Cherry Beats

by Vicki James

  “Whether you want the money or not, I’d like to cover the cost. If you don’t want it, put it in a fund for your daughter.” Presley glanced over his shoulder, staring directly at me with a look of adoration on his face. “Tess talks about you guys a lot. Almost as much as Bryan fucking Adams.”

  I heard Bourbon’s loud laughter through the speaker, and I couldn’t help but throw my face into my hands and shake my head in amusement.

  “If you need any extra security at BB’s, too, let me know. There’s a good crew who freelance that I can send your way, no matter the cost. Nah, man, listen… I get it. The band, the name, and now Cherr—I mean Tess being in the media, you’re going to get attention you don’t even need. Consider it a favour to me to accept the help. I’d like to protect the place that holds a lot of memories for me.”

  When I peeked up through my parted fingers, Presley was still staring at me, his expression thoughtful.

  “If that’s what you want, I’ll make it happen.” He paused. “We have a deal?” he asked Bourbon, his eyes blazing with delight when he received whatever answer Bourbon gave. “I’ll put her on.”

  He held the phone out to me without saying a word, and I snatched it from him and narrowed my eyes before I pressed it to my ear.

  “Shit, dolly, what the hell have you got yourself into?” Bourbon asked in a rush.

  Presley was standing at the side of the bed, his cup pressed against his smirking mouth while he watched me squirm.

  “I don’t know, boss. Think I went ahead and fell for a stupid rock star.”

  Presley’s smile grew against his coffee.

  “You sure about this?” Bourbon asked. “Life will never be the same now. Just be—”

  “Bourbon?” I cut in. “You don’t have to worry. I’ll be okay. More than okay.”

  “That’s like telling me not to worry about Fliss. You’re a part of my life now, whether you like it or not.”

  “I promise that if anything bad happens or goes wrong, you’re the first guy I’ll run to.”

  “No matter what time or day of the week?”

  “No matter when.”

  He took a moment before he spoke, and I heard the way he scratched the stubble on his chin close to the speaker. “Okay, Tess, but make sure you come back soon. You belong here.”

  The call ended, and I lowered the phone into my lap slowly.

  “Everything okay?” Presley crawled onto the bed beside me, leaning on one arm while his other took my hand and squeezed it tight. “Or am I in serious trouble for taking matters into my own hands?”

  “Does it even matter to you if I said you were in serious trouble?”

  “Nope.”

  “Didn’t think so.” I shook my head and smiled at him and his adorable puppy dog eyes as he brought my hand to his mouth and placed a tender kiss there. “But whether you like it or not, I do need to go home, Presley.”

  His face fell instantly. I held his gaze, searching his eyes.

  “Can Dex pick me up?”

  “Cherry…don’t…”

  “Shh.” I pressed a palm to his bare chest, feeling the way his heart beat wildly beneath it. “Unless you want me to stay here and wear your T-shirts for the next week, I need to go home and pack some things. I can’t live out of my tiny bag for long.”

  Presley scowled lightly, his eyes flying across every inch of my face.

  “While I’m there, maybe I can drop in those leather trousers of mine you love so much.”

  His smile broke free, flashing his pearly white teeth, creating lines of happiness around the edges of his eyes.

  Of all the looks he had, that had quickly become my favourite.

  Chapter Thirty

  Presley said he wanted to take the drive back to Hollings Hill with me, but Julia had reminded him that he had a meeting in the hotel suite that night with the rest of the band. It may have been their night off, but that didn’t mean they didn’t have a set list to figure out and rehearsals to plan if they were going to go ahead with their appearance at TriFest. I could tell he’d been reluctant to let me go alone, even when I made a promise that I’d be as quick as I could possibly be.

  Uncle Dex didn’t say anything of much significance on the way back to my place, despite the hour’s drive. We made general chit chat, mainly about music. I found out he was a wealthy man in his own right after once inventing some tool that graphic designers now use in their everyday lives. He told me the technicalities of it, but I couldn’t really follow. The only technological thing I could use without a manual was my iPhone. He’d been living off that one invention for the last five years, which gave him the freedom to roam around and be at Presley’s beck and call whenever he clicked his fingers.

  I didn’t need to delve into the hows and whys of him doing what he did for his nephew. It was obviously his way of honouring his late brother, and it only made me love Dex more—and not just because he looked like Jackson Maine from A Star is Born. If Molly ever met him, she’d be spreading herself over him like a rash. That movie was ingrained on her soul.

  “Look at that,” Dex said, nodding up ahead to my building. “All peaceful on the battlefield.”

  I stared out of the windscreen to look for myself. The hours I’d been gone were countable, yet life felt so different already, Hollings Hill now smaller somehow.

  “Did you expect people to be here?” I asked.

  Dex shrugged. “You never know where the media vermin will show up.”

  He pulled into the secure car park, and I gave him the code to open the iron gates. Once we were parked inside and the gates had shut behind us without anyone following us through, Dex turned off the engine and shuffled on his bum to face me.

  “You sure you don’t want me to come up with you?”

  “No offence,” I said, pressing a hand down on the door handle. “But I think I’m going to enjoy this few minutes of peace and quiet. It might be the last time I get to hear my own thoughts for a while.”

  “Excellent point.” He smiled. “I’ll be right here waiting.”

  Knowing he was there made me feel better. I made my way inside and up to my apartment, feeling the exhaustion of the previous week beginning to bleed into my vision. If I were to climb on top of my bed now, I’d be asleep within ten seconds, and nobody would be able to wake me for a week.

  I dragged my feet to my front door, pushed the key in and opened it up slowly. As soon as I realised I’d left the light on, I scowled to myself.

  But I couldn’t have. I knew I hadn’t. It had been the middle of the night, and I’d left Molly in bed. Unless she’d left it on by mistake.

  “Molly,” I whispered to myself, relief flooding me. Maybe she’d stayed there to guard the place as soon as she’d seen that the media had latched onto finding out exactly who I was. I sure did love my best friend. “Molly!” I called out, throwing my keys onto the sofa the second the door slammed shut behind me. “Mol?”

  I heard her footsteps near the bathroom, followed by the flush of the toilet. Folding my arms over my chest, I cocked a hip and waited to see her face with a small smirk in place. The tap turned on, then off a few seconds later.

  “I hope you used soap on those…” My voice trailed off the second my brother Freddie came into view.

  His expression was filled with the usual arrogance, his eyes narrowed, and his cocky grin in place.

  “Freddie? What the hell are you doing here?”

  “Hey, sis. How’s it going? Yeah, I’m really well, thanks. I know you are, too, right?” He walked through the living room and into the little kitchenette, and I heard him open the fridge, grab a beer and pop the top before he walked back in and dropped himself onto the sofa without a care in the world. He lifted the remote control and aimed it at the TV to turn it on.

  “Get the fuck out of my apartment,” I demanded as calmly as I could.

  Freddie tilted his head to one side and continued to flick through the channels, ignoring me and turning the vol
ume up to drown me out. Whatever music channel he’d landed on just so happened to be playing Youth Gone Wild’s Wylde, the sound of Rhett’s smoky voice forcing me to shake my head and move to stand in front of my irritating younger brother.

  “How did you get in here?” I asked sharply.

  Freddie tried to look around me, but I blocked his view until he looked up through smug eyes and tipped his beer to his mouth. Scrap that. He tipped my beer to his mouth. I immediately snatched it out of his hand, leaving him sitting there with his lips parted and beer dripping from them. His hand hung in the air for a few seconds before he used it to wipe the corners of his mouth.

  “Rude,” he eventually said.

  “Get out.”

  “No.”

  “Freddie!”

  “Tessa!” he cried, mimicking my obviously whiney voice. “You’re already sounding like a dumb bimbo, you know that, right? Back off, princess.” He pointed to the screen behind me. “Can’t blame a guy for wanting to get to know his future brother-in-law, can you?”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “What are you doing here?”

  “I could ask you the same question. I thought you were in Lahndan getting it on with Justin Bieber.”

  “Not that it’s any of your business, but I’m here to get some… things.”

  “What kind of things?”

  “Clothes, toiletries, not that I need to explain to you what I’m doing in my own apartment.”

  “The king of rock ‘n’ roll can’t just shove a credit card in your pussy and tell you to hit Bond Street like a real musician would? What a lame-o.”

  “Some of us don’t like taking what doesn’t belong to us… what we haven’t earned. Some of us aren’t complete freeloaders just because we have Lisbon as our last name, okay?”

  He curled his nose and raised a brow. “Some of us need to stop being so self-righteous. There’s nothing wrong with getting what you can, where you can. Why work hard for something when you can get it for free?”

  “So said the benefit fraud’s son.”

  “Oo, don’t let Dad hear you talking about him like that. He’s already pissed with you.”

  I swallowed, shifting around on my feet and folding my arms over my chest again. Okay, so I wasn’t close with my parents or anything—I got that. I wasn’t the daughter they’d hoped for. Maybe I spoke too much, wanted too much, demanded a better life than they had, but that didn’t mean I deserved their derision and constant disappointment.

  “Although Mum is thrilled with her new-found fame.” Freddie’s sarcasm oozed from him, and he leaned forward to snatch the beer from my hand. I didn’t fight him. Thoughts of my parents and unnecessary concern for them filled me. As much as I was distant, I didn’t want my decisions to affect their lives.

  It shouldn’t have to be that way.

  “What… what do you mean by that?” I asked.

  Freddie took a sip of his beer, his eyes holding mine until he lowered it slowly. “Mum is already talking about how she can have her hair for her backstage passes to all of Presley’s concerts. She’s talking premieres, Hollywood, following you around like the doting mother who is your best friend—”

  “Bullshit,” I scoffed.

  “Ridiculous, isn’t it?” He shook his head. “But you’ve made her so proud, getting screwed by a man every girl and their handbag-dog wants to use as a bone. Or boner.”

  “You’re disgusting, Freddie.”

  “Yeah, and you’re selling your soul to the devil in leather. What do I care? Everyone makes their own choices. Leave me to make mine, and I’ll leave you to make yours.”

  “You can’t stay here. This is my home. You’ll use it, abuse it, wreck it, and I’m not having you ruining the one thing I’ve worked my fingers to the wick for. It isn’t fair.”

  He pushed up sharply, and I stumbled back, never taking my eyes off him as he perched himself on the edge of the sofa and let his bottle of beer dangle between his legs. “You know what isn’t fair, big sis? It isn’t fair how I get stuck with them at home. It isn’t fair that I have to listen to Mum cooing over you and Mr Hot Shot, while Dad seethes in the corner, petrified Mum is going to get noticed on camera by Mel fucking Gibson or Liam bastard Neeson. It isn’t fair that everyone—people who haven’t spoken to me for years—are suddenly calling me and asking me out for a beer in the hopes I can get them closer to your bit of dick.”

  “This will all be old news soon. I’ll be back home working in BB’s in no time. Everyone’s being dramatic, as usual.”

  He laughed like a hyena. “If you think you’re returning to your old lifestyle anytime soon, Tess, you’re delusional. The chemicals in your hair dye are messing with your fucking head.”

  “Freddie…”

  “No.” He shook his head. “Don’t give me your bullshit, sis. I don’t care for it. Let me tell you how it’s going to go, okay?”

  I blinked down at him, not knowing who he was anymore or how someone like him could be related to me.

  “I’m going to stay here for a while. I’ll look after the place.”

  I scoffed again and shook my head, but Freddie held up his hand in warning.

  “And you, my gorgeous, newly-famous sibling, are going to go back to the big city, cosy up to ol’ blue eyes, and you’re going to forget about Hollings Hill for a while. You’re going to give your brother a bit of freedom, and you’re going to do it without telling me a bunch of rules and giving me a bunch of lectures because the truth is, you think you know me when you really don’t. Stop treating me like a kid, and I’ll try to stop acting like one.”

  “You’re making it sound like I don’t have a choice, Freddie.”

  “Well, you don’t.” He laughed confidently, leaning back into the sofa and throwing an arm over the back of it.

  “What does that mean?” I scowled.

  “It means that if you don’t let me stay here while you’re out of town, I’ll go to the newspapers about you.”

  “What did you just say to me?” I asked as my heartbeat quickened with anger.

  “I’ve already had a shit load of phone calls and messages today. Emails, too. They’re relentless, aren’t they? Especially that one woman. What was her name again? Jay… June… Janice?”

  “Janey Dominic?”

  Freddie clicked his fingers and pointed at me. “That’s the babe.”

  “There’s nothing to tell about me, and you know it. You’d have to lie… to make stuff up about your own sister.”

  “And we both know how convincing I can be. Remember all those times when we were growing up, and I got you in trouble with Dad when you hadn’t done anything?” He pointed to his face. “It’s the eyes and the dimples. Makes people love me.”

  “I fucking despise you,” I spat.

  I didn’t. Deep down, I loved him because it was ingrained in me that I had to. But on the surface, and right there and then, I despised the cretin that was my brother.

  “Sucks to be you.” He smiled flatly and clicked his tongue.

  “I can’t believe you’d do that to me.”

  “Like I said… you don’t know me at all. You never have.”

  I spun in a circle, catching sight of Presley in Youth Gone Wild’s music video. I watched as his limbs flew across his drum kit, his hair covering his face as the sweat poured off of his tanned skin. I loved him in that video. I loved him in all of them. I loved him, and I wasn’t about to let my shitty little brother ruin my high.

  Fighting every instinct in my body, I spun back to Freddie and schooled my face. He looked up, expecting The Beast only to be faced with a calm, grungier version of Belle.

  “Sure, Freddie,” I said sweetly, unfolding my arms and gesturing to the walls of my apartment. “You stay here while I’m out of town. You make this your home. What’s mine is yours, right?”

  His smile faded, and his brows creased together as he watched me.

  “I just hope you know that Molly has a key, too, and she… well, we all
know what Molly can be like. Good luck with that. Good luck with it all.” I sighed and walked over to my bedroom, calling back over my shoulder. “Good luck with your miserable, pathetic, attention-seeking life.”

  I slammed my bedroom door shut, pressing my back and hands against it, and closing my eyes.

  “I don’t need any of you,” I whispered to myself. “I’ve never needed any of you.”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  My mood was sombre when I got in the car. Uncle Dex noticed it straight away. He only asked once if I was okay, and that was when he took my small suitcase and two shoulder bags from me and dropped them into the boot of his car.

  We were driving through the main street of Hollings Hill when BB’s came into view. The neon lights were the central beacon of my home town, and I asked Dex to slow down as we crawled by. It was heaving, packed to the rafters like never before. I got a brief glimpse of Bourbon and Elle behind the bar before we rolled away.

  I hadn’t realised how much I was leaning against the car door and pressing myself against the window until Dex cleared his throat, forcing me to blink and swallow down the nausea that was threatening to rise.

  Blackmailed by my own family.

  Imagine if Janey Dominic got a hold of that, what a headline it would be:

  Presley West swaps Victoria’s Secret models for The Jeremy Kyle show contestants.

  Is he or isn’t an idiot?

  Results in after the break… up.

  “Dex?” I spoke quietly.

  “Anything you want, Tessa,” he answered without hesitation.

  “You don’t even know what I’m asking.”

  “As long as it takes that look out of your eyes before we get back to Presley, I don’t care.”

  I smiled, despite my own emotions, and I reached for my phone in the pocket of my jeans. When I pulled it out, I saw it was dead. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d thought to put it on charge—I’d been so lost in Presley’s world, and Presley himself. Groaning, I shoved it back inside my jeans and rubbed my palms along my thighs.