“Well, we have things to discuss so I need to meet you.”
“I’m only back to visit friends.” I start to panic. Writing one song doesn’t mean I’m ready to get back to work. I’m so far from ready it’s not even funny.
“You promised you’d call me the moment you were back in town.”
Shit. I take a long, deep breath. “I know I still have contracts to be honoured. I’m working on a new album…”
“You are? That’s great, Eden. Your label’s going to want a timeline, and a demo of what you already have. They’ve been nervous about how long you needed to take off over this Hunter thing.”
Ugh. I’m having the screws put to me already. I so don’t need this right now.
“I’ve only just started, Amy. I meant it when I said I didn’t know how long I needed.”
She’s quiet for a second. I think about hanging up. I could quit, I know that. It would be easy, sort of. I was still in contract for another two albums with my record label. Now that I was able to write again, I felt less stressed about that. I thankfully hadn’t signed any renewals for tours. I was nowhere near ready to get back to touring. The thing is, I’m not done being the Goddess of Rock. I don’t want to lose everything I’ve worked so hard for, but that might start to happen if I don’t get back in the spotlight before long.
“Right now, Eden, there’s a strong demand for you to get back to work. People are on your side. They want to see you come back. The public love you.” She’s buttering me up for something, I can feel it. “Come back within the next month and you’re golden. The news about your breakup only hit the headlines last month. Hunter’s already been seen out with the new girl. They’re starting to see him as the villain. Everyone understands why you’re not out there right now.”
“Within the next month?” My throat starts to tighten. It’s too soon.
“If we don’t give the media something soon, they’re going to lose interest. You’ll become old news. No-one will remember why they liked you. I’m sorry, Eden, but it’s only the truth. Meet with me tomorrow and we can discuss a plan for your return.”
She hangs up before I can say anything, and a text comes through with the meeting time and place within a few minutes. Followed by a text telling me I should upgrade my phone, so I can take event notifications. Fuck you, Amy.
I sit down and let out a sigh. I need a plan. I can’t let Amy scare me into coming back when I’m not ready. I pull on the T-shirt and panties, and I make a call to Cain. He picks up within a few seconds.
“Hey, how’s Sky?”
“Sober, for now.”
“Okay, good. Did she get a new bodyguard?”
“She insists on keeping the old one. He’s an idiot. I’d report him if he worked for my company.”
“He doesn’t?” Seemed weird, considering they were the gold standard for security amongst the rich and famous.
“He’s from some new start up. He’s not qualified to protect a puppy, never mind a rock star.”
I snort. “Well, I’m glad Sky’s okay.”
“I never said she was okay.”
“Is she sleeping?”
“I’m going to wake her in a couple of hours. Routines seem to stop her from going too far off the rails.”
I’m glad I left him with her, but it does leave me with a problem. “Can you call the agency and get me another bodyguard?”
I’d do it myself, but they’d ask a lot of awkward questions. If Cain does it, they just trust that he needs extra support. I won’t have to explain why he’s on a job he wasn’t booked for.
“Fine,” he says, breathing out a sigh. “She’ll slip back out of the routine when the week is over. There’s nothing we can do about that.”
I bite down on my lip. If only I could convince her to hire him back.
“Tell her to call me, when she gets up.”
I hang up the phone and look around. I didn’t get much of a chance to last night. There’s a huge T.V. close to the sofas, and the kitchen is included in this open plan area. I head over to the fridge and laugh. There’s hardly any food inside. There are some kind of pre-mixed protein shakes, eggs and orange juice. I close it again and wonder what’s hiding in the cupboards. Not much, is the answer.
Nick comes out the bedroom yawning as I’m considering a bag of chips that’s already open.
“Don’t eat those, they’ve been open since before I came to Rapture,” he tells me as I put the packet on the counter. “I’ll have breakfast sent up.”
He heads to the bathroom. I get a text back from Cain that my new bodyguard will be arriving in an hours’ time to Nick’s address. It relaxes me, but only a little.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Asher
Either my dreams are becoming surprisingly vivid, or something extremely strange is going on. I consider both options while I sit at the kitchen table, covered in dirt and wondering why eight eggs and a full pack of bacon doesn’t seem to be enough to sate my hunger this morning. The towel I wiped my face with is caked with mud from my basement. I woke up buried in a shallow grave down there. My suit is ruined. It’s the green one Eden liked so much. Typical.
I put another four slices of toast in the machine and listen to my stomach growl as it waits for more sustenance. I walked into the kitchen from the basement in a sort of daze. I could barely see a thing, so I was glad when my foot found my glasses on the floor. I wiped my face off first and dumped my ruined jacket next to it on the table.
Logan tried to kill me last night. The thought makes me want to check for bullet wounds. I don’t feel hurt, but I remember he fired the gun. It’s the last thing I remember. Could have fainted I suppose. I’d been pretty shocked when he actually pulled the trigger. I hadn’t expected him to do that.
From what I know about Eden’s former bodyguard, he has a strong moral code. He has shot to kill in the line of duty, when it was called for. There’s no record of him doing anything less than honest, but I suppose there wouldn’t be if he had. He’d have buried it, so to speak.
This was some sort of warning. I know that much. As threats go, it’s fucked up. I’m going to have to figure out a response that doesn’t include hallucinating about bright light coming out of me. I remember strongly feeling that he didn’t want to pull the trigger. So I’d told him to put down the gun.
There was a struggle going on inside his head, it was easy to see that. Then he’d pulled the trigger. It was noiseless. I don’t remember pain, but I do remember falling. The lights went out for a while. Then I woke up feeling suffocated. I thrashed around and realised I was underground when my body shifted the dirt, and my hand grasped a mound of it. There was little resistance to sitting up, but I was gasping for air and nearly choked on a lungful of the stuff.
I felt weighted down by it as I staggered up out of the shallow hole and found the handrail to the stairs. I shook myself to get rid of the worst of it. Then I climbed the stairs on shaking legs and went straight to the kitchen. I’d been about to make dinner last night when Logan interrupted me. I hadn’t eaten since lunch time yesterday. I pulled things from the fridge and went on autopilot making and consuming them. The hunger didn’t go away. At least, not at first.
Halfway through the second batch of toast, I breathe out a sigh of relief. I’m starting to feel full, finally. “Not a zombie, then,” I murmur. Not that it was a real consideration. It’s far more likely that Logan came here to scare me. Pranks don’t really seem like his style, but what would I know?
I didn’t rise from the dead. That would be insane, and probably more than a little blasphemous. Who do I think I am?
I get up and strip out of the rest of my clothes. I head upstairs to the shower. It’s mostly my hands and head that are filthy now. My suit took most of the damage. I stand under the hot stream, twisting and turning so it catches me from every angle. I stay there until the water runs clean, long after it’s gone cold. My fingernails are disgusting even after all the soap and shampoo they
’ve been exposed to. I find a nailbrush in Sasha’s washbag and use it. I don’t even start to get dressed until I’m certain every last bit of dirt has been found and eliminated from my body.
I go back downstairs when I’m dressed and give the suit one last despairing glance. I could try to have it dry cleaned, but I know how Paul would look at me if I took it in covered in mud. This isn’t explained away by something ordinary. I’d have to make up a story, and I don’t want to do that.
Eden might hear it. She’d wonder what really happened. I’m not sure if I could keep it from her if she asked, but I don’t want her to have something else to stress over. I put the suit in the garbage along with the towel, noticing something and staring. There’s more than just mud on it. There’s blood. I blink, but I’m not seeing things. The blood is roughly in the middle. It’s not to the side, where I might have bumped my head falling.
It’s where I would have been shot, if he put a bullet between my eyes.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Eden
Breakfast is from a place down the street that delivers just to Nick. He goes and picks it up downstairs, telling me he’d usually order later when the club staff are in, so someone would put it on a tray in the elevator for him. Turns out, the elevator doors can open into a locked room in the club near the club’s back door, as well as to the hallway to his place. I shake my head at that little insight.
“You are so lazy.”
He laughs. “I’m just inventive.”
“Well, there’s that too.” He definitely isn’t lazy in bed. Unless you count the time he usually sleeps until, which he informed me of earlier while yawning his head off. “I have to meet Sky in a few hours, and I’m meeting my manager tomorrow.”
“Your manager?” He raises his eyebrows at me as he dishes up the food.
It looks amazing. My stomach growls as he fills the plates.
“Yeah, she found out I was in town.”
“Damn. The grapevine is pretty loud in this town.” He passes me a plate and we sit down to eat at the table above the living room area.
“I suppose it is.”
“But you’re all mine tonight?”
I smile. “Of course.”
“Good. I want to show you the new and improved top VIP room in the club.”
My heart rate picks up a little. He wants to have sex in that room, I can tell by the way he said it and the salacious look he’s giving me. It’s exciting, but kind of scary. When we did that in Rapture, the club was closed. “You look like you have something planned.”
“Oh, I have an idea. You’re going to love it.” He grins before he turns back to his food.
My wild-hearted lover has secret plans for me. I can’t wait to find out what they are.
I don’t get the chance to wonder. My phone starts to ring. I groan at the thought of answering it. If Amy is trying to hassle me to move our meeting up, I’m going to blank her.
I pick my phone up and see the call is from Sky. “Hi, Skyler.”
“Can we come up or are you two indecent?”
“Um…” I look down at my state of undress. Nick put clothes on to answer his door. I need to find my jeans.
“We’ll give you five minutes.” She hangs up.
Nick is watching me in amusement as I start to dart to the bedroom, then come back to put my phone down on the table. “What’s up?”
“Sky’s here.”
“Okay, I’m fairly sure that girl is even worse than I am at mornings. What is she doing? Wait. Is this the last stop on an all-nighter? Because I’m kind of annoyed if she missed out the club if it is.”
“She’s awake. She’s with Cain.” I call through to him as I locate my jeans and shuffle into them. I check the time. My new bodyguard is also set to arrive any minute now. I should have showered and changed while we were waiting for breakfast. Why the hell didn’t I? Oh, yeah, Nick had grabbed me and started something. He’d pried my legs apart and licked me to ecstasy, pushing my panties to the side and making pleased moaning sounds as he tasted me. I could get used to mornings that started like that.
I go to the bathroom and check the state of my hair. It’s a wild mess, but I manage to tame it into a tidier up-do. I brush my teeth and splash water on my face. I don’t exactly look my best, but it’ll have to do. Nick is letting three people into the apartment by the time I come out of the bathroom.
Sky looks me over with a sly smile. “Hey, love-birds. Sorry for the interruption.”
Cain takes a breath and I know by the look on his face that he has something to say, and it’s something I’m not going to like, one little bit.
“What’s wrong?” I ask as Skyler approaches and appraises my outfit.
She’s looking better today. The sexy, effortless style she usually has is back. The vest top and mini-skirt seem more Sky.
“You look like you’re going to a funeral,” she tells me.
I guess I am all in black. I shrug. “Threw on the first thing I could find.”
“You’re not even wearing a bra.” She smirks when I realise it.
I can’t go out without one. It’s fine bouncing around Nick’s flat. Outside, where there might be cameras? No thanks.
“We got here before you had time to dress, right?” She sounds so pleased with herself. “Oh, you two are so busted.”
Nick shakes his head as she points at him. He’s talking with Cain and the other guy.
“Is that my new bodyguard?”
The guy is built like a wrestler. He’s even bigger than Cain. He has the typical bodyguard facial expression; closed and serious.
“I guess so,” she says, leaning in. “Go change so we can go shopping. I know those are yesterday’s clothes.” She flashes me a picture of myself on her phone that must have been taken at the airport yesterday. It’s a little grainy, but I’m completely identifiable with this dye in my hair. At least she cares today, I guess.
“I’ll be back in ten.” I grab my bag and head into the bathroom. I pull clothes out and run the shower. I probably smell like a brothel; all lube and come and man sweat from last night. Shopping is a nightmare at the best of times. I so don’t want bitchy sales girls mouthing off to the press about me. No-one knows I have one boyfriend, let alone two. I’d like to keep it under wraps for at least a little while longer.
“Shit,” I whisper. In a month’s time, Amy wants me to be back in the public eye. Once I am, keeping all of my secrets to myself is going to be next to impossible. Paparazzi will be crawling all over Rapture looking for fuel for the fire. It’s too soon. I have to get her to hold off. Somehow.
I get ready and throw on lighter jeans and a vest over purple underwear. I put on lip gloss and clean my shades before I slip them on. Ready to meet the public. My stomach churns. Ready? Sort of.
I take my pill before I forget too. That has the potential to make things ten times worse. I don’t even want to imagine what the headlines would be if I was to get pregnant. The bookies would be taking bets on who the father was, no doubt. There’s no way I could hide Nick and Asher from the public eye if I got knocked up.
I leave the bathroom.
“Eden, this is Todd.” Sky introduces me as I slip on my heels and re-join them.
Todd? He looks more like a Thor to me. That’s probably the hair. It’s blonde and long enough to need tied back from his face. Also, he looks like he could crush cars between his thighs. “Um, hi.”
He just nods. Oh, good. He’s the silent type.
“Let’s get going,” Sky says, doing a little jump up and down and shimmy as she grabs my hand and pulls me towards the elevator.
“Have a good time,” Nick calls after us.
I blow him a kiss as Sky hustles me into the elevator. I notice the narrowed eyes she gives Cain as the doors close.
“Hey, where’s your…” I just remember his name. “Ed?”
She shrugs. “It’s his day off.”
“You don’t have another guy?”
“I don’t need another guy, do I? I’ve got this big idiot hoisted onto me.”
Cain rolls his eyes at me. He smiles slightly. It’s gone in a blink, but I saw it. There’s hope for these two yet.
“I suppose not. So where are we headed?”
“I got a few places to close for a few hours, just for us.”
No normal mall visits when you’re a star. Can’t really get away with it once you reach our level, I suppose. Yesterday we mostly drove around, stopping at a couple of boutiques and for food. We were able to time it to avoid crowds. Today, Sky seems to want the real deal.
Dressing down doesn’t even seem to work for me when it comes to walking around L.A. I guess I should have made sure I wore more make-up when I was performing. I can’t get away with looking like everyone else.
“That would be because you’re a Goddess, Eden. They’ll always recognise you for your beauty. It’s worse because you’re talented too.” Cupid’s know-it-all tone is instantly recognisable.
Could you have picked a worse time? I shake my head at him, then make it look like I was just stretching my neck when Sky narrows her eyes at me.
“Well, I thought you might want to know a couple things.” He seems distracted by Todd’s huge frame. To be fair, it takes up nearly a third of the lift space. It’s just as well I’m pretty small, Sky too.
What things? I hum under my breath, realising another song has started to come to me. It’s just the melody right now so I listen, but I don’t worry about writing it down.
“Maybe you’re right. This looks like a bad time.”
Damn it, Fred. Don’t show up here to tease me. Spill it!
He glowers at me for the name. I thought he’d liked that joke. Apparently, it’s disrespectful now that I know exactly who he is. I refuse to apologise. I cross my arms as the elevator doors open. Todd steps out first, scoping out the bottom floor hallway. Sky follows, and I go after her. Cain brings up the rear. I’m sure he’d appreciate it a lot more if it was Skyler’s ass he was following single file in the enclosed area. I glance back, but his gaze is directly ahead.
Wild Hearts (Rock Goddess Reverse Harem Book 2) Page 10
