Shattered Chords (The Encore Book 3)

by N. N. Britt

  There was a noise at the front door and someone walked in.

  Renn greeted the client, their voices carrying through the main floor and toward the back racks.

  Several words reached me and I felt a shiver snaking down my spine. “...evacuating everyone and they’re not saying how long we’ll be staying there.”

  “Just a second,” smiling at Amun, I excused myself and weaved through the rows of dresses toward the client.

  It was Mrs. Hamil. We’d done dresses for all four of her daughters. She was probably picking up the accessories for her younger one, who was getting married at the end of the year.

  “Hi, sweetie!” She threw both hands in the air and pulled me into a hug. It wasn’t a real hug, not with this heat, but she was an affectionate woman and I typically just went with it. “How are you?”

  “I’m great.”

  “How’s Ally?”

  “She started her sophomore year today.”

  “Soon you’ll be making a wedding dress for her, huh?” Mrs. Hamil laughed breathily and I shuddered at the idea. Ally was too young to even think about a wedding. I tried to purge the image of my daughter standing at the altar out of my mind. It didn’t feel like her.

  “Have you seen what’s going on outside?” The woman’s features pinched as she motioned at the doors.

  “No.” I shook my head and exchanged a stare with Renn.

  “I hope you have a plastic bag or a tarp?” Mrs. Hamil said worriedly.

  That prompted all three of us—Renn, Amun, and me—to rush into the parking lot and that was when I saw it. The massive black cloud rising into the sky from the north.

  Smoke.

  Fire season was here.

  “He’s here,” Ally called from the living room, where she’d been torturing her outrageously expensive guitar for the past thirty minutes.

  I was in the kitchen, preparing dinner and staring out the window from time to time. A part of me almost expected to see ash and smoke, but the fire that raged near Thousand Oaks a couple of days ago and gave us all a scare had been put out and we were back to normal. The small stretch of interstate near Santa Barbara was still closed, and it made traffic here, on the border of Ventura and Los Angeles Counties, worse, but people proved to be very creative when it came to getting to work on time. Particularly Amun. She took back roads now and arrived early. I liked that. I felt good about hiring her.

  I heard the doorbell and Ally’s footfalls traveling through the house, then Dante’s voice that grew into deep laughter as they greeted each other and began their lesson.

  I thought of going out to say hello, but instead, I opted to stay in the kitchen and cook because…somehow, I trusted him to be on his best behavior around my daughter.

  And since I felt on edge with him sitting on the other side of the wall, sharing a room didn’t seem like a good idea right now. I was flushed and hot and awfully bothered and had no doubt the reason wasn’t the stifling heat or the oven.

  It was Dante Martinez, the man who made millions of women around the world squeal with delight.

  Was it because of the conversation we had on my terrace the last time he was here? Or was it possibly due to the fact that I secretly listened to his music when Ally wasn’t around?

  Something had changed between us since that evening and I almost regretted that I’d let him stay for dinner. His honesty had morphed into a strange knowledge that was now buried deep inside me, a knowledge that he wasn’t what I thought he’d be.”

  Only his path was.

  Not him.

  I paused chopping celery and set the knife near the cutting board. My hand felt both heavy and light at the realization, and I was afraid I’d slice my finger.

  There was a knock on the door and it creaked open.

  I spun and saw Dante’s face through the small crack. “Are you hiding from me?” He gave me a seductive smile and it occurred to me that their hour was up.

  “I was just making dinner.” I motioned at the vegetables lying on the counter. “Baked salmon and kale salad.”

  “That sounds delicious.” He pushed the door open all the way and stepped inside, then strode past the island and toward me. His eyes locked on mine, his olive skin gleaming in the evening light spilling into the kitchen through the windows. He didn’t possess classic male beauty, but the sharp, elegant lines of his face made him look fierce, dangerous, rebellious, and positively attractive all at once.

  “Are you trying to invite yourself?” I lifted my chin, feeling defiant and ready for a challenge. Never mind the fact that I was wearing ugly old shorts and a T-shirt that was two sizes too big.

  “No. I wouldn’t do that.” He shook his head once. “The decision is yours.”

  In the living room, Ally was practicing the riff they were learning earlier and I wondered if she and Dante had some sort of a secret plan to get me to go out with him, because no matter how much of a fan she was, she never monopolized his time when he tried to talk to me.

  “You and my daughter conspired behind my back, didn’t you?” I asked daringly.

  “What makes you think that?” He feigned surprise. Oh, he was a great actor.

  I rolled my eyes. “Do you think I don’t see through your game?”

  “I just came to say hello before heading out.”

  We were separated by only several inches of space, close enough for me to reach out and touch him, but that would be inappropriate, especially with my kid in the living room, so I didn’t. But I could smell him, among all the spices, the garlic, and the fish, I could smell his scent. Strong and male. And it made my head spin even more. I felt like I was on a rollercoaster that was going nowhere.

  My phone buzzed on the table, interrupting our staring contest.

  I saw Harper's name flash across the screen and answered the call.

  “I need you!” He sobbed on the line, delirious. “Right now!”

  Panic fluttered in my chest. “What happened?”

  In my peripheral, Dante’s face darkened, but he remained politely still and silent.

  “The asshole kidnapped Tallulah!”

  My breath caught. “Oh no.” By asshole, he meant Lucas, who’d been trying to claim Tallulah as his ever since Harper kicked him out.

  “My regular housekeeper was sick and they sent someone else, and the stupid cow just let him take my baby.”

  “But I don’t understand... How?” I ignored all the expletives he was spouting.

  “He came by when I was at work and told her he was my boyfriend, and she believed him!”

  “Harper, I’m so sorry to hear that. You’ll get her back. I’m sure of it.”

  “He’s not going to just give her up now that he has her.” More crying followed and I endured it all, then agreed to drive over to accompany my friend. He was dead set on seeing Lucas tonight and demanding Tallulah be returned to where she belonged.

  “Sounds like your dinner plans have been ruined,” Dante stated once I ended the call as he watched me pace.

  “Harper’s ex-boyfriend stole his cat.”

  Dante’s eyes grew wide, a variety of different emotions crossing his face. “That’s low.”

  “Apparently, that asshole went to Harper’s apartment when the housekeeper was there and she wasn’t his regular one, so she just assumed Lucas was the boyfriend and let him take Tallulah. Harper will try to talk to him, but I’m not sure that will yield any results.”

  “Ya think?” Dante arched a brow.

  “Sorry.” I ran my palms over my T-shirt, my anxiety rising and tightening. “I’ll have to leave in a bit.”

  “Of course.” He nodded, aware that I’d never allow him to stay here with Ally unless I was here too. “I’ll text you in a couple of days to arrange the next lesson.”

  “See you soon.”

  “See you soon, Camille.”

  And then he was gone.

  Ally stayed home to practice and I quickly changed into a sundress and drove to Harper’s.
He lived only fifteen minutes away from Dream Bride in an upscale condo he bought a few years ago.

  To avoid the evening traffic, I took the side streets instead of the freeway. My stomach was uneasy and I didn’t know whether it was due to the situation with Tallulah or the situation with Dante.

  He was everything I despised in a man. Flashy. Self-serving. Irresponsible. Even his hair. Gosh, I’d never dated a man who wore his hair that long.

  Yet I realized that I was looking forward to his next lesson as much as my daughter was. There was something soothing about the hour he’d spent in my house explaining the trade secrets of his profession to Ally, something warm about his loud and sparkling presence.

  Harper looked devastated when I finally arrived at his place. He was waiting for me outside the building, next to the Leasing Now sign. The top three buttons of the cotton shirt he’d worn to work today were undone, and his hair in tangled disarray.

  “Someone move out?” I pointed at the red and blue poster as I walked over to him. I was so nervous that I failed to find the right words to calm my friend and ended up spouting the first thing that came to mind.

  Harper nodded. “Yes. The guy in the penthouse.” Then he pulled me into a hug, which I gladly returned because they were rare.

  “It’ll be okay,” I said once we broke apart. “You want me to drive?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Sounds good. We’ll take my car.” I squeezed his hand. “Did you lock your door?”

  Awareness entered his gaze. “Not yet.” He disappeared up the stairs to the second floor, where his condo he used to share with Lucas was. The complex he lived in was a few blocks north of Ventura Boulevard. A great location on a nice and quiet tree-lined street, just a two-minute walk to the bustling strip of little shops and diners. I sometimes imagined that I’d live somewhere very similar if I didn’t have Ally. But I was a mother and I wouldn’t have my kid growing up in a place without a yard.

  “Okay, let’s go,” Harper urged, descending the stairs a few moments later. He was in a hurry and skipped steps, and I remembered how awkward and clumsy he was in high school when he was still trying to figure out his growing body. He’d come a long way since then, since the days when we were both kids who thought we had our entire lives ahead of us.

  Where had the time gone, I wondered suddenly as we climbed into my 4Runner and headed toward the intersection.

  The hot evening curled and pulsed around us like a live being, an entity all its own. Watching. Inhaling. The street lights burned yellow and the neon signs flashed blue as we passed the stores and the restaurants where people seemed unburdened.

  Harper was quiet and tense, his face still as a stone, his hands balled into tight fists. “The nerve that fucker has,” he muttered under his breath eventually, needing to somehow release his frustration.

  I’d never heard him curse like that. It didn’t fit his personality and the slur was somehow almost as jarring as if I’d stepped on a piece of glass. However, I fully expected something equally vulgar to come out of Dante’s mouth when I was with him. He made even the most boring phrases sound dirty.

  It struck me then. My mind had gone there willingly and I hadn’t stopped myself. I’d simply let my imagination wander.

  Until next time, Camille.

  No man had ever said my name the way he did. With enigmatic intent.

  The memory set something off in my core and, wiggling in my seat, I shoved the feeling back down and reached for my GPS. “So...where are we going?” My voice shook.

  Harper was still venting and while I didn’t mind just driving around with him until he calmed down, Ally was home alone and it was a school night, so we needed to stick to the original plan.

  Sensing my apprehension, he punched in the address for me. He didn’t have to look for it, which meant he knew it by heart, and I found that notion troublesome. “Sorry. Give me a second. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it, sweets.”

  “It’s okay. You have the full right to be pissed. I know I’d be.” For Harper’s sake, I tried to sound reasonably calm. One of us needed to be lucid to make sure this visit wouldn’t turn into a bigger disaster.

  We drove in silence for a few minutes, following the GPS instructions, then I braved a question, “Where’s he staying right now?”

  “With his brother.” Harper rolled down the window and a gust of hot, heavy air sneaked inside and danced across my cheeks and shoulders.

  The road became wider, the buildings scarce. I glanced at the map and realized we were headed toward Chatsworth. My pulse raced, and not because our destination somehow mattered.

  “Can I ask you something, Harper?” I said quietly.

  He turned to look at me, a flicker of interest in his baby blue eyes. “Sure.”

  “Objective approach,” I clarified. “Okay?”

  He nodded.

  “I have very conflicting feelings about Dante.”

  “Oh?”

  “He’s not who I thought he’d be and he seems to be getting along with Ally.”

  “So you’ll go out with him?”

  “He hasn’t asked me again...yet.”

  “Hmmm.” Harper stared straight ahead for a long moment and tapped his chin with his index finger. The wind mussed his hair into a frizzy mess. “So what are you saying then?”

  I drew a deep breath and hit the brakes as the light farther down the street switched from green to yellow. The 4Runner slowed and came to a complete stop behind a silver Mercedes.

  “He’s not what he seems and I don’t know if it’s a good idea to continue with the lessons.”

  Several taut seconds ticked by.

  “Oh my god!” Harper exclaimed. “You’re attracted to him!”

  “I’m not commenting on that.”

  “Yes, you are.” He grinned, all the rage over Tallulah’s kidnapping evaporating into thin air.

  “The more he comes over, the more we talk, and the more we talk, the more I get to know him.”

  “And he’s not the guy the media made him out to be,” Harper finishes for me.

  “Not exactly. He’s still an entitled asshole, but he actually has...some morals... They’re sort of gray... And I can’t stop thinking about him. It’s infuriating.”

  There, I said it.

  “And your answer to this conundrum is to stop the lessons?”

  The light flicked to green and we pushed forward. “I can’t change how I’m feeling when he’s sitting there, in the next room, and being all fatherly with my daughter, who never had a father to begin with.” My voice took on a bitter tone.

  “I find that a positive, not a negative.”

  “Okay... How do you see this working? Let’s say, hypothetically, he asks me out and I agree. What then?”

  “You go out with him, have some real fun for once.”

  The idea of “fun” with Dante Martinez nearly made me jump. The other day, I’d secretly googled him again. His photos, to be specific. I didn’t know why. The images hadn’t told me anything new about the man who came to my house twice a week. They’d simply confirmed the fact that I’d become interested in him. I’d also watched thirty minutes worth of Hall Affinity concert footage on YouTube. Wearing my headphones.

  “You’re overthinking it, sweets,” Harper said. “A man expressed a desire to take you out. You go out with him. What else is there to do?”

  “You’re forgetting I have Ally.”

  “Ally is almost an adult. Everything you’ve done has always been for Ally. How about you do something for yourself now?”

  “She’s fifteen. She’s fragile.”

  “You keep coddling her like your own mother coddled you. You know what happens next.”

  Harper’s words were like a slap to my face. They stung. “I’m not my mother. I’ll never be like her.” I gritted my teeth so hard, my jaw ached.

  “I’m sorry. That was harsh.”

  There was a long pause as I considered what my friend h
ad just told me. Was I really as impossible and domineering as Eloise Rockwell? “Okay,” I murmured after a while. “Let’s look at your scenario from a different angle. How will it affect Ally when the press finds out? They don’t love him.”

  “You worry too much about something that hasn’t happened yet, and judging by how unadventurous you are, sweets, all this is going to stay in your head.”

  “I have to take into an account the fact that I have a kid before I jump a man’s bones, you know.”

  At that, Harper laughed.

  “See.” I grinned. “At least my problems make you smile.”

  “Ah.” He stuck his hand out the window, fingers fanned out to catch the wind. “Dante Martinez is a nice problem to have.”

  “That depends.”

  “Give him a chance, will ya?”

  “I’ll think about it.”

  In fact, I’d already thought about it too much, but I didn’t want to delve deeper into the issue, because this conversation could go on for hours and we were about to turn the corner and reach the street where Lucas the Kitty Snatcher currently lived.

  I parked by the curb and almost left the car running in case we needed to grab Tallulah and make a run for it, but I didn’t trust this neighborhood being safe enough for me to have the keys on display in the ignition. So I killed the engine and walked across the small lawn and toward the porch with Harper.

  He knocked several times.

  We waited.

  Footfalls approached the door on the other side, then it opened and a sleepy face emerged. Lucas.

  Harper cleared his throat and in the corner of my eye, I noticed how his back stiffened. “I came for Tallulah,” he said simply.

  The house was small and smelled like laundry detergent and motor oil, and I suddenly wondered what exactly Harper had seen in Lucas. I couldn’t remember anything remarkable about the man.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the sharp answer came.