The Rockers' Babies (The Rocker... Series) (13 page)

I had been messed up in the head. Thinking I was in love with one person, hiding those feelings as

much as possible by diving head first into a relationship that was only about lust—and yeah, even that

hadn’t lasted for very long. Problem was I had been in love with the idea of being in love and Brie had

been just as stubborn about her own feelings about someone else. While we had tried to hide how we really

felt we had pretended to ourselves we loved each other.

She had seen right through me while it had taken me a few months, but I had finally put together who

she had been messed up over.

Now we tried to stay friends, or at least be civil with each other. My friendship with Brie’s cousin,

Alexis—or LeeLee as Brie tended to call her—pretty much made sure that we saw each other regularly. Her

career kept throwing us together in the rock world. We couldn’t really avoid each other if we tried.

“He’s definitely using again, Ax.” Brie’s ever so subtly Italian accent was more pronounced when she

was upset. “I’ve found three eight balls of coke alone and a meth pipe. He has this shit in my apartment!

Jordan is here almost every weekend. If he found this stuff…” she broke off, swearing in Italian and I

couldn’t blame her. I was cursing mentally myself.

Jordan, Alexis and Jared’s son, was just a few months younger than Mia. I was Uncle Ax to both those

little rotten babies and I would kill anyone who hurt them. “I know, Brie,” I told her, glancing toward the table where Wroth, Marissa, and Liam were sitting. Devlin and Harris were standing beside them, talking

and laughing as they watched Zander dancing with Shane’s stepmother.

I’d had big plans for tonight. All of them had included Dallas being naked and in my arms. Cursing, I

turned away from the sight of my bandmates having a seemingly good time and glared out the window into

the gardens Shane and Harper had gotten married in just a few hours ago. “I’ll be there in twenty minutes,

Brie. Don’t touch anything. I’ll help you find the rest…”

“Rest? There is more of this shit?” she yelled into the receiver and I grimaced as her shrill voice made

my ears ring.

“There’s always more,” I told her honestly. “He hides that shit everywhere. Just keep calm and I’ll be

right over.”

“I’m over this!” she whispered so low that I had to strain to hear her. “I’m so completely over this shit.”

“Twenty minutes,” I repeated before disconnecting and pocketing my phone.

“Twenty minutes?” I turned to find Dallas standing behind me. Her hair was a sexy mess, her eyes

slightly over bright, and she was carrying the bouquet. Damn, I’d missed her catching it! “Are you

leaving?”

“Something has come up.” She raised a brow and I grimaced. “I have to take care of something. There’s

no telling how long it will take, but I’ll call you as soon as I’m through.”

When I reached for her to kiss her she took a step back. “Are you leaving because of Gabriella

Moreitti?” There was no right answer to that question, I was sure. If I said no, I would be lying. If I said yes, she was going to think all the wrong things. When I didn’t immediately answer her, Dallas laughed.

“Of course. I’m an idiot for thinking differently. Not thirty minutes ago you said you wanted to talk, but

I’m pretty sure we don’t have anything left to say to each other.”

“You’re wrong,” I told her, wishing I had time to convince her differently. But I knew that if I didn’t

get to Brie’s apartment in the time frame I had promised she would probably call the cops. She might love Liam Bryant, but she wasn’t going to let him endanger her nephew. “I’ll call you later, Dallas. I’ll explain everything then, but I really have to get going.”

“Don’t bother. I’m through. Thanks for the sex fest the other night. It was the closure I seriously

needed.” She pushed the bridal bouquet against my chest. “Here, take the chick some flowers. I really don’t want them.”

She walked away before I could open my mouth. I took one step, ready to follow her when Wroth

stopped me. “Looked like an intense conversation you were having on the phone earlier. Everything okay?”

“No!” I exploded. “Your fucking cousin is ruining everything. Again! I have to go clean up a mess and

then we are all sitting down and having a band meeting.”

Wroth’s eyes narrowed. “What did he do this time?”

“He’s using. There are drugs all over Brie’s apartment and she’s about thirty minutes away from turning

his ass over to the cops. So while I should be chasing after that woman…” I pointed after Dallas’s retreating back as she walked up to Linc. The muscle head wrapped her in his arms and kissed the top of her head.

“…I have to go to my batshit crazy ex’s house and clean out Liam’s hidden stash.”

“Fuck!” Wroth glanced over at the table he had just come from. Liam was talking with his sister,

making her smile. Marissa leaned her head against his arm, adoring the man who was all the family she had

left in the world. “This is going to destroy Rissa.”

“Yeah.” I raked my hands through my hair. “And when Emmie finds out she’s going to bust his balls…

After I do it. She’s not going to let him go on tour still using.” We had a tour scheduled for March. Natalie was going to be traveling with us but she was going to be reporting everything back to Emmie daily. She

wouldn’t think twice about canceling the entire tour over Liam’s problem. Ever since Drake had gotten his

act cleaned up, Em had developed a zero tolerance for bad habits.

“Go take care of Brie and clean the place up. I’ll talk to Dev and Zander. Once I make sure that Rissa

gets home okay we’ll take Liam to Zander’s and wait for you there. This will get sorted out tonight.”

I didn’t believe him, and I was sure that he really didn’t believe himself. How many times had we been

cleaning up after Liam? How many times had we made excuses for him, forced him into rehab and then

waited for him to start the cycle all over again just a few weeks after getting out? But I cared about Liam, and I loved Marissa, so I would go through it all again to help my friend.

“Sounds like a plan.” I nodded then pulled my keys from my pocket. “Call me when you get there.”

“Make sure you check the closets. And under the dressers. Sometimes he hides his stash in his dirty

clothes hamper.”

“Yeah, I remember.”

Two hours later I sat on Brie’s couch glaring down at the coffee table and the drugs spread across it. All

of this had been in the apartment for only god knew how long and during that time Jordan could have

found any one of these things and died instantly. Thank god Brie always watched him like a hawk when

she had him.

“I’ve packed his stuff,” she told me as she walked into the living room. Her voice was devoid of

emotion but that told me more than if she had been hysterical. This was hurting her, coming to the

decisions that I knew she’d had to make. “Take it with you when you go, okay?”

I nodded. “If that’s what you want.”

“Of course it’s what I want…” She tossed her long black hair away from her face. “…but if he gets

clean…”

“The problem isn’t him getting clean, Brie. He’s done it a half dozen times before. It’s keeping him

clean that causes the problems. He’s been using hardcore since we got in the business. His addiction rules

him more than anything else. His career, the band, his friends, his family? None of it matters as long as he can get high.”

“Maybe losing me will help straighten him up?”

It broke me a little to see the faint light of hope in her brown eyes. I wondered how much more it was going to take before that hope finally burned out. She hadn’t seen Liam at his true worst yet, and I prayed she never did. “The longest I’ve ever seen him clean was when Marissa was sick, but as soon as she was

better he went even more hardcore. He hasn’t touched heroin since then, though. The detox from that

nearly killed him.”

“Meth and coke aren’t as bad as heroin—” she started but I cut her off.

“Brie, don’t. You can’t make excuses for him. Meth and coke are just as bad. He needs help but there

isn’t anyone who can help him until he wants to help himself. Maybe he will want to now since he’s losing

you…”

“But you don’t think he will.” She said what I was unable to because I didn’t want to hurt her more than

I was sure she was already hurting.

My phone ringing kept me from having to answer. I pulled it from my pocket and saw that it was

Devlin. I put it to my ear. “Yeah?”

“Liam left. He went to New York,” the drummer informed me. “He was pissed that you went to

Gabriella’s… He was high, so of course he was spouting off about not being able to trust his friends with

his girl. If he were sober he would have known that was complete bullshit, but now he’s raging thinking

you and Brie are hooking up.”

“Of course he is.” I rolled my eyes. “Can the three of you make it to New York this week?” I had to be

back there by the end of the week anyway, but I wouldn’t be able to handle Liam on my own. It would take

Wroth and Devlin at the very least to just restrain a raging Liam. “Maybe by the time we find his ass he will have calmed down.”

“Wroth is taking Marissa back to Tennessee tomorrow. He said he would be able to get to New York by

Thursday. Zander is going to head out first thing in the morning, try to find him before the tabloid vultures spot Liam. I can’t leave until Friday night because Harris has school. Let’s plan to meet up Saturday

morning, okay?”

“Fine.” I rolled my neck back and forth, trying to get some of the tension out of my shoulders. “I’ll talk

to you before then, Dev.”

“I’ll talk to Natalie about finding him another rehab. Tell her to keep it on the DL from Em.”

I exhaled sharply. “Good luck with that.” Natalie and Devlin were like fire and ice when put together,

but I knew that he was the most likely to get her to help without involving Emmie. “I have to go. I have to get rid of this stuff and then try to smooth things over with Dallas before it’s too late.”

“Sorry, man, but it’s already too late,” Devlin told me with what could only be reluctance in his tone.

“Dallas heard Liam raging about you and Gabriella. So when he left, she asked if he wanted company.”

“FUCK!”

Lana

When Drake wasn’t on tour he always brought me breakfast in bed. Nothing too serious. A bowl of

cereal, some fresh fruit, sometimes some pancakes if he was in the mood to cook. This morning, I was

awake before he was, having barely slept at all the night before.

Every time I closed my eyes last night, thoughts of Lucy and Vince Grady filled my mind. All I could

think about was that she could be that vile man’s daughter. He had treated my mother like pure crap, which

was saying something when you compared the usual disgusting men she had tended to hook up with. While

most of them had creeped me out, Vince had truly scared me. Memories of my mother’s face, black and

blue from the beatings he had given her, flashed behind my eyes and I felt sick to my stomach.

I stood in our living room, staring out at the predawn sky. I really liked this condo, maybe even more

than the house we had back in New York. But right now, the home we had created together wasn’t bringing

me any of the peace that I normally found here. The baby, feeling my distress, kicked out hard and I twisted as I rubbed my hand over the little foot. Drake and I hadn’t settled on a name yet, although we had narrowed the long list down to two. I wished we could have just decided already, but knew that Drake

wanted to wait.

Not even the baby could distract me for very long, unfortunately. My own fears and trepidations

couldn’t come close to what Layla and Jesse must be feeling right now. Both had been a wreck when they

had finally left the wedding reception last night with a tired, but happy Lucy tucked between them. We had

all decided not to tell Lucy about what was going on until we absolutely had to. There was no reason to

upset her when this could all go away as quickly as it had started.

I knew what I wanted to do about the whole thing. I wanted to grab Lucy and take her back to New

York with Drake and me. Hide her, protect her. My whole being was anxious to do it. The buzzing in the

back of my head screaming at me to do it now, before something happened.

“You scared the hell out of me, Angel.” Drake’s voice startled me and I turned to face him as he came

into the living room in nothing but a pair of boxers that hung low on his lean hips.

I was momentarily distracted by the view before me and that sexy V at his waist that disappeared inside

of the black boxers. But then what he said penetrated my desire-fogged mind and I shook my head to clear

it. He wrapped his arms around me, squeezing me tighter than he normally would have. “I’ve been calling

for you for the last five minutes. When you didn’t answer I thought something had happened.”

I buried my face in his bare, clean smelling chest. “Sorry, babe. I’ve been lost in my own thoughts for a

while.”

“Lucy?” I nodded and he blew out a long sigh. “I wish I could snap my fingers and fix this for you,

Angel. I’m worried too, but seeing you like this is killing me.” He brushed his lips over the top of my head.

“It will all work out. Emmie will do everything she can.”

That was possibly the only thing that was keeping me sane. If Emmie couldn’t take care of this, then I

knew no one could. Two hours later, as we sat in Emmie’s office listening to the lawyer lay everything out

for us, I realized that it was truer than I originally thought.

Brad Horton, the lawyer who had handled Lucy’s adoption, was not going to be able to help much at all.