Chapter 7
SIX WEEKS LATER, DECEMBER
The final notes of the deep cut for “Expired Hero” died away. The extra-long bonus version of the song would go to rock media sites like Indie Rock Broadcast, or be given away in contests on their social media sites.
Justice slid off his earphones and looked around the L.A. recording studio they’d rented time in through Christine’s connections. She’d kept up her part of the deal, making things happen for them. The last months had been grueling, but their album was in the can, CDs were being manufactured, the music video was in editing, and they had a three-month tour booked. Their release show was at Club Nosh on January 15th, the night their single would drop. Presales on iTunes had just been released, and people were buying. Finally things were on track.
Doug, their sound engineer, stood up from his board. “That’s all the tweaks for today. The final deep-cut track will be ready to upload soon.”
The lights caught the multiple piercings in his eyebrow and lip, and his hair was short and spiky. On the small side in stature, the guy made up for it with incredible talent. He knew his stuff. They’d all come to trust him.
“What do you think?” Justice asked.
“Almost there. It’ll be in the can a week ahead of schedule.”
Lynx leaned a shoulder against the soundproof glass surrounding the recording booth. “You think ‘Expired Hero’ is a breakout song? Not this version, but the shorter, more commercial radio cut. Can it break out?”
Doug shrugged into his jacket. “With the tweaks River did on the bass, it’s your best bet out of the lineup.”
But was best bet good enough? A familiar burn of worry washed over Justice. They’d invested everything in this album and the record label they’d formed. They’d had meetings with all the players like iTunes, Spotify, radio producers and others to get exposure. Justice had taken a loan on his house, and the other guys had pitched in to get the funding. Sloane had invested heavily in their record company too. That weighed on all of them. It wasn’t just their money they were risking.
“Stop second-guessing,” River said. “It’s a done deal.”
The man was right. There wasn’t time for changes.
“I still can’t believe Jagged Sin is beating us to release,” River added. “They waited until we announced our schedule then announced theirs to get a jump on us.”
“It gets worse.” Simon voice was cold and pissed. “They released it for presale at midnight last night.”
Shit, Justice had missed that. “Are they climbing?”
“Oh we’re still ahead.”
“Then what’s the problem?” Lynx asked.
Simon stared at his phone. “You know how we wondered where they were getting the money to make their album and go on tour?”
A frisson of unease went down Justice’s back. “Yeah?”
“The album is produced by G. Hayes.”
“Fuck.” He couldn’t believe this. “They really are in bed with Gene Hayes.” Pacing back and forth, he thought of Beth. Hell. He didn’t want to tell her.
“What difference does it really make?” Gray asked. “It just shows the world what scum Jagged Sin is, right? Hayes is a felon. He can’t step foot in the U.S. or any country we have extradition with.”
He had a point, but still. “It’s the principle.” Like that mattered when it came to money?
“Don’t be naïve. There’s always a way to get around laws and ethics,” Simon said. “We aren’t letting them defeat us. Hear me? We’re going to come out strong and stomp their asses on our way to the top of the charts. Success is the best revenge for all of us.”
Justice nodded, one hundred fucking percent in agreement. “We beat them once, we’ll beat them again.” He glanced at the digital clock on the wall and grimaced. “Gotta bounce.” The trek between L.A. and San Diego ate hours of his day. But tonight was special. Beth had finished her last class and was officially done with college. He was damn proud of her and started for the door.
“Hey, Justice.”
He spun around, tensing for another of Simon’s unsubtle reminders about being committed to the band, yada, yada, yada.
“Tell Liza congratulations.”
Oh. Right. “Thanks, man, I’ll tell her.” He strode out and got on the road.
Anxiety hitched a ride with him.
Jagged Sin and Gene Hayes—that was a match made in hell.
* * *
Liza should be thrilled. She’d taken her last final and was officially done with her B.A. She’d worked for three and a half years, going through the accelerated program to get to this point. She had a right to be happy and proud.
But she was worried as hell. She was two days late for her period. Her breasts hurt, she was bloated and feeling a tad off.
This couldn’t be happening. She was on birth control.
You were five weeks late for your last shot.
Dang it, she’d gotten the reminder-to-schedule-an-appointment text smack in the middle of the meeting with the D.A. about Hans’s plea deal and totally forgot. It hadn’t been until she’d gotten a phone message indicating the doctor’s office records showed she was overdue for her shot that she’d remembered.
But she should still have been safe. The whole reason she and Justice chose this method was that it usually took months after stopping the shot to get pregnant. Even her doctor had thought she was protected. They’d run a pregnancy test as a precaution, and it came back negative.
“Liza?”
Tess’s voice snapped Liza out of her fog. Sheesh, she was standing in the lobby of the executive floor, staring off into space. She’d walked into work on autopilot, barely aware of getting into the elevator.
“Hey, Tess, sorry, I was thinking about something.”
“How’d your final go?”
“Great. All done. Pretty sure I passed.”
Tess tilted her head. “Have you ever failed a class?”
“Yep,” she admitted. “But that was a long time ago.” She and her mom had moved around, followed bands, and Liza hadn’t always stayed on track in school. It wasn’t until she went to live with her aunt and uncle that she’d taken school seriously.
But her aunt Mari no longer cared. Liza hadn’t spoken to her since last June when she’d been in the hospital.
“I’m sure you passed and probably got an A,” Tess said.
“Thanks. I’d better get to my office.” She was only working a couple hours today. Justice was coming home tonight and taking her to dinner to celebrate finishing her classes.
“Actually, Sloane wants to see you.”
She considered dropping her purse in her office first, but it was best to see what Sloane needed. “All right then, thanks.” She strode to the office, knocked once and went in.
Sloane looked up while holding a phone to his ear. He waved her in and finished his call.
Liza passed the sitting area and beverage bar to the chairs facing his desk. The bright sun lit up the San Diego skyline, but the treatment on the windows cut the glare and kept it from making the office too hot in the summer.
“Congratulations. You’re a college graduate.”
She forgot her worries for a second and grinned. Setting her purse down, she settled in a chair. “Thanks. It feels a little surreal.” No more thinking about classes and homework.
He nodded. “You’ve done well here, Liza. If you’re interested in staying at SLAM, I can offer you a full-time position as my administrative assistant.”
Shock then pleasure warmed her. She’d thought they’d have this conversation after the holidays. But then this was Sloane—he was decisive, and some considered him a cold hard-ass. Which he was, but he was a fair hard-ass, and Liza liked working for him. “Like I’m doing now?”
“With additional duties, including stepping into a more public role as the communications liaison. In other words, if I’m not doing it myself, then you’ll be the one to issue public statements. In some cases, you’ll be doing it in conjunction with my department heads, but you will be representing SLAM Inc.”
Communications liaison? Excitement and fear tangled in her belly, making her almost queasy. Could she do this? She’d be stepping back into the public light and could become a target again. Hayes had backed down after the stabbing and arrest of Hans. Or at least he’d been quieter. Would she bring unwanted attention on herself?
Better question—was she going to let Gene Hayes stop her from taking this amazing opportunity?
Hell no.
“I’m definitely interested.” But what if she was pregnant?
Then she’d need the job even more.
Sloane handed her a sheet of paper. “Here’s the official offer with salary and benefits. There will be some travel included with the job.”
“With you?” That wasn’t a problem for her. Sloane had clear-cut boundaries, and Liza was firmly in the employee category. She just wanted clarification.
“As my assistant, yes. Once you gain some experience, and if you do well, there may be times I send you in my stead.”
Excitement made it hard to sit still. A job like this would give Liza the tools and chance to become powerful in her own right. People would see what the girl accused of ruining a rock star had become—a successful businesswoman.
She took the paper, hoping her hand wasn’t shaking. This was a dream job, but overwhelming at the same time.
You might be pregnant.
She’d think about that later. Right now she focused on the paper, saw the salary and blinked. “That’s…” She cut off the words a very good offer.
“Competitive. Let me know your decision next week. Now go home. You’ve graduated, Justice is coming home, and you deserve a break.”
The salary wouldn’t make her rich, but it was a solid start, and more than she’d hoped for. Then again, she’d kind of assumed he’d move her over to an entry-level job in marketing. This was even better. She liked working as his assistant where she got daily, hands-on knowledge on every aspect of the business, and now she’d get more experience as the communications liaison.
Rising, she met her boss’s gaze. “Thank you, Sloane. I appreciate that you took a chance on me and in the last five months gave me the room to prove myself. I’m very interested in your offer.”
He gave her a rare smile. “It was up to you to prove yourself. You did that.”
She walked out, closing Sloane’s door behind her.
“So?”
She was so caught up in her whirling thoughts, she’d almost walked right by Tess. Liza spun around to apologize.
The whole room tilted, and Tess blurred like she was out of focus. Whoa. Slapping her hand down on the desk, she dragged in a breath and squeezed her eyes shut. Her entire body broke out in a hot, sweaty flush.
“Liza?”
Opening her eyes, she was surprised that Tess had gotten up and rounded the desk.
The older woman touched her arm. “You okay? You went sheet white and your skin’s clammy.”
The room settled back into place. “I turned around too fast, I guess. Kind of lightheaded for a second.”
Tess’s dark eyes narrowed with concern. “Did you eat today?”
“Yes. It’s not that.” Crap. Another symptom that had cropped up in the last couple days—dizziness if she stood too fast or turned suddenly.
“Then what? Are you sick?”
Liza glanced at Sloane’s closed door then back to the woman. Don’t. You haven’t talked to Justice yet. Clamping down the temptation to blurt out her worries, she said, “It’s nothing. I’m just overwhelmed.” She held up the file. “Sloane offered me a full-time position.”
Tess’s face lit up. “I know, I typed up the offer letter.”
The other woman’s genuine happiness made Liza realize just how lucky she was. And how much she wanted this job.
“If you’re truly feeling okay, get out of here.” Tess flicked her wrist, shooing her like a fly. “I also know Sloane gave you the rest of the afternoon off, and that you and Justice have plans tonight. Go do something nice for yourself, you’ve earned it.”
Impulsively, she hugged Tess. “Thank you.” Once the receptionist had warmed up to Liza, she’d taken her under her wing, showing her the ropes at SLAM, and before Liza knew it, they were friends. Liza had been to barbeques at her house and met her kids.
Kids.
Pregnant.
Justice.
On the ride down, another wave of dizziness assaulted her. Justice was one hundred percent focused on his career. What would happen if she was pregnant? How would he react?
How did she feel?
After leaving the elevator, Liza headed to her car and got in. Fretting about the possibility of a pregnancy wasn’t getting her answers. She’d been ignoring the symptoms for a couple days to get through her finals.
Now it was time to face this.
And then what?
She pulled her mouth tight. It was one thing to take a morning-after pill to prevent a pregnancy. To her that was being responsible. But if she was pregnant… She already lived with the guilt of shattering her family from her bad choices. She couldn’t live with the loss of a child, especially through her own choice.
Or from the fear that a pregnancy would scare her boyfriend into choosing his career over her.
Okay, enough. She didn’t know yet, so why go down this torturous path? There was a simple and fast way to find out. She’d take the test, get the negative result, then she could relax and have fun tonight. Enjoy her achievements without worrying.
Decided, Liza drove to Walgreens and headed inside. Focused now, she headed to the back and located the pregnancy tests. Which one? She grabbed the cheapest and wove through the aisles toward the front while scanning the directions on the box.
“Liza?”
Startled, she fumbled the box and dropped it. She looked up, right into her ex-boyfriend’s face.
“Dillion?” Seriously? She hadn’t seen him in months. The last time had been at a coffee shop when she had been a student publicist for Justice’s band on Court of Rock. He’d asked her for tickets to the show, and she’d told him to get lost. “Uh…” The pregnancy test lay on the floor between them.
Dillion stooped down, picked it up and lifted his gaze to hers. “For you?”
Heat burned into her face. For so many years, she’d tried to hide from the exact type of judgment that coated his tone and darkened his gaze. She didn’t care about Dillion, except that he’d dumped her because she wasn’t good enough.
“No.” Nothing like a little shame to turn her into a liar. “It’s for a friend.” Oh, gosh, how original of her. Snatching the test from his hand, she asked, “What are you doing here?”
He held up a box of condoms.
Wild laughter bubbled in her throat. Okay, how perfect was this? Exes meeting up in a drugstore, her with a pregnancy test, him with condoms. Embarrassing much? “Let me guess, for a friend?”
He smiled tenuously. “Right.”
Uncomfortable silence hung between them. Where had her anger at Dillion gone? Now she mostly felt…nothing except maybe a little regret that she’d dated a man she didn’t really connect with.
“Well, I’d get better get going.” She started to turn.
“Wait.” He glanced down then back up. “I’m glad you’re all right. I heard about that attack last June and that you were in the hospital. I thought about texting, or calling, even coming to see you but…” He shifted uncomfortably. “Well, I didn’t think you’d want to hear from me. I wanted to say I’m sorry you were hurt.”
She smiled. “Thanks.”
“You’re okay now, right?”
“I’m good.” She rolled her right shoulder automatically. “All healed. I finished my last final today, and once my degree is mailed, I’ll be an official college graduate. I have a good job and a great boyfriend.” So you know, other than holding a box that could rock my entire life, I’m doing fabulous. “And you?”
“I’ll finish law school in June, and I’m already working for a firm. Getting married in August.”
“Congratulations.” So why the condoms? Was he screwing around on his fiancée? He’d tried to get Liza to keep sleeping with him even after he broke up with her and was supposed to propose to the girl Daddy had picked out.
“Thanks. You too.” He glanced at the box in her hand and back to her face. “If you ever need anything, you have my cell number. It hasn’t changed.”
She had no idea what to make of that. This whole conversation was very different than their past encounters. “Well, uh, nice to see you.” Before he could say anything, she rushed to the front, paid and escaped.
She had bigger things to worry about than an ex-boyfriend.