I touched her shoulder and her eyes snapped open. I might hate bothering her, but I needed her right then. She was the only one who could help me. “Hey,” she muttered in a voice hoarse with sleep. “She okay?”
I nodded. “Doc’s back there with her. She is showing signs of breathing easier and might wake up soon. They’re removing the tube.”
Her eyes widened and a small smile lifted her lips. “That’s a good thing, Liam.”
“Yeah.” I gripped my leg as I eased myself down beside her.
She watched me closely, those blue eyes narrowing when she saw the way I was holding my leg and gritting my teeth. “Is it bad?”
“Worse than I’ve had in a while,” I told her and bent in half as I sucked in a deep breath, trying to fight through the pain. I didn’t have pain like this very often these days. With daily exercise, anti-inflammatories, and a few other lifestyle changes, I’d been able to manage my pain. But I’d been sitting in the same position for too long with no physical activity at all and no anti-inflammatories at all in nearly forty-eight hours.
I was in agony.
“Okay, buddy. Let me see what I can do.” Dallas stood. “I’m going to assume you don’t want anything that’s going to knock you out.”
“Just something that will dull this a little, D. That’s all I need.” That was all I would ever chance putting into my body. I didn’t dare put temptation in my path right then. Not when the cravings were already bad from the stress of everything else going on.
“I’ll be right back,” she promised and I nodded.
When she returned, she had another nurse with her who was carrying a syringe and a bottle of some kind of injectable medication. “This is some naproxen, Liam.” Dallas told me as she took the needle from the nurse. “It’s a pain medication with an anti-inflammatory. It’s going to help ease some of the pain. I can give you another dose in four hours.”
I nodded. I knew what naproxen was. I’d had it a lot a few months after my accident to help manage my pain. I’d stopped taking the stronger stuff as soon as I could manage it, terrified that I would be too tempted to start abusing them if I didn’t. Having Dallas as my nurse back then had helped. She’d been in control of my medication intake and had helped me stay clear-headed enough not to go down that road.
“I know this sounds stupid, but I’m going to talk to Emmie about getting a treadmill in here. Maybe if you could walk a little it will help your pain a little more.” Dallas cleaned a spot on my upper arm with an alcohol swab and then carefully stuck the needle in. I barely felt it and didn’t grimace at the slight burn from the medication going in. When she was done she wiped the small spot again and put a Band-Aid over it.
Standing, she gave the used needle and other supplies to the nurse and thanked her. The other woman gave her a small nod and left without another word. I leaned back in the chair and closed my eyes as I waited for the naproxen to do its job.
“I’m going to get us something to eat,” Dallas muttered. “Just sit tight while I go down to the cafeteria.”
My eyes snapped open. “No, Dallas. You can’t go alone. The paps are probably crawling around downstairs and who knows what other kinds of crazies are trying to get up here.”
“It’s okay, Liam. Seller’s men are everywhere. I’ll be fine.” She gave me a small smile and pulled her shirt over the small baby-bump.
Seeing that little bump made my throat tighten as I remembered holding her son for the first time. I could honestly say that Dallas Cage was my best friend. She had been there for me through so fucking much and I would always love and respect her for that. This woman had my loyalty and allegiance for the rest of my life.
“Just be careful.”
“I will. Now rest. I’ll be right back.”
The door closed behind her and I glanced around at the others spread around the room. Marissa and Wroth were still asleep, as was Alexis, although Jared wasn’t. He had his arm around his wife, stroking his fingers over her long dark hair as he stared down at the screen of his phone.
Annabelle was awake now, too, and had her phone out as well. From the look on her face I knew that I should keep my distance for the moment, though. I might not have seen her in over seventeen years, but I remembered her well enough to know when not to mess with her.
Shaking my head, I turned my attention to Emmie. She was sitting all alone in the other corner of the room. She had her eyes closed, but I knew instinctively that she wasn’t asleep. Her face was tense, pale with dark shadows under her eyes. I couldn’t ever remember seeing Emmie look this bad before and wondered if she had gotten any sleep at all.
Standing slowly, I limped over to where she sat and dropped down beside her. She didn’t open her eyes but I knew she was aware I was beside her. I sat there quietly for a few minutes before finally speaking. “How’s Mia?”
A shuddery breath left Emmie’s mouth and she opened her eyes. “Jesse says she’s okay. She’s still shaken up, though.” Her voice was low, quiet, and full of a mixture of emotions I couldn’t easily decipher. Pain, fear, anger were only a few of them.
“You should go back to the buses and be with her. I’m sure she wants you right now.”
Her green eyes filled with tears but they didn’t spill over. She sucked in a deep breath and shook her head. “I’m needed here. I can’t leave until I know she’s okay.”
I frowned. “Mia needs you more, Emmie. And I think maybe you need her just as much right now. Go and hug your little girl. Reassure yourself that she’s safe.”
“I can’t right now, Liam,” she whispered brokenly and I felt tears of my own sting my eyes at how lost she looked right then. It was hard to see someone as strong as Emmie Armstrong like that. She’d had to deal with a lot of fucked-up shit in her life, but this… Yeah, this was possibly the worst of them all.
Understanding—yet not completely understanding—I took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze before releasing her. “Okay.” She was scared, of what I wasn’t sure I knew or would ever understand, but I understood fear and pain and she had plenty of that raging around inside of her.
Dallas came back twenty minutes later with takeout boxes from the cafeteria for everyone while a guard I vaguely remembered held two drink carriers full of coffee. The smell of bacon, sausage, eggs and French toast assaulted me as soon as the door opened and I realized I hadn’t eaten anything since lunch the day Gabriella had been shot. Now that my pain was under control, I realized I was starving.
The smell of the food roused everyone else and soon we were all eating together. I told them what the doctor had told me and Alexis started crying with relief. I knew that the doctor had said that it only increased Gabriella’s odds a little, but I knew that she was going to be okay.
She had to be okay.
***
Two hours had gone by and there was still no sign of a nurse or the doctor to let me back in with Gabriella. With each ticking of the clock, my anxiety grew. I alternated between pacing, sitting, muttering curses, and avoiding anyone who even looked like they wanted to comfort me.
The waiting room was filling up again. Natalie and Devlin were back, along with Zander. Drake was there as well as Shane, both without their wives. Every time one of the Stevenson brothers even looked like they were going to approach Emmie, she found something else to do that kept her out of the room. I noticed her actions even through my misery so I knew that everyone else had to be aware of it too. She wasn’t in a good place and I couldn’t blame her. Almost losing her daughter must have been a nightmare come to life.
Scrubbing my hands over my face, I stopped in front of one of the windows and glared down at the hordes of paparazzi in the parking lot. They had been camped out for the last two days and more of them arrived by the hour. Not just the usual trash-mag people, either. The attempted kidnapping of a baby rock princess and the shooting of a rising rock star had made national news. Major networks had some of their best correspondents out there.
&nbs
p; Emmie and Annabelle, along with the local police and the FBI, had given a press conference the day before, but there hadn’t been much to tell. From what the specialist who had talked to Mia had learned, they didn’t have any leads. The truth was they had at least a thousand leads, but no way of culling them. The attack on Shane and Harper’s bus, twice now, had suggested that it was someone from Shane’s past because it had been so personal an attack. Given that he had been the biggest player in the rock world up until he’d met Harper, it could have literally been one of thousands of women who had done it.
At least they had narrowed the sex of the perpetrator down to female. Mia had been able to tell them that much. A woman with a funny mark on her chin was the description the Feds had given the paps yesterday. We’d watched the press conference on the waiting room’s small television and I’d slowly felt like I was drowning at the thought of that bitch being responsible for taking the most important person in the world away from me.
Behind me the door opened and I turned in hopes it was the nurse to let me back in to see Gabriella. It wasn’t and my heart dropped in disappointment, adding to my anxiety.
Dallas stood when Axton entered the room, wrapping her arms around her husband as Jesse and Nik came in. “Is Cannon okay?” she asked her husband.
“He’s fine, babe. Kenzie is watching him with a few of the Alchemy guys keeping her company,” he assured her before kissing her. “How are you?”
“Tired, but I’ll be fine.” She buried herself deeper against him. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
The door opened again but I knew from the way the room suddenly felt tense that it wasn’t the nurse. Emmie stopped when she entered the room, her eyes wide and a deer-caught-in-the-headlights look on her face when she saw Nik had arrived. I watched as she swallowed hard and started to turn to leave.
Nik moved fast and caught his wife around the waist, forcing her to face him. “Emmie.” His voice was full of emotion and I saw the tears he unashamedly let fall. “It’s okay, Em. She’s okay.”
“Wh-why are you here?” Emmie demanded. “You should be with Mia and Jagger. They need you.”
“They’re sleeping, baby girl. Layla and Felicity are watching over them and I have the bus surrounded with Seller’s men. You’re the one that needs me right now, Em.” She shook her head but he gave her a small shake, not to hurt her but to snap her out of her denial. “Yes, you do. It’s okay. I swear to you, it’s okay.”
A cry that sounded like it was being ripped from her soul filled the room as she pushed away from Nik. “No,” she sobbed. “It’s not fucking okay! We nearly lost her and it’s all my fault, Nik. S-she only wanted to watch you. If I’d given in, if I’d let her come with us, then none of this would have happened. Our baby would have been safe with us and some twisted bitch wouldn’t have tried to take her from me.”
Nik wrapped his arms around her again, one hand grasping the back of her head as he pulled her against him. His chest muffled her broken sobs and he murmured soothingly to her, “It wasn’t your fault, Em. None of this is your fault.”
“You should hate me,” she whispered, but the room was so quiet that everyone heard her. “I h-hate me.”
“No, baby girl. I could never hate you. There’s nothing to hate you over. You didn’t do anything wrong.” He pressed his lips to her temple and I had to look away from the raw emotion on my friend’s face. “Mia is safe, Em. She’s safe, but she misses you. She thinks that you’re mad at her. Please, sweetheart. Come back to the bus with me and talk to her.”
He held her for a long while in silence as if letting her absorb his strength. No one seemed to even be breathing, the room was so quiet. After a few minutes Emmie finally nodded. “O-okay.”
Tears were still pouring down her face as Nik linked their fingers together and pulled her from the room. Jesse, Drake, and Shane followed after them but the room remained quiet as the force of Emmie’s pain remained behind, soaking into every one of us.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Gabriella
Tugging. Lots of uncomfortable tugging. A fiery shot of pain burned through my lungs. I tried to open my eyes to tell whoever was torturing me to go fuck themselves, but no matter how hard I willed my eyes to open, they refused to cooperate.
I inhaled in frustration only to realize that I couldn’t really draw as much air as I needed. As if a sound was coming from far away, I heard something protesting, a machine maybe, before I felt something being shoved into my nose and cool air filling my sinus cavities a second before my burning need for oxygen was quenched.
The noisy machine instantly quieted and I sighed in relief.
Cool fingers prodded over my body, not in a sexual way, but definitely not in a way that made me comfortable. Everywhere the cool fingers touched it felt like I was being electrocuted with pain. What the hell was wrong with my chest? That was where those cool fingers kept prodding the most and it felt like whoever was touching me was slowly killing me from the pain they were producing.
Stop! I tried to speak but my lips wouldn’t work and I ended up screaming the word in my head instead. Please, please stop. It hurts so much.
The more I tried to beg for the pain to end, the more it hurt. Panic mixed with the pain began to suffocate me. Why couldn’t I speak or open my eyes? What was wrong with me? This was scary. Terrifying.
The fear was trying to drown me and I moved my mind away from the darkness that was threatening to swallow me up.
I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to be here. Please, God, I don’t want to be here…
***
FOUR YEARS EARLIER
The ringing of the doorbell jerked me awake. Frowning at the clock beside my bed, I saw that it was just after two in the morning. Who the hell would come calling at that ungodly hour?
I continued to lie there, debating whether or not to get up and answer or just pretend to not be home and go back to sleep. Tough decision. Get out of my nice warm bed to face a possible serial killer or go back to dreamland.
Hmm. Killer or sleep?
My eyes started to drift closed and I was letting sleep consume me again when the doorbell rang again. My eyes snapped open and I tossed back my covers. Reaching for my robe, I pulled it on as I walked through my dark New York apartment. I was in the living room when the asshole—possible serial killer—rang the doorbell again.
“Who is it?” I called, but no one answered.
Glaring at the door, I wondered if a serial killer would actually use the doorbell. It was unlikely, but crazier things had happened. Blowing out a frustrated sigh, I moved to the front door and stood on tiptoes to see through the peephole. My eyes focused on the person on the other side of my door and I stepped back in a mixture of surprise and confusion.
What the hell was he doing here?
“Open the door, little Brie. I know you’re in there,” Liam’s voice called out and I stepped back in shock.
I hadn’t seen Liam in over a month. While I’d been getting my ass kicked by Layla Thornton and Emmie Armstrong, he’d been on a plane to Tennessee. Axton had said Marissa had called and Liam hadn’t even hesitated to go home. It had only confirmed for me that our stolen moment in Axton’s bedroom was all we were ever going to have. I’d have to accept that and live with it.
During the past month I’d tried to forget about him, but after tasting nirvana it was hard to contemplate anything else. I thought about him—about that night—all the time. Liam was constantly on my mind and it was slowly driving me insane. I wanted him again. I wanted him and so much more.
A fist pounded on the front door. “Come on, Brie. It’s been a long night. Let me in.”
I pushed my long, thick hair back from my face. “What do you want, Liam?” I demanded, still not sure if I was going to open the door or not.
“So many things and not one of them can be accomplished with this fucking door between us.” His voice was full of sensual promise mixed with what could only be described as fr
ustration. Goose bumps popped up along my entire body and I clenched my legs together in hopes of stopping the rush of liquid desire.
“Are you high?”
He chuckled. “Are you?”
I clenched my hands at my sides. Of course he was high. When wasn’t he? Muttering a curse, I snapped on the lamp by the entrance and opened the door just enough so that I was half standing in the doorway. “What do you want, Liam?”
He stepped closer and I could see his eyes were glassy and bloodshot even in the dim lighting coming from the corridor light and the single light I’d snapped on before opening the door. “You,” he murmured as his eyes skimmed over my body from head to toe and back again. “Fuck, I want you, little Brie. Let me in, baby.”
The ache between my legs began to throb at his imploring tone and I clenched my thighs together harder. “I’m not interested,” I lied. Yeah, I was going to hell for telling such a huge lie. “Go home and sleep whatever you’re on off.”
“I just flew from Nashville to New York to see you, Brie. And now you’re just going to send me away?” His grin was predatory, his eyes full of hunger. “I don’t think so, little Brie. I plan on getting what I came for.”
I lifted my brows at him, trying desperately not to let him see how his words were affecting me. He’d flown from Nashville just to see me? Was he out of his mind on drugs or had he been thinking about me just as much as I’d been thinking of him? Was I an obsession that was eating at his psyche like he was doing to me?
Liam lowered his head until his nose skimmed over the tip of mine. His breath was minty, telling me he’d recently brushed his teeth. I inhaled deeper and realized that he was wearing cologne as well. His clothes didn’t look wrinkled, as they would have done if he’d just gotten off a plane.
“Did you go to Axton’s?” I demanded.
The Rocker Who Hates Me (The Rocker #10) Page 10
