He threw her backward and she hit her head on the end table. For a second the whole world wavered.
“Goddamn you,” Frankie snarled. He took a step forward, but when she cringed, he retreated. “You need to get out right fucking now.”
“Frankie, it’s one o’clock in the morning. Where am I supposed to go?”
“You think I care? Get the fuck out.”
Candy scrambled to her feet, grabbing for her clothes. She dressed in the foyer and grabbed her purse. Her phone was in the front pocket. She scrolled through her contacts with trembling fingers until she found the one she needed. “Ronnie?”
“What’s the matter, babe?” Of course Ronnie would be wide awake and alone at this hour.
“I—Frankie and I had a fight. Can I come to your place?”
“Of course. You coming now?”
“Yes.”
“Are you okay to drive? You sound pretty shaken up. I can send someone to get you.”
Candy dropped her keys trying to unlock her car. “No, I’m fine to drive. I’ll be there in a little while.” She hung up and dropped her phone in the cup holder. As she slid into the driver’s seat, she glanced back at the door. No Frankie beckoning her back. She’d always known he was temporary, but he had been good in bed when he wasn’t trying to mark his territory and he needed her too much to screw up. Frankie wasn’t the best decision she’d ever made, but she’d never intended to hurt him. He’d probably be on the phone begging her to come back as soon as he cooled off. He was nothing without her.
The drive to Ronnie’s house seemed to take an eternity. Her stomach was grinding on itself in time to the pounding in her head. Jorge was swinging the gates open as she turned into the driveway. When she drove up to the house, Ronnie was standing outside barefoot. He pulled her out of the car.
“Candy, my God, what happened? You’re bleeding.” He lifted her hair to look and the sharp pain made her gasp. “Did he hit you?”
“I fell into the end table.” Candy shuddered. Frankie had a tough image, she’d put it together herself, but his sudden violence had been a surprise. She’d always thought he was more the type to storm away instead of lashing out.
That he was more like Tyler.
“You fell.” Ronnie narrowed his eyes.
“I know how it sounds. Please, I don’t want to talk about it.”
“You need to see a doctor.”
Candy shook her head and the world swam around her.
“I’ll call someone. She can come out tonight. You need to be looked at. You might have a concussion.” Ronnie glared at her. He wasn’t going to accept anything short of total acquiescence.
“Doesn’t matter. I won’t sleep tonight anyway.” Candy followed him into the house. The decorating bore the heavy stamp of Tanya, lush and spartan at the same time. “Where’s your current woman?”
“I’m between right now, so there’s no one to get in the way of this father-daughter chat we need to have about you and the men you choose.”
“You’re not my father.”
“Convince the press of that. They’re still looking for records.” Ronnie picked up the phone and the person who answered also sounded wide-awake even though it was now approaching two AM.
Candy touched the back of her head and her fingers came away sticky. Her head did throb and she had hit it pretty hard. Everything burned, ached, and shook. If Tyler ever found out Frankie had grabbed her the way he had, he’d murder him.
“Alright, the doctor is on her way to take a look at you. Now, are you going to tell me what really happened or are you going to let me make it up on my own? I have a plentiful imagination, you know.” He sat down on the couch and patted the seat beside him. “Come on now.”
“I don’t want to get blood on the couch.”
“I can have it cleaned.” He waved her over.
Candy sat down next to him and leaned her head on his shoulder. The comfort of the lean canceled out the pain of the motion. “It was nothing. We got into a fight. It got rough. I left.”
“How rough?”
“Rough enough that I fell into an end table.”
Ronnie pulled up the sleeve of her shirt. “Rough enough that you’ve got red marks on your arm about the size and shape of a man’s hand.”
Candy pulled her sleeve down. “Please, let’s drop it, okay?”
“You should press charges.”
“I don’t want to press charges.”
“And how are you going to feel when he hurts the next girl? The one who doesn’t have anywhere to run or won’t because she thinks he loves her.”
“Ronnie, please. It won’t happen like this with anyone else. No one can hurt him like I did.”
“That doesn’t excuse it.”
“I know, but I can’t deal with it right now. Believe me when I tell you nobody could bring violence out of him the way I did. He was always careful with me. He—tonight—it was a really bad fight.”
Ronnie nodded. “Tanya will want to rip his balls off.”
“I’m sure, but I’d rather avoid that. He wouldn’t be a very popular soprano.”
“I’m pretty sure Tyler will have something to say about it, too.”
“Please, please don’t tell him.” Tears welled up in her eyes. Tyler would want to know what happened in excruciating detail and having to admit it would be like having her skin flayed off. She didn’t need him knowing how much she missed him and how much she still wanted him. “Please Ronnie, promise me.”
The bell rang.
“Saved by the bell.” Ronnie stood up and got the door.
Candy closed her eyes. No one could have hurt Frankie the way she had. She’d never called anyone that before. Why tonight? Why ever? How could she have?
* * * *
Tyler leaned back in the booth not sure if he wished he were anywhere but here or was really fucking glad to witness this firsthand.
Marc had called about two hours ago saying he was at the Whisky with Trent and Gian from SendDown, where they met up with Frankie, who was a complete mess because he and Candy had broken up. Marc hadn’t been able to figure out who broke up with who, but it hadn’t been a mutual decision. Frankie kept saying he threw her out, but considering how deep he was in the bottle, Marc doubted it.
So Tyler had come out to watch the circus.
Trent, who had always had aspirations toward Candy, kept feeding Frankie drinks and pumping him for information, most of which Tyler didn’t want to hear. He already knew what a great lover she was and how wonderful she was. He didn’t need the blow by blow from her most recent wreckage.
Ronnie Bauer walked in and automatically he and Marc straightened up. Gian went rigid. Trent tried to act as if he wasn’t impressed, and failed.
“Hello, boys.” Ronnie glanced around the table. “Frankie, can I have a moment?”
Frankie blinked at him blearily. He pushed himself to his feet and followed Ronnie a few feet away where he leaned in to listen to Ronnie talk, his face getting whiter and whiter by the second. At one point he asked something and Ronnie gave his head a decisive shake.
“What’s going on?” Gian asked.
“Bauer thinks of Candy like a daughter. Looks like he doesn’t like the way it went down. I bet Frankie is telling the truth when he says he threw her out and she went straight to Ronnie.”
Not like she’d come to his house. Tyler leaned forward to watch.
The faint smile had never left Ronnie’s mouth and never reached his eyes. Frankie’s face faded from white to gray.
“Whatever he’s saying, it must be good.” Marc leaned across the table and moved his lips as if he was trying to copy Ronnie’s.
“If my daughter shows up on my doorstep late at night after breaking up with her boyfriend, I’m probably not going to be friendly either.” Tyler took a deep draft of his beer. What could have happened that would bring Bauer down here like this? He wasn’t here to
have a quiet drink with his not-daughter’s most recent ex. The whole vibe felt less like family business and more like mafia business. Bauer had always been more of a friendly uncle than the Godfather had, but the way he looked tonight was different. Menacing. What had Frankie done to bring out Bauer’s dark side? Tyler didn’t like where his imagination was going. Not with Candy in the picture.
Ronnie took a step back from Frankie and nodded sharply. Tyler was pretty sure he read lips well enough to pick up a “got it?” before Ronnie turned away.
Tyler shoved away from the table intent on chasing down Ronnie. If nothing else, he needed to know Candy was okay. As he rushed past, Frankie was puking on the floor.
“Ronnie! Ronnie, wait!”
Ronnie stopped and turned around, smiling with his whole expression.
Tyler felt a bit like a favored son. “What was that all about?” he asked.
“Candy was in a state when she got to my house last night and she hasn’t been herself all day. I wanted to have a chat with Frankie about it, just to put him straight.”
“Is she all right?”
“She’ll be fine.”
“What happened?”
Ronnie put a hand on his shoulder. “I promised her I wouldn’t say, but I wanted to make sure nothing like it ever happens again. Candy is fine, but she’s selling the house she was living with him in. She’ll be at my house until she decides to find a place of her own again if you’d like to come over. I think it would be good for her to see you.”
Good for her to see him? “Why?”
Ronnie shook his head. “She’s upset. Might be good for her to know you still care about her.”
Tyler blanched. Was he that obvious?
Ronnie laughed. “You think I’m blind? I see the way you look at her and I had a one true love once. Give her a call tomorrow and see if she’s up for a visit. But do me a favor and don’t tell her I was here tonight.”
“Sure.”
“See you later.”
Tyler stared after Ronnie. He hadn’t stayed for a drink. Just long enough to traumatize Frankie and invite Tyler to his house to check on Candy. When Tyler returned to the table, Frankie was gone. “Where’d he go?”
Trent laughed. “Ronnie Bauer told Frankie he was going to wreck his fucking life if he didn’t stay away from Candy. If anything happens that he doesn’t like, Frankie’s going to be flipping burgers for the rest of his life. I didn’t know the old man had balls like that.”
“He doesn’t need balls.” Marc stared meaningfully at Tyler. “He’s got power.”
* * * *
Candy’s head still throbbed though the doctor didn’t think it was a concussion. Her arm hurt too, but no worse than her heart. She had liked Frankie and had never wanted to hurt him. If she’d accidentally called him Brian, he’d have laughed it off, but to call him Tyler? She answered her phone without looking.
“Hi Candy.”
Speak of the devil. “Yes, Tyler.”
“I heard what happened. Are you okay?”
Candy gritted her teeth, which made her head hurt worse. “I’m fine.”
“Are you sure? How about I come to see?”
“How did you even find out?”
“Marc was down at the Whisky last night and ran into Frankie drowning his sorrows.”
“Small world.” Poor Frankie. If he was only one of her clients, she’d have recommended he do more public sorrow drowning because it played into his image, but personally she hated the fact that she’d been the cause of it.
“Candy.”
“Listen, I’m fine. I’m fine. Everything is just dandy.” Candy leaned back from the computer.
Ronnie was noodling on the piano in the other room. He was supposed to be in the studio, but he’d cancelled to stay around the house with her. He’d gone out for a bit last night, but hadn’t been gone long and she suspected he’d been smoking because he came back smelling of cigarettes. Old habits died hard.
Ricky was flying in from London and Tanya would be coming from Milan as soon as she could get away. As much as they weren’t her family, they were her family.
“I’d feel better to see for myself.” Tyler folded his arms. Speaking of family. If Tyler and Marc had been at the Whisky, all of them knew, too. Sandy was going to be on the phone soon enough. He would require a visit, too. It was like calling hours at an extremely exclusive funeral home. Ronnie Bauer’s Heartbreak Home specializing in months-long calling hours for an exclusive few.
“I’m staying with Ronnie. I couldn’t be safer at the White House.”
“I figured.”
“Why would you figure that?” Why would he make the leap that she was staying with Ronnie? It was just as likely that she went to a hotel or to one of her other friend’s.
“I…assumed. I mean, if I had an open invitation to stay with Ronnie Bauer, that’s where I’d go. Right?”
He was still the worst liar in the world. “You’re busy. You don’t have to take time out of your day to come here to check on me.”
“Until we start rehearsal, I have the time.”
He was also relentless. All she had to do was keep it together for a couple of hours. “Fine. You know the way to Ronnie’s. I have a couple of meetings this afternoon and one tomorrow morning.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon then.”
Good, twenty-four more hours for the bruises to fade and the headache to go away. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
* * * *
Candy opened the door and spread her arms. “See. Perfectly fine.”
“Don’t be a bitch, Candy. I was worried about you.”
“You and everybody else. I’ve been on the phone nonstop.”
“Word got around. Frankie was pretty broken up the other night. And last night, from what I hear. Possibly into this morning if Trent can be trusted.”
“I thought you said Marc ran into Frankie.” Candy folded her arms. The sleeve of her shirt tightened around her bruised arm. It had become a beautiful array of purples.
Tyler shuffled. “He did. Then he called me and I went out to join them. Trent and Gian were there too.”
“Why, so you could adjourn the first meeting of the We Hate Candy fan club?”
“Nobody hates you, Candy.”
“Why don’t we go out back and have a drink?” Candy led him to the patio where Ronnie was fiddling on his computer.
“Hey, you’re here. Drink?” He put aside the computer. “Candy, Coke?”
“Thank you.”
“Tyler?”
“Gin and tonic if you’ve got it.”
Ronnie headed for the bar as Candy hung back for a moment. Tyler looked good. Tanned and comfortable. Frankie had always been nervous around Ronnie. “The album is doing well,” Ronnie said from the bar. “Nice change after that last one.”
“Tell me about it. I thought the magic was gone and I was going to have to go back to construction work.” Tyler sat down.
Candy laughed. Construction work. With multi-platinum albums behind them and Sandy watching their money all these years, any of the guys in Touchstone could quit and do whatever the hell they wanted.
“Nah, you keep making music whether it sells or not. Eventually the public will catch up.”
“Are you on your third or fourth panned album?”
“Third, but who’s counting, you young whippersnapper?”
Candy stretched her shoulders and her sleeves slipped up her arms. She really needed to look for her own place to live. She couldn’t freeload off Ronnie forever, but the thought of being alone creeped her out a little. It was nice to sit around and have normal conversations with friends.
“What the fuck is that?” Tyler demanded. He reached for her elbow, turning her arm to inspect the bruise. “Frankie do it?”
Or not. “Tyler drop it.” She tried to twist her arm away from him but couldn’t escape. He wasn’t using any pressur
e, but he had her firmly caught.
“I’m not going to drop it. What else did he do to you? I’m going to break his fucking neck.”
“I left. Isn’t that enough for the two of you? He was never violent before.”
“Really? Because you have a history of forgiving assholes.”
“Says the ex.”
Tyler flushed. “I was talking about your dad.”
“Your dad?” Ronnie demanded. “The dad we buried?”
“You were at the funeral?” Tyler asked. “You didn’t have time to get in touch with me, but you could call him?”
Ronnie ignored him. “Candy, what’s this about your dad? Did he beat you or something?”
“It was a long time ago.” Candy slouched into a chair forcing Tyler to release her.
“Ronnie said it was bad, but Candy—”
“Ronnie said?” Candy straightened. None of the pieces of this puzzle fit together as they were telling her it did. “What do you mean Ronnie said?”
Ronnie jerked. “I picked up the phone when he called yesterday.”
But at the same time Tyler said, “The night before last.”
“The night before last? What happened the night before last?” She glared at Ronnie. “I told you to stay out of it.”
“No, you told me not to tell him.” Ronnie pointed at Tyler.
“So you went and talked to Frankie in front of him instead?”
Ronnie leaned on the table scowling. “You called me at quarter after one crying and saying you needed someplace to go. You turned up at my door half an hour later bleeding.”
“Bleeding?” Tyler asked. “What do you mean bleeding?”
“You can’t expect me to do nothing.” Ronnie continued as if Tyler hadn’t spoken. “Nobody does something like that to one of mine and gets away with it. Nobody does that to a little girl and gets away with it where I can stop it.”
“What did you do?” Candy stood, leaning into his face. “What did you do to Frankie?”
“What do you mean, bleeding?” Tyler stood too. “Candy.”
“Nothing. Yet. You said you wouldn’t press charges so I made other plans.”
“What other plans?” Candy shouted.
“I told him if he ever touched you again or if I ever heard he’d raised a hand to another woman, I would ruin him.”
Keep Coming Back to Love Page 13
