“Right, boss. Here.” Seeming to have anticipated Martin’s play, he flicked the card he held between his fingers to Lace.
Picking up on the vibe, her hand trembled, but she took the card, even mumbling a thank-you as she tucked it into a side pocket in her dress.
“Respect.” I lifted my chin, though I really would have preferred to spit in his eye like Lace had Randy.
“Have a good night, Jinkins,” Martin said, and I breathed easier when he moved along.
“Wow,” Lace said, moving closer to me. “Do you believe that guy?”
I didn’t respond. I wanted her wows to be for what I’d do to her shortly.
With that in mind, I recaptured her hand and tugged her the remaining length of the hall. Opening the door and verifying the room was empty, I brought her inside, feeling like I’d run a marathon to finally get her here.
I shut the door and locked it.
Lace
War seemed so chill, even with Martin, a menacing guy at the top of the food chain in his face. Had he noted Martin and his bodyguard had holsters with firearms? He didn’t seem to. I already knew War was a force to be reckoned with, but he went up several additional notches after that exchange.
“Here we are.” War gestured to the bedroom, and I gulped.
The bed seemed nice, at least. There wasn’t a comforter, but I could smell detergent, and the sheets appeared to be clean, but the room wasn’t. The carpet was stained. The furniture was beaten to hell and covered in a shiny film.
“Come here, Lacey,” War said low, crooking his fingers from where he stood beneath the one light bulb dangling from a wire in the ceiling.
With my chin held high and my hips swaying, I went to him. It was War. I loved him. I owed him this.
War devoured me with his eyes. “Been dying to untie these strings.”
As he began unthreading the laces, I stared at his bowed head, telling myself this was good, this was what I wanted.
Once the laces were loosened, cool air rushed over my skin and my breasts. I wore no bra underneath the dress. It seemed pointless. I knew what War wanted from me tonight.
“Your tits are amazing.” He lifted his head. “You are.”
It was a nice compliment. It just wasn’t one from the person I wanted. Still. Despite the fact that he didn’t want me.
My eyes on War’s, I swallowed, blinking back emotion. I had to put Bryan out of my mind. War was my choice.
Repeating the mantra in my mind, I eliminated the space between us and removed his bandanna. Tossing it aside, I ran my fingers through his silky hair and pressed my mouth to his.
I made my choice.
Spearing his tongue into my mouth, War took over. Kissing me deeply, he walked me to the bed. His hands rushed over me as fast as the air had. He groaned into my mouth. Breaking the kiss, he gripped my shoulders, urging me onto the bed.
“My shoes,” I said, resisting.
“Keep them on. They’re sexy.” Snagging the hem of my dress, he lifted it over my head and swept his gaze over me. “Fucking hell.”
“You’ve seen me naked before.”
“Never gets old. Gets better. Love those panties.” His gaze lifted, capturing me. His eyes were blazing and dark.
As I hooked my thumbs in the scrap of lace and shimmied out of it, he gave me another sweeping glance.
His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. “Lay on the bed.”
I did as he demanded, my heart thrumming like a bird’s, trapped in the canopy above the jungle floor.
A hungry predator, War shucked his white T-shirt, boots, and socks, his eyes gleaming. He unbuckled his belt and lowered his jeans, revealing lean muscle and smooth skin. A condom packet in his grip, he slapped it onto the mattress beside my head as he climbed into the bed with me.
“War,” I said, reaching for him as he reached for me.
His ringed fingers plunged into my hair, and his lips crashed against mine. His tongue inside my mouth, he thrust deeply with urgency as he relentlessly ground his erection against me. My eyes squeezed tightly closed, I wiggled beneath him as his earthy scent enveloped me. His hardness provided friction where I needed it. I didn’t think; I just surrendered to the heat and him.
He broke the kiss and removed his boxers. “I can’t wait, Lace. I know this is your first time, but—”
“It’s okay.” I grabbed the condom and ripped the packet open, then rolled it on him. I was familiar with his dick. I knew what he liked.
Cupping my breasts, I lifted them. He lowered his head, sucking and nipping the nipples, almost too hard, but not quite. Familiar with my tits as an erogenous zone, he knew what I liked.
“War . . .” I moaned out his name.
“Lacey, I’ll give you what you need. I’m right here.”
And he was right there. After positioning himself, he drove the entire length of his dick inside me. It was different with War than with Bryan. The thought surfaced almost immediately, but I banished it.
Hot, heated, and fast, War fucked me. His rings were cold against my skin. Holding my ass cheeks in his hands, he gripped me hard, lifting me into each powerful stroke.
There weren’t many.
The first one made me gasp. I was close.
On the second, I moaned low and long as it rushed up to take me, my scalp and my toes tingling.
On the third stroke, he groaned. The piercing depth of his dick and the vibrations of his pleasure unraveled me, and I lifted my hips to him, letting go and coming undone. Planting himself inside me to the root, War came undone too.
Later, he did the drugs. Not feeling like myself, maybe just wanting to forget, I let him talk me into them too. Just a few lines of coke and a couple of pills, but I avoided the heroin. It scared me.
But what harm would the other do? I wasn’t a naive little girl anymore. This was my life now. War would take care of me.
Lace
What is that noise?
My head pounding, I woke naked with my head on a pillow and War’s heavy arm slung over me. Then I heard the noise again, shrill like an alarm.
Blinking to clear the haze from my eyes, I remembered where I was. Kyle’s.
And I realized what the noise was. A cell phone. War’s. It was lit up and dancing across the filmy surface of the dresser.
I sat up, throwing the sheet back. War stirred and rolled over, but didn’t wake.
Tiptoeing across the carpet, not because I was afraid to wake him, but because my head hurt, I grabbed his phone and was just about to click the volume off when the text message on the screen caught my eye.
RCA: Final contract attached.
I bit my lip, hesitating only a moment. I was curious and not all that surprised that War had already chosen a label before the group meeting. The dollar amount was at the top. It was an insane amount of money.
Quickly, I scrolled through the rest, paragraphs and paragraphs of legal jargon that made my mind spin. At the bottom was a bunch of blank lines for signatures with each of the band members’ names typed below them.
Only . . . my name wasn’t there.
War moaned, and I glanced back at the bed. Satisfied that he remained asleep, I returned my attention to the phone. My heart raced. I was wide awake now.
I scrolled through the contract again. Surely, I was wrong. I’d just missed seeing my name the first time. But the second and the third glance revealed I wasn’t wrong. All their names were there. Warren. Bryan. Dizzy. King. Sager.
But not mine.
I felt sick, but I swallowed it. Swallowed all of it, the terrible pill of a huge betrayal, in one horrible gagging gulp.
Gathering my clothes, I put them on, shaking.
War woke when I unlocked the door. “Where are you going, babe?” As he sat up, the sheet puddled around his lean waist.
“When were you going to tell me?” I asked, surprised by the evenness of my voice.
“Tell you what?” Raking his hair out of his eyes, War looked
confused, younger than he was, and way the fuck hung over.
“That you screwed me over. That I’m out of the group.”
His eyes flashed. “How did you find out?”
He didn’t deny it. Didn’t even attempt to deny it.
I hated him in that moment. Wanted to scratch his eyes out. Wanted to pummel him with my fists. Wanted to yell at him.
But it was me I really hated.
Stupid. Trusting. Naive girl.
Disgusted, I opened the door and left. Without another word. Without looking back.
War wasn’t looking out for me. Bryan wasn’t looking out for me. Even my own brother wasn’t.
It was just me.
War
“Where is she, motherfucker?” Dizzy shoved me into the dressing room wall so hard, my teeth rattled. “Where’s my sister?”
“I don’t know where she is,” I said, my arms at my sides.
I didn’t attempt to defend myself. Not against her brother. I couldn’t risk any move other than begging her to forgive me. I had to have her back.
“You were supposed to take care of her.” Dizzy’s amber eyes flashed with accusation, reminding me of hers.
“She. Left. Me. I didn’t leave her. I told you how it went down.”
“You didn’t tell me she was out of the contract.” His hands gripping my T-shirt, he shook me. “You liar. I bet this was your play all along.”
“I was looking out for us. For all of us.” I couldn’t believe that they all refused to acknowledge the truth of that. “They wouldn’t take us with her.”
“You were looking out for yourself,” Sager said from the corner of the room. His arms were folded over his chest.
“She cleared all her clothes from her room.” Dizzy looked freaked. He’d looked that way since he arrived. “All her things are gone. Where did she go?”
“She told War she’d be here.” Bryan stepped in, prying Dizzy’s fingers from my shirt and pulling him off me. “You can kick his ass later. We can all have a turn. But for now, we need to focus on her. Lace needs to know that we didn’t know. That it was all War.”
“Let me see her text again,” Dizzy demanded.
Straightening my shirt, I dug in my jeans pocket and handed my cell to him.
Lace: It’s over. We’re through. I think we’re clear on that. But I can’t let you go, let all of you go, without saying good-bye.
A knock sounded at the door. All heads turned toward it, but I got there first and ripped the door open. Her name was on my lips, but it wasn’t her. It was Addy.
“It’s time to go on.” She scanned the room, probably looking for blood on the floor. “The crowd’s getting restless.”
“We’ll be there,” I said firmly.
“Okay, good. I’ll go announce you.” Throwing her bar towel over her shoulder, Addy turned away.
I shrugged out of my shirt and tossed it aside. “Let’s go,” I said, making eye contact with each of them.
I got fuck you looks from them all, but they shed their shirts and followed me.
All but one. King came at us from the opposite end of the hall. The dark look on his face made me instantly more tense.
“Lace is here.”
“Thank fuck,” I said, shifting to move around him.
He put a hand on my shoulder. “She’s not alone,” he said, his tone as ominous as his expression.
A sheen of icy trepidation shrink-wrapped my skin. “Who’s she with?”
“Martin Skellin.”
Lace wasn’t here to say good-bye. She was here to fuck me over.
The story of Lace, War, and Bryan continues in Irresistible Refrain.
Available now as an individual title, or inside The Complete Tempest Rock Star Series, Books 1–6.
So much goes into writing a book. A lot of love and imagination. It is a joy to write, and I want to first thank you, the reader for picking up and reading this story. *a big (((HUG))) from me to you*
Pam Berehulke my fantastic editor. Thank you for sprinkling your magical editing dust on Southside.
My cover designer. Michelle Preast at Indie Book Covers for having the vision for this cover and not letting me settle. I love my hot rock n roll cover.
My formatter Elaine York at Allusion Publishing. She is a premier artist and so patient and caring. All my team is.
Lisa Anthony my PA. Thank you for keeping me organized, for talking me off the ledge, for being my best friend.
Teresa Marsh Jensen aka rock chick. My musical muse.
MJ Fryer. For your help right at the beginning. For telling me Lace, Bryan and War had more of a story to tell. You are my literary muse.
Thank you to the book bloggers aka super-readers for promoting this story.
My reader group, Rock All Stars. Thank you for being my encouragers. The wind beneath my wings.
A big shout out to Adriel Garza for Spanish slang advice and to his brother Jose Garza who is the inspiration for King.
Michelle Mankin is the New York Times bestselling author of the Black Cat Records series of novels.
Fall in love with a rock star.
Love Evolution, Love Revolution, and Love Resolution are a BRUTAL STRENGTH centered trilogy, combining the plot underpinnings of Shakespeare with the drama, excitement, and indisputable sexiness of the rock 'n roll industry.
Things take a bit of an edgier, once upon a time turn with the TEMPEST series. These pierced, tatted, and troubled Seattle rockers are young and on the cusp of making it big, but with serious obstacles to overcome that may prevent them from ever getting there.
Rock stars, myths, and legends collide with paranormal romance in a totally mesmerizing way in the MAGIC series.
Get swept away by temptation in the ROCK STARS, SURF AND SECOND CHANCES series.
Romance and self-discovery, the FINDING ME series is a Tempest spin off with a more experienced but familiar cast of characters.
The ROCK F*CK CLUB series is a girl-power fueled reality show with the girls ranking the rock stars.
The ONCE UPON A ROCK STAR series is sexy modern-day fairytale retellings.
When Michelle is not prowling the streets of her Texas town listening to her rock or NOLA funk music much too loud, she is putting her daydreams down on paper or traveling the world with her family and friends, sometimes for real, and sometimes just for pretend.
BRUTAL STRENGTH series:
Love Evolution
Love Revolution
Love Resolution
Love Rock’ollection
TEMPEST series (also available in audio):
SOUTHSIDE HIGH
Irresistible Refrain
Enticing Interlude
Captivating Bridge
Relentless Rhythm
Tempest Raging
Tempting Tempo
Scandalous Beat
The Complete Tempest Rock Star Series, books 1-6
The MAGIC series (also available in audio):
Strange Magic
Dream Magic
Twisted Magic
ROCK STARS, SURF AND SECOND CHANCES series (also available in audio):
Outside
Riptide
Oceanside
High Tide
Island Side
The Complete Rock Stars, Surf and Second Chances Series, Books 1-5
FINDING ME series (also available in audio):
Find Me
Remember Me
Keep Me
ROCK F*CK CLUB Girls Ranking the Rock Stars series (also available in audio):
ROCK F*CK CLUB (Girls Ranking the Rock Stars, Book #1)
ROCK F*CK CLUB (Girls Ranking the Rock Stars, Book #2)
ROCK F*CK CLUB (Girls Ranking the Rock Stars, Book #3)
ROCK F*CK CLUB (Girls Ranking the Rock Stars, Book #4)
ROCK F*CK CLUB (Girls Ranking the Rock Stars, Book #5)
ROCK F*CK CLUB BOX SET BOOKS 1-5
ROCK F*CK CLUB (Girls Ranking the Rock Stars, Book #6)
The Right Man
The Right Wish
The Right Wrong
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Southside High Page 27
