Hard Rock Unrehearsed

by Van Dalen, Rene

  “You were all fucking clueless, you still are! Maya Ortega is a self-serving little slut who will use whatever she can to get Diego and that includes threatening to commit suicide if she doesn’t get what she wants. If she’s so all fired up to end it why don’t you just let her? Tell her to go for it and then see how quickly she changes her tune.” Jade took a deep breath continuing before Luis could interrupt. “When you get to the edge and you start sliding over, you don’t threaten and you don’t warn anyone, you just do it. Ask me, I know that for a fact.”

  “Baby.” Diego’s voice was raw as he spoke and Jade noticed for the first time that he had moved right into the lounge and was standing behind his father’s chair, his hands no longer in his pockets but clenched into fists at his sides. “I sat in that fuckin’ hotel room all night worrying about you but I couldn’t leave. Maya is like a little sister to me and I had to take care of her.”

  “Well Diego, you and Luis are, as of last night, free to take care of her, to run to her every time she threatens suicide when she doesn’t get what she wants. You are both fired effective immediately. Tag and Steele will take over my security so no worries and right now I don’t need management so I have time to get that sorted out.”

  “Baby don’t!” Diego said softly, there was pain in his eyes but Jade forced herself to ignore it.

  Not so Luis. “I never knew you were so selfish Jade, I never would have expected it from you. If you went through what Maya is suffering you should be offering your help, not turning your back.” He snapped out coldly which made Rick jerk up on the couch but he subsided as he looked up at Diego.

  And right there Jade had enough. “I didn’t realise that it was selfish to want the man who a few hours earlier professed his undying love to you, to choose you when asked to choose. To want a man who wouldn’t cave when his father uses emotional blackmail to put him in an untenable position and get him to do what he wants. To want a man who would care enough to call to let you know where the hell he was.” Leaning forward she snarled softly at Luis. “Don’t think I don’t know why Carina left you, Val told me everything, and when I say everything I mean everything. I sympathised with you then but I see now that I was wrong, horribly wrong. She did what she had to do as she had no other fucking option left to her. Just as I don't.”

  Luis’s mouth dropped open as he jerked back in the armchair. The anger and everything associated with it suddenly dropped from her as she looked at the man who she had seen as a second father to her and sadness enveloped her.

  Pushing up out of the chair she spoke softly. “I love you Diego but I will be damned if I will stand back and let some slut who you consider to be your little sister fuck up my life, it’s been done to me one time too many. I’d rather walk away. It hurts like hell but I will get over you and I will carry on with my life. I will carry on and build a career and someday I will find someone who will love me enough to take on the world for me. Someone who will put me first every single time regardless of the cost.”

  With that she tried to walk past Diego but he stepped in front of her.

  “What if you’re pregnant baby?” He asked softly.

  You could have heard a pin drop it was suddenly so quiet.

  “If I’m pregnant, and that’s a big fucking if, I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. I have a great support system, having a baby wouldn’t be that big of a deal.” Looking up at him hurt her heart and she tried again to move around him again.

  Diego suddenly snatched her tight against him holding her so tight she couldn’t get away from him.

  “I don’t give a shit about your support system and I will kill anyone who dares to lay a hand on you. You are mine and I’m never going to let you go. I warned you baby, I told you I’m possessive.” He grated in a rough voice.

  “Yes, and you also promised me that you would never hurt me and that you would never make me feel the way Val did. Epic fail.” His body jerked against hers as it hit home. “You promised me you would never let it happen again and that you would never disrespect me like that again. What do you think what you did last night was? To add insult to injury you did it in front of the media! When not even two hours before I told them we were together! There are pictures all over the internet of her plastered up against you, your arm around her right next to the one of you kissing me outside the hotel. They have photos of you going into a hotel room with your arms around each other. The media are speculating about where the hell I was when my boyfriend took a gorgeous model to his hotel room.” Jade snorted. “Yeah I know you booked a room Diego and under your own name as well. How fucking stupid are you?”

  “I booked the room.” Luis said softly.

  “Now why doesn’t that surprise me Luis, and you fucked up! Now I have the media after me not only because they know I’ve got a sick stalker but also because apparently I have a cheating bastard for a boyfriend, make that ex-boyfriend.” Twisting herself out of Diego’s arms she stepped back as tears rolled down her cheeks. “You got pissed when Marcella posted pictures of your bare ass on the internet, I suggest you have a look at what your darling little sister posted. You cheated Diego, you were in bed with her, and your little sister posted pictures of the two of you all over social media.”

  Diego jerked her back against him. “I did not fuckin’ sleep with her! I never took my clothes off and I spent the night in the chair while the bitch cried, sniffled and moaned away in the bed. Fuck baby I would never do that to you. I love you, and only you, you know that.”

  “THEN HOW THE FUCK DID SHE GET THOSE PICTURES?” Jade screamed at him. She was done, so done!

  That’s when Rick stepped up to them and clasped a hand around Jade’s shoulder. “Princess calm down. I hate to say this but I believe Diego, and if those pictures are out there you can bet your ass it’s been photoshopped. Don’t let a spoilt little bitch come between the two of you and damage you both so badly that it can never be fixed again. Give me an hour to sort this out and you will never have to hear the name Maya Ortega ever again, she will be gone.”

  “Rick is right Jay-Jay.” Tag threw in his opinion. “Diego would never do this to you. Why would he break a vow he made to you? It makes no sense. He was set up and we will find out who helped the bitch to set him up.”

  Jade had no more strength left, her legs gave out beneath her. Diego lifted her into his arms, holding her tight against his chest he walked down the passage and into their room. He didn’t put her down but climbed onto the bed with her still in his arms lying down and pulling her tight against his chest while his heavy arms surrounded her.

  She couldn’t fight anymore and gave in to sleep to escape from everyone and everything.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Diego lay with his sleeping woman curled into a tight ball in his arms and stared at the walls as sleep avoided him. The only part of him she would accept near her was the arm he had around her waist. He had tried to tuck her into him like he usually did but even though she was asleep she had fought him violently and he had backed off. He had fucked up and not just a little, he had fucked up in the big leagues. He knew that Jade had only allowed him near because she had been dead on her feet. He guessed that she had hardly slept and then she had worked out! She could have injured herself and there had been no one near, she had been alone and that was his fault. Why the fuck had he listened to his Dad?

  Yes Maya was like a little sister to him and he had known of her infatuation with him but he had thought she had out grown it. Fuck! How had he let this get so out of control? Why the fuck hadn’t he called Jade and told her what was going on? Why had he let his anger at Jade's behaviour with Maya and his father’s concern for her lead him into making the biggest mistake of his life? Why hadn’t he called Maya’s brother to take care of her seeing that he was at the party as well? What the fuck had he been thinking going into a room with her?

  Turning slowly onto his back he settled Jade against his chest and reached for his phone. It didn’t take lo
ng to find the sites all crowing over the pictures of Diego Delgado apparently cheating on his new girlfriend. There was no mistaking the pictures of Maya smiling smugly as she leant over his apparently naked torso. The fuckin’ bitch! She was going to pay for this and he was going to make her pay and not just when he confronted her! As he scrolled through the sites new pictures of Jade were being uploaded drinking from a bottle of champagne as she leant against a laughing RJ. They looked like what they were, two friends celebrating and having a laugh. There were pictures of her with Trace as well, arms around each other laughing into the camera. When he compared those pictures to the ones of him and Maya he immediately saw the difference. Fuck! They looked like two people on their way to have hot sex and definitely not like family! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!

  Diego sighed and closed the app on his phone and threw it on the side table. Yep, his life was going down the toilet and fuckin’ fast at that. Thank fuck there were no pictures of him leaving the hotel room, he knew there wouldn’t be because a pissed off Hanson had cleared the way before he left the room. None of his men were speaking to him, they followed orders answered when it was necessary but that was it. They had chosen sides and it wasn’t his. He needed to fix this and fuckin’ fast, and to do that he needed help.

  Slowly extricating himself from his woman he slid out of the bed, picked up his phone and hers and quietly left the room. He stood in front of the closed door for a few seconds before he strode purposefully to the lounge where he could hear the rumble of voices. Deathly quiet fell as he walked in but he ignored it, he needed Michael Galloway’s help and he would get it even if he had to beg for it. No way was he losing the best thing to ever come into his life.

  “I need your help.”

  Frozen blue eyes looked him up and down and found him wanting.

  “Why?”

  Diego resolutely kept his eyes on those frozen blues.

  “I need proof that I didn’t fuck Maya Ortega and that those pictures were photoshopped and I need to know why my father helped her to set me up. I did not take my clothes off in that room and I did not get into bed with her. I would never fuckin’ do that to Jade, she means everything to me.”

  Michael nodded without taking his eyes off Diego. He didn’t look away as he spoke.

  “Has Astrid made contact?”

  “Yeah, she’s in. The bitch is eating it up with a spoon, thinks they both have an axe to grind with the Galloway’s. We’re close to getting a name.” Mike’s voice was cold and clipped.

  “You have a decision to make Delgado. We can prove that the photos were altered then sold to a tabloid. Are you going to press charges against the slut or not? You have thirty seconds to decide.”

  Those cold eyes didn’t waiver and Diego knew that he didn’t need thirty seconds.

  “I’m pressing charges.”

  Michael nodded and turned away from him towards an older man Diego had never seen before.

  “Make it happen. I want everything taken from her. I want everything that she values. I want her on the street and I want media coverage detailing what she had done to my daughter. Don’t disappoint me Oscar.”

  The man was implacable in his vengeance.

  Oscar, the older man with a head full of white hair, turned worried eyes towards Diego as he spoke.

  “You’re going a tad too far with this Michael there could be repercussions.”

  The man swung back to face Oscar so fast his body was a blur, his voice tight with rage.

  “I don’t give a flying fuck! No one makes my princess cry and no one fucks her over in the media. Fucking no one!” He leant forward and his voice was sibilant with venom. “If I could have had her wacked with no consequences she would be gone.”

  “Dad!” Mike grabbed his father’s upper arm.

  Diego was stunned as Michael Galloway quietly extricated himself from his son’s hand and walked over to stare out at the rain that had apparently moved in while Diego had been lying in the dark with Jade. The man stood silently with his hands on his hips, just staring out. It was deathly quiet as everyone waited for him to calm down. Diego looked at the men in the room taking note of who was there and who wasn’t.

  Tag and Steele stood stoically waiting to one side while the man called Oscar sat in one of the arm chairs busy on his phone. Mike stood a few steps away from his Dad watching him with narrowed eyes. Luis Delgado was not in the room, in actual fact he didn’t know where his Dad was and right now he had no time to speculate on where he might be. Convincing Jade of the truth was his priority.

  Mike looked down at his phone he had clasped in one hand as it pinged and a shark like grin spread over his face.

  “We’ve got them! The fuckin’ Ortega slut is arranging a meet between Astrid and the one who orchestrated this whole mess. We don’t have a name yet but it won’t be long. Rick and Adam are sticking to Astrid they won’t let anything happen to her.” Mike looked down as his phone pinged again. “Fuck! Ortega just revealed that this was her way into a drug and blackmailing ring. According to the bitch they have more compromising photos. Rick says shit’s gonna hit the fan when this gets out, and it will get out because the cops are involved and there are always leaks.” Mike turned to Diego with a strange look in his eyes. “I’m sorry man this shit involves you and Val.”

  Diego went solid with shock.

  “What?” He whispered.

  Mike motioned him to wait as he scrolled and read some more with a heavy frown. He looked up at his Dad before turning fully towards Diego.

  “They blackmailed your brother. There are apparently a lot more photos than the ones we have seen. Years ago they threatened to send them to Jade and to put them on the internet if Val didn’t let them transport their drugs with the band’s equipment. We have the names we need to start closing them down.”

  Michael Galloway nodded and those cold blue eyes turned to Steele. Steele didn't blink, he stood with his hands behind his back and waited.

  “Give us the names Mike.” Michael said softly.

  Taking a deep breath Mike glanced at Diego before he spoke. “Gina Vincent, James Ortega and Emilio Delgado.”

  He felt as if he had taken a punch to the gut. Gina Vincent wasn’t a surprise because they knew she was after them, but James and Emilio! His cousin and his friend! They had both been his friends since they were little boys together. The fucking bastards were in town because he had organised them tickets and backstage passes to watch the fuckin’ show last night. Fucking hell! That was how the bastards had always known what was going on in their lives. They were a part of his life! Turning to Steele he met his watchful eyes. “Take them down, don’t care how you do it, just do it.”

  Michael nodded as Steele looked at him for confirmation, getting it he turned to leave with Tag following close behind him. Tag stopped to put a big hand on Diego’s shoulder, squeezed then followed Steele out of the room.

  “You need to somehow let Astrid know to be careful and they have to get her out of there, these people are dangerous and they have to be getting cocky to make this play.” Diego said quietly. “James is ex-army and Emilio is a cop, they have too much to lose to care who they hurt if they are cornered. They are going to know she's wired the minute she walks into the meet, she needs to be pulled out.”

  Michael reacted instantly. His phone was in his hand in seconds. “Astrid where the hell are you? I have a meeting with the heads of the Seattle branch of Galloway Corp and you are nowhere to be found!” He clipped out coldly then listened intently. “Fine, I’ll send a car to pick you up. I can’t find the damned notes I asked you to ready for the meeting, don’t make me lose my temper today, it won’t take much as it is.” As he ended the call he snorted in aggravation. “They might have had her phone on speaker so acting like a dick probably made her a little bit safer around them.”

  He made a call as he spoke. “Kent, Astrid is standing outside the Hotel. Take two men and pick her up, be careful and act a little like a dick towards her.”
He listened to the answer and gave a humourless laugh. “The damned woman is in a sticky situation and we need to get her out of it without letting on we know.”

  Diego sighed and rolled his neck to relieve the pressure. “I’m making coffee while we wait on news.” But Mike’s phone pinged before he was even halfway to the kitchen.

  “This has just become bigger than what we can comfortably contain. The DEA just got involved and they have SWAT standing by to take the bastards down. They have a location and all three the suspects are on site." He growled.

  "They have given Astrid their price to help her get even with the Galloways. They want access to the building, especially the penthouse and Jade. They want security details, access cards and uniforms to blend in with the guards. Astrid has arranged to meet them once she finishes for the day. She told them she has free time later and will bring them all they need.”

  Diego dropped his head and battled with the hurt in his chest as he realised that two men he had considered to be his best friends wanted to hurt his woman and might soon lie bloody on the ground. He battled with the reality that they had pretended to be his friends to use him, with a shudder he remembered the many times James, who ran an import and export company specialising in antiques, had asked him to organise security when he had valuable shipments coming in. Fuck! He had been guarding a fuckin’ drug runner! He had been played and it was going to get him in shit with the law and crucified in the media, he and everyone associated with him. Fuck, even his crew! They had all been through some incredible shit while in the forces, they did not need this shit fuckin’ up their lives even further. Lifting his head he looked at Michael who had been watching him.

  “I need to speak to someone in law enforcement. I have information on their movements. James often hired my company to do security when he had valuable antique shipments coming in. I did not know we were guarding fucking drug dealers! They were my family!”