Table of Contents
Special Thanks
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
About the Author
Coming Soon!
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By Jennifer Vester
Copyright © 2017 by Jennifer Vester
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
This book is intended for mature audiences only.
Cover design by: Marianne Nowicki www.PremadeEbookCoverShop.com
Author’s Webpage: https://vesterbooks.wixsite.com/jennifervester
Digital book(epub and mobi) produced by Booknook.biz.
Table of Contents
Special Thanks
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
About the Author
Coming Soon!
Special Thanks
Thank you, Miranda. For the random singing calls and voicemails. For the help and saucy encouragement. You’ll always be famous to me.
Also, for LoLo and Crash. The most angelic singers the world has yet to discover. Dream big. Do more. Don’t settle.
Chapter One
My plane touched down in Lakefield with a bump and a lurch. We had been circling the airport for a while due to delays caused by weather. I felt slightly nauseous from the turbulence and needed a restroom.
I hated flying.
Give me a car and I would drive twelve hours any day, but flying just wasn’t my thing. I had no problem with long road trips. Even if I got lost or had car problems that set me back by several days, I would take it over flying.
There were several reasons why flying irritated me. The people in the actual terminal were always frantic, rude or disgusting. Case in point, the old man with the yellowing teeth, that smelled like cigars and cheap liquor who literally passed out next to me while waiting for our flight. Those aromas hadn’t quite been enough to make me want to vomit until I had gotten a whiff of his feet. He had discarded his shoes in the waiting area like we weren’t in a public place. The way they had smelled, made me want to go get him some foot powder and recommend a better diet.
After I had puked in the bathroom, rinsed, and chewed a lot of gum, I had felt like I could risk going back. That’s when someone in a business suit had knocked me over as he ran through the airport.
Then while I had been sitting on the floor with my guitar case about to yell after the guy, a woman and her passel of three children nearly stepped on me. The woman had thrown a dollar in my lap and given me a “bless your heart” look as she scurried along.
Apparently, I looked like a bum.
My clothing probably wasn’t the issue. I had worn a pair of skinny jeans with a couple of rips in the knees, but that was in fashion now back home. More specifically, with the people I hung out with. My black v-neck shirt had a band name on it, but it wasn’t terrible.
It was probably my hair and the guitar. One of my friends had convinced me, in between shots of tequila one night, to put red highlights in it. Because I had naturally platinum blonde hair, one thing led to another and I was stuck with pink highlights for a while. The guitar case had probably said “unemployed beggar” but I was absolutely not going to let it ride under the plane.
The plane taxied to the terminal and I was fidgety.
It had been a year since I had left. My best friend Olivia was getting married and she had asked me to sing at her reception. I didn’t want to. That was the truth. I didn’t want to be in front of so many people who knew what the scar on my face was about, but I loved her dearly so it was a no brainer.
I shuffled off the plane with all the other irritated passengers, smelling of body odor and canned air. After using the bathroom I made my way to luggage pick up. I had two bags that I rolled to a stop with just outside of claims.
My sister Allison, was supposed to meet me so we could drive to the house Olivia and I had shared while I had been living here. I had the distinct feeling that the only reason Allison had decided to tag along was because my father had been worried about my safety. There was a lot that had happened in my life over the last year and not all of it had been good.
I texted her.
Julia: Here, outside claims.
Allie: Driver coming.
I stared at my phone. What driver?
I had told Liv that with all the wedding preparations, she had enough on her plate than to worry about getting us a ride from the airport.
I was about to text her back when a man approached me.
“Miss White?” He smiled. He was in his late twenties I would guess. He had a clean-shaven face, short cropped, slightly curly hair and was dressed in a suit.
I extended my hand. “Julia.”
“Yeah I know. I’m John, Olivia’s personal bodyguard, slash, driver, slash, minion. I’m also supposed to tell you I’m single or she’s threatened to have me fired. Are these your bags?”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah John, and noted. I’ll make sure to tell her that we chatted about your relationship status.”
He winked at me. “Thanks, that could have been awkward.”
The confusion must have shown on my face as he started rolling my luggage across the main lobby.
He shrugged. “I have a boyfriend at home. I just don’t tell anyone about it. It’s a little too alpha at work and I would never hear the end of it. For some reason, gay men aren’t supposed to be manly. It’s ridiculous.”
I grinned at him. I was flattered he had told me but I also wondered why.
That had been happening a lot lately. People had begun randomly telling me things that they, for some reason, felt they needed to hide or didn’t talk to anyone else about. It was weird. Back home, I had suddenly become everyone’s therapist.
I helped with the door when we got to it. A light rain was hitting the sidewalk when we stepped out. “I won’t say anything John. I get it. So how do you like working for Aiden?”
“I love my job. Mr. Latimer always treats
me great when I see him during training. It was a huge honor, to me at least, that he asked me to be on Olivia’s security detail. He’s a good boss.”
“Cool,” I said, not sure what else to say. I knew Aiden but not well. I was curious what he was like outside of the things Liv told me on a regular basis.
“Mr. Saunders, on the other hand, is very challenging. I puked the last time I trained with him. Never happened before.”
My memory from a year ago must have been lacking because I didn’t know who he was talking about. “Mr. Saunders?”
John didn’t hear me as we made our way along the sidewalk. He greeted a man beside a black car that had his back turned to us.
For some reason, he looked familiar even from this angle.
The man turned, a serious look met my curious one. “Miss White.”
“Jake. Wow, good to see you.”
Jake had been my guard for a while last year when Olivia had gotten into trouble with her psychotic ex-boyfriend. He and several other men, worked for Liv’s soon to be husband. Aiden owned an international security company in addition to several other large businesses all over the country.
He opened the car door. “Good to see you too.”
I noticed his coat was nearly drenched from the rain. “You didn’t have to stand out here getting wet. Where’s your umbrella?”
He grimaced. “Your sister is in the car.”
I didn’t know what that look meant precisely until I slid into the backseat. My sister Allison was nearly sprawled from one side of the space to the other.
“Juuuules,” she said while smiling like a clown.
The car smelled like liquor and her lipstick was smeared at the corner like she had tried to put it on while walking. One of her shoes was in the floorboard and her black skirt was askew. There was a button open on her cream blouse. Her red hair was sticking up all over the place. She was a hot mess.
“Allie, how much have you had to drink?”
When I settled in the seat, she flopped her long arms around me and I got a strong inhale of her alcohol laced breath. That answered my question. A lot.
“Just a little bit,” she giggled and held up her fingers. Her green eyes looked up at mine as her head flopped to the side.
Jake and John got in the front seats. John started to drive away from the airport.
“Allie, get buckled. We’re headed to the house,” I said while pushing her into her side of the car.
I managed to move her pliant limbs and get a seatbelt around her before she started talking again.
“Thanks sis. You know Jakey here, pulled me out of the VIP lounge. It was embarrassing. But I have my little complimentary bottles too ya know.” She held up a tiny Jack Daniels bottle and shook it around.
Jake cleared his throat and looked back at me with his eyebrows raised. Unfortunately, he was probably wondering if I was going to join her. Last year, Liv and I had been tipsy in the backseat while he was driving, and had jumped out of the car on him.
Shaking my head at him, I could feel my face turning red at the memory.
I grabbed the bottle from her and turned it over to Jake, who promptly put it in the glove box out of reach.
She waved her arm around at Jake. “Heey, that was mine. Damnit, you’re no fun anymore Julia.”
“I have plenty of fun. It’s just not the kind you want to have.”
Allison turned toward Jake. “She doesn’t drink like she used to. All she does is work on her music, like that’s going to go anywhere! She turned down a freaking music contract. I worked hard to get her that one and she just blooows it off.”
My jaw clenched. I didn’t want her here, and now she was telling people that she didn’t even know, things about my life.
Allie’s “help” with a music contract had actually been Allie trying to hook me up with one of her music producer friends at a party. Everyone around me had gotten drunk, high or otherwise, while I had begged Allie to leave with me. Her boyfriend Roger had ended up offering me money for a blowjob later in the night and asking if the bigshot producer could watch. I had ended up punching the producer in the nose and pouring a bottle of beer on Roger’s lap.
If that’s what it took to make it big in the music industry, with a big contract that would come with it, then I didn’t want it. I would just continue to play my own shows at hole in the wall bars and on second stages.
It wasn’t glamorous and it wasn’t something my sister thought was successful, but it was mine. I managed my schedule, my gigs, my security, and my money. It was something I was proud of and it was hard to imagine doing it any other way.
I sighed. “Allie, shut up. You’re drunk. What the fuck is wrong with you?”
Jake was still eyeing me for some reason. “We’re taking you to the house so you can get settled, then Aiden and Liv have requested you join them at Muse.”
I ran a hand down my face as I looked at my sister. “Uhm.”
“Your choice,” he said.
“Yeah, right.”
Allison was passed out cold in the other seat, her red hair partially obscuring her face.
Jake tipped his head toward her. “She always as crazy as you are?”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “I’m not crazy, just a little creative occasionally. And no, she’s just going through a hard time. Hell, I don’t know. I don’t even know why she’s here. This is hard enough without having to babysit my older sister.”
He considered me for a minute. “You’ve changed Julia. Figured we were going to have to handcuff both of you to the backseat and possibly assign ten guys to you alone. Wasn’t sure how the wedding was going to go. Spiked punch, disco ball, elephant parade.”
I looked through the window, trying not to look at my reflection and then turned back to him. “Sounds like fun but not for me. How is Dr. Matthews?”
He gave me one last hard look and turned toward the front window. “He’s doing well. Opened up another wing at the clinic a few months ago.”
“Does he need any help?”
He glanced at me over his shoulder. “You thinking of coming back?”
I looked at my sister. “Yeah, maybe. I don’t really like it out there.”
“So, what does she do?”
“Works in the music industry. Public relations mostly. Blah, blah,” I sighed. “She’s the one that did something with her life. Such as it is. She and her boyfriend just called it quits last week, hence the drunken behavior.”
“Sounds like you could have taken that record deal. You that good?”
“I’m ok. That deal was a fucking joke.”
He smiled. “Not enough money. I get it. Stardom is so tedious. I get that all the time when people ask me for an autograph. Right John?”
John eyed me in the rearview mirror but didn’t say anything. It felt like he was offering me his sympathy in that look. Maybe it was just what I wanted to see, but our eyes held for a few seconds and I felt like he might have understood the amount of inner disgust I felt.
I turned to Jake. “Yeah, it was a bad deal.”
Thirty minutes later we pulled up to the townhome. It looked like the same place. The rain had stopped but there were small puddles everywhere. The porch still had a small planter on it and I wondered if Liv still kept the spare key in the bottom of the soil.
John got out and opened my door. “Miss White I’ll get your things.”
I stepped over to the sidewalk and looked down the street. There were small trees that had been planted every fifty feet or so along the pavement. The planter boxes were a nice touch and broke up the all cement look of the street. They were definitely new and I wondered if Aiden had a hand in it. Olivia had always said that the block was lacking the “neighborhood feel” without any trees.
Jake ran up the stairs, unlocked the door, and gestured for me to enter.
This was the part I had dreaded the most by coming back. Olivia’s ex-boyfriend had attacked and kidnapped me in the house last year in a p
loy to get her back.
I had come home to pack one night after keeping her company at Aiden’s cabin. The drinks we had, made me drowsy and I had gone to sleep. I had woken up in the middle of the night due to a sound I had heard downstairs. It had been faint, but out of place with the normal nighttime sounds I had been used to.
When I had walked down the stairs into the kitchen he had grabbed me and had tried to restrain me up against a cabinet. I had fought him, not knowing that he had a knife which he used on my leg. I had begun throwing anything I could at him, knocking half the appliances around and making as much noise as I could while screaming for help.
Help had never come though, and after hitting me several times in the face I had passed out only to wake up with him leering down at me. I had nightmares of that night. Frightening, bone-chilling nightmares of that face and the things he had done.
A shiver ran up my spine while I stared into the blackness beyond the doorframe.
“I’m not sure I can do this.”
Jake walked down the stairs as John carried my bags in.
The sound of thunder rolled through the sky. It was going to rain again soon. I could still smell the tangy ozone scent from the storm that had obviously gone through here earlier.
I took a step back rather than forward. Right now, I felt like I could sleep out here in the rain. Anything but enter the house.
It was pure stupidity on my part that had made me think I could come back here and not feel overwhelmed by the emotions that had been terrifying me for the last year.
Jake held up his hands in an open invitation for me to take a hold of them.
I took another step back. My heart was pounding and I started shaking my head. The noise from that night kept going through my head. It had been the slightest of sounds. A small scraping, like a window being opened. Then I had gotten out of bed and gone downstairs.
“Julia, we can go somewhere else.”
I was breathing fast, taking shallow, sporadic bits of air in just as fast as I was letting them out.
“I can’t. I can’t.”
Jake stood where he was. “It’s okay, you don’t have to go in.”
John approached behind him looking worried. My eyes met his.
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