Lynx held his sticks in one hand and fisted the medallion hanging around his neck in the other.
Justice honed in on River. “You taking your phone on stage?”
He glanced up from the device. “No. I’ll hand it off in a second.”
“Texting now?” Simon snapped.
“It’s Cassie.”
Justice drew back in surprise. “The girl who came to our last Court of Rock show?” He knew Beth stayed in contact with her.
“Yeah. She’s wishing us luck.” He tapped out a message, then handed his phone off to one of their skeleton road crew.
“You still talk to her?” Simon asked.
“Now and again. She’s funny.” He shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal.
Justice didn’t buy that casual thing. “River—”
He held up a hand. “Don’t. I know.”
Lynx jerked his head up. “You know what?”
“Cassie. She comes from a regular-type home with people who care about her. The girl is way out of my league. We’re just friends, and she’s a kid. Barely eighteen. Not going near her, ’kay?”
Justice frowned. “That’s not—”
The stage manager announced, “Five minutes. Time to get onstage.”
For a second, Justice froze. This was it. The moment.
“We’re going out there and hitting it like savages. Yeah?” Lynx said.
“Hell yeah.” They all fist bumped. Justice took his guitar and, using the running lights as a guide, found his spot. Simon was on his right, River a step back in the center. Gray took his place at the piano, and Lynx settled in at his drum kit.
Seconds later the introduction began, including a recorded package playing over the big screens placed around the venue that would switch to views of the stage once the curtain went up.
“And now, here they are! Savaged Illusions!”
Applause and some screams broke out as the curtains rose. The colored lights flashed on. Justice raised his arms in greeting to the two thousand people out there clapping and waving their hands. “Hello, Los Angeles! We’re stoked to be here tonight!”
“Damn right!” Lynx called out.
“Who’s ready to rock?” Justice asked, prowling the lip of the stage, making eye contact with as many people as he could. Energy crackled and popped as the audience roared their excitement. The connection, that living force between him and the spectators, went live.
Justice spun and pointed. “Simon, let’s give the people what they want!” The spotlights dimmed everywhere except on the lead guitarist.
The man launched into the opening riff of “Expired Hero.” The others joined in, each spotlight snapping back on. At his cue, Justice hit the first notes of the song. No holds barred, he went all out.
* * *
The concert had been freaking amazing. The entire venue had vibrated with the wild energy and the pounding beat of Savaged Illusions. By the final song, Liza’s heart had damn near burst out of her chest in pride and joy. The applause had been thunderous. They’d rocked!
Now Liza, along with Em, Ben, Nikki, and some work friends, and a hundred other people, were ensconced in the exclusive Nosh VIP Lounge. The room was bathed in purple and white lights. A bar sat on the left, white leather couches ringed the space, and the center had high bar tables with leather stools. Savaged Illusions music pulsed over the speakers, and the atmosphere teemed with anticipation. The noise level rivaled any bar on a Friday night, and champagne flowed, along with trays of appetizers and desserts.
There were a few whispers too. That’s Elizabeth Ranger. Why’s Justice with her? People gawked at her and made comments, but she did her best to ignore it and sipped her cranberry-flavored sparkling soda.
“You need another one?”
She glanced up at Sloane. “No thanks.”
Once Sloane walked away, Tess said, “Finally, now the boss is gone, we can party.”
Liza laughed. “The boss brought you all in his limo just so you could party.” He’d included Liza’s friends, Emily, Ben and Nikki too. None of them had to worry about driving home.
“Yeah, but he’ll take a picture of me snoring and use it to blackmail me into picking up his dry cleaning or something.”
“I’d pick up his dry cleaning,” Nikki said in her dreamy-plotting voice.
“No!” Liza, Tess and Drake all said at the same time.
Nikki’s eyes widened. “What? He’s hot, rich and perfect.”
Tess put her hand on Nikki’s arm. “Trust me on this. He’s a great boss and friend, but you don’t want to get involved with him. He doesn’t date, he makes deals.”
“Really?” Her speculative gaze followed Sloane.
Emily rolled her eyes. “Are you that desperate?”
Nikki turned, her hair swinging and eyes frustrated. “My last date had his dog in the car when he picked me up.”
“So?” Ben said. “That doesn’t sound so bad.”
“The dog had died when he was a teenager, but he’d had him stuffed. You know, taxidermy?”
Drake choked on his beer and laughed so hard he coughed.
Tess patted him on the back.
“Yep, I’m that desperate.” Nikki finished off the few drops of champagne in her glass and popped up. “I’ll go see if hunky Sloane needs help carrying the drinks.”
She sashayed off, her sexy red dress swaying.
Liza sighed. “Crap, this could be bad.”
“Nah, he’ll set her straight,” Drake said. “Sloane never gets involved with his employees, their family or friends.”
That was true, and Sloane wouldn’t be cruel to Nikki. Relieved, she smiled at the older man across the table from her. It meant so much to Justice that Drake was here tonight. He couldn’t ever replace Noah, but he’d provided a strong male influence as a mentor, and Justice wanted to make him proud.
And thinking of Justice—Liza checked her phone, wondering how much longer until he and the band got here. No message. But they’d had to change out of their sweaty stage clothes and do a couple interviews, so it could be a while yet. There was also media here in the VIP room, but so far they’d left her alone. Probably because Sloane and Drake scared them off. Liza suspected Justice had asked them to keep an eye on her.
Em nudged her shoulder. “Where’s your ring?”
Setting her phone down, she took in her friend’s too-bright eyes beneath heavy lids. “How much champagne did you have?” Okay, it was an attempt to distract her.
“Not enough to make me forget the question.”
She glanced around to assure herself they wouldn’t be overheard then answered, “Christine.” She quickly summed up the encounter in the dressing room.
Em grinned and held up her glass. “Way to summon your inner bitch.”
Liza laughed. “She used to scare me a little.”
“So what changed?”
She considered that, but the truth was pretty simple. “I did.” She’d stopped being so afraid, and a lot of that was due to Justice.
A mic came on. “Ladies and gentlemen, here they are, Savaged Illusions!”
A cheer went up as the guys all jogged in, slapping hands, hugging, and talking. The din of voices rose, and people clumped toward the band. Excitement pitched up, and Liza couldn’t wait any longer. She pushed her way through, with Emily, Ben and Nikki on her heels.
“Justice! Over here!” a groupie called out.
“Lynx, I love you!” another one said.
People shouted and vied for the band’s attention. Flashes went off as the guys accepted drinks and answered questions.
Christine was in the mix too, and when she saw Liza approaching, she shook her head in warning.
“Did she seriously just try to tell you no? Like you need her permission?” Emily shouted.
At that same second, Justice looked over. Seeing her, he broke away, rushed over to scoop her up and swung her around, forcing many people to stumble back to avoid being hit. Camera flashes went
off. “So? Did I get the job done?”
As she looked down into his face to see a sheen of sweat mixed with high color and happiness, a rush of heat flashed through her. “You were amazing! The whole band was on fire! I think every woman in that audience had an orgasm watching you sing.”
He held her in his arms with her feet still dangling. “Only one woman I want to make come.” He dragged his hand over her hip. “You lied, you do have panties on.”
She leaned close to his ear as folks around them snapped pictures. “People can hear us.”
“I don’t care. We did an interview with E! News. We’re doing this, Beth. We’re making our dreams come true.”
She grinned and resisted the urge to kiss him. Not here. She opened her mouth, when a spray of something cold misted her face. “Hey!”
Lynx laughed. “Champagne!” He held up the spewing bottle. “Who wants champagne? ‘Expired Hero’ just broke the top five hundred in iTunes on overall sales.”
The whole place erupted in excitement. Music burst over the speakers, and they all danced and partied. Justice got pulled away to talk to people, pose for pictures and dance with groupies. Several girls climbed all over the guys under the guise of snapping a selfie with them.
Jealousy simmered, but Liza danced with her friends and told herself that she was the one going back to the hotel with Justice. She was the one he loved. And she wasn’t going to be her mom, getting drunk, ridiculous and making a scene.
“I’ve struck out everywhere tonight.” Nikki joined them with a fresh glass of champagne. “Sloane shot me down in two minutes, then I tried to chat up the cute guy with the tat sleeves.”
Liza followed her hand gesture to the group by the bar. Justice stood there with several men who had full-arm tats, but she finally narrowed it down. “Keith?”
“He’s hot, but he brushed me off. Said he’s in a relationship.” She sighed. “Let’s dance and forget the boys.”
“Beth!” Justice called as he broke away, weaving toward her. Catching her hand, he tugged her with him back toward the bar.
Startled, she laughed. “What’s up?”
“It’s midnight. The new numbers are out.”
“Didn’t they get the new numbers earlier?” Nikki asked.
Liza’s pulse jacked as she quickly said, “They update continuously. Right now we’re looking for momentum.” She rushed over to her husband. “Well?”
Simon held his phone up. “Jagged Sin is down ten, and we’re up another fifty!”
“Fucking A!” Lynx shouted. “The rock feud is on.”
“Eat that, Jagged Assholes.” River lifted a shot glass high in the air.
The party kicked into overdrive, and ten minutes later, after Liza had lost Justice to more pictures, she planted her butt on one of the couches. This was only the beginning, and the more famous Justice got, the more he’d be pulled away from her. If she was honest with herself, she worried that he’d get blinded by ambition and success, and Liza would become too much of an obstacle.
Especially since he won’t claim you as his wife in public.
Internally wincing, Liza shook it off. She’d known what she was getting into when she married Justice, and this was his dream. He deserved it, and she was thrilled for him.
She looked around and spotted Lynx at a corner table making out with some chick—the third one she’d seen him with tonight. An idea hit her.
“Uh-oh.” Emily walked over to her. “I know that smile.”
“What are you up to?” Nikki demanded.
“Whatever it is, I’m getting a picture,” Tess said.
It was totally perfect. She caught the eye of one of the hard-working waitstaff. “Can I get a bottle of champagne?”
The woman brought it and expertly opened it.
“Thanks. I’ll take it from here.” Rising, Liza marched over to Lynx, who had his hand up the chick’s skirt.
Ewww.
Putting her thumb over the lip of the champagne bottle, she shook it and let the spray fly. She tried to aim for Lynx and spare the girl.
“What? Fuck!” Lynx shot up and spun, flinging drops of champagne off his arms.
Flashes went off, but Liza was so busy laughing, she barely noticed. “Payback’s a bitch, drummer boy.”
Lynx snatched the bottle from her, covered the lip with his thumb and started shaking it.
“Oh crap.” Liza, Nikki and Emily all whipped around and ran, dodging people and laughing like lunatics. Her two friends were faster, and Liza thought for sure she was going to get drenched, when a pair of hard and familiar arms wrapped around her.
“Justice!”
His eyes gleamed. “Are you causing trouble?”
“As much as I can. And you?”
He laughed. “I just caught trouble, and now she’s all mine.” He swung her around in a crazy dance.
Liza clung to him, the whole room spinning and she hadn’t touched a drop of alcohol.
Nope, she was high on happiness, and that exhilaration banished her tiny flickers of doubt.
Three hours later, Liza carried her shoes as they headed down the long hallway to their hotel room. “What a great night! Well,” she amended, “except when that girl offered to suck your dick.”
“She was drunk.”
The groupies hanging on Justice had poked at her ugly insecurities and growing possessiveness. “Not that drunk, she was poaching my husband.”
He laughed, pushing her up against their door. “I wasn’t interested in her.”
Liza looked up. His gaze was slightly unfocused. Justice had thrown back two shots and a few beers, but he’d never encouraged the groupies. “I don’t care how famous you get, I don’t share.”
He leaned close to her. “Damn right you don’t. Forget the groupies, it’s my wife I want. Let’s go inside.” He slid the keycard into the slot.
Once Justice opened the door, she walked into the big open room and froze. Rage raced up her back and slammed into her head. “What the hell?”
Right there on their bed was a woman. Naked.
Chapter 13
“Oh fuck.” A naked girl on the bed in his hotel room was nuclear-level bad. He turned to his wife. “Beth, I’ll handle this. Why don’t you go—?”
She spun to face him, her face flushing, eyes glinting. “You’ll handle this?”
“What he means is get out.” The girl rose off the bed and strolled to them. “Why would he want a chunky thing like you when he can have all this?” She struck a seductive pose.
Justice couldn’t fucking believe this. He knew from experience not to put his hands on the girl. It wouldn’t be the first time someone tried to set him or any performer up. But his anger surged at that comment.
“Wrong,” he barked, fury growing by the second. This was one of the best fucking nights of his life, and he wasn’t letting some groupie tramp or gold digger ruin it. “I want you out of here.” Taking Beth’s arm, he tugged her with him past the girl to the phone. “Call security, Beth.”
“You call them.” She shrugged off his hold, picked up the girl’s dress and threw it at her. “Get dressed.”
The girl deftly caught the garment and dragged it on over her head. “Why did you give me the key if you were going to bring her here?”
Shit. “I didn’t give you a keycard.” Glancing at his wife, he said, “Don’t touch her.” He yanked up the phone, called hotel security and reported the incident.
After smoothing the red dress over her hips, the girl smiled at Beth. “I follow the band. Justice always gives me the key to his room. Now he’s protecting me from you by telling you not to touch me.”
His wife growled. Fucking growled.
“Goddammit.” He lunged for Beth and missed. She strode straight up to the girl.
Stopping two feet from her, Beth slapped her hands on her hips and did the up-and-down-body-scan thing girls do. “You’re not very good at this, are you?”
The girl’s smile fell. “Whattay
a mean?”
“I grew up with groupies. The good ones, they know their shit. They love music, I mean love it. They make connections and get invites to parties and hotel rooms. They don’t have to bribe hotel clerks or whatever the hell you did to get in here.”
“I had the key.”
“Yeah? Where is it?”
The cornered expression on the girl’s face would be a perfect GIF for Oh shit I’m in trouble. “I left it somewhere.” She took a step as if looking for it.
Beth moved in front of her. “Name five songs on Savaged Illusions’ album.”
“What?”
His wife held up her hand, spreading her thumb and fingers. “Five songs from their new album. If you can’t count, I’ll do it for you.” Curling all her fingers in except the index digit, she said, “Song number one?”
“Uh…” the girl stammered.
“Too hard? How about this then. What’s his middle name?”
The girl’s eyes darted around the room. “Whose?”
“Justice. You know, the man you claim gives you the keycard to his room all the time.” Sarcasm dripped from every single word.
“I… Why would I know that?”
“It’s on the Savaged Illusions website, dumbass. But you know what? I’ll give it to you for free. His name is Justice Noah Cade.” She leaned in close until they were almost nose to nose. “And he’s mine. You try this shit again, and you’re going to deal with me when I’m not in a good mood. You don’t want to see me pissed, little girl. You. Do. Not.”
The girl turned and hustled her ass out of the room, plowing right into two big security guys.
The first one steadied her, and the second said, “This the intruder?”
Justice strode to the door. “Yes. We found her in the room when we came in. No idea how long she’s been here or how she got in.”
“Would you like the police called?”
“No.” None of them needed the headache. He had to get on a plane tomorrow to Vegas.
“We’ll handle it, Mr. Cade. On behalf of the hotel, we apologize. Is there anything else we can get you?”
“No, thanks.” After shutting the door, he engaged the swing lock and headed into the bedroom, where he stopped in surprise.
Savaged Vows: Savaged Illusions Trilogy Book 2 Page 16
