I shrugged, trying to play it off as nothing important. “First Bass,” I told her and her eyes softened. I could pretend all day, but Mom could see through it in a heartbeat.
“Good. I’m glad you’ve finally decided to go.” She crossed her arms over her spectacular, and completely natural, rack. “Harris was disappointed when you didn’t make opening night, Lu. He played it off like it was nothing, but I know that boy too well not to have seen it in his eyes.”
I lowered my gaze, not wanting her to see how much what she said affected me. “I’m sorry, Mom.”
“I’m not the one you should be apologizing to, baby. Harris is.” Soft hands cupped my cheek, forcing me to meet her gaze. “Go, have fun. Then bring Kin home with you. Make sure you tell her that she is welcome here anytime she needs to escape… that woman.”
I grimaced. It was no secret that my mom despised Jillian Montez, Kin’s stepmother. They had never gotten along and weren’t likely ever to. Between Mom and Aunt Emmie, I was sure that Jillian was on some most hated lists that would require her to one day need her own personal bodyguard to attend the parent-teacher conferences at my school. “I tell her that every day, Mom,” I assured her.
“I really like her, Lucy. I’m glad you found a good friend like her.” Her eyes turned sad and I had to look away again, unable to stand that look. My mom should never have to look sad. Never. “I hope you and Harris get to talk, baby. And no matter what your dad says, I think you two should continue your friendship.”
I didn’t want to go where she was taking this conversation all of a sudden. So I stepped forward, kissed her cheek and moved around her. “The boys are in my room, Mom.”
That effectively stopped whatever she might have said about me and Harris and our friendship. Her nose flared and she stormed into my room. “Lyric Andrew Thornton, the next time you step outside this house you will be thirty. You two are so grounded.”
Chapter 2
Lucy
The crowd outside First Bass was exactly how Kin had described it. Six blocks of people trying to get inside the hottest new club in Los Angeles. Marcus pulled to a stop at the front of the line and stepped out of the driver’s seat of my Range Rover. He gave the keys over to a valet before opening the back door and offering me his hand.
I gave him a small smile and let him help me out as cameras flashed in my face and people started calling my name. Ugh, I hated this part of going out. Because I went out so rarely the paps always ate it up when they spotted me. I was the rock star’s reclusive daughter, at least that was what the paps always said when they printed their BS about me in their weekly tabloids.
Kin climbed out behind me and glared as the cameras started flashing even more. Up until a few weeks ago, Kin had lived in relative peace from the paparazzi. But then her mother had died and she’d been forced to come to LA and live with her actor/director father and his new family. From the day she’d stepped off the plane with her dad, the paps had been hounding her every step outside of home, school, and my house.
Pulling her sunglasses on to shield her eyes, she grabbed my hand and tugged me toward the huge bouncer at the front of the line. The big, dark-skinned man had a headset in one ear and a list in his hand. When we approached him with Marcus right behind us, the bouncer gave us a bored look.
“Back of the line, ladies,” he told us before I could even open my mouth.
I forced a smile to my lips as I pulled my hand free from Kin’s and took out my ID. Honestly, after three weeks of not responding to Harris’s email I didn’t even know if he would still have me on his VIP list, but I was still going to try. Part of me wanted to see him just as much as he’d said he wanted to see me. “I’m Lucy Thornton. Harris Cutter is expecting me.”
The man lifted his brows skeptically but one look from the man standing behind me and he lowered his gaze to his list. I turned a smirk on Marcus. There were times, much like this one, that it paid to have someone with big muscles and a mean-looking face at your back. My bodyguard didn’t even lift his lips at me, but I was rewarded with a quick wink before he turned his menacing gaze back to the man with the clipboard.
After a moment of looking over all the sheets of paper with the list of people allowed immediate entrance, the big man stepped to the side, letting us pass. “I’m not sure where Mr. Cutter is at the moment, Miss Thornton, but you can go straight up to the VIP lounge on the second floor. Take the stairs to your immediate left once you step through the entrance. Tiny will be waiting to let you up.”
I nodded before taking Kin’s hand once more and stepped inside the club. As soon as the door opened I was deafened by the blast of loud music echoing off the walls. I grimaced. This was nearly as bad as being backstage at one of my dad’s concerts. I needed earplugs for that, and I realized I was probably going to need them tonight.
Beside me, Kin jerked at the loudness and plugged a finger into her left ear. She’d lost the hearing in her right ear when she was a toddler. The way she listened to music with the volume turned up so loud it was a wonder she hadn’t lost the hearing in the left yet. Behind us, Marcus stood close and nudged us toward the man standing by the stairs on our left.
If I’d thought the bouncer out front was huge, I’d been seriously wrong. Tiny did not live up to his name, or maybe it was just a joke because Tiny was anything but tiny. He stood at least seven feet tall dressed in jeans and a black T-shirt that was definitely in danger of being ripped apart if he so much as breathed the wrong way. There were muscles on top of muscles on top of even more muscles. Holy crap, the man was scary.
Unconsciously, I took a step back, wanting closer to Marcus.
Tiny took a step forward and offered his hand. “Miss Thornton?” His voice was just as scary as the rest of him, sounding naturally rough and kind of growly. Kin’s fingers tightened around my own and seeing our obvious fear he grinned, transforming his face into something almost soft. Almost. “It’s a pleasure to have you with us tonight, Miss Thornton. You and your party should go on up. There are other VIPs in attendance tonight, but Mr. Cutter has yet to come out of his office… Would you like for me to alert him to your arrival?”
Without hesitating, I shook my head. I was in First Bass, which was as far as I could willingly go for the moment. I needed a little time to collect myself before I saw Harris again for the first time in years. I didn’t know if what I’d once felt for my old best friend would overwhelm me or not. I didn’t want to make a fool of myself. “No, I’m sure he will find me in his own time. In fact, I’d like to surprise him, so please don’t let him know I’m here at all.”
Tiny inclined his head in acceptance and stepped back to let us up the stairs. I pushed Kin in front of me, not wanting to be the first one to enter the VIP lounge. It was hard to tell who might be up there at the moment. It was early still, just after eight, but First Bass was the place to be any night of the week, especially on Saturday night.
By the time we got to the top of the stairs Kin had removed her sunglasses. It was so dimly lit that she had to or risked falling down the stairs. As soon as we reached the top she didn’t give me more than a second to glance around before pulling me toward the bar on the far side of the room, but at least I got a quick feel of the layout.
The top floor made up the VIP lounge with the center of the room railed in so that people could stand and look over at the dance floor below. Leather couches were spread out around the room. Dim lighting cast a soft glow over the room.
The bartender, a seriously hot guy with a faux hawk and the longest lashes I’ve ever seen in my life gave me a grin when he turned from placing two bottles of imported beer in front of the three guys beside us. “What will it be, angel?”
I could have flashed him my fake ID, but with Marcus behind us I knew that would only lead to my dad having a coronary. “Ginger ale,” I told him instead of the beer that I would have rather had.
His smile didn’t even dim as he turned his gaze on Kin. “And you?”
br /> Kin shot a glance behind me at Marcus and sighed. “Same.”
“You got it.” He had our drinks set down in front of us quicker than I would have expected and I handed over my credit card. “Just start a tab,” I told him and he gave a nod before going to the end of the bar to set it up.
I turned to face Marcus. “You should get yourself a drink. Just add it to the tab.”
“I’m good for now, Lucy,” he assured me, glancing around the room like he expected someone to suddenly try to murder or kidnap me. After a moment he disappeared into a corner where I knew he would spend the night watching me like a hawk. I was thankful that he was going to give us a little privacy to enjoy our night.
The bartender returned with my card and a folded piece of paper. When he handed both over, his fingers held onto my hand for a moment longer as he leaned forward. “My number, baby. Call me,” he murmured just loud enough for me to hear over the music.
Heat filled my cheeks and I bit my lip as I pulled away, looking up at the guy through my lashes. “Maybe,” I murmured. No way was I going to straight-up say no to this guy, but I knew that I wasn’t ever going to call him. Number one, because my dad would probably kill this guy. And two? Well, as yummy as he looked, he just didn’t do anything for me.
Very few guys had ever really caught my attention. It took more than a nice face and hot body to really stand out to me. Yeah, I was a freak like that. But it didn’t mean I didn’t like to look. And I could look at Mr. Bartender all night long.
He laughed. “That’s better than the ‘hell no’ I was expecting.” He leaned against the bar top, showing me that his arms were rock hard with muscles. “I’m Nate.”
“Lucy,” I told him. “This is Kin.”
Nate’s eyes shot to Kin for a moment and he nodded at her before turning those killer eyes with their amazing eyelashes back on me. “If you need anything, just let me know. I’m sure I can take care of it for you.”
“Okay.” I bit my lip again. I’ve had guys hit on me plenty of times since I’d developed all my curves, but most guys didn’t have the balls to try it once they knew who I was. They knew the reputation of my dad and his Demon’s Wings bandmates. They were overprotective and would castrate anyone who they thought wanted in my pants.
Someone called out for Nate from the other end of the bar and he gave me a wink before going to get the guy his drink. Picking up my drink, I turned to face Kin who was taking in the rest of the room with wide eyes. I glanced around, taking note of all the things I hadn’t gotten to see earlier.
This was Harris’s dream. He’d confided in me plenty of times about his vision for his future when we had been close. He hadn’t wanted to be a rock star like his dad. He’d wanted his own club where people could relax but also where new talent could come in on open-mike nights and maybe get discovered by some of the connections he had made growing up in the rock world.
That the place was this amazing and this popular made me proud of the boy who had once been my favorite person in the world.
“Lucy!”
I turned when I heard a girl calling my name to find Jenna Stevenson stumbling across the room toward us. My mouth fell open when I saw Jenna for the first time in months. I guess you could say she was kind of like a cousin to me, considering how close our families were. Jenna’s brothers were my dad’s bandmates in Demon’s Wings but it was a little more complicated than that.
The last time I had seen Jenna she’d just came back from Italy where she had been spending a semester studying abroad. She’d looked beautiful, healthy. I hadn’t really given her so much as a fleeting thought since I’d last seen her and no one had really mentioned her to me. So this Jenna, the one drunkenly making her way toward me, was a very big surprise.
Her long dark hair was hanging in a tangled mess around her thin shoulders and her makeup was smeared under her bloodshot blue-gray eyes. She had a glass of champagne in one hand, but the contents kept spilling as she walked and she barely had half a glass by the time she reached us.
When her thin arms wrapped around me I nearly gagged at the smell of something bitter on her breath that had nothing to do with what she was drinking. Jenna was high as a kite. If any of her siblings could see her right that moment I was sure that she would be put on a plane back to her parents by morning. Even though she was twenty-two years old, her brothers supported her while she lived her dream of being an artist.
“Damn, babe, you look hot,” Jenna gushed as she stepped back. Her eyes roamed me from top to bottom and I knew that if she had been sober she definitely wouldn’t have been checking me out. Jenna was one hundred percent a lesbian, but she had never come on to me before.
I did a little eyeing of my own, taking in her barely-there dress that didn’t quite cover what needed covering. She wore five-inch heels that in no way helped her drunkenness as she stumbled back a step or two. And her makeup was something new. Jenna had never been what you’d say a girly girl; makeup was not something she had ever been comfortable putting on. A little liner, some gloss and she had always been ready to go. Now? Her face looked like a clown’s makeup bag had thrown up all over her beautiful face.
“I wasn’t expecting to see you here,” Jenna said before taking a gulp from her glass. “Harris has been in a bad mood for weeks now. Did you two have a fight?”
“I haven’t seen him to have fought with him, Jenna.” I reached out to steady her when she bumped into a group of people heading toward the bar. When they glared at her over their shoulders I saw that one was the new ‘it’ guy in the latest tween movie and the other two were his co-stars. “Let’s sit down, Jen.” I turned to Kin who was eyeing Jenna like she had three heads. “Do you see a free couch or anything?”
“Wow, who’s this?” Jenna asked, turning her eyes on Kin for the first time. “Hi, I’m Jenna.”
“This is Kin,” I introduced when Kin just kept staring at her.
“Like Barbie and Ken?” Jenna snorted out a laugh at her own joke as I half carried her to the closest couch. As soon as we reached it I pushed her onto it and she flopped down ungracefully, not even bothering to adjust her dress as she swallowed the rest of her drink. At least she had on underwear, which was made overly obvious from the way she let her legs hang open. Great.
“Wow, she’s a barrel of laughs. Are we going to have to babysit her all night?” Kin grumbled as she looked down at Jenna.
“No way,” I assured her.
I knew that Jenna and Harris had been sharing an apartment since they had started college. Which made me wonder if this was something that he was a part of? If Jenna was this high did Harris help her get this way? And if so, did that mean he was into drugs too?
My heart clenched at the possibility even as my anger started to boil. I was not going to deal with this kind of crap. No way. I’d seen what drugs could do to you, what it could turn you into. I wanted no part of it.
Glancing around, I spotted Marcus watching us closely. I nodded at him and he came over, a dark frown on his face. “Problems?”
“Yeah. As soon as I get Harris over here to deal with her, we’re leaving.”
Chapter 3
Harris
I glared at the guy sitting on the other side of my desk. His short, dark blond hair was carelessly styled and the scruff from two days’ worth of beard made him look like he didn’t give a damn about his appearance. I knew that he didn’t, but that didn’t seem to matter to the hordes of girls who flocked to him. Maybe it was that fucking voice of his that I likened to my dad’s bandmate, Axton Cage. Maybe it was those blue eyes that always seemed to be thoughtful. I didn’t know, didn’t give a shit. At the moment I didn’t give two fucks about anything.
It wasn’t that I was pissed at him. I was pissed at everything lately.
It was all her fault.
Had our friendship meant so little to her that she couldn’t even stop by for ten goddamn minutes to see what I’d accomplished on my own? What I’d broken my back crea
ting with no help from my rock star father other than the trust fund he’d set up for me when I was five? She knew how important First Bass was to me, and she couldn’t even return an email?
“Dude, are you planning on telling me what the hell I’ve done or you just gonna sit there and give me the stare of death?” Jace St. Charles grumbled as he shifted in his seat.
I rubbed a hand over my face¸ forcing myself to focus on the here and now and not Lucy Thornton or the way she was twisting my insides into knots. “Sorry, bro. I’m just moody.”
“Yeah, I can see that. You haven’t been diving into the coke like Jenna, have you?” Jace gave me a disgusted glare, leaning forward to look at my eyes a little closer.
I scowled. Jenna had gotten into the whole drug scene recently when she’d met her new girlfriend. Now her diet was comprised of coke and booze. I was worried about her, but I had little room to judge. I’d spent a few months on that fast track to hell when I was seventeen. I just needed to keep a closer eye on my friend and roommate. If she didn’t slow down, then I would have to tell her sister, Natalie. That Natalie was also my stepmother only made the whole thing that much trickier if I had to go that direction.
“No, man. I haven’t touched that stuff in years. Don’t plan on ever touching it again.” I leaned back in my chair and gave him a weary grin. “Now, what were you saying about Thursday’s show?”
I’d found Jace in Bristol, Tennessee, seven months ago. He and his band had been playing some seedy bar downtown and I’d happened to hear them playing. I’d offered them all a contract to play at First Bass once a week for a year with the promise that they would have either a manager contract or a record deal at the end of that year. They had come out, skeptical of my offer. But the first week that they had played, Emmie Armstrong had been sitting in the back with her husband and my parents. By the end of the night Emmie had offered Jace and his entire band a contract that would take effect as soon as their year was up at First Bass.