“Found some fun downtown,” was his only explanation.
Natalie glared at him for another minute before turning around in our seat. Clenching her jaw, she glared out her window as we rode through the predawn traffic of New York. Sighing, I leaned my head against my own window and closed my eyes. I was exhausted, my entire body hurting from a depression that I’d given up fighting two nights ago. I hadn’t slept much since then, and the only relief I’d had was when I’d drunk an entire bottle of red wine with Natalie the night before.
The van pulled into a huge parking lot fifteen minutes later and I took my time climbing out. Seven buses were already rumbling, waiting for us. Another van pulled into the lot from the opposite side, stopping right behind ours. I didn’t pay any attention to who stepped out. I knew what bus I wanted on, and I was going there before anyone else could stop me.
“Rissa,” Liam called as he lifted his suitcase along with my two cases from the back of the van. “Where do you want these?”
“Give them to Rhett. He said he would take care of them for me.” I’d talked to both Rhett and Linc about it the night before. Neither had a problem with me bunking with Rhett since he most likely wouldn’t be on that bus the majority of the time anyway.
“You are not fucking sleeping on a bus with those motherfuckers, Rissa.” Liam ignored Rhett when he stepped forward to take my bags and walked around him. My cases were heavy and the old Liam would have been unable to carry all three at once. The new Liam never failed to impress me with how far he’d come. “I don’t know them, you don’t know them. Wroth will go rage monster on everyone’s ass and I’m not fucking starting this tour off with that shit.”
The mention of Wroth’s name stopped me in front of one of the buses and I turned to face my brother with a glare that made him take a step back. “I don’t give a flying fuck what you want. Or if it’s going to make Wroth mad. You can both go fuck yourselves because I will sleep wherever the fuck I want.”
The few people standing outside the buses who had been talking suddenly went very quiet and I refused to blush when I felt their eyes on me. I didn’t swear very often, and even when I did I rarely used the word ‘fuck’. But if Liam was going to throw that word at me repeatedly, I was going to throw it right back.
Liam’s mouth opened, then closed, only to open again. I rolled my eyes at him and turned back toward the buses, looking for the one that was for the members of Trance and Alchemy. As I passed one, Lana stuck her head out of the door. “Hey, we have more than enough room. You can come with us.”
I forced a smile for her, but shook my head. “Thanks, but I don’t want to intrude. I’ll be fine with Rhett.” I loved Lana and Drake, and Nevaeh was such a sweet little girl. But being around that happy little family would only make me hurt more because I knew I would never have that. I didn’t want to admit it, but I was jealous of Lana and Drake because it was so obvious that Drake loved Lana more than life itself and I ached for that.
“Okay, sweetie. But if you change your mind, our door is always open.”
The bus I was looking for was at the back of the lot and I climbed on without bothering to knock. The living room area was already full. Bishop was sitting at the table with a cup of coffee in front of him while his drummer, Carver, was eating a breakfast sandwich from McDonalds. The Trance bassist, Jasper, was sitting on the floor in front of the couch with his Beats on. Dave and Jake, the two other members of Alchemy, were standing in the kitchenette eating their breakfast while Leif and Winston, the remaining two members of Trance were in the recliners already half asleep.
When I stepped forward they all went quiet and turned their eyes on me. A few of them gave me sexy grins, but the others were all giving me frightened looks. I raised a brow at Jake who was the closest to me, wondering what had made him pale and his eyes widen as if he’d seen a ghost. “What—” I started to ask, but another voice cut off my question.
“I’m not going to play your games, Marissa.” My body went white hot at the first sound of Wroth’s voice, only to go ice cold at the second.
I turned to face him, not scared of him in the least—unlike most of the men on the bus. Glaring up at him like I’d done Liam earlier, I refused to be affected by the sight of Wroth in sweat pants that hung off his lean hips and a white T-shirt that had a hole in the bottom. “I’m not playing games, Wroth. Now get the fuck off my bus.”
His eyes narrowed when ‘fuck’ came out of my mouth. “Who’s been talking like that in front of you, Marissa?” Wroth didn’t tolerate people cursing in front of me. Most people tried to clean up their language when I was around because they didn’t want to piss him off. I couldn’t have cared less how people talked, but he demanded they respected me.
Too bad he hadn’t respected me a little more.
Someone pounded on the front door and I heard Natalie calling from outside. “We leave in two minutes.”
“Guess you’d better get to your bus. See you later,” I told him with a smirk as I took a seat on the couch.
“Yeah,” Wroth muttered. “Guess I’d better.”
If I’d been expecting him to just turn and go I was sadly mistaken. Wroth stepped around Jasper and bent toward me. My heart sped up at his nearness and the scent of his body wash as I inhaled sharply made my panties wet in an instant. “What are you..?” I let out a squeak when he lifted me as if I didn’t weigh the equivalent of one and a half girls and tossed me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. “Wroth!” I screeched as he walked off the bus. “Damn you, put me down.” I pounded my fists on his back, but he didn’t even flinch as he continued to walk, easily holding onto me even when I started kicking.
His grip only tightened on my legs so that I didn’t land a kick to the one place I was trying to aim for: his balls. Feeling one large hand on my thigh and the other on my ass, I quieted and remained stiff in his hold. When he paused in front of a bus I was all too familiar with, I clenched my eyes closed. “I hate you,” I whispered brokenly.
After taking a few steps inside the bus, he sat me down on a recliner and straightened. I noticed that the living room was empty and was thankful for that small blessing so I didn’t have to further embarrass myself in front of everyone. Wroth’s eyes were shuttered, his jaw clenched hard enough that I was pretty sure he was going to break his fillings. “Hate me all you want, sweetheart. But you are going to ride this bus or stay home. And I don’t mean that damn apartment here in the city. I’ll send you straight back to the farm. So, your choice, Rissa. This bus or back to Tennessee. But those are your only choices.”