Wild Hearts (Rock Goddess Reverse Harem Book 2)

by Romy Lockhart

  Cupid toddles along behind him, as always wearing dark glasses and a disinterested expression. The man is infuriating. I wish he’d just tell me whatever he came here for. I’ve barely seen him lately. He could have dropped in on me while I was alone. Whatever it is, it had better be good.

  We head over to Cain’s car and the guys let us in the back before they get in the front. Cupid freaks me out by jumping over me to sit in the middle of me and Sky.

  “You okay?” Sky asks, giving me a strange look as I slip off my shades.

  “I just thought I saw a fly.” She sits back, and I glower at Cupid.

  “I’d tell you this better wait until you’re sitting down, but here we are.” Trust him to try cracking jokes at a time like this.

  I frown at him. Get it over with!

  He shrugs. “Okay then. Logan is alive, and he killed Asher.”

  My heart stops, I feel it. I stare at him and Sky frowns at me. I turn my gaze away and press my lips together. That can’t be the whole story. What do you mean he killed Asher? I saved Asher, he’s immortal like me. Or did you lie about that?

  “He shot him through the brain. So, Asher died. He came back. That’s what it means to be immortal. You can technically be killed, but your body will repair and revive.”

  Okay, mild panic attack starting to revert. So, Asher is okay?

  “He’s alive. I’m not sure he’s okay. He did sort of think he might be a zombie for a while. Don’t worry, he seems to have written the whole thing off as some sort of prank Logan played on him with blanks.”

  Asher’s okay. Freak out shelved. Now what the hell do you mean Logan is alive?

  “Thought you might have asked that first, but whatever. Diana saved him.”

  Diana saved Logan. It takes a few seconds to really sink in. Why would she do that? Not out of the goodness of her heart, that’s for sure.

  “Why do you think?”

  Okay, yeah, I thought he was being too forthcoming with his answers. This feels more like it. All Diana wants to do is destroy me. She saved him, so she can keep using him against me.

  “Winner,” he says. “I’m not sure why he did what he did to Asher. Seems kind of pointless to me. Maybe he was acting on his own. She’ll know you saved Asher, so she’ll know he can’t stay dead if he’s killed. Neither of them can.”

  The whole thing is starting to give me a headache. I have to focus on the positives. Asher’s alive, Logan’s alive. Whatever happened, at least no-one’s dead.

  “I’d be worried about Nick. He’s mortal. If Diana finds out who he is, well, I think you know what she’ll do.”

  Shit. I’m going to have to worry about that with Eli too, if I start to see him. A horrible thought occurs to me. I can’t risk Nick’s life if I break up with him.

  “Eden, that’s no way to think. If you consciously choose to walk away from being a Goddess, if you decide not to open your heart to anyone other than Asher, you’ll destroy the goddess part of yourself. You’ll become mortal.”

  What happens to Asher if I make that choice? Will he die?

  “No. You saved him. That won’t be undone. He’ll just become mortal again.”

  That would make it easier for Diana to kill us, I guess.

  “She won’t. Her purpose is to destroy goddesses. Her work will be done.”

  Fuck. Going back down the path I’d walked with Hunter is the only way to stop the madness. The only real way to prevent Nick and others from being targeted by Diana and her deadly bullshit.

  “You’re meant to do great work on this earth, Eden. You’ve seen how you can help people. This isn’t just about you and what you need or want. Think about that before you make any crazy decisions.”

  He fades from sight and I sigh as I lean back in my seat. This is all so messed up. I don’t know what to do. How can I keep Nick safe? How can I make sure she doesn’t try to hurt him? I look at the men in the front of the car. I could hire bodyguards, but I doubt he’d let them follow him around. No matter what insane reason I gave him for them being there. Shit. What about now? Is he safe now?

  Damn it. I text message him to ask what he’ll be doing while I’m gone. He’s just going to be in his office going over resumes, apparently. I tell him we’ll try not to be gone too long. Damn Cupid for disappearing after dropping that bomb on me. Relax, Eden. She doesn’t know about Nick. I know Asher’s at work, but I text message him to see how he’s doing. I hope he’s okay. I hope this doesn’t happen again. Mostly, I hope I can think of a way out of this mess that means no-one else gets hurt.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Logan

  I free Diana while she’s sleeping. It seems like the best way to go. I can’t leave her chained to the bed forever, much as I’d like to. A strange sense of calm has settled over me since I threw the last spadeful of dirt over that hack writer’s body. I walked in the dark for hours around town until the sun came up after I buried him. No-one will find the body down there. I replaced the glass I broke in the back door, cleaned up the blood on the kitchen floor. Good as new.

  I found the tree Diana was talking about. I could scrape away the bark, remove the mark they made on it. The thought isn’t as satisfying as coming back with the right tools to cut down the tree. The trunk is huge. It would take a long time. I’ve got the patience for it. I’ve got the drive. It’s going to take time for Eden to get over her missing lover. This task will keep me sane while I wait.

  The vampire woman looks more innocent with her eyes closed. Her mouth is still sinful, but without her devious gaze to accompany it, she could be an angel. She moans softly as I unchain her. I expect her to awaken, to lash out. She doesn’t. She just rolls over. I pull the sheets over her naked back and get up. She doesn’t have anything to eat in this house, so I go out and get supplies. I research the tools I’m going to need to order on the walk back to the house.

  She’s in the shower when I get back inside. I make breakfast and lay it out on the table. She comes down the stairs and I lean in the doorway to watch her.

  “Breakfast is served.”

  Her scowl is my reward. “Did you see what you did to my wrists with that stupid fucking stunt last night?”

  She rubs at them. There are raw, red marks. She probably struggled a lot. I pull her towards me and bring her hands up to my face to kiss the scraped, angry skin on her wrists. She whimpers before she pulls away, crossing her arms around her body.

  “Did you cook dead animals in my kitchen?” She sounds even more pissed than before.

  “It’s called breakfast.”

  “Maybe for barbarians.” She pushes past me and pours herself a coffee. She doesn’t speak again until she’s taken a few long gulps. It’s black, I note. No sweeteners. “Tell me you at least followed my orders last night?”

  I head for the table. “I killed him.”

  “And you buried him in that box? The one with the big fucking chains around it?” She seems vehement about this detail.

  “I buried him. He’s gone.”

  She scowls at me. “Never trust a man to do a woman’s job.”

  She hauls out a chair and sits, picking at a bowl of strawberries.

  “You seriously don’t eat meat?” I start to eat, and she wrinkles her nose at me.

  “Men and their obsession with dead animals. I don’t get it.” She drinks her coffee.

  “At least have some toast.”

  She rolls her eyes at me. “You think I got this body by loading up on carbs? Please.”

  She does have a nice body. Who am I to tell her what to put in it?

  “Suit yourself.” I eat, and I eat well.

  The morning after is always like this. An odd, calming sense of satisfaction overrides any sense of guilt I feel at the moment of pulling the trigger. The job is done. Time to move on.

  She puts her mug down and smiles at me suddenly. “Do you want to know why I’m pissed off this morning, Logan?”

  Is she serious? I raise an eyebrow and co
ntinue to eat. She gets up and goes over to the coffee machine.

  “It’s not because you chained me to the bed.” She laughs as she pours a second coffee. “Oh, no. That was just a shitty move, but it wasn’t entirely unexpected, coming from a brute of a man like you.”

  I listen, but I feel my attention beginning to wander. Oddly, my headache receded after I buried Asher. It had stayed away ever since. I expected to feel it come back, but so far, nothing.

  “I’m not pissed off because you killed Asher, either. I wanted that, if you remember. No. I’m pissed off because you didn’t bury him in the box.” She’s hissing into my ear now, leaning over me from behind. “Guess what? I’m not going to tell you why I’m angry about that. I’m going to show you why it makes what you did last night pointless.”

  I feel the cold steel cut into my neck. I drop my cutlery and move quickly to stop her. I’m not fast enough. The knife slashes my throat open. Blood sprays the table. I put my hands up to the wound. Got to try to stop the blood-flow. The last thing I see before the lights go out is her smirking face as she sits back down across from me with her coffee.

  “You’ll see,” she murmurs.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Eden

  I get into the shopping mood pretty quickly. There have been a few photographers around, and a reporter who tried to ask what I was doing in town. I smile pretty and wave, and keep my mouth shut. Once we’re inside the first store and Sky is squealing about the gorgeous clothes, I start to enjoy myself. It’s good to see her happy.

  “So, what are you wearing tonight?” Sky asks, as we peruse the racks and pick out items.

  “A dress,” I say, knowing it for sure. I want something Nick will have no trouble getting me out of. So far I have a purple bodycon in my hands and I’m considering trying on a slightly more scandalous gold sequined number.

  “Me too, I think,” she tells me, picking up something that would barely be considered a swim suit. “What do you think?”

  “I think you might as well go naked.”

  She snorts and puts it back. “Okay, Mom.”

  “Ooh, I like this,” she says suddenly, pulling out an aqua-green satin mini-dress. It’s a little more reserved than her usual style which can get pretty close to full on slutty at times.

  “It’s nice.”

  “It’s mine,” she says, feigning protectiveness over it. She glances at Cain. “Did you call Izzy?”

  “We have appointments for Friday. What were you thinking of having done?”

  She smiles. “You’ll see.”

  I guess I will. “Did something happen with you and Cain?”

  She shrugs. “He’s being coy, but I’m going to blow him out of the water. Just watch.”

  We take our choices into the changing rooms and she calls out from her stall next to mine, “So how’s Nick?”

  I cringe. “Can you keep your voice down? I think they can hear you next door.”

  She laughs, and I hear her curtain swishing back. I pull the top of the dress on before she pulls mine open too. “Hey…” How do I always forget when she’s sober she has no respect for privacy or personal space? “How did you get dressed so damned quickly?”

  She snorts as she motions for me to turn around. I lift my hair out of the way and she zips me up. The purple dress is nice, but I’m not as sure about the colour now that it’s on.

  “Aw, you look stunning in everything.” She blows out a breath.

  “That dress is amazing, Sky.” It’s a little black number that’s more her usual style than the satin one she seems so pleased about.

  She grins. “I know. I’m getting it. You should get that one, but it’s not right for tonight.”

  “It’s not?” I smooth down the skirt. I’m fairly sure Nick would like how tight it is, but maybe there are other considerations. “Has the dress code at the club changed or something?”

  “Something,” she says. “That thing would be a nightmare to get in and out of. Try unzipping it yourself.” She stands back and folds her arms.

  I try and she’s right. It’s really more the style I wear around Asher anyway. Nick’s used to the trashier version of me, the one who wears clubbing appropriate mini-skirts and no-bra-required tops, not pretty cocktail dresses. “Okay. Unzip me. I’m getting it, but I won’t wear it tonight.”

  “Saving it for your other guy?” She draws me a knowing smile.

  “Can you not mention that when we’re around people who might talk to the press?” I keep my tone quiet as I glance out of the stall, to check the salesgirls aren’t within earshot.

  She shrugs. “No-one’s listening. They’d think I was just talking shit to be scandalous anyway. No-one takes a word I say seriously.”

  She’s probably right, but still. I can’t seem to help the nerves that are starting to show. All it would take is one false move, one slip of the tongue, and my love life would be splashed all over the tabloids.

  “Fine,” she says, as she unzips the dress for me. “Try the other one.”

  She slips back into her changing room and I shut my curtain and switch dresses. The gold one just pulls on over my head and I shimmy it into place. It’s cut almost scandalously high in the leg; the back is very revealing and the front shows plenty of cleavage while keeping my breasts lightly supported. Easy, slutty, and eye-catching. Sky’s right. This is tonight’s winner. Nick’s going to love it.

  Sky pulls back my curtain and confirms it, nodding. “Oh, yeah. That’s the one.”

  I look at hers. It’s the green one and it suits her skin tone, but it doesn’t look like her kind of dress at all. She does a quick spin. “How does it look?”

  “It’s gorgeous.” I don’t know what else to say. By the look on her face she has plans for the dress so I don’t bother asking why she’s changing her style to something more chaste. It’s a stunning dress and it does suit her.

  She sighs dreamily before darting a glance behind us and quickly leaving. I shove the curtain closed.

  “Where are we going next?” She yells.

  I jump at her volume. “Sky!”

  “Sorry,” she calls. “Make-up or shoes?”

  “Shoes,” I yell back. We usually save make-up for last, to get our faces and nails done professionally before we go for a night out. It saves the hassle of doing that ourselves. Sky used to keep a make-up artist on retainer but the woman she hired got another job and left town.

  When she whips the curtain back this time I’m slipping my top back on and I gasp at her.

  “How did you even get dressed that fast? Seriously, Sky.”

  She smiles sweetly. “You snooze, you lose.”

  I shake my head as I step back into my shoes and pick up my purse.

  She picks my dresses out and heads to the tills. I follow when I’m sure I’m fully dressed and I’ve remembered to button my jeans up all the way.

  “Tonight’s going to be awesome,” Sky murmurs, glancing at Cain before she smiles at the sales girl.

  “We’re taking all of these.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Asher

  I decide the easiest way to sort out Eden’s bed situation is to move one of the other beds into her room, and to put the old one in the back garden by the pool until I can figure out who to call to get it taken away. I decide I’ll pick out the nicest bed from the other rooms, then I’ll move the old one and swap it out. I pull up to her house a little after nine. The bodyguard out front watches me without blinking. They both know who I am. Neither of them are particularly friendly, but at least they aren’t completely obsessed with Eden like her previous protector. Who I’m currently pretending I didn’t have a supremely bizarre encounter with last night.

  It was a dream. It kind of has to be, doesn’t it? A dream makes far more sense than any other explanation. Maybe I’d gone into the basement asleep and covered myself in dirt. Maybe I’d imagined the blood on that towel. Or maybe Logan broke into my house, shot me, and I rose from the dea
d to get my revenge. I’d spent the day monitoring my pulse, checking my skin wasn’t going a deathly shade of pale, and then trying to forget the whole ugly incident to no avail. Did it really matter what happened? I’m alive and well, and I have not developed a craving for human brains.

  I start to tell the security guard what I’m doing here, he nods quickly, steps back and I go inside. The alarm code is easy to remember. I wonder if that might be a bad thing. I know it’s not something someone who didn’t know her would ever guess, but I can’t help thinking the harder it is to crack, the better for her safety.

  I get inside and realise how huge the place actually is. Without Eden in it, it seems like every step I take echoes, every corner of the open plan room seems shrouded in shadow. I hit the lights and it brightens up. It’s better, but I’d rather not be here all night if I don’t need to be. When she’s here I could never leave. When she’s not, it’s a painful reminder of her absence to be here.

  I climb the stairs and find the light switch for the upstairs hallway before I venture into her room. There’s a still smell, kind of smoky. I hope removing the bed gets rid of it, but I think that may be overly optimistic if I’m being honest. I glance at the door to the balcony. I could try to air the place out, but I get the impression the bodyguards might not like that. One of them would probably insist on standing there until it was locked again.

  I go to the bed and pick up the burnt book. I put it back down and strip the sheets. I bundle it up with the book in the middle. Diana had called it cute, when she’d heard I’d written Eden’s autobiography. She said it in a tone that translated her word into pathetic. That was the moment I knew I could never go back to that vile bitch of a woman. No matter how hard she tried, I wouldn’t do it. She’d barely noticed. She was done with me at that point already, bored.

  I grip the bundle tightly as I walk back down the stairs. I could wring her scrawny neck for what she’d done. It’s the lowest she’s ever sunk. It’s the lowest I’ll ever let her sink now. She lays one finger on Eden, and all bets are off.