Rock Addiction (Rock Kiss 1)

“Is Molly with you?”

“Yes, I’m here,” Molly said, knowing it couldn’t be good news if her sister was calling at what the phone told her was four in the morning. “Has something happened?”

“Yes, and it’s bad.” Her tone made ice form in Molly’s bones, her heart in her throat. “Before I tell you,” Thea continued, “I want to say I’m so sorry, Moll. I’ll do whatever it takes to bury this.”

“Just spit it out,” Fox ordered.

“Some sick f**k managed to sneak in and set up a video camera in one of your previous hotel suites.” Thea’s words were bullets in the silence. “It might’ve been motion activated, or just started and left to run until the digital card was full. From the angle on the still photos posted from the video, it looks like it was on a shelf.”

Nausea swirled in Molly’s stomach, skin flushing hot, then cold. She had a horrible feeling she knew exactly where the camera must’ve been—their last hotel suite had had an antique shelf against one wall of the bedroom, set up with old books in a way she’d found charming at the time.

“Where?” Fox demanded.

“Bedroom.”

Molly jumped from the sofa and ran for the toilet, barely making it there before her stomach revolted. Throwing up so hard it felt as if her entire digestive tract was being peeled with a grater, she was barely aware of Fox coming after her and pulling her hair back so it was no longer in her face, his voice a low, rough murmur as he stroked his hand down her back.

When there was simply nothing inside her any longer, he carried her shivering body into the shower and, setting the water temp close to boiling, held her until she’d stopped shaking. “I’m sorry,” he said, his tone raw. “I’m so sorry, Molly. I’ll kill the bastard who did this. I pr—”

Snapping out of the shock, she pressed her fingers to his lips. “No, don’t make that promise.” Because Fox had never once broken a promise to her… and in that reminder, her world tilted back on the correct axis.

She had no illusions, knew the coming days and weeks would be brutal, even knew there was a high chance she’d fall apart again, but if and when she did, Fox would be there. He was always there and he was the most important person in her world, the one for whom she’d do anything. Even walk back into her worst nightmare.

Cradling his face in her hands, she said, “I won’t allow this ugliness to destroy you, destroy us.”

He crushed her to him, the water pounding over them until steam filled the small enclosure. Warm through and through, not from the heat but from Fox’s embrace, she turned it off. Drying off and shrugging into a thick hotel robe while Fox stepped out to pull on his jeans over bare skin, she brushed her teeth to get rid of the last faint traces of her nausea.

“Come on.” She took Fox’s hand, her rock star having returned to lean in the doorway. “We need to talk to Thea and find out how bad it is, what she can do about it.”

Fox pulled her back against him, his eyes furious but his voice gentle as he said, “This person will pay. I promise you that.”

“As long as it’s legal,” Molly reminded him. “I don’t ever want to visit you behind bars.”

A grim nod. Instead of calling Thea back on the phone once they’d returned to the sofa, Molly used her tablet to connect face-to-face with her sister. Thea looked angrier than Molly had ever seen her, her cheekbones slicing against the smooth honey of her skin.

Her sister didn’t waste time asking how Molly was feeling. Instead, she gave them the cold, hard facts. “The major news organizations aren’t reprinting the still photos lifted from the videos, given that the images were taken in a place where you had an expectation of privacy. The blogs and online fan sites are also staying clear.”

Still grim, she continued, “However, one extra skeevy tabloid has printed two stills with a promise of more, with the video to be uploaded on their site in just over twenty-four hours, and the publicity’s gaining steam. Several other sites have scraped the photos for their own pages. It’s trending on all the main social media platforms, and even the places that haven’t printed the stills are carrying stories about them, so people are going looking.”

Able to feel Fox’s body vibrating with the rigid control he had over himself, Molly put her hand on his knee. “So,” she said, “there’s no way to close the gate, is there?”

“Fox’s legal team can hit every single site that reprinted the stills with a lawsuit, but that horse has bolted.” Her sister checked an incoming call on her phone, didn’t answer. “I’ve already been in touch with them about getting an injunction to block the video, but the tabloid is based in another jurisdiction and I have a feeling they’ll just move up the upload deadline the instant they get a whiff of legal action.” She thrust a hand through her hair. “Only reason they haven’t already uploaded is to maximize the publicity.”

Molly wondered if she was in shock, she was so calm, but now that the first horror had passed, she didn’t feel numb. No, she was becoming angrier with every second that elapsed—because this was hurting Fox, her protective, possessive lover, and no one got to hurt her man. “I want to see what they’ve already posted,” she said. “I need to know how bad this is.”

Thea didn’t argue, just forwarded her the articles, then waited as she and Fox opened the file. It made Molly’s nails dig into her palms to see an image of herself sitting up on her knees with Fox behind her, both of them nude. They were laughing, and he had his hands on her br**sts. The tabloid hadn’t blacked out that part, probably because Fox’s fingers covered her ni**les, but they’d put a rectangular block over her genital region, with the word “Explicit!” across it.