AMelodyInParadise (3 page)

It seemed as though everyone tried to get her to buy a new one, but this one had been good enough for her grandfather and his fathers before him. Besides, for some reason, the new cases were always just a bit too small, giving her precious violin a tight fit.

“Ready to meet them?” Carmen asked from behind her.

Melody spun around, her hand held to her heart. “Don’t do that to me! You almost gave me a heart attack, for goodness sakes.”

“Sorry.” Carmen shrugged. “They’re standing at the edge of the stage if you want to meet them.”

Melody couldn’t suppress the urge to smooth her hair even though she had no intention of meeting Carmen’s uncles. They were too…something. She wasn’t sure what yet. Potent, maybe. Heck, they were so freaking
hawt
they made her elbows sweat.

If she remembered correctly, Mitch was approximately six-foot six with black hair and chocolate brown eyes. Wyatt was different. He had black hair as well, but his eyes were blue, as blue as the Caribbean Sea. Melody wasn’t sure she’d ever seen eyes so blue before and both of them had bodies to die for.

No.
Meeting Carmen’s uncles would not be a good thing. She could see how it could be bad, very bad. Every cell, every microbe in her body stood up and took notice when she spotted them in the audience. Her skin tingled at the thought of them looking at her, watching her. It’s just a good thing she hadn’t spotted them before the concert. If she had, she may have made a fool of herself by staring at them instead of playing.
That
would have gone over well.

Her stomach clenched, her nipples tightened and her panties grew wet with anticipation as she continued to think about the two men. She had no business meeting Carmen’s uncles when she was so obviously attracted to them. Things could only turn out badly and she wanted to keep Carmen her friend, not make her an enemy, or at best a person who merely tolerated her presence.

“I can’t meet them tonight. I—I have a date.” Melody bit her lip. She was a horrible liar and Carmen knew it.

“Liar.” Her friend slapped her on the arm. “What’s going on? Why don’t you want to meet them?” Carmen waggled her brows. “What happened to them being so
hawt
you could do them both. At the same time.”

Melody gasped. “You’re not supposed to read my mind. It’s against the rules.” Upset, she picked her violin up and held it to her chest as though it would somehow protect her heart from getting broken. She’d already fell half in love with Carmen’s uncles in their photo. She didn’t need to meet them and fall the rest of the way. That couldn’t possibly be good. “I just can’t meet them tonight, Carmen. I have to get back to the apartment and feed my cat.”

Carmen made a face. “That mangy animal could do to miss a meal.” She gave a little hop. “Come on. Have dinner with us. They’re taking me out to Chez Jaques for dinner.” She held her hands together as if in prayer. “Puhleeeze?” Carmen batted her eyes.

“I don’t think so.” Melody almost wanted to laugh at her pout. “I know what you’re trying to do and I appreciate it, but there comes a time when a person has to grow up and realize that old dreams just can’t come true.”

Especially ones like hers. She didn’t know when she’d stopped thinking of them separately and started thinking of the two men as a package deal. Even though she knew that was an impossibility. Somehow, anything less just seemed wrong.

Chapter Four

Wyatt watched as Carmen turned with a shrug and walked away from her friend. He couldn’t seem to stop staring at the woman as she disappeared around the corner at the left end of the stage.

His instincts told him to go to her. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong. The air literally stank with no good. Someone around here intended to do another harm. He could smell the intent in the air. Like a beast protecting its young from a predator stalking its prey, he instinctively moved closer to Carmen, as did Mitch. They didn’t have the right to dictate to Carmen’s friend, but they had every right to protect the daughter of their hearts.

“Hey, hey! What’s going on, you two? Let’s not get weird here.” Carmen pushed them away. Looking at each of them in turn, she narrowed her eyes. “All right. What’s wrong?” She crossed her arms as they continued to scan the area around them.

“There is someone here who means to do someone harm and we are merely ensuring that someone isn’t you.”

Carmen gasped, her already large brown eyes growing larger. “It’s not me they’re after. I would almost guarantee that it’s Melody.”

Wyatt took her by the shoulders when his beast snarled a denial. “Why Melody?”

“She’s been getting some really strange hate mail lately. She’s been shrugging it off, but I know it bothers her.” She stood on her toes to look out over the crowd. “I can’t see her.”

“She’s already left the stage.” Wyatt turned to Mitch. Get Carmen to the car. I’ll go find Melody.”

“No. She doesn’t know you.” Carmen pulled free from Mitch’s grasp. “I’m going with you. To her, you could just as easily be her stalker than anyone else.”

“I thought you said she’s seen our photos.”

“She has, Uncle Mitch, but she doesn’t really
know
you like I do, now does she?”

Carmen rested her hands on her hips and tapped her foot, looking so much like her mother it made Wyatt want to laugh and cry at the same time. He missed his adopted sister so much it hurt sometimes.

“Come on then and stop wasting time,” Wyatt practically growled as he headed across the stage, expecting Mitch and Carmen to follow close behind. The last thing he wanted was to have something happen to Melody, especially if things were as he suspected and she was their mate.

He heard a blood-curdling scream just before a loud crash and he poured on the speed. He didn’t run fast enough to draw attention to himself, but he knew a human couldn’t move quite as fast and he was sure to reach her first.

When he arrived, he found Melody lying unconscious on the floor, her violin held tightly to her chest. The woman had obviously dove out of the way of the falling spotlight apparatus and somehow managed to land on her back so as not to damage her violin.

Wyatt pulled the instrument from her unconscious death grip and threw it to the side to examine Melody for injuries, while Mitch scanned the area for someone who could have damaged the equipment and caused it to fail.

Carmen gasped. “Be careful with that! That violin is worth more money than we can make in a lifetime.”

“I don’t know. I can make a lot of money in
my
lifetime.” Mitch knelt on her other side while Carmen retrieved the violin and stood off to the side.

“She would never forgive any of us, including herself, if anything happened to this. It’s her life.”

“Not the way I see it,” Mitch grumbled. “It’s nothing more than a bit of wood, varnish, glue and wire to me.”

“It’s a Stradivarius!”

Wyatt could have laughed at her tone if this wasn’t so damned serious. As it was, the girl had been out of it far too long in his opinion. “Something’s wrong. Shouldn’t she have come to by now?”

A man pushed his way through the crowd. “I’m a doctor. Can I be of assistance?”

Wyatt looked at the man and narrowed his eyes. He didn’t like the way the
doctor
smelled. He wasn’t sure if it was because the man was responsible for this, or if it was because he lusted after Melody. Whatever it was, Wyatt didn’t like it, or him.

Mitch stepped forward with a growl. Apparently Mitch didn’t like the man’s scent either. “Don’t touch her. We take care of our own.”

The man stood tall and straightened his coat. “And you would be?”

“Her fiancé,” Mitch answered almost absently as he pushed past the man to lift Melody in his arms. “Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’ll just take Melody to see our own physician.”

Wyatt took Melody’s instrument from Carmen, took his niece by the elbow and led her from the hall. “She needs protection and obviously your Philharmonic can’t provide that for her.”

“And how do you two plan to provide it?” Carmen asked with a smirk on her face. I know what’s going on back in Paradise, but she doesn’t. Do you think she’s just going to give up her life here to follow you two across the country to live a life she may consider sinful?” Carmen looked around and lowered her voice. “You can’t just pack her off to Paradise on a whim, you know. She’s
human,
for God’s sake.” The last few words came out as little more than a hiss.

“I don’t give a damn what she considers it. All I care about is keeping her safe, which is something that her employer obviously can’t do.”

“But she can’t leave.” Carmen had to practically run to keep up with the pace Mitch set while he carried the woman from the building. “She has contractual obligations. The symphony can’t just replace her at the drop of a hat, you know. They’ll sue her if she doesn’t show up for the next performance unless she’s got a whopper of an excuse.”

“Somehow, I think that someone trying to kill her after a performance is excuse enough.” He stopped and turned to her. He cupped her jaw and ran his thumb over her cheekbone. “Stop worrying, sweetheart. Mitch and I will buy her contract if we have to.”

“I don’t think even you two have
that
much money,” she said with a snort, then stared at him with wide eyes as he did no more than raise a brow. “Do you?”

“How much money we have is of no importance, Carmen. What it can do for us is.” He started moving again and they caught up just as Mitch reached the car with Melody.

“You know we can’t let her go back to work as long as there is someone out to harm her.” Mitch bent to set Melody in the car as Wyatt held the door for him.

“I was just telling Carmen that very thing.” He moved out of the way as Mitch straightened and carefully shut the door. “She seems to think there’s going to be a problem getting the girl out of her contractual obligation. She’s afraid the Philharmonic will give us trouble.”

Mitch snorted. “The only problem that’s going to give us trouble is trying to figure out which bank account we’ll use to write the check that buys them off.”

“I don’t believe you guys are standing there talking about getting her out of her contract. She just signed it. She has to perform for the entire season, if she doesn’t, they’ll sue.” She rested her hands on her hips, her violin case hanging haphazardly from her fingers, and I
know
you two aren’t filthy rich like you would have me believe.” She waited a moment for them to answer. “Well?” she asked when neither of them said anything to confirm nor deny their financial status.

“She looks like her mother when she does that, doesn’t she?” Mitch asked, a grin on his face. “I can’t believe how much she looks like Rosa.” He shook his head, tossed Wyatt the keys and got into the back with Melody. “You drive. I’ll sit in the back with Melody.”

Wyatt turned to Carmen. “Obviously we’d rather you came with us, but since no one is fixating on you…yet, we’ll give you the choice. Would you like to stay here and work out your contract, or would you like Mitch and me to buy yours out as well.”

Carmen’s jaw dropped at his question. “I don’t believe that you’re standing there calmly talking about buying out the two lead violin chair contracts.” She leaned closer and lowered her voice. “Do you have
any
idea how much that’s going to cost?”

“It doesn’t matter how much it costs, sweetheart. When we’re dealing with your safety and the safety of our mate, we won’t take any chances.”

Wyatt wanted to grin at her gasp when he’d said mate, but kept his face schooled into a mask of indifference. He wanted her to choose to come with them, but he also knew his niece and the choice
must
be hers or they would never hear the end of it.

“I’ll stay, but you might want to send a few guys to watch out for me.” She grinned and waggled her brows. “Just make sure they’re cute, will you? As a matter of fact, I have a couple of specific men in mind.” She got into the passenger front seat when Wyatt held the door open for her. “You can drop me off at our apartment. Besides, Mel is going to need some clothes.”

Chapter Four

Melody woke on a huge bed. Rolling over, she looked around the room and sat up. Her heart pounded in her chest. She had no idea where she was, or whose home she was in and she panicked. Standing, she ran to the nearest phone and picked it up. It worked! She bit her lip and looked around again. She remembered one of the huge spotlights crashing down on her, but that was where everything became murky, real murky.

The room was huge, almost as large as her and Carmen’s apartment in the village. Moving to the large window, she looked out and could see central park in the distance. A gray haze rose over the city, a thick gray-white layer between the horizon and the sky. Wherever she was, she knew she was in an apartment in one of those buildings that employed a doorman to call cabs and open doors for the inhabitants.

She heard voices on the other side of the door and turned to face it. The door was very dark, a stark contrast to the snow white walls and gleaming marble floors. She looked around for some sort of weapon, just in case, but couldn’t find anything more than an expensive-looking vase. Melody stood facing the door, waiting for whomever it was on the other side to make their appearance. She fisted her hands at her sides in an attempt to prepare herself for anything.

When the door opened, Melody almost collapsed with relief. She probably would have hit the floor in an inglorious heap had it not been for the long, low dresser at her back. She rested her hands against it and her body sagged. “Carmen!” Gathering her wits, she ran to her friend. “Where are we?’ Melody checked out the richly appointed room again and came to the only conclusion. She bit her lip, suddenly nervous. “We’re at your uncles’ house, aren’t we?” She wasn’t sure how she knew that. She just knew.

Carmen nodded. “Yes. You were unconscious so we brought you back here. They were afraid to let us stay at the apartment so they brought us back here with Mozart.” Carmen leaned forward with a little giggle. “You know, I don’t think they’ve ever had a pet before. They keep watching your cat like it’s going to do tricks or something.”