Below you'll find the cities and dates for North America and Europe if you want to follow Lilac's timeline...or for funsies. Obviously, I didn't do a scene in each city, but can you imagine the bonus scene potential?
The third leg (South America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania) will remain a mystery for now just in case I want to do something special later.
Hope this helps! xoxo
The following scene is subject to change prior to publishing.
“Trick or treat!”
“Smell my feet,” my kid brother taunted with a sneer. The candy extorters were wearing their Halloween costumes and holding up pumpkin pails as they waited for us to fill them. Eventually, those eager smiles fell when they realized he wasn’t teasing them for jokes.
There would be no candy for them.
“Beat it,” I ordered when they just stood there in denial that my brother and I were truly that cruel. The moment they were gone, he went back to staring at the ground with his head bowed and hiding his black eye from me.
Twirling my key ring around my finger as I stood by my truck, I waited for him to answer the question I’d asked before we were interrupted.
“Daniel,” I sighed when I grew impatient. I watched my brother wince at the sound of his full name.
He knew what would happen if he made me ask again.
I didn’t like repeating myself.
Currently, we were standing in the driveway of the house I’d nearly bankrupted myself to buy. My little brother deserved a safe roof over his head, even if I wasn’t all that stable.
“I told you I’m fine.”
“And whoever did that to you is lucky, but that’s not what I asked. Who hit you?”
He shrugged as he continued to stare at his feet. “Some kid.”
I felt my teeth bare when I spoke. “Obviously.”
He looked up now, his green eyes as wild as my thoughts when he exploded. “I know what you’ll do if I tell you, so I won’t!” His narrow chest began to heave as he breathed in and out. “You promised, D. You said this is it. No more moving around.”
“And I meant it, kid. We’re not going anywhere.” This little corner of the world now belonged to me, and there was nothing anyone could do about it. Six Forks was a quiet hole, and I intended to fill it with chaos. “Tell me his name.”
“It won’t do any good unless you’re willing to beat up a kid, which I know you’re not, so what’s the point?”
“No, but I can fuck up his father.”
“And then you’ll go to jail again, and I’ll be back in foster care!” He shook his head and then bowed it again so I wouldn’t see the sadness in his eyes. “You should have just left me there.”
Throwing my head back, I stared at the darkening sky as I slowly counted to thirty. My little brother tested my patience too often with these little guilt trips. It wasn’t my fucking fault our father had been an asshole. I took more shit than Danny with no one who cared enough to get me out. Unlike him, I had no options. There was nothing but survival.
“Fine,” I heard myself snap once I’d calmed enough. “I’ll go to the school in the morning, and I’ll talk to the principal. Peacefully. Satisfied?”
Danny quickly shook his head, pissing me off again. “It won’t do any good.”
“Why the hell not?”
“Because he’s on the basketball team and our new principal is afraid of the coach. He won’t do anything.”
“Then give me the coach’s name, and I’ll fucking talk to him.” At this point, I was ready to just burn the school to the ground. Forget having kids one day. This parenting shit was just too complicated. Taking a peaceful approach always made me queasy. I’d rather just spill some blood.
“You don’t understand,” my brother said as he shot from his seat on our broken front step. “People talk. They say…they say he’s dangerous.”
I’m dangerous too.
When he saw that he wasn’t convincing me, he hurried up and got to the point. “It’s not just the principal. Everyone’s afraid of him. The teachers, the cops, everyone.”
He didn’t realize his mistake until it was too late.
I was quiet after his revelation.
My wheels were turning now, setting events in motion that he couldn’t hope to stop. I didn’t take my brother from my father just to let another asshole make him cower and weep. Danny should have known better than that.
“Are you?” I asked him quietly. I’d already made up my mind, so I don’t know why I bothered since I had no conscience to keep clear.
The moment he looked away, I turned on my heel.
There were no words left that needed to be spoken. My brother knew it so he didn’t try to stop me.
This motherfucking coach was going to feel me.
Ten minutes later, I turned into the parking lot of Bainbridge High on two wheels. It was late, but not late enough that checking the school would lead to a dead end. It occurred to me that I didn’t know the name of the man I was hunting, what kind of car he drove, or even what he looked like, but Six Forks was small. A fucking blip on the map. How many “deadly” basketball coaches could there be?
The first place I decided to look since the doors to the school were unlocked was the gym. The few people I passed on the way paid me no mind as I barreled through the halls like I knew where I was going.
Eventually, I found what I was looking for and stepped through one of the open doors.
The gym was empty except for two men who stood at center court, dressed and sweating like they’d just finished a game. Both were tall and dark-haired with nearly identical features. The only noticeable difference between them was that one was heavily tatted though not as impressively built. The inked one laughed loudly at something the quiet one said while he absently used his fingers to turn the basketball he held.
It was the latter who held my attention.
His expression was impassive, his presence commanding, and it didn’t take him long to notice me. I knew without having to ask that he was the man I was looking for.
Closer now, I could see that his eyes were gray while the darkness inside of them called to my own.
“I’m looking for the coach.” It was the only greeting they were going to get. “Are you him?”
“Yup,” the man I surmised was his brother answered for him. There was a gleam in his eyes like he was looking and hoping for trouble. I couldn’t quite tell which of them was older, but they both had a decade at least, if not more, on me.
“I’m Dacian Terranova.”
One of the doors opened behind them, and before I could say more, a girl with long, dark hair glided through. She was a bit on the delicate side and already dressed for whatever Halloween festivities she had planned for tonight. In the back of my mind, I recalled Danny mentioning something about teachers giving extra credit to whoever wore their costumes to school. Clearly, she’d taken advantage while Danny hadn’t bothered since he hated anything that didn’t involve him sulking in a corner.
“Dad, I know why you’re still here,” the girl grumbled. My eyes immediately narrowed at the sound of her voice. Even though the man I came to confront and his brother had given her their undivided attention, she didn’t bother to do the same. Her head was down as she peered at her phone, and it was clear she was upset as she reluctantly made her way over. “I already cleared it with mom, and she said I could go, so I’m going.”
Her father must have been the one with tattoos because he smirked at her poor attempt to be a rebel. She’d chosen to dress as an angel on a night meant for devils to reign. I could smell a good girl a mile away.
“Oh, are you?” her father teased. It was apparent he kept her on a short leash.
“Yes.”
He made a noncommittal sound in response. One that said her Friday night plans were still up for debate.
Apparently, hearing it too, I could see the frustration in her dark eyes the moment her head snapped up, and for the first time, she realized they weren’t alone. Coming to an abrupt halt, she didn’t just notice me. She recognized me.
Daddy’s princess and I had met before.
***
Stay tuned for Kennedy and Dacian’s story!
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Teasers are listed in descending order.
RICH
“Can we change the song?” Braxton grumbled from the backseat. “No offense, but I get enough of you guys when we’re playing.”
“You mean us,” Houston corrected, darkness edging his tone. He even risked taking his attention off the road to pin Braxton with his gaze. “You’re Bound now, or should I find a more effective way to convince you?”
I think everyone held their breath as they waited for her response. When it came, she didn’t disappoint. She never did. Sarcasm and defiance were her weapons of her choice. It didn’t take us long to learn, but we were still figuring out how to know better.
“I don’t know,” Braxton mocked. She sounded deceptively pliable. “I think the hundred and fifteenth time is the charm. Why don’t you remind me again?”
Sinking lower in my seat, I turned my head towards the window to hide the smile playing on my lips. I just knew she was batting those big, brown eyes at Houston and daring him to do something about it. I was itching to turn in my seat and see for myself, but I didn’t want her to think that I was helping Houston back her against another wall. Not this time. Not when she made my knees this weak.
“Maybe Braxton should deejay,” Lo suggested to break the tension. Houston had already refocused on the road. Since he was strangling the steering wheel, I knew the conversation wasn’t over in his mind. He’d resume it the moment he got her alone. “We all know Morrow only likes the sound of his own voice.”
I couldn’t help myself this time, so I peered into the backseat and found Braxton cutting her gaze at Loren.
“Why me?” she asked him when no one objected.
I couldn’t tell if she was nervous about sharing her music choices or too smart to think that Loren was up to any good. Maybe it was a little of both? She didn’t want us figuring her out because of what we might do with that information. Someone should have told her that she couldn’t peer into our minds without baring a little of herself in return.
I see you.
Loren paused his brooding to focus on Brax. He licked his lips as he watched her as if he could already taste her tears. Or maybe he had something else in mind? “Why not? Afraid we’ll find out that you secretly love the Backstreet Boys? I suppose you think “I Want it that Way” was the greatest love song ever written.”
“No,” she returned, sounding confident even when Loren was forcing her to play defense. “But I do think “Goodbye Earl” is pretty killer.”
“Goodbye Earl,” I echoed from shotgun. “Isn’t that a song about a woman who killed her husband?”
Braxton shrugged, still staring at Loren.
I need you to notice me.
My thoughts punched and then twisted my guts, intensifying when Braxton finally shifted her gaze to me. Her attention felt like phantom fingers tiptoeing down my spine. Goosebumps appeared on my skin just as those full, red lips of hers moved. “I said it was killer.”
She smiled at me like I deserved the privilege.
My heart skipped a beat while warmth filled my belly. Braxton must have read it on my face because her smile disappeared, and then she was pulling out her phone. I watched her tap the screen a few times, and after helping her connect her phone to the car using bluetooth, Tool’s “Sober” spilled through the speakers.
Unable to forget her confession four days ago, the lyrics took hold with an icy grip. They did their job and left only a warning.
I’m no good for you.
LOREN
That ass, my God, that ass.
HOUSTON
Time seemed to stand still when she walked through the door.
Wearing a burlap sack with red hair like raging fire, her brown eyes stretched further than humanly possible when she realized who occupied the room. I was surprised she recognized us since she looked like she’d come straight off the prairie. That hideous dress she wore covered her from neck to ankle. She looked weird as fuck with her too big eyes and lips, but somehow, stunning too.
I couldn’t look away from the beautiful paradox.
Maybe it was because she’d rudely interrupted me. I was just telling Carl and his flunkies exactly how I liked my dick sucked. Now I couldn’t think of anything other than what it would be like to come on her face. No way she wasn’t a virgin.
A solid sixty seconds passed, and she still hadn’t spoken. Her full lips parted, appearing red and swollen like she’d been kissed to within an inch of her life. I wondered if they were natural. My dick told me they were. My gut was too busy tying itself into an endless knot.
“Are you lost?” Loren inquired, always the first to be an asshole. “Or did you lose your voice in that ugly ass dress?”
A throat cleared. Carl, the dick who owned this shady label, quickly intervened before the fire rising in the girl's eyes turned Loren into ash. “Emily, can we help you?”
The intern looked ready to shit a brick when she realized her obvious mistake. “I’m sorry, sir. You told me to bring Ms. Fawn right away when she arrived.”
The room fell so quiet you could hear a pin drop ten blocks down.
No.
Hell. No.
This could not be Braxton Fawn. As if only now remembering that she was responsible for this mess, Oni Sridhar shot to her feet. When the pain-in-the-ass A&R rep didn’t immediately dismiss the intruder, I stood up straight, catching prairie girl’s reaction to my full height. Give me a break.
“Yes,” Oni confirmed as she strutted with too much confidence for my liking toward the door where her intern and the imposter stood. “This is the promising up-and-comer I was telling you about. I think Braxton is just what Bound needs to take it to the next level.”
“The next level?” Rich spat as he straightened from his position near the windows. It took a lot to anger him since he was a softie at heart. It was safe to say that he was pissed and rightly so. We’d given the world everything, and it still wasn’t enough. It never was. “Who’s your mom’s favorite band? Pink Floyd? I bet if Nick Mason gave her a million to suck his dick, she’d still suck mine for free.”
Fists balled, Oni whirled on her fuck-me pumps. I should have done exactly that when I had the chance. Now she couldn’t stand me or any of us for that matter, and I hated whenever we breathed the same air. “I’m sure she would if my mom were still alive and Nick wasn’t over seventy years old. Are you done?”
I saw the regret in Rich’s eyes, but he didn’t offer an apology. Oni had already turned away. Before Oni could continue with her ludicrous pitch, Loren took his turn exploding.
“Please tell me you’re joking. That's her? She's our new guitarist?" My bassist didn’t move from his slouched position in the chair, but the vicious sneer he shot Braxton did the trick. “This chick looks like she just came from choir practice.”
Slowly, little Miss Fawn’s head turned. None of us was prepared for the force of her full attention as her doe eyes sharpened and cut us down before she spoke. “Actually, it was bible study.”
Loren jerked as if someone had run an electric bolt through his heart before remembering he had the upper hand. “I don’t give a fuck if it was bible camp. Get lost.”
Oni cut in before Braxton could retort. Disappointment ripped through my chest. I had no intention of letting some blushing virgin join Bound, so I was more than eager to have my fun with her while I could. Loren would eat her insolent ass alive, and I’d savor every second of it. “You had your chance to find a replacement and knew what would happen if you didn’t. The tour starts in three months. You barely have any time left to rehearse.”
“We know the material,” Rich reminded her dryly. “We wrote it.”
“Braxton,” Oni said, emphasizing her name, “doesn’t.”
“Hello? Is anyone at home in there?” Loren inquired, tapping his own skull. “Or are you secretly blonde?”
So the pot calls the kettle.”
He ignored that. “If she doesn’t know our music, what makes you think she’s a good fit for our band?”
“You can teach her.”
Loren’s nostrils flared. Rich rolled his eyes. “Not interested.”
“They don’t have to teach me,” Braxton announced. She’d found her damn tongue. A moment later, we all learned a precious lesson.
It was sharper than we thought.
“I know the material.” Her gaze found Loren’s, and I was pretty sure he stopped breathing. He sat so very still. “Probably better than you since I caught your last performance. You missed three notes and were two seconds behind your drummer the entire show.” She tipped her head in Rich’s direction, her red mane shimmering under the natural light. The very sun seemed to serve as her personal spotlight.
For a moment, I allowed myself the vision of pulling on her hair while I punished her pussy from behind. I was willing to bet that she couldn’t take dick and definitely not mine. Swallowing my sound of disgust, I shoved the pointless fantasy away.
Loren, miraculously, had nothing to say since I’d already ripped into him for those very mistakes. I didn’t miss his surprise and fury at being called out by an amateur, but my focus was now on Carl stroking his weak chin thoughtfully. I knew then that it was time to end this.
The label had every reason to ruin us, and Braxton Fawn would undoubtedly deliver.
Moving away from the table, I took slow steps forward, not to put the girls at ease but the opposite. I wanted to rattle the troublemakers, give them time to regret their grave mistake. Oni squared her shoulders, standing tall beside her pet project. She probably thought she could stop me if I decided to choke the life out of Bambi.
Closer now, I could see the freckles peppering Braxton’s nose and cheeks. It almost worked in concealing her blush at my close proximity. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a single thing I wasn’t noticing about this girl. She smelled rich and sinful like forbidden fruit and wore no bra underneath that sheer, pink dress. Her dusty nipples were hard and tempting points, her pale skin beaded with sweat. She was also young, her eyes appearing even bigger up close. I guessed her age around nineteen or twenty and swore.
I was nearly a decade older.
“Though I can’t say the same for you, my time is valuable, so let’s drop the dramatics,” I told her. The fact that these would always be my first words to her tore at something inside of me. Something I had every intention of avoiding. “I’m sure you think you play well to your sound-proof ears, but Bound isn’t looking for a reunion with amateur hour. Run back to your mom’s garage or whatever hole-in-the-wall club Sridhar found you. We’re not interested.”
BRAXTON
My gaze remained glued to my phone as it had been for the last ten minutes. I ignored the crowded club around me, my roommates drowning themselves in shots, and the amateur band playing on the small stage mere feet away. Like the rest of the world, I was hoping for a glimpse of them—Houston Morrow, Loren James, and Jericho Noble.
The remaining members of Bound.
“I saw their tattoos. I know they’re Exiled.” I purposely left out that I’d also seen his mark because it meant admitting to watching him undress in the woods. Whenever I closed my eyes, I could still see the muscles that hadn’t been there a year ago.
“How exactly would you know that?”
“Had a run in with them last year. It’s how I ended up in Stepford.” His eyebrow rose at my reference.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” He took a step back and started to walk away until my next words stopped him.
“Maybe your father can figure it out.”
Before I could say more or take a fighting stance, my back was against the brick again, and this time my wrists were locked above my head while honey brown eyes blazed.
“Rethink your next move, Archer or I promise to make you regret it.”
“The only thing I regret is the day you were born.”
He leaned close, head bent, until his lips almost brushed mine. “Back at you, baby.”
The endearment had me shivering. Afraid he might feel my reaction, I bucked against him. “I never said you could touch me!”
Chuckling, he swept his lips across mine. “I never asked.”
Desperate now, I moved to knee him, but he quickly shoved his thigh between mine. My breath caught as I watched his Adam’s apple bob. Why must everything he does be so goddamn enticing?
“Let me go.”
Thick lips brushed mine again, and his voice was smoother when he spoke. “Promise not to tell?” I hated the whimper that escaped me and even more I hated the boy who drew it out of me. I needed his kiss as much as I needed his downfall. When Ever's hips pressed against mine, and his mouth skimmed my neck, I feared I’d be burned alive. “Promise me,” he demanded softly.
“I promise—” Words eluded me when Ever softly bit into my neck and his cock pressed against my fluttering stomach. I was grappling to keep my wits. “I promise you're gonna regret knowing me, McNamara.” Slowly, he freed my skin from his teeth and then our eyes met as I lifted my head from the wall and growled, “Now let me go.”
I expected his wrath. Instead, he shrugged, ending the pretense of seduction. I was left a ball of flame while he became a shard of ice.