Play Hard (The Devil's Share Book 5) (23 page)

“Jacks? The label has covered at least one abortion because of his restless dick and a stripper OD because of his coke problem. Dash. I’ve had several girls so distraught over being tossed aside by him that we had to cover part of their psychiatric care. And one who cited some sexual abuse.” I was shaking my head, holding my hand out for him to stop. But he didn’t. “And then there’s Luke. The man touching your leg under my dining room table. Two girls have shown up at my door covered in bruises. Their settlements were six figures each.”

I sat down on the chair in front of him, his words too much to take standing. He let the silence hang between us, and I used it to try to wrap my head around everything he’d just told me. It didn’t make sense, none of it made sense. Did my dad not know that Landry wasn’t Smith’s daughter? They told me that Jacks welcomed her with open arms, didn’t even bat an eye. There was no way that he’d be okay with those abortions. Right? Did he even know about that? And Luke would never hurt anyone, ever. He’d asked my permission before he tried doing anything remotely rough with me. I’d only known these men for a week, but none of these things made any sense. That’s not who the band was. Not who that family was.

“Do you see now, Harlow? Do you see that I am only trying to protect you?” My dad got up and took my hands in his.

Was my dad lying? Or was he just so far out of the loop that he had no idea what was actually going on? He had over a hundred employees; maybe he just didn’t know the truth. Maybe all he did was talk to the lawyers and write the checks. I was afraid to say anything until I talked to Luke. “I need to go.”

“What? You’re leaving with him? After everything I just told you?”

I headed toward the door but paused. “Dad, I’m not really sure you’ve ever even met the Devil’s Share.”

Chapter Thirty-nine

Luke

Lo came out of her father’s office just in time. Misti had tried to put her bare foot on my dick under the table, right after she asked if I’d ever been deep-throated. Number one, of course I had. Number two? No. Thank. You.

“Lo, you okay?” She was so pale that I immediately stood and went to her. “What happened, Pix?” I took her face gently in my hands and tilted it up. “Baby?”

“I want to go.” She rested her forehead on my chest. “Get me out of here, kid.”

I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and kept her against my side. We were almost to the door when her dad came out of his office. His eyes narrowed on my hand on Lo. So I kissed the top of her head for good measure. “What the fuck did you do to your daughter, Miller?”

“I just told her the truth. That look on her face has nothing to do with anything I did, and everything to do with you and your
friends
.”

I opened the door and made sure Lo was all the way out before I turned back around. “You’re fucking delusional if you believe that.” I pointed a finger in his face. “If you ever so much as make her frown again, I’ll break your jaw.” I didn’t wait for a response; instead I slammed the door in his face and all but carried Lo to the car.

Once we could no longer see her dad’s house in the rearview, I tried to get her to talk to me. “Harlow, baby, look at me.” I put a finger under her chin. “What the hell happened back there?”

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I need to ask you something. And no matter how mad it makes you, or how confused, I need you to be completely honest with me.”

“Okaaay.” She was terrifying me.

“Promise me, Luke.”

I took her hands in mine, turning to face her fully in the small space. “I promise, Pix.”

“When you were with other girls, have things ever gotten out of hand? Maybe you got too rough? Maybe they said they weren’t into it but, you went ahead and—”

I took my hands away from hers. “Are you serious right now?”

“Just tell me the truth, Luke. I am here. I am with you and I’m not going anywhere. I just need to know.”

I’d promised her I would be completely honest, that I would answer her. But fuck, her questions were like a punch to the gut. Hurting someone because of my vices was one of my biggest fears. It was why I trusted so few people with the knowledge of what I liked in bed.

“Of course not. I’d never…I don’t do that with every girl I meet. It takes trust, on both ends.” I loved it the way Lo gave it to me, it was the best I’d ever had. And I knew it was only like that because I cared about her, because she cared about me. Wait. Did she not like it, had I hurt
her
? My heart started to pound, “Did I hurt you, baby? Is that what this is about? I swear, Lo, I never meant to hurt you. We don’t have to do that anymore. Ever. I—”

“No. You’ve never hurt me, Luke.” She shook her head and appeared to be baffled. “It was my dad. He said…he said that two different girls claimed that you abused them during sex. They both got huge settlements out of the label.”

I jerked back like she’d just slapped me. “What?” I searched my mind, I went through the long index of the girls I could remember, the encounters I could recall. There was not one time where I’d even questioned myself, that I’d even suspected I’d hurt someone like that. “If that’s true, if your dad paid off anyone claiming I abused them, he paid for nothing.” I held her gaze. “I swear, it’s not true.” I kissed her lips, softly. I needed to feel her, make sure that she believed me, that she still wanted me. That had to be her dad’s end game, right? To rip us apart. “Is that why you were so upset, Pix? He’s just trying to make you leave me, that’s all. Your dad hates our band because we don’t bow down to him, he’ll get over—”

“That wasn’t all he told me, Luke.” She grabbed my phone out of my lap and forced it into my hand. “Get the group together, we need to talk.”

***

Twenty minutes later and the whole band was gathered once again in Dash and Lexi’s suite. Landry was in the bedroom with Louie, headphones on and plugged into her tablet with the door shut. Halen was lying on the bed in between Dylan and Lex. Lo made me text the guys only, let them know that her dad had dropped some bombs about each of them. She wanted it to be their choice if Lex, Dill, and B were in the room when she told them. It was unanimous, us against the world. After this meeting we’d only have a few hours to get ready for the gala honoring the label; they had been named New York’s business of the year. Since the Devil’s Share was their number one moneymaker and their biggest claim to fame, we were supposed to present the award. To Henry Miller. Fuck that noise.

“Okay, Lo, you’ve called your first family meeting. You have the floor.” Lexi was wearing a robe with her light brown hair dripping wet.

“As you all know, Luke and I had brunch with my father this morning.” Harlow had refused to tell me anything else on the car ride over. Said she wanted to repeat everything her dad told her out loud, once and only once. “What you don’t know is that my dad is Henry Miller.”

“What?” Smith leaned forward in his chair, shocked.

Dash scoffed. “Henry Miller? As in the owner of Riffraff Records?”

She nodded. “My mom’s favorite actress was Jean Harlow, and Mom’s favorite of her movies?
Riffraff
.”

From everything Lo said about her parents’ marriage, I was surprised that he’d named the label after something she loved. “I wouldn’t have thought he’d name his business after something like that.”

“The label started out as something my mom wanted to do. She’s the artist and she was the heart and the driving force behind Riffraff Records. The initial bands on the label were her finds.” She glanced down at Halen. “When I was born, my mom pulled back, wanting to spend more time with me. Instead of focusing on his new daughter, my dad poured all his time and effort into the company. He turned it into something mechanical, something my mom hated.”

“Does she still have any ownership?” She would have been crazy to let him buy her out on such as huge moneymaker.

“Yeah, she still holds a big chunk of stock in the label.” Lo wrinkled her nose. “She refused to let him buy her out, and he conceded because he knew she’d never want anything to do with something so ‘corporate.’”

Dylan furrowed her brow, confused. “Did you know the band was on your father’s label?”

“No. My dad and I aren’t close, and growing up I wanted nothing to do with his business or the so-called perks it afforded me. I knew who the Devil’s Share was, but to be completely honest, I’m more of a classic rock kind of girl. You know, music before my dad had a hand in it.” She held her hands out, palms up. “I swear I didn’t make the connection until my dad was standing right in front of us, looking irritated as hell.”

Jacks pouted from his spot on the floor. “Why is it that all of our chicks aren’t huge fans of our music? We saw Steven Tyler at lunch when we were in Nashville and Bryan almost fainted. When I first met her, she punched me when I tried to kiss her.”

I spoke up from my spot against the wall behind Lo. “There’s more.”

“There’s a lot more, actually.” She looked back at me before taking a fortifying breath. “My dad took me into his office to try to talk me out of dating Luke. He told me that I didn’t know you guys like he did, he said it was his fault, that he had created monsters.”

“These guys? Our guys? Monsters?” Lexi frowned as she looked across the room at Dash sitting in a club chair with Halen’s teddy bear in his crossed arms.

“Yeah, I know. I started to argue with him, I told him that it was obvious he didn’t know what he was talking about, but…” She let her words trail off; she blinked several times and gave her head a quick shake. “I can’t even believe I have to repeat all this.”

I stepped up next to her, wanting to help. “Her dad said two girls came to the label claiming I abused them; he told Lo that they settled out of court and paid the chicks six figures each.”

“What? That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.” Dylan’s eyes darted around the room. “I mean it’s a lie, right?”

“Of course it’s a lie. I have never hurt anyone, never pushed anyone past what they were willing to give. Either those girls lied and the label didn’t want to deal with the bad press a trial would bring, or Lo’s dad is lying to make me look bad to her.” The anger nearly choked me. “It’s bullshit whichever way you slice it.”

“Wait. You’d never push anyone past…” Jacks gasped. “That’s what you’re into? Wow. I’m impressed, Lukey.” He winked at Lo. “Good for you, you edgy little fairy.”

Smith’s eyes were wide. “Damn, bro. I never thought you had it in you to—”

Lo put her forehead in her hands, groaning loudly. “Guys. Please. This all gets so much worse, so much sadder. For all of you.” She looked up, addressing the room. “Just let me get it all out before anyone speaks again, okay?” Everyone nodded and kept quiet. She clasped her hands in front of her mouth for a moment before continuing. “Smith, my dad made it sound like they are still giving money to your dad; this whole time the label has been paying Landry’s mom as well as your family.” She pointed her index fingers at Dash. “They had to pay for psychiatric care for several girls that you tossed aside, and he hinted that one of them says you molested her.” She took a shaky breath, her eyes filling with tears when she looked at Jacks. “A hospital stay for a stripper that OD’d on coke, and some girl’s abortion.”

Chapter Forty

Harlow

I hated that I’d caused this air of sadness and disbelief in the room. No one had spoken for several seconds. “I am so sorry. I hate that I… Shit, I’m just so sorry.” I leaned back against Luke when he pulled me against his front. “If it was just what he said about Luke, I’d assume he was lying, trying to keep us apart.” I blinked back the tears that had been threatening to fall for the last few minutes. “But the other stuff he said, the stuff he knew, he couldn’t make all that up.”

Smith stood up and started pacing. “So my murderer of an old man is still getting money? Fucking perfect.”

“I’ve never molested anyone.” Dash was running his fingers through his hair. “I’ve never even had to try to talk someone into banging me. Why would they pay these girls off? Why not just ask us? I would have rather gone to fucking court over and over, no matter the press. We were innocent of these things, right?” I’d never seen Dash out of sorts. Usually he seemed collected, so levelheaded. Now, confused and overwhelmed was written all over his face.

Jacks hung his head. “Maybe if I could have talked to her, maybe I could have… I would have wanted the baby, I would have. I mean, shit, I could have at least held her hand.” Bryan put her arm on Jacks’ back and he turned to her, hiding his face in her neck.

I was at a loss. I didn’t know what to do, what to say to make it all better. I tilted my head back, searching for direction from Luke. But his sad eyes were on his bandmates, grieving these things with them. When I looked across the room at Lexi, I found her eyes already on me. They weren’t sad or jumbled like everyone else’s. They were fierce and determined.

“What’s our next move?” Lexi asked between gritted teeth. “Assuming all this is true and the label has been paying people off left and right and not letting y’all defend yourselves, or mourn your losses. What do we do?”

“We fucking make a call and drop our label.” Dash stood up and reached for his phone.

“No.” Lexi put her hand over the top of it, still looking at me. “Lo. You tell us what to do. You know him better than anyone else here.”

It was ridiculous that I did know him better than anyone here. I’d barely spent any time with the man over the last nine years, yet he was so damn easy to read I knew exactly what to do. “We get dressed and we go to the gala.” A smile spread over Lexi’s face and I couldn’t help but mirror it. “We go to the gala and we honor Riffraff Records.”

***

The New York City Business of the Year gala was held at the premier event location: the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A place I hadn’t visited since I was a child. The band looked amazingly rock star chic in their custom-fit tuxes. Luke especially. I was having a hard time keeping my hands to myself around him.

“Easy, Pix. First we destroy your father and then we go find a hallway.” He nuzzled my neck in that way he knew drove me crazy. “Please tell me that you aren’t wearing anything under that sexy dress.”