Pretty Little Hellion (Rocker Universe: Pretty Little #3)

21. Hayat

Chapter Twenty-One

Hayat

A sharp swat to my ass woke me. From the pressure behind the slight blow, I knew it wasn’t Jamie. It would have been so much more fun if it had come from my pit bull boyfriend.

Another swat hit me right across both cheeks through my sleep shorts and the sheet that I was snuggled beneath. Without opening my eyes, I grabbed a pillow to cover my head. “Go away!” I yelled, the sound muffled through the thick down.

“You have until the count of five to have your ass up and in the bathroom before I send in the big guns,” Mom threatened, attempting to take my pillow from me.

I tightened my grip, willing to play tug-of-war with her if it meant I could hide from the world for a little longer. Fuck, not the world. Just…my family.

“One. Two. Three. Four…”

I sat upright in bed, relinquishing my hold on the pillow. I didn’t know who she would send in if I didn’t get up, and with that variable unknown, I wasn’t about to chance it. My hair was all over the place, veiling my face from the fading light casting a soft glow across the bed.

That I was alone in my gigantic custom-made bed did not improve my already sour mood. “Where are these guns you speak of?” I demanded. “Dad?”

Instead of answering, she grabbed my foot. Caught off guard, I screamed as she dragged me to the end of the bed. “Potty and then come eat,” she instructed, and I couldn’t stop myself from snickering at her continuing to tell me to “potty” even though I was twenty years old.

Another tap on my ass and she pushed me toward the bathroom door. “We have an extremely busy and tight schedule, and you are wasting valuable time. Do you want to be the reason Emmie goes into fire-breather mode because you’re lagging behind?”

“Where is Ky?” I whined. “And why aren’t Sparks and Jamie still in bed?”

“Everyone is eating and waiting on you. Hurry up, or I’m going to let Evan eat the last waffle.”

“The hell you say!” I glowered at her over my shoulder. “There better be at least two waffles waiting on me.” I slammed the bathroom door and quickly used the toilet before washing my hands. I didn’t shower, but I washed my face in a hurry, changed into my usual sweats, bralette, and shredded hoodie, half running out to the kitchen.

As soon as I opened my bedroom door, however, I froze. The apartment was overrun with people. Just as many strangers as family members crowded the huge penthouse. How I’d missed the sounds of the proverbial circus taking place in my home was an mystery to me.

Some people were standing around on their phones. Others were sitting on the couch or the floor, laptops open, fingers clicking over the keys at three hundred words a minute. Soft voices. Loud voices. Amused voices. Grumpy voices. Some familiar. Some not.

None of them stopped what they were doing to look at me while I glanced around, feeling my heart rate spiking because I didn’t see or hear my guys.

“Yo, Hayat!” Mason called from the kitchen. He lifted a plate full of food temptingly. “Hurry up, girl. Evan is about to destroy these waffles. I can’t keep fending him off for much longer.”

“You snooze, you lose,” Evan snarked, playfully attempting to grab for the plate. But with his insanely long arms, he could have easily snatched the dish from our cousin.

Dodging people left and right, I worked through the human maze to get to Mason and the prized plate of waffles. Perfectly proportioned with fruit and whipped cream, and the delicious bacon on the side. Why there was fresh breakfast food when it was dinnertime didn’t cross my mind. Waffles were life, so when they were an option, that was always going to be my answer. I sat at the island, and Mason placed the food in front of me. Kissing the side of my head, he stepped back and wiped his hands on a dishcloth.

A little shell-shocked at finding the apartment full of so many people, I snacked on a piece of crispy bacon, glancing around like I had stepped into an alternate universe.

And then the front door opened, and Emmie walked in. One phone to her ear, another in her free hand as she typed away. But as soon as she stepped into the room, the atmosphere changed. It was something I should have been used to, having witnessed it so many times throughout my entire life, yet it still left me in awe every time I saw it happen.

People took notice of her. Straightened their shoulders. Sucked in their stomachs. Stood up taller. Tried to keep their voices steady when they spoke to her. And hide the way their fingers trembled if she happened to shake their hand. Beads of sweat dotted brows even in the coldest of temperatures from excitement or fear or both. Only her Gods would truly know, because I sure as hell hadn’t figured it out yet.

Green eyes scanned the open floor plan before finding me in the kitchen. Her face softened for a count of five full seconds before she started walking my way.

“Better eat up, sis,” Evan said, stuffing half a waffle into his mouth. “Might be the last meal you get for a while if what they have planned means anything.”

“What plans?” I hissed at him, cutting huge chunks out of my waffles and stuffing my mouth. I was hungry, and from the veiled threat my brother was throwing my way, food was going to be scarce.

He smirked, his eyes full of mischief. “You’ll see.”

“Shit. Shit. Shit.” Then I moaned, because the waffles were so damn good. “Who made these? No way it was Mom.”

“Nik,” Mason supplied. “But he’s downstairs in the studio right now with my dad and everyone else.”

Confusion only growing, because I thought we were supposed to be going to ASM that afternoon, I stuffed my face with as much as possible in the short time it took before Emmie reached me. I didn’t even care that I had chipmunk cheeks going on or whipped cream all over my face. Mason put a glass of orange juice in my hand.

“Ready?” Emmie asked, picking up a napkin and wiping my face like I was a toddler covered in melted ice cream. Firm, but gentle.

Once she was done, she kept holding my chin, turning my face left and right. To anyone watching her, she was simply inspecting to make sure I was clean. But those eyes were locked on mine, searching deeper than she ever had before.

Feeling vulnerable, when my emotions were already so raw, my entire body felt the road rash that the previous night had left on my soul, I pulled back from her. Sadness flickered across her face. Exposing her own vulnerability to me for a moment, letting me know without words that she understood.

Swallowing a gulp of my juice, I redirected my attention so I wouldn’t get stuck in what was already the past. Obviously, something monumental was taking place in the present, and I didn’t want to miss anything.

“Ready for what, exactly?”

“Oh, you know, just the first day of being a real rock star. Nothing too major.” She kissed my forehead and stepped back. Placing both of her phones on the island, she clapped her hands loudly, causing the low level of chatter to go completely quiet.

“Marketing teams, I want any mock-ups of posters, T-shirts, water bottles. Anything and everything a fan would be ready to scream ‘take my money’ for, I want a rough draft of it. Do not be afraid to be creative. Even a bad idea is, essentially, an idea. If we don’t use it today, that doesn’t mean we won’t in the future.”

Her head swiveled to another group of people. “PR, I want you working on interview opportunities. Late-night shows. SNL . Call my contact at SatRad so we can get a highlight of Autumn’s Slumber on any of their rock channels. Offer them an exclusive hour-long interview, live-in-studio show. Bonus points if it can be scheduled for next Friday.”

People were rapidly scribbling notes or had voice memos open as they scrambled to get down every detail Emmie was demanding of them.

“Content creators, I want you to divide the recordings of last night’s live performance. I want individuals of each song floating around on ASM socials, as well as Havoc’s and Autumn’s Slumber’s. Email me everything by midnight. If I don’t personally approve of the material, you don’t post it. Are we clear?”

“Clear,” they responded in unison. I had the strangest urge to touch them, maybe pinch them to see if they felt pain, just to make sure they were actually human and not some artificial intelligence robotic team Emmie had someone create for her. I knew that was bullshit, but I still had to flex my fingers to keep from touching a girl as Emmie took hold of my elbow and guided me past everyone on the way to the door.

“Where are we going?” I asked when the door shut behind us. Two guards who usually worked at ASM were standing on either side of the elevator. “Has the level of security been elevated for some reason? Should I be worried?”

“You have no need to worry about anything or anyone.” She was texting on one of her phones again. I hadn’t noticed when she’d grabbed the devices off the kitchen island, where they had been beside my plate. Licking my lips, I longed for the remnants of my waffles. “We simply decided that since there would be so many people coming and going from your personal space today, that security would be on hand. Everyone has airtight NDAs, so there will be no leaking of personal information from any of my staff.”

“Okay, but why are we working from here today? Wouldn’t it have been easier to do all of this down at ASM, which was what was originally planned? I’m sorry I overslept. I know we were scheduled to record with Shane earlier in the day. It won’t happen again, I promise.”

“It’s fine, Hayat. There is some remodeling going on at the office. An unexpected incident caused us to do an entire remodel of one floor, and I didn’t want that to slow us down in getting Autumn’s Slumber moving forward.”