Lasting Lyric (24 page)

Feeling his strong lips overpower my own helped me relax. I welcomed his strength to create a shield around me, never wanting the moment to go away. With the protectiveness of his solid arms encompassing my body, I knew I wasn’t alone. We’re in this together, and I have to believe he can help me make this all go away.

However, the moment I open my mouth to tell him Violet’s my mother, he stiffens. “What did you say?”

Realizing I hadn’t ever told him I was adopted, I slightly panic. I take a deep breath before I lift my head up from his chest. I gaze up into his confused eyes and say, “She’s my biological mother.”

He silently gasps, “You’re adopted?” After I nod my head yes, he shifts away from me, settling himself down on one of the chairs. “Why didn’t you ever tell me?”

With the feeling of lightheadedness, I make myself sit down as well. “I never considered myself adopted, so the thought never crossed my mind,” I shrug. Not once did I believe I was keeping anything from Slim. I didn’t mean to do it, because subconsciously, it wasn’t important to me. “Violet is my dad’s sister, I have never known who she was. I was told she was an alcoholic and drug addict when I was only a baby. My dad took me into his home and made me a part of his family. Shortly after that, I was adopted. He said at the time his sister did not put up a very big fight.”

Dragging a hand through his hair, Slim says, “Holy hell, Sunshine.” He’s in shock, and I don’t blame him; I’m still in shock that Violet turned out to be the woman who gave birth to me.

The silence from him is maddening. I’m so scared about those pictures getting leaked, I need him to say something. I can feel the need to cry again, and I hate it. I’m not usually so weepy. “What am I going to do, Slim? I don’t want those pictures anywhere near the press.”

His head pops up from leaning into his hand, and forms a deep frown. Grabbing my hand, he moves me onto his lap, then takes my face into his hands, and kisses my forehead. “Listen to me, will ya? That bitch is not gonna get away with this. No one is going to get a chance at seeing those pictures, because our lawyer will have her behind bars so fast her head will spin. No chance in hell will your family and
JINKS
be dragged through the mud. Trust me,” he vows.

The venom in his voice is so scary, so unlike him. But overall I feel safe. Slowly the tears roll down my cheeks, making me feel so weak. And once again, Slim glides them away with his thumbs and kisses me ever so softly on the lips. My fingers meet the back of his neck while we remain connected. Being with him, I get lost in the moment when we kiss. Once we break apart, I tell him, “I need to talk to Sloane. Tell him about what’s going on.” The last thing I want to do is tell Sloane, but I need to.

Slim doesn’t seem the least bit pleased I want to drag my brother into our mess. “Why? Don’t you trust me to get this done?”

“I trust you more than anyone in this entire world, but Sloane is my brother and I need him too. He’s the only one besides you that I trust with my life.”

Closing his eyes, I think he finally sees the big picture. “Fine,” he nods. “Fine. We’ll get him involved too. The more power, the better. I’m gonna text everyone. We need to have a meeting.”

I’m not ready for everyone to know about this, so I stop him from getting out his phone. “Tomorrow,” I kiss him. “Let’s do it tomorrow. Please. I’m so tired right now, I just want to go home.” Slim agrees, then makes a text to the guys to let him know we’re heading home.

I collapsed onto my bed, thinking I was never going to see it ever again. Exhaustion hit me the second my head cemented itself on the pillow. The nightmare that started earlier tonight faded once Slim hopped into bed, and gave me the security I needed so badly. Without any talking, he took his time with me and made love to me to like it was our last night on earth. He knew how desperately I wanted to erase tonight’s disaster. Taking me away from reality, and pretending everything was going to be okay, even for an hour, was worth it.

The sounds of the ocean are coming through my open window as Slim and I lie naked under the sheets. Being tangled up in his arms is soothing, and comfortable, I could live like this forever.

We had not talked since we left the party, and I finally break the silence. “Violet Ray’s real name is Diana,” I softly start to explain. “I never knew she was in a band. I wasn’t told too much about her, just that she was a drug addict. My dad wanted to protect me, so I never doubted anything he said.”

Slim lightly glides the tips of his fingers over my naked back, causing goosebumps to appear all over my body. He kisses the top of my head, then says, “I gotta say…I’ve got lots of respect for him. Thought I disliked the dude, but…he saved your life and it explains why he was so protective of you being in the media, or anyone in his family.”

The comfort of his words means so much to me. However, knowing my dad did save my life from Violet strikes a nerve. Sitting up from Slim’s embrace, reality settles in. “God…I was made by that woman? A cold hearted, junkie, blackmailer?” I want to break down and cry again.

Slim, being his sweet and supportive self, shifts my body a bit to face him. Intently looking into my eyes, he smooths away the hair from my face and says, “She didn’t make you, Charlie, your parents’ did. Violet has nothing to do with who you are today. You’re nothing like her.” He kisses my forehead, lying us back down.

“I don’t even know who my biological father is. I was told Diana slept around a lot, especially being high most of her life, so it could be anyone.”

“That sucks. I’m sorry, babe.”

I kiss his chest. “Doesn’t matter anyways. I don’t need to know.” My gut tells me someone in Violet Ray’s band could be my biological dad, but I am not interested in finding out. I have a family, a father, nothing else matters.

A couple minutes go by. So many thoughts are swirling inside my head, it’s very overwhelming. Just the thought of being taken away from Slim and
JINKS
, all because of Violet, scares the crap out of me. “I don’t want to leave
JINKS
.”

A low growl forms from within Slim’s throat. He’s pissed. “Hell, woman, what did I say? You are not going to leave us. She won’t get away with this shit.”

I lean up on my forearm, and tuck a hair behind my ear. “What if she leaks the pictures before you get to her?”

“If she does -”

“We’re fucked,” I blurt out.

His eyes bug out from my cursing. “Whoa, baby, where did that come from?”

“It’s true, Slim,” I shrug. “We’ll be screwed, and you know it.”

His fingers immediately make their way through my hair and land on the back of my head. He’s got a good grip on me. Through a tightened jaw, and fierce look in his eyes, he says, “She’ll pay for this. What she’s doing to you, to us…she’ll fucking pay.”

THE NEXT MORNING I SENT
a text to the band, and June to meet me over at my house later on. Lyric was in no mood to explain to the guys about last night, so I told her to stay locked up while I dealt with the shit. I hated knowing she was going to be home alone, so I texted Faith and asked if she could stop by to keep an eye on her. Not giving her too much info about the situation, she had a feeling whatever was going down was not a good thing. Faith is as loyal as they come, so having her be there for Lyric made it easier for me to leave.

There was one person, though, Lyric did not want knowing about Violet and the pictures - her dad. I disagreed, but promised I wouldn’t tell him anything. However…deep down I didn’t feel good about keeping this from him. If anything, he just might be the one person who can make this nightmare disappear.

Pulling off to an empty school parking lot, I decide to call Lyric’s dad. I hate going behind her back, and I’m sure she’ll give me hell later on, but I’d rather deal with the aftermath than deal with her dad punching me in the face.

My knee is bouncing up and down, I’m friggin’ nervous. I really hope I’m doing the right thing here. In a firm, yet concerned tone, Donovan Crow answers, “Mr. McQuaid, what can do for you? Is everything okay with my daughter?”

His cut and dry manner doesn’t make this any easier. Clearing my throat I respond, “Actually, Sir, no…everything’s not okay. Uh…there’s something I need to tell you…and unfortunately it’s not good.”

“Spill it, McQuaid,” he snaps.
Shit.
I have a feeling I’ll
still
get a punch in the face. After explaining the situation, Donovan doesn’t hesitate. “I’m calling my pilot right now.” I can hear the distraught tone in his voice, he too is freaking out.

“Mr. Crow, Lyric doesn’t know I’m telling you this. She’ll kill me if she knew.”

There’s a slight pause on the other end, before he grunts out, “As much as I am disgusted with this situation, and wish to all
hell
I never heard about it, I’m glad you told me.”
Thank fuck
! “I appreciate it, Slim.”

“Thank you, Sir,” I respond with a slight grin. So afraid of what he was going to do to me, I let out a sigh of relief. “Sloane is on his way down here with your lawyer, as well as the band’s.”

“Good, good,” he clips. “Trust me, my sister won’t get those pictures to see daylight. Not if I have anything to do about it. That’s a promise.” I don’t doubt him one bit.

“I am really sorry about all of this, and never meant for any of it to happen. I deeply care for your daughter, Sir.

Again, there’s a pause. “We’ll talk when I arrive.” He hangs up right after. Even though I’m not sure if he believes my feelings for Lyric are genuine, I’m just glad he’s going to help us out.

Everyone is gathered at the house, including June and BT2090’s lawyer, Darrin. Earlier this morning I filled June in about last night. She was beside herself and extremely pissed off, immediately phoning Darrin the second we hung up. Now, here we all are, in my living room, where I am about to tell my guys about the hell we’ll soon be going through. Not my finest moment.

The guys are standing in a semicircle; a couple have their arms crossed, legs spread, probably wondering why the hell June and the lawyer are here. “Thanks for coming over, guys.”

“No problem. What’s this about,” Lucky asks.

“Yeah, well, uh…Lyric and I are in a bit of a mess -”

“Paps catch you doin’ the nasty?” Wayne rudely jokes, followed by a laugh.

If he weren’t my best friend, I’d suckerpunch him right now. Pointing my finger in his direction, I angrily say, “You’re an asshole, you know that? No one caught us doing anything…instead they spied on us in our own backyard, Wayne.”

“Holy fuck, what?” Wayne shouts.

I’m too pissed off to continue. So I place my hands on my hips, bow my head and take a deep breath. I need to get my shit together.

June touches my shoulder. “You want me to speak?” Almost allowing her to take over, I shake my head no.

“It’s okay, man, we’re listening,” Lucky encouragingly says.

With Lucky’s calm edge, I begin, “There’s a woman that goes by the name of Violet Ray. Back in the early 90’s, she had a band called Ray’s of Darkness. She heard about Lyric working with us, and has been trying to reel her in to being her manager - before you say one word, bro, let me get this all out,” I tell Wayne. From the look in Wayne’s eyes, I had a feeling he was going to jump in and say something. I just want to get this part over with. Once he pulls back, I continue, “Long story short, she’s Lyric’s biological mother, and the sister of Lyric’s father. Lyric was adopted by her uncle. Anyhow, she found out where we lived, and had someone take pictures of me and Lyric in the hot tub. Intimate pictures. She’s blackmailing Lyric with the pictures, saying if she doesn’t become her manager she’ll sell them to the media.”

“Shit,” Lucky mumbles.

“How can she do that,” Danny asks, obviously just as angry. “She stepped onto private property!“

June comments, “It doesn’t matter. Violet will still leak those pictures if Lyric doesn’t give her the answer she wants.”

“Then we need to stop her,” he replies.

“I called Lyric’s dad. He’s coming straight home from Italy. It will be awhile till he gets here, but he’s going to find Violet and set her straight.”