“Duke, the guard from the club. You met him last night?”
How could I forget Duke, the massive man who hit on Autumn every time he saw her. “It’s fine. This doesn’t have to be private, but I need to talk to you and Adrian.”
24
Duke
Autumn’s name caught my attention, and when Trevor’s voice turned serious, I set down my weight to listen.
“Garrett wants to talk to us on a video call,” Trevor says to Adrian, who’s in the middle of a leg lift set.
“Right now?”
Trevor nods.
“What’s going on?” I ask, not giving a shit that I’m being nosy.
He shakes his head and shrugs. “No idea. Come over here,” he says, gesturing to Adrian.
Trevor’s phone pings as Adrian goes over to him, and then there’s another voice in the room with us.
“Hey, Adrian,” the voice — Garrett — says.
“Is Autumn okay?” Trevor repeats, this time with urgency in his voice. More proof that he has a thing for her, and I can’t blame him. That girl has a mixture of sweetness and sexiness that would be hard to resist.
“What do you know about Autumn’s guitar?” Garrett asks, and from my position across the room, I frown, as do Trevor and Adrian.
“Her guitar?” Adrian echoes.
“Did you see anything strange at her house before you left this morning?” Garrett asks.
“No …” Trevor says, drawing the word out, still looking confused. “We ran into her roommate in the kitchen on our way out.”
“Lindsey?” Garrett asks, and Trevor nods. “Did she say anything?”
“She invited us up to her room,” Adrian says with disgust in his tone. “We turned her down and left. What’s going on, Garrett?”
“You rejected her…” Garrett says this like it’s an important piece of information. “Maybe that’s what set her off.”
His patience gone, Trevor yells at the screen. “Garrett! What the hell’s going on?”
“Someone smashed Autumn’s guitar this morning. Left it in ruins on her bed while she was in the shower.”
Trevor and Adrian exchange a look, their faces all shock and confusion. “What the fuck?” Trevor mutters under his breath.
“Apparently Lindsey slashed some of Autumn’s clothes too,” Garrett says.
If I were a napping dog, the earlier parts of this conversation would have perked my ears up, but mention of slashed clothing has me fully awake and on alert. “What was that?” I say, flinging my towel down and going over to get a look at Garrett’s face.
“Anyway, without a new guitar, Autumn can’t perform at Rusty’s tomorrow night, so I’m going to drive her into Green County after work to get her a new one,” he’s saying.
“What was that about her clothes?” I ask, tilting Trevor’s phone in my direction.
“What?” Garrett stares at me blankly for a few seconds, no doubt wondering why I’m butting in on their call, before he says, “Autumn said the clothes she bought to wear for her show at Rusty’s were slashed and ruined, like someone went at them with scissors. I don’t know if her roommate damaged anything else.”
“Lindsey’s her roommate?” I ask.
“That’s right.” Garrett seems spooked by me, probably because my expression isn’t very pleasant at the moment.