Page 17 of Blackout

I had lost my voice, and all I could do was nod my head. I knew Connor Black was a mean son of a bitch, and if Zach had told me his name, then Zach knew him too. That thought made me shake all over again. Did both men share the same last name? If they did, it could only mean they were related.

‘Breathe.’ The word travelled from Zach to me. ‘Just breathe, babe.’ His mouth was right next to my ear. I pushed away from Zach’s chest and rested there flat on my back breathing in and out. As ‘babe’ left Zach’s lips, I was almost calm.

‘Zach, do you know Connor too?’ It was crazy how one person knew how to calm me, while the another turned my irritation up to eleven and had every hair on my body standing on end. As much as I tried most of the time not to let my frustration get to that level or the better of me, some people just didn’t know when to quit.

Like me, Zach nodded his head. Unlike me, he was quite capable of voicing his answer. ‘Connor and I work in the same industry. He’s also my brother. We don’t socialise together very often because I don’t like the way my brother does business. I had no idea he would be here last night.’

‘I’m sorry, I have to go.’ I paused. ‘I can’t be a burden to you; I’ll drain you until there is nothing left.’

‘Harley,’ Zach said. ‘Please stay.’ There was something in his voice that didn’t want to let me go. ‘Tell me how you know Connor?’

Why did he want to know how I knew Connor? I knew the man from the envelope he’d handed over after he saw me sing karaoke. An envelope I imagined that invited me to sing at his bar permanently. Then just above a whisper I asked. ‘Why do you want to know?’

‘I want to know, Harley.’ Zach was firm. ‘What has got you so worked up over my brother?’

‘If you want to know then I need coffee. Then I’ll tell you this story.’

Zach stood up. He was shirtless, and I got to lie here and stare at him in his boxer briefs.

The view made me blush. The man was lean all over. His muscles were impeccable, and his skin was perfectly tanned. I had to stop the drool before it left my mouth. I enjoyed the sight now I could see more of Zach’s tattoo, on his chest and upper arm, which was hidden last night by his tee-shirt. There were intricate details of Zach’s tattoo that I couldn’t make out from where he stood. Of what I could see I wondered why he felt the need to tattoo armour over his heart. Zach had caught me staring and his eyes flashed with desire as mine roamed his naked skin.

‘Okay, two coffees it is.’ Zach was about to leave his room to make coffee.

‘Wait!’ I sat up, and Zach stopped and faced me. ‘Are we here alone?’ I was curious to know what happened to his partygoers last night.

He turned as he reached his bedroom door and moved back towards his bed. Standing over me, he brushed the hair from my face and tucked it behind my ear. ‘We are alone. There’s no one in the house but you and me.’ And just like that, he was gone.

Zach was back moments later, as promised, with two coffees. He sat down next to me and leaned back into the bed. I hadn’t moved from my spot against the bedhead.

‘Connor Black?’ Zach questioned as he took a sip of his coffee.

‘Connor Black,’ I replied as I wrapped my fingers around the cup and took a sip. Coffee hit my tongue, filled my nostrils. The man knew how to make a good brew.

‘How do you know him?’ I sensed a little impatience from Zach, but to him, I guess this was important.

‘I wish I didn’t.’ There was a pause for a moment. ‘I met him one night about twelve months ago at a bar called The Groove. I had signed up to receive notifications about all the karaoke events going on around Fitzroy. The Groove had started up karaoke and I thought I would check it out. I went for a drink, sang a song and that’s when Connor approached me.’

Zach didn’t interrupt me, but I sensed him tense at the mention of The Groove and reminded myself to ask him about it later. There was more than one elephant in this room, and one elephant at a time they would be dealt with. In this moment, that elephant was Connor Black.

So, for now, I continued with, ‘Connor approached me, introduced himself, told me he’d seen these videos of my vocals. When he showed me, I realised the videos were from this karaoke bar called Little Beats. Someone must have recorded my performances. I didn’t even know about the videos.’ I had sung at Little Beats twice in the last three years. Since I’d fallen on the floor in a heap singing karaoke with my sister five years ago, it had taken me two years, but I wanted to know if I could still sing. After I’d tried it a couple of times, I wanted to see if I could do it again. That’s how I wound up at The Groove.

Zach’s hand that didn’t hold his coffee reached out to grab my free hand, and at the mention of Little Beats he tensed again, letting go of my hand. Why did I get the feeling that Zach knew more than he was letting on about these two bars? Would I get the answer I wanted if I asked what I was curious about?

‘You know those bars?’ I voiced casually, pausing my recollection of the night Connor had approached me.

‘I do.’ Whatever Zach knew about those two bars, he wasn’t about to share what he knew with me.

‘How do you know them?’ I don’t know why I asked, but those bars seemed important to Zach. Maybe I wanted this man to share with me the same as I was sharing with him.

‘Like Connor, I’m also a businessman.’ There was something about this dreamy man next to me that he held back. Maybe it was a secret. I didn’t like it, but it was what it was. And I wasn’t going to drive myself round the bend trying to figure it out. I had enough on my plate trying to figure myself out.

If Zach didn’t want to enlighten me about the bars, then there was more to my story about Connor so I continued. ‘My sister and I would catch up every once in a while, usually when work wasn’t too hectic, and we would find a karaoke bar, let down our hair, have a couple of drinks, get up and sing together, and we would alternate who would pick the songs. But we haven’t sung together in the last five years.’

Singing with Addison brought back memories of when we sang together without a care in the world. After our first competition when we were younger, Addison and I would put on performances for our parents then beg them to let us enter other talent competitions to see how far we could go with our vocals. I loved hearing about my dad on the road travelling around and singing his songs in his cover band, the Ethan James Band. The adventures Dad had told Addison and me had started out as bedtime stories, but he’d loved sharing his wild days and his singing with us. And what my dad adored the most was that his daughters loved singing and music as much as he did.

I hadn’t sung with my sister since the night I had collapsed on stage. I’d avoided singing with Addison since that day. But I didn’t say that, instead I said, ‘I blacked out a few years ago and up until yesterday I thought music was a trigger to my blackouts. On three occasions over the last few years, I wanted to see if I could do it by myself without my sister, sing without my world falling apart around me. I did it and now there’s video proof. But I know my sister, she won’t be satisfied seeing the videos. No, she would want to see that with her own two eyes.’

I stopped to take a couple of breaths and drink more of my coffee. I turned to see where Zach’s attention was, and it was on me. The colour in his face drained when I continued. ‘Connor approached me one night, with his cocky demeanour and smug look on his face, thinking he was about to get what he wanted. He handed over his business card and an envelope, gave me his award-winning smile and told me to give him a call. I knew I had to get out of The Groove as quickly as I could. The Groove, just like Connor, gave off a vibe I just didn’t like.’