Scandalous Beat (The Tempest Rock Star series Book 6)

by Michelle Mankin

  “Then I’m just starting to get where I need to be.” Swaying, I leaned my weight further into the Formica countertop while the conversations of the other patrons in the bar droned in the background. “C’mon Addy. Have a heart. I just had mine ripped from my chest. Uno mas, por favor.”

  “Quit giving poor Addy a hard time,” Sager said, his sudden and unexpected appearance surprising the hell out of me.

  “What are you doing here?” I turned toward him, blinking my eyes like windshield wipers to regard him through the tequila fog. “No one invited you.”

  “I’ll have a beer,” he told Addy. Ignoring my rudeness, he slipped onto the stool next to me. He hitched a thumb toward me. “Mi hermano will have only water from now on.”

  “Fuck you.” I glared at him.

  “I think I’ll pass,” he returned then grinned. “I had a better option in my bed before I got the call that you needed a designated driver.”

  In my alcohol addled condition, it took me a moment for his quip to sink in.

  “I can drive.” I grumbled.

  “Um, no offense, mi hermano but no you can’t. Even if you had only one or two beers I wouldn’t let you. Did you forget your recent conviction? Do you really wanna go back before the judge? Give him another opportunity to throw your sorry ass in jail?”

  I shook my head. “Tonight of all nights, why you gotta come in here and ride my case, ese?”

  “Because I care about you, unlike that asshole Jorge who doesn’t give a shit and just enables you.” He shot me a look, then tipped back his beer. “What the hell you doing here anyway? I thought after your big night that you and Miriam would be sleeping in your new place picking out furniture and shit.”

  “She dumped me.” Pain sliced through me. “She’s probably already back in Vegas by now.” Maybe tied up. Probably being fucked dirty. I didn’t need to use my imagination. Searching her name brought up a shit ton of images. Most of the links went back to Carter Besille’s website. I realized none were recent photos and that a lot of the stories were just made up bullshit by people who wanted to capitalize on her notoriety. But not all of them. Not the most recent link to an interview with her boss. Vincenzo was Joe Campanella’s brother, for fuck’s sake. The same Joe Campanella our ex lead singer Justin Jones had big cajones to be testifying against when all the other witnesses called in the attempted murder trial had either declined to appear or fell off the face of the earth. No wonder Vincenzo had looked familiar. What the hell was Miriam thinking, going into the porn business, or any business for that matter, with an upper echelon Mafia family like the Campanellas?

  “Sorry, man. I didn’t know.”

  I nodded to acknowledge his sympathy while frowning at the chipped mug of ice water Addy had placed in front of me. I needed more Maestro Dobel. I would have chugged half the bottle if I could. I hated to admit it, but Sager was right. I was out of control. “What the fuck am I gonna do?” I ran a hand through my hair. “I close my eyes, and I see her and the future I had planned for us.” Her body. The way she had come undone with me. My cock stirred in my jeans. “I’m sure you’ve seen the internet shit. Her brother’s probably having a coronary.”

  “Yeah, no doubt. Besille’s a total bottom dweller.” He nodded commiseratively. “But her turning you down doesn’t make any sense to me.”

  “Why?”

  “C’mon, man.” He swiveled on his stool to more fully face me. “She’s been into you since I can remember. And everyone else could see the way she was with you here. Why do you think our mother accepted her so readily? That woman is yours, ese. That being the case, why all of a sudden would she cut and run? What’s so great back in Vegas that she would turn down your offer of everything you both ever wanted, right here in Seattle?”

  “I never told her. Didn’t get a chance.” I hunched further into myself as emptiness yawned inside of the dead chambers of my heart.

  “Why the hell not?”

  “You do the math.” I gave him an incredulous look. “A hotel room. A big comfy bed. A woman as hot as she is. Lots of room to play.” I lifted and dropped a shoulder.

  “You telling me you guys did it all night?”

  “And into the morning,” I clarified.

  “And then she broke it off with you?” He narrowed his eyes. “Then her running back to Vegas makes even less sense.”

  “Yeah, it doesn’t,” I decided, realizing that when he put it like that it did seem kind of strange. “But she said it was goodbye.”

  “If you’d had her only once, ok, maybe I’d buy that it was only a sympathy fuck. But not the hot monkey sex you’re describing.”

  “Yo, asshole.”

  I swiveled around in time to see a fist coming straight toward my face. Even drunk I had enough boxing training and Southside skills to dodge it.

  “I mean, what the fuck?” Bryan’s hand was now captured inside my fist. I tightened my grip to let him know I didn’t appreciate him taking a sucker punch at me.

  “I trusted you, King. I left my sister in your care. You said you’d see she’d stop stripping. So why’s she going back to Vegas and doing porn for Campanella Productions?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  “Not what I want to hear.”

  “Something isn’t right. I agree. Sager and I are trying to figure it out. If I let go of your fist, are you gonna help us out or do I need to pound some sense into you first?”

  “No. I’ll help.” He lifted his chin and ran a hand through his hair. He looked strung out. “I’ve been trying to call her. She’s not answering. I doubt she’d listen to me anyway. What’ve you got?”

  “A whole bunch of stuff that doesn’t add up.” Sager rubbed his jaw reflectively. “I didn’t even know about the porn until now.” He gave me a firm look. “I think you’re gonna have to start at the beginning. Don’t leave any shit out.” He sent Bryan the same no-nonsense look he had given me. “And do what you need to do to keep your cool. We’re all on the same team. She’s Tempest. That makes her family. We look after our own. We don’t throw bullshit punches at each other.”

  “Yeah, sorry.” Bryan’s expression turned wry. “I hear you. That’s basically what War told me, too.”

  “War’s the voice of reason?” I could hear the disbelief in Sager’s tone. Mi hermano and I exchanged a glance. Our lead singer had mellowed out a lot since he and Shaina had gotten together, but he wasn’t the wise one in the group. That was usually Sager’s role. War had even nicknamed him ‘Sage’ because of it. “This keeps getting weirder and weirder. What exactly did he say to you, and what the hell does anything Warren Jinkins say have to do with your sister?”

  “He said Miriam called him about King.” He pointed his head toward me.

  “Why the hell would she do that?” I sat up straighter, honing my focus.

  “She asked him to be more supportive of your solo stuff. Made some valid points. And since he was already headed to Seattle, he’s planning to call a group meeting with all of us and our women so we can talk about it when he gets here.”

  “Holy shit!” Sager exclaimed.

  “I know.” Bryan nodded. “Very atypical War.”

  “Your sister’s got some impressive skills,” Sager decided and cocked his head to the side. “But when did she call War? You make it sound like it happened today.”

  “It did. He called me right after she called him.”

  My stomach started to gnaw on the tequila and a knot of misgivings. Sager was onto something. Why would Miriam be trying to make things better for me within the group if things were over between us? She was always telling me that I was the protective one. But she had that bent in her personality every bit as much as I did. She had been about to quit her job with Campanella. She recognized the danger he represented. So why go into the porn business with him? Was he pressuring her? Had he threatened her? Or someone close to her? His own daughter perhaps? Or one of us? Ann? Her brother? Me?

  I stood up, suddenly not feeli
ng the slightest bit drunk, but way the hell freaked out. Had my stupid, pathetic, kneed in the balls pride blinded me when it came to her? Had I missed seeing the truth? Truth that was a whole lot scarier than just her rejecting me?

  “What is it?” Sager put his hand on my arm.

  I swung my gaze to him and then to her brother. “What if it wasn’t her decision to work for Campanella?”

  “How the hell could he make her work for him?” Bryan asked. “Miriam never does anything she doesn’t want to do.”

  “Mr. Acenado.”

  “What?” I barked not appreciating the interruption and nearly knocking the guy’s ball cap off his head as I whirled around to face him.

  “You’re a difficult man to find. Thank God for overtime pay. This is for you.” He thrust an official looking document at me. “You’ve been served.”

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Miriam

  On the escalator down to baggage claim, I spotted him. Vincenzo Campanella was impossible to miss bracketed by two large men I’d never seen. I swayed and gripped the hand rail tighter. Garner was there too. He stood behind Mike, and my blood ran cold at the threat his position implied. It only got more certain as he unbuttoned his jacket to reveal a glint of metal. This was bad. Really bad.

  My heart thundered with fear and my knees nearly collapsed.

  “Welcome back, Miss Jackson.” Campanella captured my arm as I reached the bottom of the escalator and pitched forward. “Please proceed quietly with me to the vehicle I have awaiting us,” he whispered in my ear. “Don’t give my associate any reason to hurt your friend.”

  “You won’t let him,” I brazened. “You wouldn’t get away with it. Not in a crowded airport.” Yet my spine tingled at the thought of what the mobster might be capable of doing.

  “Do you really want to take that chance?”

  “Miriam!” Mike called, and I turned my head to see him moving toward me, totally unaware of how closely death nipped at his heels.

  “Tell him to keep his distance,” Campanella whispered tersely.

  “Mike.” I shook my head at my bestie. “Stay away. Everything’s going to be fine.” Run, I mouthed silently before I turned my gaze to the mob boss. “What do you want? I’ll do anything. Just call Garner off,” I begged.

  “Not until you’re safe inside the limo.” Campanella lifted his chin. One of the two new bodyguards peeled away and headed toward Mike and Garner. My best friend backed up as the six-foot-plus goon stepped toward him. His eyes were wide like mine now. He cast a glance around for a way out, only then noticing Garner. I saw in his expression, the icy revelation dawning. Despair descended on me as Campanella and the remaining bodyguard steered me toward the nearest exit. Outside, a whoosh of hot arid air gave my chilled skin a brief thaw. But it was only a short reprieve before I found my head being pushed down as I was shoved inside a long limo that idled at the curb.

  “Well, now,” Campanella declared slithering in beside me. “That’s much better.” He reached over me and buckled my seatbelt before doing his. Another guard sat across from us, wearing polarized sunglasses even though the windows were tinted, and it was already dark outside. While he studied me behind his shades, the other thug slid into the remaining front facing seat on the other side of me.

  “Why are you doing this?” I pleaded with my voice and my gaze. I ignored the guards and focused on Campanella. I knew who was in charge. “I agreed to your terms. If you wanted to get started tonight, you could have just asked me. You didn’t need to have Garner threaten my friend.”

  “Yes, my dear, you did agree, and thank you for being so willing to accommodate me. It’s so nice to have you back in Nevada. Things would have been infinitely trickier if we’d had to cross state lines to fetch you.” His lips formed a mirthless grin. “Reason being, I am looking forward to the rest of my fun unfolding here at home.”

  “What fun?” I asked, my panic returning full fold as I moved my gaze from one guard to the other, knowing I was trapped inside the limo and at their mercy, but as of yet not quite willing to accept it.

  “Fun involving you, of course.”

  “The film, you mean.” Maybe he liked to watch. Maybe he wanted to join in. I started to feel seriously sick. I put a hand over my mouth and glanced away from the retaining walls on either side that the limo windows featured. It was making me dizzy to look at them. They seemed to be closing in on us.

  “If you say so.”

  My cell rang suddenly. I jumped. I had forgotten I had turned it off the airplane mode. I shifted to reach for it, trying to convince myself that I was being ridiculous. I wasn’t really trapped. Campanella was only trying to scare me because he wanted me to know he had the upper hand in our deal. As I reached in my purse for my cell, the guard across from me cleared his throat and fondled his gun. I stopped mid-motion. “Can I not answer my phone? What is this?” I turned to Campanella. “What’s going on? Let me out of this limo.”

  “I’m afraid that’s not in the cards, as they say in Vegas. Besides, we haven’t yet reached our destination.”

  “Maybe I don’t want to reach it. Maybe I want to go home. Maybe I’ve changed my mind about doing your film. You can’t force me to go with you against my will. That would be kidnapping…”

  “Oh, my! Kidnapping? When an entire crowd of witnesses at the airport saw you jump into my arms?” While I stared at him slack jawed, he removed my phone from my grip. “What’s your access code for your cell?”

  I gave it to him. How could I refuse the request? I was completely at his mercy. I thought back, running through the conversation with his lawyer, my mind reeling as he unlocked my phone. Had I ever really not been?

  “You have several missed calls.” Campanella’s gaze lifted. “More than one from someone in whom I have a particular interest. “Ah.” His reptilian smile widened as my cell lit up and rang again. “Here he is again now. Go ahead.” He passed me my phone. “Answer him. Things will become clear to you both when you do.”

  I glanced at the display on my cell as I took it from him. The screen identified ‘King’. My heart stuttered. “Hello.”

  “Miriam.” That voice. I drew in a breath that didn’t come back out. “I just got served papers to appear in court for assault charges against Vincenzo Campanella. I believe you knew beforehand because Mary Timmons called me right after that. Coincidentally so did my father. Plus, your brother told us what you said to War. I know what’s going on. I know why you left. I know what you’re doing and why. I love you.” My heart did a full stall on those words. “You don’t have to do this. We’ll find another way.”

  Campanella took my phone away and put it to his own ear. “Mr. Acenado. This is Vincenzo Campanella.” A pause. Another oily smile. “No need for all that hostility. She came to me, not the other way around. “No. I don’t believe I will put her on the line again. I only let her speak to you as a courtesy. You needn’t bother calling again. We have arrived at the Tropicana. She has lots and lots of work to do for me. Work that will keep her too busy to talk. After that…when she is too worn out to be of any use to me or anyone else anymore…well, I think we both know what will happen then.”

  I froze, my entire body a block of ice. He made a tsking sound as he withdrew my phone from his ear and severed the call.

  “I think you begin to understand as does he. You underestimated me, and overestimated your value in front of the camera. Your true worth to me isn’t your sex appeal, but what you mean to him. I knew it that day on the front yard of your home. Come now.” He stroked my cheek, and I had to swallow back bile. “Don’t feel bad that you didn’t see my intentions. In my business it pays for me to know people’s motivations while keeping my own close to the vest. After all, you didn’t really expect me to let this play out in front of a judge with the whole world watching? Surely you didn’t think I would let Mr. Acenado get away with striking me, did you?”

  He chuckled darkly. “Ouch, I can see that you did. Unfortunate
for both of you. To know he loves you. That you love him. That you sacrificed yourself when the prize wasn’t really the film we will nevertheless do with whomever of my men would like to have a go at you. No, the prize will be how deeply it will wound Mr. Acenado to witness what we do to you while knowing that there’s nothing he can do to stop it. By the time I get around to putting a bullet in your pretty little head at the end of our snuff film, he might consider it merciful for me to do the same for him.”

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  King

  “What’s going on?” Bryan’s expression betrayed his concern. I think he had heard most of what the mobster had said to me. “Is Miriam safe?”

  “No,” I told him. “Campanella has her. It’s not a voluntary situation. But I don’t think he’s hurt her yet.”

  “What did he tell you?”

  “That it was me he wanted to fuck with all along. He’s just using her to get back at me for punching him.”

  “Oh my God.”

  “We gotta get her away from him now.” Failure was not an option.

  “We can’t panic. We can’t help her if we panic.” Sager put his hand on Bryan’s shoulder. Our lead guitarist looked like he might hurl. All the big brother protective stuff by him. All the bullshit bravado by me. Being big rock stars. None of it meant shit right now. We had been totally outmaneuvered by the mobster. And my queen, my sweet sacrificial queen at Campanella’s mercy. He expected me to come for her. Fucking right, I would. Nothing would keep me away. But Seattle was three hours from Vegas. Even if I got on a plane right now.

  “Call the Vegas police,” I told Sager. “Tell them what’s going on. Tell them she’s at the Tropicana and that she has a cell they can probably track.” Or she had. Campanella might have ditched it.

  “Bryan.” Dude was hunched with his arm thrown over his stomach. “Don’t flake out. Stay with me.”

  He nodded.

  “Get me a flight to Vegas,” I told him. “I’m going to get her back.”