Page 172 of Deacon

Now his bravado and arrogance fell away, revealing his true nature: a wretched, weak human.

‘My attorney, Maria Duggan, will email the non-disclosure agreement to you soon. You can’t reveal the terms of this arrangement to anyone other than Deacon and me,’ I stated. ‘Once you sign it, I’ll authorize a ten percent deposit to your escrow account. The remaining balance transfers only after the minute Deacon has the all of truth.’

Chapter 34

DEACON

Soft shards of early-afternoon light fell through the windows onto the brick facade of Six Sinners’ Nashville studio.

I leaned back with a mug of black sludge, my eyelids dragging under the sheer exhaustion of a brutal overnight and all-day session.

The rest of the band sprawled in lounges scattered in front of the mixing console.

We’d spent hours finalizing our latest ballad, laying down the final string arrangements that now echoed through the control room.

The cut sounded insane, better than any of us expected.

When the chords faded, we all sighed in relief, too tired to even celebrate.

We all then hung back while Bluey, our sound man, and Snow, one of our audio engineers, tweaked the master track.

My eyes kept falling shut.

Hell, I needed to bounce and get some sleep.

I had to be awake for Raff later, when Christine handed him off to me after a week at Ana’s house.

Just thinking of my ex-wife’s name brought a brutal pang slamming into my chest.

Fuck, I missed her like crazy.

But my pride kept me in self-imposed radio silence; I wasn’t ready to hear what she had to say.

To her credit, she hadn’t reached out since our wild car park encounter, and I preferred it that way.

Or did I?

The studio door swung wide, and Mason walked into the control room.

He caught my eye and jerked his thumb over his shoulder toward the lobby.

‘Got a situation out in reception, Deke,’ he said, dropping a delivery chit onto the console.

‘Talk to me,’ I muttered, taking a long sip of my lukewarm coffee.

‘Some Italian chap. Said his name’s Massimo. The front desk was empty when I went out to sign for equipment, so he cornered me.’

I sat up straight, a harsh, disbelieving laugh tearing out of my lips.

‘The absolute nerve of this guy.’

Pure heat surged through my blood, blowing my fatigue away in a fraction of a second.

The fact that Ana’s situationship had the balls to show up on my turf was a direct insult.

Jude spun around in his swivel chair, eyebrows raised. ‘Massimo? As in Ana’s ex?’

He let out a whistle. ‘Bro, that’s bold. He must mean business to come all this way, so you’ve gotta at least hear him out.’