Rise (Rock God 1)

“Her dad is a big commercial real estate guy. And he’s hiring her over the break to help out. Anyway, he was getting ready to hire a professional photographer to take pictures of his properties and update his website. But Julianna convinced him to hire me instead.” Gazing at my shoes, I avoid the look on Jules’s miserable face. “I want you to know I’m devasted about not being able to get the scholarship. I’ll check in when I can.”

I push end and turn to Julianna. “See, easy peasy. Now how much can you loan me?”

“You’re like a Jedi master at lying.” Her face is flushed and I smile because again, thank goodness she has me. She hasn’t been this excited since I made her go to TJ with me for a fake ID.

“You’re seriously going to do this no matter what?” She licks her lips as I motion for her to sit on my bag so I can zip it up.

“Yep. I need enough for a plane ticket to Seattle and emergency money… a couple thousand should do it in case I need to buy some things.” I’m pulling numbers out of my head.

“Whatever, I don’t care about the money. Gia?” She grabs my hand.

“What? And you can get up.” I almost laugh at her but that would be horrible. It’s not her fault she’s a truly good, innocent person.

She stands and takes a breath. “You promise that your mom will not call or… or Axel?” She whispers my brother’s name and turns pink. Christ, I forgot she has a crush on him.

“You have zero to worry about. In fact, don’t answer our phone, okay?” I turn and start to dump my moisturizer into my makeup bag.

“I’ll have Rhys pay you back as soon as I get there.” I flip my hair off my shoulder.

“Please, don’t worry about the money. What I’m concerned about is… I mean…” She takes a deep breath and closes her eyes.

“You’re positive he’s going to want you, right? I mean, you’ve built this up in your head, been saving yourself for one of the most famous men in the world.” She says all this lightning fast and for a moment, I falter. Her words make me sound crazy.

“I’m sorry. But as your friend I feel I need to at least say this.” She straightens her shoulders back.

My eyes narrow on her as I stop to think. Jesus, what if he doesn’t want me? I’ve spent so much time getting to this point that I haven’t even let one bit of doubt enter my plan.

“Gia, you’re sure he feels the same way? You haven’t seen him since you were twelve.”

I sigh and drop down to sit on the end of my suitcase. “Eleven, and it was a funeral. I can’t get into it, but it was a bad time.”

She lowers herself to sit next to me on the case. “Please, don’t be mad at me. I just don’t want to see you get hurt is all.” She wraps her arms around her knees.

I nod. “I know, and to be honest, I have no idea if this is going to work out.” I rub my temples. I’m starting to get a stress headache—either that or a huge reality slap.

“Look.” I bop her shoulder. “Worst-case scenario, I get a bunch of exclusive photos of the band and sell my story to Rolling Stone. Then Cameron Crowe reads about me and turns it into a movie.” I smile at her.

She shakes her head at me. “If anyone could make that happen, it would be you.” She rubs her face as I hug her.

“I have to do this. I know you think I’m crazy, but he’s the one.”

“You are crazy, so crazy, but I believe in you. Now give me your account number.”

RHYS

Past – Twenty-seven years old

Seattle, Washington

“Granger, get your ass over here.” I look over to see who’s screaming at me. I’m seeing double but grin anyway. I hold up my bottle of exclusive tequila and nod at the person. I have zero idea who it is.

“God, people are so obnoxious. Why do they think we would talk to them?” Tea calls out, making me turn my face away in distaste. This one’s a disaster, even for Nuke. She’s a model he met in New York a couple days ago who’s somehow followed us to Seattle.

She flips the poor guy off, then wraps her arms around me, trying not to spill her martini.

“Wipe your nose, Tea.” Peeling her claws out of my side, I let go of her waist. Her waifish body sinks into the velvet purple couch as her martini spills everywhere.

“The fuck, man?” Ammo yells up at me as Tea tries to lean on him, screaming that her shoes are ruined. I raise the bottle of tequila to my lips and smirk. Ammo and Tea belong together.