No Shelter Left novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: Business Only

Jude found her in the alley behind the bar, where she was zipping her guitar into its case.

A string of yellow lights hung over the dumpsters.

"You can't be here," Aisling said. "I'm not for sale."

"I didn't come to buy." He stopped a few feet away. "I came to ask you something, and I'd like a straight answer."

"Ask."

"Did you write Kaitlyn's last two albums?"

Aisling straightened up.

She had meant to hold this back until she had a plan, and the plan had not come.

But he had stood in the dark for an hour, and he had not touched his drink.

"Yes."

"All of it?"

"Every note and every word. For two years."

He nodded slowly. He had clearly expected it, and it still hit him.

"Prove it."

She took the recorder out of her pocket and handed it over.

He listened to Colby's voice twice, with his head bent.

"This proves your brother is a bully," Jude said. "It proves he wants the song. It doesn't prove who wrote it."

"I know."

"Anyone can say he's asking for something that isn't his."

"Then I'll show you what is mine."

She unzipped the front pocket of her backpack and took out a spiral notebook with a bent corner.

She opened it to a page near the middle and held it under the yellow lights.

The handwriting was hers, in blue pen, with crossed-out lines and arrows. At the top she had written a date and a word, Paper Boat.

Keep reading free with an account. Start No Shelter Left from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.