Needing Arella (Rockers' Legacy Book 6)

by Terri Anne Browning

  “Fuck,” he’d muttered, scrubbing his hands over his face as he watched her walk away. When she was gone, he turned to face me. My father and I had never been close. He was a good dad but too much of a hard-ass at times for us to really connect. He’d never expected me to come along.

  After Mom’s accident, she was told she would never have children, so my birth had freaked them both out. I suspected my dad resented me a little because, for one, I had put my mom’s life in danger during her pregnancy. For another, she always took my side.

  “She’s right,” he’d said after standing there glaring at me for several long moments. “I made mistake after mistake with her. I don’t want you to go through that, son. Any more than I want you to put this Arella girl through what I did your mom. If coming home is what will make you happy, I’ll find you something in one of the companies here.”

  “No,” I told him point-blank, and he’d blinked at me in confusion. “I mean, no, I don’t want to work for you or one of the companies you own. I’ve got my own plans.”

  “But this is your legacy, Jordan. Everything will be yours one day.”

  That had been all he and my uncle Ricco had ever talked about. Ricco and his wife had never been able to have kids of their own. Eventually, they had adopted two little girls, but neither of them had wanted anything to do with the family business. I was expected to take over everything in time. A billion-dollar empire that the Giordano family had created. All of it was mine, and I didn’t want any part of it.

  “I’ll take over when the time comes, but until then, I have projects of my own I want to work on.”

  For the past six weeks, I’d been working nonstop to finish any open projects and get everything ready to turn over to my replacement. The entire time, I’d tried tirelessly to reach Arella. When she wouldn’t answer and I finally realized she’d blocked me, my first thought was to fly home and make her talk to me. Whatever made her pissed at me enough to block me, I would make it right.

  But then a few projects I was wrapping up hit snags, and I had to make the choice to wait to talk to Arella about what was wrong, or put those projects on hold and delay my departure from the company that much longer.

  Now, as I looked down at my girl and saw the haunted look in her beautiful eyes, I realized I should have just said to hell with the projects. The way she was shaking so hard her teeth chattered told me something was wrong. I could see she’d needed me, and I wanted to kick my own ass for not having been there for her.

  When the service ended and everyone filed out of the church to get into the line of limos to travel over to the graveside service, I held Arella back. My parents coming to this funeral should have been enough to show our respects to Remington Sawyer, but I had another reason for attending. His grandfather and my dad had done business plenty of times in the past, and I’d even worked with Remington on a couple projects over the last few years.

  I’d known Arella would most likely show up since her cousin had been married to the man. She’d been late, something I’d expected because Arella had never been on time to anything a day in her life. I’d waited in the limo until I saw her enter the church then followed after her, knowing if she was still pissed at me, it was the only way I could get her to speak to me.

  Having ridden with my parents, I guided Arella to her car that was waiting in the church parking lot instead of the line of limos. No one tried to stop us, but they probably figured I would just drive her over to the cemetery.

  There was no way I was putting her through that, though. Not with the way she was still trembling against me.

  I took her keys as I opened the passenger door and helped her sit. Leaning in, I fastened her seat belt and then pressed a kiss to her forehead before straightening. “I’ll get you warm, baby,” I promised.

  “I’m not cold,” she denied, but she pulled my jacket around herself a little tighter.

  Her car was so tiny and I was a tall man, so I had to practically fold myself behind the wheel. It had been uncomfortable as hell sitting in it Christmas Eve, but I’d sat there anyway, desperate to see her.

  The limo procession filed out onto the road, but when I went to follow, I turned left instead of right with the others. Arella sighed but didn’t stop me. “I need to see Cathryn. Could you drive to her office?”

  “Your agent?” She nodded, and my hands tightened around the steering wheel. “Baby, I need to talk to you. Can’t this wait until tomorrow or later in the week?”

  “Please, Jordan,” she whispered. “It’s important. And then I can explain what has been going on.”

  Releasing a heavy exhale, I gave in. “You’re going to have to tell me where to go.”

  She sat quietly in the passenger seat, giving me directions every few minutes. Every time I glanced at her, I saw that she looked a little more fragile, and no matter how high I cranked the heat in the car, she still shivered like she had hypothermia. When I grasped her hand to entwine our fingers, she felt like a block of ice.

  “Arella, tell me what’s wrong,” I commanded, lifting her hand to my lips.

  “I didn’t block your number.”

  “Yeah, I heard you before.” My jaw hardened. If it were anyone else, I would have called them a liar and just made her tell me why she was playing games with me. But this was Arella. I knew she wouldn’t do something like that. “If you didn’t, though, who did?”

  “I-I don’t know,” she muttered.

  I stopped for a red light and glanced at her. She was looking down at her phone in her lap, her face pale, locks of her glossy dark hair falling forward. She appeared so fragile, as if the slightest wind would knock her over. In all the years I’d known and loved this girl, I’d never seen her like this. She was normally so strong, a fighter.

  “Turn left up ahead,” she instructed.

  It wasn’t long before I was pulling up in front of a tall building. After parking, I got out and walked around to open Arella’s door. She was still shivering, and I tucked her close as we walked inside.

  Cathryn Schneider’s office was on the fifteenth floor. When we walked in, a receptionist lifted her eyes from a computer screen and smiled. But when she saw the look on Arella’s face, she grabbed the receiver on her desk. “Arella Stevenson just walked in.” After a moment, she hung up and gave us a tight smile. “Go straight back.”

  My girl led the way into her agent’s office. Cathryn, an older woman with a short blond bob, stood as we entered and came around to embrace Arella. “Did something happen?” she questioned as soon as she stepped back.

  Arella held out her phone. “Someone blocked Jordan’s number in my phone, Cathryn. I…I think it was him.”

  The agent released a harsh sigh and took the phone from her. “Let me call Kirtner. Have a seat, doll.” Her gaze lifted to me. “You too, cutie.”

  I guided Arella over to the leather couch against the wall and sat beside her. “Him who?” I asked her softly while Cathryn spoke to someone on her cell.

  Arella sucked her bottom lip between her teeth for a moment before releasing the tortured flesh, causing it to plump. Unable to stop myself, I traced my thumb over it, making her mewl in pleasure.

  “Him who, baby?” I repeated when she just sat there, staring up at me.

  “My stalker,” she breathed.

  My blood turned to ice at those two words, and I pulled her onto my lap. “Tell me everything,” I ordered.

  Eight

  Arella

  I felt like I was having an out-of-body experience as I sat on Jordan’s lap and told him everything the creepy stalker had done to date. The boxes with the pictures, the lotion, the dead birds. Now, it seemed he’d gotten even closer than I’d imagined, and I was scared.

  If he’d been in my dressing room while I was at work, that meant I might actually know this person. It could be someone I worked with, someone I saw regularly. Someone I spoke to, laughed with, perhaps even hugged.

  That last thought caused me to shudder, an
d Jordan touched his lips to my temple. One of his large hands rubbed up and down my back, while the other kept hold of my thigh, locking me in place on his lap. Like this, I felt safe. Protected. Loved…

  I shook my head at that ridiculousness, but I buried my face in his chest. I knew he didn’t love me, but at least he cared enough to worry about me. Wanted to keep me safe from the man who was trying to freak me out. A man who might even want to hurt me.

  Of all the people in my contact list, why had he blocked Jordan? Why not any number of other people? Hell, I had two ex-boyfriend’s numbers in there, but when I’d peeked at them and a few other numbers on the drive to Cathryn’s office, none of them had been blocked. Only Jordan.

  It just didn’t make sense to me.

  “Detective Kirtner is on his way,” Cathryn announced as she dropped her cell phone onto her desk. “He’s going to take your phone and have his people look it over.”

  I could only nod as I sat there, my body slowly absorbing Jordan’s heat. I’d never been so cold in my life, but I barely noticed. It was as if my entire body had gone numb. But as his heat began to invade me, I realized just how scared I really was.

  There were people who thrived off feeling fear. They liked the adrenaline rush they got from watching horror movies or going to haunted houses. Mom and Aunt Harper loved that stuff, but I’d never enjoyed it. It made me mad when people tried to jump out and scare me. I’d almost ripped all of Nevaeh’s hair out once when she’d hid in my closet and jumped out to surprise me one night when we were younger.

  As the numbness dissipated, flashes of everything I’d been put through the past two months filtered through my mind, and my blood started to boil.

  I couldn’t remember ever being so pissed off in my life, and I jumped to my feet. Jordan tried to pull me back onto his lap, but I slapped his hands away and began to pace angrily. Maybe it was his nearness making me feel safe, but all the fear this motherfucking stalker had forced me to feel for weeks was gone. All that was left was the anger.

  From the corner of my eye, I saw Cathryn lean back against her desk and cross her arms over her chest, a smirk teasing at her lips.

  “Shut up, C,” I snapped at her, knowing exactly what she was thinking.

  “I was beginning to wonder if this bastard had turned you into a scared little kitten. I mean, seriously. It was just a few little boxes with pictures of some guy spanking the monkey. Yeah, okay, so those little birds dying like that was sad. I may have shed a tear or three for them. But I didn’t think it was enough to get too worked up over. Honestly, if you saw some of the fan mail my people have to go through for you on the regular, you would think this is all pretty tame.” She tapped her manicured nails on her arm in time to some tune only she could hear. “Glad to see I was wrong and that fiery tigress I adore so fucking much was just beneath the surface. So, while I have you here, what did you think of that script I sent over?”

  Jordan snarled—actually snarled—as he jumped up. “She obviously has reason to be scared. Some lunatic is stalking her. And now she discovers that he may have done shit to her phone? He was that fucking close to her.” He stabbed his fingers through his hair, disheveling it in a way I’d always wanted to.

  Watching him, I felt my fingers tingle to run through those dark strands, and I realized I was actually jealous of his own hands. Shaking off the feeling, I returned to pacing.

  “He was that close…” he repeated. But there was something in his voice that had me turning to glance at him again, only to find his tormented eyes watching me intently. With a curse, he pulled his phone from his pants pocket. “I’m calling Mia. You’re getting a full detail of security right now.”

  Of course, he would call Mia. Rolling my eyes, I stomped over to him and snatched his phone out of his hands. The call hadn’t gone through yet, and I quickly disconnected before she could answer. Two seconds later, a text came in.

  Mia: You okay?

  I shot back a quick “Fine, talk later” reply and shoved the phone against his chest. “If I wanted an entourage of security, I would have told my sister, and Braxton would have taken care of it for me.”

  “Then why the fuck haven’t you?” he demanded angrily.

  “Because I don’t want my parents to stress over this!” I exploded. “It’s just some dumbass trying to freak me out. Which, I admit, I was. But now, I’m just pissed off.”

  His phone rang, but he tossed it onto the couch across the room and cupped my face in his hands. “Baby, you are getting security.”

  “No, I’m not.” I pushed his hands away and focused on Cathryn, who was watching us like we were her new favorite soap opera. “When will Detective Kirtner get here?”

  “He’s on his way, doll. Shouldn’t be too long.” She got a text and picked up her phone to answer it.

  “Arella, listen to me,” Jordan caught my wrist in his hand and tugged me around to face him once again. His eyes looked wild, his chest heaving, and I hated how much it affected me. How much I wanted to press up against him and feel his hardness as I gave him another reason to look so exerted. “If this guy gets within a mile of you again, I’m going to kill him. You need security, if for no other reason than so I don’t lose my fucking mind.”

  “I said no.”

  “Your parents don’t have to know. I’ll talk to Mia. We’ll do it all discreetly. No one but us, her, and Barrick have to know.” When I just shook my head, he jerked me against him. My free hand pressed against his chest to steady myself, and I felt how hard his heart was pounding. “Please, baby. I’ll take care of everything. Drake and Lana won’t be aware of anything.”

  “No,” I repeated. “And if you can’t respect that, there’s the door.”

  “You goddamn stubborn girl,” he growled. Releasing me, he took two steps back before raking his fingers through his hair once again. He inhaled deeply and slowly released it, as if trying to calm himself down, but it didn’t seem to work, so he did it again. “Fine. You don’t want security, then be prepared to have me shadowing you day and night. Twenty-four seven.”

  I snorted out a laugh. “Yeah, okay.”

  His dark eyes narrowed. “Why the skepticism?”

  “You’ll be back in Italy no later than next week,” I reminded him.

  Jordan shook his head. “I’m home full time now.”

  “Really?” I felt my cheeks begin to warm at how happy his affirmative nod made me, and I quickly came up with another reason why the thought of this guy spouting nonsense about being my constant shadow was ridiculous. Really, there were hundreds, but as I stood there staring up at him, not a single one of them came to mind.

  “So, you’re going to stay at my apartment with me?” I threw at him instead. “I don’t have a spare bedroom, and my couch is too hard to sleep on.” He’d complained about how uncomfortable it was every time he’d come to my place. Which, admittedly, wasn’t all that many times, but every single time, he’d had some wisecrack to make about my adorable—albeit more for decoration than comfort—couch.

  He cocked his head to the side, gazing at me long and hard before grinning. The wicked hunger I saw deep in his eyes made me burn as his voice caressed my entire body. “Baby, if you think I’m not sleeping right beside you so I know you’re safe, you’re out of your mind.”

  Nine

  Jordan

  My girl stared up at me with shock and need in her pretty blue-gray eyes for a long moment before smirking. “Sorry, I only sleep with guys who introduce me to their mothers.”

  Jealousy struck me in the gut, and I took a step closer to her. I bet she’d met fucking Lyle’s mother. The thought pissed me off so much I wanted to punch something. “You’ve met my mom. She even went to your eighteenth birthday party.”

  Her smirk disappeared, and I saw something that looked like hurt flicker across her face before she quickly hid it. “Yes, but you have never introduced us. I don’t share my bed with anyone who doesn’t think I’m good enough to meet his moth
er.”

  “How many guys have shared your bed, Arella?” I gritted out. I needed to know how many, and their names, so I could fucking kill every last one of them. I would start with Lyle and work my way down the list.

  Her eyes flashed fire at me. “How many girls have shared yours?” she countered.

  Fuck, of course, she would turn it around on me. “Ever, or this year?”

  “It’s only February, but I’m sure the number is still a high one for the year alone,” she sassed, but I saw the jealousy she wanted to hide before she lowered her lashes.

  “Zero,” I informed her, and her eyes narrowed on me. “My number for the year is zero.” It was zero for the previous year as well, but she didn’t look as if she believed me for the current year, so I didn’t mention it.

  “Huh,” she muttered skeptically. “Well then, there you go. You have my tally for the current year as well.”

  “I want to know your total,” I bit out. I needed to know how many motherfuckers had touched what was mine, but at the same time, I wasn’t sure if I could handle knowing.

  “You first,” she countered, quirking a brow as if she were amused. She could read my jealousy because I sure as hell wasn’t trying to hide it. “You tell me yours, and I’ll tell you mine.”

  A throat clearing brought me back to the here and now, reminding me that we weren’t alone. Cathryn’s gaze was still on her phone, but she was obviously listening in. “Just an FYI. Kirtner texted me to say he’s about five minutes away.” She finally lifted her gaze from the screen. “I’m just going to step out and wait on him. Give you two a moment to sort out your…sleeping arrangements.”