Edge of Forever: Rockstar Romantic Suspense

by Cari Quinn

  “Hi, we’re here with Logan King and his lovely fiancée, Isabella Grace. You two have had a tumultuous relationship from the very start. You met the previous summer at the Summer Festival that you headline every year, correct?”

  Right to the meat of things. Kim never disappointed. “That’s right.” Logan slid his easy smile on. “She had me from the first time I saw her in The Barn.”

  Isabella rolled her eyes. “At the time The Barn was far from the lovely concert hall it is now. He informed me that he was going to be transforming this ancient barn into a small stage in three days. He was not my favorite person.”

  “I can’t imagine that.” Kim’s smile was huge. “But it sounds like sparks flew right from the start—but maybe not all in the romance department.”

  “Definitely not.” Izzy’s eyebrow rose and she gave him a sly smile. “But he won me over with his passion for the space. And because the Summer Festival is a charity concert that Logan hosts every year we certainly didn’t have the budget to do what he wanted.”

  “She pretty much told me to put my money where my mouth was. How could I resist that?”

  Kim’s expressive blue eyes twinkled. “I know I wouldn’t have been able to.” She looked into the camera and gave some backstory about his charity and the unprecedented funds they’d raised. How it blew up the festival into something much bigger and was gaining strength each year.

  “But at the end of the concert there was no happily ever after for you two. Some have speculated that an old girlfriend came into the picture. Perhaps Aimee Collen was back in the running for your affections.”

  “Aimee hasn’t been on my radar for a few years. The tabloids love to use our past relationship to sell papers.” Logan looked into the camera. “We were over before it began. I was having a rough time with my career at the time and made a lot of poor choices.”

  When the twinkle in Kim’s eye turned to fire, Logan knew he probably laid it on too thick. But he wanted to hurt Aimee and this was the only way he knew how.

  “So how did you let Isabella get away?” Kim asked.

  “I was an idiot.”

  Kim turned to Izzy. “Is that right?”

  “Him being an idiot?”

  Logan’s eyebrow lifted at her long pause.

  Izzy laughed. “It was one of those crazy flings, neither one of us thought it would go past the shows. Logan’s schedule is insane and I certainly couldn’t leave Winchester Falls. I own my own business with two of my best friends.” She looked down at her hand in her lap. He saw the quick wash of tears and tightened his hold on her. “My shop, Between the Lines.” She cleared her throat. “But we already had strong feelings for each other and got back together that winter when we met up in New York City.”

  “But then tragedy struck this small town in the Adirondack region of New York. We’ll be right back to talk about why Logan King disappeared for almost three months.”

  Her camera-ready smile slid away. “Are you okay to keep going?”

  Izzy nodded. “I’m fine. We want to explain our story.”

  “I have to say, I’m pretty surprised that you called, Logan. You keep your privacy guarded as closely as a military campaign. Why did you call me?” She leaned forward. “Off the record, of course.”

  “Of course.” Logan leaned forward. “We’re having an intimate wedding ceremony after the concert tonight. We wanted to share our story on your show because tonight’s about Adam and Nichole Wolfe. Not about us.” He lifted Izzy’s hand to his mouth. “I wanted people to know who we are before the tabloids run with the story.”

  “Thank you for doing it on my show, Logan.”

  “You’ve always been fair. I just hope our winning streak holds out.”

  “Okay, are you ready for the last questions?”

  Logan pulled Izzy’s chair closer to him. “You good to do this?”

  Izzy leaned forward and pressed a light kiss to the corner of his mouth. “Ready.”

  “Thank you for joining us on Music Life, we’re here with Logan King from All the King’s Men and his fiancée.” She turned to him. “Logan, this is your first interview since the tragedy late this summer which took the life of Nichole Wolfe and injured her husband, Adam Wolfe, and you as well, Isabella. What happened? Why did you disappear?”

  “When Izzy was hurt, we needed a place to grieve and for her to heal.”

  “I ran Between the Lines, here in Winchester Falls with Nic and Adam and when the accident happened,” Izzy took a deep breath, “I needed a long time to heal on the inside and the out. Logan helped me to do that.”

  “Were the police able to determine what happened?” Kim asked.

  Izzy’s eye glittered and for a moment he was afraid she was going to tell Kim exactly what they believed. “Electrical problems with an old converted brownstone.”

  “And the concert that you’re doing tonight?”

  Logan laced his fingers with hers. “The Wolfes and Wesleys lost so very much. We’ve all been a part of Winchester Falls for years. Nichole and Adam, all their lives—myself for the last fifteen years. The town wanted to help with Adam’s hospital costs so we’ll do what we do best—bring people together at The Barn and raise some money.”

  “That’s amazing and generous.”

  Logan shook his head. “This is just time, it’s far less than I would rather do. All we want is Adam to get better. So tonight we’ll be performing at The Barn, here in Winchester Falls. Special guests Brooklyn Dawn, Cole Deveraux, and Alex Nash will all be here to help us. Tickets are still on sale and we’ll be live streaming the show for a small fee. Just go to the All the King’s Men website for details. All the money collected tonight will go to Adam and Nichole’s family. And if you stick around there’s something a little special happening after the show.”

  “Would you mind if a crew from Music Life came?”

  Logan smiled. “Absolutely not. Get the word out. We want this to be a great success.”

  “Thank you both so much for coming on the show and I’m glad to see you’ve made a full recovery, Isabella. We can’t wait to find out what the surprise is tonight. We hope you enjoyed our special hour with All the King’s Men in the studio and our special interview with Logan King and the future Mrs. King, Isabella Grace.”

  Kim turned to the screen and gave her signoff schpiel and Logan sat back in his chair. One thing down, a million more to go. He turned to Isabella and found her staring out the window. The sexy siren subdued with talk of her best friends.

  He had to make sure everything went off without a hitch tonight.

  She couldn’t take another disappointment.

  And neither could he.

  Thirty-Seven

  Bella pinned her hair up and ran her fingers through the hot bath to make sure the temperature wouldn’t scald. Six months ago she would practically poach herself in a hot bath, but these days she had to be mindful of her still healing skin.

  The interview hadn’t been nearly as bad as she’d thought, but a tension headache had reached its way up into body from shoulders to the very top of her head. Staving off a migraine and a minor meltdown required some one-on-one therapy with Logan’s jet tub.

  He was stuck down with Marcus hashing out the last of the security concerns, as well as three other radio interviews to bring more people in for the last minute show. The Brooklyn Dawn bus was down at The Barn rehearsing and Cole and Nash had taken over the studio to record a song they were going to donate to the cause.

  Everyone had something to do except her.

  Between the Lines had been paid out insurance-wise, but the business was in all three of their names. They were too young to have filled out a proper will beyond the business automatically going to the surviving owners. Not to mention that her head hadn’t been in the business while they’d been hiding out in Maine.

  She’d probably lost every contact she’d ever made over the last ten years. The real question was, did she want to earn them back or did
she want to do something else with the storefront?

  Did she have the heart for the entire book trade without Adam or Nic?

  Would it ever be the same without Nic’s sassy sarcasm and Adam’s indulgent smiles?

  She’d told Logan that she wanted to rebuild, but she wasn’t sure that she had the will to try and rebuild all the stock and contacts without Nic’s input or sense of fun. Nic was the one that kept her from drowning in the doldrums of paperwork and keeping the joy of the book hunting alive.

  There was nothing but changes ahead of her, and the only thing that had even the promise of permanence was marrying Logan. But she wasn’t the type of woman that could sit home and wait for her man.

  She needed something else in her life.

  And yes, she wanted children, but would that really be enough to keep her from going crazy when Logan was on tour?

  She sunk into the tub up to her neck and hissed out a breath as the water eased tired muscles and the strings of tension that had knotted up her spine. Not to mention the complete lack of sleep the night before and host of soreness from all the reasons behind that.

  How could she be so blissful and so very fucked up at the same time?

  Because as much as she wanted to face that streaky-haired bitch tonight, she was terrified that something was going to go wrong. She lowered herself until the water teased the top of her lips. The fear was so much easier to believe in.

  “Bella?”

  She shut her eyes. Maybe if she ignored her she’d go away.

  “Isabella Marie, where are you?”

  Nope. There was no ignoring Skye Delgado. Not when she was on a fashion mission. “In the tub,” she called out.

  Skye walked in. “All that steam,” she tsked. “I’m going to have to redo your hair.”

  Bella had given up on any idea of modesty since Ember and Skye had come at her with the pincushion the day before. They were very scary women. Nic had…

  She pressed her lips together as her eyes filled. Nic had always warned her that if Skye got her hands on Bella then there would be hope for control. Her best friend had been right. Picking out dresses with Ember and Skye had been odd. The entire day she kept wondering what Nic would do. What kind of dress Nic would pick out.

  That could be why her faux wedding dress was a vintage style that reminded her of a mix of her and Nic. That maybe her best friend had been looking over her shoulder when she’d pulled the dress off the rack.

  Skye crouched in front of her, folding her arms on the tile shelf. Her thick, dark hair was a feathered and curled mass of perfection. That was Skye—perfection. From the hair on her head, to the lush dresses she wore, and the amazing hats she designed. She’d never seen anyone so put together.

  Today, she needed someone as organized as Skye.

  Even if she wanted to lock her out of the house and tell her to go away at the same time. They might be planning a fake wedding, but it was still all the things that she should have been doing with Nic.

  It seemed disloyal to get ready with anyone other than Nichole.

  It didn’t matter that she wasn’t there—that she would never be there. It just felt wrong.

  “You seem out of sorts. Are you worried about tonight?”

  Bella lifted a shoulder. “A little.”

  “Are you having second thoughts about the wedding ruse?”

  “It’s the only thing that will push her over the edge. I know that in my gut. I can’t explain how I know, I just do.”

  “Oh, honey. I’m Spanish and Mexican. You don’t need to explain feelings to me. You can walk through the door of my grandmother’s house and she’ll pray for you and curse you all in the same breath depending on a feeling.”

  Bella’s lips twitched. “She’s probably a trip.”

  “She’s amazing. But she’s scares the crap out of me, too.” Skye’s expressive dark eyes widened and she quickly made the sign of the cross.

  “I suppose that’s what grandmothers do. I don’t really remember mine except she always looked like she was sucking on a lemon.” Maybe that was why her mother had such a sour disposition. She learned it in the womb.

  “I have so many cousins that I have an app on my phone to keep the family tree straight.”

  “I can’t even imagine. I have one sister that moved to Paris when she got out of college. She never came home. We were never close. My only family was Nic and Adam and their parents. And now I’ve lost all of them because of this woman.”

  “Not your only family. Logan is your family now.”

  Maybe that was her greatest fear yet.

  Because he really was her everything now.

  Bella patted Skye’s hand. “Thanks for the talk. I can’t say I feel better, but at least I can put one foot in front of the other again.”

  Skye stood up and went to the door. “Well, with me dressing you at least they will be stylish feet. Wait until you see what Ember did with the dress. It’s gorgeous.” She smiled and sailed through the door into her bedroom.

  Bella reached for her towel. It was time to get ready.

  Thirty-Eight

  Logan pinched the bridge of his nose. He absolutely understood the need for security, but if one of Marcus’s men interrupted his soundcheck again, he was going to steal one of their Tasers and use it on them.

  There was a swarm of fans outside awaiting soundcheck because his ever brilliant and opportunistic manager had sold tickets for exorbitant fees. Since all of it was going to Adam and Nic’s family, what was he going to do? Say no?

  Fuck.

  “You have murder in your eyes, mate.”

  Logan turned around. “Nash, you shit. You made it.”

  “I don’t recall having a choice. I believe you called in your second marker. You realize that leaves you with only one?”

  Logan slapped Alex Nash on the back. They’d done a lot of running together in their twenties. Both London and Dublin alleyways had been equal opportunities for too much booze, a dive bar that paid shit, and music that soared into the rafters until sunrise. The fact that Nash had a better set of fists than Logan meant he got into trouble a time too often. Logan had bailed him out of a Sheffield jail on a Monday and a London one on Wednesday of the same week.

  Nash hadn’t heard the end of it nearly fifteen years later. Promising not to bust his ass about it was a tall order. Especially when his friend had been too drunk to remember it, so the story got more embellished every year.

  He’d miss those drinking stories. But this was worth it.

  “Think you can behave yourself? Lindsey’s in town for this one.”

  Nash’s face closed off. “She’s safe from the likes of me, Logan. You know that.”

  “Right.” He’d seen how Nash looked at her. Like recognized like. His eyes had been hungry the moment he’d laid eyes on the gorgeous lead singer of Brooklyn Dawn the previous summer. Logan understood that look. Saw it in the mirror daily.

  Nash gave him a raised brow of disgust and took over Logan’s piano. “November Rain” soared up with Nash’s signature aggression. Guns N’ Roses played it with a little more of a gentle slide into the epic accompaniment.

  Nash didn’t know the word gentle.

  Not when he got behind the ivories.

  Two stunning women, the yin and yang of each other came out of the side stage shadows. The dark haired one picked up a violent purple guitar and played Slash’s piece to the song with flawless precision. Her hair fell forward and the sheet of silky hair hid her completely.

  The only flash of color was her guitar and the denim blue tips of her jet black hair. Jamison was the lead guitarist for Brooklyn Dawn. Logan had worked with Lindsey a few times now, but never Jamie.

  She was intense.

  He could see why Zeke was mildly afraid of her.

  Lindsey York picked up her mic and belted out a stunning mimic of Axl’s deep, dark voice. But by the end of the song, Jamie was laughing at her and Lindsey gave up the mic to glug down a bottle
of water. Axl had a distinctive voice and it wasn’t kind to the vocal cords.

  Julian got behind his kit and started hammering in with Nash’s fiery piano as he spun out into Frank Turner’s “Recovery”. Logan knew the lyrics and jumped in on it.

  Jamie and Lindsey didn’t know it, but they picked up the strumming guitar and jammed with them. Logan jumped in time with Nash’s manic guitars and then he held up his hand into a fist as they all cut the song off.

  “Who’s that? Is that one of your songs, Irish?”

  Nash flipped his dark hair back. “No, it’s Frank Turner.”

  “Too bad, I like the song.” Jamie grinned at Lindsey. “New tunes for the bus.”

  “Oh, great. She’ll listen to every song that he’s ever played to figure out if she really likes him or if it was just the one song.”

  Nash looked down at his keys with a small smile and hopped off stage. “They didn’t break Matilda, so I’ll see you tonight at the show, brother.”

  Logan gave him a salute and put his band through their normal paces. Anything to keep his mind off the fact that the concert was starting in a few hours. There was a group of fans about twenty deep wandering the middle of the general admission area.

  The VIP people evidently.

  Out of the corner of his eye he saw the cherubic heart-shaped face in the middle of the crowd. Before he could get a better look at the woman she melted into the crowd.

  Was that her?

  Aimee?

  Or was it someone he that had her chin?

  Sunglasses obscured her face and her hair was blond instead of red.

  Logan shook his head, and looked again. The woman was actually a girl, not even sixteen. He scrubbed his hands over his face. Christ, it was going to be a long damn night if he was going to jump at every woman with a heart-shaped face and short hair.

  Christian snuck on stage and picked up his guitar. He spoke to Julian and Emerson for a moment before breaking into their single, “Caged Soul”. Falling into the easy familiarity of his own music, the rest of the hour flew by as they tried out some obscure songs and a lot of covers.