Marissa was a lightweight. Normally one glass of wine and she was mellow. Give her an entire bottle and she was drunk. Two bottles? Last night had been the first time I’d seen her drink two bottles of wine, and it had been both amusing to watch her and heartbreaking. My friend was in just as much pain as I was and she had even more reason to hate the man who had broken her kind heart. Fucking rockers.
I blamed the Demon’s Wings guys, but especially my brothers, for giving me a false sense of how decent rock stars could be. The way they treated their wives and cherished their odd family that I’d been blessed to be welcomed into had made me think that all rockers were just as great as they tended to be. Even Axton had given me the same impression with how much he loved Dallas and cared about the Demons and each of their families.
OtherWorld definitely was not like that. They were the exact opposite in my opinion. Other than Axton and Liam who had become pretty close in the last year or so, the rest of them seemed to merely tolerate each other. Okay, so Zander and Devlin had once been as close as brothers, and I was probably partially responsible for the rift that had broken up their bond; but those two assholes needed to take the majority of that blame.
“You two ready?” Linc asked as he came out of the kitchen with Rhett behind him.
Rhett was eating a slice of toast and my stomach roiled at the sight of it. Fucking nerves.
Marissa yawned and stood. “I guess.”
There was a knock on the door and I opened it since I was so close, expecting it to be the van’s driver that was supposed to pick us up. The sight of Liam standing on the other side of the door, at four freaking thirty in the morning, made me squeak and jump back in surprise. “What are you doing here?” I demanded.
Liam gave me a cocky half grin as he stepped into the apartment. “Good morning to you too, precious.” He moved across the living room and kissed his sister’s cheek. “Thought I would ride with you guys this morning.”
In other words, he wanted to show his sister some love and support by showing up with her. My heart clenched a little at his loyalty to her. Liam had seriously turned his life around in the past eighteen months. Being completely sober and drug-free had done wonders for his personality, but he had always been careful with Marissa. She was the most treasured person in his life.
“Let’s get going, you slackers,” Linc grumbled as he lifted his case and grabbed hold of my huge rolling case. I grabbed my cosmetics case, my keys, and the one thing I couldn’t do without: my clipboard. If it weren’t for that clipboard, I would run around in circles.
Rhett and Liam took the rest of the cases and we all stepped onto the elevator. By the time we got downstairs the van was already waiting. I breathed a sigh of relief. It was chilly this morning and I didn’t want to have to stand around waiting.
While everyone else got in, I made sure the driver stored our things away carefully and then took my place beside Marissa. My headache was coming back and throbbing like a bitch. When I turned to ask the others if they were set I was surprised to see that we had company. “What the fuck are you doing here?” I nearly screeched, throwing the bottle of water I’d grabbed from the fridge before leaving the apartment at him. He caught the bottle like I’d just tossed a Frisbee at him, uncapped it and took a thirsty swallow. The fucker probably hadn’t even been to bed yet from the looks of him. “You were supposed to be at the bus an hour ago.” He was supposed to be helping Axton make sure that all their stuff was stored under the OtherWorld bus.
“Found some fun downtown,” he told me with a cock of one brow. Like he was fucking challenging me to get mad at him over that.
I was pissed, that was for sure, but he could find fun wherever the hell he wanted. I’d never thought of Zander that way. Hadn’t even realized he had been attracted to me until after the terms of the bet had been explained to me. Now he hated me because I hadn’t wanted him, and I hated him for turning our friendship into something so worthless. The entire time I’d thought we were friends, he had just been trying to get into my panties. I should have known better, but again I blamed the Demons and their ability to think with their brains and not their dicks when it came to the people that mattered in their lives.
Clenching my jaw, I turned and glared out the side window as the van pulled out into the scarce early morning New York City traffic. It took about fifteen minutes to reach the parking lot where seven huge buses were idling. As soon as the door opened, I jumped out and started taking charge. Liam and Marissa were busy arguing over where Marissa was going to be staying for the next fourteen weeks, but I didn’t have time to stop and watch as sweet little Marissa let loose the ‘f’ bomb more than once.
After making sure that our bags were taken to the OtherWorld bus, I went in search of Emmie to make sure she didn’t have anything else for me to do before we hit the road. She was already on her bus and I stepped onto it to find Nik with a cranky Jagger in his arms while Mia was already on the couch in the living room watching Disney Jr. From the kitchenette, Felicity, their nanny, was fixing up bowls of cereal.
“Morning, Nat,” Nik called as he rocked Jagger back and forth in his arms, making airplane noises in an attempt to quiet his son.
I grinned at one of the men who was a brother by choice than by blood to me. Nik and Jesse have always been my brothers’ brothers by choice and they had quickly become the same to Jenna and me. “Morning. I was told your wife was on here?”
“Yeah, she is. Em! Baby girl, Natalie is here,” Nik called and moments later Emmie came out of the bathroom down the hall.
“Hey,” she said, greeting me with a smile. “Everything okay?”
“So far, so good. Axton got the bus sorted, all by himself since Z was out partying all night.” Emmie made a face but nodded. “And from the looks of everything else we are set. Unless you have something else that needs my attention?”
“Nope. I’ve handled everything else. Go back to your bus and catch a few hours of sleep. You’re going to need it once we get to Chicago.”
Jagger let out an angry scream, his little arms lifted in Emmie’s direction while his father tried to hold onto his squirming body. I laughed as Emmie took her adorable little son and kissed his cheek, instantly quieting him. Jagger was a world-class momma’s boy. He was definitely his father’s son in every way from looks to his desperation for Emmie. And Emmie ate it up.