Fractured Beat (Meltdown Book 1) (30 page)

As it turned out, Hank was already on it. According to his research, there were approximately forty-five women named Sarah Harmon residing in the Houston, Texas area, fifteen of which lived in The Woodlands. He enlisted Marcy to help find the possible link between Sarah and either Blane or Kirkland. Before we hung up I asked him also to check into The Meadows and make sure there wasn’t a connection between Sarah and Whitfield or Nancy. If we didn’t find a connection soon, I was fucked.

The noise in my head took a back seat the minute I stepped into my studio. I reached inside my bag, pulled out my notebook and flipped to the song I’d been working on for the past week. It was a song for Mallory called
Unravel
and the tempo was a bitch to nail down. I was in the middle of writing down lyrics when I felt the air in the room change. I glanced up and there she stood.

Mallory.

She had that haunted look in her eyes, the same one she had when I found her cowering on the floor after the horrible nightmare. I called out her name and her eyes stared through me as she muttered something about liking the studio. Clearly she was spooked. After several attempts to get answers from her, which she tried to evade, I coaxed her finally into confessing she’d had another dream. Here I was dicking around in my studio while she was upstairs battling the demons in her dreams. She looked so lost. Not able to stand the distance, I pulled her over to the sofa and onto my lap. I wanted everything from her, including her secrets, but I knew I wasn’t going to get them easily. It stung that she wouldn’t confide in me. I’m not sure what made me push. Maybe it was having her in the place I loved most in the world, or maybe it was that I’d finally found the person I wanted to give the world to, and she didn’t even know it. One thing was clear, I wanted all of her and wasn’t about to settle for less. I could see it in her eyes – she felt the pull. I could feel it in her touch – she was as crazy for me as I was for her.

Dropping my forehead to hers, I whispered, “Tell me you feel this.”

“I feel it,” she quietly responded.

“Tell me you want it as much as I do.”

“I do.”

“Please tell me you’re on the pill.”

She jerked back and asked, “What?”

“I want to feel all of you and I want you to have all of me. If you’re worried about me being clean, I –”

She cut me off before I could finish my sentence. “No, that’s not it. You just took me by surprise, that’s all.”

“I was dead serious when I told you there was no one else.”

“I’m on the pill,” she said.

I’m not sure what I expected, but her less than enthusiastic response burned. “Look, if you don’t want this, j –” She shut me up by pressing her lips to mine. That was all the confirmation I needed. Before she could change her mind, I reached down between us, grabbed the side of her panties and ripped them off.

“I love it when you go all cave man on me,” she murmured against my lips. If she thought that was cave man, she hadn’t seen anything, yet.

“Hold onto my neck,” I instructed. She wrapped her arms around my neck and giggled when I lifted her up just high enough to shuck off my boxers. I maneuvered it so that when I sat back down she was in position for me to slide right in. Her giggle turned to a gasp as I slowly lowered her down the length of me. Once she was fully seated, I paused to pull off her tank. As I sucked her taut little nipple into my mouth, I lightly pumped my hips. Tingles of electricity shot from the base of my spine to the top of my neck. One by one I was going to tear down her defenses. This was just the first.

“Grant,” she breathed. I switched nipples and continued pumping. Slow, shallow thrusts.
There’s my girl
, I thought, as she began to move with me.

A sexy-as-hell moan escaped from her lips as she closed her eyes and dropped her head back onto her shoulders. She was lost in the moment. I wanted her with me. No, I needed her with me. “Eyes on me,” I commanded. Her lust drugged eyes slowly opened. While waiting for her to focus, I continued delivering slow, shallow thrusts. Once I had her full attention, I picked up the pace. “Tell me you feel it.”

“I feel it,” she panted.

“Tell me it means something.”

“I need to move,” she groaned.

“Tell me,” I repeated.

“Grant!” she hissed.

“Tell me,” I growled.

“It means everything, now let me move!” she shouted. More than satisfied with her outburst, I captured her lips with mine and kissed the fucking hell out of her. With an angry growl, she yanked her mouth free and, in an attempt to take charge, she dug her nails into my shoulders and rode her anger out on my cock. When her breaths turned choppy, I knew she was close. Needing a little more time, I grabbed her hips and pulled her in tight. Her eyes flashed with frustration when I slowed down the tempo and forced her to feel our connection.

“It means everything?” I asked. Her eyes closed and she dropped her forehead to mine. I was getting closer, but I wasn’t letting go until she said it one more time.

“Yes,” she whispered. With a smile on my face, I picked back up the pace.

“Never felt like this,” I ground out between thrusts.

“Never,” she repeated.

Not able to stand it any longer, I lifted her off of me. The moment her ass hit the sofa, I dropped to my knees, pulled her to the edge and sunk back in balls deep. As I dug my hands under her ass for leverage, she grabbed my shoulders and wrapped her legs around my waist. Lifting her hips up, I pulled out and slammed back in. Her honey scent drove me – faster, harder. I wanted all the way in – to dig so deep I’d never find my way back out. Most of all, I wanted to finally be able to call every last inch of her mine.

At the same time her pussy clamped down, I felt her clit pulse. She whipped her head back, arched her spine and shouted my name. The second my name left her lips the orgasm zinged up my spine and exploded from the tip of my cock. My mind was officially blown. Sex had always been good for me. Sex with Mallory was fucking phenomenal. I rode my orgasm to completion and then collapsed against her.

Once we could function again, Mallory pulled back and said, “You cannot keep doing that.”

“Doing what?” I innocently asked.

“You have to stop coercing me into confessing my inner feelings while we’re having sex, Grant.”

I tried not to smile, but she was seriously funny when she was pissed. With a half-shrug, I said, “A man has to do what he has to do, babe.” She let out an exasperated huff and tried to pull away, but I wasn’t ready to lose her yet. I ran my lips over her shoulder and smiled when she relaxed back into my arms. “I like having you in my house,” I confessed.

After a long pause, she finally gave in. “I like being here. Tell me about it. How did you find it?”

“How about this, let’s get cleaned up. Then we’ll raid the kitchen. I promise to tell you everything while we’re eating.”

Half an hour later we were camped out in my bed feeding each other cheese and crackers. I told her how Ava used to work for Dale’s parents before coming to work for him.

“Ava knew what was happening and she tried to help, she really did, but Dale fought her every step of the way. A few weeks before we released him from the band she told him she couldn’t do it any longer. Things got ugly and she walked. Like everyone else, she blames herself for his death.”

“It wasn’t your fault Grant. Please know that.”

“I’m getting there. Each day is better than the day before,” I confessed. “Anyway, Luke sold their place right after Dale died and bought a two bedroom townhouse. By that point Ava had pretty much decided to retire. Then I found this place and I knew how much she would love it, so I asked if she would be willing to move into the back cottage and take care of it for me.

“That was so sweet of you. How did you find this place?” Mallory asked.

“After we graduated from college, Nash and I got an apartment together. About a month after we signed with Happenstance his mom got sick. As you know, we each got a pretty sizable signing bonus. Nash used his to buy a house for his mom as well as to pay for her treatments. Luke and Dale went in on a place together. That way Luke would have enough money to put his sister through culinary school. I paid off my parent’s mortgage and, since Nash was planning on moving in with his mom, I began looking for a place to live. I was thinking more along the lines of a condo or townhome, but then the realtor showed me this. It was way more money than I wanted to spend, but it called to me. The sellers dropped the price three times before I finally gave in and bought it.”

“So, Luke and Dale were close?” Mallory asked.

“Like brothers. Nash and I were torn up about Dale’s death, but Luke was devastated. He doesn’t show it, but he still is.”

Mallory rubbed her hand over my hair and I leaned into her touch. “I’m sorry you all lost him,” she murmured.

“Me, too. I’ve talked enough. Now it’s your turn. You want to tell me what your dream was about? You seemed pretty spooked.” Her hand twitched mid-stroke and I could tell I’d caught her off guard.

I expected her to blow me off but she surprised me when she said, “Our head coach’s name was Salamon King. We called him Sal for short. Sal was the only person in the room with me when the doctor told me I would never ski again. I remember it like it was yesterday. He leaned over, kissed my forehead and said, ‘You were so close.’ Then he walked out of my hospital room. Two days later my face and the story about my accident was splashed all over the tabloids, including the fact that my career was now over.”

“The fucker sold you out?” I growled.

She nodded her head. “He did. He didn’t even give me a chance. He just took the doctor for his word and sold my story to the highest bidder. The sad thing was that half of what he said wasn’t even true.” I knew this all too well.

“It never is. I bet your parents flipped.”

“Boy did they ever. My dad wanted to kill Sal. We had money. Let me rephrase that, I had money, but Sal had been in the business a lot longer than I had. He knew exactly where to go and what to say. We didn’t and it was truly awful.”

“Is that why you turned to pills?”

“At the time I thought I’d lost everything. My future was the Olympics. To have no choice but to give up on that dream was devastating. The pills helped the physical pain, but I wasn’t doing well emotionally. My parents didn’t understand why I wasn’t able to bounce back. My entire life as I’d known it had been turned on its head and they expected me just to bounce back.” Her eyes lifted to mine. “If you couldn’t play the guitar or sing anymore would you be able to bounce back?”

I leaned over and touched my lips to hers. “No, I wouldn’t bounce back. I can’t imagine what you must have gone through. I’m so damn sorry. I’m also sorry I wasn’t there for you tonight when you woke up.”

“It wasn’t that difficult to find you.” Her smile turned into a yawn and I realized it was late. After cleaning up our mess, we got ready for bed. I waited for Mallory to fall asleep before following after.

The next morning I awakened to the smell of bacon and coffee. Mallory was lying flat on her back with an arm slung over her face and a soft snore pouring from her pretty mouth. Not wanting to wake her, I carefully extracted myself from the bed. After a quick trip to the bathroom I threw on shorts and a shirt and headed downstairs for some coffee. Both Nash and Ava greeted me with smiles.

I passed by Nash and said, “You’re up early.” As I was pouring coffee I noticed a strange woman standing on the balcony. “And who, might I ask, is that?”

“That is Rowan. Isn’t she lovely?” Ava answered.

“Rowan?” I directed at Nash.

“Rowan is Mom’s oncology nurse. You know Mom. Like a dumb ass, I asked her to join me for Ava’s famous breakfast in front of Rowan. Mom latched on like nobody’s business and the next thing I knew, Rowan was in the truck and we were driving into the hills together.”

“How…sweet,” I teased.

“Fuck you,” he shot back.

“Hush boys or you’ll scare Rowan,” Ava scolded. Nash grinned at me and we both burst into laughter. Rowan came through the door right as my cell rang and I could see why Nash was less than thrilled. Rowan was definitely not his type – My type, yes, but Nash’s type? No way. Nash liked his women thin and bony. Rowan had curves all over.

When I saw Hank’s name on the screen, I answered with, “You’re up early.”

“It’s after ten. I’ve been up since six. I’ve got the location of Sarah Harmon,” he responded.

My breath caught in the back of my throat. This was the last thing I expected him to say. “Hang on a second,” I told him. I turned to Nash and said, “Hank knows where Sarah Harmon is.” Nash stood and said something to Rowan before following me into my office. I hit the speaker and said, “Nash is here with me and we have you on speaker.”

“Good. You remember Cas, Adam and Bobby from our stop in Charlotte?” Hank asked.

“Yep,” Nash and I both answered in unison.

“They own a security business called LASH,” he explained.

“I remember Cas mentioning that,” I said.

“After our talk last night, I called Dillon. He made a call to Bobby, who is some sort of genius with computers. Bobby did some digging and got us an address in Brenham, Texas.”

“Are you sure it’s the correct address?” Nash asked.

“Trust me, it’s the correct address,” he replied. Nash whipped out his phone and started typing furiously on it.

“How long will it take you to get there?” I asked.

“A little over an hour,” Hank said.

“It will take us an hour and a half,” Nash said.

“Here’s the address. I can be out the door in ten minutes,” Hank said.

“Why don’t you plan on heading back to Austin with us? Ava would love to see you.”

“What about Mallory?” he asked.

“I didn’t say I was going to entertain you. I just said you had a place to stay for the night.” Hank laughed.

“I’ll entertain you,” Nash chimed in.

“Yeah, Nash has a hot friend with a sexy accent with him. Who knows, you might even get lucky,” I teased. Nash scowled at me and I flipped him the bird.