All Chapters of In Wounded Rhymes: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

• "Where were you?" Théo stepped out of the rental car after he saw Anastasia's death glare as she approached the driver's side. He slammed the door shut and locked the car. A thin coat of dust had overlain the black roof and hood.  "Where have you been?" "Go back inside; it's gonna rain," he muttered in response. The sky just got darker. Like his mood.  "Do I look like I give a shit?" He placed his fist over his mouth to try to obscure the sight of him gritting his teeth. He expected this reaction from her, but did she really have to swear at him?  He looked in the direction of the hotel's main entrance. It was another pricey five-star hotel near Sunset Boulevard, and he knew she would be paying for a week-long stay using her credit card—paid for by her parents, of course—just so she could join

•"Tomorrow night?"  "Yeah. Why? Are you supposed to..." Anastasia frowned slightly. "You have another meeting tomorrow?" Théo held back a sigh of frustration and pocketed his phone. Gillaume just texted him coordinates again. He was expecting another dropped call, but the coordinates meant Gillaume was ready to meet up any minute now. Meaning, she was already in the States. In New York, maybe? The agency also had headquarters in the East Coast. "I can call the...we can do the morning after. Or the day after that," Ana said when he kept hesitating. "You're gonna be busy all day tomorrow?" "Yeah. I need to be back in New York tomorrow afternoon."  "What?" Ana pulled a face. "You just arrived." "Gotta meet up with someone from the agency. I have to clear up my schedule before we go to Rome. Let them know I'll be

•  New York  • "Hi." "Hey."  "D'you get my text?" "Yeah." Veronica stood against the wall of the busy hallway, glancing past the nursing staff on duty for the night. She held her phone over her ear, thinking of the right thing to say, keeping her thoughts calm. She'd expected his text and for him to call, but not this soon.  Just ten minutes ago she was on the phone with Jamie. After Théo called for the third time,  Veronica stopped pretending to be busy and picked up. "Are you in the studio? Or..." he asked, mumbling the words. "No. Hospital.""Hospital? Why?" "Had to donate blood." "Why?" Théo sounded more curious now. "For the surgery," she replied, almost muttering under her breath. It seemed he still had no clu

• Veronica shut the bathroom door and let go of the cold doorknob. The drawn curtains dimmed the room to an extent, but not enough to hide her face from his scrutinizing gaze. Her legs felt like they'd regained full mobility after a moment of her just sitting motionless on the bathroom floor, so she took quiet steps towards the hotel bed. It would be dawn in a couple of hours, and neither of them seemed eager to call it a night. She forced her feet to keep moving as her eyes centered on the guy hunched over on the bed.  His dark clothing emphasized the yellowish covers. Théo's left arm was bent because he was nail biting—a habit she thought he had grown out of. Crumpled in his other hand was the small paper bag from the drugstore.  She stood still by the foot of the bed and watched, feigning calmness and apathy to obscure the fact that she was having trouble getting a word

• "Is she upset?" Théo frowned the second she stepped out of the bathroom in a robe, hair damp and fresh out of the shower. "Who? Mom?" "You told her?" The room looked tidier than she remembered.  Veronica stared at the guy standing near the bed.  He cleaned up again, most probably.  "Told her what?"  "What we were up to last night?" he replied.  His dimpled smirk was every bit teasing as it was laughably arousing.  "Not really." She looked away and tightened the belt of the bathrobe. Of course she didn't tell her mother he had to buy the test kits himself just so she would stop procrastinating. She wouldn't hear the end of it if her mom knew.  "Crap. She hates me even more now," her ex muttered with a fake half-grin when she got quiet. "Can't blame her, though." "She doe

•  "Did Tomek text you again?" "Yeah. We'll meet up sometime soon, when he's not too busy." Veronica sat closer to the table than to her date for tonight.  It wasn't exactly a date. Well, okay. They were alone, having a meal together, exactly like the other couples in the small dining area. To outsiders, they definitely looked like they were on a date. He didn't seem to care, though. Beside her, Théo reclined and pushed his empty plate away from the edge of the table. "So Dan's gonna be in the studio with you and your backup guitarist?" He drank what was left of her apple juice, having already devoured the last spoonfuls of his goopy carbonara. "We're pretty much done with Kyle's parts." Veronica nodded her head slightly. "Dan and Ed, they've got a show tonight in Brooklyn. Mini-concert of some sort," she said. "Ah... You want to go?" A

• Rome, Italy •18 days left "Sì. Stiamo arrivando, Mamma. Sì. Già. Ciao." "Is she home?" Théo glanced at his companion, his seatmate for the entire flight. He could tell she was tired and ready to sleep, but he also knew she had a lot on her mind at the moment. "Yeah. Waiting for us. I told her you had to work late," Anastasia muttered without looking at him. Sh

• Piazza Di Valtieri • 

• Cape May, New Jersey •

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