Finally Heaven (Room 103 Book 4) (22 page)

‘…and we’ll fight, fight for the memories, fight for the ecstasy.

The fire in me is roaring, the need in me consuming.

The feeling when I’m inside you, taking all reason.

The beat of my soul stealing all lucidity.’

‘Bring it on out, bring it here tonight,

I don’t wanna break this fight…’

The crowd were wild tonight, every single soul in the room screaming alongside us. Jax was, as usual, in his element. Bulk was gone with the music as Boss lost himself in the beat and rhythm. But my soul was very firmly connected to the woman stood at the side of the stage, her stunning blue eyes full of love as she watched me and I watched her.

I winked at her when she blew me a kiss. Although I was anxious about giving her and Jakob everything they deserved, I knew deep down that this was right, that marrying a woman I loved so deeply would finally set things right.

I could make her happy, I knew I could. I would give her everything, even the part of me that needed other men. She could give me everything I needed, I had no worries about that.

The crowd screamed again, bringing my focus away from Zoe and concentrating on the track, my fingers moving fluently, my soul guiding my fingers over the steel of the string.

Bulk peered at me suspiciously when I grinned at him. We were all tired, each one of us no longer feeling the thrill. The others had often moaned about how this life put a strain on their relationships, kept them away from their kids and up until this moment I hadn’t understood them. This had been my life, the freedom of the stage, the release of the music. Yet now, I couldn’t stop my mind from wandering to my woman and how fucking good life would be.

Looking her way again, I frowned at a man I didn’t recognise talking to her. She was shaking her head at him, a look of irritation on her face as she tried to ignore him and move away. He thrust a piece of paper at her, his eyes flicking my way for a moment.

Bulk bumped my hip, demanding my attention with a stern look. I rolled my eyes and moved back to the centre of the stage for our piece. He joined me, both of us blowing the crowd with a serious mood loop.

The crowd hungered for more when our performance came to an end a couple of hours later, the cheers and head-ripping roars feeding my spirit until we were all high on the adrenaline.

“Good night!” Jax growled out with a smile as he patted us all on the shoulder when we skipped down the steps off the stage. The noise was deafening, my head literally bouncing with the vibrations through the floor.

“Great crowd,” I shouted to them over my shoulder, smiling at Julie when she passed me a bottle of water as I scanned the area looking for Zoe, sulking when I couldn’t find her straight away.

My footing stumbled when I saw Jen stood on her own. Her eyes found mine, her red rimmed heated eyes. Boss bounced over to her, his arms wrapping round her waist as he sank his face into her neck. However, she didn’t remove her furious eyes from mine.

My heart was beating more rapidly than it had on stage, my throat aching with the ball forming a restriction in it.

Boss pulled back and frowned at her, his eyes lowering to the paper in her hands for a moment. She shook her head at him without removing her gaze from me when he tried to take the paper from her hands.

I knew, the sickness that surged up my throat confirming my utter despair when she walked over to me and slapped the newspaper in my chest.

“You know,” she choked out over the constriction in her throat. “She was so fucking happy. So – damn – happy.”

I closed my eyes before opening them and looking at the front page spread, my life over in the second it took to witness the headline that would rock the world.

She laughed bitterly and shook her head in disappointment. “Secrets and lies, kill many lives.”

I couldn’t breathe, my eyes blurring as my tears succeeded in devastating me. “I…”

“You should have told her,” she hissed out. “SO MANY FUCKING LIES!” I fell into Jax when Jen’s fist connected with my cheekbone, pain spreading across my face with the force of her punch.

“Fucking hell, Jen,” Boss barked as he grabbed hold of her. “What the hell?”

“You need to remove your wife from the building before you have to bail her out of a German prison,” she growled at him.

His eyebrows shot up. “What the hell is going on?” He stood, his eyes moving from me to Jen, then to Bulk and Jax and then back to me and Jen.

“I need to get back to the hotel.” She turned and walked away but I chased after her, grabbing her arm to stop her.

“Where is she?”

“Just let her go now, Romeo. Let her fucking go!”

“Never. I need to explain...”

“Oh?” She stopped dead and spun back round to me, hatred and revulsion spewing from her. “And how the fuck do you explain a fourteen year old son? Eh? Oh and we mustn’t forget your fucking
WIFE
must we? EXPLAIN THEM? HOW THE FUCK DO YOU EXPLAIN THEM?”

I gulped back the bile that forced its way up my throat. “I have to. I love her!”

She scoffed loudly. “Yeah well, you finally managed to destroy any love she has for you. Leave her alone and let her live now. She deserves a man that doesn’t bury her in lies and greed.”

“Jesus Christ, Romeo,” Boss breathed as he watched his wife walk away. “What the fuck? You have a son? A wife?”

“It’s complicated.” My eyes slid from one to the other, all three of them and Julie watching me closely.

“Nothing is too complicated to explain to your friends. I can’t believe you lied to us all this time.”

“I didn’t lie to you,” I defended. “I just…”

“Lied.” Jax cut in. “The fuck, Romeo?”

Sighing deeply, I closed my eyes. “To explain this shit to you, then I would have had to explain other things, and I wasn’t ready for that. Besides, this is my life.” I was suddenly angry. What the fuck was happening? Someone seriously had it in for me and it was about time I found out why.

“Leave him be, guy’s,” Bulk cut in. He was defending me but I could see the hurt in his eyes, the sadness that I hadn’t even opened up to him. He turned back to me, blinking back the upset. “You know where I am if you need to talk.”

I nodded, giving him a grateful smile.

“Although I wasn’t good enough for that before.”

Ouch.
I lowered my eyes but nodded. “It is what it is,” I said quietly.

He snorted and walked away, mumbling, “Yeah,” under his breath.

Each one of them followed him, leaving me stood with Julie. I jolted when her hand rubbed the top of my arm. “These things come to test us, Romeo. Prove to her how much you’re willing to take the shit to get her.”

“She won’t listen, Julie.”

She smiled sadly at me. “She won’t if you don’t talk loud enough.” She walked away then turned to look back at me over her shoulder. “By the way, you have around ten minutes to leave the building before I let Brent out of the toilets where I locked him in about an hour ago.” She winked at me, a sly smile and a chuckle shocking me. I wouldn’t have thought she’d ever have had that in her but I mouthed thank you and ran.

I’D FLOWN STRAIGHT out to Germany, knowing the backlash would be astronomical and that they would both need me.

“Oh fuck.”

Romeo was sat with his head in his hands on the bed when I walked into his hotel suite, the door to the room broken off its hinges and the whole of the room trashed. My heart dropped when he looked up at me utterly devastated. I realised it wasn’t just the room that was broken.

“Hey,” he whispered with a faint smile.

“Hey.”

He curled into me immediately when I sat beside him and placed my arm around his shoulders, pulling him against me. His sobs broke me right along with him, their intensity piercing my soul and hurting my heart.

“Where is she?”

He shrugged. “I dunno but she can’t get home,” he answered when his cries subsided.

“Why?”

“She flew out with us on the jet. That way she has to go on the company passport for insurance purposes so she doesn’t have her own personal passport to get home. And… well, I may have taken that too, from her house, so she couldn’t take off to Miami,” he whispered shamefully. “Her only way home is back on the plane with us, but no one can find her. Brent’s doing his nut, apparently it costs thousands every hour we delay the flight home.” He rolled his eyes, a curl to his lip showing just what he thought of Brent’s moaning.

I switched on the kettle, sorting through the sachets of coffee but then decided against it and opened the mini-bar, taking out all the miniatures and lining them up with a couple of glasses. He smiled at me when I shared the whisky between us and handed him a glass.

“I guess she’s not answering her phone?” He shook his head but I pulled out my own and tried her, sighing when it went straight to voice mail. “Jen have a clue?”

He shook his head. “Nope.”

“Fuck!”

He rubbed his temples. “It’s all a fucking mess.” He grimaced after downing his drink and looked at me. “Who the fuck is doing this?”

“I told you.”

“No that’s bollocks, Nick. I don’t even know this Alan Francis. I’ve never followed politics and I haven’t the foggiest what goes on in the government.”

“Does anybody ever know what is going on with the government?”

“But surely the police are investigating, even my life can’t interfere with that?”

I laughed. He didn’t have a clue. “Romeo, the government and the police go hand in hand. Alan Francis won’t come to trial for Penny’s death. It’s only the media they’re frightened of finding out, hence why you’re suddenly in the spotlight and taking all the attention.”

“So he killed Penny and now he’s hell bent on ruining my life all because Penny found out something?”

“It looks that way.”

“But what? What did she have?”

I pulled out my phone, ignoring him purposely and dialling Zoe’s number again. When she didn’t answer, I placed my glass on the side. “I need to find her.”

He stood up, nodding and snatching up his shoes. “Yeah.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“I don’t care,” he scoffed. “I need her. I asked her to marry me Nick and she said yes. She said fucking yes. And now, now I don’t even know what the fuck is going on. She hates me but she needs to listen to me.”

I didn’t allow the squeeze in my chest show itself. I shouldn’t be hurt by his revelation but I couldn’t help the way I felt about them both. Romeo didn’t seem to notice how my body stiffened.

“Come on, I reckon she’ll be getting pissed, so bars and clubs are the best place to start.”

I watched him walk through the door, my teeth gnawing at my bottom lip as I tried to pull back the emotion. He frowned at me when he realised I wasn’t following. “You coming?”

Nodding, unable to control the emotion in my voice, I gulped back the pain and followed him out.

SHE DEFINITELY HAD a dick, I knew I was plastered but there was most definitely something wrong with the way she sat. And what was with the dog? Its nose had been pushed in her groin for over an hour.

The guy sat next to her had been giving me the come on for the last hour. He looked okay, a bit blurry around the edges, but he had a full head of dark hair and intense chocolate eyes. I shrugged and pushed myself out of the booth, using the tables scattered around the room as props to keep me upright on my journey to the bar.