by Lyrica Creed
After locking back up and making sure the light on the alarm was rearmed, she ascended the back stairs. The walls on either side were spotty with pictures of him, his family, and friends, and some artwork she assumed could be his. She paused before a picture of him around age five with his mother, which by her calculations had been taken shortly before that parent had passed away. Her eyes were slightly sunken, evidence of the disease already wreaking havoc on her body.
Was it harder to grow up without a mother and to be subjected to stepmothers like Henni Smythe, or was it harder to have Henni Smythe as an actual mother, as she had? There was literally—yes, literally―a million-dollar question. There was a picture of him and his father, possibly at an awards ceremony. By the looks of Gage, it had been only a few years ago. And the one that always caught her eye each time she used these stairs. A picture of him and her as a tween and young teen, taken at a birthday party. The camera had caught them laughing together at who knows what.
Was he still her silly, but now disturbed brother? Or was he becoming something more to her?
Her feet touched the landing and instinctively, she turned toward his room. The door to his bedroom was ajar, as if Rascal had pushed his way inside.
Sure enough, Gage was half-propped, half-lying against the headboard of his massive bed, and the canine rested in his normal spot near the footboard.
“Hey!” Her heart sped up at finding him home and awake. “Guess what! It’s a weird story, but I found Ivy!”
He stirred a bit, and his lips moved as if they were returning her smile, but they didn’t quite. “That’s great.” When he asked no further questions, showed no further interest, she turned, looking behind her to see what held his attention on the television.
But the TV screen was black.
“Are you feeling okay?” She had been moving closer as she spoke, and he answered when she stopped beside the bed. The lamp illuminated his face enough for her to see his droopy eyes. His lips were slightly parted in the slack-jawed look often accompanying sleep.
“Yeah. Just tired.”
His answer seemed to rumble out on a fatigued breath, and she nodded, for a moment, fully convinced.
“Do you want me to lock up your studio?”
His gaze flickered as if remembering he had left it and not returned. “Nah.”
The word rang with a careless ‘who-gives-a-shit’ tone. And she knew that wasn’t right. Because Gage gave a shit about his studio. It was his hallowed domain, kept locked because he didn’t even want the cleaning service inside.
“You don’t look good,” she repeated, hating the suspicions beginning to cloud her brain.
“Something I ate.” Again only the barest use of syllables in his reply.
“We didn’t eat.” That was it! He hadn’t eaten all day that she knew of. She’d fixed herself some of the breakfast casserole, but he hadn’t. And neither of them had ordered takeout as they normally did for the evening meal. “Want a couple of pizza pockets? I’ll nuke them and be right back.”
She pivoted around, and that’s when her gaze took in the open bathroom. The vanity lighting practically spotlighted the ugliness of the paraphernalia cluttering the beautiful granite, or marble, or whatever the smooth surface might be. The same shit had been in that same place roughly a week ago when he lay across from it, dying in the shower!
“You motherfucker!” Whirling on him, she balled a fist to restrain the urge to slap his fucked-up face. “What are you fucking doing to yourself?”
A baleful stare was his only reaction to her outburst.
“You’re putting that junk in your body again. My God, Gage. What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking…” Now he did manage a smile. “I’m thinking you’re sweet to care.” His lashes blinked and he looked like a chagrined child being screamed to by an adult. “It’s okay. I promise.”
“It’s not!” She paced just short of the edge of his bed, gnawing at her fingers and taking in his lethargy. “It’s not.” Tears welled in her eyes. “I can’t be here if you mess up again. I can’t watch this.”
She stormed toward the room’s exit into the hall and slowed when he called after her.
“Don’t. Whatever you’re doing, don’t. Please, Scar.”
Earlier this evening it had been nothing to resist Colt calling after her. But Gage’s husky sweet voice pricked—like a needle—at her barriers. When she stilled completely, he implored again.
“ C’mere. C’mere and be with me. Be against me. Like this morning. So sweet…”
Something tickled her cheek, and she raised a hand, finding her face wet. She faced him, unsure of what she was going to say. She only knew she had to get out. Get away. And she had to tell him again without screaming it. But after wiping another tear, she simply turned back to the door and raced down the hallway to her room.
“Ah, fuck, Scar… Fuck!”
Chapter 24
“Hey! Guess what! It’s a weird story, but I found Ivy!”
“That’s great!”
“Where?”
“How? Tell me, Scar!”
“This is amazing. Tell me everything. I want to know the weird story.”
“Scar? Scar. Scar!”
Her name hissed through his parched lips on a sad breath. Why wouldn’t she answer?
His eyes opened to his dim bedroom, and he eyed the square of light falling on the floor from the bathroom. A hopeful look to his nightstand for a bottle of water was disappointing, and he tried to swallow, to wet his parched throat. Tunneling his hand from beneath his coverings, he reached for the little box that was almost always at his fingertips after… after he fucked up. Because that’s how he was beginning to feel about it, despite not staying in rehab long enough to be conditioned to think that way.
Touching the brass pipe to his lips, he flicked a disposable lighter and when he was done, let the lighter drop to the floor. He inhaled and held it, hoping for some quick relief.
Rousing awake again, he swung his feet out of bed and skimmed through the senders of the fifteen messages. Without reading anything beyond the names, he stood, stripping as he dragged his feet to the bathroom. After a warm shower, he wrapped a towel around his waist and stood at the mirror shaving. He brushed his teeth. Combed his hair back.
Addressing the contents of the vanity top, he tore the stamped paper into a few bits and flushed it, disposed of other waste into a sharps container, and stood for a moment eyeing everything else. He scooped it all into the black zip bag and after dressing, carried the pouch downstairs to the kitchen where he rooted around until he found a trash bag. Once it was knotted inside, and safely disposed of in the outside bin for the private trash collection service, he stood for a moment enjoying the sun before returning inside.
Something felt off, and he couldn’t fathom the source. The kitchen was sparkling. He’d set his cup beneath the coffee brewer when realization dawned. The housekeeper’s poppy seed mini muffins had been a favorite of Scarlett’s, since her first taste the week she had arrived. And this morning, the muffins sat on the countertop untouched.
Whipping his phone out of his pocket, he checked the time, and his frown deepened when his phone screen read almost two p.m. Scarlette rarely slept past the a.m. hours.
“Hey! Guess what! It’s a weird story, but I found Ivy!”
The memory buzzing his brain was faint.
Leaving the freshly dripped coffee without so much as a taste, he thumbed once more through the texts. None were from Scarlette. The pool was empty. Unaware that he was following her same routine as last night, he hastened first to the garage and then upstairs when all of the cars were accounted for.
In the middle of the guest room, which he had begun to consider her room, he locked his knees to keep them from buckling. A dresser top empty of scattered cosmetics and hair accessories. The closet was closed. He said a prayer as he opened it and then promptly cursed in frustration when no clothing swung from the hangers and no
shoes lined the shoe racks.
Unable to look at the empty room any longer, he paced into the hall as he texted.
Hey. Where are you?
sent 3:32 PM
Rascal was bouncing his way up the stairs as he was going down, likely reminding him it had been days since he had checked the automatic dog feed and water station. It was one of the jobs the housekeeper routinely completed, but occasionally he had found it empty. Returning to the kitchen, he found that wasn’t the case this time. His pet had plenty of food and water. Handing one of the muffins to the hyperactive animal, he checked his settings, making sure the sound notifications for text was on.
Did you say you found Ivy?
sent 3:32 PM
He popped his coffee into the microwave and scrolled through his other texts while he waited. A couple from Ben.
One from his father confirming he’d heard the news and would be back in town in a few days. The ‘love you, son’ made his eyes ache. Most of the time, his father was a hard-ass when it came to anything Gage had done to cause bad publicity. The exception had been his divorce a couple of years back. His father had been incredibly supportive.
And Colt, the fucking jerk. What did he want after being such a douche the night before? He clicked the text.
Colt
Look, I’m not supposed tell you this, but your sister is here.
11:22 AM
He choked on his first sip of coffee and then promptly gulped several more. Kill. Kill that bastard dead. And then kill him again. Another gulp of coffee and another text smashed into his phone.
WTF is going on?
sent 3:47 PM
Crazy shit went through his head. Had Scarlette and Colt been carrying on some affair behind his back, and she was now moving in with him? The argument he’d witnessed the previous night lurked in his memories. The phone vibrated his hand and let out a bleep.
Colt
Oh good. You’re alive.
3:50 PM
Fuck Colt Powers and his cryptic shit. His coffee splattered thumb tapped the phone screen in annoyance.
The fuck fucker
sent 3:51 PM
Just answer
sent 3:51 PM
He’d typed the two so close together, but for the send button, they could have been one furious text. And then he waited. Too agonizingly long before the response came.
Colt
You’re using again.
3:55 PM
His neck wouldn’t support his head, and it fell back until he was glaring at the can lighting in the beams of the high ceiling. He almost smashed the phone, but he took a deep breath and typed.
Doesn’t explain why she’s there?
sent 3:57 PM
Colt
You’re an idiot.
3:58 PM
Now he did toss the phone outside the kitchen and felt some satisfaction when it sank into the pool.
Because it was true. He was an idiot.
Chapter 25
The pool at Colt’s house dropped down the mountainside in two levels. The top terrace pool waterfalled into the next level’s pool. About an hour ago, Colt had texted her to join him. He currently sat at the top of the waterfall, tapping his thumbs to the screen of his phone and verbally interrogating her about everything.
His questions began with Ivy, now that she had finally told him what had brought her to L.A. Next he touched on her true identity—her Scarlette Conterra persona, which up until now, he’d been relatively quiet about.
Scarla fidgeted in the deck chair not far from him. She was still dressed in the same clothing from the night before since her rolling duffel piece was still in the back of Colt’s Bugatti. She wasn’t sure if her inner resentment toward being probed about this part of herself showed, or if Colt fell back on a different tack, but after the normal questions most people asked—like ‘did she remember her father,’ and ‘did she like her father’s music’―he moved on to another subject.
Gage.
At this point, she wished he had stuck with the discomfiting questions about her lineage.
“How long was Gage’s dad married to your mom?”
“Um, about six years. Or seven.” She brushed at a water spot near the hem of her shorts.
“I bet he was a bratty brother.”
A few memories quick to surface made her smile. However, when she looked up, Colt’s gaze seemed extra attentive. He was still trying to figure out the current relationship between her and Gage!
“You’d think. But no. He was the best. My friends had brothers who did gross things―put bugs in their hair or even worse, saying perverted things. Gage never did that shit. What he did do was hang around when my friends were over. I hated that. They all crushed on him, and he ate it up. Then I wasn’t the center of the universe like I wanted to be.”
His laughter carried across the water, and he began reading his screen again. “So you never crushed on him? Only your friends did?”
Okay. That was direct.
Gage’s kiss the night her mother had left heated her memories.
“I always had a dozen crushes. From the second my boobs showed up, I noticed boys. But Gage was my brother.”
Liar. Gage was never your brother after that kiss.
Well technically, the little devil on her other shoulder defended, the night of the kiss he was no longer your stepbrother since your parents were separated…
Smooth! Another devil fought for territorial shoulder space. Smooth move to use the mention of your boobs as a distraction!
She couldn’t tell what Colt was looking at from behind his dark shades. However, she had that tingly feeling that often accompanied focused male assessment. A bit embarrassed that she’d actually vocalized the errant thought about her boobs, she crossed her arms over her chest.
Last night, when she had texted Colt about the shape Gage was in, he’d texted back, promising he would be right over. She had let him in and remained downstairs while he went up to check on Gage. After reporting to her that Gage was fine, with a steady pulse, just sleeping it off, they’d talked while sitting around the island in the kitchen. She had expressed how angry and frustrated she was with Gage—so much so, she no longer wanted to be under the same roof. One thing had led to another, and he had invited her to stay in the guesthouse at his place.
She knew a normal person’s next move in this situation would be to check into a hotel, or schedule her roundtrip home, now that it seemed Ivy was quite possibly fine. But the first thing she had done last night, after arriving at Cole’s, was to check her bank balance.
It was grim. She had enough for one night at a hotel and then some change.
“And now?”
“Huh?” She shook her anxious thoughts away and settled her own sunglasses more comfortably on the bridge of her nose.
“Your crushes. Got a boyfriend back home?”
“No.” She paused precisely long enough to deliver the punch line perfectly and made sure she smiled sweetly. “A girlfriend.”
“No! No. Really?”
She shrugged and hoped that would keep his eyes off her until she figured this mess out. She knew she should be gone by, at the latest, the following morning. And that was probably pushing a near stranger’s hospitality.
“My turn with the twenty questions.” She crossed her legs and tossed out the challenge.
“Ask me no questions. I tell no lies.”
“Well, I’d hate to make you lie. So I’ll just say, Caroline seems really nice.”
“She is. And a great mother.”
“It’s great you two are able to live close enough to both be there for Seth.”
“I was glad she was open to the idea of moving out here.”
“Did you know?” She bit back her words, finding it hard to query him as ruthlessly as he had her. But his answers had her intrigued. The fact that he so fondly endorsed his ‘baby momma.’ To hell with it. “I mean, I guess I was wondering when you knew about Seth. Like, if th
ere were a lot of years you only saw him randomly because of working and tours.”
“I didn’t know. No. He had just begun school when I found out. She had put me on his birth certificate, so there was some signature the school needed from me, and that’s when she told me.” His wrist relaxed on his knee, and his phone hung idly in his hand. “Crazy, huh? But we worked it out.”
Her phone buzzed her butt cheek, but she ignored it. At this moment, unless it was Ivy, she couldn’t think of anyone else she would want to talk to. “Your cat is eating a giant bug.” She’d been watching the silver tabby, playing in the built-in planters and stone walls that made the pool area almost look as if it had been stumbled onto during a hike.
“She does that. Less bugs to sting or bite you.”
They laughed. It was easy to forget she was irritated with him for expecting Gage to work alone on a song the entire band had due in a week, and for his nonchalant attitude about Gage’s legal troubles. Instead, she saw a guy who had twice now, in the short time she had been around, jumped into his car and driven over in the middle of the night to check on his friend. And the guy who had invited her to stay with him, no strings attached.
Holding his phone, he jumped from the waterfall platform and waded to the side of the pool where he hopped out.
Like the bratty brother he’d speculated Gage had once been, he shook over her like a dog and chortled when she screeched. Their eyes met, and she forgot to take her next breath. His blue irises glittered like gems, and when he was in the sun, flecks of brown decorated them. The long layers in his hair, gleaming and made darker by their dampness, fell along the strong planes of his face. His lips tipped into a panty-melting grin, acknowledging the moment between them.
Then, just as easily as she had forgotten, she was jarred back to reality by his next move. He was a musician. Disturbed. Dangerous. Unpredictable.
His hand went to one of his necklaces, a silver bullet hanging from a chain, and he lifted it over his head. To her astonishment, he twisted the bullet apart and offered it to her as he dropped into the chair adjacent to hers. She shouldn’t have been surprised. One of Gage’s necklaces was the size and shape of a dog tag, only thicker, and the top slid off and doubled as a straight edge.