Rise

by L A Cotton

  Travis led the way, waiting for me to enter the service elevator. Fenton shot Travis a questioning look, but he shook his head. Travis and his men could be discreet, it came hand in hand with protecting people like us. But this felt different. This felt like me making a statement.

  A statement I had no right to make.

  It was too late now though. Eva was out cold in my arms and I had no intention of letting her go until she was safely tucked up in her suite.

  Seconds later, the elevator doors pinged open. Travis stepped out first, checking to make certain it was clear. “Okay,” he said. “Fenton, you take point at the end of the hall. I’ll help Rafe get Eva into her room.”

  My bodyguard nodded, bringing a hand to his ear. “The other car just left. Hudson took a hit though.”

  “What the fuck?” I balked.

  “Don’t worry. It was just a stiletto to the head. He’ll live.”

  “Jesus,” I mumbled. Same crazy shit, different fucking city.

  “Let’s move out.” Travis ushered me down the empty hall. I knew the girls were sharing a suite. I also knew if Letty found me in there with Eva it would only fuel her suspicions.

  I needed to get in, make sure Eva was okay, and then get the hell out of there.

  Travis stopped at a door a few down from my own suite and let us inside. “Her room is on the right.”

  “Thanks.” I padded across the room with Eva in my arms. Shouldering open the door, I slipped inside. It was similar to our suite, although smaller. I’d stayed in so many hotels up and down the country they all looked the same to me now.

  Eva groaned, her eyes fluttering open. “R- Rafe?” she smiled up at me and fuck if it wasn’t like a gunshot to my heart. “What’s goin’ on?”

  Yanking back the covers, I laid her down gently, fighting the urge to brush her cheek. “We’re back at the hotel. You fell asleep.”

  “I did?” She tried to sit up, her body failing her.

  “It’s late, you should get some rest. You have a big day tomorrow.”

  The grueling pace of the tour would keep us busy. I’d be able to avoid her, to avoid any more moments like this.

  “Where is everyone?” Eva tried to shake off her leather jacket.

  “They’ll be here soon.” I smothered a laugh, watching her struggle. “Here, let me.” Barely touching her, I pulled the material free of her arms.

  “Thanks. My head hurts.”

  “It was those three cocktails.”

  “Three? Ah, jeez, I’m never livin’ this down, am I?”

  I backed up, putting some much-needed space between us. “Your secret’s safe with me.” Eva’s eyelids began to flutter, and I said, “I should go,” as I began to inch toward the door.

  “Rafe, wait...” The way she said my name stopped me dead in my tracks. “I don’t know what I did wrong, but I’m sorry.” She nestled into the pillow and was asleep within seconds.

  I wanted to wake her and tell her the truth—that she’d done nothing, that this was just the way it had to be.

  I didn’t though.

  Because her knowing the truth would only make it harder, and it wasn’t fair to her. So I buried the words and forced myself to leave her lying there. The girl who owned my heart even if she didn’t know it.

  I’d moved closer, close enough to touch her. Leaning down, I ghosted my fingers over her face before pressing a single kiss to her forehead.

  “My Eva,” I whispered.

  My Starshine.

  “What the hell happened to you?” I said as the guys all piled into the suite. Hudson had a wad of paper towels pressed up against his forehead.

  “Crazy bitch almost took out my eye.”

  “Let me guess. Another Die Heart you promised to call and never did.”

  “Fuck off. You know I never promise to call.” He sank down onto the couch. “Not how I saw the night ending.”

  “Why the fuck did we have to leave anyway?” Levi grunted, uncapping a soda.

  “Eva wasn’t feeling great,” Damon replied.

  “You mean Little Miss Lightweight couldn’t handle her liquor?”

  “Hud.” I levelled him with a hard look.

  “She’s going to need to build some stamina if she’s going to keep up with us.”

  My spine snapped straight. What the fuck did that mean?

  “She’s not in the band,” Damon took the words right out of my mouth. “There’s no reason she has to hang with us all the time.”

  “She should though,” Levi said, a strange expression passing over his face. “She’s... different.”

  “You mean you finally met your match?” Hudson cackled, wincing when Levi’s bottle cap pinged off his head. “Not cool, fucker.”

  My brother flipped him off. “How’d you end up riding back with her?” he asked me.

  “I was getting some air and Travis showed up with Eva. We had to scramble when the Die Hearts realized we were on the move.”

  “Fucking fangirls. Can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em.” Hudson let out a heavy sigh.

  “What was that anyway, back at the club when you pulled Eva up on stage?” I asked Levi. “Alistair put you up to that?”

  “What do you think?”

  “You did it to piss him off.” Of course he had.

  “He’ll thank me tomorrow when our name is all over the papers.”

  But it wasn’t just our names that would be everywhere, it was Eva’s too. But as usual, my brother hadn’t looked past his own selfish motivations.

  “You think she realizes she’s about to become the most envied girl in the country?” Hudson said.

  “Envied... or hated.” Damon grimaced.

  “She can handle it.” Levi sounded so certain, I wasn’t sure I’d heard him right.

  One song.

  They’d sung one song together and he was acting like he had her all figured out.

  Jealousy burned through me.

  “Let’s hope so.” I stood up, needing to get away from him. “Or else the next five months are going to be a fucking disaster.” Without another word, I headed for the room I was sharing with Damon. I knew he wouldn’t follow though, not yet.

  I needed some space. Chance to catch my breath after everything that had happened tonight. But in the quiet empty space of the room, I didn’t find solace. I found nothing but regrets.

  And the lingering feeling that I’d made a huge fucking mistake.

  The next morning, I padded into the suite to find my band mates all sitting around the table looking like someone had died. “Who died?” I asked.

  It wasn’t until I saw Alistair standing there, I knew that something had happened. Damon pushed a newspaper toward me. “It could have been worse.”

  My eyes drank in the headline. Sweetheart of country parties with bad boy of rock. The article brushed over Eva’s impeccable performance, ignored the fact Levi had invited her up on stage to perform. Instead, they’d painted the entire night as some liquor-fueled party that ended with her being carted away by security.

  “This is your idea of repairing our reputation,” I seethed, forcing down the words I really wanted to say. But this couldn’t only be about Eva, not with Alistair here.

  He stepped forward, running a hand down his face. “I tried to bury the story, but you know how it goes. Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose. Damon’s right, it could have been worse.”

  Yeah, at least no one had snapped a photo of me climbing into the SUV with her.

  “You said everyone was vetted last night. NDA’s, the whole nine yards.”

  Alistair grimaced. “We think it was a Die Heart. A couple of them slipped past club security and managed to get inside. We didn’t find out until it was too late.”

  My fist clenched at my side. “Does she know?”

  “She’s still sleeping.” At least Alistair had the decency to look concerned. “Letty will tell her when she wakes up. But let me make something very clear; Eva knew what she
was signing up for. It’s not your job to protect her from this.” His eyes ran over each of us, but I felt the weight of his stare the most.

  “After tonight’s show, no one will give a flying fuck if she partied too hard.” Levi’s conviction was almost believable if it wasn’t so naïve.

  Fans were fickle. They could love and adore you one minute and want to burn you at the stake the next. We were lucky for the most part. But we were guys, a fact that came with a different set of standards. It was okay for us to sleep around and get drunk and verbally attack the paparazzi. The same could rarely be said for female artists.

  “Look,” Alistair went on, “we all knew it was going to present a different dynamic having Eva on the tour, but the PR team is handling it. Now that Eva’s name is out there, we can get the ball rolling on her spinning her story.”

  Alistair talked as if keeping Eva’s name out of the promotional campaign in the run up to the tour had been his idea all along. Thanks to Hudson’s more than friendly relationship with Sally though, an intern at the label, we’d heard that Eva and her parents had walked into the meeting with legal with their own list of demands, one being that her name was kept out of the press until the first show. Part of me wondered if it was to ensure Eva could walk away anytime up until the first show and right back into her regular life without any consequence.

  As it was, it didn’t matter now. She was here and she wasn’t going anywhere. Which meant once she woke up, her whole life was going to be flipped upside down. We’d all known it would happen. Whether it was tomorrow after our first show, or now after Levi’s little stunt last night. But knowing it and watching it play out in front of your eyes were two different things entirely.

  “You good?” Damon whispered as Alistair took a call.

  Running a hand down my face, I inhaled a ragged breath. “Yeah, I’m good.” The lie soured on my tongue.

  But I was used to the lies. The half-truths and secrets. I was used to showing people what they wanted to see—what they needed to see.

  “Okay,” Alistair said, pocketing his cell, “I just spoke to PR and The Rock Report and Country Music Weekly are going to drop an exclusive press release about Eva. Once that hits, it’ll drown out the story in the Charlotte Post and we can focus on the tour.”

  “Let’s just hope you’re right about this.” I held his stare, wishing I could voice my concerns.

  “Well, one thing’s for sure,” Hudson said, “there’s no going back now.”

  He was right—we couldn’t go back.

  Having Eva here and not having her was one of the hardest things I’d ever done, but I still wouldn’t have ever wanted to go back to a time when I didn’t know her.

  Eva

  “Eva, baby, is that you? Oh, thank goodness. Gavin, it’s Eva.”

  “Hey, Mom,” I chuckled. “What’s up?”

  I’d finally plucked up the courage to call her back after a handful of missed calls. I knew why she was calling and I’d wanted to avoid her projecting any concerns on me before the opening show tonight.

  “Don’t ‘what’s up’ me, young lady,” she chided. “I read the newspapers, and I have to say Eva, I did not expect this.”

  “Mom, calm down, it’s nothing.”

  “Nothin’? Nothin’!” Her shrill voice pierced my ears. “You were at a club, drunk. Drunk, Eva. And you’ve only been gone a couple of days.”

  “Mom we talked about this. The papers will say all kinds of things about me. You can’t believe everything you read. You can’t—”

  “Eva, sweetheart,” my dad’s deep voice came over the line. “How’s the head?” He chuckled.

  “I’ll live.”

  “I’ve got to say, I was a little surprised.”

  “You and me both. I can assure you it won’t happen again in a hurry.”

  “I’m real glad to hear it.” I heard his smile. “Just tell me one thing. Was it as bad as they made it sound?”

  “No.” I swallowed over the lump in my throat. “But please, reassure Mom for me. I don’t want her thinking I’m being reckless. I’m not.”

  “Eva, we talked about this. You’re eighteen. This is the opportunity of a lifetime. We want you to embrace it, sweetheart. Just keep your wits about you and be careful, okay?”

  “I will, Dad. My assistant is great and my bodyguard doesn’t leave my side. Everythin’ is okay, I promise.”

  “Atta girl.” Pride lingered in his voice.

  “How’d you even hear about it anyway?” Alistair had reassured me the story had only broken locally.

  “Mom set up a Google alert for your name.”

  “Of course she did,” I grumbled, imagining her glued to the computer waiting for the alert to sound. “She can’t do that.”

  “Try tellin’ her that,” Dad replied, and I heard the smile in his voice. “If it keeps her sane, leave her be. She knows you’re sensible, sweetheart, and she knows you’re in good hands. If you weren’t, I wouldn’t have let you get in that SUV with Mr. Portman. Now don’t you have a show to prepare for?”

  My gaze flicked to the wall clock. It was a little past five. I still had time before I had to be on stage. A shiver ran up my spine, imagining all the fans pouring into the arena. All seventeen thousand of them. Thanks to Alistair’s press release, most of them would know who to expect tonight. They would know all about the Sweetheart of Country.

  “Put Mom back on, please.” Despite her over the top theatrics, I still needed her to know I was okay.

  “Sure thing, sweetheart. Show them what you’re made of out there tonight, my sweet girl. You got this.”

  “Thanks, Dad.”

  “Hi, baby,” Mom sniffled, and I groaned.

  “Mom, no waterworks, remember?” I’d made her promise she wouldn’t cry every time we talked.

  “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I’ll do better, I promise.”

  “Mom, I had three drinks. I want you to know it wasn’t like they said in the news article.”

  “Just be careful, Eva, please. Your body is still healin’.”

  “I know, Mom. I won’t neglect my regimen, you have my word.”

  “So it’s your big show tonight. I still can’t believe my baby girl will be singin’ for all those people.” Her change of subject was a relief. I didn’t want the whole ‘you survived cancer’ talk. Not now, not when I was waiting for the biggest moment of my life.

  “The arena holds seventeen thousand people, Mom; it’s crazy.”

  “It’s really somethin’. I’m so proud of you, baby, you know that, right? I always knew you were destined for great things, Eva.”

  Letty slipped into the room and waved a bag of chips at me. My stomach grumbled. “Mom, I need to go and finish preparin’, but I’ll call you after, okay?”

  “Gavin, she’s goin’.” There was a commotion and then both their voices came over the line. “Good luck, sweetheart, we’re rootin’ for you.”

  I hung up and took a deep breath. Talking to my mom was intense. She had this way of making me question everything. I knew she didn’t mean it. It was just her protective mother bear instinct. But at times, it was stifling.

  “Everything okay?” Letty asked, joining me on the couch. I’d been holed up in my changing room for the last hour. Letty had helped pick out my outfit, but a team of stylists had preened and primped me within an inch of my life. My hair was in curlers and I was wearing a big fluffy robe. The whole get-up made me snort; so much so, I’d sent Molly a selfie with the caption #divalife. Of course she didn’t think it was diva at all. She thought it was fantastic and insisted I video call her to show her the entire room.

  “Just my mom bein’ her usual overbearing self, but I think for once, I probably deserved it.”

  “Better to have a mom who cares than one that don’t.”

  “Crap, I’m sorry.” Guilt coiled around my words. “I didn’t mean to—”

  “Oh, my mom cares just fine.” Letty waved me off. “But in this biz most peo
ple have a story to tell and skeletons in their closet.”

  That was a strange thing to say. I wanted to ask her if she meant the band, but I didn’t want to pry, and I didn’t want to put her in an awkward position since she was friends with them as much as she was their ex-assistant.

  “How are you feeling?”

  “Okay, I think. I mean, I’m terrified but I also kinda want to get it over with.”

  “Understandable. Half the battle is the unknown. But after the press release, I think people will be excited to see what you bring to the show.”

  “So I shouldn’t worry about bein’ booed off stage or showered with eggs then?” My lip curved in a half-smile to match my half-serious words.

  “When the Die Hearts are around, you always need to worry. Those bitches are crazy.” Letty smirked. “Just worry about your set and leave everything else to other people.”

  Just then my cell phone vibrated. “It’s probably Molly,” I said, reaching to retrieve it off the table.

  “What does it say?”

  My brows pinched as I scanned the message from the unknown number.

  * * *

  Good luck out there, Angel.

  * * *

  “I think it’s... Levi,” I croaked.

  “Well, well, the fucker has a heart after all. How’d he get your number?”

  “You didn’t give it to him?”

  “Me?” Letty blanched. “What the hell would I do that for?”

  “Huh, weird.” I typed a quick reply, keeping it to a simple ‘thanks’. I’d seen the guys in passing today, at sound check and backstage, but there hadn’t been much time to talk. Not that I knew what to say after last night.

  I still cringed every time I pictured Travis having to practically carry me out of the club. Letty assured me it didn’t quite go down like that, but it didn’t ease the embarrassment that had burned through me most of the day. I could still remember the way Rafe had carried me to my suite, how safe and protected I’d felt in his arms. He’d been so kind and caring. So possessive. Part of me wanted to believe it—believe it meant he still cared—but I didn’t trust the liquor-haze that had clouded my mind. And when I’d seen him earlier, he’d barely looked twice at me, let alone asked how I was feeling