Ravage (Civil Corruption Book 4) Read online

  “He’s my best friend,” Mace continued to argue. “The best friend I’ve ever had.”

  “I know. And did it ever cross your mind that Will might want someone like that for me? Someone he knows is loyal to the core?”

  “He’s my brother, Ly. You have to get that. Please tell me you get that.”

  “I do,” I replied, nodding for good measure. “I also get that what you’re saying is I’m not worth it.”

  “That’s not true! Goldie, you’re worth fuckin’ everything.”

  “Then talk to him. If I’m worth everything, talk to Will and convince him.”

  “Convince him of what, huh?” he snarled, raking his hands through his hair as he backed away and flopped on my bed. “Convince him that I’m not a dog? That he should let me have a shot at his underage sister? How goddamn well do you think that’ll work out?”

  “Then we’ll wait,” I pushed, tired of his bullshit excuses. “If that’s the case, we’ll give it a few months until I’m eighteen. Then we can tell him.”

  Mace’s mouth was clamped shut so tight the tendons in his neck tensed and strained beneath his skin. But he didn’t say a word.

  Not a single. Fucking. Word.

  And just like that, the fight melted right out of me. “Get out.”

  “What? No, Goldie—”

  “Get out, Mace. There’s nothing more to say. Just… go. Please. Just go.”

  The anguish on Mace’s face was almost enough to make me want to snatch the words back. Almost. But as I’d already told him, I was done.

  “Seven years is long enough, don’t you think? Please, just go and let me start living my life.”

  He stood, his face stark with regret and misery as he took a few more seconds to look at me. “I’m sorry, Goldie,” he whispered, his voice full of contrition before he headed toward my bedroom door.

  “You and me both,” I murmured to myself after he was gone.

  It was only once I was certain my parents were asleep in their bed, and I’d have no more interruptions that I finally allowed myself to crumble, using my pillow to muffle my sobs as I mourned the loss of what would never be.

  Chapter Seven

  Lyla

  Two and a half years later

  For more than two years I’d managed to put Mace behind me. It hadn’t been easy. In fact, it was one of the hardest things I’d ever had to do.

  But I did it.

  High school ended. I graduated without ever speaking another word to Bethany, but I also managed to learn that she’d been right… to a point. My reputation at school was a lot more profound than I’d ever imagined. People saw how our friendship had imploded, and the majority seemed to take my side without me ever muttering a word of her betrayal. She was quickly blacklisted, and while I never fueled the gossip or gave credence to the rumors spreading about her, I couldn’t say I felt bad. It took a special kind of evil to be that malicious, and as far as I was concerned she’d gotten what she deserved.

  It also didn’t help matters much that I wasn’t the only girl she’d done something that sinister to. Turned out, Bethany had a penchant for using sex to get back at girls she felt had wronged her. Not smart.

  I eventually left all that behind and headed off to San Francisco State University to start my life. A lot had changed in the past couple years. Not only had I distanced myself from the guys in the band, but a few months after their visit that Christmas, the bottom fell out on Tate and Declan’s relationship. He’d let the money and fame get to his head and destroyed the best thing he’d ever had.

  After the devastation he’d left in his wake, Tate packed her stuff and moved back from LA. In that time, we’d grown even closer. She’d gone from being one of my closest friends to the sister I never had. And one of the foundations of our friendship was that we never talked about Civil Corruption. I didn’t pry into her business with Deck, and she didn’t dig to find out why I’d pulled away from them. It was like an unwritten agreement between us, and it had worked for so long that it’d become second nature.

  Until today.

  When the mail courier knocked on my apartment door earlier that morning, I thought maybe it was a birthday gift from my parents or something. I never expected to open the envelope and have backstage passes to the Civil Corruption concert literally fall into my lap. I knew they were coming back to town for a show, but I’d planned to pretend it wasn’t happening. Unfortunately, my roommate was in the room when the passes fell out, so there’d been no chance at hiding it from her.

  “Holy shit!” Ava squawked like a loud, annoying bird. “Ho-ly shit! Are those what I think they are? Please tell me those are what I think they are!”

  Before I had a chance to answer, she snatched the envelope and pulled out a tiny business card–sized slip of paper.

  “‘Happy birthday, Goldie. Miss you like crazy. Love, Mace.’ Wait, Mace? As in Mason Keller? The world’s sexiest lead guitarist since the creation of time? That Mace?”

  “That’d be him,” I muttered, snatching the card from her hand and reading, then rereading his words. The pieces of my heart that I’d slowly been mending together pulsed and throbbed so painfully at the sight of his distinct scrawl that if I hadn’t been sitting, my knees would’ve gone right out from under me.

  “I can’t believe you never told me you knew Civil freaking Corruption! If I didn’t already think you were the tits, this would solidify it. That’s for damn sure.”

  Ava could be a pain in the ass at times, but since the moment we met when she walked into our dorm room freshman year, she’d been a true and loyal friend. Considering my track record with girlfriends, it had taken me a while to warm up to her, but she’d never given up, and I was damn glad about that seeing as she was pretty amazing.

  “They’re more my brother’s friends than mine,” I replied, the old excuse flowing from my mouth with ease.

  “‘Miss you like crazy’? Doesn’t sound like something a guy says to his friend’s little sis.” She looked at me with skeptical eyes. “Why do I get the feeling you’re keeping something from me?”

  “Because I am,” I answered in a flat, bland tone as I pushed the passes to the side and stood from my bed. “And if you really love me and are my bestest friend, then you’ll leave it at that, yeah?”

  I grabbed my robe off the foot of my bed and started for the bathroom when Ava grabbed my arm and stopped me. “Hold up.”

  “Ava, please,” I sighed. “I really don’t want to talk about Mace.”

  Her expression grew sympathetic as she studied me. “That’s fine. We don’t have to talk about him. But are you okay?”

  Such a good friend.

  I blew out a frustrated breath as I ran a hand through my hair. “No. I haven’t seen or talked to him in over two years, so to say this gift came as a surprise is putting it mildly.”

  “Does…?” She hesitated for just a beat. “Does Daniel know?”

  Daniel. Crap.

  I met him a year earlier in one of my classes. He was cute and funny, and he charmed me almost immediately. But I hadn’t let myself go there until I was sure it could be all about him without the memory of a certain guitar player plaguing my thoughts. It took six months of him wooing me before I finally relented, and we’d been together ever since.

  “No.”

  “So how are you gonna explain these to him?” She held the passes up. “I mean, he’ll definitely want to go, but he’s gonna ask questions.”

  “Like I said, they’re friends of my brother’s. Guess they were just feeling generous since it’s my birthday and all.”

  Ava’s body practically vibrated with excitement as she hopped from foot to foot with her hands clutched in front of her chest. “Does that mean we can go?”

  If she hadn’t seen those damn passes, I could’ve just tossed them and none would be the wiser, but she did. And if I was being honest with myself, I actually really wanted to go. In spite of everything, I missed my guys.

 
“We can go. But,” I quickly added when it appeared her head was mere seconds from exploding all over my room, “you have to be cool. Think you can do that?”

  A muffled squeak squeezed through her clamped lips as she nodded like a maniac. “I’ll be cool as ice. Pinky swear!”

  I looked from her to the passes and back again. “Well, then I guess we need to figure out what to wear. We’ve got a concert to go to tonight.”

  I had five front row tickets to the show along with the backstage passes. Besides me and Ava, I gave a pass to Daniel, one to Ava’s boyfriend, Craig, and the other to our mutual friend Lindsey. The rest of the group radiated with elation as they jumped and screamed and hollered while the guys tore up the stage like they owned it. And they did. They owned the whole freaking building and everyone in it, they were that good.

  I’d seen them on TV plenty of times, the New Year’s Eve performance after the last time I saw Mace included, but it was nothing compared to seeing them live. I tried my hardest to keep my eyes from drifting his way, but Mace was too mesmerizing, and I found my gaze constantly traveling toward him as the show played out.

  But the most disconcerting thing of it all was that his kept coming my way as well. From their first song, after the pyrotechnics cleared and all the lights went up, he’d spotted me, like he knew exactly where I’d be. And the few times our eyes locked, they held like two magnets unable to be pulled apart.

  “You okay, baby?” Daniel called out, leaning close to my ear so I could hear what he was saying. “You don’t seem into this.”

  He wasn’t completely off the mark. Truth was, I didn’t have the first damn clue what I was doing there, and something deep in my gut told me I was making a huge mistake.

  Casting my eyes over my shoulder, I did my best to smile genuinely as I looked up into his handsome face. “I’m great,” I lied. “Just soaking it all in.”

  Daniel grinned and wrapped his arms around my waist from behind, lowering his head until his chin rested on my shoulder. “This is epic! I can’t believe your brother’s friends with these guys. This is amazing!”

  “I know,” I answered, infusing my voice with as much cheerfulness as possible. But when my attention turned back to the stage, Mace’s blue eyes skewered me on the spot. Even from this distance, I could feel them on my skin, burning a trail from my face to where Daniel’s hands rested on my belly. And I swear to God, those ocean blues caught fire and burned with an intensity and fury I’d never in my life seen before.

  Oh shit

  Mace

  She came.

  I couldn’t fucking believe it when I looked out into the front row and saw her standing there like a golden beacon. All of her pale blonde hair framing that beautiful face, those honey eyes shimmering up at me.

  If felt like I’d taken my first full breath in more than two years. Then that fuckwad wrapped his arms around her, holding her like she belonged to him, and I nearly dove off the goddamn stage.

  How I managed to keep my shit together to finish the show was nothing short of a miracle. When the lights went out on the screaming audience and Declan shouted, “Good night, San Francisco!” I made a beeline off the stage, lumbering to our dressing room and grabbing one of the complimentary bottles of Jack.

  I managed two hearty slugs straight from the bottle before the rest of the guys finally caught up to me.

  “Dude.” Garrett gave me a chastising glare. “We’ve been off stage for all of thirty seconds and you’re already tying one on?”

  I flipped him off and took another shot from the bottle. “Just a little post-show celebration. Get off my ass.” I felt like shit for snapping. In all honesty, he had plenty of reason to jump on my case. My alcohol consumption lately had gotten a little out of hand, I knew that. But it wasn’t like I had a problem. I could stop whenever I wanted, but seeing that dude’s arms around Lyla had thrown me off. I sent those tickets knowing there was a strong possibility she might not show. I added in extra thinking she’d be more likely to come if she could bring friends, but never in my mind had I thought of a scenario where she’d come with a guy. It was fucking with my head.

  The whole point of that gift was to get her here to tell her I made a mistake. A huge fucking mistake. I’d been living without her for more than two years now, and I couldn’t do it any longer. I needed to get her back. I just needed her.

  “Great show, guys,” our manager, Chris, said as he pushed into the dressing room. “You fuckin’ killed it.”

  Declan gave him a fist bump before flopping down on one of the huge, cushy couches lining the walls. “Fuckin’ right, we did. I’m amped. Time to bury my face in some pussy.”

  “Amen, brother,” Killian chuckled, slapping Deck on the shoulder.

  A knock came on the door just then, and our head of security poked his giant skull in. “Y’all got a visitor.”

  My skin instantly started to prickle as he pushed the door all the way open and moved aside for Lyla to come through.

  “Holy shit!” Garrett launched himself at her. The big blond Viking motherfucker pulled Lyla into a bear hug and swung her around like a rag doll, her soft, melodic laughter ringing through the room like church bells. “Christ, Ly! It’s so damn good to see you!” he exclaimed once he set her back on the ground.

  I stood frozen to my spot while the rest of the guys got up to greet her with the same enthusiasm. She hugged Kill, then Deck. When he pulled away, she looked at me for the first time since stepping through the door. “Mace,” she greeted quietly, a small smile tugging at her lips.

  Despite its size, it was no less glorious than when she sent that full-on beam my way. At the sight of it, my feet moved of their own accord, taking me across the room so I could wrap her in my arms. “Fuck, Goldie,” I grunted into her hair, pulling in her scent to feed my soul.

  I held on for several seconds too long, only making myself let go when she cleared her throat, gave me an awkward pat on the back, and forcibly stepped away.

  “Jesus, baby girl. It’s good to see you,” Declan said, coming closer in order to hook his arm around her shoulders. “But please tell me you didn’t pay for tickets and backstage passes. You’re family. Family never pays.”

  “I didn’t. Actually, they came courier from Mace as a birthday present.” As she spoke, her eyes came back to mine, the golden flecks in them shining with a soft appreciation that made my stomach plummet at the same time my dick thickened at the gorgeous sight of it.

  “Fuck, that’s right, it’s your birthday,” Killian exhaled. “What are you, nineteen now?”

  “Twenty,” I answered before she could, drawing speculative eyes from the guys in the room.

  “He’s right,” Lyla replied. “I’m twenty today.”

  Garrett pulled her into another hug. “Jesus, Ly. Our girl’s all grown up.”

  Once the hug ended, she looked around to all of us. “I actually brought some friends since Mace gave me five passes. They’d really love to meet you, if you don’t mind?”

  Fuck me. That meant I was about to meet the son of a bitch who’d been holding my girl. It was going to take a whole hell of a lot to keep from punching his teeth down his throat.

  Chapter Eight

  Lyla

  It took everything I had to shake off the awkwardness of the situation and act normal. With a tip of my chin to the mountain of a dude at the door, he stepped aside and let my group through.

  “Guys, these are my friends, Ava, Lindsey, and Craig.” Lindsey and Ava were visibly holding themselves back from freaking out as Daniel came straight to me and hooked his arm over my shoulders. “And this is my boyfriend, Daniel.”

  The vibe in the room changed in a single beat, the guys going from laughing and messing around to hard and cold before I could take my next breath.

  “Your what?” Garrett growled, glaring daggers in Daniel’s direction.

  “Oh, for God’s sake,” I gritted out with a roll of my eyes as I pinned Garrett with a look of my own.
“Will you knock it off? I already have one big brother, and that’s plenty.”

  “So Will’s met this guy?” Killian grumbled, crossing his thick arms over his chest to appear more intimidating.

  “Yes.” I dragged it out like I was talking to a bunch of five-year olds. “And he likes him, so I’d appreciate it if you four could play nice and stop embarrassing me in front of my friends.”

  Declan was the first to cave, pasting an easygoing smile on his face as he came up to shake everyone’s hands, Daniel included.

  “Nice to meet you. Any friend of Ly’s is a friend of ours.”

  “Holy crap,” Ava breathed, nearly melting into a puddle on the floor as she latched onto Deck’s hand. “I’m touching Declan Forrester. I’m touching Declan Forrester!” She started hopping in place as Lindsay laughed. “Ohmigod! You’re so sexy. Like, the sexiest guy on the face of the planet! No offense, baby,” she offered to Craig as she continued flipping out.

  “I can’t even be mad,” her boyfriend offered. “I’m losing my freaking mind right now.”

  Declan, Kill, and Garrett all laughed, but I felt a penetrating blast of cold coming from the other side of the room that kept me from joining in on the fun. When I looked in that direction, Mace was stalking closer.

  “Need to talk to you,” he grunted as he frowned down at me. My skin tightened and broke out into goose bumps as my belly flipped. Mace looked from me to Daniel, his scowl growing even more severe as he finished with a mumbled, “Alone.”