Fractured Beat (Meltdown Book 1)

by RB Hilliard

  No!

  “Accident? Grant’s mother asked.

  No, no, no, no, no! I screamed in my head.

  “Oh, my, don’t tell me Grant hasn’t told you what happened? I bet he was waiting to talk to you in person. I have to say, your boy gave us quite the scare when he fell off that stage in Houston. I have a nephew who is an addict. Rehab did him wonders and it looks as if it has done the same for Grant.” His face split into a smile that oozed with false concern as he turned to me and asked, “Wouldn’t you agree, Mallory?” The shock on Grant’s parent’s faces, as Kirkland blasted their world apart, was one of the worst things I’d ever experienced. Kirkland Hamilton might be going down, but one thing was for certain. He was hell bent on taking us all with him. “And because of Mallory,” he continued, “Grant seems to now have his addiction well under control.”

  Grant’s mother’s eyes narrowed in on me. “And how exactly did Mallory do this?” she quietly asked. My eyes dropped to the floor while Kirkland explained who and what my role was. “So, you’re not a guidance counselor?” she asked. The disgust in her voice made me cringe.

  I slowly lifted my eyes and answered, “No ma’am.” I’m just a liar who’s in love with your son.

  “And you’re not really my son’s girlfriend?” She had me there. If I confirmed that I was indeed Grant’s girlfriend in front of Kirkland, I could kiss my job goodbye, but if I denied our relationship, I’d betray Grant and what I felt for him.

  In the end I didn’t have to worry about it because Kirkland was kind enough to answer for me. “Mallory is just helping us out with the press. You know how it gets when the sharks smell blood in the water.”

  Grant’s mother shot me a look of pure hatred. Then she turned on her heel and marched out the door. Grant’s dad gave me a long, thoughtful look before following after.

  “I think that went rather well,” Kirkland said and, with a malevolent smile on his crinkly, old face, he followed them out of the room.

  I was left wondering how in the hell was I going to explain this to Grant.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Can’t Drink You Away

  Grant

  I was a dick to Mallory. After storming out of her room, I went in search of the guys. I found them in the suite and, of course, their shit was already scattered from one end of the place to the other. When I calmed down and thought about it, I didn’t blame Mallory for wanting to stay in her own room. Don’t get me wrong, I wanted her with me, but when all of us were together shit happened, and sometimes it was pretty bad. Mallory would learn this in time. Right now when things were still so new was not the time. I was out the door and on the way to apologize when Marcel intercepted me and told me we had a press conference in fifteen. Directly after that we had a meet and greet with the press and then practice. This meant I wouldn’t get the chance to catch up with Mallory until right before the show. After I sent her a quick apology text, I found Hank and told him to make sure she was okay.

  Three hours later

  “And do you know what your aunt said then?” Mom shouted. I knew the second Mallory stepped up beside me. The sweet scent of honey permeated the air and I felt myself start to relax. That’s what Mallory did for me. She relaxed me. I noticed my mother was no longer talking – and then I saw the look on her face and thought, Oh shit. It was the look she got when she smelled something rotten. The same look she got when she greatly disliked something…or someone. Fuck! I should have been there to introduce them. I also should have warned Mallory that my mother could be a bit difficult. Mom had a good heart, but she was a tough nut to crack. Right as I opened my mouth to start damage control we got the shout out to head to the stage. I could tell Mallory was not okay, but at this point in time there was not a damn thing I could do about it. As I left her with my parents, I hoped for a miracle.

  Three hours later

  The show was fucking awesome. How could it not be? I was performing in front of the people I loved most in this world and we were crushing it. New York, like Charlotte, didn’t allow anyone but staff back stage. I knew Mallory and my parents were somewhere in the crowd, but with the bright lights flashing in my face I couldn’t see a damn thing.

  Hank threw me a clean shirt as I walked off the stage and told me to get my ass to the after-party. He had a worried look on his face and I could tell it was bad.

  “My parents?” I asked, as I pulled the shirt over my head.

  “No. Chelle and two of her friends,” he answered. I was pissed that Chelle had the nerve to show her face, but truthfully, I wasn’t worried. I could deal with her. Hell, all I had to do was sick Blane on her. “And those two girls you and Nash tag teamed a few times. I can’t remember their real names, but Nash refers to them as Silly and Sally,” he added. Fuck! Leah and Kaci were here.

  I took off at a fast clip toward the VIP lounge. When Hank caught up with me, I asked, “Where’s Mallory?”

  “VIP room.”

  “And my parents?”

  “Sean took them back to the hotel before the show.”

  His response stopped me dead in my tracks. “What do you mean Sean took them back?” I’d seen the unhappy look on my mom’s face, but surely it wasn’t that bad? “What happened?”

  “Your mom said she was having…cramps and needed to go back to the hotel.” The way he said it let me know just how bad it was.

  “My mom had a hysterectomy five years ago, dude,” I stated.

  He shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe she had the squirts? Whatever it was, she wasn’t playing around, and I had to rearrange shit to get her back before she lost her mind.”

  Melba could be such a pain in the ass. I would deal with her later. Right now I needed to make sure Mallory was okay. I heard footsteps behind us and turned to see Nash and Luke heading our way. Once they reached us, I said, “Chelle is here and so are Leah and Kaci.”

  “Shiiiiiiit,” Luke drawled. “It looks like you’ve got yourself a showdown, bro”

  Ignoring him I turned to Nash and said, “I’ll take Chelle, you take Leah and Kaci.”

  “On it,” he replied, and we both took off on our respective missions.

  “I’ll get Mallory!” Luke called out and I shot him the bird.

  The VIP lounge was an absolute madhouse. Shrieks erupted the second we stepped through the door. Marcel, Hank and Sampson were standing at the entrance to the room.

  “Sampson, you’re on Nash,” Hank announced. Marcel, go find Mallory and make sure she’s okay until Grant gets there.”

  “I’m here, boss,” Sean announced from behind us.

  “Is my mom okay?” I asked.

  “She seemed fine to me,” he answered with a shrug.

  Something wasn’t right. “She didn’t say anything on the ride back?”

  “Not a word,” he replied. Yep, something was definitely wrong.

  “You two can play catch up later. Sean, you’re on Chaz and Luke.” Hank said before turning to me. “Chelle is in the back corner talking to Kirkland.” Great, just what I needed, a Chelle Kirkland gang up. This was getting worse by the second. “I’ll distract Kirkland while you deal with Chelle,” he instructed.

  As Hank headed toward Kirkland, a nice looking couple stepped up and asked for an autograph. A few autographs later, Kirkland rushed by me. I wondered what Hank had told him. Once he cleared the door, I excused myself and headed straight for Chelle.

  “Hey stranger!” she called out when she saw me coming her way.

  “What are you doing here, Chelle?” I said through gritted teeth.

  She flashed a catty-as-hell smile and said, “Kirkland invited me. He thinks my blog is good publicity for the band. He doesn’t understand why I haven’t been included on the tour. In fact, he mentioned the possibility of me joining you before he got called away. I think it’s a great idea, don’t you?”

  I narrowed my eyes at her. “What game are you playing? And seriously, do you honestly think you can win?”

 
“You dismissed me like I was trash. I can get to the top without fucking you. Just watch me,” she snarled.

  “What top, Chelle? Where is it you think you’re going to end up? Because I can guaran-damn-tee you it’s not with me or my band.”

  “Yeah? We’ll just see about that,” she challenged.

  As she turned to flounce away in her usual Chelle like fashion, I stepped into her glide path and stopped her dead in her overdramatic tracks. She rocked back on her heels and glared up at me. Once I had her eyes I gave her my final warning. “You don’t want to fuck with me, Chelle.”

  “Have you ever thought that maybe this isn’t about you?”

  “If you end up on this tour with my band, which will never happen, then it’s definitely about me.”

  She let out a disgusted huff before storming away. Hopefully I’d gotten through to her. There was no way in hell she was joining us on this tour. I searched around for Nash and found him entertaining Leah, Kaci and a handful of other women in the far corner. Our eyes met and he gave me a chin nod. Good, he had it handled. Now, I could go find Mallory.

  It took me ages to get out of the room, but I finally succeeded and found Mallory talking to a woman in the hallway. I could tell by the look on her face she was uncomfortable and most likely in need of rescuing.

  “There you are!” I stated, as I approached the two of them.

  “Oh my God, you really do know him,” the woman said loudly enough for the entire hall to hear.

  “Grant, this is Jill Limbert. Jill lives a mile down the street from my parents’ house in New York and is a huge fan of yours.”

  “Huge!” Jill excitedly exclaimed.

  Ignoring her outburst, Mallory continued, “Do you think maybe you could give her an autograph?”

  “I’ll do one better.” I turned to Jill and said, “How about I introduce you to the rest of the band?”

  “Oh my God!” she screeched, and jumped up and down.

  Mallory looked horrified. “I’ve got this,” I assured her. Then I steered Jill into the lounge to meet the guys.

  A while later I reemerged with a dazed but thrilled Jill. Mallory wasn’t in the hall.

  “Thank you so much. You really didn’t have to do that,” Jill said. “I love your music and after everything that happened to Mallory I am so relieved to see her happy again.” Her words hit me like a kick to the nuts. Of course Mallory was uncomfortable. This girl knew her when she was at the top of her game and probably had a front row seat to her fall from grace. I felt like a world class shit.

  “Glad I could help out a friend of Mallory’s. If you don’t mind, I’m going to head back in,” I motioned in the direction of the VIP lounge.

  “Oh, yes, don’t let me keep you. Bye!” she waved.

  I passed by Luke and asked if he’d seen Mallory. He shook his head, no, so I kept going. I spotted Hank standing with Nash, Leah, Kaci and several other girls in the middle of the room. Nash was waving around a bottle of Cuervo and I could see things were deteriorating fast. The press was all over the place, as was Kirkland. Nash needed to be shut down before he got his ass in trouble.

  Leah spotted me first and shouted, “Whoop, whoop, cock star is in the houseeeeeeee! Grant!”

  Kaci smiled and said, “Grant, we’ve missed you!”

  “Sorry to break it to you ladies, but Grant is officially off the market. He’s in looooooove,” Nash held up the bottle and sang the last half of the sentence and the room went wild.

  I leaned in and gave the girls a hug. Then I turned to Nash and said, “You need to cool it, bro.”

  “I keep telling him that,” Hank grumpily stated.

  Leah and Kaci both chimed in with a loud, “Boooooo!”

  “Have you by chance seen Mallory?” I asked Hank.

  “Didn’t Sean tell you? He took her home about,” he paused to look at his watch, “half an hour or so ago.”

  “Damn! I’m out of here.”

  “You can’t leave for another hour, Kirkland’s orders.”

  “Fuck him. Tell him I had to check on my mom. If he gets pissed he can fire me.” Sean was coming through the door as I was heading out. Before Hank could stop us, I was loaded in the car and we were headed for the hotel. What started as an awesome night had gone to shit quickly. Mom had an issue with Mallory, Kirkland was up our asses, Blane was MIA and something was wrong with my girl. What a fucking mess.

  I didn’t want to wake Mallory, so I had Sean use his master key to let me into her room. As it turned out I didn’t need to worry. Mallory was not only wide awake, but she was sitting Indian style in the middle of her bed. Surrounding her on all sides were tiny bottles of liquor, and from the looks of it they were all empty.

  What.The.Fuck?

  She was intently focused on the television and didn’t see me enter. As I neared the bed, I called out her name. Her eyes drifted to me and she said my name with a sigh. Then she fell back onto the bed and began cackling like a crazy woman. I hadn’t the foggiest idea what to do, so I just stood there staring at her. After what seemed like forever, she somewhat pulled herself together, sat back up and announced, “Your mother hates me.”

  “Babe, should you be drinking?”

  Waving her hand at the bottles, she said, “I hate booze, always have and always will.”

  “Then why are you drinking it?” I wasn’t trying to be a smart ass, I truly wanted to know.

  “I’m drinking to commemorate the shittiest day on the face of the planet.” I took a step toward her and she reared back. “Oh no you don’t. You and your magical cock need to stay right there.” She gestured toward my cock, but ended up overshooting and pointing toward my chin. I tried not to laugh, but she was amusing as hell when she was loaded.

  I held up my hands and said, “I promise not to touch you. Can we talk, please?”

  She held out a tiny bottle and said, “Drink first.” For the first time in my life I didn’t want to drink. I wanted to fix whatever was wrong and then crawl into bed with my girl and crash. However, I could tell she was on a mission. I couldn’t fix a problem I didn’t know and I wasn’t going to know until I paid the toll, so I took the bottle.

  I glanced down at the label and frowned. “I fucking hate Jim Beam. Do you have any Jack, by chance?”

  “Because you are the spawn of that woman, you drink Jim!” Her proclamation made me smile. “I don’t find you funny, Erwin. And who in their right mind names their child Melba?” This time when she flopped back on the bed, I was there to catch her. She fought me briefly and then gave up and said, “You win, Erwin. Hey, that rhymes!” and broke into gales of laughter.

  Once I had the bottles cleaned off the bed, I pulled her onto my lap and said, “Tell me what happened.”

  “Melba hated me the second she laid eyes on me. She didn’t even give me a chance. But then it happened.”

  I was afraid to ask, but what choice did I have? “What happened?”

  “She asked me what I did.” She turned so she could see my eyes and said, “I told her what we discussed. Only she took it the wrong way.”

  It took me a minute to decipher her drunk talk. “She asked you what you did for a living and you told her you were a counselor?” I asked.

  “I did, and the next thing I knew she was screaming at your dad and carrying on about poor kids needing all the help they can get. She thought I was a guidance counselor, Grant! I don’t know about you, but I would make the shittiest guidance counselor ever.”

  My girl was a funny drunk. “Okay, so what happened next?”

  “Sean stopped the car and told us to wait. I kid you not, Melba told him to kiss it and shot out of that car like her ass was on fire. Your dad went after her and Sean went after them both. Oh my God, you should have seen it! I just sat there laughing my ass off.”

  I was confused. “My mother did what at a stop light?”

  “No, silly. You need to keep up. Your mom jumped out of the car when we got – Oh, never mind,” she wave
d her hand in the air. “But then, I saw you inside and she was so rude! Wasn’t she rude? I thought she was, but I’m here to tell you right now – she had nothing on Kirkland. Kirkland is an evil, evil man. He trapped me.” Her eyes met mine and my stomach clenched. “He knew exactly what he was doing, the evil old bastard. He told them everything, Grant.”

  “What do you mean he told them everything?” I quietly asked. I was afraid that I already knew the answer, but wanted her to confirm it.

  “He told your parents that you had an accident because you were a drug addict, that he sent you to rehab and that I was your drug counselor. He made me tell them that we weren’t in a relationship. They now think I’m being paid to act like your girlfriend. It was awful and I’m so, so, sorry. And then, after the show, which was amazing by the way, Jill appeared. Jill Limbert has the biggest mouth ever, and she knows things, Grant.” On that note she burst into tears. I was going to kill my mother and then Kirkland, in that exact order. After a good half hour cry Mallory finally passed out. Before joining her in bed I texted Blane and Hank. I told Blane his time was up and he better have something for me by tomorrow and asked Hank to come by Mallory’s room first thing in the morning.

  The next morning I woke to someone banging on the door. Two seconds later my phone rang. Mallory wasn’t in bed and the bathroom door was closed. The banging started up again.

  “Hold on!” I shouted to the person at the door. I hit answer on my phone, and said, “Hello?”

  “Is it true?” my mom asked.

  “What?” I asked, as I pulled open the door.

  Hank pushed past me and said, “Turn on the television.”

  “What that man said last night. Is it true?” Mom repeated.

  “Hold up a second, Mom.” I hit mute and watched Hank march over and flip on the television. Splashed across the screen was Mallory’s face. Only it wasn’t the Mallory of today, but a much younger version. Mom started her rant back up, but I was too consumed by what I was watching to listen to her. The reporter spoke of Mallory’s amazing career ending in tragedy. They showed pictures of her in the hospital with her leg in traction. They went on to talk about her manager selling her out and how she turned to drugs. None of this was news to me, but I had to admit, seeing it splashed across the screen was somewhat shocking. That should have been the end of the story. Sadly it wasn’t. According to the newscaster, there was a new development. It appeared that Mallory, the woman I was in love with, got behind the wheel while fucked up and almost killed three people. They made it sound as if it happened last night and not over five years ago. Pictures of the accident flashed across the screen. From the looks of it, Mallory was lucky to be alive. I stared at the bathroom door and thought this is why she’s been holding back. They went on to explain how the medics lost Mallory’s blood sample from the scene of the accident, which led to her getting off on much lesser charges. Last were pictures of Mallory with me. There were pictures of the night we played in Charlotte, pictures of us standing outside the hotel in Pennsylvania and a picture of me kissing her just last night. When they began speculating about our relationship I’d had enough and said, “Turn it off.”