I tried yet again to generate some interest in the blonde beside me. It’d been wishful thinking that she’d be able to distract me. Even with my mind blurry from four drinks, it wasn’t happening. She was too small on top, too curvy on the bottom, and the eyes and smile were all wrong. In other words, she wasn’t Lace.
I was so screwed.
The blonde took the cherry from her drink, pulled the stem off, and leaned in close. “Wanna see what I can do?” She gave me a flirty smile.
“Not really.” I was serious.
She didn’t get it. She laughed and proceeded to try to wow me with her tongue tying prowess.
Suddenly the hairs on the back of my neck prickled. I glanced over my shoulder. Lace stood by the gift shop, forgotten souvenirs in her hand as her wide eyes met mine she brought the pile of t-shirts she held to her chest like a protective shield and then spun away.
I squeezed the blonde’s hand. “Nice trick, baby, but sorry, I gotta go.”
“Wait,” she protested, but I ignored her. I threw a couple of twenties on the bar and hurried to the shop. As soon as I entered, I spotted her in the checkout line and called out to her.
Lace tensed before turning to face me. “Hey.” Her smile didn’t reach her eyes. “Pretty girl,” she commented.
“I didn’t notice.” I took a step closer to her.
“The only one you’ll ever love, huh?” Her cheeks reddened as she twisted the shirts as if embarrassed that she’d said that out loud.
“Yes, dammit.” I grabbed her arm and pulled her around the counter and over to a secluded corner, next to a bargain bin of Mickey Mouse swimsuits and flip flops.
“Have you talked to War yet?”
“No, not yet. He…”
I moved her backward. “You didn’t like seeing me with someone else, did you?” I grabbed her hands and pinned them behind her back forcing her to look up at me. “Well join the club. I don’t like watching you with him either,” I admitted in a growl.
Her eyes darkened with understanding.
“You need to talk to him. Today, Lace.”
She licked her lips and nodded.
I stared at her mouth. “I’ve laid it out to you how I feel, and I believe you feel the same.” She was fighting it though. She needed a push, and I was going to give her a big one. I came closer, crudely rocking my erection against her. “That’s for you, babe. I’ve been over there with that blonde, but the whole fucking time I’ve been thinking about you. It’s always you.”
Her breath caught. “Stop it, Bry,” she begged in a rough whisper.
“Give me a reason to stop Lace. Or I’m going to take that blonde upstairs and pretend that she’s you.”
She closed her eyes. I could see her pulse beating furiously in her neck. I held my breath waiting for her to answer.
“Excuse me.”
I let go of Lace’s hands and turned to look over my shoulder.
“I need to reorganize the suits,” a shop lady told us. “You two on your honeymoon?” she asked with a raised brow as she started to sift through the bin.
“No,” Lace replied before slipping past me and practically sprinting for the exit.
“Lace, wait.” I caught her by the elbow.
“Let me go, Bry.” Her voice was low and she looked flustered as hell. “I can’t do this right now. I’ve got a meeting with Mary Timmons. I’m already late.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“It didn’t sound like a question,” she rasped. “It sounded more like a threat.”
Fuck me but I liked the defiant glint in her eyes. “You know what I want.”
She shook her head.
So I spelled it out for her. “I want you to tell War it’s over. I want to be able to stop hiding how we feel about each other. I want to hold your hand so everyone will know you’re mine. I want to laugh and flirt with you again. I want to take you out on dates. I want to be the one in the back bedroom with you on the bus instead of him. I want to make love to you and then hold you all night long. I want to wake up next to you in the morning. I want you, babe. Just you.”
She closed her eyes. “I can’t give you what you want,” she whispered, but I saw the surrender written in her eyes when she reopened them, and I knew then that’s what she really wanted too.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
* * *
Lace
I tore my arm free from Bryan’s grasp and ran from the shop as if an animatronic Disney villain had come to life and was pursuing me. When I reached the bank of elevators, I stopped to catch my breath and glanced back. Bryan was leaning back against one of the columns of the shop, one ankle crossed over the other, hands in the front pockets of his dark jeans. To the casual observer he might look relaxed, but I knew better. His eyes were watchful. He was like a coiled spring ready to come unwound. I knew because I felt the exact same way.
I watched a mother and a teenage daughter both do a double take when they passed him. Bryan Jackson was every woman’s bad boy fantasy: tall, long legs, tight body, tatted arms, and handsome as sin. And what they saw on the outside was just a small part of all the good that was him.
The elevator door opened. I paused before getting in. I was so tempted to go run to him, who the hell wouldn’t be after what he’s just said. I had to stop doing this though. I’d made my decision, but I really wondered if it’d been the right one. A father and a son hurried onto the elevator. “What number do you need?” the man asked me.
“Twelve,” I mumbled before moving to the back. I shook my head as if that was all it would take to clear away the confusion. After the door closed, I began to fret. What if he did go back to the blonde? I started to shake. I felt kind of woozy like I had a fever. I rubbed my chilled arms, forcing my thoughts back to the upcoming meeting with Black Cat’s CEO.
When Mickey Mouse’s recorded voice announced my floor, I plodded out of the elevator and trudged down the hall to Timmons’ room. Outside the door, a woman with grey green eyes almost as beautiful as Bryan’s smiled pleasantly at me. She had a cell pressed to her ear.
“Just a second,” she told the caller. Balancing the phone between her cheek and shoulder, she held out her hand to me. “Beth Tate. I’m head of PR for Black Cat.”
I nodded and shook her hand.
“She shouldn’t be long,” Beth informed me after ending her call. Sure enough the door popped open. Charles Morris came storming out, straightening his tie and buttoning his suit jacket. Beth slid past the Zenith exec on her way into the room. He had pink lipstick smeared on the side of his mouth. When he looked at me I pointed it out, trying to hide my surprise.
This was interesting.
Rubbing the color off with his thumb, Charles cleared his throat and ran a hand through his close cropped hair. “Whatever she offers you, I’ll double.” His voice was gruff.
I didn’t know what to say, but I got the distinct impression that I was caught in the middle of something more than just a competition for my services.
“You still have my card?” he asked as the door cracked open again.
“Charles,” Beth queried with a frown. “Are you still here?”
“Tell her this isn’t over.” He glanced over Beth’s head. “I’ll see her in Miami.”
“I don’t think…” Beth trailed off as he walked away with a dismissive wave over his shoulder. Her lips flattened, but her expression was neutral when she turned back to me. She opened the door more widely. “Come in. She’ll see you now.”
The huge suite dwarfed the standard hotel room War and I shared. It was huge with a large sitting area in front of floor to ceiling windows featuring a gorgeous view of the Bay Lake. Mary sat on the middle of a beige sofa with her spine straight and her shoulders back.
“Have a seat.” She gestured to the orange egg chair beside her.
As she shuffled through a stack of papers on the oval coffee table, I was surprised to see her hands were shaking. An aftereffect of her encount
er with Charles Morris? No doubt the man was a force to be reckoned with. But I got the distinct impression that Mary Timmons usually got what she wanted.
She smoothed her short brown hair into place and I heard the door clicked closed behind Beth. All business now, the exec leveled me with a serious stare. “I want to let you know up front Black Cat is interested in signing you.” She tapped a finger against the manila file. “But there are a couple of things that came up on your background check that concerned me.”
“Oh?” I raised a brow.
“After graduation, you moved in with a man named Martin Skellin. Is that correct?”
I nodded.
“The man was a convicted drug dealer.” Mary tossed the file on the table. “I don’t know if you were aware, but he was murdered last week. Shot in the back of the head, execution style.”
I inhaled sharply. I hadn’t known, but I wasn’t surprised. Martin had been skating on thin ice with the higher ups long before I’d left him. I gave the news of his death about ten seconds of my time, less than two of those feeling bad about it. “That’s awful, but I don’t know how that’s relevant to me.”
“People are often measured by the company they keep.”
“Guilt by association. Great.” My hands balled into fists. “Look, Martin Skellin was an asshole. He knocked me around. I left him when he tried to pimp me out to pay off some debt. My time with him is not something I’m proud of, but who he was or what he did, have nothing to do with me.”
“I understand you’re engaged to Warren now?” She glanced at my left hand. “Isn’t that a little sudden?”
I shifted, uncomfortable under this cross examination. I felt a fine sheen of perspiration break out on my upper lip. “Not really. War and I have known each other for years. Why all this interest in my love life?”
I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I was beginning to feel really uneasy. I wished now I had taken War up on his offer to come with me. He’d warned me Mary was a hard ass. He had been way underselling it.
“It takes a strong personality to go solo. I need to be sure you’ve got what it takes to handle it. There will be no boyfriends or fiancées to hold your hand.
“I realize that.” I straightened. “I can take care of myself. I have been for a long time now.”
“Yes. I know all about your childhood. I can’t even imagine what it must have been like for you.” Mary’s eyes softened. She stood and pulled the bottom hem of her suit jacket down. “I can certainly sympathize, and I admire your resilience, Lace, really, I do. But I have my concerns.” She moved to the windows. “You’re untrained. You’re young, and you’re inexperienced. But more than that,” she turned back around, her brow furrowed. “I’m concerned about your judgment. I’ve heard about all the partying you’ve been doing on this tour.”
I gulped and looked down at my ankle boots. I was sunk. The woman didn’t miss a thing.
“All that said I’m still willing to offer you a signing bonus of thirty thousand. I just need your word that drugs won’t be an issue.”
I nodded, telling myself it wasn’t a lie, not really. I was quitting. Drugs wouldn’t be an issue for me anymore.
“Good. I can assure you that Mr. Morris wouldn’t match that much upfront.”
My head snapped up.
“Don’t look so surprised. I know all about what Morris has been up to.” Mary tapped her fingers against her folded arm. “I think it was very shortsighted of him to try to lure Warren and Bryan out of Tempest.”
“What do you mean?” My eyes narrowed in confusion. “I was under the impression that Morris’ offer included all the guys.”
“No.” She shook her head. “Zenith’s deal was very personnel specific. Morris is an unrepentant disassembler. He likes to take things apart and put them back together in a way he thinks is best.”
I put my hands over my churning stomach as the reality of it sank in. War had been planning to sell out the rest of the group. Just like he’d done to me in Seattle. This was what Bryan had wanted me to know. I wished he had just told me himself.
It was obvious why War had kept this bit of damning information from me. It was a real manipulative move on his part, an obvious attempt to tie me to him, proposing to me the same night he’d just brokered that sleazy backroom deal with Morris, Did he honestly think I would overlook the betrayal of my brother or King and Sager just because he put a ring on my finger?
Bryan was right. War had changed. And if he thought I would turn a blind eye to all this, well he didn’t know me any better than I knew him.
“I put an end to it,” Mary continued oblivious to the fact that my world had just been turned upside down. “Morris has assured me he’s withdrawing his offer.” She sat on the couch again and leaned forward. “But back to you. I know what Zenith has offered you is high, but I know you’re smart enough to see through all those dollar signs. His offer is back end loaded and full of stipulations. Basically, if you don’t meet them you get nothing. The most likely scenario is that you end up owing Zenith money.”
“Read this over.” She handed me a piece of paper. “My offer is very simple.” She slid a check across the table toward me. “A thirty thousand dollar advance on a three year exclusive contract with Black Cat. Do things our way, Lace, and I think there’s a good chance that you’ll be a star.”
I picked up the check and stared at it. Mary’s signature was a wide sprawl on both it and the contract. She was right about the Zenith deal. It was pages long and full of tons of legal mumbo jumbo. My vision tunneled in on this moment. There really wasn’t a choice. My mind was still reeling from what I’d just found out about War, but I was sure of this decision. I needed to do this. It was a chance for me to finally turn my life around.
I picked up the pen and signed.
The rest of our meeting passed in a blur. Mary shook my clammy hand. Beth came back in and congratulated me and before I knew it, I was on my way back down the hall, in the elevator to my floor, and in front of the door to my room.
I inserted the key card and went inside, grateful that the room was empty. I didn’t feel up to a confrontation with War at the moment. I leaned back against the door. The air conditioning felt too cold against my feverish skin. I recognized what was going on now. It wasn’t Bryan or Mary. It wasn’t the flu. I was having withdrawal symptoms from the heroin. I’d had bouts like this before when I’d tried to quit, but never quite this bad.
I just needed one more little dose to get me over this hump.
Just enough to get me through today.
After that I was done for real.
I opened the safe and pulled out the small satchel. My hands were shaking so violently, I almost dropped the bag. I stumbled to the bed, sat down on the edge, flicked on the lamp, and unzipped the bag.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
* * *
Bryan
Back down in the lobby, I stuck out like a bad ink stain in my black jeans, shirt, and boots on the corner edge of a grey suede sectional. A modern sphere mobile spun lazily over my head while I tapped my fingers impatiently against my leg.
Where was she?
She should have been down here twenty minutes ago. I ran my hands across my face and up through my hair. The light sweet scent of vanilla still lingered on them. I wanted her soft curves back in those hands. I wanted my mouth on hers. I wanted to hear that low sound of arousal she made whenever our tongues touched.
I wanted her. Now.
I shifted, gaze flicking to War at the other end of the sectional where he sat talking to Dizzy.
Everything was so fucked up. War was the wrong guy for her. I could finally see that. Sure, I’d once made a promise to him, but this wasn’t high school anymore. And I never promised that I would stand idly by while he let her spin out of control. I had to get Lace to acknowledge what was between us. I was her first and dammit to hell I was going to see to it that I was her last.
“Where is she, man?” I threw u
p a hand. “Did she text you? It’s not like her to be late.”
“I dunno.” War shrugged, glanced down at his phone, and then looked over as King and Sager burst out laughing. “What’s so funny?” he asked.
“King’s response to this cop who was hassling him when we were at that truck stop in Richmond,” Sager replied with a smirk. “I recorded it and put it on our YouTube channel. Come over. You guys need to see this.”
War, Dizzy, and I moved over to the chairs where Sager and King were sprawled. We leaned in over the laptop and King scrolled up the volume.
“You been smoking some marijuana?” The cop on the screen asked in a condescending tone.
“Not yet,” King replied with his usual sassy grin.
The cop’s brows rose. “I’m just checking. I don’t know if you knew, but a lot of drug deals go down around here.”
“Really?” King bowed up. “I get my drugs somewhere else.” He folded his arms over his thick chest and stared down at the much shorter uniformed man. “Is this because I’m Hispanic? If you don’t mind, officer, could I have your badge number?”
I watched the cop and King but I zoned out on their conversation as my ears picked up the unmistakable sound of my own raised voice in the background. “I’ll never forget prom and how it was between us.”
Fucking shit.
I glanced nervously at War. Oh yeah, he heard it too. His eyes slid to me, and then back to Sager. “Play that part again, Sager.” He frowned. “And turn it up.”
“War,” I started.
“Just shut the fuck up!” War growled.
My muscles locked tight as the tape replayed. With the volume up, you could hear pretty much the whole incriminating thing. There was a long moment of stunned silence when the clip finished. No one moved and no one spoke. Even the lobby noise seemed to fade away as War and I stared each other down. I felt the dynamic between us shift forever.
Rock Star Romance Ultimate: Volume 1 Page 104
