Whole Lotta Sin: Rock Star Hearts - Book #3 Read online

  I’d left a cheap biro stuck inside, and I pulled it out and flipped it over and over in my hand, my mind racing. Write something, huh? I hadn’t written any lyrics since… I couldn’t remember. It had to be months ago, when Juniper was still… I shook my head.

  Opening it to a fresh page, I wrote down the opening words of a new song. They just flowed out of me the moment the ink began to mark the paper. The pen scratched, my hand aching as I let out the words I’d been too afraid to tell Juniper.

  I made a mistake, but I’d been blindsided by Vix and Mallory. Honestly, I should’ve seen it coming, but I’d been too stupid to see what was really going on. I was a stupid arsehole who thought I could handle everything that was thrown at me. Fuck, I’d been so wrong. I’d lost sight of everything.

  Juniper was the best thing that’d ever happened to me. With her, it was real. I felt like I could take on the world and win.

  I loved her. I loved her.

  I broke it and now I had to repair the damage. Problem was, how did I get her to trust me again? Trust was a powerful thing and it wasn’t easily earned—especially after it had been destroyed.

  I wanted to go back to that fucking beach and never leave.

  Grabbing my guitar, my fingers ran over the strings as I rested it on my knee. I looked at the words I’d written and strummed a few chords, humming softly. Then it just happened. Few songs wrote themselves this easily, and those were the special ones. It wasn’t my place to try and understand why. I just opened myself up and let it flow.

  * * *

  I’ll fall into the sea, let the sand run under my skin

  Burn a hole in my heart so the rain gets in

  Let the empire crash, close the drugstore

  I gotta get back to the lonely shore

  * * *

  Let the storm rage, I’ll cry, I’m encaged

  But I won’t lie still while love lies…

  Let the storm rage, I’ll die, I’m enraged

  But I won’t lie still while love lies—

  * * *

  My fingers scratched over the strings as I realised someone was standing behind me. I wiped at a tear I didn’t realise was there before turning.

  Juniper stood just outside the room, her delicate hand resting on the doorjamb. She looked surprised, but it wasn’t like she hadn’t seen me sing before.

  She glanced at the guitar. “Harry’s in,” she said. “Can he come over?”

  “Sure.” My voice sounded far away, like someone else was speaking through me. My fingers ached, but not from the hard guitar strings.

  “Is that new?”

  I nodded. “Yeah.”

  Her lips thinned, but she didn’t ask anything else. Turning, she made to walk away, but I was starving for her attention.

  “Hey.” She paused at the sound of my voice. “I’ve got a thing tomorrow, so… I’ll be late… You’ll have the house to yourself.”

  “Okay.” She nodded once before walking away.

  I stared at the empty spot where she’d just been and sighed. The longing was palpable.

  Turning back to my journal, I tried to pick up where I’d left off, but I’d suddenly lost all my words.

  Juniper had taken them with her.

  3

  Juniper

  I slept in the next morning.

  When I finally went downstairs, Sebastian had already left for his ‘thing’—whatever it was. Of course, I planned it that way, but I wasn’t prepared for how empty the house felt with no one in it. Despite myself, I wondered if this was why he rarely stayed here.

  There was a manila folder waiting for me on the kitchen island. A Post-it note was stuck on the top and there, in Sebastian’s all-caps handwriting, was a note to me. Juniper, here are my royalty reports. There was nothing else tacked on the end, just here’s the reports.

  Sighing, I flipped open the cover and scanned the rows of numbers. It was mostly album sales and streaming revenue, but there were a few pages with payments gained from touring and appearances. The amount of digits before the decimal points made my eyes water. I’d always been brought up to not pry into other people’s financial situations, so seeing this laid out for me to study in minute detail made me a little uncomfortable, but then again, maybe it was a sign of just how much he trusted me.

  The bell at the gate rang, breaking me away from Sebastian’s financials. It was Harry, as expected, so I buzzed him in.

  Opening the front door, I waited as he drove up the driveway and parked his car at the foot of the stairs. When he got out, he whistled, his gaze fixated on the mansion with the modern glass exterior and sculpted lawns.

  Spotting me on the stoop, he bounded up the stairs and wrapped his arms around me. “It’s so good to see you.”

  “You too.” I hugged him back, glad to see a familiar face amidst the chaos.

  He pulled back and looked me over. “How are you?”

  “It’s a long story.” I nodded towards the open door. “Let’s go inside. It’s hot out here.”

  The house was much cooler than the rising Sydney heat. Summer was blistering in these parts, though the house was an icicle I never wanted to leave. It was no secret redheads burned under direct UV exposure, so I kept out of the sun at all costs.

  “So this is Mr. Hale’s house,” Harry mused, looking around the foyer.

  “You’ve never been here before?”

  “No. I mean, I’ve had things sent here, but I’ve never seen inside. He’s not here much.”

  I coughed nervously. “So, what are you doing now that you’re not Sebastian’s assistant?”

  “Galaxy has me on a boring desk job,” he grumbled. “There wasn’t any other open positions, so I’m back in Sydney working in marketing. At least I’m in the one place long enough to date now. That’s a thing, I suppose.”

  “But it’s not your dream job.”

  He shook his head. “I’ve never had the perfect storm, you know?” The perfect storm. His words hit a sad chord inside my heart. “So are you and…”

  I knew what he wanted to ask. I was in Sebastian’s house, cooking up a plan to help him catch Vix, the stealer of millions. Harry wanted to know if the rock star and I were back together, but I didn’t know myself.

  “No. It’s uh… complicated.”

  “Isn’t it always like that?” he mused as we walked through to the living room. “Wow. Look at this place.”

  “Pretty posh, huh?”

  Harry flung his messenger bag onto the kitchen island and moved over to the windows. “Oh, wow. Look at that pool. I need a mimosa,” he gushed. “This view is to die for!”

  I slid onto a stool at the kitchen island and rested my chin on my palm, watching his enthusiastic assessment of Sebastian’s house. It was really nice, but I felt like an alien inside it. I’d never needed all this space with its voice-activated cooktops and walk-in butler’s pantries to be content. Honestly, I didn’t even think it was about all the stuff. It wasn’t my place, it was Sebastian’s, which made me homeless in a sense. I needed to figure out what my next step was—where did I want to live, or was I going to be a world traveller for the next few years?

  “I don’t get it. If you’re not together, then why are you here?” Harry asked, sitting beside me. “I mean, I helped you get home, then I quit my job in solidarity.”

  “You didn’t have to do that,” I replied, frowning. It was great he wanted to stick up for me and all, but risk his livelihood? If I’d known that’s what he planned to do, then I would’ve talked him out of it.

  “It was either leave on my own terms or get fired when Mr. Hale found out I helped get you home.”

  I grunted and leaned on my palm.

  “Let it out,” he said, waving his hand at me. “Blow your load, Juniper. You’ll feel a lot better afterwards, trust me.”

  “Let what out?”

  “You’re over-thinking. I can see it written all over your forehead crease.”

  My shoulders slumped. “He
didn’t do anything to stop the footage from leaking, and I never heard from him once when I went back home. Not until he…”

  Harry raised his eyebrows. “Not until he what?”

  “He came to Point Mambie to see me.” Uncertainty flooded my mind and the words Sebastian had spoken to me resurfaced. I’d memorised them, trying to pick apart their meaning when the message had been clear and concise the whole time. I’d thought about it so much that the words had become jumbled and I didn’t know which way was up.

  Some people just get into your bloodstream and there isn’t a thing you can do about it. It doesn’t matter how much we’ve hurt one another, or how much the world wants us to fail, we just keep finding our way back here. To this place. Where I’m just a guy who would do anything for the woman he loves.

  The simple truth of the matter was, I was afraid to love. Still.

  Harry shrugged. “I hate to be the devil’s advocate here, but maybe he didn’t contact you because he was trying to protect you from Vix and whatever all this is about.”

  Maybe. Probably.

  “Seems to me, you have to reconcile what’s in here,” he poked my head, “and what’s in here,” he said softly as he poked my heart.

  “Stop,” I complained, swatting him away. “I want to be angry. That tape humiliated me. The whole fucking world saw my tits.”

  “Of course you were humiliated, but was it really Sebastian’s fault?” He gave me a stern look. “And are you angry with him just because it’s the only familiar feeling in you right now?”

  “Shut up,” I said with a moan. “I don’t want you to be right.”

  “But I am, aren’t I?”

  There was no way I was replying to that.

  “Anyway, what do you want with these?” He reached into his bag and slapped a pile of paperwork onto the island. “I can understand why you want to get back to Vix, but Beneath’s royalty reports? What’s that got to do with anything?”

  “You got them already?” I snatched up the papers and flicked through them, the figures making my eyes water.

  “Juniper. I quit my job for you, the least you can do is dish on the dirt.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Which was really stupid, by the way.”

  “Someone’s gotta have morals,” he grumbled. “Besides, I wouldn’t have been able to get these without a trail leading right back to me if I wasn’t stuck in the Galaxy offices. So fess up. What’s going on?”

  “Something big’s going down,” I said. “Can I trust you, Harry? This isn’t a game, and I have to be completely sure.”

  “Of course.” His frown deepened. “Now you’re scaring me.”

  “Okay… Apparently, Vix has been stealing money from Beneath for years,” I said with a sigh. “All her blackmailing and threats…” I trailed off because I knew he got it. Harry had witnessed more than I ever had.

  “Holy fuck.” He stared at me, his mouth falling open in shock. “Are you serious?”

  I nodded. “It makes sense. From everything I’ve heard and witnessed, it can’t be anything else. I know she probably gets a lot of money already, but if she’s got a growing nest egg in an offshore account and no one’s suspected her all these years…”

  “She’s probably sitting on millions,” Harry murmured. “Sweet Je—”

  “That’s why I need these reports. I need to see if the theft is actually happening.”

  “But it’s not proof that she took it.”

  “No, but it’s a start. The evidence will come after we know for sure that the money is missing.”

  Harry pursed his lips and shook his head at me like I was a naughty child who’d acted out in class and he was the headmaster.

  “What?” I made a face.

  “Sebastian came to you with this,” he replied. “He trusts you and no one else.”

  “Because I signed an NDA.”

  “Fuck the NDA,” he exclaimed and banged his hand against the countertop. “He’s Sebastian fucking Hale and he loves you. That’s like the miracle of the century. Sure, it didn’t work out on the road, but relationships aren’t perfect, Juniper.”

  “You quit your job,” I argued.

  “I didn’t quit my job because of Sebastian Hale,” Harry declared. “Have a little courage, Juniper. I’m guessing he was as blindsided by that footage as you were. The press died down pretty quickly if you ask me. The only way that happens is because of legal action.” He turned back to the reports and pulled out a yellow highlighter from his bag. “And with Vix out for blood, keeping his distance would’ve been the only way to protect you, as was letting you sign a non-disclosure.”

  “How is me signing an NDA helpful?” I argued. “I can’t do anything.”

  “Exactly. It’s his way of making sure you’ll be all right. He brought you into his world and it was his world that screwed you over. He’s taking responsibility for all of this. The way I see it, if it implodes, he’ll be the one to take the fall… for everyone.”

  I looked at the royalty reports and scowled.

  “You know I’m right,” he declared, pouring over the reports.

  “What are you doing?” I asked, ignoring his statement. I wasn’t ready to face my own shortcomings yet.

  “Highlighting.”

  “You don’t need to do that.” I grabbed at the highlighter, but Harry held it out of reach.

  “Uh-ah, Miss Rowe. You need some help and you aren’t the only person who wants to see Vix get what’s coming to her.” He grinned and wiggled his eyebrows. “I love a good revenge plot, don’t you?”

  I had to agree with him, especially when the person on the other end deserved it. I smirked at him and nudged his arm. “Got another highlighter in that bag of yours?”

  Later that afternoon, after Harry had left, I sat at the kitchen island and studied the yellow highlighter marks on my hands. Two piles of papers sat in front of me, both showing more yellow than white.

  It was bad. Harry had only left after the highlighters had run out. Well, that was a bit extreme, but it felt like an appropriate analogy.

  I glanced at the figure on the calculator app on my phone. How was I going to tell Sebastian?

  Behind me, the television was playing an ad for a Christmas movie that was airing over the weekend. Christmas… It was only a few weeks away and I’d forgotten all about it the moment Sebastian brought me here. I’d agreed to come, but there went all my Euro-plans.

  Back in the Point, the holidays were always a dull affair. There were no traditions in my family, so Mum and I just showed up wherever we were invited. Some years we just stayed at home and ate pizza in front of the fan while watching Home Alone and The Nightmare Before Christmas because we were quirky folks like that. After she died, Vanessa and Hugo had adopted me and we ate pizza in front of the fan at his family’s pizza shop, then met up with whoever was around for a game of cricket on the beach. It was the one day of the year where Ziggy was encouraged to bodysurf.

  Rubbing my eyes, I felt a pang in my heart. Despite the things I’d been through, life wasn’t all that bad in the Point. I’d been missing a few items from my bucket list, but all in all—

  The front door opened and closed, breaking through my melancholy reminiscence. Turning at the sound of footsteps, my gaze met Sebastian’s as he walked in. He dropped his phone onto the kitchen counter and offered me a half-smile. He looked twice as tired as I felt.

  “Hey.” His gaze shifted to the papers Harry and I had sorted through on the counter. “What’s all this?”

  “Uh, Harry came through,” I said, turning on the stool.

  Sebastian flicked through the papers, but I didn’t think he was really looking at them. His movements were stiff, like he wasn’t that interested. I had a feeling he didn’t want to face what I’d found, even though he already knew deep down how bad it was. Even I was tempted to avoid what was coming and it wasn’t my money.

  I didn’t want to tell him because it was hard to see the extent of Vix’s embezzleme
nt, but what use was delaying the inevitable? Sebastian had millions stolen from under his nose—Sebastian and the rest of the band—and it had to stop.

  “You were right,” I murmured, trying to be as tactful as I could. “A little here and there. See?” I pointed to the first set of numbers we’d found. It’d begun a few months after Beneath had first signed with Galaxy. “I haven’t been through all of the reports yet, but the amounts vary. At first it was only a few hundred dollars, then a few thousand.”

  Sebastian cursed and his whole body tensed. “When we didn’t question, she got more brazen.”

  “Be careful with this,” I said. “Right now, it’s some mismatched numbers. It proves nothing. Anyone could’ve done this.” It was enough for Galaxy to open up an investigation, but it would trigger Vix to take the cash and run. “We’ve got to figure out where the money went.”

  “I don’t even know where to start with that.”

  “Same. This is too big for us,” I said. “We need help.”

  Sebastian shook his head and turned, intending to start pacing but he held steady. “We can’t. Too much is riding on this.”

  “The others need to know what’s happening.”

  “No,” he said, shaking his head. “This is hard enough on me. If they knew, it’d… I can’t tell them.”

  “I know it’s going to hurt, but they’re your family, Sebastian. You have to tell them what’s been happening with their livelihoods. They’ll be pissed about it, but they’re clever guys. Give them some credit.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “You do know that the shit will hit the fan when they find out.”

  “Better now, than later. The longer you leave it, the worse it’ll get.”

  He didn’t say anything, he just turned and started to pace, his expression a raging storm. “I can’t believe I was so fucking stupid.”

  “Don’t blame yourself,” I said, watching his trajectory. “She’s obviously got this down to a fine art, but that means she’s in so deep that she’ll never be able to get out. If we find the right evidence…”