6. Chapter Six

Chapter Six

Anna

" G et him out of here!"

Barking and yelling orders is not generally my style, but when Tobias Jeffers starts hyperventilating, I fear destruction is next.

It's his thing.

Feel stuck, caged, or just plain too freaking high to know that the dragon isn't real?

Smash everything.

Many a hotel room, green room, and venue have seen his noxious ways, resulting in one too many fines for Leo's label. It's chaos I'm not looking forward to, should it erupt.

Especially here.

It takes a second forced yell from me to get the stunned guys moving.

Security members fling arms around Toby and practically carry the man to the back of the studio. Once we're outside, it's a flurry of bodies piling into different vehicles.

I pause in the freezing cold, knowing my car is still here and that I shouldn't leave it, but I'm more concerned about Dr. Banner going Hulk as he's shoved into the back seat of a blacked-out vehicle.

"Crap," I mutter, my breath forming a cloud in the cold air. Ignoring the sensible voice in my head suggesting to drive my own car, I make my way toward Toby's vehicle and slide into the back seat next to him, just as the door slams closed.

I'm forced to shove Toby's leg over since he's taking up the entire back seat and plant my butt against the chilled leather, my phone already to my ear and ringing before security can pull us out of the lot.

"She wasn't fucking here," Leo answers, sounding somewhat out of breath. "I can't find her."

"Because she's here." I shove at Toby again, my freezing hand landing on his warm thigh and digging in to get him moving over far enough for me to snap my seat belt.

" There? "

"At the studio," I answer and raise my shoulder to hold the phone to my ear and free up my hands. "She had papers, Leo."

"Fuck , " he snaps, and I reach for the purse I'm lucky I was able to grab with all the distractions.

I search my bag and silently groan when I remember that Lugh never handed the papers over to me. He kept them in his hand when he took off with the woman.

He stayed behind .

"We had to leave the studio," I say into the phone and secure my purse at my feet. "She was causing a scene."

Leo's heavy sigh echoes over the line, accompanied by the slam of a car door on his end. "So, he knows now?"

"I …" I risk a glance to my left where the man in question sits awkwardly across the remaining seat cushions not taken up by my butt. He hasn't moved. Hasn't spoken. "I'm fairly certain he's dissociating."

In fact, I'm fairly certain I hear a continuous low growl coming from his side of the car and we're running out of time before he decides to do something stupid. Something like jumping out of a moving vehicle.

"Sounds about right," Leo huffs. "Fuck, any brilliant ideas?"

It's my turn to sigh into the phone. "I have no idea, Leo. But I do know that we don't have much time."

He lets out a long string of curses, vocalizing the storm brewing beside me because we both know what comes next with Tobias Jeffers.

Binders. Destruction. Disappearing.

And little me left to clean up the dang mess the bassist leaves behind.

Not to mention whatever was caught on camera tonight slipping to the media and growing like wildfire with rumors and partial truths Leo and I will have to fight the backlash of.

"Let me talk to him."

"Not gonna happen."

"Anna, let me try."

I hear the desperation in the band manger's voice. I hear how much he both cares for the man he considers a brother and how badly he doesn't want this to go sideways for himself. The band, the label.

For Toby.

It's something I've yet to understand about this strange group of men. They care to a fault, in a way that's almost sheltering. They downplay the things Toby does. Put up with his antics and insanity without much fight.

Enable his addiction.

If it were up to me?

Tobias Jeffers would be gone.

Guess it's a good thing it's not up to me.

Except right now, I have more control over the situation than the manager does. I'm here and he isn't.

And while the man on the line might be my boss, I know better than to chance what's happening. No one knowingly tempts the Hulk.

"No."

He huffs.

"Ann—"

"No, Leo. He's not okay, but he's not throwing things." His stress-filled sigh nearly cuts me off, but I continue, "He needs to stay like this until we get wherever we're going. I'm not going to be in a moving vehicle with him while he rages. You've seen him, how he gets. This is not the place for that."

"You're such a dick."

It takes me a moment of blinking my mind into focus to realize the words came from beside me and not from the phone.

"I can fucking hear you ." The words are growled, and when I look in Toby's direction, I'm met with such ferocity in his chocolate-colored eyes that I'm taken aback. He's not just mad at me or my words. He's downright feral.

I'm already leaning against the car door, but the handle digs in further.

"Well," I state and quirk a brow in his direction, despite my body's natural reaction to retract. "I'm the one who's gotten you out of trouble."

A literal growl reverberates from him, something I'd equate to a cornered wolf, and I grip the phone just a little harder.

"Fuck you, Anna," Toby spits.

"And you, as well, Jeffers."

Toby looks away, breaking the stare down and taking with him most of the intensity he's emitting into the small space. I will the little hairs on the back of my neck to settle and my breath to slow.

"Anna." Leo's voice draws my attention away from the beast sharing my seat back to the immediate problem. "I don't wanna do this."

"I already don't like it if that's how you're starting it."

"We gotta get him away from here," Leo continues, saying words like clearing the air and waiting it out , but I already know what he's going to suggest.

The cabin .

It's a place in the middle of the mountains with minimal service, no neighbors for miles, and a tiny house that he had plans to fix up in his free time.

He's had so much of that.

When he first bought it, I thought he's crazy. The lot didn't even have a driveway; one had to drive through the brush to reach it. Or a housing structure I'd consider anything beyond a shack.

It's a place of nightmares for city girls like myself.

"No." I cut off his justifications with a tightness to my chest. "No way."

"I know it's not ideal, but we're out of options—"

"Bull. We can figure something out here."

"Anna, listen. We don't have another choice. You said it yourself, we need to act fast."

"Send Lugh. He's the one that's supposed to be keeping—" I flick my sight to Toby, who's staring out the window, and dampen my comments. "It's his job ."

"I need boots here. You can do what I need you to do from there."

"Le—"

"Pack a bag, Anna." His determination is unwavering. I sigh out my defeat, knowing deep down he's right. Keep Toby out of trouble by keeping him the hell away from everything . Especially other people. "You're going to a retreat."

"I swear, Leo …"

"You'll be fine. The internet was upgraded last week."

"I hate you."

"Oh, I know." He almost chuckles, and my cheeks heat at the prospect of becoming a babysitter until this all blows over. My stomach twists, and my brow prickles with sweat. "But it's the only way."

Of course it is.

"I still hate you."