Maid for the Rock Star (23 page)

"Leon says about three grand. No, wait, four including the rego and insurance."

"Four thousand dollars? My car's not worth that! What the hell for?"

Ben mumbled something that Audra didn't catch, so she asked him to repeat it. Her older brother pressed his lips together as if he didn't want to.

Sam shoved his shoulder and the room blurred again as she turned the camera back to her own face. "If he won't tell you, I will. All the taillights are gone and the blinkers, too. The hatch on the back doesn't close properly on account of it being bent out of shape, so you'll need a new one of those, too. Leon said that's why the police declared it not roadworthy any more. Even if you replace the lights, exhaust fumes will creep into the car unless you can shut it."

"Leon? He's not supposed to be driving," Audra began ominously.

"Nah, he got doctor's approval a fortnight ago, but he didn't have a car, so he borrowed yours." Sam grinned gleefully. "You should've seen him hit the letterbox on his first drive. One minute it's there, the next, SMASH. Bricks and dust everywhere. I never liked that letterbox."

"Leon. Our brother, Leon, who crashed his car and nearly killed himself, has been driving my uninsured and unlicensed car for a fortnight?!"

"Four weeks, actually," Sam volunteered. "He has a new girlfriend and he couldn't take her on a date on the bus, so he borrowed your car."

"BEN! I trusted you!" Audra bellowed.

A firm knock sounded at her door.

"I'm busy!" she called.

The knocking resumed.

Swearing, Audra told Sam, "I have to go. I get paid in a couple of days. I'll sort something out." She terminated the call, crossed the room in two strides and yanked open the door. "What?"

Serge folded his arms. "You all right?"

"Fine." Audra waved at the laptop. "Family problems."

"I heard. Actually, I think everyone on this side of the lagoon heard. If you need someone to talk to, you know I'm here."

Did his gaze drop to her chest, or was she imagining it? Jay couldn't be right. He couldn't be. Serge wasn't interested in her boobs or any part of her body. "Thanks, but I'm not sure there's much to say. What do you do when you want to kill your family?"

Serge grinned. "Work out. It's why I got into fitness, I guess." His smile faltered. "If you want, I have tomorrow morning free. I could give you a training session. Help you work off all that frustration."

She wished with all her being that she could take Penny's advice and take him to bed, eyeing the bulging biceps that showed at their best when he had his arms folded like that. She had frustration on all sides tonight.

Shit. Take advice from Penny, the bitch who gave blow jobs to every dick she saw and called HER a slut? The girl who was probably wrapped around Jay right now? Fuck no. Just the thought of that made her want to hit something.

"Yeah. Sure. Tomorrow," Audra said finally.

"It's a date." Serge sauntered off.

A date? Well, maybe. Tomorrow, she'd see. Right now, she just wanted to go to bed and sleep before anything else happened. Tomorrow couldn't be worse than today.

FORTY-FIVE

"So, you all set for this morning's session?" Serge greeted Audra as she set her breakfast on the table beside him.

She waved at her gym clothes. "As ready as I'll ever be. You know, you don't need to do this. I feel bad taking your time for free when you could be helping paid clients."

"Actually, you're doing me a favour. I need to get my hours up before I can take my next assessment. I'm ten hours short and if you want, they're all yours."

Ten hours? She'd never spent more than an hour in a gym and it'd been years since she'd done that. "Let's see how I go today first."

"Go for a high-protein, low-carbohydrate breakfast. Not too much fruit and sugar." He jerked his chin at Audra's bowl of mango yoghurt and muesli.

Audra opened her mouth to mutiny.

"Whew, that man has the stamina of a stud bull!" Penny stage-whispered as she plopped a plate of pancakes on the table. To Audra's horror, the girl slid into the seat beside her.

"What are you doing here?" Audra demanded.

Penny shrugged. "A girl's gotta eat. Can't live on cum alone." She winked as she rolled up a pancake and deep-throated it, much to the fascination of the IT guys at the next table.

Audra shoved her bowl away, feeling too nauseous to eat another bite. Not only had Penny seduced Jay and had sex with him in front of multiple witnesses, but the bitch hadn't even gotten fired for it. What the hell was wrong with the world?

"He fucked me all night. So big and hard and powerful...I'm going to have trouble walking all week. Not that I'll need to. As soon as I've eaten, it's back to bed for me." Penny looked gleeful. "I figure two more days of this and he won't want to let me go. He'll take me with him when he leaves the resort and I'll get to go to all his concerts free as a VIP myself." She sniffed. "Next time we're here, maybe you'll be my maid."

Over her rotting corpse. Audra jumped to her feet.

Two heavy hands landed on her shoulders. "Come on."

Audra allowed Serge to herd her out the door and in the direction of the gym. It wasn't until they reached the gym doors that she unclenched her fists, not sure whether to thank him or shout at him for interfering.

"I have the wraps, gloves and punching bag ready to go," Serge said, opening the door. He gave an extravagant bow. "After last night, I figured you'd want to hit things pretty hard."

He helped her wrap the bindings around her knuckles, then pull on the boxing gloves. Audra almost laughed. She felt like one of the boxing kangaroos they sold in the gift shop, a souvenir they'd started stocking after tourists talked about the fights between the young bucks that often happened on the road just outside of town. "You going to get me a strap-on tail like the gift shop toys, too?" she grumbled.

Serge stared at her in shock. "A...what?"

Audra sighed. "Never mind. Can I hit something yet?"

"Sure." He lined her up and gestured for her to punch the bag.

Audra swung her arm, imagining her fist colliding with Penny's chin. First one side, then the other, smacking into the...leather? PVC? Audra shrugged, not caring as long as the sound was satisfying. And it was.

"Wait. You want to make the blows unexpected, signalling as little as you can to your opponent, while making them as powerful as possible. Here, start by guarding your chest and your face. The power comes from your shoulder, flowing right through your arm, not from your wrist." Serge demonstrated, then helped her shift her arms to more of a boxer's stance. "Now, jab." He shadowboxed beside her, matching her blows, though only hers landed on the bag. "Good. Now let's see some repetitions. Try thirty and keep pace with me. One, two, three, four..."

Audra drove her fists into the bag on his count, feeling it sway slightly as she hit it harder. If it were Penny, she'd be breaking her ribs through her flat chest. She deserved it for making Audra's heart ache for Jay when she shouldn't have any feelings for him at all. Wouldn't, if Penny hadn't deliberately tried to make her jealous.

Goddamn it! Why did Penny get to have her way with Jay and still keep her job? If Audra knew she could've gotten away with it, maybe she'd have given in to Jay. Let him do all the things he'd said he would. That the tabloids – and the fangirls who said they'd slept with him – claimed he was brilliant at. Instead, the fickle bastard was with that conniving bitch and she wanted to pound her fist through the wall in frustration at the very thought of them together.

"Hey, hey! I said thirty! Stop for a break!" Serge grabbed her wrists and Audra relaxed. "Wow, you must be more pissed at your brother than I thought."

"My brother?" No, her brother wasn't banging Penny, and she didn't much care if he did.

"It was your brother who wrecked your car, right? I admit I was trying not to eavesdrop, but you were shouting so loud..."

Ben and Leon. Right. "One of them's been driving my car without a licence and he wrecked it, while the other took my money for registration and insurance and didn't pay them, so now I have to pay a huge fine as well as pay for repairs." Audra slammed both fists into the bag. "That's all my savings!"

"Make them pay for it. Their mess, after all."

"My car and they don't have the money. So I have to pay for it or lose my car."

Serge shrugged again. "So lose it. Is it worth less than you'll have to pay?"

Audra nodded.

"So stuff it. You don't use your car up here, and when you get your amazing job at some weather station in paradise, you'll have a work car. Keep your savings and tell them to fix your car by the time you get back. Not like you're in any hurry. They're your older brothers, aren't they? Grown men, anyway. They don't need you to take care of them. Let them sort it out."

"Not Leon. He's younger than me. And Ben...he got a girl pregnant in high school and all his money goes to child support. I can't, Serge. You don't understand."

"No, I don't. You've got the right to live your own life. You don't owe them. They owe you. If you don't leave them to themselves, they'll drag you down, Audra. Don't let them drag you under. You're so much better than that. You work so hard. You deserve to rise above...all that." Serge turned his head away and swiped a hand across his face, as if he was wiping away tell-tale moisture from his eyes. "I'll go get the sparring pads from the storeroom. You're going to pretend I'm your brother – both of them, if you want – and you're going to beat some sense into them." He nodded at the punching bag. "You do another thirty on that one while you're waiting."

Audra lined herself up and raised her gloved fists.

Wham.

That's for crashing your car and going missing.

Wham.

That's for drinking yourself into a stupor and not telling anyone about the accident.

Wham.

That's for not telling me and scaring the shit out of me when you almost died.

Wham.

That's for my taillights, Leon, and this –

Wham.

– is for the letterbox.

Wham.

And for giving him the keys, Ben, you traitor...

This set of thirty felt effortless, but she was sweating when she was done. Wiping her streaming forehead, Audra pulled off one of her gloves and reached for her water bottle. As she sucked down the cool liquid, she heard the squeak of the door.

Serge was back. She was ready for the next set. Leon first, then she'd go back to Ben's misdemeanours.

Claws dug into her shoulder, tearing through her shirt and trying to spin her around.

"It's your fault, you fucking bitch! You're just jealous!" Penny screeched, dragging on Audra's shoulder with all her weight so Audra almost keeled over backwards. "Just because you're too frigid for a rock star like Jay Felix to even look twice at you, you reported me for giving him what he wanted. You're the one who should've lost her job, not me, for being so fucking useless!"

Audra flailed to maintain her balance and clocked Penny on the side of her head with the water bottle.

The girl's eyes seemed to ignite. "YOU'LL DIE FOR THAT, BITCH!" She grabbed both Audra's shoulders and forced her to turn around. Claws reached for Audra's eyes.

This is for sleeping with Jay and making my job a living hell.

Audra slammed her gloved fist into Penny's face, knocking the girl off her feet. Blood spurted from Penny's nose as fear filled her eyes.

Audra's breakfast welled up in her throat, threatening to escape, but she fought it down. She pulled off the bloodied glove and let it drop to the floor. She was done training and she needed to find the safety officer to report Penny's injury. She didn't trust herself to give the girl first aid without smothering her.

The gym door squeaked and Serge stood on the threshold, grinning, with his arms full of vinyl pads. His smile slid into a look of horror. "No!"

Yes, Audra thought. Even nice girls snap under pressure and the bitch had it coming. Besides, she hit first, so it was only self-defence. But this time, she wouldn't be cleaning that bitch's mess off the gym floor. She refused to take any more shit from –