Whisperwind a friends to.., p.1
Whisperwind: A Friends-to-Lovers-Rockstar Romance (The Wind & the Roar Trilogy Book 3), page 1
Whisperwind
Cat Porter ©2021
Wildflower Ink, LLC
Editor
Jennifer Roberts-Hall
Content Editor
Christina Trevaskis
Cover Designer
Najla Qamber
Qamber Designs & Media
Proofreader
Jezzie Hughes
Special thanks to Willow Aster
Visit my website at www.catporter.eu
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be used, reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in critical articles or a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, nicknames, logos, and symbols of motorcycle clubs and rock bands are not to be mistaken for real motorcycle clubs and rock bands. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products and locales referenced in this work of fiction. The use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
Also by Cat Porter
- Lock & Key MC Romance Series -
Lock & Key
Random & Rare
Iron & Bone
Blood & Rust
Fury
Lock & Key Christmas
Lock & Key - The Complete Series Boxed Set
Boxed Set of books 1-4
- Lock & Key’s Legends of Meager Series -
Blast to the past of the Lock & Key series
The Dust and the Roar
The Fire and the Roar
The Year of Everything
- The Wind & the Roar Trilogy -
Friends-to-Lovers Rockstar Romance
Freefall
Whirlwind
Whisperwind
Dagger in the Sea
Mediterranean Romantic Suspense Adventure
Wolfsgate
Historical Romance
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Books by Cat Porter
About the Author
1
@JustJana
NOW CONFIRMED: Beck Lanier is engaged!
Spotted at New York’s JFK airport after their flight from Athens, rock guitarist Beck Lanier and his new lady love, photographer Violet Hildebrand, were spotted hugging and kissing goodbye. The sexy couple took a moment to pose with fans, and Beck confirmed they are ENGAGED! It’s official! Congrats to the beautiful couple!
Young Freefall fan Penny Cole spotted the loved up duo on her way through JFK and took these pics
“It was so exciting! They’re both so nice. He’s the coolest guy ever! And the hottest! I’m so happy for him. For both of them!” remarked Cole about her experience.
*See pics
*See a closeup
*See pics
Unfortunately, the newly engaged couple’s time together was abruptly cut short when Beck had to rush home to L.A. to be with close friend, Freefall bass guitarist, Jude Decker, who has been hospitalized for exhaustion as the band’s manager, Ford MacGregor, stated in a press release early this morning. Our thoughts and prayers are with Jude, his family, and the band.
How will this affect the band working on their upcoming album? That remains to be seen.
In the meantime, we’re thrilled that the brooding bad boy of rock has found his mate! Will there be wedding plans soon? We hope so!
Be sure to Like, Comment, and Follow, and hit that notifications bell to stay in the know, and don’t forget to check our Stories for up to the minute updates #BeckLanier #EngagementNews #celebnews #allthenews #allthesexxy #sexxytimes #ViBeck #couplenews #justjana
2
Beck
Jude studied me as I sat down at the edge of his hospital bed. I’d gotten in too late last night to make visiting hours, so I woke up early this morning and got myself here first thing. His face was paler than usual, the blue veins on his skin visible, and the black smudges under his eyes giving him an even starker appearance. I took his cold tattooed hand in mine.
He squeezed my hand. “You’re getting mushy on me, Becks.”
“Deep inside, I’ve always been mushy,” I murmured. “And you know that.”
A small grin perked his lips. “You look different.”
“I met up with Tag in Greece for a week. Got lots of sun and fresh air.”
“Hmm, and that’s not all, I’ll bet.” His grin grew wider. “That’s why you look like you swallowed the world. How is that asshole?”
“Same asshole we’ve always known.” I laughed. “He’s doing real good. Still ambitious, still doesn’t let the crazy get to him. He surfs the waves of it all.”
“He was always good at that.”
“Right?”
“You must have had a blast. Endless women, huh?”
“One.”
His eyes widened. “One? Only one? No way.”
“Yes way. So glad you left me that box of goodies in my bag.”
“Oh right—I did, didn’t I?” He shifted in the stiff bedding. “Is she Greek? Did she come to L.A. with you?”
“Would you believe, I’ve known Violet for years? She’s from my mom’s town in South Dakota. After the tour, when I went to Meager for a week to hole up, our paths crossed one night.”
“Cool. You really like her, don’t you? I think I’m seeing more than sun and surf on you, here.” He laughed softly.
“I like her a lot.”
“Shit, did my drama interrupt your trip?”
“No, We’d just landed in New York when my dad called and told me.”
“Eric’s been great. I’m glad my mom wasn’t on her own here last night.” He swallowed. “I didn’t do this on purpose. That’s what everybody’s thinking, but it’s not true. We were just partying, hanging out with Sig and his band, having a good time. I overdid it, obviously.”
Overdid or overdosed? “Yeah, Jude, I get it.”
“You’re too nice to yell at me, to cuss me out.”
I only sniffed in air, my hand tightening over his.
“I’m sorry…” his voice broke.
“Stop. You don’t owe me any apologies. I love you, Jude. We’ve been friends since we were young and stupid boys. I worry about you, that’s all.”
“I don’t want you to worry about me.”
“I always have.” My voice came out sharp and I didn’t mean it to.
He sank back onto his pillow. “Can you open the blinds for me? I really hate not being able to see outside”
“Sure.” I darted up from the bed and raised the blinds. A grim urban landscape filled the window. “Better, huh?”
“Yeah. Sometimes I just want to make everything stop, you know? I’m so tired.”
“I know, Jude. This was one fucking exhausting tour. We’re all tired. But somehow we’ve got to make better choices for ourselves and stick to them. And at the end of each choice is our love of the music, of our band. The thing we always dreamed of, the thing we’re doing now. Choose that, Jude. You need to be on that road, we all do. That’s where the good times are, the significant ones that last.”
“It’s okay. We’ll figure it out, all of it. Don’t worry. We will work it out. We’re big boys.”
“Professionals.” He cracked a tight grin.
That word had never felt so charged, so heavy like it did right now. “We have a deadline, and we’ll keep to it. Myles, Zack, and me will get started, get some melodies down, some lyrics, and we’ll keep you in the loop, of course. And when you’re ready to come to the studio, we’ll all be ready to make it fly.”
“Okay. Sounds good.”
“Tell me what you’re thinking, Jude. I want to know. I need to hear it from you. I need to know where I can help.”
“It used to be fun.” His voice was above a whisper. “Maybe it can’t be fun anymore, now that we’ve hit it this big. Now that there are all these things we have to keep doing to keep the rat wheel turning and turning fast. It feels like everything changed and I didn’t realize. Can I even catch up?
“Don’t get me wrong, Beck. I’m grateful for everything we’ve achieved, everything we’ve got—the solid album, the sold out tour, the fans, the money—first time in my life I’m not worried about rent or food. But the last month just felt like I was grinding myself into a pulp. And with you and Myles fighting—”
“We weren’t always fighting.”
“No, you weren’t. But that tension was always between you, spoken or unspoken. The fuck of it all is that the two of you jam so well together when we play. When you let go of all that crap and fly. There was so much noise all of a sudden. Getting to the fly part became hard work, and that sucked. The last month felt like I had to make myself show up at some job.”
“I get that. I do.”
He let out a breath. “Then suddenly the tour was over and I realized how tired I really was, physically and mentally, on top of feeling cut off from what had become our every day normal. I felt cut off from you guys, the crew. I didn’t know what to do with myself, especially knowing that in a few weeks we had to get back up on that horse again. Part of me wanted to scream and run away. I got…scared.” He swallowed. “If this is what it’s always going to be like, I don’t know if I can…” His voice was breaking, his gaze glued outside the window. He was trying to make sense of his feelings, he was pleading, and it broke my heart.
Jude was always the one leading the charge, clearing the air of bullshit. If any of us felt pushed around, stomped on by too much advice, by reviews, by it not happening for us the way we’d wanted, Jude was the one who had faith and insisted we just had to keep on keeping on.
Keep performing no matter where, keep practicing, no matter how tired we were or not in the mood, keep going to clubs, parties, shows to meet people, jump on any opportunity. Jude and I had been L.A. club kids. He knew DJ’s, owners, bouncers, promoters and they loved him. He also knew the drug dealers and the junkies.
From when we’d first decided to create our own band back in high school, Jude and I had been tremendously focused as we partied and hung out, and we’d found good people with the same ideas for music that we had. We’d met Zack and Myles, hooked up with Ford, and felt that everything had clicked into place at last, and it had. Freefall had created hit songs, performed all over the world, at clubs, huge arenas, top festivals.
Jude was the one who’d been high on the whole damn experience with a grin on his face no matter the lows that we sank in along the way. I tended to worry about our ultimate direction, about over exposure, and I often navigated our course. That’s where Myles would get pissy with my insistence, but then he’d put all that emotion and frustration into his powerful performances. And Zack, the steady soldier, was the even voice of practicality, who stepped in when he had to, and always stepped up, giving all of himself to his drums.
Jude’s glazed eyes snagged on mine. “But seriously—playing bass for Freefall is my job—how cool is that? I love that, man. I’m so grateful.” His cold fingers curled into my shirt. “I really am.”
“I know what you mean.”
“I want to find it again, Beck. I want to go back to that thrill … I got to…”
“I know, Jude. We will. It was one long fucking tour. It was exhausting. We don’t have to do that again. Not like that. We’re going to take our time and find our groove together again. A new album is like a new beginning. Things will be different this time. And I promise I won’t let you down.”
“You never let me down, Becks. Never. But what’s Ford gonna say? I already fucked up in Copenhagen. He already gave me the do-we-have-a-serious-problem-here talk.”
After our show in Copenhagen, Jude had disappeared at a party. He’d taken off with a crew of people to go to another club without telling us. We’d finally found him incoherent in the corner of a nightclub at a table with twenty other people laughing and drinking. Zack and I had gotten him out of there through the kitchen to a waiting cab back to the hotel.
“What if Ford sends me away to some detox center and then…and then what? I don’t want to get sent away. My mom…”
“Slow down. Slow down. Ford believes in you, man. He believes in all of us, and he wants the best for us. Dude, that’s his job description. We will figure this out together.”
Together, yes. That’s what we’d do. Figure this out and do it together. As far as new songs went, we would work out the basics, and when Jude was ready, he could dive right in and the whole thing would take off, spin, like it always did.
Only, now I knew that “like it always did” no longer applied to anything in my life anymore, did it?
“We got this, Jude.”
Outside in the hallway, Dad and Jude’s mom, Clarice, were speaking with a doctor.
“His brain function is shot,” the doctor said. “They’ve been touring for over two years back to back, correct?”
I joined them. “Yes, we have.”
“And you are…?” the doctor asked.
“Jude’s bandmate.”
“This is my son.” Dad put a hand at my back.
“We’re all family here,” said Clarice.
The doctor tilted his head at Clarice. “This is what happens sometimes for certain individuals who are consistently overstimulated, like musicians who are on tour over a long period of time. After a while your basic normal endorphin function no longer performs, and you constantly live in that hyper state. Then the lows are dismal and you search for new sources of stimulation. So you keep trying new things to find some kind of stimulation and to self soothe. We see that Jude had been diagnosed as bipolar and had been put on lithium—”
“Which he stopped taking a while back,” I said.
Clarice shot me a pained look.
“Good for him. We took a brain scan,” the doctor said. “There’s no sign of bipolarism.”
“What?” she said.
“We’re now testing for a wider range of possibilities that fit the profile of his symptoms. I really feel that something else is at play here. In the meantime, with proper nutrition and self care, he can improve quickly, but of course—” The doctor glanced at me. “ —he needs to stop the opioids and any artificial stimulants. There really wasn’t a whole lot in his system, but his level of exhaustion and malnutrition definitely contributed to his collapse. Now is a good time for him to switch gears. I’ll let you know the results once I get them.”
