A Second Chance at love The Rocker Girls Series

by Jennifer Byars

  Within the last three years, the women, drugs, and the drinking, it was just too much for her. She was happy that he was fulfilling his dream as a musician; too bad it was destroying him. And all she could do was sit back and watch him fall apart at this point.

  She and the girls, they left the music scene soon after the guys got signed and they moved into Hollywood. Jimmy promised he’d pay for any college she wanted to go to, and after a couple of years when she finally told him she didn’t want to be in the public eye, all she wanted was to become a doctor…he was as good as his word and sent her wherever she wanted to go.

  What Jimmy had turned into, that was something she never thought possible. Never would she have thought he’d cheat on her. Which was stupid in hindsight, considering the lifestyle he’d chosen, but that’s what she thought. But to hurt her, to leave bruises on her body, break her wrist…that was something she’d never thought her Jimmy capable of.

  The night they all walked in on the guys at Jimmy’s, in the middle of a full-on gang-bang, she was done, they all were done. She went upstairs, packed her things and left. Jimmy didn’t even stop screwing the girl he was with until he saw her with her bags in hand. To this day she still thought he might’ve been so screwed up, he probably didn’t even realize it was really her he saw.

  Two days later when the booze and drugs ran from his system, he came looking for her. After everything they’d been through, all the hurt, the lies, the…violence, she finally had the guts to tell him they were done, really over. She didn’t want this life anymore, she didn’t want him in her life anymore, and all she wanted from him now, was a divorce.

  Jimmy begged her not to leave him. Swore he loved her more than his life, and that he’d never screw up again. But those were the things he’d said so many times before. Now at this point in her life and with him so far gone, she didn’t want to end up like her mother. So the only thing left to do was hold firm and get the damn divorce. And that’s exactly what she told him.

  That was the day when things changed. His anger was out of control over her wanting a divorce. He’d come over to her place whenever they weren’t on tour, and ask her to come home, beg her to love him again, yell at her that they weren’t through, that they’d never be over…

  She had found a place in the hills soon after she found out about an affair he’d had with a famous movie star. It was then Addison knew she didn’t want to deal with this kind of life her husband was into, and left divorce papers on the kitchen table for him to sign. That was, whenever he finally made it home.

  He’d still show up to her place she now shared with Lynn, Tia, Margie and Mindy. But even that didn’t stop his mad tantrums when he’d show up and they were home with her. Now, every time he’d come over to see her drunk, so stoned out of his mind he could barely stand, and order her to come home with him.

  Once she went back to their old place. She needed something for school, but it was more than that, she missed him, and what they had together. But again, it was a mistake. She walked up into their bedroom to find three girls draped over him. He woke up long enough to realize she was there, and then she ran out.

  He caught her before she could escape, and once again told her he was sorry. Addison could have kicked herself for her stupidity, and she smacked him, then made the mistake of screaming that she was going to a lawyer as soon as she left… But that never happened.

  That was the first time Jimmy put her in the hospital in a drunken rage over her leaving him. The saddest part of that story is, it was the women he’d slept with who called 911, because he just sat over her crying, telling her how sorry he was before she blacked out.

  All those memories she just wanted to put behind her. It was time to move on. She knew they were getting too old to be dealing with this bullshit. All she wanted was a place to call her own, and to become the doctor she always told her mother she’d become. It was time to have the normal life they all dreamed of.

  Chapter 2

  Win looked out the window to see the ugly-ass monster of a van pull back into the parking area. Then a whole handful of fine-looking women came piling out of it. He had the whole fucking rainbow. From a tall thin athletic one, to a short petite brunette, a little blonde and a strawberry blonde to boot. Oh hell yeah, he was going to be having some fun!

  He was about to leave and introduce himself to all his new neighbors, when the driver door opened and out came the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. She wasn’t tall, maybe five four, but man was she built. There were curves upon curves on that woman. Her hair was long, thick and wavy. He could tell from where he stood in the window, and it looked to hang almost to her waist with her bangs sweeping down over her forehead and behind her ear.

  The hair color didn’t quite seem to fit her. It was a chocolate brown with golden blonde running through it. But under the black sunglasses were little porcelain lips that looked pink from where he stood. Her t-shirt hugged that fine little body, and those shorts exposed just enough thigh to get his mind racing with dirty thoughts. Yeah, she was the kind of woman he’d be having tonight in his bed.

  She reached in the van door, pulling out a bag. He heard voices going by his apartment door, and if she was with them in an apartment on his floor, he was one lucky son of a bitch. That’s when he noticed her casted wrist, and how she didn’t follow her friends up right away. Instead she pulled out a smoke and lit it, sitting on the bumper of the van. She looked lost, and the frown on her face just hit him as wrong.

  Maybe he should go introduce himself to her. Make sure she was okay? And that’s exactly what he was going to do when an old Camaro pulled up next to her… Shit!

  ***

  South was just getting back from a meeting with Lou, the owner of Tab. He just wanted to let the guys know that he had a band that was going to play next Friday night for him, and if things went good this was going to be his Friday-night band for a while.

  To say that he wasn’t a little pissed would be a lie, but he could see where Lou was coming from. If they got signed, and he knew they were, that would leave him with no shows until he could find someone to draw in the crowds. Might as well find someone now. They had bigger fish to fry anyway.

  When he pulled into his parking spot, he saw the purple monstrosity back in its parking space, and some curvy-ass woman sitting on the bumper smoking a cig. She was smokin’ hot, he was already getting hard just looking at her. Hot damn, today was going to be his lucky day.

  He got out of the car and made his way over to her. “Hey, so you’re the owner of the purple beast,” he said, giving her his signature smile. He could tell from the way her head moved she was checking him out, which had him smirking. “Yup,” she answered in a deep rich gravelly voice. Hot damn, that just got him even harder.

  He extended his hand to her. “I’m South. South Parker.”

  She eyed him, but shook his hand. “Addison Reade,” she said. Then he took a good look at her face, and could see the bruising under her dark sunglasses and the shitload of makeup she had on.

  “Hey, what happened to your face?” he asked; then he noticed her shoulders tighten like a bow.

  “I ran into a door,” she told him. Damn, he never knew a woman’s voice could be so low and deep; it was hot! She took one last drag of her smoke and flicked it out of her way, turning her back on him. Damn, women didn’t turn their backs on him, they stay and hope he’ll stay and talk to them. He saw purple marks on her skin coming out underneath her sleeves, then the cast. “Hey, did the door break your wrist, too?”

  She turned around and smiled the cockiest damn smile he’d ever witnessed on a woman before. “You know those damn doors. Always hitting you in the ass on the way out. I stumbled when it did,” she chuckled, then headed inside.

  He blinked a couple of times after she blew him off and went in after her. “So what floor you live on?” he sweet-talked her. She lifted up her sunglasses, pushing them on top of her head, and looked over at him, and his heart fuc
king stopped. Her eyes looked violet, it was fucking amazing.

  But then he saw the whole damage someone had put on her beautiful face. That was definitely a door with some heavy fist that she ran into. What fucking idiot would hurt a woman! Let alone damage the perfection in front of him. He hated guys like this ass that hurt her. The man deserved to get his ass beaten…severely!

  “Hey, are you sure you’re okay?” he asked, concerned now. He really noticed the bruises on her arms that were huge handprints, then glanced back at her wrist. She grinned at him. “Look, I’m fine, really. And I’m not interested. So thanks, but no thanks,” she told him, starting up the stairs.

  South followed her up the stairs as Win was coming down. And he could tell he had freshened up before meeting them there. “Hey South, what up?” he asked, looking directly over at Addison.

  He growled to himself. He didn’t want to introduce her to his best friend, but he was going to meet her anyway. “I was just meeting our new neighbor who’s the owner of the purple beast,” he said, hoping his tone told Win that he was interested in this one.

  But Win just stood waiting for his friend to introduce him. “Addison Reade, this is my best friend Win,” he told her, and not too happily. She chuckled again, and he could tell that that voice affected Win too, motherfucker!

  “Win? What does that stand for?” she laughed. Win just stood there for a moment, taking in her whole fucking package, and pissing South off. “Winston.” He smiled his slick smile.

  She looked at both of them like they were crazy, then shook her head. “Well guys, it’s been interesting, but I should be getting back now. It was nice meeting you.” She headed up the stairs.

  They didn’t budge, but watched her fine ass make its way up and completely out of their sight. “Dude I so saw her first!” South proclaimed over to his friend, who was going back up the stairs now. “Like hell you did, I saw her coming out of the van with a shitload of other girls. I’m the one who saw her first,” Win said.

  “Look, did you see all the bruises on her? Some ass beat the fucking hell out of her. Maybe we should get to know her friends, you know, to make sure they’re all okay with what’s going on,” South told Win, who was looking down the hall wondering which apartment was hers.

  They made it to their door, and a cute little blonde came out three doors down and went to look over the rail. She turned to go back into her apartment and stopped when she saw them looking at her.

  She frowned and ran, no shitting, she ran from them back into the apartment, slamming the door shut hard. They looked at each other. The girls lived right next to Andy and Rex. Those lucky bastards!

  ***

  “What the hell, Tia!” Lynn yelled from the couch, which was on the same wall as the door. Mindy came from her room in her towel and Margie looked up from the table.

  “There are men outside! They were looking this way!” Tia said, panicked. Mindy ran back into her room to throw some clothes on and Margie had the phone in hand to call the police. But Lynn, well, she went out the door to see who these asses were.

  She opened the door and just like Tia said, two men were out in the hallway. Her five-foot ten-inch frame started heading their way. “Is there something I can help you with, friends?” she asked coldly of the two fools just standing there watching her.

  Little Tia leaned out the door. “Margie’s going to call the cops if you don’t leave right now!” she screamed at the men, who were still just standing there looking stumped.

  Lynn crossed her arms as she stood in front of them. “Look, you’re not going to get a fucking story here, guys. So why don’t you take your asses back to wherever you crawled out from under,” she growled.

  Addison came out from her room when she heard Tia’s panicked voice. She threw her scrubs on and saw three of her friends by the front door, but hotheaded Lynn was missing. Shit!

  She pushed past them to see Lynn about to accost the new neighbors. “Shit! Lynn!” she screamed at her. But Lynn just kept looking at them. She ran to her, reaching out and grabbing her arm. “Hey, what are you doing?” The guys looked to her, then Lynn.

  “These asses somehow found us and think they’re going to get a fucking story. I just informed them they’re not,” Lynn hissed.

  Ad started to chuckle, running her hand over her face and realizing that she had just washed off all her cover-up, so South and Win were seeing the full effect of what Jimmy had done. “Lynn, these are our new neighbors, South and Win,” she said softly, making sure not to look directly at them.

  “What kind of fucking names are those? Are we in Alabama and you didn’t tell me?” she said, looking at Ad then back to the guys. “I’m telling you they’re from Rolling Stone, Ad!” Addison grabbed her arm, pulling her back into their apartment. “Look, I’m really sorry about this. Lynn can be very protective of us. Don’t mind her. See you later.”

  She finally pushed Lynn through the door and shut it. “Holy shit! Lynn, they are our neighbors,” she told all of them. She turned around and locked the door. “Okay guys, we all need to relax. Nobody knows we’re here. So there’s not going to be any paparazzi, or magazines coming to ask us any questions. But now two people are going to be very curious why Lynn thought that journalists were going to come snooping around, asking questions about little nobodies like us.”

  Lynn dropped to the couch. “Son of a bitch! Sorry,” she told everyone. Ad went to sit next to her. “It’s fine, chickie, just relax, okay?” She got up from the couch. “Okay, so we’re all on tonight. Margie, that leaves you by yourself tonight. I was thinking maybe you could start painting the front room,” Ad said, and Margie nodded.

  “All right then, scrubs on and let’s get the hell out of here. I’m pulling sixteen hours, so I’ll text you when I’m off.” And they all got ready for their first shift at the hospital.

  ***

  Rex walked into Win and South’s apartment. “Knock, knock!” he yelled, just making sure nobody was busy somewhere for him to walk in on. “Hey, so did you see that the purple beast just took off with a group of hot fucking babes in it?”

  Win jumped up and looked out the window to see the back of the van pulling out into the road. “So who do you think they are?” he questioned South.

  South leaned back in his seat, taking a swig of his beer. “No fucking idea. But that Lynn looked like she was going to rip our fucking heads off! And she looked like she might have the strength to do it.”

  “Did you get a look at her face? Holy shit, some fucker really let loose on her!” Win said, getting pissed even thinking about it.

  “Okay, I think I missed something?” Rex said, looking at the two of them.

  “We met your new neighbors. And one of them was beat up pretty badly. One of the girls came out and wanted to beat the hell out of us. Tell us there’s no story here.”

  Rex’s eyes grew wide. “Do you think she killed the guy who beat her up?”

  They looked at each other. “Shit, that could be it,” South whispered, thinking.

  “Well, I say we go and find out who our cute little neighbors are and take it from there,” Rex told them. He walked out the door and down to the new neighbors’ place.

  While Rex went to knock on the door, Win and South watched him to see how Rex handled the situation. “Hey, I thought you said they just left,” South called out.

  “I saw one go back inside,” he told them, and knocked. They waited, but nobody answered. So he knocked again. Then once more, a little harder.

  A strawberry blonde answered the door. “What?” she said, rudely crossing her arms over her chest. Rex stood still with his foot in his mouth at the sight of her.

  “Look, why don’t you and your little friends just leave us alone? I’m sure you guys can get a piece of tail anywhere, so don’t come sniffing around here anymore!” her soft voice said coldly, then she slammed the door in his face.

  He walked back to them. “Okay, that didn’t quite turn out the way I want
ed it to,” he said, scratching his head.

  “Yeah, we could’ve just stood there like a dumb-ass too. Shit, come on, I’m sure we’ll meet them sooner or later,” Win said, closing the door.

  It had been about three weeks since they really saw any of the girls. The strawberry blonde worked during the day, and the only reason they knew that was because she left when they did. Now all four of them were waiting to see what these women were up to.

  South only saw Addison coming home late at night or early in the morning. She was wearing hospital scrubs, and he wondered what her job was. His mind went straight to “nurse” and all the kinky shit he could do with that.

  Win on the other hand made a concerted effort to see what they were up to and make sure they weren’t in some kind of trouble. That’s when he stumbled on Addison and the three other girls working at the hospital.

  He found out most of their names. Mindy was an LVN working in the emergency room. Lynn was an RN, and worked in the intensive care unit, and that little blonde worked behind the desk, registering people into the emergency room. The one person he never really saw was Addison, but he figured she was a nurse as well.

  He was downtown getting lunch a couple of days after that and saw the purple beast parked. He looked around some of the shops to see who was down there.

  In a beauty shop he found the strawberry blonde at a booth, cutting some woman’s hair. He casually strolled in and smiled at the little receptionist. He struck gold; as luck would have it she was a fan of Inferno.

  He talked his sweet talk, asking who the new girl was, and when the receptionist pouted he gave her his smile and told her it was for a friend. Then she asked if she could see him at the club, he told her what she wanted to hear, and then she told him the girl’s name was Margie.