Jack’s eyes filled with fear. I guess it’s a guy thing. When you say you want to talk, they think the worst. Well, I guess this was the worst, but not in the I want to get married and have a house full of babies way.
I sat on couch and he sat beside me. I moved to put some distance between us.
The glint of the ring he wore on the chain around his neck startled me. Not the light itself but the ring. I’d never looked at it that closely before. He’d told me his father’s lawyer had given it to him.
I twisted it in my fingers as the sickening feeling in my guts threatened to swamp me.
My father had a ring. He wore it all the time so I’d stopped even thinking about it. It had some kind of bird on it. When I was a kid, I’d asked him about it once. He’d told me he’d got it as a kind of joke when he was at university. His friends had all bought them as a pact thing.
Jack’s ring was exactly the same. I let it drop against his chest.
“You told me you didn’t know who your father was. Is that right?” Jack had told me such a web of lies about his past that I still wasn’t sure what was true.
“Shit, Hannah, do we have to go into this now? I told you, I’ve never had anything to do with the guy. My mum has never talked to me about him except to try to make me get money from his lawyer. She’s never told me a thing about who he was. All I know is that his lawyer has approached me a few times. I hate the guy. He’s a creep. The lawyer, I mean.” He took a deep breath and ran his fingers through his hair. “My father, well, who the hell knows? He tries to give me money. I don’t take it. My mother would fleece him for all he’s got and have her hands out for more if she could, but to me, he’s just some dude who jizzed in my mum. Nothing more.”
“Is that the honest truth?”
Jack nodded. “Cross my heart and hope to die. Want me to pinky promise?”
Hells. I had to tell him what Angie suspected. How do you even broach a subject like that?
Jack moved closer to me, snuggling into my side. He was being exceptionally sweet and that made my withdrawal from him even harder.
“Jack. Jack…” Shit, I couldn’t say it. But I had to. Right. I had to. “Jack, your father’s lawyer—he’s my dad’s lawyer, too. The guy I’m working for.”
I inched away from him.
“Fuck, Hannah, why didn’t you tell me?”
I hadn’t told him since I didn’t officially know he knew Frank. I’d seen them arguing that morning after he’d brought me home from the airport but, when I asked Jack about it, he’d lied. So when I’d taken the job at Frank’s office, I’d said it was just a job. I figured he didn’t need to know it was working for Frank.
“That Frank guy is a creep. I don’t want you working for him. Has he done something to you? Is that why you’re acting all crazy tonight?”
Jack looked ready to spring into action but he was way off-track. Did I have to spell it out for him?
“My father and your father have the same lawyer. You don’t know who your father is…”
I told him about the phone call and what Angie had thought. Even telling him this made me dry-retch. I waited for him to make the connection. A look of horror crossed his face.
“Rich guy. Lawyer. Fuck. Hannah. No way.”
He jumped away from me and we both stared at each other.
“We need to have blood tests,” he said. “Maybe DNA tests. It can’t be true, but we can’t be too careful.”
That made a lot more sense than my plans to sneak into Frank’s office and steal the files in the dead of the night. And even that was more sensible than all of Angie’s ideas. I wasn’t sure how you went about these things, but we could go to a doctor and find out.
“We’ll go tomorrow. First thing. We have to get this sorted.”
Jack laughed. “That’d be freaky and weird, wouldn’t it? The two of us…”
I punched him in the arm. How could he laugh about something like this? He punched me back, lightly on the shoulder. Next thing, we were both fooling around on the couch, play fighting. Jack had his hands on my waist, tickling me while I squirmed like crazy. Then his lips came towards mine.
“Stop!” I screamed. “We can’t do this.”
Jack leaped from me. “Fuck. Hannah. This is not good.”
I shivered. We’d have to be extra careful.
“Call your dad, Hannah. Call him now and ask him. He’s the one who started this. He’s got to know one way or the other.”
Hell yeah. That made even more sense.
“It’s a bit late…” I said.
“Call him.”
I picked up the phone, my hand trembling.
“You have to call him, Hannah. We need to know.”
I pressed the button.
“Dad?”
“Hannah? Huh?”
His voice sounded foggy with sleep.
“What time is it? Have a bit of common sense, girl.”
I chatted to him for a while, waiting for him to become coherent while Jack scowled at me. But you can’t rush into these things.
Even though we still talked occasionally, my relationship with Dad hadn’t been the same ever since I refused to marry Tamaki. With all that’d happened, I couldn’t trust him, and I didn’t want to deal with him. His coolness towards me had been a bit of a relief.
Finally, I got a chance to interrupt.
“Ah Dad, I have to ask you something… You know how you told me, forbade me to date Jack Colt. What was the reason for that?”
Why hadn’t I asked him when he’d first called? Well, other than the fact that I was pissy with him for interfering with my life and wanted to get off the phone. And I hadn’t made the connection until Angie thought of it.
He paused. “He’s no good, Hannah.”
“Yeah but I mean, is he… are you his father?”
Dad’s laughter roared through the phone. I took that as a no. A definite no.
“I’d love to tell you that were true if it meant you’d leave him alone, but no. I bet you had a fit when you thought that’s what I meant. Leave him alone, though, and don’t go digging around in his past. You’ll stir up a whole heap of dirt that no one wants stirred up. Just believe me. That guy is not for you. He’s not good enough for my princess.”
I was not his princess and I never would be again, but I bit my tongue.
“But you know who his father is?”
I could breathe again, knowing everything was okay, but this was still weird. How was Dad involved with Jack?
“Drop it, Hannah. Drop the whole thing. I’ve tried to help you, but you wanted to do things your way. This is not what you should be doing. Get some fast cash out of that band, then run as fast as you can. Finish uni, get a good job…”
I hung up the phone. I didn’t need the lecture.
“We’re okay?”
Jack moved toward me, his hands around my waist. He brushed his lips from my ear down my neck. Then he pulled away.
“Is this weird? I mean, for five minutes tonight I thought I could be your brother.”
“You’re weird,” I said. “Now go back to what you were doing.”
But even while Jack’s hands did incredible things to my body, I couldn’t work this out. My father was more involved with this than I’d thought. For all he’d told me to drop it, I wanted to know exactly what was going on.
Chapter 5
A loud thud woke me in the night. I jumped up in bed, trying to work out what it had been. From out of the darkness, a heavy limb smashed across my face, throwing me back onto the bed. The bridge of my nose throbbed with pain. I huddled down low so I didn’t get struck again. Jack’s body was in throes beside me.
My mouth went dry, wondering what to do, knowing that the best thing was to stay out of his way until he settled down again. He sat bolt upright in the bed, mumbling words I couldn’t understand. I didn’t want to touch him, unsure what his reaction would be, but I ached inside to comfort him. I held myself as still as I possi
bly could, even controlling my breathing.
Just as suddenly as he’d started, his rumbling snores filled the quiet room. Still, I lay there, waiting for the minutes to tick over, my body completely stiff.
When things had become serious between Jack and me, I’d thought I’d never be able to spend the entire night with him because of his night terrors. Nothing could get through to him as he struck out blindly, and even talked to people who weren’t there.
Then, that first night, I’d fallen asleep beside him and it hadn’t been an issue. He slept calmly in my arms, waking me with soft kisses that became more intense. That had made me complacent. We’d spend so many nights with no problems, and I’d not exactly forgotten but it had settled in the back of my mind. Then he’d been on tour and we’d barely gotten to spend much time together.
I grabbed my pillow and crept downstairs, not wanting to wake him up, planning to sleep on the couch. I curled up, hugging my pillow and wishing I’d thought to bring a blanket with me. The night wasn’t cold, I just wanted the comfort a cover would give me.
I wondered what had triggered it this time, if it had something to do with the talk with my father. He never wanted to discuss anything to do with his past, especially his parents, and every time I tried to discuss the night terrors with Jack he’d shut me down, changing the subject or laughing it off. But we had to work this out somehow.
I punched my pillow, trying to get comfortable.
I couldn’t sleep though, so I got my laptop out and fired it up. I needed to Google night terrors so I could work out what Jack needed. This was a time for solid facts. I needed answers, because I couldn’t imagine living like this for the rest of my life. Not that I’d ever leave him—not over this—but he was sick and there had to be a cure.
There was information. Too much information.
I must have crashed out completely some time around dawn because Jack and Eric had left for the recording studio when I woke up. That was okay; I didn’t need to talk to Jack that urgently. This had obviously been going on long before I met him, so it wasn’t like we could fix it in a day.
I had a heap of work to get done. When the guys had gotten back from the tour, Eric had given me notes written on the backs of envelopes and scraps of paper and I needed to get it all into some kind of organised form. A day of quiet on my own was welcome.
I spent a couple of hours on the computer and had just taken a break to make a coffee when someone knocked at the door.
The woman standing on the doorstep looked forlorn. Her hair hung down in greasy clumps and her clothes were stained and torn. I was about to make some excuse and get away from her.
“Is Jack here?” she asked.
Okay, so she wasn’t a random beggar. While I hesitated, she pushed her way inside.
As I looked closer at her, I could see a resemblance to Jack in her full lips and the way she held her head. She had the same brown eyes as him, but the fire that lit up Jack’s eyes had long gone out in hers.
“He’s at the recording studio. Would you like a coffee?”
She nodded and looked around, as though the apartment wasn’t familiar to her. She had to be Jack’s mother. I’d seen her once from across the street, and with her resemblance to him it seemed the logical conclusion.
This could be my opportunity to find out more information about Jack’s father and the trauma Jack carried with him. But how do you tackle that with a complete stranger? How do you ask her who knocked her up twenty-six years ago?
The woman looked me up and down, as though she were trying to appraise me.
“Oh, I’m Hannah,” I said, and held out my hand.
She ignored my hand.
“I’m Shirley, Jack’s mother. Are you shacked up with him? You don’t seem like Jack’s type. But then I guess if you were his usual type, you’d have been out of here before the sun had even come up.”
I wasn’t sure how to respond to that.
“Yes, I’m going out with Jack. We’ve known each other for quite a while. I’m the manager of his band.”
She nodded, but didn’t seem very interested. She sat down on the sofa and picked up one of my papers from the coffee table, running it under her nail to pick out the dirt.
“How do you have your coffee?”
“White with two, thanks, love.”
I finished making her coffee and sat it down in front of her. She kept using the sheet of paper to pick at her nails. I resisted the urge to snatch it off her.
“So, how is Jack?” she asked. “It’s been a while since I saw him.”
“He’s good. Mostly good. He gets a bit—”
“I haven’t been that good myself, you know. I’ve got a bit of a back condition. It hurts like hell, and gets worse as the weather gets colder. It’s a real bitch. I can’t work, can’t do nothing. I get my pension, but that doesn’t cover much.”
She paused to take a sip of her coffee.
“This is real good coffee. Like you’d get at a fancy cafe. Anyway, the doc said he could give me some tablets. Better ones than I’ve got at the moment. Says they’ll fix me up real good. Only trouble is I can’t get them on my healthcare card, and they aren’t cheap. It’s a real shame.”
I nodded but she kept looking at me, as though expecting something.
“It must be awful,” I said.
“Anyhow, Jack helps out sometimes. I thought I’d pop over today and see if he could give me a bit of a loan until my pension comes through. I wanna get started on these pills straight away, seeing as they’ll fix me up. It’s a sad thing when your body goes on you.”
She looked up at me, the kind of look a dog gives you when you are eating some tasty meat.
“I’ll let him know you were here,” I said. “He can get in touch with you when he finishes up at the studio.”
She flicked the paper between her fingers.
“Thing is, I was hoping to get them today. He might not knock off until late tonight, way after the chemist shuts, and it’ll be too late. I mean, I could wait until tomorrow, but it’s going to be awful cold tonight and that’ll trigger off a bad attack. I might not even be able to walk down to get them tomorrow.”
I swirled the coffee cup in my hand, thinking about what she’d said. Then I got the hint. She wanted me to loan her the money. She should’ve come straight out and asked. After all, she was Jack’s mother.
“I can loan you some money. How much are they?”
She smiled at me, a watery smile, showing her chipped front tooth.
“Ninety-eight bucks. Is that too much? I don’t mean to be any bother to you, and I’ll make sure you get the money back.”
“It’s no bother,” I said. “Just a moment.”
I ran upstairs and grabbed my handbag.
“It was ninety-eight dollars?” I asked, getting out my wallet. I handed her two fifty-dollar notes.
“Thanks, thanks, love. You’re a lovely girl, helping me out like this.” She folded up the notes and slipped them into her front pocket. “Come to think of it, it might help if you didn’t tell Jack I came over. He worries a bit about me, so it might be best for him not to know I’m feeling worse. I’ll get this back to you as soon as I can and he’ll never need to know.”
“I guess.”
She gulped down her coffee.
“Do you want to stay for lunch? I can fix us something?” I wanted a chance to ask her more, get her talking about Jack.
She shook her head. “No, I’d better be off. Want to get this script filled as soon as I can. No point waiting. Thanks a lot, love.”
“Here, I’ll give you my number, Mrs Colt.”
The woman doubled over. I wondered if she were having spasms of pain. I put my arm around her gingerly, to check she was okay, then I realised she was laughing.
“Mrs Colt? I ain’t no Mrs, and I ain’t no Colt, either. Jack changed his name to that when he left home. My name, and his real one, is Crumpton. I guess that’s not rock star enough for Jack, thoug
h.”
I smiled to myself. Jack Crumpton. She was right; that was a lot less rock.
“Oh, before I go, can you be a love and get me a glass of water.”
“Sure,” I said. I went to the kitchen to get it for her.
She gulped it down in a few mouthfuls then left, thanking me again.
I figured I should get back to work. I moved my handbag off the coffee table and cleared some space.
Chapter 6
Angie came over before the guys arrived back from the studio. She bought a bottle of wine with her.
“Just got paid for the Monkey Bride video so we can celebrate with the best ten dollar wine the bottle shop had. Don’t say anything either. Ten dollar wine is pretty damn fancy for me.”
I got two glasses out of the cupboard and handed Angie a bottle opener.
“Not just any ten dollar wine but award-winning ten dollar wine.”
“So you and Jack, not related, hey? Sheesh, that must be a relief.”
“No thanks to you. I’d have not even thought about it if you’d not said anything.” Angie handed me a glass. The wine didn’t taste that bad actually.
“You’d have to worry if you were Jack though, not knowing your own father and having slept with practically every woman in town between the ages of eighteen and fifty.” She tilted her head to think for a moment. “Maybe fifty-five.”
“Shut up, Angie. He’s never been that bad.”
I got my laptop from under the coffee table and opened it up.
“Check out these offices. It’s actually not as expensive as I’d thought. Like this one—it’s basic but it’s got a phone line and a kitchenette.”
“And space to store all the merchandise.” She sighed. “It’s taking over my apartment.”
“You should’ve told me. I could’ve stored it all here somewhere.”
“It’s okay,” she said. “It’s not like I’ve been home that much lately.”
I love the way that brash, mouthy Angie actually blushed when she said that. Like her love for Eric was something strange and embarrassing. Being with Eric changed her. Not in a bad way, just in a way that made her more calm.
“It’d be good. All those mail outs we’ve been doing and stuff like that—we can’t keep sitting around in cafes doing that shit. And I have no space here with all Jack’s music equipment and crap around the place.”
Bad Boy Redemption (Bad Boy Rock Star #3) Page 2
