She looked away before her eyes met his again. “I love your drive, your tenacity to act on what you want. I love your fearlessness; that love and lust for life that has given mine a whole new meaning. I love that you’re kinky yet straight-laced, tattoo covered but not a douchebag that was just released from prison. Most of all, I love how you give anything and anyone you care about your all. You play bass the same way you love and that is with quiet passion and a desire for perfection. It will never be achieved but that doesn’t mean you ever give up trying, and, to me, it’s not only beautiful, it’s fucking poetry.”
He touched her bottom lip with his thumb and she suckled on it before he laid her on her back and kissed her ever so gently on those perfect, pink lips.
“Goodnight, my gorgeous wife.”
“Goodnight, my drop-dead sexy husband.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
I WILL ALWAYS remember that day because, yet again, my life changed.
I should have been used to change by now. It was the only constant.
Since I’d married Linx, I’d moved from Talia’s house to his and brought my wardrobe and Ford Edge with me. I also had my two trusty bodyguards who Linx now paid to watch over me.
Being married to a rock star, regardless that he was “just the bassist” for Winter’s Regret was hard. My dress size, hair, clothes, shoes and over-all attitude were constantly judged by strangers online, the tabloids and the mainstream press.
The first time I saw a picture of myself picking up groceries from Whole Foods in Society Magazine, I almost fell off the sofa.
Funny, how the media couldn’t find out anything about me.
Since I had not agreed to enter Witsec with my family, every general item on me, from my birth certificate to my Driver’s License picture was classified. I barely managed to order a copy of our marriage certificate before that, too, became classified.
Somehow, my age changed in the media from eighteen to twenty-one, and no one, not even Pine Bluff residents, could share anything about Trista Lennon-Carter. No one had any photographs of me in high school and no one knew when I graduated or when I’d left Pine Bluff.
I knew that only the Federal government could insert that kind of control, and it was scary and liberating at the same time.
Linx came home one afternoon and he held a stack of mail, including an oversized, certified letter he had to pick up at the post office.
I looked at the manila envelope. “What’s this?”
“It’s for you.”
He walked into the kitchen and grabbed two Heinekens as I opened the document with shaky hands. I pulled everything out and gasped at what was before me.
There was a note attached.
Trista,
You are still my daughter and I love you. Here are the new documents you and Linx will need. You are officially Trista Carter. Your birthdate is December 1, 1993. You graduated from Lake Tahoe Academy and attended Stanford for two years before you dropped out to become a personal assistant to your rock star cousin. You are married to Lennon “Linx” Carter and you and Linx share joint custody with Jimi and Brady Carter’s mother, Cassidy Monroe, née Carter.
All documents are included. You will also find a new birth certificate, marriage certificate, and two passports: one American and one Irish. If you two ever need to run, there is information listing a safety deposit box and cash in euros, dollars and pounds, stored at the Grand Cayman Bank on the main island in the Caymans.
You will also find a disposable, untraceable cell phone. Do NOT use it unless it is an emergency. We never know who could be watching. Love you, and no matter whether your mother or I agree with your decision, we are proud we raised a strong-willed and intelligent daughter who can make up her own mind.
With Love,
Dad
I handed the note to Linx and he read it quickly before he gathered all the documentation and slipped it back into the manila envelope.
“I’m taking this up to the bedroom safe; it shouldn’t be anywhere in plain sight.”
“Did you have anything at all to do with this?”
I gazed at him for a long time and although he held the envelope, he didn’t look away.
“No. How could I? I haven’t a clue where your parents are, so how could I contact them?”
He smirked before he turned around and walked up the stairs.
I smiled back and shook my head.
Linx had the where-with-all and foreknowledge to contact my parents to let them know I’d made my decision and decided to stay by his side. They had reacted quickly and shut down all information about me. Even if someone were to do a Google search, there was nothing about me. My Facebook account had been shut down as had my Twitter and Goodreads accounts.
All the books I read, and friendships I had from the past, ceased to exist. I created other accounts, but many of the people on my list who were following me were obviously aliases on Twitter—half the “friends” on Facebook I didn’t know, and my Goodreads account all the sudden filled with books I’d never read like every modern, “Mommy Porn” book that had come out in the past several years. I also seemed to like sappy NA love stories and older YA books. My favorite authors were Nyrae Dawn, M. Leighton and Michelle Muto. I’d vaguely heard of them, but quickly bought every e-book each of them had ever written and devoured them in several days. The only indie writer I’d followed religiously wrote too-true-to-life books about motorcycle clubs and had a post-apocalyptic series.
Everything in my life became unreal and faker than the city I lived in, but I embraced my new “self” because underneath it all, I had Linx and he kept me grounded to real life.
What we shared when we were together wasn’t the least bit fraudulent.
Every time my husband made love to me was real.
When the boys came over and we horsed around until they were exhausted and fell asleep after a quick read from our Dr. Seuss collection, was very much part of my new reality.
I was so deep in thought, I didn’t hear my phone ring until it was almost too late. I dug it out of my Birkin bag and answered, “Hello?”
“You can hide behind your walls, but you can’t hide forever,” a female voice with a strong Northern Irish accent replied in a sly manner.
“May I ask who the hell this is?”
“No you may not, Missus Carter. Your brother seems to have gotten himself into a wee bit of trouble, but I hear you know the codes to his bank accounts, aye?”
“Don’t you tell these mick bastards a goddamn thing!” I heard Trey yell in the background.
“You’re mistaken.” My heart began to pound and I put the caller on speaker phone as Linx walked over and held me in his arms.
“Ah, such a shame. You might have been able to save his life. With nothing to keep him around for, you just ended it.”
Trey screamed and the sound of a gun shot rang out.
The phone clicked and I knew the person on the other line had ended the call.
I turned around and embraced Linx as the tears inevitably fell from my eyes.
“Shh, we don’t know he’s dead. They do shit like this all the time over there. Who the hell did he piss off now?”
“Yeah, but we don’t know that he isn’t dead either, Linx. I don’t know even know who that was on the phone.”
He grabbed me by the arms and pulled me away. I had to look at him and into his gorgeous blue eyes.
“Listen, we have a two week vacation until we start recording again. Talia is exhausted and Dominic has sanctioned it. There is only one way we can find out whether or not your brother is truly dead and warn him about the hornet’s nest he has created here.”
I kissed Linx quickly. “How? What can we do?”
“We buy tickets to the UK and then catch the ferry over to Ireland. We can pick one up in Liverpool.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
Linx smirked in that smart-aleck, asshole way that made me want to kick him in the balls and f
uck him at the same time. “Do I sound like I’m joking?”
“No, you sound as serious as a heart attack,” I replied before I rested my head on his chest again.
“You don’t have to be afraid, but that Irish bitch who just rudely interrupted our lives should be.”
His tone was somewhat light-hearted, but underneath it was real—hard ice in his voice and that frightened me more than his words.
“When do we leave?”
“Tomorrow. I’ll go book our tickets.”
I watched him walk up stairs and I paced for a bit before the stifling room got the better of me and I walked outside into the back yard.
This was real.
The fear.
My life had become everything I’d run from since leaving Pine Bluff, and no matter how hard I tried to escape, there was never a way to get out from under all the corruption and the crime, the stench of rot from the criminal underworld.
I sipped from my Heineken and waited until Linx joined me again.
This was it.
I had to grow up and put on my big girl panties now. Playtime was over and I couldn’t just cry my way out of this or take a Xanax and bury my head underneath the pillow and pretend none of this existed.
I turned toward Linx and knew my blue eyes were hard in an otherwise soft and pleasant face.
“It’s done. We leave tomorrow afternoon and the bodyguards come with us.”
I nodded. “Okay. Sounds like a plan. I love you for doing this.”
Linx walked up to me and kissed my lips. His lingered longer than necessary before he added tongue and I swirled mine gently with his until we separated. “I love you too but seriously, what other option do we have?”
My brother was alive, I could feel it in my bones and I would bring him back from Belfast.
Whatever didn’t kill me would make me stronger, right?
At least according to Kanye, but as far as I was concerned, whatever and who ever fucked with my family made me one cold hearted bitch.
This one incident had sealed my fate and Linx’s too because he was married to me.
We were both officially in over our heads, in too deep, and involved with the same shit my parents had tried to save me from because it was war, whether I wanted to think of it in those terms or not. We all had to choose a side to fight for and know the enemies we were up against. Not everyone would make it out alive, but if I could live through this, I knew deep down in my heart I could survive anything.
Including the paparazzi and marriage to a rock star.
Trista and Linx’s story concludes with
In Too Deep
The Lovers Duet
Premieres September of 2013
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Selene Chardou is a world traveler and the alter-ego of Elle Chardou.
Ms. Chardou’s writing is all about hot romance and exciting times with the wild, damaged, out of control and/or rich and famous set in the New Adult realm.
She is currently working on Rock My Heart, the first novel in the Scarlet Fever Series, which will conclude the relationship between Kasper “Kaz” Gillian and Sydney Landvik, and In Too Deep, the conclusion to The Lovers Duet. She also has a pop stars series planned and an MC series planned that chronicles the issues between Lucifer’s Saints and Demon’s Bastards motorcycle clubs.
Ms. Chardou has lived abroad in Stockholm (Sweden), Manchester (England), Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area and Portland. She currently resides in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Contact & Resources
Blog: The Realm of Selene Chardou
Goodreads: Selene Chardou Author Page
Join Selene. Chardou’s Mailing List for early notification of New Books HERE!
Follow Selene Chardou on Twitter
Like Selene Chardou on Facebook
If you would like to email Selene Chardou, she can be reached at: [email protected]
Published & Upcoming Books by Selene Chardou
One More Night Trilogy (New Adult/Contemporary Romance/Women’s Literature)
Falling Into Lust
Falling Into Us
Falling Into Love (June/July 2013)
The Lovers Duet (New Adult/Romantic Mystery & Suspense/Contemporary Romance)
Out From Under
In Too Deep (September, 2013)
Scarlet Fever Series (New Adult/Contemporary Romance/Women’s Literature)
The Will to Love (August, 2013)
Lust & Faith (October, 2013)
Grant’s Muse (December, 2013)
Rock My Heart (February, 2014)
The Rough Riders Series (New Adult / Romantic Suspense/Contemporary Romance)
Deadly Seduction (Gisela Jackson & Cillian “The Killer” Cox’s story) [December of 2013]
Dangerous Temptations (Maeve “Misty” Cox and Evan “Babe” Hughes story) [To Be Announced]
Deadly Embrace (Jillian Hughes and Quinn “Tech” Cox’s story) [To Be Announced]
Dangerous Attraction (Geri Connery and Ronan “Puck” Cox’s story) [To Be Announced]
Young, Rich & Talented Trilogy (New Adult/Contemporary Romance/Women’s Literature)
Rock Me Out (Chyna Bleu’s story, To Be Announced)
Rock Me Sideways (Damian Phillip’s story, To Be Announced)
Rock Me In (Ava Martin’s story, To Be Announced)
Novels & Novellas by Elle Chardou
The Ties That Bind Trilogy (Contemporary Romance / Romantic Suspense with erotic and BDSM elements)
Killing Time
Killing Heartache: A Novelette (Book 1.5)
Killing Time (The Bonus Collection)
Killing Desire
Killing Me Softly
The Ties That Bind Omnibus Collection
Seasons of Love & Lust (Contemporary Romance / Contemporary Women/ New Adult)
A Summer to Remember
Falling for Autumn (November, 2013)
Winter’s Regret (January, 2014)
Spring Fling (March, 2014)
Exploitation of Love Series (Contemporary Romance / Contemporary Women)
Reckless Behavior: A Prequel Novella (September, 2013)
Indecent Behavior, A Novel (October, 2013)
Undertow Trilogy (Contemporary Romance / Contemporary Women / New Adult)
Undertow
Falling Under (Coming Autumn/Winter of 2013)
Drowning in You (Monika & Dylan’s story, Coming Winter of 2014)
The Atonement Series (Contemporary Romance / Contemporary Women)
Atonement, A Novel
Only Love
Only Time (Caitlyn & Liam’s Story, To Be Announced)
Only You (Drew & Aubrey’s Story, To Be Announced)
Crazy in Love (To Be Announced)
The Vamp Saga (Paranormal Romance / Urban Fantasy)
Mortal Death: Book I
Immortal Lair: A Novella (A Prequel to Death Wish)
Better Off Immortal: Book II
Queen of the Immortals: Book III
Immortal Dawn (Autumn/Winter, 2013)
The Vamp Saga Omnibus Collection (Re-issue To Be Announced)
The Hart Family Saga (Paranormal Romance / Urban Fantasy)
Hart Attack
Troubled Hart: A Novella (Book 1.5) [To Be Announced]
Change of Hart (To Be Announced)
Superstar Marriages Novella Series (Contemporary Romance)
Lara & the City of Angels
Jenna & the City of Light (To Be Announced)
The Supernaturals Novella Series (Paranormal Romance / Urban Fantasy)
Darkness Rising
The Dawn of Darkness
The Supernaturals Collection No. 1
Darkness Awakened
The Cloak of Darkness
The Theft of Darkness
Cling to Darkness (To Be Announced)
The Plague (Dystopian Romance / Horror)
The Beginning: Book I
Apocalypse 2013: Book II (To Be Announced)
/> Table of Contents
Begin Reading
Table of Contents
Dedication
Out From Under Playlist
Part One – Before
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Part Two – After
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
Chapter Twenty-Three
About the Author
Contacts & Resources
Published & Upcoming Novels
Out From Under Page 20
