The Complete Tempest World Box Set

by Mankin, Michelle

  “What’s in there that’s good?” War asked, peering with more than a little interest at the bag.

  “Uppers, downers, the usual. Got coke in the bedroom.” Kyle glanced at me. “If you want it, it’s all yours.”

  “I don’t do drugs,” I said firmly and tugged on War’s arm. “You made your point. Take me home.”

  “Your uncle’s place isn’t home, and you know it. It’s a temporary accommodation, same as mine.” He narrowed his eyes. “You’re home when you’re with me.”

  “It doesn’t feel like home,” I said, but as soon as I made the statement, it rang false.

  Kyle’s apartment was eerily similar, not in layout, but in goings-on to the one Dizzy and I’d shared with our mother. I only thought I’d put that world behind me, but it had been there all along, lurking in the periphery. Just because I chose not to peer into the darkness anymore didn’t mean the darkness didn’t remain.

  “I see you’re feeling me.” War met my gaze in the mirror, holding it captive. When I nodded, he turned to Kyle. “Maybe another day. I’ll take you up on the bag of treats and the bedroom.”

  “Your choice. Whatever you want, man.”

  “Thanks.” War clapped him on the back, then turned to me. “Go on out. Back into the hall, babe.” He jerked his chin the way we’d come in. “Space is too narrow for anything but single file. You first.”

  “Okay,” I said, not entirely sure that was true. It would just be a tight squeeze.

  A couple was nearly having sex in the hallway in front of me. War had to have seen them, and I believed he meant for me to see them too.

  My forward momentum came to a stumbling halt when I realized it wasn’t just any couple. It was Bryan and Missy.

  “You pretend I’m him,” Bryan said to her gruffly. “I’ll pretend the way I do. No talking. It works that way.”

  He yanked her skirt up and turned her against the wall. Her back was to him, and his was to me, his jeans and boxers down around his knees. His ass was tight, round, and so perfect.

  I flushed and must have gasped, even as my stomach lurched to my throat.

  Missy turned her head, looking over her shoulder at me as Bryan sucked on her neck. She narrowed her ice-blue eyes. “What’s your problem, Lace?”

  Unable to speak, I just stared. If I could, I would have begged the ground to swallow me up whole.

  Bryan turned his head, and one of his beautiful gray-green eyes widened. The other was nearly swollen shut. He had a cut on his cheek and another on his mouth, probably from War’s rings.

  I noted those things as if from a distance, as if I were floating and looking down at myself.

  But I was no longer floating in safe and known waters. I was in a vacuum without any air.

  CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

  War

  Lace was mad and wouldn’t talk to me. I think she suspected that I had a hand in orchestrating the scene with Missy and Bryan, and she was right.

  It seemed like the right kind of justice, her getting the same type of unexpected blow I’d had seeing her and Bryan on the beach. It was a Southside fairy-tale ending. Or it would be, eventually. Because Lace no longer thought Bryan’s shit didn’t stink.

  Another benefit? She now knew life wasn’t fair. She’d grow up, set aside her crush on Bryan, and we would move on. Well, we’d move on when I returned as the biggest man on campus and took her to prom.

  King grinned. “This limo es muy genial.” It’s very cool.

  “Sweeter than the taxi we had to take to SFO after those assholes at Zenith lowballed us,” Sager said, exchanging a commiserative glance with King across the aisle.

  Dizzy and Bryan were on the other side of them, up by the driver. As far away as they could get from me, and totally uncommunicative.

  Not everyone approved of the way I’d handled the situation with Lace. But so what if there were a few minor difficulties to sort out?

  Tempest was an emerging rock band with two major labels courting us. After jumping through hoops at two home offices, we were now cut loose in LA with a $250,000 offer from Zenith and a $300,000 offer from RCA. That was a potential $50,000 to $60,000 for each of us, including Dizzy and Bryan. Money enough for them to get over it.

  “We’re going to a strip club tonight,” King said, making eye contact with me. “You wanna come with?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “Sounds like fun.”

  “Do you think that’s a good idea?” Dizzy asked, speaking to me for the first time since I brought his sister back to him in pieces at his uncle’s place. “Lace gets wind of it, she’s not gonna like it, and she’s already pissed at you.”

  “It’s not me she’s really pissed at.” I caught and held Bryan’s gaze. The swelling around his eye had gone down. He didn’t look so scary anymore, just miserable.

  “I’ll go,” Dizzy muttered.

  “You going, Bry?” I asked, extending an olive branch, but he glared back at me like he wanted to beat me over the head with it.

  “No.”

  “Suit yourself.” I put on my shades and leaned my head back. It was only a couple of miles to our hotel, some swanky place on Bellaire. A couple of miles didn’t seem far. But the driver had told us it would take at least forty-five minutes to get there.

  The distance between my best friend and me wasn’t that far either, but if $60,000 and strippers couldn’t put him in a better mood, it might take a lot longer to regain Bryan’s friendship than I’d anticipated.

  • • •

  Lace

  A text from my brother popped up on my phone, and I replied.

  DIZZY: How you holding up?

  LACE: Same, Diz. Don’t fuss.

  DIZZY: Worried about you.

  I sighed and leaned my head back against my pillow in my room, hot tears leaking from my eyes. He’d worry more if I told him the truth.

  I crushed the paper in my grip. It could wait until he and the others returned from LA. Dizzy had kept me in the loop. I knew because of him that no final decision between RCA and Zenith had been made without me. We had serious offers from both labels, though RCA’s offer was higher.

  I hadn’t spoken to War directly. He’d left me a couple of voice mails, saying we’d discuss the specifics of the offers after prom. He’d dropped a few hints that made me think there was something in the contracts that I wouldn’t like. I figured I was getting a smaller cut than the guys. That pissed me off, but what leverage did I have? I needed whatever I could get, now more than ever.

  There wouldn’t be any scholarship.

  I sniffed back the rest of my tears. Tears that happened in private didn’t count, especially when everything in your life went to shit.

  Needing to wash my face, I got up and went out into the hall. Then I was going to call Chad. I needed to talk this through with someone who was in my corner. He’d once been there for me. Surely, he could be again.

  “Ah!” I jerked to a halt, putting my hand to my throat. My pulse beat rapidly beneath it. “You startled me. I didn’t know you were home from work.”

  “My home.” Uncle Bruce narrowed his eyes. “Finally going to have it back to myself in a couple of months. Why are you crying?”

  “I’m not crying.” The lie came out of my mouth before I could stop it. “I never cry.”

  “What a crock. You cried all the time when you first moved in. I could hear you all the way from my room.”

  I guessed my pillow hadn’t muffled it. “I was just a little girl.” A little girl who’d nearly been raped, and was definitely traumatized.

  “You’re a drama queen, just like your mother was.”

  My fingers clenched into fists. I was so sick of that line from him.

  His gaze dipped, then rose, his eyes narrowing more. “Are you pregnant?”

  “No, of course not.” I was still a virgin, but War would change that status for real when he returned. I’d gone to the clinic and started the pill. I was responsible, not like my mom.

 
My uncle scoffed. “It’s a miracle. That guy you’re with, he’s not a good egg.”

  A miracle would be me getting pregnant never having had sex. But yeah, War wasn’t a good egg. The blinders were off now. He wasn’t good, but he was mine, and all I had.

  “I want you moved out by the twenty-fifth.”

  My jaw dropped. “School doesn’t end until June third.”

  “That’s your problem. You’re not my worry anymore after that date. I’m getting married and moving my family into my home.”

  “Okay.” I nodded dully. Arguing with him wouldn’t change anything.

  I shuffled to the bathroom, did my bit with my face, then went back to my room. I didn’t have much time to plan.

  Could I stay with War at his place? I didn’t think so. But with the money from RCA, I ought to be able to afford to stay somewhere.

  Back in my room, my temporary accommodation that was now even more temporary, I climbed into my bed again and put in my earbuds.

  No Britney Spears tonight. I didn’t feel like dancing. I felt like turning the music on, and turning off the world that had shit on me. So I scrolled to Alanis Morrissette and did just that. The Jagged Little Pill album seemed to have been written just for me.

  CHAPTER FIFTY

  Lace

  The whistles started as soon as I stepped onto school property.

  Fuck ’em all.

  Chin held high, I headed up the front walk, channeling a lot of Alanis and some War. I might not be able to change my situation, but I could look like a woman who didn’t give a shit. Even if technically I remained a girl, and I was only pretending I was in control.

  “Yo, Lowell. Looking nice.” A goth chick gave me devil horns.

  “Respect,” I said and rocked her some back.

  Stomping up the concrete stairs, I turned some heads inside the building, but made it past the office without anyone chasing me down to measure my miniskirt. It barely covered my ass, the better to show off my fishnet stockings and my thigh-high black suede boots, a consignment shop score. But no way would the skirt pass school regulation.

  I was late, and the halls were emptying of students. The bell would ring soon, but I didn’t bother stopping at my locker. I didn’t have a backpack or books. I was just here to make it through to the bitter end, attend prom, and graduate. Make the point that I could do it, but none of it really mattered anymore.

  What the fuck did it matter if I graduated? I couldn’t go to college. I didn’t need to. I was in a kickass rock band, soon to be signed, and my boyfriend was the lead singer. Tempest was going to be huge. Huge.

  “Whoa.” Randy stepped in front of me wearing his letterman jacket, even though it was seventy degrees outside. “What do we have here?”

  “Get out of my way,” I gritted out.

  He flicked a lock of my hair over my shoulder, leaned in, and whispered into my ear, “No.”

  Against my instincts, I backed up and tried to go around him, but he cut me off.

  “Not so brave without King or War around. In fact,” he tapped his chin, “they’re all out of town, aren’t they?”

  Shit. Fuck. Shit.

  Yet I cranked up my chin. “You really wanna get on War’s bad side hassling me?”

  Randy gave that some thought. I could practically hear the lone gerbil wheel turning inside his head. “You don’t matter as much as you think you do.”

  “Why’s that?” I asked.

  Knowing he liked to be the bearer of bad news where War and I were concerned, I licked my suddenly dry lips.

  Did War have a side piece all along that I didn’t know about? A Missy, like Bryan has, or maybe it is Missy. Maybe they share.

  “I heard him offer you to one of Kyle’s higher-ups to get Tempest a headlining gig.”

  “What?” My eyes rounded.

  “Didn’t know, did ya?” Randy’s blue eyes took on an ugly gleam. He ran his gaze over me, and I felt ill. “War might like you, but you’re disposable. He’d let anybody fuck you, if it got him what he wanted. You know that as well as I do. C’mon, baby.”

  He touched me, running his thumb over the outline of my black bra. My breakfast lurched. But I made myself work up a good spit, and I aimed it at him.

  “Bitch!” He wiped it off his cheek with his sleeve, then put his hand on my throat and walked me backward. His grip hurt, and I couldn’t breathe. My spine hit the lockers hard.

  Suddenly, Chad was there. “Back off, Randy.” His hazel eyes flared.

  Randy released me, and I coughed as blessed air flooded my lungs.

  “What are you going to do about it?” Randy asked, rushing Chad like he was a defensive back for an opposing team instead of a former center basketball star from the same school.

  My friend dropped his crutches, reared back, and caught Randy with a sharp undercut that lifted him off his feet. Randy’s eyes rolled back in his head, and he dropped like a felled tree.

  I gave him a second of my time. Satisfied that he was breathing, I turned to Chad to croak out, “He was blitzing you. That maneuver would have been a penalty.”

  “Too bad for him, I don’t play by the rules,” Chad said as teachers came running.

  We were busted.

  • • •

  Chad and I both got suspended. As Missy drove us home from school in his truck, her lips kept twitching.

  “You got something to say?” I asked confrontationally, leaning forward to glare at her over Chad, who was in the middle of the bench seat.

  “Ironic that you two got in trouble, but Randy walked away.” She shook her head. “He’s such a prick.”

  “He walked away moving funny.” Looking proud, Chad lifted a brow.

  Missy laughed, and I noticed she and Chad exchanging a long, heated look.

  Suddenly, I felt like the outsider. “Are you two . . .”

  Both swiveled their heads to look back at me.

  “Yes,” Chad said, nodding as if I’d finished my question. “Definitely. She’s my queen. I’m her charge.”

  “He lives in a mystical realm of his own making,” Missy said, hooking her thumb at him and rolling her eyes.

  I laughed. Missy was funny. I’d never noticed before, deciding I didn’t like her because of War and then Bryan. But she was unattached, free to have sex with whomever she wanted. And it was on me, my mistake, for judging her for that without even knowing her. Right?

  Missy gave me a long look, then surprised the shit out of me. “Going to prom with Chad. Maybe we’ll see you there.”

  “But he can’t dance,” I said stupidly as she steered the truck to the curb in front of my uncle’s house.

  “Prom’s not all about the dancing,” Chad said.

  “Yeah, it’s about the clothes.” I was dead serious. One of the reasons I really wanted to go. I’d had my dress made for months. Luckily, our suspension ended Thursday. The guys were due back on Friday, and it was prom.

  “It’s also about staying out all night and getting laid,” Chad said, and I noticed Missy blush. It was weird, considering her reputation and what she’d been doing the last time I saw her.

  “Don’t hold your breath on that last part, Phillips,” Missy said, giving Chad another long look.

  “I would if I thought it would get me what I want.” He returned her look.

  “We’re friends.” She pointed her thumb back and forth between them. “I value that too much to screw it up. Pun intended.”

  I smiled. “Thanks for the ride.”

  They both stared at me again as if they’d forgotten I was there.

  I unbuckled my seat belt and looked at Chad. “Thanks for coming to my rescue.”

  “Sorry I’ve been MIA the last part of the school year.”

  “I understand.”

  I pulled in a breath, wanting to talk to him about all that was going on, what I’d just learned from Randy regarding War, but it didn’t feel right to drag Chad into my mess. He was happy. He deserved to be happy after all h
e’d been through.

  “I love you,” I said instead.

  “Love you too, Lace,” he said as I closed the door. It counted for something, especially coming from a stand-up guy like him.

  I’d once wished War would say those words. But knowing what I did now, how he’d bartered me and how callously he’d hurt me, punishing me for that kiss by setting me up to see Bryan and Missy, I wondered if I’d even believe him.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

  Bryan

  “No way, man.” I shook my head at Dizzy, giving him the same answer I gave War when he called to tell me he was too sick to take Lace to prom.

  “It’s important.” On his bar stool at Footit’s next to mine, Dizzy shifted and gave me a long look with eyes the same color as hers. “Lace has been through enough disappointment lately.”

  “I know she has.” I wasn’t without empathy. I had too much of it, too much of everything when it came to her. “I was there at the cemetery.” And saw firsthand how her mother’s death had rocked her.

  “Yeah.” Dizzy nodded. He’d been there too. But he’d stayed inside the chapel while Lace and I had gone on, kneeling together by her mother’s grave. “College is . . . was a big deal to her. She loves fashion. She worked so hard to get herself into a position to study it at college.”

  “Only to fall short.” I shook my head sadly. My heart ached for her.

  “At least she has the band.” Dizzy’s hand tightened around his tumbler.

  He hurt for her too. They might not be as openly affectionate as my sisters and me, but I suspected that was only because they didn’t have a mother like mine as an example. But they had each other, and I had no doubts at all that Dizzy loved Lace.

  “If she didn’t have her spot in Tempest,” he said, “I don’t know what might happen. She might spiral and never bounce back.”

  “But she does have it, right?” I gave him a sharp look. Did he know something I didn’t? With War and me at odds, I might have missed something.