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“An old friendship, I guess. Never mind. Just wear something you feel comfortable dancing your sexy ass off in. I’ll pick you up in an hour,” I promised her then quickly ended the call.
As I lowered my phone, my bedroom door opened with a bang and two identical beasts came running into my room. “Lucy!” Lyric, the youngest of my twin little brothers screamed seconds before he dived onto my bed next to me.
“Hide us,” Luca, the older of the two little eight-year-old demons pleaded seconds before he dived under my bed.
I frowned down at Lyric. “What did you two do now?”
“It was Luca’s idea,” Lyric tried to explain.
“Of course it was. It’s always Luca’s idea.” I rolled my eyes at my little brother, but still tucked my covers around him in an attempt to hide him. They might be two of the meanest little boys in the world, but they were also my little miracle brothers. When Mom had gone into labor with them all three of them had nearly died. That was why it was just the three of us and I didn’t have more siblings. Dad had been paranoid about Mom getting pregnant again.
“You never think up devious little plans that get you and Luca in trouble, do you?”
That produced a sheepish grin from the little monster and I stood. Leaving them in my room to hide, I walked into the hall and closed my door behind me. I probably shouldn’t, but I was going to let them hide out until our parents chilled out for a little while. Whatever they had done was probably bad. Like when they had deviously hatched a plan that had ended with them pushing some visiting Arabian rock star into Aunt Emmie’s pool… And he hadn’t been able to swim.
Dad had been pissed for two days—after he’d stopped laughing.
Two steps outside of my room I heard my mom yelling for my brothers as she stomped up the stairs. “Luca Steven Thornton, when I get my hands on you and your brother I’m gonna…” She broke off when she got to the top of the stairs and spotted me. “Have you seen your brothers?”
“What have they done this time?” I asked, avoiding giving her a direct answer for the moment.
Mom tossed her long cinnamon-colored hair over her shoulder, making me wish I were half as beautiful as she was. My dad called her his goddess and one look at her and you would understand exactly why he called her that. Layla Thornton was gorgeous.
We were almost the same height, with me just an inch or so taller, but she had chocolate brown eyes where mine were much darker. Her hair was straight without having to spend an hour with a flatiron to get it to stay that way. Her skin was a few shades darker than mine and tanned so easy that I could have hated her for it. If you didn’t know I was adopted you probably wouldn’t realize it immediately because there was enough of a resemblance between my mom and me that we easily passed for mother and daughter. But that was only because she was my sister. Yeah I know, crazy huh? But it’s a long story.
She lifted a pink shirt. A very pink shirt that I noticed had the Demon’s Wings new artwork on it. The shirt should have been gray, so how had they turned it pink? “Don’t ask me how they did it,” she grumbled when she saw my dumbfounded expression. “All I know is that I have a washer full of your dad’s shirts that are now flamingo pink.”
“Oh.” I bit back a grin and thrust my hands into the back pockets of my jeans. “Well, I just wanted to let you know that I’m going out with Kin tonight.”
That had her losing some of her steam as her expression turned questioning. She wasn’t nearly as hardcore overprotective as my dad was. She knew that I was safe with Marcus always with me. My dad, however, still thought I needed a whole gang of secret service guys if I so much as went to the mall. “That’s nice. Where are you two going?”
I shrugged, trying to play it off as nothing important. “First Bass,” I told her and her eyes softened. I could pretend all day, but Mom could see through it in a heartbeat.
“Good. I’m glad you’ve finally decided to go.” She crossed her arms over her spectacular, and completely natural, rack. “Harris was disappointed when you didn’t make opening night, Lu. He played it off like it was nothing, but I know that boy too well not to have seen it in his eyes.”
I lowered my gaze, not wanting her to see how much what she said affected me. “I’m sorry, Mom.”
“I’m not the one you should be apologizing to, baby. Harris is.” Soft hands cupped my cheek, forcing me to meet her gaze. “Go, have fun. Then bring Kin home with you. Make sure you tell her that she is welcome here anytime she needs to escape… that woman.”
I grimaced. It was no secret that my mom despised Jillian Montez, Kin’s stepmother. They had never gotten along and weren’t likely ever to. Between Mom and Aunt Emmie, I was sure that Jillian was on some most hated lists that would require her to one day need her own personal bodyguard to attend the parent-teacher conferences at my school. “I tell her that every day, Mom,” I assured her.
“I really like her, Lucy. I’m glad you found a good friend like her.” Her eyes turned sad and I had to look away again, unable to stand that look. My mom should never have to look sad. Never. “I hope you and Harris get to talk, baby. And no matter what your dad says, I think you two should continue your friendship.”
I didn’t want to go where she was taking this conversation all of a sudden. So I stepped forward, kissed her cheek and moved around her. “The boys are in my room, Mom.”
That effectively stopped whatever she might have said about me and Harris and our friendship. Her nose flared and she stormed into my room. “Lyric Andrew Thornton, the next time you step outside this house you will be thirty. You two are so grounded.”
Chapter 2
Lucy
The crowd outside First Bass was exactly how Kin had described it. Six blocks of people trying to get inside the hottest new club in Los Angeles. Marcus pulled to a stop at the front of the line and stepped out of the driver’s seat of my Range Rover. He gave the keys over to a valet before opening the back door and offering me his hand.
I gave him a small smile and let him help me out as cameras flashed in my face and people started calling my name. Ugh, I hated this part of going out. Because I went out so rarely the paps always ate it up when they spotted me. I was the rock star’s reclusive daughter, at least that was what the paps always said when they printed their BS about me in their weekly tabloids.
Kin climbed out behind me and glared as the cameras started flashing even more. Up until a few weeks ago, Kin had lived in relative peace from the paparazzi. But then her mother had died and she’d been forced to come to LA and live with her actor/director father and his new family. From the day she’d stepped off the plane with her dad, the paps had been hounding her every step outside of home, school, and my house.
Pulling her sunglasses on to shield her eyes, she grabbed my hand and tugged me toward the huge bouncer at the front of the line. The big, dark-skinned man had a headset in one ear and a list in his hand. When we approached him with Marcus right behind us, the bouncer gave us a bored look.
