Striking Love's Chord

By Kim Leone

Harley McChord is the daughter of a rock star. She is reluctantly tagging along on tour with her family, when an old family friend and his son, Corey Slade, are special guests at one of the concerts.
The two find themselves drawn to each other, and unable to deny the attraction building between them, begin an intense whirlwind romance.
Not everything is smooth sailing, as Corey has some deep seeded issues, stemming from the fact that his mother was murdered when he was still a small child.
Neither Harley, nor Corey, are aware of the secret, both sets of parents have been keeping from them, but when the truth finally emerges, it becomes unclear if their relationship can withstand the pain and torment it causes both families.
As Corey struggles to come to terms with all that happens, Harley battles her own inner torment when she discovers the reason Corey's mother was killed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Feb 24, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503502956

Book preview

Chapter 1

S ee that girl?

The one on the left. Yeah, her. The one with her nose in a book, trying to do her best not to be in the way of the stampede around her.

That’s me.

I know what you’re thinking. What a nerd! Well maybe I am. But the alternative gives me hives.

My name is Harley McChord.

Now, I bet you’re saying to yourself, ‘Harley, what a strange name for a girl’. Yeah, it is. But my parents are strange.

My mom, even now, is the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, but has the personality of a sex crazed teenage boy. My dad plays bass in one of, if not, the most successful rock bands in the world. But don’t ever let him hear you call him a bass player. According to him, he is ‘A FUCKING ROCK STAR’. Make sure you say ‘fucking’ rock star, or you can expect a lecture.

My dad wanted to name me Fender, but my uncles, who are also in the band, threatened to kick him out if he did.

Before I go any further, let me just point out, I am NOT a spoiled rock star’s kid. At the tender age of 9, I begged to go and live with my grandparents. Not the ones who were from L.A. The ones in Iowa. And you know what else in is in Iowa? Nothing. That was the point.

My parents finally gave in after a year, and at the age of ten, let me go. For the past nine and a half years, I have lived a normal life. Well, up until last month. Well, normal enough for a kid who’s ‘fucking rock star’ father and over the top gorgeous mother came to visit every three weeks when they weren’t touring the world.

Last month though, my grandparents, in all of their infinite wisdom, decided to move to Florida and live in a retirement village.

That is why I am sitting here, backstage at a Chasing Taint concert, sitting in the corner, reading a book.

Before you ask, I will give you the reason. I hate the attention people get from being a celebrity’s child. The simple fact is, I have done nothing on my own merits to warrant the attention of people I don’t know. Yes, I’m the spawn of the most oversexed bass player on the planet, my mom being the reason he is oversexed, but I’m not in the band, so why should people need to fawn over me.

My brother Jackson though, is quite happy to ride on my dad’s coat tails. If you are a groupie following my dad’s band, he’s probably the one you’ll end up screwing. He may be my brother, but he is a manwhore. I love him, but it’s the truth. And my dad is so proud.

My dad used to be like that, but when he finally took his head out of his ass long enough to register that he was in love with my mom, he became a one woman pussy whipped walking penis.

The rest of Chasing Taint are a lot tamer than my dad. Always have been. Well, except for my uncle Kearney. Apparently he was a big man slut too, but he didn’t advertise it like dad. He was, and still is, according to my aunt Kailee, and my mom, and most women over the age of sixteen, sex on a stick. He’s my uncle, I don’t see it.

Anyway, back to me. I’m only here because I have nowhere else to stay at the moment. I’ve decided to go back to school after a year off. I’m finally going to college. In Alaska. No seriously. I’m enrolled at Juneau. Yes it’s the one in Twilight. Stop snickering. I’m going there because it’s so far away from my parents. Don’t get me wrong, I fucking love my parents, I would just prefer a different lifestyle. I want to be judged for me, not for who my father is. But until then, I’m staying on the tour bus with my folks.

My mom kind of put her foot down. She wants to spend some quality time with me before I go and get educated. I’m going to study Philosophy, the subject of procrastinators. I have no idea what I want to do, not that I have to do anything. I have a trust fund, and it’s huge. I just need to get my foot in the door at college and if I feel the need to change my direction later, that option is always available.

Now I know you’re thinking, trust fund, buy your own place. Well, I can’t access it till I’m 25 (good move mom).

So, I’m sitting here, reading the only book I could find. It’s terrible. A supernatural romance, and not even a saucy one. You know the ones I’m talking about, the type where the author uses phrase like ‘turgid member’ or ‘quivering petal’. Come on people. Just use the good words. Cock, fuck and cunt. It’s that easy. Any way, this one is about a vampire who joins intimately with a werewolf and they have a baby, and the baby can’t fit into either one’s world and the parents have trials and tribulations and yada yada yada. It makes me want to vomit in my own hair.

What some people consider literature is beyond me.

Anyway, so I’m sitting here backstage, trying to blend into the wall and not get noticed. It’s quite easy. I’m not beautiful like my mom, or a self confessed center of attention rock sex god like my dad. And I’m definitely not riding in the engine wash of my father’s success, like Jackson, my sex crazed older brother.

I suppose you could say I’m pretty, and I have a decent figure from my self defense kick boxing classes, but amongst the likes of my mom, my aunt Kailee and my aunt Renaye, and come to think of it, Jayna, the drummer’s wife, and my few female cousins, I pale in comparison.

I’m probably confusing you a little with all these names, so I’ll give you a quick run down.

The band is Chasing Taint, like I said. I don’t know where the name came from, and personally I think it’s weird when you consider my dad’s meaning of the word ‘taint’, but thank fuck they didn’t call it Dangling Sac like my he originally wanted.

The lead singer is Kearney James. His wife is Kailee, who is my mom’s twin sister. They have a son, Raydon, and twin daughters, Reece and Riley.

The lead guitarist is Mike McChord. He’s dad’s brother. He’s a sweetie, but a little stressed out most of the time. I honestly don’t understand how he and my dad fell from the same family tree. Mike’s wife is Renaye, and they have a son, Remy.

The drummer is Elijah Woods. See the name? A bit similar to that actor, isn’t it? Yeah, but luckily, he legally changed it to Ebo Woods before they became famous. No one wants to be associated with a hobbit anyway. That’s not very rock and roll.

When he changed it, my dad thought it would be a good idea to change his name. For three months he had everyone call him Galahad. It wasn’t a legal change, though. My mom would have killed him.

Ebo’s wife is Jayna. She has been my aunt Kailee’s BFF since college. They have a son, Dylan.

Then there is my dad. Gage McChord. He plays bass. Oops, sorry. I almost forgot. He’s a ‘FUCKING ROCK STAR’. He and my mom, Amy, have four kids. Granada, Jackson, Campbell and me, Harley.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed the theme going on with the names, but all of my siblings are named after brands of guitars. I got Harley, like I said before, because of my uncles. They thought being called Fender was ridiculous (and I wholeheartedly agree) and talked dad out of it. And I silently thank them everyday for it. I got Harley because apparently I was conceived on one. I would give anything to go back in time to when my dad told me that story, and run away before he began telling me.

Now, the crazy part about these rockers, who are now in their late forties, is that the entire band lives together. I don’t mean on tour, cause that is pretty much a given with tour buses and all that. No, these guys actually all live together when they are having down time. It’s not one house though. It looks sort of like a U shaped apartment complex on steroids.

It really is hard to explain, you would have to see it to understand what I mean, but just imagine four different styled mansions, but all connected, curving around in a giant horseshoe. Ridiculous right? Yeah, I think so too. I won’t tell you what state it is in, because a crazy weirdo might hear about it and try to break in or some shit like that. Trust me it’s happened before. Before I was born, some nut-job broke into my parents house and stole my mom’s ‘box of goodies’, if you know what I mean?

See, that’s just one reason why I want to try and get away from this lifestyle. No one should be aware their mom has sex toys.

But getting back to why I’m here. Chasing Taint is on a national tour to celebrate 25 years in the business. All of us kids have come along because some bright spark, I think it was my cousin Raydon, decided that all of the sons needed to form a CT cover band. Yes, all the kids play an instrument too. I play piano. They call themselves Sons of Taint. Original huh? Note the sarcasm there.

They’re actually really good. Each plays the same instrument as his father, except for Campbell. He plays rhythm guitar along side Remy’s lead. Every now and then, they alternate, and Cam will play lead, though it doesn’t happen often. Remy is definitely the more talented of the two. Just don’t tell Campbell I said that.

CT has had so many hits, that there is never an overlap, and the fans get to here nearly the entire back catalog of songs at any one concert.

But back to me again. God, I know how to go off on a tangent, don’t I?

I’m getting worked up, trying to read this book. Fuck it, no point trying to read in the middle of this calamity. I throw the book on the floor because that is really where it belongs anyway.

Harley! My dad is yelling at me from down the hall. There goes my peace.

What Gage? I ask. Oh, did I mention that we aren’t allowed to call him dad?

Have you seen Raydon? That little fucker is suppose to go on stage soon.

He is panicking. Ha, I haven’t seen my dad panic in, well ever. It’s pretty funny to watch.

I get up and follow him down the hallway. It seems like a dumb idea, because someone is bound to have tried it already, but I reach into my pocket and pull out my cell. Scrolling through my contact list, I call my cousin. My dad is right, it really is out of the ordinary for him to be this late.

It connects on the third ring.

Raydon, where the fuck are you? I hiss.

Before you go ape shit, I’m okay. I was on my way there, when some chick ran a red and totaled the cab I was in. I’m fine but the cab driver and the chick were hurt pretty bad. I’m at the hospital with them. I gotta go. He hung up on me.

That asshat hung up on me! I have to say, I fucking hate that.

I sprint back to the dressing room the ‘Sons’ are lounging in, and burst through the door.

Raydon isn’t coming. He’s okay, but he can’t make it. No need to worry them at the moment. Yeah, right.

Fuck, Dylan spits out.

Bet that pretty boy is off screwing some chick. Half his luck. At least someone is balls deep in pussy, Jackson smirks. He has such a way with words.

We can’t cancel now. We have to go on in two minutes. The dads are gonna kills us. We’ve never missed a show. Remy has a tendency to worry. He so much like Uncle Mike.

I look over at Campbell. He always seems to know what to do. As he raises his eyebrows at me, I wonder why the hell I even care. I turn to leave when I feel a hand around my wrist. I slowly turn back around and I am staring right into my brother’s face. He is bending down so we are level, and, he is smirking at me. I think I’m going to be sick. I know that look.

No way, Campbell.

Jackson, Remy and Dylan quickly look at us both, confused.

Just this once Harley Davidson. Please…..

Great, Campbell used the Harley Davidson card. I hate it so much when he does that. But not once have I been able to deny him something when he does, and he knows it.

See, I forgot to mention it before, but Campbell is my twin. He is older by 17 minutes. As kids, before I moved in with the grandparents, we had secret nicknames for each other, though I’m sure every person in the family knew them. I was Harley Davidson and he was Campbell’s Soup. We didn’t use them a lot, but when we did, it meant business.

I really hate you right now, Soup. And I think I mean it.

Excellent. You know this is going to be great Harls. You’re gonna kill it out there. With that comment, the rest of the guys finally catch on.

I can see the looks on their faces, the ones that say ‘can she even sing?’ but I ignore them. I’m too busy glaring red hot fucking daggers at Campbell.

Guys, can you give us a minute? Say nothing to anyone. I want this to be on the down low. And someone get Granada for me, he asks, and begins to usher them out of the door.

I can feel my anxiety levels rising. I really don’t want to do this. It’s their thing, not mine. I don’t want to be a fucking rock star. I don’t even want to be here, watching.

Campbell walks back over to me and wraps his arm around my shoulders. I can’t breathe as he has my head in a headlock, but in his own weird way, this is always how he has comforted me. I’m starting to calm down, but I can feel his body begin to tense. Fuck, he’s going to say something now. I bet anything it will be a guilt trip.

Harls, I’m gonna guilt trip you now, he says.

I knew it. Twin thing.

It nearly killed Mom when you went to live with the grands. I still giggle when he calls our grandparents ‘the grands’. She cried every day for months, and even made me sleep with her for the first week. Fuck, dad even cried the first night. Can you picture Dad crying? It’s fucking horrible. And then he went around for the next week, threatening everyone who saw him cry. I think you need to do this. Just once. It would mean so much to them.

Fuck. I hate hearing shit like this.

I smile weakly at him, and he knows he’s got me.

Okay, I’ll do it.

He rests his forehead on mine, his way of saying thankyou.

Granada chooses that exact moment to barge through the door. She is the spitting image of mom, but with dad’s lighter hair. I feel inadequate most of the time in her presence. She has actually been on one or two of those ‘Most Beautiful People’ lists. She’s even dating Kellan Danning, the most sought after, and eligible, actor in Hollywood.

Enough of this sappy shit. What’s up Cam? She reclines into one of the sofa’s, an expression of calm on her face.

Raydon’s a no show, he announces to her. My sister looks like she’s about to explode. It’s fine though. Harley is stepping up.

Excitement washes over her face. She use to love it when I’d sing to her when we were kids.

Okay, so I have to blow my own horn for a moment here. I can sing. Pretty well actually. I can hit any note, except for those stupid ‘Mariah Carey high pitch squeals only dogs can hear’ notes, and I can sing pretty much any genre. Except Opera, that shit is just ridiculous.

I don’t want to sing CT stuff. Leave that for Raydon. Can we do something else? I have a few ideas, and I tell Campbell. He agrees and leaves to go tell the guys, telling Granada to ‘sex me up’ on his way out of the door. Luckily, the boys know all of my suggestions.

Granada starts to strip and she motions for me to do the same. Apparently, we are switching clothes. God, I think I might die of embarrassment. All she is wearing is a teeny tiny leather mini skirt and a leather vest, with stiletto boots that go up past her knees. She does look hot, but I don’t know if I can pull off that look.

As we switch, the loud roar of applause from the expectant crowd filters through the backstage area, and a voice comes over the speakers.

Sorry folks, there’s going to be a 10 minute delay. One of the band members, I won’t say who, or from which band, has had an incident with a zipper. Jackson would have been my guess, but since it was his voice coming over the speakers, I’m guessing this was just buying me some time. While we wait for him to get help, I’ll let you ponder amongst yourselves which crazy fucker it was.

As one, the entire crowd yells out Gage and then bursts into laughter.

Knowing my dad, he was possibly engaged in his pre-show sex romp with my mom and wouldn’t hear any of that. Or, on the other hand, it might possibly even be true.

Granada takes my glasses, does my make up and pushes me out the door before I can see myself in the mirror. Fuck! I hope she hasn’t made me look like a hooker. I can imagine her doing it, just for shits and giggles.

Up ahead, Uncle Kearney is stopping everyone he can, asking if they’ve seen Raydon. He stops in front of us, grabs my shoulders and says, Granada, have you seen Rayd?

Really, he thinks I’m my sister? It must be the clothes. I shake my head but say nothing. My voice would give me away. After he runs off, I look at my sister, who is now in my frayed jeans and sweater, and wearing my glasses. She looks so much like me, though my hair is darker. I need to find a mirror.

Too late, Campbell has spotted us. He grabs my wrist (yeah, see, he can tell the difference, I must look ridiculous) and drags me towards the stage. I stand in the wings while he walks out to the microphone.

How y’all doin’ tonight? he says to a thunderous response. Why is it that when men are in front of a crowd, their accent turns a little southern? The Sons are gonna change things up a bit tonight. Raydon couldn’t make it, he pauses and looks to the side of the stage as Kearney yells ‘What the Fuck?’.

Tonight, the baby of the Chasing Taint family will be making her musical debut. Please make her feel welcome. Gage’s baby girl and my twin sister, Harley McChord.

Fuck! Me! Sideways! I’m going to die. Or vomit. I can feel it.

The crowd is going nuts. Cheering, whistling, clapping. But I’m frozen solid. Someone pushes me from behind, and I half stumble onto the stage.

Okay, what would my dad do? Yeah, bad example. What would Uncle Kearney do?

I take an enormous breath, and walk the rest of the way on to the stage. Once I get to the microphone stand, I take the mic off, and walk to the edge of the stage.

I’m really fucking nervous, I giggle into the microphone. Before I lose my nerve, Dylan begins the drum intro to the first song. Thankfully, it’s my favorite song, and a song Campbell and I have sung together a thousand times while he was learning to play it, a few summers ago while visiting the grands. At least he’ll know where I would want vocal back-up.

I close my eyes as the words to the song start flowing out of me. It’s an angry love song, kind of, so I let my nervous energy out in the form of aggression. By the second verse, I’m actually feeling kind of comfortable doing this, though I haven’t really looked anywhere but the floor yet. Whenever I raise my head towards the crowd, I shut my eyes. Maybe if I pretend they are not there, I can get through this.

I sneak a quick look behind me at the band, and each one smiles broadly at me. Jackson nods towards the side of the stage as three of the members of Chasing Taint are watching. All of them have massive grins, while the wives tucked under their arms all look close to tears. I laugh and then lead into the second chorus.

As Remy begins the solo, a ruckus comes from the other side of the stage. I turn to see my parents coming to a stop, just off the side of the stage. My mom is crying, but with a massive smile on her face. My dad is just staring open mouthed. I giggle at him and then