothing since you’ve memorized what I look like, nepo baby.” He blows out a tight, worried breath. “Just answer my question.”
“Yes, I can see. I think I’m going to have a black eye though.”
“Your second one, right?”
He remembered.
Phoenix scans me again like he’s X-raying me for broken bones. I like that way too much. Being hurt around him has its perks.
Security takes ten minutes to clear the rest of the guests. All my brothers are caught up on what happened in my room. Ben finally stops apologizing for ending the party early, which has to be a good sign, right?
Still, remembering how he kept saying sorry, over and over, for destroying my painting is a stab to the chest. Fear rampages my insides when I consider that the birthday brawl might be the reason he bolts to Alaska again.
This was the exact opposite of how I wanted tonight to go. I am the chaos maker. A lover of mayhem. So I loved everything about tonight. Loved it so much. How many times do I need to tell him this for him to believe me?
I’m vacuuming the last of the glass, alone in my bedroom, until Phoenix returns with an ice pack. “I was going to go for a bag of frozen peas,” he says. “But you have a scary amount of these.”
“They’re Beckett’s,” I explain.
Phoenix presses the soft ice pack against my eye, and his lack of hesitation to touch me, even with an ice pack, does something to my soul. Comforts it. Embraces it. Makes love to it.
I can’t get glassy-eyed right now. Not with a throbbing eye.
“How’s your hand?” I ask.
He switches hands on the ice pack, then opens and closes his knuckle-busted right one. “Fully functioning.”
“You have a nasty right hook.”
Phoenix doesn’t look proud of this, so I add, “It was hot.”
“The punch or me coming to your defense?”
“The latter, and dude, that was more than one punch.”
He laughs. “You could see that with one eye?”
I glare. Thankfully Beckett and Eliot come into my bedroom so I don’t have to think of an S-tier comeback.
Beckett glances warily between Phoenix and me.
My drummer still doesn’t know anything about Ben’s OCD.
I’m guessing Phoenix just thinks our hyper-concern for Ben is wrapped up in him being our youngest brother and more tenderhearted than us.
“Ben’s still sleeping on the couch tonight,” Beckett says.
The update shocks me. “He’s not running?”
Beckett gives me a tougher look. “He’s fine.”
He’s fine—like he doesn’t have bad thoughts anymore? He’s fine—like he’s still thinking of packing his bags but just not right now?
The vagueness suddenly spikes my pulse.
I go toward Beckett, which pulls Phoenix’s hand off me, along with the ice pack. My stomach clenches, but I tell my brother, “I should remind Ben again that this is my fault.” I head to the door. “I invited Justin. This is my party. I take full fucking responsibility for the fight, for the damage, the chaos. All of it.”
Beckett presses a hand to my chest, stopping me in place.
“You can include me,” Eliot chimes in. “I was party to making the guest list.”
I nod robustly. “We’re the ones who basically did all of this, Beck.”
“There’s no need for all of that.” Beckett uses his consoling voice. “He knows this already. You don’t need to repeat it fifty times. He’s fine.” That word again. I don’t like it.
My throat swells, and I step backward. “Maybe…” I lift my shoulders. “Maybe I shouldn’t go tomorrow.”
“Tom,” Phoenix calls out to me. His confusion. His hurt is a deeper knife in my gut. I can’t even look at him.
“Your fans,” Eliot says like I can’t let them down.
“My brother,” I force out, trying not to cry. I will not fucking cry over this.
“Tom,” Beckett says deeply. “This isn’t even a consideration. You’re going on tour tomorrow.”
“But what if—”
“You can’t stay,” Beckett says in his calm, coaxing tone. “You need to go. Ben will want you to go. We all want you to go.” His gaze shifts to Phoenix. “Make sure he goes.”
“I’m already planning to drag his ass to the tour bus,” Phoenix says, drawing my eyes to his. “I will throw you over my shoulder if I have to.”