Page 22 of Pretty Little Rocker

When Mom found out she was sick, she was already divorced from the scumbag. But after she died, I had to live with Peyton Renchford and his perfect Stepford family. Hadley hated me just as much as I did her, and as soon as I turned eighteen, I was gone.

Which pleased my stepmother, until she found out that all that Carver money was going with me. It had been mine from the moment my mom passed away. Not even my father had been able to touch it. All the money was put into a trust until I was a legal adult, and then it was mine to do with as I pleased.

Grown women throwing temper tantrums was not something that amused me, but I’d had a huge grin on my face as I’d driven away from that house with her stomping her feet and screaming at me for being so ungrateful.

Jamie and Sparks moved in to the penthouse apartment with me that same day, and we all changed our last names to Carver the following week. Most of the people who lived in the building owned their apartments, which they’d bought when my grandfather built the complex decades before. Anyone else who leased paid through an agency, which also kept up maintenance and other repairs so I didn’t have to worry about it. Or deal with annoying tenants.

With the money I had, we could have started our own music label. Instead, we wanted the world to see us for our skills, not our last names. So, we were taking the slow and painful way of getting to the top. But no one would ever have a reason to question our talent when we got there.

“Hayat, open this door so I can take care of you.” Jamie raised his voice, using the tone that told us all he meant business. He was a marshmallow most of the time, but when it came to sex, he turned into a different person. Chicks loved that part of him, and that made it hard for him to get rid of the clingers when he became bored with them. “You have to the count of three. If I get to three and you haven’t done as I’ve instructed, I will break the door and then spank your gorgeous ass.”

“Jamie.” Sparks’s voice had a bite of warning in it. “We’re going to let her digest this for a little while before we start making demands.”

“Fuck that shit,” Jamie snapped. “One. Two. Three.”

Before he finished the last word, the door flew open. Hayat, dressed in everything but her shoes and hoodie, stood there glaring at Jamie. “Fuck you, Jamie. All I wanted was a few minutes to myself. All of this?” She waved a hand in my general direction, and I knew she didn’t just mean finding out who I was, but what the four of us had done together. Which made me feel a little better, but not by much.

We all knew what she was feeling right then was ninety-five percent because of me.

Fuck.

I ate up the sight of her, the sheer beauty of this woman who was going to change my entire life. Not just Autumn’s Slumber, but every other aspect of it too. Hayat Cutter was mine—ours. And I’d fight the fucking world to keep her.

She growled in a sexy yet adorable way that made my cock even harder when Jamie crossed his arms over his chest, waiting for her to continue. “Everything went at hyperspeed, and my mind is still stuck on a few things. But God fucking forbid that I need a minute to adjust to what I did, what I learned, and what I still want. Even though I know… Fuck, I know I shouldn’t want it.”

Slipping her feet into her shoes, she pushed past Jamie. Her gaze barely flickered over me before landing on Sparks for a few seconds longer. Licking her lips, she clutched her hoodie and phone to her chest. “I-I have to go.”

Sparks’s shoulders dropped in disappointment, but he nodded understandingly. “Take some time to get your head straight. We’ll still be here. All of us.” He stepped toward her, and she tensed. Stopping midstep, hands balling into fists at his sides, he forced a smile for her. “We’re going to give you some time, but you don’t get to hide from us forever. You are ours now, Hayat. In all ways, you belong to us. Just as we belong to you.”

Her pulse beat like a hummingbird’s wings at the base of her throat. Licking her lips again, she glanced at the three of us one more time before practically running for the door.

As soon as we heard the elevator, Sparks glared at Jamie. “You’re going to have to cool it for a while, dude. She isn’t like other girls. She’s not going to submit easily. That’s not even the appeal here. We want her because she is so different from every other girl. She’s utter perfection for us. Chill out for a few days so we don’t drive her away.”

“She wants to give in. She just doesn’t like that she wants to. Yet.” Jamie grimaced as he picked up the boxes of food from the floor where Sparks had tossed them before laying Hayat on the table. “I’ll give her a week but not a minute longer.”

“Agreed,” Sparks and I said in unison.

I wasn’t sure I could last even that long, but Sparks was right. She needed time to think about us. And then she and I needed to talk about the Renchfords. Maybe then, I could finally put them in the past where they needed to stay.

Chapter Thirteen

Hayat

I didn’t sleep all night. After texting with Abi for a while, unloading some of what had happened that evening, I lay in my bed staring at the ceiling until the sun began to rise.

Abi and I told each other everything, but I wasn’t ready to let her or anyone else have this piece of me. My first time had been nothing like I’d expected, in all the most insanely intense, amazing ways that other girls didn’t get to experience.

All I told her was that Havoc had been revealed, and I’d kissed Kyrie Renchford.

And that I liked it—liked him.

At some point, I realized Abi had fallen asleep when she stopped responding to my texts, so I rolled onto my back. Bits and pieces of my time at the band’s penthouse apartment kept replaying in my mind. Each moment I remembered made me squirm, an unexpected ache throbbing deep between my legs that had nothing to do with the abuse Jamie and Ky had put it through.

But that only made my guilt so much worse.

Maddie was my friend. My stepcousin. We were family.

Holden Renchford had tried to destroy her—and almost succeeded. He had been seventeen to her fifteen at the time, and their one and only time together had ended with Maddie pregnant. They didn’t go to the same schools, because Holden lived in Malibu and Maddie was in Beverly Hills, but we were all in the same circles. I was a freshman at the time, and I watched how everyone high-fived and laughed with the asshole.

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