Swan River

Book 0: The Painted Daisies

by LJ Evans

Genres: Sagas; Contemporary Romance; Romantic Suspense

Synopsis

The Painted Daisies is an all-female rock band whose star is on the rise. The six band members are more than just friends—they’re a beloved family. Their life seems picture perfect until the band arrives at the studio in Upstate New York and darkness finds them.

 

As the youngest member, Paisley Kim is determined to step out from the shadow of their lead singer, Landry. The shifting dynamic challenges the balance of the band. This tension is exacerbated by Paisley’s relationship with a wild-card producer and a stalker who begins leaving the band messages.

 

Paisley is sure the notes are directed at her, but all the band members have carefully guarded secrets that might be luring the stalker to them.  

 

When the worst happens and Landry is murdered, each of the women shoulders the guilt of knowing they could be the reason she’s dead. But which one was he really after? And who might be next?

 

Swan River is a PREQUEL to The Painted Daisies series, overlapping in timeline with Book One. It gives you the inside scoop into the lives of the band members on the day of the murder, including Landry herself. The prequel ends on a cliffhanger.

 

But you don’t have to wait for answers as the series is NOW COMPLETE. Each novel follows one of the band members as their secrets are revealed, they find love, and they come one step closer to finding Landry’s killer. Each book can be read standalone, but the series is best read in order.

 

Do you think you’re ready for it?

 

Also available as a newsletter subscriber free novella.

Release date: July 10, 2024

Publisher: LJ Evans Books

Print pages: 89

Sample

Message for the Reader

 

 

Swan River is a PREQUEL that gives you the inside scoop into the lives of The Painted Daisies band members on the day Landry Kim was murdered, including Landry herself.

 

This little novella overlaps in timeline with the beginning of book one, Sweet Memory, but in Sweet Memory the full Paisley and Jonas love story is explored, and it has a happily ever after that doesn’t take place here.

 

This prequel ends on a cliffhanger. But the series is now complete and ready to be binged.

 

Keep reading for a sneak peek at the secrets and dangers hovering around each of the band members and see if you can figure out who murdered Landry before the band and their team do. Then, dive into each of the stories to find out all the juicy secrets.

 

Chapter One

Paisley

 

RUN TO YOU

Performed by Lea Michele

 

Paisley lifted her head from the  keyboard after she finished the song and was surprised to find the recording studio completely silent. The air held a strange vibration as if the chords were still traveling through the room. A sea of eyes stared at her. Landry’s face came into focus first before Jonas’s gaze caught her attention through the glass. There was a mix of pride and awe in both their expressions, and it filled Paisley’s chest until it almost burst.

They were good. The songs were really, really good.

She felt it all the way down into the depths of her soul. Paisley had been scribbling away on napkins, notebooks, and school papers long before Landry had formed The Painted Daisies with her friends. And even though this was the band’s third album, even though they’d been playing to sold-out stadiums and the music critics had been sending accolades their way, nothing had felt like these songs. Nothing.

Paisley’s gaze shot to where Jonas stood by the mixing console. Her insides leaped, and her pulse thrummed as if Adria was still pounding away on her drums. She wished it was just the two of them―her and Jonas―sitting behind her keys so he could kiss her. So he could wrap his arms around her and prove the truth of her words. That love was the only truly meaningful part of humanity’s existence.

Jonas’s face broke into a huge smile. He shoved a hand through his dark-blond waves, and then, he put his palm to the glass, fingers wide. Her heart squeezed tight with pleasure and joy. It was as if she could feel the pressure of his hand on her chest where it had lain multiple times as he listened to the rhythm of her heartbeat. If there hadn’t been an entire room between them, she would have met his palm with hers and let the emotions of the songs fill the space between them with the sense of coming home.

“Holy shit, Paise!” Landry’s voice broke the quiet that had settled over all of them, drawing Paisley’s eyes back to her sister. Even though she could hear the admiration in Landry’s gritty tone, guilt swarmed through her at the hurt on Landry’s face. Paisley had never finished any of their music on her own before. She’d never gotten all the way to playing them for the band without her sister having had a say in them.

Except…she hadn’t been alone with these songs either. She just hadn’t been with Landry.

“We’ll have to move everything around,” Landry said, tapping the rings on each of her middle fingers together in thought. Her overly round eyes narrowed, and she twisted her long black hair as she considered the handwritten track list scrawled on the whiteboard that she and Brady had been agonizing over.

Fiadh bounced over to Paisley with her dark-red curls spinning about her. She slung her arm around Paisley’s shoulders.

“Little Bit, love sounds good on you!” Fiadh laughed, her amber eyes sparkling. Paisley felt her skin flush as she shot a glance at Jonas in the control room. Relief settled through her when she realized Jonas hadn’t heard. Instead, he was deep in discussion with studio owner―country-rock legend, Brady O’Neil.

“She’s right,” Leya said, finger resting on the cleft in her chin as her brown eyes darted to Landry who was still assessing the album’s tracklist. “These are your best songs yet. You and Landry outdid yourselves.”

Landry whipped around to face them. “I had nothing to do with them. They’re all Paisley.”

Maybe it was just Paisley’s guilty conscience that heard the quiet rebuke in her sister’s tone, but she didn’t think so. Tension had been growing between them ever since they’d arrived in Grand Orchard and Paisley had gone on her first date with Jonas.

Sensing the friction and wanting to soothe it as always, Adria twirled her sticks and climbed out from behind her drums with model-like grace to tuck her arm through Landry’s. Her bright-blue eyes flickered to Paisley with a slight frown, but it was Nikki who actually spoke.

“Love is in the air, Lan. Get ready for a whole slew of new songs.”

Nikki’s tease sent Paisley’s heart into overdrive, and she shot yet another glance toward the glass. Her stomach flipped because it was obvious Jonas had heard this time. His grin grew, and he winked at Paisley―a damn wink that said I told you so. A wink that should have annoyed her but really just made her melt inside until she was nothing more than a boiling pot of desire.

Brady strode into the room, excitement radiating from his face. “Okay, with the first song, I think we should start with just Paisley’s voice. Then, after the second measure, I want Adria to come in on a gentle beat with the tom-toms. Every two measures, we’ll add another instrument. Leya’s sitar, followed by Fiadh’s banjo, then Landry and Nikki on guitar before Paisley finally joins in on the keyboard. Do we want to try it or just start laying tracks?”

It was Fee who laughed and replied, “I think we should try it a few times together before we start recording anything.”

He shrugged, “Sometimes, just going with it is better than anything you could plan.”

While everyone went to grab their instruments, Paisley shot another smile in Jonas’s direction. Landry stepped in front of her, breaking her view.

“Are you really just going to forget everything that happened yesterday?” Landry whispered, her disappointment pounding through each syllable.

Paisley’s heart grew heavy. She hated that being with Jonas was causing a rift between them. Landry was the one person she admired most in this world. The person responsible for everything Paisley was and hoped to become. But she also didn’t understand how Landry could see how happy she was with Jonas and still want her to give him up.

So, instead of replying with words they’d both regret, she turned back to the music and the suggestions Brady had made.

♫ ♫ ♫

Paisley’s voice was scratchy by the time she came out of the iso booth hours later. She was surprised to find their manager Tommy had been joined by their label owner, Nick Jackson. Nick hadn’t shown up for a recording since their first album, and she wondered what had dragged him all the way from New York City. Whereas Tommy looked like an aging rock star, Nick looked like a banker in a perfectly pressed gray suit with short brown hair that was graying at the temples and a clean-shaven square jaw.

The two men were in deep discussion with Brady about the new songs and the track order. While all the daisies had input, it was Landry who’d always had the innate sense of what it would take to make each song, album, and show a success. The band trusted her final decisions implicitly. She was the fire that fueled them. The force who’d first propelled them into existence and then launched them into worldwide fame once Lost Heart Records had come onboard.

Landry joined them, her lean frame with small curves that matched Paisley’s almost vibrating with excitement. If it wasn’t for their seven-inch height difference, her and her sister could be twins. They had the same large brown eyes, high cheekbones, oval faces, and straight black hair as their Korean mother.

Watching her sister in action was usually impressive, but today it only made her knotted stomach twist more. She wished again that finding the one person who made her feel whole wasn’t causing a rift between her and Landry.

As if reading her mind, Jonas appeared at her side, offering a gentle smile along with the cup of tea he’d brought to soothe her achy vocal cords. Before he’d entered her world, all Paisley had wanted to do after a day of recording was find a quiet space where silence would be her only companion. But now, all she wanted was to lose herself in Jonas.

“You ready to get out of here for a while?” Jonas asked.

Paisley nodded, and Jonas hooked his pinky with hers, joining them together. When she looked down at them, she could see how different they were in size and shape and color, and yet it felt as if they were perfect this way―with his enormous hand dwarfing hers. Just like how the brown and green of their eyes blended perfectly. They were her song come to life.

“Where are you going?” Landry’s voice halted them near the door.

“To Jonas’s,” Paisley said, not quite meeting her sister’s eye.

“Nikki’s stepmom is here, and Ronan and his crew will be at the farmhouse at eight for the bonfire. I need your help setting up,” Landry said, the admonishment ringing through her words as she took in Paisley’s fingers twisted with Jonas’s.

Jonas bristled, shoulders going back, and Paisley knew he was mere moments from exploding again. She couldn’t handle it right now. She was too exhausted from the hours she’d been at the keyboard and still too battered and bruised from the harsh words that had gone unforgiven between her and Landry.

“I know. We’ll be there,” Paisley promised.

Landry left the men, crossed the room, and lowered her voice so the others couldn’t hear her.

“Maybe it would be better if Jonas didn’t come,” Landry said quietly. “We’d hate for him to hit one of the film crew if they accidentally said something wrong.”

“Lan!” Paisley exclaimed right as Jonas growled, “Fuck you.”

Landry just glared, as if his outburst proved her point.

“At least I actually want to make Paisley happy,” Jonas said, voice dark with emotions he was trying to hold back.

Landry stepped even closer until she was almost nose-to-nose with Jonas. “What the hell are you insinuating?”

“I don’t think I need to spell it out for you,” Jonas snapped.

“Stop!” Paisley cried. She loved that they were both trying to protect her in their own way, but it only made the chasm between them widen further. “This isn’t helping. We need to talk. All of us. But not today. Not now, when everyone’s tempers are still high.”

She pushed Jonas in the chest so he moved backward toward the door. She could hear the tapping of Landry’s rings banging out her frustration and worry behind her, but she didn’t turn around. She just headed for the exit with Jonas.

“I refuse to let you ruin your life with one wrong decision, Paisley,” her sister’s voice followed them.

Her grief turned to burning hurt and anger as Landry’s words hit every single sore spot in her soul. She’d almost forgiven Landry for the words said in the heat of the moment the day before about her decision-making. But today, they were so much worse because Landry knew what she was saying, knew how they’d make her feel, and she’d still said them.

Paisley dropped Jonas’s hand and spun around. “Wrong decision?! How could you, Lan? Just because my decision isn’t the one that makes your life easier, doesn’t mean it’s wrong. I know what makes me happy. I know who I want at my side, and if you don’t like it, then you don’t have to be a part of it.”

Landry’s eyes widened at Paisley’s passion as much as at the words. Paisley regretted them instantly, wishing she could take them back, but she wouldn’t, not with Landry still shooting venomous looks in Jonas’s direction.

“Paise,” she said, her tone only slightly regretful. “You don’t understand.”

“No. You don’t understand. Because Mom is right, you’ve never cared for anything more than you’ve cared for this band. Stay out of my personal life! You no longer have a say in it.”

Then, Paisley turned on her heel and stormed out with Jonas right behind her. As soon as the door of the studio slammed shut, the bitter remorse building inside her escaped in a quiet sob. Paisley had never struck out at Landry that way before, and it hurt. It had stung not only Landry but Paisley too. She didn’t want her sister out of her life in any way, shape, or form. But how could Landry not see all the good that Paisley saw in Jonas? The gentle heart and protective soul? How he wanted the very best for her just like Landry did?

Jonas caught up to her, pulling Paisley into his chest and wrapping a muscled arm around her. He kissed the top of her head.

“Paisley, I’m sorry,” he said, knowing he’d pushed when she’d wanted to run. But maybe that was the problem. Maybe she’d been running and hiding for so long that no one else knew how to see her as anything but the person in the shadows.

Paisley rested her forehead against his chest, arms going around his waist as he tugged her closer, the husky male scent of him filling her senses and making her feel safe and warm. She lifted her chin, stood on her tiptoes, and pulled his face toward hers, letting their lips touch as she’d been longing to do since she’d first played their love song for the band hours earlier.

The moment their mouths touched her veins flooded with heat. This was no slow build, just a complete and utter longing that raged through her. Desire so strong she forgot everything except how good it felt to have their bodies aligned with his soul calling to hers. At first, Jonas barely returned her kiss, but when she darted a tongue along his seam, he let out a guttural groan before devouring her completely. Lips and teeth and tongue battled with hers as if trying to own her in some deeply primitive way that Paisley should have hated but only loved.

A loud cough interrupted their fiery embrace, followed by her bodyguard saying, “Perhaps we should take this inside, away from any potential cameras.”

Paisley’s eyes opened to find Jonas’s filled with more regret. If their heated kiss ended up on some website―or worse, in another scary note―it would be just one more thing for him to feel sorry about.

But this hadn’t been his fault. This had been all her. She gave Jonas a soft smile and said, “Sorry I attacked you in broad daylight on the street.”

He didn’t return the smile. Instead, his eyes darted around, as if searching for the asshole photographer, or the stalker, or both. She grabbed his hand and tugged him in the direction of his apartment. She needed to be alone with him. She needed to fill herself with the sense of belonging, of being seen, of being adored that only Jonas had ever given her. And this time, she didn’t want it to end until they’d lost every single article of clothing and twined themselves together from head to toe in the closest way possible.

She wanted this. She wanted him. No…she needed him. Like the dark needed the sun to push away the shadows. It was time they gave in and found the crescendo that had been waiting for them for years.

 

Chapter Two

Leya

 

ALMOST HOME

Performed by Mariah Carey

 

Just like everyone else in the room, Leya was trying not to watch the little showdown going on by the door. It wasn’t Landry holding herself tightly back with anger that surprised her. After all, Landry was always the first into every battle, defending them personally or the band as a whole. Instead, it was the fury on Paisley’s face that had the entire band holding their breath.

They’d never seen Paisley stand up to Landry like this. Just the night before, Leya had told Landry she was trying too hard to protect Paisley from heartache, even if it was heartache coming from a boy with an iffy past and a violent streak. But she’d gone all Landry, refusing to give in. Refusing to let any of them be hurt on her watch.

Nikki joined her, adjusting the sloppy bun she’d wrapped her long strands in that morning. Every day, Nikki threatened to cut it all off, and every day, each of them talked her out of it. It wasn’t just because it bonded them in some strange way for all of them but Fee to have black hair. It was because everyone knew Nikki would regret it if she did. The long hair suited her almost more than any of them, and when she left it in her natural, onyx curls, it was even more stunning.

Their first album cover had played up their similarities. They’d all worn white leather jackets with their backs to the camera. Only Paisley, who was over half a foot shorter than the rest of them, and Fiadh, with her deep-red hair, had stood out. The rest could only be told apart by the daisies emblazoned on their jackets. It had been their manager’s idea to emphasize the band’s name by having them choose a favorite daisy to be etched and painted onto their instruments, mic stands, and clothes until the flowers had become almost synonymous with their names.

“Wow, I didn’t think Little Bit actually had it in her,” Nikki said quietly.

Leya nodded as Adria joined them, twirling her sticks unconsciously. Concern filled the air around them as they watched the sisters argue like they never had before. The tension growing between them was why the album had been struggling.

Paisley slammed her way out of the studio with Jonas hot on her trail, and Landry’s shoulders slumped. She rubbed her fingers into her forehead and then turned to face them.

“Don’t,” Landry hissed before any of them could even breathe a word.

“I warned you.” It was Adria who dared to voice Leya’s thoughts aloud.

“I said don’t,” Landry growled. The emotions in her voice made it husky, dropping until it sounded like a wounded animal.

Fiadh bounced over to Landry and slung an arm around her. “Lan, it’s going to be okay. She’s just the first one of us to fall head over heels in love—so much so that she can’t live without him. It’s going to happen to all of us at some point.”

“Lust isn’t love.” The words slipped out of Leya before she could take them back, and she instantly regretted them when her friends’ faces spun to hers.

Nikki chuckled. “Better not let the documentary crew hear you say that tonight. We make our bread and butter on passion and sin.”

Leya rolled her eyes. They knew how she felt about people’s misconceptions that lust was love.

“I don’t trust him. You didn’t see how he went off yesterday on that photographer,” Landry said.

“We’re all on edge,” Adria said quietly, and Leya’s stomach turned, thinking of the gruesome notes with their faces scratched out that had caused their security team to double overnight and the FBI to show up in force.

“Hell, I almost lost it the other day, remember?” Fiadh said.

“You didn’t, though,” Landry grunted out. Silence surrounded them except for Landry’s rings tapping together with her hands held prayer style. “It isn’t just his anger that worries me. What happens when we leave?”

Leya knew exactly what Landry meant. If Paisley had convinced herself that what she felt was love, and then it all fell apart, she’d have a broken heart. One her sister wanted to protect her from.

“Trying to protect her before it happens isn’t going to help. And who knows, maybe it will last,” Nikki said.

Landry scoffed. “They’re not even twenty. What the hell do they know about forever?”

“You’re only five and half years older than her, Lan,” Fee said.

“Exactly, and there’s no way I could make a permanent relationship work.”

“You’re not her, Lan,” Adria said. “Just because it isn’t what you want or need, doesn’t mean it isn’t right for Little Bit.”

Landry groaned and headed for the door. “I’m going for a run around the pond to clear my head before Ronan’s crew and Nikki’s mom shows up. I’ll meet you back at the farmhouse.”

As Landry and her bodyguard disappeared through the studio door, Leya’s phone rang. It was with a twist of pleasure and dread that she saw her mother’s face on the screen. Her parents were concerned about what was happening with the creepy notes. While they seemed aimed at Jonas and Paisley rather than just the band, no one was sure. Not with the hate group, For Greater Tomorrows, spewing gross rhetoric toward her dad and their entire family in an attempt to sway the public away from the Matherton-Singh ticket.

When Leya had first joined the Daisies in high school, everyone in her family, including Leya, had thought it would be temporary. It had been a way for her to honor her grandmother and the Indian instruments Nani had taught her to play. But then it had become home…a place for her to truly be herself in a way she rarely was around her genius family.

“Mom,” Leya answered, drifting over to the side of the room for a bit of privacy.

“Leya, we need you here.” Her mother’s voice was firm and demanding, whereas her father’s would have been soft and cajoling.

“I’ll be there tomorrow night, just like we planned,” Leya said with a confused frown. She was going even if she was dreading putting on a suit and closed-toe pumps and wearing a somber face.

“The plan was to have you here for your father’s acceptance speech, but now we need you earlier for interviews with the entire family.”

“I can’t come tonight, Mom. The documentary crew is shooting some final scenes,” Leya reminded her.

Her mom huffed. “It isn’t even being released until January, with the album, right? This is happening right now. We can’t put this off.”

She sighed. Even though her mother didn’t understand Leya’s career choice, she’d never asked her to quit. Not even when it could have been a detriment to her dad’s political career. They’d just asked to see and be able to veto any marketing or publicity beforehand. What none of them had predicted was for the success and attention her dad had garnered in his first six years in Washington D.C. to lead to a nomination for vice president.

When she didn’t say anything, her mom pushed. “This is important, Leya. We need you. I’ve arranged for a helicopter to pick you up.”

Her family rarely asked her to be there anymore, so denying them this made her stomach twist. And the truth was, she was really proud of her dad. She was proud of all her family. Her mother and brother were saving lives with their surgical knives and her Dad had the chance to change the world. To truly make a difference.

“Fine. I’ll come,” Leya said, giving in while grimacing at the thought of telling an already upset Landry she was bailing on the filming tonight.

“Thank you.” Her mom’s voice was filled with relief, and Leya knew she’d made the right decision. “The helicopter will be at Grand Orchard General Hospital in thirty minutes.”

“Okay, I’ll see you soon.”

In her normal fashion, her mom hung up without saying goodbye.

Leya turned around to where Adria, Nikki, and Fiadh were still in deep discussion about Landry and Paisley’s blowup and the boy who was coming between them all. Leya’s chest hurt at the thought of leaving them like this, but at least Nikki would be there—the peacemaker of their little group.

Leya joined her friends and said, “I’m not going to make the bonfire.”

“What?” Fee demanded.

“Dad needs me at the convention earlier than planned.”

“Maybe we should just reschedule the entire thing,” Adria sighed. “We don’t want them filming Landry and Paisley going at it again.”

Leya felt torn in a way she’d never been before between her family and her friends. Remorse and worry filtered through her, and Nikki seemed to read it, saying, “Go be with your family, Leya. We’ll figure this out.”

Fiadh looked like she was going to protest again, but the look Nikki sent her had her closing her mouth. Leya wrapped her arms around Fee, but held them open and waved the other two women into her embrace. The four of them hugged, and Leya whispered into their ears, “Make sure they remember how much they love each other.”

Then, she let them all go and walked out the door of the studio with two of the security detail following her onto the street. One of them was a Secret Service agent who’d joined her with her dad’s bid for Vice President. Holden Kent was a tall wall of muscles who screamed typical American boy―everything Leya had never been attracted to―and yet, for some ungodly reason, her body seemed to not agree.

This made Leya extra prickly with him. She hated the way her nerve endings tingled whenever he was close, but she refused to give in to his magnetic lure. Not that he’d even think twice about kissing her the way she sometimes found him doing in her dreams. He’d never once sent her a look that was anything but professional.

Holden turned to the other bodyguard. “Miss Singh and I are taking a helicopter to the convention. The Secret Service will take over her protection. You won’t be needed.”

Her annoyance sparked even more, partly because he’d already known about the helicopter, but more because he was dismissing her security team without her okay or approval.

“I don’t think so, Special Agent Kent. My team goes with me.”

The dark-haired Garner bodyguard grimaced. “I don’t think we can do more for you than the Secret Service. Let me just get Garner’s okay to hand you off.”

He pulled out his phone and stepped to the side of the sidewalk while Leya glared at the agent. His face remained expressionless, except she could have sworn his lips twitched just a hair. There definitely was humor in his eyes when the Garner bodyguard came back and said, “I’ll drive you both to the helicopter pad. Garner said to let him know when you’re heading back so we can meet you.”

Leya huffed, shouldered her bag, and headed for the SUV waiting for them on the street. While she hoped with every fiber of her being that her father and Guy Matherton would win the election, she also hoped they didn’t, because she was already tired of having this cocky agent following her around. If they won, it would mean he’d be shadowing her for a lot longer than just a few months, and she wasn’t sure her body could take it.