Fractured Beat (Meltdown Book 1) (39 page)

“You have nothing on me,” Kirkland blustered.

“See, that’s where you’re wrong. We have proof that you drugged me, planted drugs in my hotel room, falsely sent me to rehab, paid people to keep me there under false pretenses as well as tampered with my medical records. You had an innocent girl killed, for fuck’s sake.”

Kirkland’s face lost all color. “I did no such thing,” he gasped.

“Don’t fight this, Dad. They promised not to prosecute if you peacefully walk away,” Blane urged.

Kirkland pointed a bony finger at Blane. “You are no longer my son. In fact, as of right now I disown you.”

Blane lunged for his father, but Garrett and Hank stopped him before he got to him. “I fucked up! I admitted it, but you, you took the only thing I had, the only thing that made me happy, and tried to ruin it.” He shook off Hank’s hand and screamed, “Happenstance was mine!” he slapped his chest and screamed, “Mine!” He pointed at me. “You went so far as to drug my fucking friend. Who does that?”

“For the last time, I did not drug him.”

“God, Dad! Just stop,” Blane hissed.

Kirkland’s eyes flitted to me. “I may have taken advantage of a situation, but I’m telling you, I had nothing to do with the drugs.”

“From where I’m sitting, there are two choices. Blane can sign his Happenstance shares over to us, we can pay his debt to you and you can walk away or with a little help from our friends in this room, we turn this file over to the police and let them take it from there. Even if you don’t get convicted of a crime, we can certainly extract civil damages for false imprisonment and make sure your shady business practices end up on the front page of all the major newspapers. You’ll be ruined. And, at the end of the day, we’ll own Happenstance. I’m okay with that. Are you guys?” I turned and stared at my bandmates.

“Yep.”

“Yes.”

“Works for me,” they all three answered.

All eyes turned to Kirkland. After a long very pregnant pause, he growled, “Where do I sign?”

And like that, it was finally over.

*     *     *

Two months later

“Four days is
too long.” I was trying not to sound like a whiny bitch, but seriously, four days away from my girl was going to feel like an eternity.

Placing her hands on her hips, Mallory asked, “What are you going to do when I’m on a job?”

I pulled her in and planted a kiss on her lips. “I’m going to miss you. I’m going to whine daily. I’m going to –”

She placed her hand over my mouth and smiled. “I was going to tell you this Friday, but I talked to CiCi and, as of yesterday, I have a new position.”

“Mmfktyjd,” I responded under her hand. She laughed and removed her hand so I could speak. “Babe, I told you I’m okay with it. Will it suck being away from you? Fuck yeah, but it’s your job.”

“I’m going to branch off and open an office in Austin, only I’m not traveling to clients anymore, they’re coming to me,” she spoke over me. I didn’t know what to say. Not only was my girl moving in with me, but she was changing her job for me as well. I’d been worried about how we were going to handle the distance and was relieved it was officially off the table. Would she end up regretting it? I hoped not.

The remainder of the tour had flown by. Once Kirkland was out of the picture and the papers were signed, making us all four equal owners of Happenstance, everything changed. Like in the good old days, pranks were played, jokes were told and, once again, laughter was a huge part of our daily existence. Chaz was less surly and Luke lightened way the fuck up. Blane was still technically our manager, but his authority was seriously limited. Was I one hundred percent sure he had nothing to do with what happened to me? No. Would I ever be sure? Probably not.

The night Kirkland signed the papers, I asked Mallory to move in with me. Without any hesitation, she said yes. Today was the day. The tour was over and we were heading home. Well, I was heading home in a few days. Mallory was on an afternoon flight to Dallas. I wasn’t going to see her for four fucking days.

“We’ve talked about this. You have to wrap up here. I need to pack. I promise I’ll leave bright and early Friday morning and be home by lunch.” My heart stuttered in my chest when she called my house her home. “I can’t wait to move in. I have the prettiest pink pillows that will go great on our bed,” she teased. I pulled her in and kissed the laughter from her lips. Then I stripped her bare and slid deep inside. The last time I’d spent four days away from her was one of the worst weeks of my life. What if she changed her mind? What if she didn’t show?

I guess I’d just have to wait and see.

I-35 South

Mallory

T
oday was D-day.
I was officially moving in with Grant. In order to surprise him a day earlier than expected, I had to pack and ship all of my belongings in three instead of the four days I’d been allotted. As I stared down at the two bags I’d missed, I tried to recall what was in them and couldn’t. My car was full, as in Beverly Hills Hillbilly out of room full, and I was ready to hit the road. I contemplated tossing the bags in the outside dumpster, but at the last second relented. Five extra minutes wouldn’t kill me. Just as I thought, the first bag held clothes. I spotted the top I wore the night I arrived in Houston and smiled. That was the night Grant scolded me for arguing with Blane on the side of the stage. It was hard to believe that was only five months ago. Bag two was full of what looked like junk.
To the dumpster it goes
. As I was zipping it back up, a flash of silver caught my eye and I paused to see what it was.
Grant’s notebook!
I’d completely forgotten I had it. I’d found it the morning we were leaving Austin.

“Oh, Mallory, it was so nice to meet you. Promise me you’ll take good care of our boy,” Ava said, as she hugged me.

“I promise.”

“Babe, we have to go or we’re going to miss the plane!” Grant called from the driveway.

“That boy is always in a hurry,” Ava muttered. As I turned to leave she asked if I was aware that I was missing an earring.

The night Grant and I were fooling around in the studio I lost the back to one of my earrings. I’d placed the earring on the end table beside the sofa and had completely forgotten about it.

“Hang on! I’ll be right there!” I shouted to Grant, before racing down the stairs to retrieve it. Had it been any other earring and I would have left it, but these belonged to my grandmother. Thankfully, it was right where I’d left it. After shoving it in my pocket, I turned to race back up the stairs and spotted Grant’s notebook peeking out from under the sofa. He’ll need this, I thought, as I scooped it off the floor and crammed it inside my purse.

I wasn’t sure how the notebook got from my purse to the bag, but I knew that Grant would be happy to see it. I did a quick flip through the pages and recognized Grant’s handwriting. I also recognized Nash’s writing on a few of the pages. I paused on a page full of what looked like chicken scratch and noticed Chaz’s name at the bottom. That’s when I realized it wasn’t just Grant’s notebook, but Meltdown’s. About halfway through I found
Unravel
. Like a lovesick groupie, I pulled the notebook to my chest and sighed.
How many girls can claim they’ve had a song written for them?
I traced my fingers over the words and thought back to the night Grant sang it to me on stage and smiled. In a few short hours we’d finally be living together. I was just about to close the notebook when I noticed Luke’s name on one of the pages. Grant said Luke was a decent songwriter, but I couldn’t recall a single song he’d written. The top of the page said,
For Dale
. Poor Luke. My heart really hurt for him. Dale’s death was tough on all of the guys, but it had been especially hard on Luke. As I skimmed over the words of the song two things stood out. One, the song seemed really angry. Two, Luke couldn’t spell worth a damn. It was when I saw the words “dont” and “certanly” that recognition hit…recognition followed by a cold chill. Not only were they the same words used in the email sent to Kirkland from my phone, but they were misspelled in exactly the same way.

“Shit!” I exclaimed out loud.

As I stared at the page full of angry, misspelled words, I thought back on what Grant said the day they’d nailed Kirkland once and for all.
“He admitted taking advantage of the situation, but he never copped to the drugs.”

What if Kirkland didn’t drug Grant?

“No,” I said to the empty room. “Luke wouldn’t do that. He just wouldn’t.” There was no way that the playful, funny, incredibly good looking Luke we all knew and loved would hurt Grant, right? With that thought, I slammed the notebook shut, slid it back into the bag and zipped it back up. Then I carried the bags to my car and loaded them in. I did one final sweep of the place before leaving the key under the mat. As I pulled out of the parking lot and turned onto the road, doubt swirled through my head.
What if I’m wrong?
My head and heart agreed, but my gut protested.
Maybe I should call Grant, just to make sure he’s okay.
A few miles passed and I couldn’t stand it any longer. I had to talk to Grant. Pressing the hands-free button on my steering wheel, I said, “Call Grant.” When Grant picked up on the third ring I let out a sigh of relief, “Hey baby, whatcha doing?” I asked.

“Well, right now I’m hanging with your boy,” a voice that was definitely not Grant replied.

“Hey Nash, is Grant around?”

“Nash? You really think I sound like Nash? I’m offended,” the voice replied, and I felt as if someone had poured ice into my veins.

“Luke?”

“The one and only,” he replied. “So, I hear tomorrow’s the big day. I bet you’re excited.” He sounded normal, like…Luke, but what was he doing in Austin and why was he answering Grant’s phone?

“I am. What are you doing in Austin? Will I get to see you tomorrow?” I casually asked. I didn’t want him to think I was pumping him for information, even though that was exactly what I was doing.

He paused for a moment before saying, “You’ll have to wait and see.” It wasn’t the words he said that made the hair stand up on the back of my neck as much as the way in which he said them.

Trying not to sound freaked out, I said, “Oh, darn. I was hoping to see you. Can I speak to Grant real quick? I need to ask him a question about the movers.”

“Sorry, sweetheart, Grant’s a little tied up at the moment. I’ll make sure and tell him you called. Bye now.”

“Funny, Luke. Let me talk to Grant.” When he failed to respond, I said, “Hello?” All I got was silence on the other end, so I snagged my phone from the cup holder and checked the screen. It was blank. Luke had hung up on me. Something was wrong. I couldn’t say how I knew it, I just did. “What do I do now?” I asked out loud, and then I remembered Ava. Pressing the hands-free button, I said, “Call Ava.”

“Hello?” Ava answered after the second ring.

“Hey Ava, this is Mallory. Are you by chance in the main house?”

“Hi, dear. Didn’t Grant tell you? I’m visiting my niece in Colorado this week. I’ll be back tomorrow.” My stomach lurched. Ava wasn’t there.

“Okay, Thanks, Ava. I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

“Was there something you needed?” she asked.

“Not really. It can wait. Hey, I’ve got another call coming in. I’ll see you tomorrow,” I told her before hitting disconnect. “Shit,” I said under my breath. As I beat back the panic that was threatening to take over, I thought,
this is getting worse by the second
. I couldn’t reach Grant. Ava couldn’t check on Grant. I was two hours away.
What do I do?
Whatever I did, I had to be careful. Luke was my friend and like a brother to Grant. Just because I had a bad feeling, it didn’t mean I was right…but it also didn’t mean I was wrong. Maybe Hank could help.

Taking a deep breath, I hit the hands-free button once more and calmly said, “Call Hank.”

“Hi Mallory,” Hank answered almost immediately.

“Hi Hank, have you spoken with Grant today?”

“No, but I talked to him last night. Why? What’s up? Is everything okay?”

“Did he by chance mention anything to you about Luke coming to Austin?”

“Not that I recall. He was getting things ready for your arrival. Why?” he asked again. My heart warmed at the thought of Grant getting things ready for me.

“It’s probably nothing. It’s just that I called Grant a little while ago and Luke answered his phone. He was acting kind of weird.”

“Huh, Luke told me he was heading to Houston to hang with his sister. Grant probably talked him into taking a road trip to Austin to play video games. They do it all the time when they’re not on tour. Did you try Nash? I bet he’s up there with them.”

I mentally banged my head against the steering wheel. Why didn’t I think of that? “Good Idea. Thanks, Hank. Have fun on your break.”

“You, too, Mallory.”

I disconnected and called Nash.

“Yo,” Nash answered.

“Hey Nash, it’s Mallory. I’m looking for Grant. Is he by chance with you?”

“Hey Mallory. Grant’s at his house getting ready for you,” he replied.
Thank God
, I thought.