“Holy shit,” raked from my screaming lungs, the air coming in jagged heaves when I realized I’d been one distracted driver away from being toast.
My fault.
But the entirety of this load of bullshit was, wasn’t it? I needed not to forget that.
Didn’t give myself time to process or apologize, adrenaline the driving force as I shoved off the car and redoubled my efforts.
Frantic.
Desperate to get to whoever this bastard was who had the balls to show up here.
In my hometown.
On the night of my sister’s engagement party.
Fact that it was undoubtedly not a coincidence only heated my blood another hundred degrees.
Once I hit the opposite sidewalk, Royce was once again right there, taking up my back.
My attention skated through the gloom. Chasing down vapor.
I rounded the building at the corner, glancing both ways before I raced for the park that sat sleeping on the other side of the street and took up an entire city block.
Lush trees grew up like a living hedge of protection, and playgrounds sat at all four corners. Fields for ballgames were in the middle.
In the daylight, it would be filled with children and laughter.
Families spending time together.
This place meant for everything right.
But in the lapping darkness, it reeked of depravity.
Ominous whispers and foreboding howls.
I dove right into the middle of it.
Footsteps pounded just behind and to my right. “You see him?” Royce panted.
“No. Go right. I’ll take the left.”
He ducked out, flying through a deserted playground while I drove deeper toward the fields. Where it would be most secluded.
A frenzy burned inside. I had to find him.
My eyes searched.
My heart manic.
Felt like I fucking looked for days.
For a year.
Finally, I came to a plodding stop when I saw Royce coming out of a row of bushes that lined one of the fields.
“You catch sight of him?” I called, so out of breath I was halfway to bending in two.
Royce’s expression was grim.
“Fucker’s dust, man. Couldn’t even pick up a trace.”
“Damn it,” I spat at the ground.
I tipped my face toward the night sky and inhaled a couple of long, cleansing breaths, planting my hands on my hips like it might stop me from coming undone.
Royce approached. “You get a look at his face?”
My lips pressed into a thin line. “Nope. Saw about the same thing as you.”
His brow twisted in speculation. “Then how did you know someone was at the party?”
“Just…felt it.”
He frowned. “You felt it?”
“Yup.”
“You working off some psychic shit now?”
I tossed him a scowl. “Nope. Just working off my gut.”
And my gut had every single hair on my body lifting on edge.
Awareness tripping my consciousness into high alert. Royce tipped his attention to the side, contemplating before he looked back at me, the words quieted and concealed, like we might have an audience standing around us when we were surrounded by the stifling silence.
“Maybe…maybe you’re just gettin’ paranoid, man.”
My head shook. “No. Asshole ran. Proof enough for me.”
His nod was glum because he knew it, too. “Honest, this is about the last thing I want to hear at my engagement party.”
“Not what I wanted to hear, either.” Terror ridged my spine, and I gulped before I forced myself to speak. “Think someone is picking up a trail.”
“Or maybe they’re just sniffing around. With the trial coming up, assholes are going to be out in full force, looking for a weakness. Fucker was most likely here for Emily or me, not you.”
His teeth ground when he said it, his dark stare making another pass through the vacancy, aching for the kill.
No question, the guy would give it all for my sister.
Royce Reed? He’d been the Mylton Records exec who’d been sent to see to it that our band, Carolina George, signed on the dotted line with the mega record label. At the time, I hadn’t known he’d had ulterior motives—he was in it to take down his piece-of-shit stepfather, Karl Fitzgerald, who’d been the record label’s CEO.
“You don’t actually think my stepfather and Cory Douglas are gonna go down without a fight, do you? After what I took from them?” Anger leaked from the statement.
Royce had undermined his stepfather’s entire criminal organization and tossed him from his wicked throne. Found evidence of the vile and depraved acts Karl Fitzgerald was championing—serving up a lifestyle of sex, drugs & rock ‘n’ roll.
No surprise there.
Except he’d taken it to whole new levels. Throwing lavish parties, drugs laid out on a silver platter in front of you, women or men there to entertain, naked and ready.
Only they weren’t willing.
Not present of their own accord.
Forced into servitude.
Indentured to Karl and his seedy empire.
Too many artists were far too happy to take a slide into his perverted playground.
Little did they know they were being photographed. The images used to manipulate Mylton Records’ artists into doing what he wanted. Siphoning from their royalties. Forcing them into amended contracts that completely screwed them. A leash tied around their necks. Call me a judgmental prick, but I knew firsthand most of them deserved it.
Problem was, I’d ended up in some of those pictures, but not because I’d been game to overindulge in what wasn’t mine.
When Royce had struck, presenting the evidence that’d had Karl Fitzgerald and one of his top musicians, Cory Douglas, arrested, I’d struck, too.
Desperate to do something right. But it was dangerous and probably would cost me my life.
Because that empire went so much deeper than anyone knew.
But I didn’t care. Nothing mattered but setting this one thing right.
I’d already lost everything else that mattered to me.
Royce was the only one who knew. The only one I trusted. Him and Kade.
I angled in closer, my tone a low hiss. “And you think they’re not gonna notice what I took from them? You think that’s just gonna slide? You and I both know Karl was nothing but a puppet. A fall guy. And you know that monster sitting up there on his throne playing Master of the World is pissed. You know he’ll do whatever it takes not to be exposed. And if he’s caught onto my trail? Coming back here would be the stupidest thing I could have done.”
Might as well have put up a welcome sign with the way I’d invited them to my doorstep. Drawing them close to the people I wanted them farthest from.
Royce set his hand on my shoulder. “Whether they’re here for you or me, we’re in this together. We just have to play it cool until we make it to trial, you get me?”
I gave him a rigid nod and looked off into the distance when I answered, “Yeah.”
Problem was, how we were actually going to get there. How we could pull this off when everything was against us.
Royce straightened his suit jacket. “Good. We need to get back to the party before someone notices we’re gone.”
“My sister will have your ass.”
He grinned as we started back in the direction of the hotel. “Nah. She asked me to watch over you.”