Page 36 of Edge

“Thanks fortelling me all this.” Damian squeezed Jory tightly then steppedaway. His eyes narrowed. “Have you ever tried to find the journals?It makes sense he’d keep them somewhere near.”

“I tried. Ichecked his home office, his car, I took apart his briefcase,looked under the bed, but I never found them. He’s hidden themsomewhere out of the flat. I even had someone break into his damnedoffice at his business and toss the place. Stillnothing.”

“Perhaps hehas a safety deposit box somewhere,” Damian suggested hopefully.“Or a secret one at the bank?”

Jory huffed inamusement. “What would we do if he did? Do some Mission: Impossible shit to get usaccess to them?” He chuckled. “Nah, those diaries are hiddensomewhere really safe.”

Damian didn’t agree. “Whynot go the police and tell them?” he demanded. “They can do somesort of warrant and get access to all his places and make him givethem up.”

Jory laughed out loud.While Damian didn’t think he’d said anything too ridiculous todeserve such mirth, he was glad Jory felt better.

“Damian, baby,you’ve been watching too much Law andOrder. I tried that too. The cops laughedme out of town, said they couldn’t do anything without more proofthe journals existed in the first place, and that Roger intendeddoing anything wrong with them. Blackmail isn’t something high ontheir agenda when it’s only one person’s story againstanother.”

“That sucks,”Damian said. “So he’s going to hold this over you forever, andcontinue to bleed you dry of all the money you deserve and hedoesn’t?”

Jory shrugged. “For now.I’ll think of something.” He hesitated. “Until then, I need to suckit up.”

Damian didn’t like theidea one bit and if Roger had been there right then, he’d havekicked his arse into the South American jungle. Let the man dealwith the snakes and creepy-crawlies the way he deserved.

In the meantime, though,Damian vowed to do everything he could to make Jory happy andsupport whatever he did to break free of Roger bloodyGilchrist.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Two months later

Jory

I wonder ifanyone else has ever been reamed by the latest EIFA award winnerfor Best Actor? I’d hope not seeing as how he’s married. To awoman. Kurt B was damned good at fucking a guy though. He’sdefinitely had a lot of practice. I didn’t expect that. He givesoff such a straight guy vibe in public. 12 May 2020

“Yo, Jory.Come on, man, where’s your head at? Are you going to sing thoselyrics or just think about them?”

Bernard’s teasing broughtJory back into the recording studio. He and his bandmates werethere to record the last new song for the upcoming album. Thelyrics to “Can’t Hold Me Back” had been inspired by hisboyfriend—they were “official”—and Jory couldn’t wait to getstarted. Except he’d been distracted a little by the memory of theawesome blow job he’d had that morning.

He grinned sheepishly.“Sorry, guys. Drifted off there for a second.”

“Yeah,” Alicescoffed. “Thinking about Damian again, huh? He give you astupendous blow job this morning or what?”

Jorychuckled. If only you knew how right youwere.

“Geez, Alice.”Hannah’s face pinked. “You can’t ask that sort of thing of aperson. It’s private.”

“Private? Whenhe and Damian are together it’s like a public fuckfest when theylook at each other.” Alice grinned. “I’m saying, this is truelurve.” She made awful kissy sounds.

Jory mock glared at heras his bandmates laughed along. “Guys, as much as you find my sexlife entertaining, we only have a few more hours to get this trackdown. Sooty will kill us if we don’t get it done. So can I suggestyou take your minds out of the gutter and let’s rock and roll thisthing?”

He grabbed his guitar,took his place, motioned for his band members to do the same, thennodded at the sound engineer on the other side of the glass. “Let’sgo, Rocco,” he called out. “This song isn’t going to playitself.”

***

Jory was relaxing in thechillout room, gulping down an ice-cold can of Coke to soothe hisaching throat, when Sooty barrelled into the room, beaming. She wasdressed in a flowing red and black dress with a jaunty pillbox haton her steel-grey hair.

“Great sessiontoday,” she boomed. “That song of yours is going to make thisalbum, pet, and then you’ll be able to buy me the fucking villa inGreece you promised me when we started.”

Jory blinked. “I promisedyou a villa?” He didn’t recall saying such a thing.

“You did, andI’m a-gonna hold you to it.” Sooty slumped down into the chair nextto him and grabbed the Coke from his hands, taking a huge slurp.Jory decided she could keep it. He hated having to navigatelipstick smudges when his manager took his drink, which wasoften.

“I’m tellingyou, ‘Bittersweet’ is going to become the song on everyone’s lips.”Sooty cocked her head and gazed at him piercingly. “The words seemparticularly personal. Is there anything you want to talk to meabout?”