The Rocker Who Cherishes Me (The Rocker 8)

Natalie shrugged, but didn’t elaborate. Grimacing, I sat back down at the table, figuring that her wanting to shave her head was to spite someone. Devlin Cutter, most likely. “Okay, then I’ll come with you. I need to get a trim.” I hadn’t cut my hair since it had finally grown back after my battle with leukemia, only trimming the ends off every few months to keep it healthy. My hair was past my waist now and I would probably cry if I ever even thought about shaving it all off. I’ve been bald before, I wasn’t ever going there again, let alone on purpose. “What else are you doing today?”

She gulped down half the bottle of water before hugging me from behind. “So many things, that I want to hide in a hole and hope that Emmie never finds me. Want to come with me? I could use the company instead of having to listen to my own thoughts for the rest of the day.”

“Sounds good to me. And then we’ll go shopping for a killer dress to make douchebag idiots regret every stupid decision they’ve ever made.” I didn’t shop often, but when I did it was with a purpose in mind. Today’s purpose? Make Wroth Niall sorry he ever broke my heart.

“Damn straight.” Smacking a kiss to my cheek, Natalie pulled away. “Thanks, Rissa.”

I frowned. “What for?”

“For understanding. It sucks balls, but I’m kind of glad we’re both in the same boat.” She tossed her now empty water bottle in the trash. “I fucking hate guys.”

“Me too, sweetie. Me too.”

Wroth

The club was dead when the cab I’d taken from the hotel pulled up in front of it. Dead in the sense that there was only one bouncer standing in front of a velvet rope with about ten girls and five guys standing behind it. I was early, hoping to catch Marissa before everyone else arrived. Once the place filled up with our friends and the rest of the bands that were touring with us this summer, I knew that I wouldn’t have a chance of speaking to her privately all night.

I’d been trying for months now to get her to just speak to me. She wasn’t having any of it though. Somehow she seemed to always know when I was in the city and made herself scarce. I’d even been desperate enough to camp out on her roommate’s couch in their living room for three solid days in hopes of getting five minutes to talk to her. She hadn’t come home and finally Linc had told me that Marissa wasn’t going to come home until she knew for sure that I was gone.

I hadn’t wanted to be the reason Marissa wasn’t sleeping in her own bed, hated the thought of whose bed she might have been in during that time. So I’d left and then gone back to Tennessee the next day when Liam had come to my hotel room to tell me to leave his sister alone.

“She doesn’t want anything to do with you, Wroth.” Liam had told me as he’d glared at me across the span of my hotel room. The closeness that my cousin and I had had in the past had been annihilated when I’d done something he’d thought was the worst crime on the planet. Broken his sister’s heart. I could have told him that what he and his sister—and everyone else for that matter—thought had happened that crazy night hadn’t been what they thought. I didn’t because I knew that it would only be a waste of breath and I didn’t owe anyone but Marissa an explanation. “Just go back to the farm and when she decides she wants to talk to you, I’ll let you know. Until then, stay the fuck away from her.”

I’d gone home, reluctantly, but only because I believed what Liam had said was the truth. Marissa just wasn’t ready to talk to me. She wasn’t ready to hear my side of what had happened that fucked up night. So I would respect her wishes until she was ready.

But that had been months ago and I was losing my fucking mind without her. I couldn’t sleep, only ate because my housekeeper had threatened to quit when I’d wasted the food she would place in front of me. I’d always hated that fucking old hag, but she’d always been nice to Marissa and so I would continue to keep her around because I held out hope that my girl would one day come back home.

When the fans standing behind the velvet rope saw me, the chicks started screaming and a few of them even dared to raise their shirts and flash me their tits. I glared disinterestedly in their direction for a half second before rolling my eyes and stepping past the bouncer and into the club. There were only a few other people inside. Emmie and Nik with their nanny, Felicity, along with their two kids Mia and Jagger. Lucy, Harris, and Devlin were helping set up some of the food that a caterer was putting out on the bar top. Other than that the place was quiet since there wasn’t any music playing yet.

“Wroth,” Nik called from across the club. He was grinning and holding up a glass of what looked like tea. I grimaced, figuring that was going to be the hardest drink on the menu tonight.

At the sound of my name, Devlin turned from setting another large pan on the bar top. He nodded his head in greeting and I tipped mine back. I’d seen him last night when I’d been checking into the same hotel we were staying in for the next few days. Unlike Dev, who always seemed to want the penthouse suite, I didn’t need anything other than a bed and a bathroom and was staying in one of the hotel’s blandest rooms several floors down.

It wasn’t that I didn’t have the money to afford the penthouse; no, if anything I earned more money than any of the other members of OtherWorld with the exception of Axton who got paid out the ass for the reality show America’s Rocker. The money I made from my farm was enough to let me live an above comfortable life without the need to even touch the money I made from OtherWorld. I just couldn’t stand over-the-top things.

As soon as I reached Nik he handed over a glass of iced tea and I took it with a nod in thanks. “How you been?” I asked.

“Crazy busy, but nothing new about that.” Nik pointed his thumb over his shoulder where his wife was talking to some chick in a waitress’s outfit and a sheet of paper in her hand. “I don’t know how she does what she does without losing her mind. I’ve been helping her for the last few days get everything ready for the tour and I’ve been about to pull my hair out with just the simple tasks she’s given me.”

I nodded. “Emmie is a superhero, man.”

“Momma’s a superhero?” a little voice suddenly demanded and I looked down to find Mia standing just behind me, her big green eyes so much like her mother’s, huge with surprise and awe. “For real, Daddy?”