The Rocker Who Wants Me (The Rocker... Series) (2 page)

“We could never work,” I told him as I boldly met his eyes. “I want something you will never be able to give me.”

Hazel eyes narrowed on me. “Why? Because you’re with Liam now? Do you honestly think that he can give you what you want, Dallas? If anything, he’s the one with the Gabriella issues.”

I stiffened at the mention of Liam. What the fuck? What did Liam have to do with anything? “I’m not with Liam.”

“Bullshit. I saw you kissing him on Sunday.” His face tightened with anger. “His hands were all over you.”

“What?” I blinked. Was I so tired that I was hearing things? No way had he just said that Liam was all over me. As much as I cared about him, I would never let him put his hands on me. Never. I could barely stand for people to touch me. It was a fucking miracle I could let Axton touch me as much as he had during our time together. I’d actually craved another human being’s touch—I still did. It wasn’t Liam that I craved, though, so I would never allow him to be ‘all over me’.

I had been visiting Liam every Sunday since he had gone into rehab. For the first time Liam Bryant had gone willingly for treatment for his addiction. He was progressing admirably and as long as he had a good support group around him when he got out in a few short weeks, I was confident that he would be able to succeed this time around. When I had last seen him nearly a week ago he had kissed me before I left, but it was nothing like Axton was describing.

Liam and I were friends, really good friends. The kiss he had given me was nothing more than that…

The reality of what Axton was confessing to me suddenly hit me like a slap in the face. “Have you been followin’ me, Ax?” Was he stalking me?

His hands clenched into fists, but he didn’t deny it. “Don’t change the subject, Dallas. If you’re with Liam now, just say so.”

“I am not with Liam!” I exclaimed, throwing my hands in the air, a sure sign that I was on the verge of an all-out tantrum. “I’ve just been helping him through his recovery. Something friends tend to do for each other.”

“He’s a loser. Liam has never lasted more than a few weeks of sobriety after getting out of rehab, and this time isn’t going to be any different. He gets off on hot chicks wanting to fix him.” Axton stepped closer, his hands reaching out and catching hold of my elbows. “He isn’t good enough for you. Don’t let him pull you down.”

I jerked back, truly disgusted with Axton for the first time since I had met him. “You’ve known him forever. Liam is your band brother, Ax. But you don’t seem to know anything about him. He’s stronger than you realize. All he needs is someone to believe in him. Now I understand why it’s taken him so long to make it this far with recovery. If this is how you and the rest of OtherWorld treat him then he’s better off with no one.”

“Damn it, Dallas. Liam Bryant destroys everything he touches. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

I shook my head. “No need to worry, Rock God. I’m safe with Liam.” It’s you that always hurts me.

Dallas

Happy New Year.

I glared at the cheerful banner that hung over the ER nurses’ station. Colorful balloons hung around each side of it. I didn’t need the banner to tell me that it was the end of one year, and come the end of my shift, I’d be going home to the beginning of a new one. The busyness of the ER told its own story of how wonderful it was.

Stomach viruses. Flu. Heart attack. Two strokes. A sprained ankle. A tot with a broken wrist. It sounded like a nurses Christmas carol. It wasn’t. Christmas was over and done with. It was just typical evening shift for the busiest hospital in New York. Which made me question who had found time to hang that freaking banner in the first place? Someone was slacking and I couldn’t deal with working with slackers. It meant I had to bust my ass twice as hard and I was already running on fumes—or so it felt like.

The only shining glory to it all was that I only had a few more days on my contract. By the end of next week I would be jobless and the woman I had been covering for would be back from maternity leave. Then and only then would I do a happy dance and celebrate with my two roommates with a night out at the club—something I hadn’t gotten to do in over two years.

The radio system we used to communicate with inbound EMTs buzzed and I was the only one close enough to grab it. They were five minutes out with an unconscious MVA—motor vehicle accident—victim. A drunk driver had gone into oncoming traffic and collided head on with some guy’s sports car. We were getting the victim while another hospital was getting the drunk driver—who the EMT said merely had a broken nose from his airbag.

I quickly scribbled down all the information as it was given to me and then rushed to get the closest trauma room ready. The patient hadn’t been wearing a seatbelt and had been tossed through the windshield on impact. Head injury, internal bleeding, and possible spinal injuries as well. I paged radiology. We would need X-rays, CT scans, possibly even an ultrasound to rule out major internal bleeding of the abdomen. The crash cart was ready and waiting, as well as the surgeon on call—one of the top rated surgeons in the country. Another doctor stopped beside me just as the ambulance pulled to a stop in front of the sliding double doors. I rushed with the two doctors and another nurse to help the EMTs unload the patient.

I barely had a moment to take a quick glance at the man’s face before I was pushing him into the trauma room and starting to work on him. An IV had already been put in his arm, fluids pumping into him at the fastest speed possible. An oxygen mask was on his face, while the EMT kept pumping the bag, giving the patient oxygen manually. I wish I knew the guy’s name so I could talk to him. Let him know he wasn’t alone. But there had been no time for identification before he had been transported. In the trauma room we moved him from the gurney to the bed already set up. I started giving the meds the doctors called out for, X-rays were already being snapped even though the room was full of people.

“Broken ribs,” the surgeon called out and the nurse that was there to assist me started punching it into a computer by the sink. “His spine is swollen. I can’t see if there are any breaks.”

The IV in the patient’s arm suddenly collapsed and I didn’t even think before I started putting a new one in. Pushing up the sleeve of the man’s torn and bloody shirt, I started to search for a vein when the ink on his bicep caught my attention…

Everything inside of me froze and I gasped. I knew that tattoo anywhere. The entire band had one somewhere on their body. A million things went through my head in the space of a second.
No, it can’t be!
I reached for the oxygen mask and lifted it for a moment to confirm my worst fears. Tears pricked my eyes but I blinked them back. I couldn’t panic now. Not when he needed me to stay calm and do my job so that I could save his life.

“Wait!” I cried when the other nurse started to give the medication the surgeon had instructed.

“What?” three people demanded at the same time. In a situation like this every second counted and I was wasting valuable time.

“We need to do a tox screen. He might… He might have cocaine or something just as harsh in his system.” I hated even thinking it, but Liam had just gotten out of rehab less than a week ago. It was just as likely he could have started using again as it wasn’t. I couldn’t risk his life if he had fallen off the wagon, no matter how badly I wanted to believe in him.

“Do it!” the second doctor barked, and I didn’t hesitate to draw the blood. There was a machine in the room that could give us a read-out within a minute and I rushed to do it as the other nurse put the IV line in that I hadn’t finished.

“Negative.” I breathed a sigh of relief. Liam hadn’t reverted to old habits and gone in search of a fix less than a week out of rehab.

But his addiction wasn’t something to worry about at the moment. His ruptured spleen and lacerated liver were. A broken leg to go along with the ribs and dislocated shoulder were minor compared to the fact that with all the swelling, Liam was liable to end up in a wheelchair. The pressure in his brain was already becoming too much and the OR was paged to prep for multiple surgeries STAT.

As I ran with the emergency team to push Liam’s bed into the elevator, I was on auto pilot. I couldn’t think past getting him upstairs and into the operating room. The surgery team was already waiting for us as the elevators opened. I wanted to go with him, but I wasn’t certified for an operation like this.

As Liam was wheeled away and the double doors to the operating room closed behind him, I finally let the grief free and fell back against the nearest wall. Liam. He was dying. I could lose my newest and dearest friend…

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I’d just spoken with him on the phone two days ago. Had seen him just a few days before that at the last Sunday visitation at the rehab before his release. He had looked so healthy compared to how he had been when I had first dropped him off. Liam had been full of life and there hadn’t been a drug in sight to help him through the demons that I knew he had. We had made plans to meet up this Sunday and just hang out because we had gotten so used to seeing each other on a weekly basis. Sundays were our days and I knew he looked forward to them just as much as I did—probably more since he considered me his only friend now.

I stood there for several minutes before the nurse that had been assisting me finally nudged me with her elbow. “A friend of yours?” All I could do was nod. “Do you need me to call anyone?”

Dread churned in my gut. There were phone calls that had to be made, but I was the only one who could do that. Otherwise the hospital would be descended on by vultures. The paps would be all over this story in a heartbeat. Legendary drug addict rocker in critical condition after a head-on collision with a drunk driver. They would automatically assume it had been Liam that had been at fault, Liam who had been the drunk driver. “No. I need to do that.”

I rode the elevator back down to the ER, but instead of going to the nurses’ station I went back to the break room and fished my cellphone from my coat pocket. My fingers were trembling as they hovered over the contact list. Whom should I call first?

His sister? Marissa was going to fall to pieces when she found out her beloved brother was hanging on the verge of death. Emmie? She was his manager, the one who would have to handle the press and everything else that would come with the news that Liam Bryant, the bassist for OtherWorld, had been in a car accident that involved a drunk driver. I had Devlin Cutter’s number in my contact list. He was the drummer for OtherWorld, but he was in California at the moment.

Without thinking, I ran my finger across the name that I saw next and put the phone to my ear. It wasn’t too late, just after eleven. Still, I knew she’d had plans for tonight that involved a sexy piece of fine, gay ass. Natalie and Linc seemed joined at the hip these days. They only had each other lately since I was always working and Harper had moved to the West Coast.

“Hey!” Natalie greeted on the fourth ring. Loud music was playing in the background and there was male and female laughter. “You get off early? Come party with us.”

I sucked in a steadying breath. “Nat… I need your help.”

My shift ended, but I didn’t go home. Instead I went straight up to the OR waiting room and sat there. It was empty at the moment as only emergency surgery was done this time of night, but it wouldn’t have mattered if the room were overflowing. I wouldn’t have seen any of it. All I could think about was if my friend was okay.

I sat there for nearly an hour before the first call came in. It was Emmie, assuring me that she would be out on the first available plane. With the weather and everyone traveling back home after the holidays she couldn’t even charter a plane, so she was on standby. We didn’t chat for more than a minute. When she hung up, the phone rang again. It was Marissa’s number but Wroth on the line. They couldn’t get a flight out of Tennessee until the next afternoon so he was going to drive Marissa up tonight. I promised Liam’s cousin I would keep him informed while listening to a sobbing Marissa in the background. I adored Marissa. She was the kind of person who you were just drawn to whether you wanted to or not. Her grief only escalated my own and made my chest hurt.