Liam’s eyes widened. “Really?” As if unable to believe what he was hearing, he turned his gaze to Dallas, as if asking her to tell him the truth. “Dee?”
She rolled her eyes at him. “They got here as soon as I could reach them, Liam. You’re family loves you. All of them.”
“Oh…” Liam swallowed hard, then closed his eyes for a long moment. When he opened them again they were bright with emotion. “Thanks.”
It was one word, but surprisingly it held a world of meaning to it. Liam, with all his fuckups and flaws, had never said ‘thanks’ to anyone as far as I could remember. He was an all take and no give kind of guy. With that one word I was able to see the guy Liam could have been before the drugs had invaded his life.
“I’m tired,” Liam muttered. “I’d rather talk to you guys later.”
“But…” Marissa frowned. “Li?”
“You look as tired as I feel, Rissa. Go home and go to bed.” Liam gave her a small smile and raised one of his hands a few inches. Marissa put hers in his and gave it a careful squeeze. “I’ll still be here in the morning.”
After a little more urging from Liam, the guys turned for the door. I stepped into the corner and waited for everyone else to leave. He might be tired, but I needed to say my piece or I wasn’t going to get any real sleep tonight. Or, the rest of today. It was nearly dawn, I noticed as I looked down at the watch on my wrist.
“Dee, wait,” Liam called and Dallas turned around at the door and walked back to him.
“You should get some sleep, Liam.” Dallas tucked the blankets around him better. “The doctors will be in in a few hours to put you through a shitload of tests to make sure you are really okay.”
Liam caught her hand and I had to clench my jaw to keep from growling at a sick man for touching my girl. “Make sure she’s okay. I need to know she’s okay.”
“Then why the fuck did you kick her out?” Dallas demanded and I frowned. Who had been kicked out? Then I remembered that I hadn’t seen Gabriella stuffed in with the rest of us. “She had been here just as long as anyone else, Liam. She-”
“Stop.” Liam closed his eyes and didn’t open them again, but that didn’t keep the emotions from crossing over his face. Making his forehead wrinkle and his nostrils to flare. “I don’t want to talk about it, Dee. Just… Just make sure she’s okay. For me?”
“Why me? I don’t even have her number.”
“Because you’re the only person I trust.” Liam opened his eyes and gave her a pleading look. “I know you have your reasons for hating her, but please do this for me.”
Muttering a curse under her breath, Dallas finally gave in. “Okay.” She took a step back, toward the door. “I’ll be back in a few hours. I need to get home and shower. Grab some quality sleep before I start looking as horrible as you.”
A small laugh escaped Liam. “Getting close now, beautiful. Getting close.” I must have moved without thinking about it, because Liam’s gaze snapped to mine. Seeing me standing there watching them, Liam’s brow furrowed. “Ax?”
“I have to go.” Dallas paused at the door, her gaze drifting between me and Liam and then back to me. “Bye, Ax.”
I clenched my jaw, hating that it sounded like she was telling me bye for forever. That wasn’t going to happen. Ever. “Be safe going home,” I told her.
Those clear blue eyes were rolling at me and I couldn’t help but grin as she left the room. I waited until the door slid closed before moving closer to Liam’s bed. The bassist was giving me a strange look. “I didn’t expect you to stay.” He looked away. “I didn’t expect any of you to even be here.”
“Liam, you might have done some stupid shit in the past. Fucked up in the worst ways, but we still… love you.” I pulled the chair by the bed back and sat down. “We don’t want anything to happen to you. That’s why we tried to distance ourselves when you started using the last time. We hoped that it would slap some sense into you.”
“I’m not in the mood for a lecture from you right now, Axton. I’m done with the drugs for good this time.”
“I don’t want to lecture you. I want to say…” I broke off and looked away from him. Why was this so hard? Why were the words so hard to get out? “I wanted to tell you that I’m sorry.” Liam let out a surprised gasp and a sardonic smile twisted my lips. “I’m sorry for not being there for you when you obviously needed someone. I’m sorry for not trying harder, for keeping my distance from you and the rest of the guys. I might not show it, but I do care about you and our band.” Maybe they weren’t like brothers to me, the way that the guys from Demon’s Wings were, but they were still like family. Maybe cousins.
Liam swallowed hard but didn’t say anything for a long moment. When he did speak his voice was almost hoarse with suppressed emotions. “I…” He cleared his throat. “Thanks for that, Ax.”
I stood. It was obvious that Liam was exhausted. He might have just woken up, but his body was still broken and that had to take a lot out of him. “I’m gonna head home for a few hours.”
“Wait!” Liam stopped me. “Can you… Will you sit and talk to me until I fall back to sleep?” His cheeks filled with embarrassment. “I could really use the company.”
My heart clenched. “Sure, buddy.” Sitting once more, I scooted the chair closer to his bed. I sat there talking to him about random things, sometimes making him laugh. When his eyes drifted shut and I heard a snore escape him, I still sat there. By the time I got up to leave, the sun had been up for a few hours. My mind and body were drunk with exhaustion, but my heart felt a little lighter for the first time in a long, long while.
Dallas
I couldn’t believe I was actually doing this. My phone was in my hand, a number I had never wanted to know, across the screen. The only problem was that I couldn’t bring myself to hit send.
Sure, I felt bad for Gabriella. She had just spent seven days and nights in a hospital with people who mostly hated her guts, just so she could be close to the guy she claimed to love. The man she said she was going to marry. Then as soon as that same guy woke up from a coma, he screamed and ranted and told her that he never wanted to see her again. I’d had to stand there and watch Gabriella Moreitti fall to pieces while she took Liam’s verbal abuse. I had almost wanted to go after her to make sure she was alright as she had left the hospital in tears.
Almost.
I knew that Liam hadn’t meant much of what he had spewed at her. It was just reaction to too much shit being tossed at him after waking up with seven days of his life gone forever. He was hurting, scared, feeling alone in the world. And he wanted to make someone, if not everyone else around him right now, feel the same way. Because he loved her so much, Gabriella got the biggest load of his emotional melt down. But it was all normal.
That didn’t mean it didn’t make it hurt any less.
I finally hit send and waited while it rang five times before someone answered. “What?” came the snarl.
“Gabriella? It’s Dallas.”
There was a long pause on the other end, as if she were shocked speechless at hearing my name. When she finally answered she seemed almost scared. “Is Liam okay?”
“He’s fine for the moment,” I assured her. “Actually, he asked me to check on you. He was worried.”
That got a humorless laugh out of the little Italian. “For some reason I don’t believe you.”
“Yeah, I can understand that. He’s just got a lot on his plate right now, Gabriella. When things calm down, he is going to regret the way he reacted. You’ll have to be the bigger person and forgive him.”
There was another long pause and I thought for a moment she had hung up on me. I was about to turn my phone off when I heard her sigh. “Thanks, Dallas. I know you don’t like me, and I can even understand why. But you have been a great friend to Liam and you were nicer to me this week than I expected. So, thank you.”
Now I was the one shocked speechless. I didn’t know how to respond to that. It wasn’t every day that a
chick you considered public enemy number one said thank you to you.
“And as for being okay, I’m not. But I will be. One day.”
Before I could find my voice the line went dead and I sat there on the couch in my apartment just frowning down at my phone. That was the oddest conversation I had ever had. Because it had left me with a small piece of respect for the other girl. She was a strong person and I respected that in anyone.
Respecting her didn’t mean I liked her, though.
“Here.”
My head snapped up as Linc shoved a plate in my face. I tucked a few strands of wet hair from my shower behind my ears and took the plate. It was loaded down with scrambled eggs, crispy bacon, toast perfectly buttered, and a big heap of shredded hash browns with tons of salt and pepper. All of it was drizzled in ketchup. Linc was definitely my hero.
The first bite forced a moan from me and I was suddenly cramming my face full of the delicious breakfast. Having been forced to eat takeout for the last seven days had been torture, when I could have been home with Linc’s home cooking. The man was not only god-like in appearance but in the kitchen as well.
While I was still shoveling down my breakfast, he dropped a kiss on my wet head and left for work. After I was done I found the energy to walk into the kitchen and rinse my plate. I drank two tall glasses of orange juice then stumbled down the hall to my room. I didn’t even remember pulling the covers up over me before I was falling into a deep, dreamless sleep.
It was snowing again by the time I got back to the hospital that evening. I felt better after having a full nine hours of sleep, another hot shower, and actually eating a meal on real plates at my kitchen table. So I was in a decent mood when I passed the security team at the front doors, ignoring the paparazzi as they snapped picture after picture and screamed out questions. Those damn paps remembered me from when I had dated Axton, and of course as Harper Stevenson’s—the rock world’s most hated female—best friend. So they thought they knew me, and that they could talk to me, as I entered the hospital.
I gave them the only reply I ever gave those fuckers: a quick flick of my wrist to shoot them the finger as I stepped into the hospital. I’d much rather they tear me apart in their trash magazines—that way they could at least leave Liam alone for a few minutes.
Natalie had called me an hour ago to let me know that since Liam was doing so well, he was being moved out of ICU and into a private room on the fourth floor. When the elevator stopped on that floor I was greeted by two almost identical-looking gorillas to the four that had been downstairs. They gave me a grim nod as I stepped off, from there I followed the trail of guards. One was at the nurses’ station, two more were at the waiting room on the floor—telling me that at least one of either OtherWorld or Demon’s Wings was inside.
I hoped it was Shane and Harper. Harper had had a cold since Christmas. When she and Shane had found out about Liam, they had wanted to come be with me and everyone else, but Emmie had thankfully talked her out of it. She seriously needed to focus on her health at the moment. With the depression that had set in when she found out she might never be able to have a baby of her own, Harper’s health had also taken a nose dive. The cold she had wouldn’t have been kicking her ass so badly if she wasn’t so heartsick. But the last time I’d talked to Harper she had sounded better, at least physically. So I was hoping she would be coming to New York soon.
Taking a peek inside the waiting room, I saw that it was Drake and Nik sitting inside with Zander, Harris, and Devlin. I waved when they glanced up, but continued down the hall to the room Natalie had told me Liam was in earlier.
Outside the room, three huge men in suits stood, making me wonder just how bad the paps had gotten in the time I had gone home for some sleep. I started toward the door and one of them stepped forward, a glare on his scary face. “ID,” he growled at me.
“Excuse me?” I glared back at him. This guy hadn’t been part of the security team over the past week, but everyone else knew who I was. Emmie had told everyone that I was to be let through no matter what, no questions asked. So Big and Scary standing in front of me acting like I was trying to steal state secrets really pissed me off.
I’d give him credit though. The man would obviously make a great bodyguard. All someone would have to do was look at him and they would second guess whatever it was they were about to do. Built like a mountain, with a face that would make little kids weep in fright, he was one scary motherfucker. Unfortunately for him, I wasn’t scared of much. If he had been dressed like a clown… Yeah, then I would be cowering, begging for my daddy.
“ID. No one goes in that room without ID.”
“Who the fuck are you?” I demanded, not bothering to reach for the driver’s license I kept on me at all times. My dad always asked that I keep some kind of identification on me, just in case something happened. It was a Texas license since I didn’t drive in New York. Shit, you couldn’t pay me enough to drive in New York City traffic.
“I’ll be asking the questions here. What’s your name?”
I raised a brow at the giant. “You first.”
Irritation crossed his ragged face and I nearly grinned. Yeah, I was an annoying bitch. I didn’t give in easily and I rarely took well to authority figures, something this man obviously was. “Your name, girl. As well as your ID. Otherwise you will be escorted out of the hospital and banned from the grounds.”
“Where the fuck is Emmie?” I bit out, not liking his tone. Really? Did they teach you menacing voices in bodyguard school? Because if they did, this monster of a man must have been top of his class. And why the hell weren’t the other two guards, men who had seen me countless times over the last week, stepping forward to vouch for me?
Liam’s door opened and Emmie stuck her head around the corner. My voice had been anything but soft and sweet so she must have heard me arguing with Big and Scary. When she saw me her eyes narrowed. “Dallas?”
“Who the fuck else would I be, redhead?” I snapped, at the end of my patience. “Is there a reason why I can’t get through? Does Liam not want to see me?”
Emmie blew out a frustrated sigh and stepped out of the room. “There was a security breach an hour ago. Someone was dressed like you and tried to get into Liam’s room. He was sleeping, and she was able to climb into bed with him and…” She broke off, her jaw clenched. “Anyway, we’ve had to tighten security. I’m sorry no one told you, but you have to supply Seller your ID to get inside Liam’s room now. Especially you.”
My eyes rounded at what she had just told me. What the fuck? Liam had a crazy fan try to… Well, I wasn’t sure what she had tried to do. What I wanted to know was how she had been able to look like me.
“How?” I said as I reached into my back pocket for my ID. “It’s kind of hard to look exactly like me, Emmie.”
She grimaced, her big green eyes on the man she had called Seller as he checked over my ID. “She had on long sleeves so the men couldn’t see that she didn’t have tats, but she did have the facial piercings. And her hair was just as blonde as yours. She kept her head down as she went in so they couldn’t tell that she really wasn’t you. They thought nothing of it, because you’ve been here all week. It wasn’t until Liam started screaming for help that they realized their mistake…” She glanced at the two stone-faced men. “It wasn’t really their fault. No one noticed. She got through four walls of security without getting stopped.”
My attention went back to Seller. “You know my ID won’t really work, right? Anyone can make one of those if they google my name and find a decent fake ID producer. I turned around and lifted my hair. “This is my latest tattoo. The nurse’s symbol with the R and N. Only a few people know I have it. All of them trustworthy…” I paused and shook my head. “Well, if you consider Axton Cage trustworthy.”
“Axton’s trustworthy,” Emmie said with a sigh. I rolled my eyes at her. She couldn’t handle anyone saying anything bad about him, or any of her other guys. It was great that she
was so protective of them all, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t annoying. I wanted to dish out all kinds of abuse about him, but knew she would stab me before I got very far.
“Anyway, this is probably what you should check for instead of my ID.” I dropped my hair and snatched my ID back. “Oh, and I doubt the doppelgänger would have busted your balls over checking her identification.”
“You didn’t bust my balls, girl.”
I took a step closer to him. “Call me girl again. Then you will know exactly what it feels like.”
Seller made another scary growling noise. Never one to back down from a challenge, I took another step in his direction. Emmie’s hand grabbed my elbow and jerked me back and into Liam’s room, delaying my foot from being able to get better acquainted with his man-parts. When the door closed behind us she was fighting a grin. “Behave.”
I rolled my eyes at her again before straightening my shirt and turning to face the others in the room. It was a huge room, probably one of the biggest private rooms the hospital had to offer. Marissa and Wroth were standing by the window, the frown they had been wearing most of the week eased now that Liam was out of the woods.
Liam was raised up in the bed, and a few of the tubes from the day before had been taken away from the maze of wires and tubes that had been attached to him. His leg was raised with a sling that hung from the ceiling and there were multiple other casts and bandages that would have to be changed in a few days for longer-lasting ones, once the orthopedic surgeons found out if the bones were healing the way they should.
When Liam turned his eyes on me they narrowed for a moment before he grinned. “Dee! It’s about time you got here. Tell them I want something real to eat. Like steak. Or a burger… Yeah, I could really go for a burger.”
That he was wanting something hearty to eat was good news, but I shook my head as I approached the bed. “No can do. You need to start back slowly on the food. Liquid diet today, soft foods tomorrow, and maybe we can talk about steak or burgers the next day.” I scanned over the heart monitor, pleased to see everything at a normal rate. “You’re doing great, Liam.”