“What’s your problem?” Beth demanded.
“You flinched when I reached for you.” Everyone in the garage could hear, but right now he just didn’t care. Beth being afraid of him hurt.
“Because I didn’t want you to damage your hand any more than you already have. And I’m a little rattled. That’s how I get when people I care about are attacked right in front of my face.” She squeezed her eyes closed for a second, then opened them, determination gleaming in her green irises. “Knock it off, Justice. Whatever bullshit is going through your head, just stop it. I am not in a good mood here, and I’m doing the best I can. Now let me see your damned hand.”
He couldn’t look away from this fiery version of Beth. She wasn’t hiding or holding back, she was right in his face. She was still pale, clearly upset and the most beautiful sight he’d seen.
Simon laughed. “Ouch. Fuck. That hurts. Shit. Liza, don’t make me laugh.”
Beth turned to him. “Then stay quiet. And FYI, you’re going to the hospital, and if you give me any macho shit, I’ll use my keys to gouge your favorite guitar.”
Simon closed his mouth.
Justice stared at his girl who’d morphed into a tigress. Without another word, he held out his hand. “It’s not broken.” He’d broken fingers before and knew what it felt like.
She wiped off the blood with a towel—where she’d found that he had no idea. “Okay, we’ll get it x-rayed to be sure. Where else are you hurt?”
“Just bruised. They only got in one good shot, a kidney punch.” He couldn’t believe he was telling her all this. Except…she cared enough to get right in his face and yell.
That was his sweet and sexy girl.
Chapter 14
“How the hell did you turn this into a win for your guys?” Karl asked.
Liza cut her gaze from the huge TV monitor to her fellow student publicist next to her on the couch in the greenroom for Late Night with Alicia. The last two days had been a mad scramble. She’d had her classes, the fallout from the fight Monday night, local interviews, signings, shout-out events, and then tonight the trip to the Burbank studio for the live show.
Fury Run went on first, and the guys were in the wings, watching, while Liza, Karl and a few others from Court of Rock scattered around the greenroom.
“I’d love to take credit,” Liza answered Karl. “But Nikki is the one who labeled Simon a hero. Some reporter showed up at the hospital while he was getting stitched, and she told the story of Simon protecting her from the three mental midgets in Jagged Sin.” It had even more impact because of Nikki’s connection to them as their former PR intern. The night had been awful when it happened, but in the last two days, it had been awesome for Simon publicity-wise.
“She took pictures,” Karl groused. “I mean, who gets attacked and takes pictures? Are you sure she didn’t join your team, start working for Savaged Illusions and the two of you didn’t set that whole thing up?”
He was seriously annoyed, and it made her laugh. “Right. Like Jagged Sin would cooperate with something like that? Come on, Karl, think. Nikki had her phone in her hand to call 911 and snapped pictures of Simon fighting all three guys, then Justice jumping into it. Which she tweeted all over.”
“You added the label Savage Hero.”
Her grin probably radiated glee. “Just doing my job. But to be fair, yesterday Nikki tweeted pictures of your band doing the jam session with the high school girls. Encouraging them to go after their dreams, even in male-dominated fields. Clever.”
Karl smirked. “They’re naturals at it, you know, because they’re girls. Guess who votes the most in reality show contests between males and females?”
She made a face at him. “Yeah, well, they all want to date my guys.”
“They want to be my girls. Guess who they want to win more?”
“Savaged Illusions.” Hopefully. Liza had seen the polls. Right now the two bands were running close, with her guys having a slight lead. So slight anything could shake it. She glanced up at the monitor. Fury Run had performed and done their chat session. The show went to commercial, which meant Savaged Illusions would play next.
The Fury Run girls poured into the room, high on performance adrenaline. The energy ramped up, and they raided the food table.
Liza tuned it all out as the show resumed. Alicia introduced the band, and they launched into their song. Damn they looked good, despite both Simon and Justice still being sore. The white bandage covering the stitches in Simon’s left cheek added to his sexiness.
“I’ll think of something to give us the lead,” Karl said. “Maybe have Fury Run rescue puppies. Everyone loves puppies.”
Liza focused her attention on the monitor. “Hush now, their song is over.” She leaned forward, fixating on the TV. She had one concern. Alicia was known to drop bombshells and try to get answers. One of the show’s producers had asked about Gray and the sister he’d mentioned in the IRB interview, and why he’d walked away from his classical career in such a dramatic fashion. But when Liza broached the subject to Gray, he refused to elaborate, forcing Liza to tell the show the topic was off-limits. Would Alicia respect the boundary?
Once the applause ended, Alicia strode across the stage to where the band had performed and said, “Doesn’t look like getting jumped by Jagged Sin slowed you guys down any.”
Relief cascaded through Liza. Okay, they were on solid ground here. Ace and his two moronic sidekicks had been arrested. There was no dispute as to what happened.
Justice eyed the camera. “It takes more than a couple sore losers to stop us from doing what we love.”
Liza smiled. He had this down.
“How about you, Simon?” Alicia asked. “Ace from Jagged Sin says that you betrayed their band by quitting abruptly and leaving them without a lead guitarist. He claimed that you were trying to sabotage them in the contest. How do you answer that?”
Simon’s diamond-hard gaze glinted. “It’s total crap. That was long before we tried out for Court of Rock.” He turned to the camera. “I left Jagged Sin because they wanted to party and pose as rockers, but they didn’t put in the work. When I met up with this crew…and let me tell you they can be clowns…”
Laughter spilled from the audience.
“But they’re clowns who want nothing more than to get onstage and play music. Jagged Sin sabotaged themselves.”
She moved on, talking to River, Lynx and Gray. Then she circled back to Justice. “Do you think you can beat Fury Run?”
In the greenroom, the girls spun to face the monitor. Wendy called out, “Not a chance, Savages.”
“Hell no,” agreed their drummer.
“Shh.” Liza missed Justice’s answer, and the camera panned back to Alicia. “From your IRB interview, it looks like you guys have an enthusiastic publicist.”
A flash of surprise briefly registered on Justice’s face, then vanished. “Liza, yes. It’s part of Court of Rock and Tangent’s program to involve college students in the business end of music.”
Alicia leaned closer. “I’m hearing rumors that you two are dating. Any truth to that?”
Justice flashed a big grin. “Is that right?” He turned to Lynx. “You hear that rumor?”
Lynx didn’t miss a beat. “I started it. Wanted to class up your image a little.” He looked into the camera with a hangdog expression. “Sorry, Liza.”
The audience laughed.
Justice turned back to Alicia. “There you go. Liza is out of my league.” He got serious. “Right now, all five of us are focused on winning Court of Rock. We don’t have time for distractions.”
Good. Okay, yeah, she had a tiny pinch at being called a distraction, but it was better to keep the focus on the band, not her and Justice.
Alicia said, “That might be a problem. We have a video that may very well turn your publicist into a major distraction.”
What? Liza leapt off the couch. Her heart rate launched into the stratosphere. A video of her? From wh
ere? They’d already mentioned the Indie Rock Broadcast video.
“A video of what?” Justice asked.
“Another rock star who also knew Liza. One who couldn’t be here in person. The reason for that will become obvious.” She turned to the massive screens sliding down for everyone in the audience and stage to see. “Watch.”
While a camera honed in on one of the big screens, a distant roar filled Liza’s ears. There was only one that would remember her.
She cringed internally, not wanting to believe it.
“Liza?” Karl’s worried voice floated vaguely in her head, but she ignored it, her focus one hundred percent on that screen.
Gene Hayes’s image burst to life. Liza lurched back a step, all her muscles tensing in an elemental reaction. Her heart thudded, sweat pricked beneath her arms and on her back, while her brain screamed, Danger. Run. Tremors rocked her as she struggled to get control of herself. Breathe, he’s not here in the room with you. He’s in another country. It’s just a video feed, he’s not here.
She calmed enough to take in a few details. Hayes wore his dark hair pulled back, his thin face grim. His eyes made her shudder. She remembered thinking in the first moments she’d met him that his eyes were dark and sexy, like bedroom eyes. What had she known of bedroom eyes?
Hayes sat on a barstool in a room filled with what looked like a sound board behind him. Was he in a recording studio?
“My name is Gene Hayes, and for nearly seven long years, I’ve kept silent. Until I saw the IRB interview online with the group Savaged Illusions. A woman named Liza joined in that interview. The second I saw her, shock hit me like a train and knocked me back to that terrible summer almost seven years ago.
“That woman is Elizabeth Ranger, the very same girl who set out to, and succeeded in, destroying my life.”
She destroyed his life?
Hayes shifted on his stool, sincerity flowing out of those dark eyes. “I decided then to tell the truth. But you know what? Some people don’t want the truth, and that includes Indie Rock Broadcast. I contacted IRB and offered them an exclusive to the story of what really happened. They refused. That’s the kind of slanted reporting that allows innocent people to be demonized and victimized, forced to flee their own country to live in a foreign land. But I’m determined to get the truth out there, so I’m doing this myself. Here’s the real story: Eddie Ranger was a washed-up hang-around, a guitarist who played in a couple garage bands but never had the chops to make it big. He was working on my road crew. My first album had topped the charts, and my second album had just dropped and hit number one.
“I was on top of the world and ready to party. It’s no secret I like women. Hot, young, and wild. Eddie told me that his adult daughter, whom he claimed was eighteen, was dying to meet me and asked to bring her to a party.
“I said sure. When they showed up, I met Liza, and she looked at least eighteen. She was more slender then, but totally built. She came over wearing shorts cut up to expose her butt cheeks, falling out of a scrap of a shirt, and she was all over me. We went to my room.
“But her father, the conniving bastard, set me up. He burst into my bedroom screaming rape, taking pictures and telling Liza to drink something in a glass. I don’t know what. All hell broke loose.
“Eddie Ranger then demanded I make him part of my band or he’d ruin me.
“I was stunned and outraged. I mean what the hell, man? Who does that? With their own daughter?”
Liza shook her head in frantic denial. That was not what happened. It wasn’t. But in her head, a tiny voice said, How would you know? You were drugged. Maybe you did come on to him. Maybe you told him you were eighteen. “No.”
Wendy grabbed her hand. No words, just a warm hand holding hers as her past exploded in her face.
Hayes went on, “After that, things took an even more bizarre twist. I mean, I can’t make this stuff up. Screaming started in the hallway. Eddie rushes out there, yelling. A woman screams back, ‘It was my plan. Mine!’ A second later, a gun goes off.” Hayes looked away in dramatic silence before adding, “I hustled out there and found Eddie dead on the floor in a pool of blood. And Amber Ranger holding the gun.” He swung his gaze back to the camera.
Liza almost flinched at the impact of his hard, bitter eyes. He hated her, truly blamed her.
“I got out of there. I had no idea what was happening. I was trapped in some nightmare in my own house. So I booked it, and later that night I was arrested for rape.”
Hayes leaned forward. “I did not rape that girl. She was fully conscious and begging me to have sex with her. But my life was shattered, ruined. I’d been seduced by a fourteen-year-old who swore she was eighteen for a blackmail scheme that went wrong. The irony of it all? Liza’s mother, Amber Ranger, killed Eddie that night. Not to protect her daughter as Amber claimed. Oh no, but because the greedy woman was mad that her ex-husband stole her plan to shake me down.” He shook his head. “Every guy knew that chick. She had a reputation as a hardcore groupie into wild sex, drinking and drugs.”
Greasy sickness slithered in Liza’s belly and burned her throat. This was on late-night TV. It would spread like a virus by the morning shows.
“So all these years, I kept quiet. Because come on, I’m not a monster. No, I didn’t rape that girl, and yeah, she seduced me to ruin me. But she was fourteen. So I’m like…okay. Let’s not blame the kid, right?”
Was he for real? Liza had the sense of being in a carnival fun room filled with distorted mirrors and tilting floors.
“Then I saw her on the IRB interview, involved with another band rising to fame. And all my alarms went off.” He tilted closer to the camera. “She’s not a kid anymore, and she’s doing it again, looking for a meal ticket or planning some shakedown. I don’t know, but what I do know is I don’t want what happened to me to happen to some other schmuck. So let me ask you this, if this girl was so hurt and traumatized by what supposedly happened with a rock star, then what’s she doing back in the rock world? Looking like this?”
A picture flashed on the screen. Liza gasped in outrage. It was from the night of her date with Justice at Wylie’s. Her wet tank clung to her breasts obscenely. Her expression was dazed…as if she were drunk.
She hadn’t been drunk, she’d been shocked and mad.
Hayes reappeared. “I’m done hiding. I’m done paying for a crime I didn’t commit. I had my career destroyed and my life ruptured because of her. No more. I’m fighting back. It’s time for Elizabeth Ranger—I guess she calls herself Liza Glasner now—to tell the truth by recanting her allegations of rape and getting that bogus verdict against me overturned.
“I want my name cleared, so I can return to the U.S. and live my life.”
The video stopped.
The camera homed in on Alicia, her eyes bright with barely suppressed glee. “Do you think this is going to impact your chances to win? Did you guys know who Liza is?”
All five of Savaged Illusions guys stood together, their faces furious. Justice turned his glare on Alicia.
The woman stepped back.
“What I think…” Justice’s voice rang out, harsh and guttural, “…is that you just exposed a sexual assault victim’s identity to the entire fucking world. Congratulations, lady, you win the asshole journalist award.” He stormed off stage, and the show cut to a commercial break.
“Control room’s gonna bleep that out,” someone in the greenroom muttered.
Liza should be concerned about Justice swearing on TV, but she couldn’t get her breath enough to think or react. A brutal hand squeezed her lungs, and sweat burned her skin. Her worst nightmare had exploded right in front of her eyes. Voices cranked up in her head.
Her aunt crying out, What have you done? Elizabeth, you can’t do this!
People yelling, Whore! Lolita! Slut! Cunt!
The signs of the protesters when Hayes left the country after her court testimony. Run, Hayes, Run! She asked for it! Recant! Hayes is the Real Vi
ctim!
Her aunt’s constant reminder, Don’t talk about it, Liza. You’re making it worse. People are judging you. Actions count, not words. Make the right choices. People judge. Just keep your head down and stay quiet.
She jerked against the violent searing in her left wrist, like hundreds of fire ants were chewing through her scars. Liza fought the black fear enveloping her. She had to get out of there. But she couldn’t move, couldn’t look at anyone.
For the last three years, she’d been just Liza. She had friends, a life, and now it was all shattered, ruined.
“Liza, that’s you?” Karl turned, his eyes huge in his face. “That dick with a mouth assaulted you?”
What could she say? She eyed the door. Escape. Run. Get away. Everyone was going to know who she was. She could get in her car…hell, she didn’t have her car here. She’d come with Justice.
And it didn’t matter.
There was nowhere she could go to hide from her past now. She couldn’t do this, didn’t want to live through it over and over. But there wasn’t any way she could deny the truth.
She forced herself to look at the other publicist. “Yes.”
Silence settled around her except for the TV and the murmur of voices from the Court of Rock execs eyeing her across the room while whispering into their phones.
Karl shook his head. “That’s…huh…what’s the word?”
“Fucked up.” Wendy squeezed her hand.
Karl rolled his eyes. “That’s two words.” He shifted his gaze back to her. “I was thinking bombshell.”
Liza tugged her hand from Wendy, tears prickling her eyes. Don’t cry. Keep quiet.
Wendy refused to let go. “A fucked-up bombshell.”
Karl tilted his head, as if considering. “That should destroy Alicia’s career. She did this knowing full well she was exposing Liza’s identity.”
“That bitch is lucky she pulled that stunt with Justice. If she’d done it with me, I’d have punched her.” Wendy’s eyes burned with sincerity, anger and caring. “No one treats our friends like this, Karl. We need to do something.”
Savaged Dreams: Savaged Illusions Trilogy Book 1 Page 20
