Rock Steady

by Dawn Ryder

  His face was red, but she interrupted him before he got out his next argument.

  “That is such lame logic. You should be smart enough to realize Tia is just trying to clear me out of her way,” she said. “We need some space to cool off.”

  “Agreed.” Syon was suddenly there, along with the other members of Toxsin. Ramsey snorted, but realized he wasn’t going to win. In some corner of her mind, Jewel discovered herself admiring the way the members of the band came together to help one another. Taz and Syon were muscling Ramsey out of the room, while Drake offered her a key card and gently guided her down a different hallway.

  “I’m fine,” she informed him, and swallowed when she realized how sharp her tone was. “Really. Thanks for the key card. I’ll be fine.”

  Kate was hovering as well, considering her with a critical look before nodding. “Give me a ring if you don’t want to drink alone.”

  “Yeah.” Jewel slid the key card through the slot and pushed in the door. Inside the room, there was blissful privacy, but it rang with a silence that was nearly deafening.

  She sank down onto the bed, reeling from the way life had turned a full one-eighty on her in less than the space of a day. She was back to being on her own, and the reality of it was overwhelming.

  And too painful to face. She lay back as she lost her battle against her tears. They slid down the sides of her face as she felt the flames consuming the wreckage of her relationship with Ramsey.

  He didn’t trust her.

  Didn’t see her as anything but an ornament decorating his life.

  Maybe they could come back from the trust issue. It could be excused by the newness of their relationship.

  But she had to be her own person.

  Knew it and felt it burning in her gut so badly, there was no way she was going to abandon her art. She’d know she was a sellout, and someday Ramsey would see it too.

  Tia would end up calling things right.

  He’d leave her because she wasn’t his partner. Loving someone meant taking them the way they were. Not trying to change them. But true relationships needed to be balanced. She couldn’t be his poor, rescued, starving artist forever.

  Which sucked on an epic scale, because she loved him.

  * * *

  “Getting drunk isn’t the answer,” Taz said.

  Ramsey wiped his mouth on the back of his hand, an empty bottle already sitting on the table beside him. “Last time you saw Joi, it worked for you.”

  “The difference is, Joi refused to leave that restaurant with me,” Taz countered as Ramsey tipped the beer bottle back and drained it. “Jewel is here, and smart enough to know when to walk away and let both your tempers cool off.”

  “So…I’m chillin’.” Ramsey chucked the bottle in the direction of the trash can. “Get lost. I’m a big boy.”

  “You’re a big something,” Taz said without moving off the sofa. “But I’m staying. Team code. When one of us gets drunk, he gets a wingman.”

  Ramsey flopped back onto the floor, staring up at the ceiling as the alcohol numbed his brain. He shouldn’t have guzzled it. That was his last clear thought before it stole his wits, leaving him prey to the regrets his temper had shielded him from, and too intoxicated to physically do anything about it. Like get his ass down the hall and beg Jewel to forgive him.

  “I’m an asshole,” Ramsey informed the ceiling.

  “No argument.”

  “I need to tell Jewel,” he said as his words slurred.

  “When you sober up,” Taz replied.

  Ramsey rolled onto his side. “It was only a couple of beers.” But the room was spinning.

  “And two shots of rye,” Taz enlightened him. “Only place you’re going is to the throne room.”

  “I never puke.”

  But an hour later, he wished he had. The room spun, and his belly knotted from the poison he’d ingested. The thing that tormented him the most was the fact that he was helpless to remedy his actions while his system was dealing with the alcohol.

  “Tomorrow, I’m going on the wagon,” he informed Taz.

  “Told you, Jewel is good for you.”

  “Yeah,” he agreed. “Got…got to straighten up.” Ramsey turned onto his side and tried to fix his gaze on Taz. “Kick my ass…if I mess up?”

  Taz slowly smiled. “You got it.”

  “Thanks.”

  Jewel deserved better from him, and he was going to make sure she got it.

  * * *

  The phone in her room rang at two in the morning. Jewel woke with a start, fumbling for the receiver in the dark.

  “Hello?”

  “Ms. Ryan?” someone far less groggy asked on the other end of the line.

  “Yes.” She rubbed her eyes and squinted at the bedside clock. Yup, it was two in the morning.

  “This is the front desk. Could you come down to the lobby please?”

  “Huh?” she asked.

  “I am sorry, but there seems to be some concern over your well-being, and I would like to maintain the privacy of the top floor.” The manager sounded stressed beyond his limits. “There is someone here claiming to be your mother, and she is insisting on seeing you, or she intends to call the police to investigate the matter.”

  “My mom?” Jewel asked as her brain started to function. “I’ll be right down.”

  Jewel was suddenly wide-awake, the severed phone call clear in her mind. She was a rotten daughter for not making sure her mom wasn’t worried about her. She flipped on the light in the bathroom and wiped her face with a washcloth before dragging a brush through her hair a few times.

  She felt the tension the moment she got out of the elevator in the lobby. There were four members of hotel security standing near the front desk, clearly trying to keep someone there. There was a very familiar sounding “harrumph” before her mother pushed through them.

  “Mom, what are you doing here?” Jewel asked, even though she already knew the answer.

  Her mother stopped two paces in front of her and propped her hands on her hips as she scanned her from head to toe with a knowing eye. “Being your mother.”

  The security force was still standing in place, the manager wringing his hands. “We’re good,” Jewel said.

  The manager didn’t look appeased.

  “Don’t placate him,” her mother said. “He’s just worried his rock star guests will have a problem with me showing up to keep them from abusing my daughter.”

  “I’m not being abused,” Jewel insisted.

  “Well then, you can explain why someone cut off a call, and you didn’t answer when I called back.” Her mom was in full mother-hen form. “You know my feelings on oppressive relationships.”

  “Yeah…” Jewel reached out and hugged her mom. “I’m fine, and I’m so sorry I didn’t call you back. I fell asleep.”

  Her mother pegged her with a knowing look. “Fell asleep crying.”

  Jewel didn’t bother to lie. Her puffy eyes betrayed her anyway. Her mother suddenly abandoned her defensive mode in favor of being the compassionate shoulder Jewel desperately needed. “Come here and tell me what happened.”

  Jewel indulged in a long hug, but pushed away when tears flooded her eyes. “I can’t. Not just now. I need to sort out my feelings.”

  Her mother made a low sound under her breath. “Well then, are you coming home with me? No better place to think things through.”

  It was a good idea.

  And yet, it filled her eyes with fresh tears. Jewel blinked them away as she tried to get a grip on her emotions. Her mother made a low sound under her breath.

  “Come on,” her mother said in a firm yet understanding tone.

  Jewel let her mom take over. She knew she was being a coward, but the wounds on her heart were just too fresh for her to do anything but stumble through life. She didn’t want to see the suspicion on the band’s faces. Not on the men she’d come to think of as friends.

  But what she really wanted to e
scape from was Ramsey. She was being a chickenshit. Sure. She knew it, freely admitted it. The reason she followed her mother out of the hotel was that she just couldn’t lose what was left of herself. If she saw Ramsey, she’d fold, like she always did. He’d overwhelm her, and she’d talk herself into making it work. Every relationship called for compromises.

  It was that idea of compromise that had her sliding into the front passenger seat of her mom’s car and pulling on her seat belt.

  Ramsey deserved better.

  So did she.

  Sure, it might work for a while. While the sex was hot enough to overpower everything else. But the day would come when passion wasn’t enough, and they had to face each other as partners. That was when it would all crumble, because she hadn’t been strong enough to become her own person. Ramsey deserved that in a partner, and she wasn’t going to be the one to disappoint him.

  Even if it meant walking away.

  * * *

  He stank.

  Ramsey groaned and squinted at the morning light, and he was forced to notice just how much he reeked. Taz was punching the keys of his laptop as he scowled at an online game. His headphones might have led some people to think he wasn’t aware of what was going on around him, but Ramsey knew his bandmate better.

  And there was no way he was going to get so lucky as to escape having a witness to his stupidity.

  Ramsey climbed to his feet and went toward the bathroom. He flipped on the water and stripped out of his pants. The dragon tattoo sent a prick of pain through him, as well as remorse.

  He really needed to stop being a dick.

  As in, immediately.

  The water was still cold, but he walked beneath the showerhead and let it shock him. His brain was clearing, allowing him to think.

  And he had a lot to think about.

  Or in this case, plan.

  By the time he finished dealing with his stubble-covered chin, he was grinning. Jewel was about to discover just what happened when she got what she wished for.

  Because he was going to be the man she thought he was.

  * * *

  “Open it,” Ramsey hissed through his teeth.

  Brenton eyed him dubiously.

  “Are we rolling out of here in an hour?” Ramsey supported his demand with fact. His fist was still resting on the door to Jewel’s room. He hammered the wood again, but there was still no answer.

  “We are,” Brenton confirmed as he produced a master key card and slid it into the door. Ramsey took over, pushing the door in.

  “Jewel?”

  It took exactly sixty seconds to confirm she wasn’t in the room. His stomach dropped. The bed was messed up, but there wasn’t a single other sign of Jewel having been there.

  “Steven!”

  The bodyguard yanked his door open, wearing nothing but a pair of pants. He was looking at his phone. “She’s in the conference room. East corner.”

  Ramsey felt a flash of relief, followed by an intense twist of dread. His head might be splitting with a hangover, but his brain was working just fine. The memory of tossing her phone onto a chair was crystal clear and chilled his blood.

  “Shit!” he cursed as he found the phone. Steven was on his heels, buttoning a shirt.

  “Oh, crap,” the bodyguard agreed. He was in motion immediately, dialing the security center of the hotel.

  Ramsey swept the screen of the phone and used his own fingerprint to unlock the screen. Jewel was going to have something to say about him putting himself as second security protocol on her phone, but he didn’t care, so long as she said it to him. Profanity, anger, just something to prove he hadn’t screwed up so badly she was giving up on him.

  The ten calls from her mother were blinking, along with several text messages.

  “Her mother was here.”

  Ramsey and Steven spoke at the same time.

  “Oh, man, you hung up on her mother last night,” Taz said from the doorway.

  “And she left the phone in here when she needed to get away from me,” Ramsey finished.

  “The manager says her mom showed up around two, threatened to call the local cops if her daughter wasn’t allowed to leave,” Steven filled them in.

  “Why the fuck didn’t that manager call up here?” Ramsey demanded. It was a ridiculous demand; he recognized it the moment the words were out of his mouth.

  Brenton put on his game face, the one he used when he was trying to remind them all of the merits of professionalism.

  “I’ll meet you in Detroit,” Ramsey said as he started out of the room.

  “Now wait just a moment.” Brenton stepped into his path.

  “Clear out of my way, Brenton,” Ramsey warned him. “I am going after her, and when I get back, someone better have some answers from Sammy.”

  “Got your answers right here. It was bullshit,” Sammy said from the doorway. The music producer folded his sunglasses and slipped them into the pocket on the breast of his shirt. “Although, in my defense, if you’d filled me in on Tia, I wouldn’t have let her twist my balls last night while I had a couple of drinks in me. Caught the little bitch cackling about her victory this morning. Don’t leave my ass flapping in the breeze like that.”

  Ramsey grunted. “She was your groupie.”

  “Yeah, yeah, I’ve got to tighten up the guest list,” Sammy agreed.

  “The vultures made good use of the opportunity your girl Jewel offered them this morning when she left with her mom.”

  Ramsey pulled out his phone and checked it. The headlines were vicious.

  Romance Over for Tattoo Princess Jewel!

  Leaving in Mom’s Car, Jewel Is History!

  Toxsin Fans Rejoice, Ramsey Is a Free Man!

  “I’ll catch up with you in Detroit,” Ramsey repeated. Something prickled along his nape, and he realized it was fear. Stone-cold dread that he might have just fucked up worse than he ever had before.

  “The plane will be waiting for you,” Sammy said.

  Ramsey flashed him a look.

  “Don’t be so surprised,” Sammy said. “I might enjoy having a good party, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know a keeper when I see one.” He turned and grabbed something from the assistant hovering behind him. “Give her this, and tell her I’m open to negotiation.” He handed over a thick folder. “I sure as shit can’t stand by and let Quinn scoop her up without a fight. That bastard would never let me live it down.”

  Ramsey tucked the contract under his arm and headed out.

  It was action time.

  * * *

  “Mom?”

  Jewel was still rubbing her wet hair with a towel when she caught a glimpse of her mom hurrying from the front room to the kitchen.

  “Is something wrong?” Jewel dropped the towel when she realized her mom had grabbed a rolling pin from the kitchen and come back across the hallway, holding it like a club on her way toward the front door, with an expression that said she was going to war.

  “Nothing at all.” Her mom was clearly distracted by what was happening in the front yard. She was looking through the spy hole in the door.

  “I can’t remember the combination for the gun safe,” her father said as he came back into the living room.

  “What is going on?” Jewel asked again, but both her parents turned bright smiles toward her.

  “Nothing to worry about.”

  “Everything is fine.”

  Which sent Jewel’s heart racing. She marched across the room and grabbed the curtain pulled across the window. She’d moved it only a few inches when the flashes started. Jewel recoiled instantly, releasing the fabric. It swished back into place, earning a muffled cry of dismay from the paparazzi camped outside.

  Oh…shit…

  Of course the hyenas were there to feast on the carcass of her crashed and burned relationship with Ramsey.

  “I remember,” her father announced before he headed back into the bedroom and the gun safe.

  “Oh God,” Jewe
l moaned, “I shouldn’t have come here.”

  “Nonsense.” Her father was back with his service pistol from the seventies. “This is your home. No better place for you.” He held the gun up and checked it before pushing the loaded clip into it. “It’s those squatters who need to clear out. Don’t you worry none, Daddy’s got this.”

  Her father started toward the door with a determined look on his face. Jewel slid between him and the door. “Dad, you can’t just go out there and start waving a gun around.”

  “Watch me,” he declared firmly. “I didn’t break my back earning the money for this plot of land to see anyone trespassing on it or threatening my daughter in the house where I raised her.”

  There was a rise of noise from outside. Jewel looked at the curtain, suspecting it had shifted. It hadn’t. The window was still covered, but there was a definite commotion taking place outside.

  “Better dial the emergency services, Patti,” her father warned. “Sounds like things are heating up.”

  “Dad.” Jewel flattened herself against the door. Her father had the gun tucked into his belt as he leveled a firm look at her.

  Someone pounded on the door before her father got the chance to argue with her.

  “They’re bold,” her mother said.

  “Good,” her father replied. “I prefer a straight fight any day.”

  He gripped her shoulder and pushed her away from the door. She could have dug in, but respect for her father made her give way. She mentally cringed as she watched her father turn the dead bolt, fairly certain her nest egg from signing over rights to the dragon was about to become jail-bond money.

  Her dad pulled open the door, and the paparazzi surged to life. But her tongue was frozen to the roof of her mouth as the open door revealed Ramsey. He stood there on her parents’ front porch, looking like a Ferrari parked outside of a fast-food restaurant. The reporters behind him filled the air with flashes from their cameras, making him look like he was sparkling. Pain knifed through her, but so did a protective urge. The paparazzi were pushing forward, acting like a hungry pack of vultures.

  “Are you here for Jewel?”

  “Did you run away, Jewel?”

  “Why were you crying last night, Jewel?”