Problem was, I’d ended up in some of those pictures, but not because I’d been game to overindulge in what wasn’t mine.
When Royce had struck, presenting the evidence that’d had Karl Fitzgerald and one of his top musicians, Cory Douglas, arrested, I’d struck, too.
Desperate to do something right. But it was dangerous and probably would cost me my life.
Because that empire went so much deeper than anyone knew.
But I didn’t care. Nothing mattered but setting this one thing right.
I’d already lost everything else that mattered to me.
Royce was the only one who knew. The only one I trusted. Him and Kade.
I angled in closer, my tone a low hiss. “And you think they’re not gonna notice what I took from them? You think that’s just gonna slide? You and I both know Karl was nothing but a puppet. A fall guy. And you know that monster sitting up there on his throne playing Master of the World is pissed. You know he’ll do whatever it takes not to be exposed. And if he’s caught onto my trail? Coming back here would be the stupidest thing I could have done.”
Might as well have put up a welcome sign with the way I’d invited them to my doorstep. Drawing them close to the people I wanted them farthest from.
Royce set his hand on my shoulder. “Whether they’re here for you or me, we’re in this together. We just have to play it cool until we make it to trial, you get me?”
I gave him a rigid nod and looked off into the distance when I answered, “Yeah.”
Problem was, how we were actually going to get there. How we could pull this off when everything was against us.
Royce straightened his suit jacket. “Good. We need to get back to the party before someone notices we’re gone.”
“My sister will have your ass.”
He grinned as we started back in the direction of the hotel. “Nah. She asked me to watch over you.”
My brows rose to the sky. “She thinks I need a babysitter?”
“She thinks you’re trouble, that’s for sure.”
A tumble of light laughter rumbled free. “And she thinks you’re gonna be the one to get me out of it? Has she met you?”
He chuckled a dark sound. “Your sister basically told me she supports any and all measures in making sure Karl and Cory go down and go down hard. Think my taking up your back counts.”
He spared me a telling glance. The less my sister knew the better. With the baby coming and trying to throw together a wedding before the trial, she didn’t need the stress or the worry.
“Want justice for her. For your sister. For all of them,” I said.
Karl and Cory had hurt far too many people close to me and it was coming back around.
They say payback is a bitch.
Nah.
She was the motherfucking executioner.
Two
Richard
Straightening our suits, Royce and I slipped back through the front doors of the nicest hotel in Dalton, South Carolina.
Dalton was my hometown. Wasn’t much more than a speck on the map. Farms for miles and old friends for days. You couldn’t go anywhere without someone knowing your name.
Which was the reason when I visited, I typically slipped in and slipped right back out. Staying within the safety of the walls of my childhood house. Doing my best to keep under the radar which was kind of hysterical considering the fame our band, Carolina George, was skyrocketing to.
Yeah, that was fuckin’ dangerous, too.
It was no secret I’d been pushing for my band to sign with Mylton Records. What they hadn’t known was the real motive.
They hadn’t known I’d been trying to get closer. On the inside. To infiltrate far above Karl Fitzgerald himself.
Honestly, I didn’t know how to balance this dangerous maneuver with the actual needs of the band who still didn’t know what was going down.
No doubt, now that we were signed with Stone Industries, things were getting ready to change for the band and in a big, big way.
Wanted it.
Fuck.
I wanted it.
For my crew because they deserved it more than any group of people I’d ever met.
Just prayed this mess wasn’t going to silence us before we even had the chance to really start.
Wasn’t ashamed to say that Carolina George was good.
Hell, I’d go so far as to say great, and that wasn’t arrogance rearing its ugly head.
It was just the fact of the matter.
Emily was our lead singer, the girl singing alongside me since she was barely five, always saying wherever I went, she wanted to go, too. Loved that girl to pieces. Thing was, there was zero bias when I said she had the best voice of probably anyone on the scene. Sultry and deep and mesmerizing, and she could write a love song like nobody’s business.
Rhys, our bassist, and our drummer, Leif, were every bit as talented.
Throw me into the mix?
Suffice it to say we wrote some epic shit and we played it even better.
I roughed an anxious hand through my hair. Just didn’t know how to manage both. Being a band and playing this risky game. Being here in Dalton only made it worse, the memories encroaching, suffocating me in the missteps of the past.
Maybe Royce was right. Maybe I was gettin’ paranoid.
Royce shot a pointed glance at my disheveled appearance. “Pull it together, man. You look like you just rumbled with a pit bull in an alley.”
“I wish,” I grumbled, trying to tame my chaotic hair. As disordered as the rest of me.
Sweat beaded on my brow. Adrenaline still sloshing through my veins.
He laughed and patted me on the back. “Pin a smile on that face. Have a fucking beer. Play it cool. That’s your only job from now until the trial. Well, that and standing up at my side when I get married.”
He shot me a smirk.
“Only doin’ that for my sister, man,” I tossed back, teasing the asshole. I’d wanted to rip him a new one when I’d found out he and Emily had been sneaking into each other’s rooms while we’d been on tour.
Didn’t take long to realize he wasn’t using her. That their relationship wasn’t some twisted manipulation like I’d feared.
We climbed the steps out front and headed inside, crossing the lobby back toward the engagement party while we did our best to act like nothing had happened.
I glanced at him. Sober and direct. “Thanks for having my back.”
He squeezed my shoulder. “Absolutely. We’re family now…in every way.”
“You good with that?” It was almost a warning.
He laughed a morbid sound that didn’t have a thing to do with my sister. “Think it’s a little late to turn back now, yeah? We’re in this shit together.”
Tied in a way that neither of us had expected.
“Nope…no turning back. Think we’ve climbed a train there’s no derailing,” I told him.
Voices floated out from the banquet room, lifting above the indie band Royce had organized to play for the event, the party still progressing like not a soul had noticed we’d been gone.
He looked at the watch on his wrist, flashing the ink that twisted out from under the sleeves of his suit jacket. “Shit. Toast is supposed to go down in two minutes.”
I followed him through the main doors of the private room, the sound of the party amplified in volume by fifteen the moment we stepped inside. “Going to find Emily.”
“Yup. Good luck, man.”
He tossed me a look. “Don’t need luck when I’ve got your sister.”
He disappeared into the fray while I hung back at the far wall. Eyes scanning through the faces, every cell in my body on edge. Ready to jump in at a second’s notice.
Town might have been small, but that meant my family knew everyone. The invitations for this party had stretched far and wide.
Piled on top of that were Royce’s guests, the few members of his family he remained close to, plus the members of his band, A Riot
of Roses.
Industry people ran amok.
Sebastian Stone, the owner of our new label, Stone Industries. Dude a legend in his own right. The original singer of Sunder who’d retired from the stage to start his own label.
Yeah, Sunder was there, too. All of them and their wives.
Fucking surreal that we were now surrounded by one of the biggest bands in the world, now a part of their world once we’d struck pay dirt after playing live at the ACB awards two months ago.
I rubbed at the nerves at the back of my neck.
God. That felt like a lifetime ago.
My gaze kept skipping through the faces. Searching for anything that might feel off while simultaneously trying to cool my fucking jets.
Round tables filled the enormous room, each of them decorated in pinks and whites and extravagant floral arrangements.
To the left, there was a dance floor over near the band, and a podium for the toasts was set up in the front.
Royce was currently making his way toward it, my sister’s hand wrapped up in his as he led her that way.
True joy broke their faces in these smiles that would be impossible to deny.
A waiter carrying a tray of champagne was passing by, and I took a flute, drained the entire thing, and grabbed another before he had the chance to walk away.
Anything to dull this disorder that wouldn’t settle.
This feeling that something was off.
Something wicked gathering strength in the distance. Encroaching fast.
The band trailed off when Royce got to the podium, and he lifted his glass to the room. “Have a little something I would like to say.”
That was all it took for the conversations to die out as everyone turned their attention to him.
He cleared his throat. “First off, I want to say thank you to everyone for being here to celebrate with us tonight. I know some of you traveled great distances to be here, and for that, we are grateful. Means more than you could know to look out on this crowd and see the people who are most important to us. Ones who we love, and the ones who love us back.”
A round of cheers went up.
Royce glanced at my sister before he looked back out to the crowd.
“Some of you might have questioned the way I came to know Emily.”
His eyes traveled to meet hers, their hands held tight between them.
Royce glanced around. “But I want everyone to know that what I saw in Emily was instant. I saw greatness. I saw beauty. I saw a talent unmeasured.”
His words thickened. “I fell in love with her when I probably shouldn’t have. But the thing is, not loving this girl would be impossible.”
A shock of joy pressed against the anxiety that gripped me by the throat—for my sister—for the fact she’d gotten free. For the truth of what shone in her eyes. It was the only thing I wanted, happiness for those that I loved. The ones I’d do anything for.
Live and die and destroy for.
“You showed me what it was like to live again, Emily,” he continued. “What it was like to love again. You gave me a second chance when I’d thought I’d hit a dead end. Because of you, there is music in my life. There is hope in my spirit. There is love in my soul. You are my everything, and I cannot wait to spend my life with you.”
Happiness radiating from her, my sister reached out and touched his cheek. “I tried my hardest not to fall in love with you, Royce Reed. It seemed crazy, the way I felt when we met. But the thing was, you were sent to make me remember what it’s like to sing. To remind me what it’s like to truly feel and how to fully trust. You helped me remember who I am and who I want to be. And I can’t wait to be that person with you at my side, raisin’ our children together.”
I thought maybe he’d planned to say more, but he was setting his flute aside, wrapping her up, and kissin’ her in a way that was pretty much inappropriate considering the crowd.
No doubt, my poor great aunt Shirley was going to be scandalized by the way the ominous-looking rocker was feasting on my sister right out in the open.
“Get a room!” This from Rhys, our bassist, who was up close to the front.
Our number one heckler.
Royce pulled himself away with a smug grin on his face. “Already got one. Right upstairs. You know where we’ll be if you can’t find us.”
Everyone laughed and cheered.
While I itched.
That same feeling that something was off burned hot across my flesh. Something sticky making me tug at the neck of my shirt.
Suffocating.
Never should have come to this hotel. Too many ghosts lurked in the shadows. Memories I’d tried to bury that just kept getting dredged with every second that passed.
Wouldn’t have shown for anyone else other than Emily and Royce. It wasn’t like there were a whole lot of options in Dalton, though.
My eyes searched, roving over the guests from where I remained standing at the back of the room, readying myself for the attack.
My attention kept moving to where these heavy floor-to-ceiling drapes hung behind where the band was set up.
Area nothin’ but shadows.
Didn’t make a damned difference.
I saw her—saw her hiding at the edge of the crowd, timid and wary, eyes darting around like she wasn’t sure if she belonged there or not.
My guts clenched, and the air punched from my lungs, so hard I might as well have been kicked in the stomach.
No question, she absolutely did not.
She shouldn’t be there.
She couldn’t be.
Uncertainty ran fierce, nothing but a slick of fear that warned this was fucking bad. That I had to get her out of there. Push her far, far away.
What the hell did she think she was doing there?
My teeth gritted, and my feet were moving, unable to stop this frenzy that took me over. I wound through the crowd.
Shouldering through the crush.
Surely I was comin’ off a prick.
But I couldn’t stop.
I was unable to see.
Unable to feel.
My only sense was the destruction that pounded out from the middle of me.
Knew the second she felt me. The way she went rigid, frozen to the spot before her attention whipped my way.
Girl held in shock, like she hadn’t expected to see me there and had expected it all the same.
Guilt and something I didn’t want to recognize clouding her face.
This was dangerous. Two planets orbiting too close. A collision seconds from happening.
Hurt poured from her stare, and that body rocked in recognition.
A fireball that blazed, burning through the air and eating up the oxygen.
Wisps of black hair fell out of the twist and caressed her cherub face.
Defined cheeks pinked and glossy lips parted.
And fuck it all, my stomach twisted in a gnarl of lust.
The girl looked like a fairy made of blown glass.
Gorgeous and fragile and so strong you wondered if she was really made of stone.
Raven eyes stared back while I made my way toward the girl with the most mysterious eyes.
Pupils surrounded by a starburst of crystallized violet and splintering out to a darkened eternity.
Two blinding thunderbolts.
It was like looking into a kaleidoscope that sucked me into the past.
That sucked me into regret.
She wore this flowy floral dress that hit her at mid-thigh, nothing but toned legs and tight, gorgeous body.
Temptation.
Destruction.
My ruin.
Still, I moved for her.
Unable to stop.
She fidgeted, wavered, her attention darting everywhere before she finally made a choice and turned to run.
I chased her out into the lobby.
Bright lights shined from glittering tiered chandeliers that hung from the three-story ceiling. Lighting her up i
n sparkles and dust.
She rushed toward the main doors.
Her name dropped from my lips in a hiss. Problem was, I didn’t know if it was in anger or pure desperation. “Violet.”
Three
Violet
What did I think I was gonna achieve, comin’ here?
I’d known better. Known so much better, but I’d somehow been delusional enough to convince myself I could slip in, witness the joy without anyone noticing me, partake in it in the only way that I could, and slip right back out.
Delusional enough to think I would manage not to get my heart slaughtered anew from a single, scathing look.
In this stupid hotel I’d avoided like the plague, nonetheless.
From behind, my name hit me like a stone.
“Violet.”
Hatred flowed through his voice, as stark as the betrayal in his presence.
I faltered for a moment, trapped by the sound, before I frantically looked around the lobby for the nearest exit. A large group from the engagement party had gathered at the front door, laughing and hugging, blocking my escape.
“Violet. Turn around. I want to talk to you.”
He wanted to talk to me?
Disbelief had me darting toward the next best thing—the sweeping, curved staircase that the opulent hotel was known for. The massive wooden pillars supporting it were carved in intricate flowers, and the stairs that were at least thirty feet wide were covered in the same lush, maroon and gold carpet as the rest of the floors.
I fumbled up them as quickly as I could, the high heels I rarely wore making the task a whole lot more difficult.
Especially when I could feel him. When I could feel him coming after me.
The heat of him rippled through the dense air and covered me in a thick shroud of treason and deceit.
Chains that threatened to bring me to my knees.
I gasped in relief when I made it to the second floor, and I took off to the right, having no clue where I thought I was going except for someplace safe.
Someplace he couldn’t get to me.
Someplace he could never hurt me again.
“Violet.”
I only made it about ten steps before a hand latched onto my wrist.
Falling into You: A Falling Stars Stand-Alone Romance Page 2
