Rock Me Faster (Licks of Leather #4) - Jenna Jacob Page 0,18
the truth?”
“I don’t like deceiving people, but Karma hates it even more.”
“So you think the truth is going to come back and bite us in the ass?”
“Think?” I shook my head. “I know it will.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“It’s a universal law.” I could tell by the flicker of doubt in his eyes, he didn’t understand. “When you send out negative energy in any form, it’s like dropping a pebble in a lake. The ripples fan out, but they always return to the source of the disturbance. So whatever essence your pebble contains will definitely come back to you.”
“Yet you signed the contract knowing all that. Why? Why would you agree if you knew there would eventually be consequences?”
I might have to lie to Ross, but I wasn’t going to lie to Quinn. Lifting my chin defiantly, I looked him straight in the eyes. “Because I plan to dismantle his barriers, break down his walls, and show him the life he’s been missing before he discovers the truth.”
“I hope you achieve that goal.”
“I will if you tell me what happened to him.”
“That, my dear, will have to come from Ross himself.” Quinn summoned the waitress, arbitrarily bringing our discussion to a halt.
After taking our order and refilling our mugs, the woman left. I didn’t press my point any further. I’d given Quinn something to chew on, and maybe, just maybe he’d change his mind.
He sipped his coffee and quirked a brow. “Tell me about Gaia Garden. I’m curious to know what commune living is like.”
I’d wondered when he was going to ask about that. Usually, when people found out where I lived, they began pelting me with questions immediately. The fact that Quinn had waited this long told me he possessed a great deal of patience.
Just thinking about home brought a soft smile to my lips. “It’s…amazing, but we prefer the term ecovillage.”
“Ecovillage. Huh, that’s got a nice ring to it. So, what exactly do you do there?”
“Work, and lots of it,” I chuckled. “Everyone works forty-eight hours a week.”
“How many people live in your ecovillage?”
“We have a hundred and thirty-seven adults and twenty-two children. Well, a hundred and thirty-six now that I’m here.”
“What kind of work do you all do?”
“Laundry, childcare, schooling, hunting, cooking, plowing the fields, planting the crops, chopping wood, repairing houses…everything.”
“So, you’re a completely self-sustained community?”
“More than self-sustained. We also have a general store, where we sell the fruits and vegetables we grow, honey, eggs, milk, cream, cheeses, breads, pies, cookies, jams, jellies, herbs, art, clothing, rugs…pretty much everything. People come from all over the world to shop there.”
“Is it lucrative?”
“Yes, very.”
Well, it had been until my greedy mother lost her way.
“And the people there didn’t mind you leaving them one worker short?”
“No. They were excited.” And counting on me to fill the coffers again to restore cosmic harmony.
Chapter Five
Ross
“I’m fucking done with Quinn. We need to find a new agent,” I snarled to my band brothers seated around me in Burk’s suite.
I’d been venting for forty minutes, but it wasn’t doing a damn bit of good. I was as livid as I’d been when I entered the room. Not so much at Quinn—as I was protesting—though he’d royally pissed me off. Truthfully, I was still enraged at the motherfucker who’d had his hands all over Harmony. I’d heard her call my name as I strode down the sidewalk but ignored her. I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to deal with her or anyone at that moment. But when her yelp and cry for help had sliced the air, something inside me snapped and blinded me with a level of fury I’d never felt before.
“He’s the best in the business. We can’t fire him. But we sure as fuck can draw some ground rules,” Syd rallied. “He’s our agent, not our fucking father.”
Ozzy nodded. “I wanted to kill him, and myself, when he’d announced that Mia was going to be our opening act.”
“Yeah, but I think his motivation for that was nothing but greed. He didn’t know that you and Mia had history,” Darren pointed out.
“You sure about that?” I lifted a skeptical brow. “It seemed awfully coincidental. And you all know I don’t believe in coincidences.”
“I’m not putting on a cheerleader skirt and raising any pom-poms on Quinn’s behalf,” Darren assured. “But I don’t think he’s actually trying to hook you and Harmony up. Not in the real sense. I think he really is just trying to get the tabloids off your