Like regret. Justice was the only one saddled with a wife and a kid on the way.
He wrapped his fingers around her suddenly cold hand. “I went to bed alone. Do you know what I did then?”
She wanted to grab his hand in both of hers and clutch it like a desperate chick. Instead she left her fingers limp on her leg. “What?”
“Read your pages. And missed you so damned much. I’m sorry for snapping. I’m not going to fuck this up, okay? Not my career or our relationship. Please, just trust me.”
Yet awkwardness bubbled between them. “I’m trying.” Not good enough. “I do trust you. But it’s hard, Justice. I’m there at the house, dealing with a broken water heater, your dad, my job, reporters on my lawn, or harassing me in routine work press conferences. One even cornered me in the bathroom at a business lunch in an upscale restaurant. She more or less blocked me from leaving while trying to get me to answer questions.”
“What did you do?”
She glanced over at him. “Squirted hand lotion on her. I had her send her dry-cleaning bill to SLAM.”
His mouth twitched, and he tugged her hand to the armrest and laced their fingers. “Good.” His gaze sobered. “How bad is it at the house? Are you safe?”
“Yes. It’s just one or two reporters a day trying to catch me coming or going. I ignore them. And we have the alarm system.”
“You got the water heater replaced, right?”
“Yes.” She kept her gaze focused on the gas stations and convenience stores. “Stuff in one of my boxes we stored in there was ruined, but all your boxes were fine.”
“What? Beth, you didn’t tell me that. Which box?”
Her throat tightened. “Just some old pictures.”
“Oh fuck, the ones of you and your mom before she went to prison?” He paused, then said, “I’m sorry.”
Wow, they were getting off to a great start, weren’t they? “Forget it. I saved a few on top. It’s fine.” Everything was fine. She turned and smiled. “I’m looking forward to a couple nights here.” She’d taken Monday off and changed her flight out. They’d have all Sunday together.
“I’m taking you out tomorrow. I made a reservation at a steak and seafood place on the bay. Or we can stay in if you’d rather. The manor is fully staffed.” He glanced over again. “You can get some rest and be taken care of for a change. You’ve been handling everything at home.” His grin turned wicked. “And it’s my turn to handle you.”
“Hey, I’m not your groupie, rock star. I’m not a sure thing.”
He turned the car toward a gate and pressed a button on the visor. The gate swung open, revealing a long road lined with swaying palm trees. “Wow.” She couldn’t help but be impressed. They passed smaller roads. “Where do those go?”
“Casitas, a recording studio, some maintenance buildings. I haven’t seen everything yet. We can take an ATV or golf cart to check it all out later or tomorrow.”
Justice followed a circular driveway to the front of a sprawling sand-colored house. But she had little chance to explore as Justice got out, slung her bag over his shoulder, and tugged her up the steps to a glass-paneled door. Inside was bright and spacious, with white marble floors and white and turquoise furniture in a massive living area. Beyond that, big sliding doors opened to a deck, a big pool and the bay. It was stunning.
“Where is everyone?”
“Might be out on the boat. Come on, I don’t want to share you yet.” He dragged her to the right and hit a button for an elevator. “We’re on the top floor.”
A minute later, he opened the door to a big room with a massive king-sized bed covered in a white comforter topped by an emerald-green cloud of pillows and a throw blanket. Just looking at the bed made her hot and needy.
Justice tossed her bag down and pulled her through a dressing area. She had a quick glimpse of the doorway to a bathroom before they ended up in a sitting room flooded with sunlight from a sliding glass door. A couch and two chairs were grouped on a pretty rug. A small dining table with a vase of brightly colored tropical flowers stood by the sliding door. But it was the picturesque scene of the bay that captivated her.
Going to the glass, she scanned the panoramic view. Boats and jet skis created wakes in the water. The edges of the bay were dotted with homes and businesses. “It’s gorgeous.”
“I want to give you something like this one day.”
His voice rumbled so close behind her it sparked shivers that trailed down her neck. Craning her head, she met his steely-hot gaze. All the shades of blue and gray blended together in his irises to make that color uniquely his. “We have a home. But I’d love to vacation here anytime.”
Wrapping his hand around her jaw, he drew his thumb along her throat. “We’re not living there forever. We’ll fix it up for my dad to keep once he’s better. But for us, for you and our kid, I want more. I want it all.”
When Justice’s intensity focused solely on her, she could barely remember her name.
“I want you to strip for me. Right here, in this light. I want to see you, everything I’ve missed.” His hand slid over the slope of her breast to cup the mound contained in her bra. “You’re bigger, fuller.” Moving lower, he covered her belly. “I want to see you, Beth.”
“Some of my pants are getting too tight.” Self-consciousness niggled at her.
He kissed down the side of her neck, his mouth warm and wet. Pulling her shirt aside, he brushed his lips over the curve of her shoulder. “You’re sexier than ever. I’m going to prove just how much I missed you.”
Liza melted into him. Justice made her feel beautiful exactly the way she was.
Chapter 17
Justice guided the SUV past the gates, following Simon and River in the Yukon ahead of him. The thumping on the back of his seat jerked his gaze to the mirror. “Quit kicking my seat.”
Lynx sighed. “Drive faster. Jesus, what are you, ninety?”
Justice tried pointing out the obvious. “I’m following Simon.”
Lynx crossed his arms. “He’s ninety-seven.”
He glanced over at Liza. “I don’t suppose you could give him a cookie to make him behave?”
“I wish I’d brought some cookies,” Beth said wistfully. “Who knew you could make them out of Nutella? That’s some delicious brilliance. I can’t believe you didn’t try at least one.”
She’d had three and then begged him to take them away. They’d been sitting on the deck, hanging with the guys, River filling her in on the party, with the video to prove they’d been jumping in the bay naked.
Justice shook his head. He wasn’t on that video because he hadn’t been a drunk idiot. Manor security put an end to their shenanigans. But Justice hadn’t tried to stop River’s show-and-tell. It was better that Beth saw for herself that Justice hadn’t been involved.
“Hey, Liza,” Lynx said. “So you got names picked out for the ankle biter? If it’s a boy, Panther would be sick. Panther Cade.”
Justice rolled his eyes as he stopped for a red light behind the other SUV.
Liza twisted around in her seat. “What if it’s a girl?”
“Sparrow Cade.”
“Sparrow?” She seemed to test it out. “Kind of pretty, don’t you think, Justice? Oh and Panther, that’s all sleek and masculine.”
“You can’t be serious. We’re not naming our kid after a bird or cat. Besides, it’s—” He cut off at the smirk on her face.
He’d been had. That was what he got for leaving her out on the deck with his bandmates while he went to the bathroom earlier. They plotted ways to torment him.
“Funny.” He flicked his gaze in the mirror to see Lynx’s smug face. “Jerk.”
“Butt face.”
“Children,” Gray said from behind Liza’s seat. “Stop bickering. Liza, do you know if you’re having a boy or girl?”
“No. We might find out at the next ultrasound, if we want to know. I’m not sure. But knowing is better, right? I’ve been debating, b
ecause I want to fix up the nursery, although it probably won’t matter to the baby what color their bedroom is.”
Her excited chatter amused him. “We’ll have to use the front bedroom for the baby. Do you want to paint it?”
She focused on him. “I was thinking soft peach or creamy yellow. Should we find out the sex?”
He was forced to stop at another red light. Simon had made it through and sped off ahead of him. No biggie. They’d all been at the venue earlier, before he’d picked Beth up at the airport, to check the setup and get their bearings. He knew the way. To answer Beth’s question, he said, “Sure, why not?”
“We could be surprised.”
The pregnancy alone had been enough of a surprise for him. But he’d sound like an asshole if he said that. “It’ll be more fun to know.”
She rewarded him with a smile, her eyes glittering. Shifting beneath her seat belt, she smoothed her hand over her short dress. He heartily approved of the black lace thing that layered over the pale-pink material of her dress. She’d paired it with sexy black boots. She had a feminine rocker-chick thing going that was uniquely Beth. Especially with curly mahogany hair that seemed to have more red in it than usual. He couldn’t wait to show her off tonight. And maybe show off a little for her.
And for his fans. Their single had begun slipping on the music charts, but they hoped the concerts this weekend—especially tonight at the big venue in the heart of Tampa—would give them another push. Justice searched the area, then said, “There it is.” He pointed to the big, domed theater rising up in the night sky.
Getting this booking was a feat. They hadn’t sold out, but it was a solid sell-through, something like ninety-two percent. Really good. They had to get there for some preshow events, and traffic was moving at a torturous crawl.
“Damn, we’re more than two hours early. How can it be this bad?” He couldn’t see far enough ahead to figure out what was the holdup.
“That’s good, right? It means your show is popular.”
Now that they were this close to the venue, his preshow anxiety began climbing. “Yeah.” Every show had to be the best one yet, and they needed to push their single up into the top fifty of the chart. They couldn’t afford any more fuckups. Well, the Hayes video wasn’t a fuckup they could control.
Beth laid her hand on his arm. She didn’t say a word, just touched him in a way that soothed some of the boiling energy that surfaced before a show. Looking over, he met her gaze and smiled.
Her eyes sparkled, and she squeezed his arm. “It’s going to be a kick-ass night. I want to get pictures to send Noah. Especially when you sing ‘Expired Hero.’”
This girl filled him, accessing the place that all the crazed fans in the world couldn’t reach—that boy left in a jail cell when his mom walked out. Beth made the boy want to grow up and be a man worthy of her.
“River’s calling,” Lynx said.
“Put him on speaker,” Justice suggested. “He might be far enough ahead to see the problem slowing us.”
“What’s going on up there? Can you guys see?” Lynx asked.
“Protesters,” River’s normally smooth voice snapped. “A fuckton of them with signs and shit.”
Justice craned his head, trying to peer around the line of cars in front of him. Warnings went off in his brain. Unable to see anything, he looked in the mirror.
Lynx’s troubled gaze stared back. Raising his phone, he asked River, “Protesting what?”
“Liza. All the signs have the hashtag Bring Gene Hayes Home on them, with things like Recant! Bring Hayes Home! Cheating Whore! Lyin’ Liza! Hayes is Innocent!”
Beth gasped, her hand covering her mouth. “No. Not again.” Her skin flushed to an unhealthy tomato color.
“Now?” Gray said. “We only had a handful last weekend, and no protesters midweek or last night.”
“This sounds too organized. What’s happening?” Beth said.
“I don’t know. Let’s—”
A tap on the window had him jerk around to see a cop’s face. Once he rolled it down, the cop said, “You’re Justice Cade? I need to see I.D.”
Justice pulled out his license and handed it over. Once the cop looked at it and handed it back, he moved the flashlight over the faces of all four of them in the car. Obviously satisfied, he said, “Okay, follow me. We’re pulling you and the other vehicle out and escorting you to the private entrance. Your car will be moved for you once you’re inside.”
Damn. He glanced over at his wife. A moment ago, she’d been happy and reassuring him. Now she was stressed. When he shifted his gaze down to her barely noticeable belly, a harsh protectiveness clamped his chest. This was too dangerous. “I don’t think you should be here.”
“We don’t have time to take her back to the manor,” Gray pointed out. “It’s worse being out here. Go.”
Gray was right, so Justice followed the direction as one cop waved him out of the train of cars, while a line of officers kept the others in place.
Horns blared as people realized they were getting special treatment. Would they know Liza was in the car? He followed the cops down the road while Lynx talked to River. “How’d the police know we’re here?”
“Simon called our road crew,” River answered through the phone. “They alerted the police.”
They moved at a crawl, getting around traffic and passing the front of the Tampa Dome.
“Holy crap,” Liza said.
The street and sidewalk were covered in a sea of people with massive signs. News cameras bobbed among them, and reporters shoved microphones into people’s faces. Screams ramped up, and someone shouted, “There she is! Elizabeth Ranger! Lyin’ Liza!”
A crowd surged forward while chanting, “Lying Liza! Recant! Bring Gene Hayes Home!” One woman broke free of the pack, charged the car and swung her sign.
Crack!
The sign slammed into Beth’s window.
Beth screamed and threw her arms over her head.
“Fuck.” Justice gunned the car to hurl past the knot of lunatics. He didn’t care if he ran the bastards over. In the mirror, he had a quick glimpse of several cops tackling the woman to the ground, and more police blocked the protestors. “Beth? You okay?” Her window was caved in with a webbing of fissures, but it hadn’t broken. No glass hit her.
She sat up, glasses askew, face chalky, and her eyes bright with tears. “How did this happen? I don’t understand.”
“Get us in the building,” Gray cut in. “Keep going.”
Justice’s head throbbed by the time they made it past the barricades and around to a back entrance. Security burst out of the building. His door was yanked open. “Let’s go. Now.”
He shoved out, threw off the arm tugging him and ran around the vehicle just as another security guy helped Beth out. Justice took her arm. “I have her.” The man was doing his job, but Beth was his. Memories of the attack last year after the final Court of Rock show tormented him. They all rushed inside, and the door clanged shut.
Surrounded by industrial white brick walls, white floors and exposed piping, they caught their breath for a minute. Then they were ushered along a few twists and turns, and finally into a room with two couches, TVs and a spread of snacks and drinks.
Simon and River were already there, talking to a couple of the security guys.
Simon spun around, his eyes narrowed on them. “Did you know about this?” Anger radiated off him.
“We have no idea what’s going on,” Justice answered.
Simon picked up a remote and turned up the TV. A harried female reporter with people carrying signs behind her said, “I’m here in front of the Tampa Dome where there’s an organized effort to block ticket holders from getting in to see the rock band Savaged Illusions. There’s a lot of anger out here. With me is Jillian Shoemaker.” She turned and asked, “What brought you here tonight?”
The woman said, “I saw that newest video on the Bring Gene Hayes Home website.”
; “Website?” Justice hadn’t heard of it before now.
The woman went on, “The site announced that Lyin’ Liza was going to be here. I liked Savaged Illusions on Court of Rock until Justice Cade hooked up with that lying skank Liza. She ruined Gene Hayes’s life. We have to stand up for what’s right. Boycott Savaged Illusions and force Liza to tell the truth. Bring Gene Hayes home!”
Behind the reporter, the protestors chanted, “Tell the truth. Bring Hayes home!”
“We didn’t announce she’d be here.” Justice tried to figure out how they knew Liza was going to be at this particular concert.
On the TV, a grim-faced anchor appeared. “Thank you, Regina, for that live report. As most of our viewers know, Gene Hayes was convicted of drugging and raping Elizabeth Ranger, who is now known as Liza Glasner, when she was fourteen. Hayes fled the country, but he has recently surfaced, claiming he was set up. Gene Hayes’s lawyers filed an official appeal of the verdict just over a week ago. And now this website, Bring Gene Hayes Home, has been launched with this video that professes to be a Lyin’ Liza Truth Bomb.
The screen switched, and Gene Hayes appeared.
“For years I stayed silent after having my life destroyed by Elizabeth Ranger and her conniving, screwed-up parents.” He lowered his chin. “As I’ve said before, I tried to cut Liza some slack—she was a kid. I thought, okay, maybe her parents coerced her into the scheme to seduce and blackmail me, and she was as much a victim as I am. And she suffered enough, right? Her mom is in prison for killing her father that night in my house when the whole plot went bad. Surely Elizabeth Ranger would have learned that you can’t lie, cheat and scheme.”
Hayes leaned back, crossing his arms. “That’s what I thought until I realized this woman has turned into exactly what her parents were—a scheming, blackmailing liar. What we know already is that even though Liza claims to be a traumatized victim of a rock star, she’s wormed her way into another rock star’s, Justice Cade’s, life and moved into his house. Months later, she got knocked up, and then she convinced Justice it’s his kid and persuaded him to marry her right before his new album came out. And that’s some very convenient timing since Liza now has the right to half the earnings Justice Cade makes off that album. I revealed all that to the world when I announced that we’ve filed to overturn the unfair verdict against me.” Hayes tilted in toward the camera. “But we have so much more. If you’re not yet convinced Lyin’ Liza’s not a victim but a schemer, let me show you what she’s been doing while Justice Cade is out on the road working.”
Savaged Vows: Savaged Illusions Trilogy Book 2 Page 22
