After Kendall left, Mason ran his fingers through his hair and let out an exhausted breath. “Man, she really enjoyed those videos.”
“How did tea with Mason’s birth mother go yesterday?” Sindy asked.
“Other than the excessive video watching, and the way Kendall barely blinked at the TV screen, it was really nice.”
“Excessive video watching?” Sindy asked with amusement.
“It was nothing.” Tessa wished she’d never mentioned it. Last night, she had debated on whether to say anything to Mason about it and decided she didn’t want to read into the way Kendall focused on watching video after video. She didn’t want to join in the crusade, even though she thought Kendall was acting a little weird by the time she left. “We had a very nice time actually. She liked the tea and made a big deal about it. Mason played the drums for her. She really enjoyed that. And we spent the afternoon watching videos of Prodigy. She was very impressed and kept asking to see more of them. By the end of the day I was about to throw my shoe at the computer feed so we didn’t have to watch another one.”
Sindy laughed. “You may have created a monster.” She grabbed her handbag. “Ready to go?”
“I’m ready.” They jumped into the Tesla and Tessa drove the short distance toward her parents’ home so they could go over some new designs for band merch with her mom. As she turned off the main road and onto the private street that led to the home she grew up in, two police cruisers passed in the opposite direction.
Sindy turned her head to see where they were headed. “What’s going on? There’s never police over here.”
“I don’t know.” An uneasy feeling settled in Tessa’s chest, like when you heard an ambulance siren close to home and you knew, in your gut, that something happened to someone in your family. She punched the code into the keypad that opened the private gate and hit the gas. She made it halfway up the driveway when she saw a pair of police cars parked in the semi-circle in front of the main entrance to the mansion. “Shit!” Her hands shook as she cut the engine, and she raced toward the front door.
“Take it easy,” Sindy called from behind Tessa. “Slow down. It’s probably nothing.”
“Mom?” Tessa called, frantically, before she even fully opened the door. “Papi? Dad? What’s going on?”
“It’s OK, sweetie.” Alyssa intercepted Tessa and Sindy as soon as they entered the house. “There was some suspicious activity on the security monitors early this morning. It was probably just a crazy fan.”
“Was anyone hurt? Did they steal anything?” Tessa’s voice conveyed wild panic, but she realized that it couldn’t have been too serious or her parents would have called her.
“No. Just someone lurking around in the garden and looking in the windows.”
“Looking in the windows?” Tessa practically shouted, alarmed at the invasion of privacy. Just then, Papi came into the entry foyer where they were all standing.
“It’s OK, princess.” He hugged her and she clung to him, feeling safe and secure in his protective embrace.
“No one’s hurt,” he reassured her. “We’re all fine. Nothing was taken. It was just a crazy fan. We’re having security patrol the grounds at night for a while. It won’t happen again.”
“Are you sure? Why are the police still here?”
“Yes, I’m sure. The police have been here studying the surveillance video for hours. They’re still talking to Mom and Dad.” He pulled back to look at her. “There’s no need to worry.” Then he looked over at Sindy. “Hi, Sindy. Sorry. We’re all a little rattled this morning. Where are the boys?”
“They went for a bike ride,” Sindy replied. “Tessa still doesn’t want to get on Mason’s motorcycle.”
Papi brandished a wide smile. “Good girl. Stay off that motorcycle. It’s dangerous. Why don’t you both wait in the great room until the police leave? It won’t be much longer.”
Tessa nodded and left with Sindy.
“That was creepy,” Sindy said, as she sat on the long couch in the great room. “Does that happen often? That someone climbs the gate and roams on the property?”
“No. This is the first I’ve heard about it happening.” Tessa thought back to when she was a kid. There used to be 24-hour security to ward off the paparazzi, but as they got older, having guards on the property day and night wasn’t necessary. By the time Tessa had turned 18 they had been dismissed altogether.
“Look at this!” Sindy exclaimed, picking up the magazine on the coffee table with her photo on the cover. “Your parents have the new issue of Guitar World. I didn’t even know it was out yet. My first magazine cover!”
Tension and worry dissipated as Tessa took the magazine from her best friend. “You look awesome.” They huddled together on the sofa and turned the pages of the magazine. There were photos of Sindy on stage and stills from a private photo shoot sprinkled throughout the article. As they skimmed the pages, Damien walked into the room.
He jutted his chin toward them in greeting. “S’up?” He stopped in front of Sindy and pointed to the magazine. “That’s cool.”
“Thank you.” Sindy turned to Tessa and looked as if she was about to explode at the understated compliment, which made Tessa laugh.
Damien squatted in front of the magazine rack and rifled through it. He found the magazine he had been searching for – an issue of Bass Player Magazine with Lemmy on the cover – and stood up ready to exit the room.
He headed for the doorway and then suddenly stopped. After a second, he turned around and took two steps toward Tessa. “I don’t stick my nose in people’s business, but when I got shit to say, I say it. And I got shit to say.”
Sindy immediately sat back, intimidated by Damien’s brutal honesty, but Tessa was confused. “About what?” Tessa asked.
“Kendall.”
Tessa’s heart sank. She didn’t want to hear any negative comments about Kendall. She wanted Mason to bond with his birth mother, free from the gossip circulating in the family. She hated drama. But then she realized something. No one gave specifics. Everyone tiptoed around the reason they had a problem with Kendall. Damien wouldn’t hold back. He’d give her the unfiltered truth. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to hear it, though. The past was the past for a reason. While she was still figuring out if she should tell Damien not to divulge any family secrets or not, he started talking.
“She’s been on the top of everyone’s shit list for as long as I can remember.”
“Everyone’s?” Tessa asked, skeptically
“Pretty much. She’s crossed a lot of people. Including me.”
While Tessa exchanged an uneasy glance with Sindy, Damien bowed his head causing his big blue Mohawk to dip forward. His gruff features turned sorrowful. Remorseful. Vulnerable. It concerned Tessa. This man had built so many walls between his emotions and the world, but, somehow, Kendall had broken through them.
“You know I had a drug problem, right?” he said after a long pause.
Tessa nodded. He wasn’t embarrassed about it. It was part of his history. It was common knowledge and he spoke of it freely. But the look on his face right now was one of shame.
“I slipped up once,” Damien admitted. “I was young. Newly sober. I fell off the wagon one night and had a few drinks. No pills. Just a couple of glasses of whisky. She was there. She saw it. But Alyssa didn’t know. My girl was helping her mom with an art show in Montreal for a couple of days. It was just a momentary slip up. I regretted it, and I got to a meeting. Swore I’d never do it again. I figured Alyssa would never find out about it, right?”
Tessa shook her head. She knew right away what Kendall did. “She ratted on you.”
“No. I wouldn’t let my girl find out from that bitch. I told her myself. Confessed my sins and begged for penance.”
“What happened?” Tessa asked, cautiously, knowing full well that Alyssa didn’t put up with an ounce of crap from anyone.
“She walked out on me. Left for a couple of days.” D
espair and darkness covered Damien’s face, and his eyes read pain and loss. “My heart broke. It was the way she looked at me that killed me. Like I disappointed her. Like I threw everything that we had in the can. Like she didn’t matter to me.” He slowly shook his head, causing the macabre tattoos that covered his neck to move as if they came to life. “I honestly thought I was going to die of a broken heart. But she forgave me and came back. I haven’t touched a drop of alcohol since then.”
Tessa’s heart ached for him. Damien, who had always been so strong, so rock solid, stood here a deflated man. She wanted to wrap her arms around him and tell him everything was OK now. That he beat his addiction and that she looked up to him. But she knew he was guarded and didn’t like physical affection. Still, she couldn’t watch his pain and do nothing, so she stood up and placed a soothing hand on his arm. “Alyssa loves you. No matter what. We all love you, Damien.”
He gave her a questioning look, and the corner of his mouth slowly drew back into a smile. “You comforting me?”
“Of course. You’re hurting and I feel so bad.”
He shrugged. “It’s cool. I’ve been through a ton of shit, but it made me tougher.”
He could put up all the barricades he wanted, she knew that it was all a cover so people wouldn’t see his sensitivity. She remembered when he taught her how to play the bass. She’d been a kid and initially overconfident. Singing came naturally for her, and she had thought learning an instrument would be just as easy. But it was work. She had needed to practice and sometimes pushed herself, but still messed up. She had been hard on herself, expecting to be further along at times. He’d never lost patience and always showed understanding. He explained that it took time to master an instrument. It didn’t matter how many times he needed to show her a chord or remind her what it looked like on paper, he meticulously went over it until she knew it backwards and forwards. That’s when she had realized that there were two sides to this man she regarded as an uncle. “You’re not so tough.”
He scowled and nudged her in the shoulder with his knuckle. “Am too.”
“I don’t understand,” Sindy interrupted, getting up from the couch and joining them. “What would Kendall gain by telling Alyssa you fell off the wagon? Was she just trying to be mean?”
Damien wiped a tattooed hand over his face, sweeping away the playfulness that was there a minute ago. A deep crease permeated his brow, and he glanced toward the doorway. He stepped closer and lowered his voice to a whisper. “I’ve never told anyone this. Except Angel. I probably shouldn’t be telling you right now, but you asked, and you should know her M.O. How low and vindictive Kendall can be.” He paused to look toward the doorway again. “Kendall wanted me to sleep with her in order to keep quiet.” His scowl deepened. “As if I’d ever look at anyone ‘cept my girl. Fuck Kendall. She’s always trying to start shit in people’s lives. I don’t like her, and I don’t trust her. I ain’t got no kids. You’re it. You and Lucas and Mason.” He eyeballed Sindy and jutted his chin at her. “You, too. Kendall better not fuck with you,” he told Tessa. “Watch out for her. She has an ulterior motive for everything she does. I know Mason says she’s changed, but I’m not fallin’ for it.” He shrugged, dismissing the hostility that punctuated his words a moment ago. “That’s it. That’s all I wanted to say.” With the conclusion of his story, he rolled up the magazine in his hand. “I just came in here to grab something to read while I take a shit and I ended up spilling my guts. Man, you girls really know how to grill a dude.” And then he left.
Tessa’s mouth hung open with disbelief at Damien’s admission. She wanted to say something, but didn’t think there was anything to say to that, except, “Oh my God.”
“It was a long time ago,” Sindy tried to reassure her. “Maybe she really did change. You have to believe she did. For Mason.”
Tessa wanted to believe that more than anything in the world. She couldn’t bear the thought of Mason getting his heart broken, or deceived, especially since he was still mourning Aunt Mary. “Do you really think she’s changed?”
Sindy thought about it for a long time, then shrugged one shoulder. “She looks a hell of a lot different from that messy drunk girl I saw on the video, so, yeah.”
“What video?” Tessa’s eyes widened with surprise, and her voice raised an octave.
“A video your mom played of Immortal Angel’s early days. Before they were signed. You were there. But you ran out when your dads started grinding on each other.”
Tessa grimaced. Love was freely shown in her family, which is something she thrived on, but, her dad and Papi’s stage antics sometimes were a little too erotic for her to witness, especially from their early days before the label necessitated some inhibitions in front of an audience.
“Kendall only appeared for a few seconds,” Sindy continued, “but, I saw how upset your mom got when I asked who the girl was on the video. She didn’t want to say anything about it, but Lucas pressed her.”
“What did she say?”
“Just that the girl on the video was Mason’s birth mother. She wouldn’t say anything else and she wouldn’t rewind the video when Lucas asked. And she told him not to mention it to Mason.”
Curiosity ate away at Tessa, and she wondered if she’d seen Kendall in some of the old footage without being aware of it. “Guard the doorway.”
“What?”
Tessa went to the console that sat against the wall underneath the giant flat screen. “Make sure no one’s coming.”
Sindy gave her a wild-eyed frantic look, but did as Tessa asked. “Hurry up!” she whispered.
Tessa had no idea what any of the dozens of DVDs contained, except that they were all marked “Immortal Angel” with a date. She grabbed three of the older ones, closed the cabinet and rushed toward the door. She looped her arm through Sindy’s and continued briskly walking. “Let’s go.” They went up to Tessa’s old room, which was exactly as she had left it. Her laptop wasn’t here though, so she was forced to play the DVD on the flat screen. Not ideal when she didn’t want anyone to know what she was doing, but she didn’t have any other options. She locked her bedroom door for added measure.
The first DVD was of Immortal Angel playing at a bar packed with people. She watched it on mute and scanned the throngs of people when the camera left the stage and shot the crowd. They all looked the same, fists raised in the air and shouting. Some were shoving each other in an aggressive mosh pit. It was dark, and it was hard to distinguish individual faces. She wasn’t sure if she could pick Kendall out of a group of people. All she had to go by was the one photo that Mason had showed her of Kendall with him as a baby, which was a vague memory at this point. “Would you recognize her if you saw her again?”
Sindy shook her head. “I doubt it. But she had some sort of confrontation with Audra and Kira at the front of the stage. That’s what made me ask about her.”
Tessa didn’t know what she was looking for, but scanned the video anyway, fast forwarding most of it. The first DVD showed nothing to indicate that Kendall was in the mix of people, so she played the next one. This time, she focused closely on the screen whenever people in the bar were shot instead of Immortal Angel. She doubted she’d find anything, but she enjoyed watching it.
A neon sign on the wall announced the name of the place. This was the legendary Quadrangle, a bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn that was as famous as CBGB’s and whose reputation lived on long after its demise. “Look. There’s Alyssa.” Tessa perked up at seeing the gothic beauty in her younger days. She didn’t know who anyone else in the frame was, but Alyssa stuck out with her long black hair. More people entered the frame and spoke to Alyssa. Background noise prevented Tessa from deciphering the conversation, but she recognized Audra and Kira as they joined the group, which made a huge smile span across her cheeks. “There’s Audra and Kira!” She pointed to the screen with the remote.
“They look younger than we are,” Sindy commented.
“I know, ri
ght? They probably are. They’re several years younger than the rest of the family. I think they were still teenagers when—”
A female voice suddenly came through the audio louder than others. The slurred words clearly indicated she was drunk, and Tessa strained to listen.
“What are you doing back here?” Kira asked, sternly.
“I was invited,” the drunk girl answered.
“No you weren’t,” Audra said, adamantly joining her sister and forming an alliance. “Backstage is off limits unless you’re invited by the band.” She held up the lanyard around her neck. “You need a pass.”
“I don’t need an invitation.”
Sindy pointed to the TV. “That’s her.”
Tessa’s back stiffened and goosebumps rose on her arms as she listened to Kendall argue with Audra and Kira. Her voice had a higher pitch, almost whiney, and her words bore a heavy Brooklyn twang instead of the elegant British accent Kendell spoke with today.
“Go away, Kendall.” It was Tessa’s mom’s voice from behind the camera.
Even though Tessa already knew it was Kendall, the affirmation gave her certainty. She rewound the video and replayed it from the time Kendall showed up on the screen and scrutinized it.
“What are you doing back here?” Kira asked.
“I was invited,” Kendall replied, her nose up in the air.
Alyssa flipped her hair over her shoulder and turned her back on Kendall, exiling herself from the conversation.
“No you weren’t,” Audra replied, stepping closer to her sister. “Backstage is off limits unless you’re invited by the band. You need a pass.”
“I don’t need an invitation,” Kendall replied. “Me and Angel have known each other since we were kids. I’m always welcome. I want to go on stage and sing with Angel.” Kendall was persistent, almost pushy. “He won’t mind. Let me through.” She took a few steps forward, but Tessa’s mom stepped in front of her to block her path.
MASON WILDER: Radical Rock Stars Next Generation Duet Book 2 Page 19