Hell's Music

by Therese von Willegen

  Back Cover Copy

  Sometimes trouble comes in a very appealing package

  It’s never nice when your boyfriend leaves you for someone else. It’s even more of a slap in the face when he leaves you for a man. Emily Clark has put her wild years and the boyfriend she considered “safe” behind her, ensconcing herself in a Luddite lah-lah land centered on her second-hand bookstore.

  But when her self-absorbed younger sister runs away from home to end up on her doorstep, Emily discovers the past has a funny way of creeping back into her life. And when an alternative musician uses her shop as a hideaway from a nosy reporter, Emily finds herself falling for the enigmatic man. By the time she realizes his celebrity status, it’s too late–she’s head over heels for Simon van Helsdingen, a notorious shock-rocker. Not only must she deal with her sister’s delinquent ways and their dysfunctional family, but Emily must navigate the stormy seas of being with a man whose reputation for trouble puts Ozzy Osbourne in the shadows.

  Content Warning: Sex, drugs and rock-n-roll.

  Highlight

  Her sister pouted then took another bite of toast, chewing while talking with her mouth full. “Well, I can carry on for a bit longer, can’t I? College and all that.” She grimaced.

  “The rate you’re going–”

  “Faaargh! College! What the hell am I gonna do with a dodgy art diploma anyway? I’m only going ‘cause Dad insisted. It’s all rubbish, anyhow. I’m gonna be famous one day. They don’t teach you how to get famous at college. You get that from getting life experience.”

  “For what? Being a grade-A twerp? Get a life, Rae. Raw talent’s not enough if you’re so stoned half the time you don’t hand in your assignments. Maybe take a gap year or something then go study something practical like public relations or something. Don’t mess up your chances while you still have our parents’ support, such as it is.”

  “Me an’ Davy’re gonna start a band.”

  Emily stifled a groan. “Every time Davy gets a notion to do something with his life, he smokes another joint until the urge passes.” Emily had met her sister’s friend a few times and none of those occasions had improved on her initial assessment.

  Hell’s Music

  By Therese von Willegen

  Hell’s Music

  <9781616503147

  Copyright © 2011, Therese von Willegen

  Edited by Stephanie Szymanski

  Book design by Lyrical Press, Inc.

  Cover Art by Renee Rocco

  First Lyrical Press, Inc. electronic publication: 2011, September

  Lyrical Press, Incorporated

  http://www.lyricalpress.com

  eBooks are not transferable. All Rights Reserved. This book may not be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in whole or in part by any means, including graphic, electronic, or mechanical without the express written consent of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.

  Published in the United States of America by Lyrical Press, Incorporated

  Dedication

  To the Green Man, wherever you are. Thank you for the music.

  None more negative.

  Acknowledgements

  As always, thank you to Cat, Carol, Carrie, Manda, Annette, David and the rest of the crew at Writers of Extraordinary Visions, the Write Club Authors and the Adamastor Writers’ Guild.

  Michelle, thank you for the coffee and for looking after the Big Green Monster Car. You remind me to slow down and take a deep breath.

  Stef, you are an amazing editor, and you’ve helped me push my writing that little bit further with each novel we’ve worked on together.

  As always, thank you to my dreadful husband.

  Also, to the crew from BlackMilk Productions, thank you for the inspiration.

  Chapter 1

  Sister Mine

  “This is it.” Rae stuffed a pair of knickers into her backpack. There wasn’t a whole lot else she could take with her. Oddly, the decision to run away made her feel lighter, as though she cut herself off from the dross of the past few years. Today had just been the final straw. She heard her mother downstairs at the front door, complaining shrilly to the police about “that child.” Her mother’s words stung and it would only be a matter of minutes before the smelly officer tromped upstairs. Goodness knew she didn’t want to have to “please explain” to some dumb uniform, or possibly be dragged down to the cop shop. There was no telling whether her mother would make good on her threat this time round.

  For fuck’s sake, she was twenty and in college. She was supposed to be wild and letting her hair down. Now she’d made the decision to sever herself from home prematurely. Would any of her things still be here should she return? Would Ma tear down the posters and burn them? Would she bag the years of carefully selected vintage clothing and drop them next to the wheelie bin on garbage day?

  All her books, her photo albums–the years of hoarded memories of good and bad times–she couldn’t take any of that with her. She’d stashed a small sketchpad and her pencils but had to leave behind her acrylic paints, her pastels. Not to mention all the artworks she’d already created. She’d give up her CD and DVD collection, her computer, but those she could live without. Rae patted the small pocket on her backpack to check that her MP3 player and cellphone were still tucked away safely.

  The pink bedding she wouldn’t miss, and neither would she feel sad about the floral print curtains. Those things were of her mother. The gorge rose at the back of Rae’s throat and she spat on the floor. Damn Ma for being so nosy. Why must she always interfere? Granted, Rae had taken a stupid risk smoking a spliff on the back veranda, and being caught out was craptastic, but how the hell was she to know her mother had forgotten her cellphone at home after Uncle Reinhardt had come to collect her? Perhaps she should have waited another ten or fifteen minutes just to be sure.

  Perhaps and maybe didn’t help her now and she was firm in her resolution. She’d scarper now before the cops came upstairs. She was young and had her entire life ahead of her. Somehow she could make this work. If her mother wanted to be such a royal bitch then maybe she didn’t love her daughter at all. A bloody nuisance, not a daughter, that’s what she’d heard her Auntie Bee say.

  “I can never do anything bloody right in any case. Bye-bye posters, bye-bye books, bye-bye bitch.”

  Rae hefted her bag, clambered out of the window and paused long enough to breathe in the evening air. This would be the last time she’d ever sneak out of her mother’s house. Balanced precariously so she could reach the old magnolia’s gnarled trunk, she shifted her balance to tilt just right and transfer from the house to the tree. Parts of the branch had been worn shiny over the years. Both she and her older sister, Emily, had used this route on numerous occasions. It made her laugh to think Ma had never caught on.

  Rae paused before she shinnied down the trunk. Would going to Melissa’s be okay? She banked on sleeping over for a night or two. But Melissa’s home might not be the best since that would be the first place Ma would come looking. If she came looking. Hell, Rae didn’t have any other options, and if she stayed over by Davy’s, he’d probably expect her to give him more than a few sloppy kisses.

  The thought of Davy naked made Rae feel odd, for lack of better description, so she pushed that t
hought far away and hurried across the lawn at the exact angle to avoid being seen from the study window. If she were quick about it, she could still catch one of the trains to town before Ma even knew she was gone. Besides, the southeaster had died down, the sky had bled to a gorgeous rose and the air was balmy. Even though it was a Sunday evening, it was still a perfect opportunity for adventure.

  Rae jounced down the road, her smile grim as she touched each oak she passed, wishing luck from the trees’ rough boles while she fumbled in her jacket pocket for a smoke. It didn’t matter if the neighbors saw her now. It didn’t matter who they’d tell. Rae Clark was outta here.

  * * * *

  The last person Emily expected to see hunched on her doorstep on a Monday morning was her younger sister. Judging by the way she’d wormed her way between the potted ferns, it looked as if Rae had spent the night sleeping by the front door.

  She recoiled from the sight. “Rae! What in heaven’s name are you doing here?”

  The young woman flipped back her dyed-black bangs and squinted at Emily through reddened eyes. Her artfully smudged kohl looked a little more blurred than usual. She’d been crying. “Hiya, sis.” Rae sounded as though she tried to come across cheerful, but her voice was raw. She rose to her feet and slung a bulging backpack over her shoulder.

  “What… You should be in class or something.”

  “College closed for vacs last week.”

  They stared at each other for a bit then Emily relented. “Oh, well, come inside.”

  Emily wrinkled her nose as her sister brushed past her. Rae smelled of cigarette smoke and stale beer, and although her coffin-kid sibling was dressed all in black, her clothing appeared none too clean, either.

  She followed her through to the kitchen where Rae collapsed in the breakfast nook and leaned on the scarred yellowwood table so hard it creaked. Fingers threaded through hair displayed chipped black varnish, nails chewed to the quick.

  Emily sighed. “What’s up? I’ve got to go open shop in less than an hour. You’re going to make me late.”

  Rae peered at her and bit her lip, as though she weighed her words. “Mom’s kicked me out of the house.”

  “Well, that’s hardly news. What did you do to finally push her over the edge this time?”

  The young woman gave a deep sigh, which ended in a gurgling cough that lasted for several heartbeats–long enough to make Emily worry her sister might have come down with an infection.

  “That sounded nasty.”

  Rae gave a small, embarrassed sort of laugh. “It’s nothing. The club was kinda smoky last night. As for the rest…well, ja. Ma kinda caught me smoking weed out on the veranda on Sunday afternoon.”

  Emily hissed. “That’s really stupid. You know how she feels about that stuff. Hell, you know I’m done with that shit as well. She didn’t call the cops on you or anything, did she?”

  Rae shrugged.

  “So, what happened?”

  “We had a small…disagreement.”

  “A shouting match, in other words.”

  “Ja. Then the neighbors called the cops ‘cause they thought someone was being assaulted. That was after Ma threw one of her porcelain frogs at me.”

  “Oh, Rae. What are we going to do with you?” She regarded her sister through slit eyes. “Then what happened?”

  “While Ma was talking to the cops, I packed my stuff and slipped out the back. Figured I didn’t want to give her the chance to make it official. Went to Melissa’s place but she wasn’t in, so I hitched to town.”

  “You hi– Never mind. What happened then?”

  “They were some Argentinean navy boys. We went to Bob’s on Long and had a pint or two.”

  “More like a pint or eight. You smell like a brewery.” Emily could already imagine the place, filled with twenty- and thirty-something backpackers, a miasma of cigarette smoke creating sickly haze while men shot pool with their beer guts hanging over the felt.

  “Hey, it seemed like a good idea at the time.” Rae shrugged.

  “Then what?”

  “They closed up shop at two. Roberto and Carlos invited me back to their pad but, erm… A sleepover was not an option since that meant…” Rae gave a low laugh. “So I told them I was going to the bog and I sneaked out and came up to your spot. I didn’t want to wake you.”

  “So you slept on my veranda.” Emily wanted to pass a comment about her sister’s near-shag experience with older men. She’d been just as crazy, if not worse, when she’d been her sister’s age, which wasn’t that far behind hers, and she was a fine one to consider lecturing now.

  “Didn’t exactly get much sleep but it was better than the other options.”

  Emily groaned then rose and clicked on the kettle. “You must be starved.” She didn’t look to see how her sister responded to that statement but, already resigned to opening late, she set about fixing Rae two slices of toast with cheese and a cup of Earl Grey tea for each of them.

  “May I?” Rae had fished a crumpled packet of beedies out of her bag.

  Emily fixed her sister with a basilisk glare.

  Rae meekly slipped the packet into her sleeve. “Guess not.”

  “So, now Ma’s pissed at you. I gather Dad hasn’t found out yet? You could have called him, you know. He’d probably be more understanding.” Their parents had split up a decade ago, their father now living in a Bantry Bay “cottage” with a sea view. He’d be more indulgent of Rae’s behavior.

  Her sister merely watched her, which made Emily want to pass comments along the lines of You’re not a teenager anymore.

  Emily sighed and brought the tea mugs to the table, followed by the toast. Her sister fell upon the offered meal.

  “Have you washed your hands?”

  Rae looked up, her mouth smeared with crumbs. “Eh?”

  “You know, like used water and soap to get rid of all the dirt. But then again, the way you’re tucking in you look like a half-starved Ethiopian getting weevil-infested maize porridge for dessert, I’m hardly surprised you haven’t noticed what’s under your nails.”

  Her sister finished chewing then swallowed and spared a cursory glance at her hands. “What’s up with you, sis? Ever since you and Adrian broke up you’ve become so… Dunno. Boring. What happened to the days you used to sneak me out the house and take me jolling at The Shack an’ stuff? You never get out. And it’s been… What? Two years now?”

  “This again.” Emily sat with a groan and took a sip of tea to cover her discomfort. “My lack of obvious social life is not the issue here. You’re setting up a straw man.”

  “You never get out. You’re not fun anymore, sis.”

  “Whether I’m fun has got nothing to do with you. I don’t need to get completely wasted every weekend and pull into every second guy who gives me a come-hither glance.”

  “Living like a hermit.”

  “Hey, I like living like a hermit. Besides, I see people. I have friends who come ‘round to the shop for tea. You’re trying to distract me and it’s not going to work. You gotta sort your shit out, sis. You’re what, twenty-one next year? You can’t carry on like a spoiled brat anymore.”

  Her sister pouted then took another bite of toast, chewing while talking with her mouth full. “Well, I can carry on for a bit longer, can’t I? College and all that.” She grimaced.

  “The rate you’re going–”

  “Faaargh! College! What the hell am I gonna do with a dodgy art diploma anyway? I’m only going ‘cause Dad insisted. It’s all shit, anyhow. I’m gonna be famous one day. They don’t teach you how to get famous at college. You get that from getting life experience.”

  “For what? Being a grade-A twerp? Get a life, Rae. Raw talent’s not enough if you’re so stoned half the time you don’t hand in your assignments. Maybe take a gap year or something then go study something practical like public relations or something. Don’t mess up your chances while you still have our parents’ support, such as it is.”

 
“Me an’ Davy’re gonna start a band.”

  Emily stifled a groan. “Every time Davy gets a notion to do something with his life, he smokes another joint until the urge passes.” Emily had met her sister’s friend a few times and none of those occasions had improved on her initial assessment.

  Rae offered a ferocious scowl but all Emily could do was laugh. She remembered all too well how much hell she’d given their parents when she’d been her sister’s age and that time hadn’t been too long ago, either.

  “So you’re looking for a place to crash while your big sista passes ‘round the peace pipe.”

  “Well, I certainly can’t go back there!”

  “Didn’t say you were, but you can choose friends, but not family. I think everyone’s emotions are probably running a little high right now. Let me talk to Ma, check out the lay of the land then we’ll take it from there.”

  Rae hadn’t stopped scowling yet.

  “I know you don’t like it, sis, but you’re not moving in here. I like my space. You…” Emily made vague hand gestures at the ceiling. “You’re disruptive. And just because I’m your sister doesn’t mean I’m going to let you do whatever. You can stay a couple of days. We let things calm a bit and see what we can do to resolve stuff, okay?

  “That means no smoking indoors, no bringing home your skanky friends and if you’re going to go out, I’ll need to know where you’re going and when you’re going to be back. And, for fuck’s sake, if you’re stuck somewhere, do me the courtesy of calling me so I can come rescue you. Doesn’t matter if you’re in Somerset West.”

  Rae burst out laughing. “So you can come pick me up on your Vespa?”

  “Hey, don’t dis my pony, okay? She’s older than both of us but she goes.” Emily glanced at the wall-mounted clock. “It’s getting late. Leave your breakfast for now and let’s get you sorted with some towels and fresh bedding. I’ve gotta go to my shop. I’m the only one paying my rent.”