Rock Reclaimed (Rock Revenge Trilogy 2)

“The sun takes a lot out of a person.” Her voice was weak, and I hated it. It made me want to go back to that beach and lie in wait until those two bastards returned so I could finish the job.

This time, I wouldn’t stop.

“And the fight.” She swallowed audibly. “Are you sore?”

“I’ve been better.” I rubbed my chest. Strangely, that part of me ached more than all the rest of me combined.

She seemed so small in the darkness. So fragile and impossibly beautiful, though I couldn’t make out much of her features. But I could recreate them in my head. The fringe of her dark lashes laying on her freckled cheeks. Her rosy lips, one side tipped up in a smile. Her big eyes, so wary and guarded.

Were they always that way? Or did I scare her?

God knows she terrified me.

“You probably should’ve gone to the hospital.” Though she extracted herself from my hold and put definite space between us on the bed, she didn’t dart away as if I were made of poison. Progress.

“Nah. I was worse off after Simon.”

Which wasn’t long ago. Christ, I was racking up the brawls lately.

So much for protecting my instrument. Meaning myself. My battered guitar only sounded better with some scars. Me? Not so much.

“Simon?” She cleared her throat. “Your brother.”

“You heard about that mess?” I scratched the back of my hair, strangely embarrassed. Since my goal had been for my lineage to be known the world over, it didn’t make a lot of sense that I wasn’t sure if I liked Zoe knowing what had occurred.

None of my reactions to this woman made sense.

“I did. I know him.” She didn’t elaborate. Didn’t mention her connection to Lila or the rest of Ripper, just let the statement hang between us like a cold vapor.

“And? What are your thoughts?”

“About Simon? He’s different than you.”

“So he’s determined to prove.” As was I, when it came down to it. I’d use any weapons I had, including my last name, but I was no carbon copy off the old block. I was my own man. Could be an icon in my own right. Even Sabrina had said so.

Fuck, Sabrina. Had she returned my call while I’d been dead to the world?

But I didn’t fumble for my phone. I wasn’t in any hurry for this…whatever the hell it was to end. My shoulder blades itched with the need to move though. To not sit here in the scope of Zoe’s far too perceptive eyes.

I didn’t want to be another subject with her. Just one more character study. I wanted her in the frame with me. If I couldn’t have distance here, neither could she.

“You just found him after all these years. That has to be…weird,” she said finally.

“You could say that.”

“Even with the differences between you, the similarities are striking. I imagine that increases the odd factor.”

I shifted restlessly. “You would be right.”

“Yet you called him out on stage. Challenged him basically.”

“I’d spent a lot of time in obscurity. Gets old after awhile.”

“Yeah, and he’s, well, an icon.”

It had to be that word. Of course. “He is. I’m parched.”

Silently, she rose to fetch me a cup of water. “No wonder. Your skin is so red you practically glow in the dark.”