The church had started quieting as everyone found seats. I vaguely noticed the pastor take center stage and start his introduction speech, but I tuned him out. If Kellan was disrupting our unit, I needed to know. Rehearsals would be a bitch if I had to fly somewhere else to do them. And knowing Kellan, he was probably taking his family and moving somewhere even more remote. One of the Dakotas, or something.
Kellan shook his head and shushed me. I didn’t want to be shushed, so I asked him again, “Where you going? What’s going on?”
Kellan sighed, which ticked me off even more. It was a You wouldn’t understand so I’m not going to bother explaining sigh. I got those a lot. “Later,” he whispered.
Someone nudged me in the ribs, and I looked over to see Liam sitting on the other side of me. He was grinning so wide I thought his cheeks were going to crack. “I know where he’s going.”
“Where?” I said, doubting Liam knew anything.
I heard Denny and Kellan both say something like, “Wait, we can explain,” but before they got it out, Liam calmly told me, “Kellan just got offered a solo gig. You’re no longer needed, bro.” His smug smile set me off. Or maybe it was how exhausted I was or how tired I was of getting passed over by the guys, by the fans, by fucking everyone. And now they were just going to cut me out? I don’t think so.
Just as I heard the pastor ask everyone to bow their heads in prayer, I snapped my attention back to Kellan and Denny. “What the fuck, Kellan!”
Chapter 8
You Wish You Were as Awesome as Me
Anna somehow managed to calm me down enough that we finished the ceremony. I was steaming mad the entire time though. Who the fuck did Kellan think he was that he could just shuck us off whenever it suited him. We were the D-Bags, not the Kellan Kyle–Bags.
The second the service was over, I grabbed Kellan by the elbow and dragged him outside. This could get ugly, and the pastor was already giving me evil eyes for swearing in his church. A crowd followed us to the parking lot, but I didn’t care. I had nothing to hide here. Kellan was the one deceiving everyone by accepting one-sided deals that excluded the foundation he’d been built upon. He’d be nothing without us, and he knew it.
Dropping his arm, I poked him in the chest. I hoped he appreciated my self-control, since I really wanted to slug him in the face. “What the fuck is going on, Kellan? You ditchin’ us? Think you’re all high and mighty now, huh? Well, who the fuck do you think got you this far!” I poked him in the chest again for emphasis.
Kellan’s face clouded as he batted my hand away. “It’s not what you think, so calm down.”
“I’m perfectly fucking calm!” I shouted.
Denny and the guys had joined us by this time. Evan and Matt looked confused; Denny looked like he was a schoolteacher and we were all his unruly children. His dark eyes locked on mine. “If you stop screaming, I can explain to you just what the deal on the table was. A deal that Kellan rejected, by the way.”
His words pierced my veil of anger. “Rejected?” I asked Denny.
He nodded, then looked around at the crowd of friends and family members watching the commotion with unabashed interest. “Maybe we could take this somewhere more private?” Denny suggested.
Glancing at the crowd watching, I met eyes with Anna. She had that same panicked expression that she’d had the last time I’d truly vented my frustrations with the band. She didn’t want us fighting. I didn’t either, but goddammit, enough was enough. Looking back at Denny and Kellan, I nodded toward my car. “Step into my office.”
Denny and Kellan exchanged a look, then Kellan motioned for Evan and Matt. Might as well talk to us all together, since his betrayal involved them too. As we moved toward my Hummer, the crowd shifted to follow us. Kellan looked around until he spotted his bodyguard. “Sam, we need a minute alone.”
The big man nodded and instantly went into bouncer mode. “Everybody stays here,” he barked, moving around in front of the crowd. Crossing his arms over his chest, he added, “Don’t think I won’t bust your head just because you’re related.” One of my cousins sniggered and took a step forward. Sam’s eyes immediately locked onto him. “I’ll start with you, asswipe. Stay where you are.”
While Sam corralled my relatives, I stormed off with the guys. Once we were all sitting inside my car, I started in on Kellan. He put his hands up and interrupted me before I could say much more than “What the hell?”
“I didn’t ask for anything, I was simply approached with an offer.” Kellan was sitting in the center of the backseat, with Matt and Evan on either side of him. Glancing at the two of them, he repeated, “They approached me, and I said no.”
Matt’s brows furrowed. “Who approached you? With what?”
Kellan looked up at Denny in the front seat, with an expression that clearly said, Help me. Denny responded in that I’m the boss tone of voice that I assumed he used at his day job, since he wasn’t in any way the boss of us. “The producers of the movie franchise Battle Robots approached Kellan about recording a song for their upcoming soundtrack.”
For a second, my only thought was, Holy crap! Another Battle Robots movie? Awesome! I love that shit. But then Denny kept speaking, and my entire view of the movie series changed.
“They only wanted Kellan though,” Denny said in a solemn voice. “It was a one-time, one-song deal that would have put the D-Bags in the spotlight next summer…if Kellan had said yes. But, like I said, he rejected the offer.”