Rocking Kin (Lucy & Harris, #3) - Terri Anne Browning Page 0,26

forward to going back to that pit of vipers? I needed to get away from Jace St. Charles as quickly as I could.

Chapter 8

Jace

If I’d thought that Kin was pissed, I’d been wrong.

She wasn’t pissed. No, she was hurt and that made it twice as bad.

Fuck.

As she stood to get ready to take the stage for her first open mike, I ached to reach out and take her hand. To give it a squeeze and offer my support, but the look on her face—in those damn blue eyes—told me that touching her right then would be the last thing she needed or would accept. Her eyes were hard, but I could see what was deeper.

The vulnerability.

She seemed almost…defeated, in a way. That look was something I’d never seen from her before and it stabbed me straight to the soul. What was going on with her? I had no idea what had happened to her after I’d left Bristol all those months ago and right then I would have killed to know what was going on. Before I’d left her, I knew that all I would have had to do was pull her close and tell her I would make it all better and she would wrap her arms around my waist and unload everything that was bothering her.

Now…

Well, now I’d fucked all that up. I wasn’t going to get what was wrong with her out so easily. If at all.

Harris dropped down into his chair that he’d been in before having to get back to work and starting the open mike show, but he only had eyes for the beautiful chick I’d been left alone with the second Kin’s name had been called. I glanced at Lucy out of the corner of my eye.

There was no one in the music world who didn’t know who Lucy Thornton was. Her entire life story had been publicized from the moment Jesse Thornton had adopted her. The drummer for Demon’s Wing had married Lucy’s oldest sister and the two had adopted her. Two years after that, just when Layla Thornton had gone into labor with their twin sons, Lucy’s biological father had resurfaced and had snatched her. The media world had lost their shit trying to get pictures of Lucy after that little fiasco and one of them actually had.

Lucy had been one big bruise. No part of her face had been left untouched. Her eyes had been swollen and her nine-year-old little body had looked like someone had used it as a punching bag. The scar on her lip was the only lasting outward sign that still remained, but I couldn’t help but wonder if that part of her life had left some emotional scars as well.

Since then things had calmed down—with the exception of a few other tabloid moments for the other Demons—and Lucy had tried to keep out of the limelight as much as possible. For celebrities and their kids, however, that was nearly impossible. Which explained the ex-military dude in a suit who was watching Lucy like someone was going to jump out of nowhere and attack her at any moment.

“Can she sing?” Harris asked Lucy as he scooted his chair closer to the chick.

Lucy shrugged. “I haven’t heard her yet, but she can play the guitar like a goddess.”

My gaze went back to Kin who was sitting down on the stool on stage, getting ready. “Caleb taught her,” I informed my friend as I watched Kin closer.

Someone would have to be looking hard to notice how nervous she was right then. She was always so brave and strong that, unless you really knew her, you wouldn’t know how anxious she could actually get. Her smile was bright and friendly, but there was a detachedness in her eyes that would have kept most people at bay.

“Caleb?” Harris murmured.

Before I could explain, Lucy spoke. “Kin’s stepbrother. They’re pretty close. Kin’s been pretty bummed about being away from him, his twin sister, and her stepdad.” She blew out an angry sigh. “Her dad isn’t ever home and her stepmom and her evil step-bitches are making her life miserable. Before she died, Kin’s mom made her promise to spend this year getting to know her dad and his family. Pretty hard to do that when her dad is more interested in that piece-of-shit movie he’s directing, and his family would rather she disappear.”

Well, fuck. So that was it. I hadn’t really thought that Abigail would actually follow through on making Kin keep