by Maxa,L. P.
Lo’s whole body tensed. I took the juice glass out of her hand. I was afraid she was going to Hulk out and shatter it. “Really? You think I’m jealous of your hypothetical baby? You couldn’t be further from the truth. I pity your kid. I know what it’s like to grow up with a father who isn’t around, who doesn’t care enough to spend time with you.” She sneered. “At least I got to grow up with a great mom.”
Misti inhaled a sharp breath and put her hand to her chest. “Henry, are you going to just sit here and let her talk to me like that?”
He put his head in his hands and I could have sworn I heard him mumble, “Fuck my life.” I couldn’t be sure though because he immediately stood and motioned to the hallway. “Harlow, honey, can I please speak with you for a moment?” He looked down at me. “Alone.”
I shot him the finger and Lo choked on a piece of bacon. She got up and placed a sweet kiss on my cheek. Fuck that noise. I grabbed her face and stuck my tongue down her throat. Then for good measure I slapped her ass when she walked away. She was mine. I’d just gotten her. And I wasn’t about to let her dad think he could take her away.
Chapter Thirty-eight
Harlow
I followed my dad out of the dining room, reluctantly leaving Luke with Misti. It was clear that she wanted his dick. It would be sad if it wasn’t so damn funny. There was no way he’d go there. I didn’t have one ounce of doubt in my mind.
My father took me to a room with a large mahogany desk and bookshelves lining three of the four walls. They were filled with books my dad had probably never even read. My mom was the reader. Part of me wondered if some of these were her books. When we moved to Miami, we’d downgraded. The house she lived in didn’t have space for a library like this.
He shut the door behind us and motioned for me to sit. I crossed my arms. “No thanks, I think I’ll stand.”
He crossed the room and perched on the edge of his desk. “Harlow, honey.” He paused for effect. He’d done that for as long as I could remember. Saying my name in that resigned way. I wasn’t the daughter my father wanted. He wanted a blonde princess who accepted his gifts and thrived in posh boarding schools. That wasn’t me.
“So, going to give another little girl daddy issues?” It was a cheap shot, and it just made Misti look correct in her assessment of my jealousy. But I couldn’t help it.
“You are so dramatic, always have been. You get your personality from your mother.”
I snorted. “It’s hilarious that you say that like it’s an insult.” My mom was twice the parent my dad could ever even hope to be.
“Why do you always have to be so damn difficult, Harlow? I gave you everything a child could ever wish for.”
I looked at him like he was crazy. “Yeah, everything except love and affection.”
“Oh grow up, Harlow. I was running a billion-dollar company, I’m sorry I didn’t make it to your gymnastic meets.”
“Dance recitals.”
He didn’t acknowledge that I’d corrected him. “I love Misti, and she loves me. She wants a baby, so I will give her one.”
I rolled my eyes. “You don’t love Misti, she’s a trophy. And she doesn’t want a baby, she wants a chain to your wallet.” I shrugged. “But whatever, you go ahead and have fun with that.” I was like my mother, I was kind and I loved with all my heart so I added. “When you two get tired of playing parent, give me call, the kid can come live with me. Maybe it’ll have a shot at being halfway normal.”
His eyes turned red. Huh. That was the most emotion I’d ever evoked in him; maybe he did want a—
“She does love me.”
Oh, okay great. Already his young trophy wife ranked higher than this baby they were so desperate to conceive. “No, Dad, she doesn’t. Hundred grand says she’s in the dining room right now trying to fuck my boyfriend.”
“Nice language. I can see the filth really has rubbed off on you.”
I smiled. “Are we done?”
“No, not yet. You can’t keep seeing Luke. I won’t allow it.” He pushed up his sleeves like he was about to get serious. “He isn’t the right guy for you. I know that right now you have stars in your eyes. I’m sure he seems exciting and dangerous. But he’s just a rock star. He’s someone I created.” He shook his head sadly. “And, unfortunately, when it comes to the Devil’s Share, I created monsters in all of them.”
Monsters? When we left Dash’s and Lexi’s suite last night, Jacks was getting his nails painted princess pink and wearing a tiara. I was too stunned to argue with him for several seconds, my jaw to the floor. I quickly recovered and let out a humorless laugh. “Do you even know these men? Have you bothered to spend any time with them in the past year?” And the first time he decides to take an interest in my life it’s to tell me who I can and can’t date? I don’t think so.
“I’ve spent the past ten years with these men, Harlow. Do you have any idea how much money I’ve had to shell out to save their asses? To keep their image just right?”
I was confused. “Aren’t they one of the biggest rock bands in the nation? I’m sure they make you way more money than they cost you, or else you would have dropped them.” My dad owned a record label, but I’d never seen his love for the music. I was pretty sure that died when he made his first million. His life had revolved around dollar signs for as long as I could remember. Dollar signs and barely legal secretaries.
He scoffed. “Just barely.” He started ticking off points on his fingers. “Smith. I’ve had to pay his baby momma for the past ten years, not to mention the cash I have to give his drug-addled family to keep them away from him. Do you know how precarious his sobriety is? Has always been? Jared, his cousin, cost me hundreds of thousands in possession charges and rehab before I could finally get them to cut him loose.
“Jacks? The label has covered at least one abortion because of his restless dick and a stripper OD because of his coke problem. Dash. I’ve had several girls so distraught over being tossed aside by him that we had to cover part of their psychiatric care. And one who cited some sexual abuse.” I was shaking my head, holding my hand out for him to stop. But he didn’t. “And then there’s Luke. The man touching your leg under my dining room table. Two girls have shown up at my door covered in bruises. Their settlements were six figures each.”
I sat down on the chair in front of him, his words too much to take standing. He let the silence hang between us, and I used it to try to wrap my head around everything he’d just told me. It didn’t make sense, none of it made sense. Did my dad not know that Landry wasn’t Smith’s daughter? They told me that Jacks welcomed her with open arms, didn’t even bat an eye. There was no way that he’d be okay with those abortions. Right? Did he even know about that? And Luke would never hurt anyone, ever. He’d asked my permission before he tried doing anything remotely rough with me. I’d only known these men for a week, but none of these things made any sense. That’s not who the band was. Not who that family was.
“Do you see now, Harlow? Do you see that I am only trying to protect you?” My dad got up and took my hands in his.
Was my dad lying? Or was he just so far out of the loop that he had no idea what was actually going on? He had over a hundred employees; maybe he just didn’t know the truth. Maybe all he did was talk to the lawyers and write the checks. I was afraid to say anything until I talked to Luke. “I need to go.”
“What? You’re leaving with him? After everything I just told you?”
I headed toward the door but paused. “Dad, I’m not really sure you’ve ever even met the Devil’s Share.”
Chapter Thirty-nine
Luke
Lo came out of her father’s office just in time. Misti had tried to put her bare foot on my dick under the table, right after she asked if I’d ever been deep-throated. Number one, of course I had. Number two? No. Thank. You.
“Lo, you okay?” She was so pale that I immediately stood and went to her. “What happened, Pix?” I took her face gently in my h
ands and tilted it up. “Baby?”
“I want to go.” She rested her forehead on my chest. “Get me out of here, kid.”
I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and kept her against my side. We were almost to the door when her dad came out of his office. His eyes narrowed on my hand on Lo. So I kissed the top of her head for good measure. “What the fuck did you do to your daughter, Miller?”
“I just told her the truth. That look on her face has nothing to do with anything I did, and everything to do with you and your friends.”
I opened the door and made sure Lo was all the way out before I turned back around. “You’re fucking delusional if you believe that.” I pointed a finger in his face. “If you ever so much as make her frown again, I’ll break your jaw.” I didn’t wait for a response; instead I slammed the door in his face and all but carried Lo to the car.
Once we could no longer see her dad’s house in the rearview, I tried to get her to talk to me. “Harlow, baby, look at me.” I put a finger under her chin. “What the hell happened back there?”
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I need to ask you something. And no matter how mad it makes you, or how confused, I need you to be completely honest with me.”
“Okaaay.” She was terrifying me.
“Promise me, Luke.”
I took her hands in mine, turning to face her fully in the small space. “I promise, Pix.”
“When you were with other girls, have things ever gotten out of hand? Maybe you got too rough? Maybe they said they weren’t into it but, you went ahead and—”
I took my hands away from hers. “Are you serious right now?”
“Just tell me the truth, Luke. I am here. I am with you and I’m not going anywhere. I just need to know.”
I’d promised her I would be completely honest, that I would answer her. But fuck, her questions were like a punch to the gut. Hurting someone because of my vices was one of my biggest fears. It was why I trusted so few people with the knowledge of what I liked in bed.
“Of course not. I’d never…I don’t do that with every girl I meet. It takes trust, on both ends.” I loved it the way Lo gave it to me, it was the best I’d ever had. And I knew it was only like that because I cared about her, because she cared about me. Wait. Did she not like it, had I hurt her? My heart started to pound, “Did I hurt you, baby? Is that what this is about? I swear, Lo, I never meant to hurt you. We don’t have to do that anymore. Ever. I—”
“No. You’ve never hurt me, Luke.” She shook her head and appeared to be baffled. “It was my dad. He said…he said that two different girls claimed that you abused them during sex. They both got huge settlements out of the label.”
I jerked back like she’d just slapped me. “What?” I searched my mind, I went through the long index of the girls I could remember, the encounters I could recall. There was not one time where I’d even questioned myself, that I’d even suspected I’d hurt someone like that. “If that’s true, if your dad paid off anyone claiming I abused them, he paid for nothing.” I held her gaze. “I swear, it’s not true.” I kissed her lips, softly. I needed to feel her, make sure that she believed me, that she still wanted me. That had to be her dad’s end game, right? To rip us apart. “Is that why you were so upset, Pix? He’s just trying to make you leave me, that’s all. Your dad hates our band because we don’t bow down to him, he’ll get over—”
“That wasn’t all he told me, Luke.” She grabbed my phone out of my lap and forced it into my hand. “Get the group together, we need to talk.”
***
Twenty minutes later and the whole band was gathered once again in Dash and Lexi’s suite. Landry was in the bedroom with Louie, headphones on and plugged into her tablet with the door shut. Halen was lying on the bed in between Dylan and Lex. Lo made me text the guys only, let them know that her dad had dropped some bombs about each of them. She wanted it to be their choice if Lex, Dill, and B were in the room when she told them. It was unanimous, us against the world. After this meeting we’d only have a few hours to get ready for the gala honoring the label; they had been named New York’s business of the year. Since the Devil’s Share was their number one moneymaker and their biggest claim to fame, we were supposed to present the award. To Henry Miller. Fuck that noise.
“Okay, Lo, you’ve called your first family meeting. You have the floor.” Lexi was wearing a robe with her light brown hair dripping wet.
“As you all know, Luke and I had brunch with my father this morning.” Harlow had refused to tell me anything else on the car ride over. Said she wanted to repeat everything her dad told her out loud, once and only once. “What you don’t know is that my dad is Henry Miller.”
“What?” Smith leaned forward in his chair, shocked.
Dash scoffed. “Henry Miller? As in the owner of Riffraff Records?”
She nodded. “My mom’s favorite actress was Jean Harlow, and Mom’s favorite of her movies? Riffraff.”
From everything Lo said about her parents’ marriage, I was surprised that he’d named the label after something she loved. “I wouldn’t have thought he’d name his business after something like that.”
“The label started out as something my mom wanted to do. She’s the artist and she was the heart and the driving force behind Riffraff Records. The initial bands on the label were her finds.” She glanced down at Halen. “When I was born, my mom pulled back, wanting to spend more time with me. Instead of focusing on his new daughter, my dad poured all his time and effort into the company. He turned it into something mechanical, something my mom hated.”
“Does she still have any ownership?” She would have been crazy to let him buy her out on such as huge moneymaker.
“Yeah, she still holds a big chunk of stock in the label.” Lo wrinkled her nose. “She refused to let him buy her out, and he conceded because he knew she’d never want anything to do with something so ‘corporate.’”
Dylan furrowed her brow, confused. “Did you know the band was on your father’s label?”
“No. My dad and I aren’t close, and growing up I wanted nothing to do with his business or the so-called perks it afforded me. I knew who the Devil’s Share was, but to be completely honest, I’m more of a classic rock kind of girl. You know, music before my dad had a hand in it.” She held her hands out, palms up. “I swear I didn’t make the connection until my dad was standing right in front of us, looking irritated as hell.”
Jacks pouted from his spot on the floor. “Why is it that all of our chicks aren’t huge fans of our music? We saw Steven Tyler at lunch when we were in Nashville and Bryan almost fainted. When I first met her, she punched me when I tried to kiss her.”
I spoke up from my spot against the wall behind Lo. “There’s more.”
“There’s a lot more, actually.” She looked back at me before taking a fortifying breath. “My dad took me into his office to try to talk me out of dating Luke. He told me that I didn’t know you guys like he did, he said it was his fault, that he had created monsters.”
“These guys? Our guys? Monsters?” Lexi frowned as she looked across the room at Dash sitting in a club chair with Halen’s teddy bear in his crossed arms.
“Yeah, I know. I started to argue with him, I told him that it was obvious he didn’t know what he was talking about, but…” She let her words trail off; she blinked several times and gave her head a quick shake. “I can’t even believe I have to repeat all this.”
I stepped up next to her, wanting to help. “Her dad said two girls came to the label claiming I abused them; he told Lo that they settled out of court and paid the chicks six figures each.”
“What? That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.” Dylan’s eyes darted around the room. “I mean it’s a lie, right?”
“Of course it’s a lie. I have never hurt anyone, never pushed anyone past what they were willing to give. Either those girls lied and the label didn’t want to deal with the bad press a trial would bring,
or Lo’s dad is lying to make me look bad to her.” The anger nearly choked me. “It’s bullshit whichever way you slice it.”
“Wait. You’d never push anyone past…” Jacks gasped. “That’s what you’re into? Wow. I’m impressed, Lukey.” He winked at Lo. “Good for you, you edgy little fairy.”
Smith’s eyes were wide. “Damn, bro. I never thought you had it in you to—”
Lo put her forehead in her hands, groaning loudly. “Guys. Please. This all gets so much worse, so much sadder. For all of you.” She looked up, addressing the room. “Just let me get it all out before anyone speaks again, okay?” Everyone nodded and kept quiet. She clasped her hands in front of her mouth for a moment before continuing. “Smith, my dad made it sound like they are still giving money to your dad; this whole time the label has been paying Landry’s mom as well as your family.” She pointed her index fingers at Dash. “They had to pay for psychiatric care for several girls that you tossed aside, and he hinted that one of them says you molested her.” She took a shaky breath, her eyes filling with tears when she looked at Jacks. “A hospital stay for a stripper that OD’d on coke, and some girl’s abortion.”
Chapter Forty
Harlow
I hated that I’d caused this air of sadness and disbelief in the room. No one had spoken for several seconds. “I am so sorry. I hate that I… Shit, I’m just so sorry.” I leaned back against Luke when he pulled me against his front. “If it was just what he said about Luke, I’d assume he was lying, trying to keep us apart.” I blinked back the tears that had been threatening to fall for the last few minutes. “But the other stuff he said, the stuff he knew, he couldn’t make all that up.”
Smith stood up and started pacing. “So my murderer of an old man is still getting money? Fucking perfect.”
“I’ve never molested anyone.” Dash was running his fingers through his hair. “I’ve never even had to try to talk someone into banging me. Why would they pay these girls off? Why not just ask us? I would have rather gone to fucking court over and over, no matter the press. We were innocent of these things, right?” I’d never seen Dash out of sorts. Usually he seemed collected, so levelheaded. Now, confused and overwhelmed was written all over his face.
