by Nova Raines
“You having fun?” His eyes are bright.
“Yes. I really am. Thanks for inviting me.”
His eyes soften, and he lets go of my hand to touch my cheek. “Come here,” he says, his voice low, husky.
My cheeks flush as I lean closer. I’m vaguely aware of the rest of the people around our table, of the entire auditorium packed full, even Peyton a few tables away. But the way Kaidan’s looking at me right now—nothing matters except me and him. We’re in a bubble, and nothing can pop it.
He kisses me, gently, pressing his lips to mine, letting them linger. I return his kiss, relishing the taste of him, and a little burst of excitement courses through me. When he pulls away, his face is flushed, too, and I finally remember to breathe again.
He just kissed me in front of everyone. In front of dozens of cameras. In front of the whole world. In front of Peyton. I grab his hand again.
“We’ll get some food after this.” He runs his fingers along my palm. “And then there’s the Stone Label afterparty. You up for it?”
“Of course I’m up for it,” I say, butterflies dancing in my stomach. This night is just getting started, and there is still so much more to come.
The lights dim, and the show starts again. After a few more awards are given out, the host announces Ethan’s performance, and all eyes go to the other stage.
He comes out with a guitar, and his handsome face just… changes as the lights come on above him and cast him in a yellow glow, leaving the band members behind him shrouded in red light.
His voice is deep and full of angst as he sings the opening lyrics. It’s like something comes over him, directing his movements for him, and his presence just sweeps the room, filling it up until none of the band members behind him matter at all, until the entire auditorium fades away, and it’s just him.
He’s not a douchebag anymore. He’s a rock god, someone you can’t tear your gaze from. Charisma emanates off of him, holding me in his spell until he reaches the end of the song.
The auditorium erupts with applause, and I realize Bia has disappeared to get ready for her performance next. Serena heads backstage to get ready to award best pop song as the applause dies down for Ethan.
A few awards later, she glides onstage and stands behind the podium, a huge smile plastered on her face. I sip my champagne, mesmerized by the way the lights glint off the enormous diamond resting in her cleavage. Maybe I need to slow down on the champagne.
A new artist, Sophie, a 16-year-old pop singer signed to Rev Records, wins the award. The young brunette bounces on stage grinning. My father didn’t win a HIT award until he was almost thirty, and he used to rant about the younger artists—how the labels exploited them and gave them manufactured pop shit to sing. How much better his metal music was.
It’s clear Sophie has no clue how lucky she is—how long other artists have to wait to win an award like this. She isn’t even self-conscious as she gives her half-forgotten speech.
Serena comes back to our table, and on the next commercial break, she gets up again, this time to leave for her performance. “You coming?”
I glance at a perplexed Kaidan, wishing I hadn’t asked to go backstage. I regret even considering stealing the diamond… There has to be another way.
But I did ask to go, and I’ll look dumb if I tell her no now. Serena tilts her head to the side, annoyed I’m keeping her waiting.
“Uh… sure,” I say. “I’m coming.”
Kaidan reluctantly lets go of my hand, and I leave my clutch with him and follow Serena and a few of the bodyguards backstage. It’s crazy back here, people milling around: half-naked dancers, cameramen, stagehands, security.
We pass by dozens of monitors, all of them trained on various areas of the auditorium. I glimpse Kaidan at our table, talking to Bia’s manager.
He’s so damn handsome. And he’s with me. I can’t help but smile as I hurry after Serena to her dressing room.
Serena falls back, waiting for me. “I just wanted to say I’m so glad Kaidan found a new girl!”
“Uh… Thanks.”
“I never liked Peyton. She was a bore. You seem like you’ll be so much more fun!”
I don’t even know what to say to that. “How so?”
“Well,” she says, dragging the word out. She touches my arm and glances around conspiratorially. “Calvin hasn’t asked me to marry him yet, but I just know it’s coming. The problem is that he loves his resort vacations. And oh God, I am so tired of sitting around while he goes and plays golf. Now you and Kaidan can join us! You and me can do the fun stuff while they play.”
“Oh, yay,” I say, trying to actually sound excited about that terrible prospect.
She throws an arm around me, smiling, and squeezes me before letting go. “We’ll be like sisters!”
I let out an awkward laugh. Serena’s sudden change in behavior toward me is a little bizarre. “Only it’ll be more like mother and daughter, right?”
She stiffens and stares at me blankly. “Definitely sisters.”
“Yeah, for sure.”
She grins at me and then bounds into her dressing room.
I blow out a breath and follow. I’m pretty damn sure Calvin Stone is a perv, a guy who will trade in twenty-somethings for younger women until he dies. Is she really so naive she thinks her magical twat will be enough to keep him from replacing her when she gets older?
But maybe I’m being uncharitable. She is being nice to me, after all. Maybe Kaidan’s wrong about her.
In the dressing room, her dancers and handlers are waiting. Serena stands in front of the lighted mirrors as her make-up artist touches up her face and her dressers literally strip her naked. She’s got a body only money can buy. No one in the room cares or pays attention to her nudity—all the dancers are in various states of undress, too, as they get ready for their performance.
I stand off to the side, in the corner, next to yet another monitor and watch her get ready. What would it be like, to get up there and dance and sing in front of millions of people?
Another little bit of grudging respect for her rises up in me. Maybe she is just naive about Calvin. I mean, the whole world has convinced her of how special she is… Assuming everyone thinks that must be her default setting at this point.
What if I just told her about my one condition? Maybe she could help me out. Maybe I could borrow the necklace or something.
The commercial break’s over, and it’s Bia’s turn to perform. I watch it on the monitor. She’s wearing less than most people wear to the beach. ‘Lux’ is a club song, and muscular dancers gyrate around her as she hits her high notes and dances around a clear plastic pole like, well, a stripper.
“Ew, God. How much did she gain?” Serena says loudly. Everyone looks at the monitor, and she giggles as her hairdresser teases her blond tresses.
“What a fat cow!” Serena crows, and everyone else laughs along with her. “You guys know she’s lip syncing every word to that shitty song, right?” Serena rolls her eyes and pouts into the mirror, posing this way and that as her people try to get her ready.
And with that, any respect I had for her is gone. The wardrobe people finish, and Serena saunters over to me in a skintight leather-looking outfit and five-inch heels. Something’s dangling from her hand.
Oh.
The diamond.
My eyes widen, and I lick my lips.
She leans in close. “Hay, can you be a doll and do me a favor?” she says, keeping her voice low. “Take this back out to Calvin?” Her eyes dart around the room, then meet mine. “I really don’t trust anyone else with it.”
OMG, the irony. I force a smile and let her drop the necklace into my palm. “Of course!” My voice cracks, and I clear my throat.
She raises her brows for a second, and I glance around. Everyone’s staring at me.
“Um… now? Can you take it now?” Serena says, like I’m slow.
“Of course.” I hurry out of the dressing room, heart
pounding, clutching the diamond in my sweaty palm. I look back and see one of the guards following me.
I can’t believe I’m holding the diamond. I can not believe I’m holding the diamond! And I can’t do anything about it. Because everyone saw her give it to me. Dammit.
I walk faster and get stopped at the door by a HIT security guard. “We’ll let you out at the next commercial break,” he says.
So I stand next to the wall of monitors, awkward with my own personal guard a few feet behind me, and sneak a peek at the perfect diamond inset in the necklace. It’s enormous. Gorgeous. The key to all my problems.
And I’m helpless to use it to fix them.
I bite back a growl, dab at the sweat on my forehead, and search the monitors for the one that displays our table.
When I find it, my heart jumps into my throat.
Peyton MacKenzie is sitting in my chair, leaning close to Kaidan, whispering something in his ear.
The sight of them together hits me like a gangster with a tire iron, and my composure cracks. My eyes burn, and a lump forms in my throat. Why can’t anything just go right for once?
My pulse is a dull roar in my ears when the security guard finally lets us out. I try my best to keep my face blank, confident, not let the fury show. But I’m fucking ragey. Why won’t she leave us alone?
A little flicker of fear stirs in me. What if I’m the naive one? What if he is with her behind my back? Why else would she be at the table?
Peyton sees me before Kaidan does, and her eyes narrow. Kaidan turns to follow where she’s looking, and his nostrils flare. He says something to Peyton and points to her table, back toward Ender Varrone. Ender’s not even looking their way. He’s got some brunette in a short dress leaning over him, practically falling into his lap.
Peyton gets out of my chair while I’m still weaving my way around the other tables. She tosses her head and heads straight for me instead of back where she came from. She’s carrying a very full glass of some fizzy red drink, and she wavers on her feet like she’s drunk.
I stop walking and clutch the diamond tighter in my fist. My heart beats wildly. I’m not going to take her shit this time.
She stops a few inches from me and puts a hand on her hip. A little liquid sloshes over the edge of her glass at her abrupt stop, and I take a step back to avoid getting it on my dress.
“You’re embarrassing yourself,” she spits. A little blue vein pops out on her forehead.
My chest lightens. She’s a wreck. I’m in control here, not her. “No. You’re embarrassing yourself, coming over to our table like that. He’s with me. Get over it.”
Her eyes widen. “Seriously? He’s on the rebound. He’s not ‘with’ you.”
I think about the way Kaidan looked at me that day after lunch. The way he’s been holding my hand all night. The fact that he brought me to the awards show and not her.
She smiles, thinking my silence means she’s getting to me.
“Is that what you try to tell yourself?” I ask, my tone biting. “That I’m just the rebound girl?”
“Look at me,” she makes a sweeping gesture down her face and body. “You are just a pale imitation.”
I blink prettily. “Aww, does it hurt that he chose me over you? It should. Because he did. Move. The. Fuck. On.”
Her face reddens. “I don’t want him. I’ve moved on. You’re the one—”
“Oh yeah? Ender Varrone your boyfriend now?”
“I’m with him, aren’t I?” she spits. She glances back at her table and stiffens when she sees what’s happening over there. The brunette is in Ender’s lap now.
I laugh loudly. “You’re a one-night stand waiting to happen. You know that, right?”
She looks back at me. “What?”
“Oh yeah, didn’t you know? Ender has a rule… he only spends one night with a girl before kicking her to the curb.” I lean closer to her, and a little smile spontaneously appears on my lips. “So I guess you better make tonight a good one.” I give her a little wave and push past, my head held high.
But she grabs me by the shoulder, her nails digging into me, and wrests me back around. I gasp and stumble right into a table. Everyone’s staring at us. And I do mean everyone. The lights near the stage are blinking. The commercial break is over. I look around, seeking an escape, but Peyton’s got me cornered between two tables.
“Don’t touch me ever again,” I say, my voice shaking.
Her eyes are round as saucers. “You talentless whore.”
Then everything happens in slow motion. Her glass raising in the air, her arm tilting sideways. The cold, bright red liquid cascading over my hair and running into my eyes. It traces cold rivulets down my chest.
I suck in a breath from the shock and stare down at myself, at my slick, wine covered cleavage, at the red drops seeping into the fabric. I can’t breathe. I need to breathe. This can’t be happening.
Someone shouts something to the guards, and they pull Peyton away instantly. Then Kaidan’s beside me, his hands clenched into tight fists. His father is right behind him, livid.
Kaidan tears his jacket off and lays it over my wet shoulders, then turns his icy gaze on Peyton.
She wilts beneath the force of it as he steps closer. The guards have her by both arms, and she looks like she wants to escape. All eyes are on us, from the people at the tables near us, to the people in the rest of the theater. I’m numb, in shock, floating outside my body. This is a nightmare.
“You will never come near Hayley again.” Kaidan’s voice is low, threatening. “Or me. I never want to see you.”
Tears glisten in Peyton’s eyes. “You don’t mean it—”
“I mean every word. I’m with Hayley. Not you. We are done.”
Peyton shoots me a glare and unsuccessfully tries to shake off the guards. “You just made the biggest mistake of your life, Kaidan. Everyone will know the truth. I’m not helping you hide what’s going on anymore.”
Hide the truth? What the hell is she talking about? Security is running toward us—did they extend the commercial break? The show hasn’t started.
Calvin plucks the soaked diamond necklace from my limp grasp, and I let out a faint whimper.
“If you can’t control your women,” he hisses to Kaidan, “How can I trust you to run the label? Get her the hell out of here.”
Calvin shoots me a hateful glare, and I avert my burning eyes. I’m not gonna cry in front of all these people. Kaidan’s jaw tightens, and he looks like he wants to punch his dad and Peyton. But instead, he turns to his guards. “Let’s go. Side exit.”
Kaidan grabs me by the hand, and the guards flank us as we hurry toward the exit doors at the side of the theater. I can feel every eye on us as we make our getaway, and loud chatter erupts at our hasty departure.
When we make it to the outside of the building, Kaidan directs his guards to call the driver, and I stand beside him, shaking beneath his jacket. It’s not that cold out, but I’m soaked and… everything that just happened.
“The car’s coming,” Kaidan says, looking down the street.
Flashes erupt from nowhere, paps who got lucky and found us.
Kaidan wraps his arms around me, protecting me from the sharks, shielding me with his body so they can’t get a decent shot.
The Jag pulls up, and Kaidan helps me into it. He slides into the backseat beside me, and his guards get in the front. Flashes continue to go off outside.
“Take us to the hotel,” Kaidan commands.
The car moves.
“No—I want to go home.” My voice cracks on the words.
“We keep a penthouse at the hotel. You can clean up there,” Kaidan says.
“No,” I repeat. That’s when I realize I’m empty-handed. “Wait, we have to go back. I don’t have my purse. I won’t be able to get into my house.”
“Charles,” Kaidan says to the guard in the passenger seat. “Call my father’s men, and tell them to bring her purse to the hotel.”
I sink back into the seat, dizzy, all my adrenaline gone. The stench of alcohol on my dress is overwhelming, permeating the car. Kaidan finds a handkerchief from somewhere and turns to me. His eyes are flinty, unreadable as he wipes my face, dabs at my hair. I tear the piece of cloth from his hand, crumple it in my fist and sink back into the seat.
“I’m sorry, Hayley. She’s insane.”
“And you dated her.” I let out a harsh laugh. “What the hell was she talking about back there? What’s going on?”
Something flashes in his eyes, but then it’s gone.
I sit up straight and scoot away from him. I’m tired of wondering. “Were you still seeing her? There were pictures of you two at that cafe.”
He slides closer and searches my face. “No. I haven’t dated her in months.”
“Then why…?”
“Look, I was her lawyer. I was helping her with something.”
Her lawyer. Do I believe that? My stomach twists. “What did she mean… that she’s helping you hide something?”
Kaidan shakes his head. “I don’t know. She’s… unbalanced. I was her lawyer before—so I was still helping her with some things. But that’s over. She can get someone else. I won’t work with her again.”
I want to believe him. I do. “But why did she say those things? Even if she’s unbalanced… what were you working with her on?”
He hesitates, staring into my eyes like he has something else he wants to say. I wait, my heart thudding loudly in my chest, but before he can answer me, the car jerks to a stop. We’re at Beauchamp Towers, LA’s newest luxury hotel.
“I just want to go home,” I say again, my voice wavering.
“No. You’re not going home like this.” His tone is commanding, and I don’t have it in me to fight him. He’s right, of course. I’m soaking wet. I want this dress off.
He gets out of the car first, then helps me out.
We enter the massive marble foyer of The Beauchamp, and at the back of the space, there’s a Stone Label logo sign and a velvet rope leading toward some closed doors. Two bouncers stand at the front of it, flanking a woman with a clipboard. It’s the Stone afterparty.