Christmas passed with more spirit this year than there had been the year before. Drake and Lana were off on their honeymoon in the Bahamas instead of rehab this time, so we were all breathing a little easier. We were all smiles as opposed to the tension that everyone had been feeling just twelve months before when Lana had announced that she was moving across the country to start a new life that didn’t involve Drake.

I got to wake up with Harper in my arms, so I had a reason to be happy no matter what day it was. We shared the morning with my family, who were staying in New York until Lucy had to go back to school after the New Year. Then we went back to Harper’s apartment and had dinner with Dallas, Linc, and Cecil.

I liked to think that Cecil and I had become something of friends over the months that I had been with Harper. I knew that Harper thought of him as her only family, so I made sure that we were on good footing. I was sure that the case of fifty year old bourbon I got him for a Christmas present had only cemented our bond. It sure made Harper happy to see her stepdad’s eyes light up when he unwrapped the heavy present. Harper was the most important person in my world, second to no one. My goal was to make sure that she always knew how special she was to me.

So when she had to go to Miami for a three day conference, I wanted to go with her. Of course, she didn’t think that was a good idea. Since the whole Trey incident, I had been a little overprotective when it came to her job. Following her to interviews, making sure that whomever she happened to be meeting knew exactly why I was there, and probably scaring the shit out of a few people along the way.

Harper’s boss loved the fact that I was her boyfriend and had even asked her repeatedly to get me to do an exclusive interview and photo shoot for the magazine. I was all for doing what would give her the push she needed in her career. Harper wouldn’t have it though. She didn’t want to use our relationship to move up the ladder.

I ended up staying home while she went off to Miami for the conference the second week of January. She had argued and argued, but in the end it had been the promise of a full night at one of our favorite rooms at Sensual House when she got back that had made me back off. I knew that she needed to give the conference her full attention, and that if I were to go with her I would just distract her.

Not that it was a bad thing in my book, but to Harper it was a big deal.

The first night without her sucked.

I was sitting in front of the television flipping through channels, feeling both bored and lonely since Drake and Lana would be gone for at least another week. Harper was supposed to call me after the big dinner with her boss and other higher-ups ended, but I still had at least an hour before I would get to talk to her.

Lucy had been texting me off and on all evening. She had been back to school for a few days now, and she loved the creative writing class her teacher had put her in. The kid had a wild imagination that was for sure. Half the things she wrote about I couldn’t determine if it had actually happened or not.

When the doorbell rang I had my mind on half a dozen other things than who could possibly be stopping by unannounced. I was rereading a text from Lucy, laughing to myself as I jumped up off the couch and crossed over to the door. I figured it was Axton, bored now that America’s Rocker was over for the season.

If not Axton, then it was Dallas stopping by to pick up something that Harper had left here that she wanted to borrow. It wouldn’t be the first time Dallas stopped by out of the blue just to pick up a pair of shoes or a shirt. Sometimes Linc was with her, and I always welcomed spending time with my new muscle headed pal. It didn’t bother me that Linc was gay, and now that I knew for sure that he was, I felt a hundred percent better about his friendship with my girl.

The knocking came again before I could reach the door, more insistent this time, and I rolled my eyes. Yup, it had to be Dallas. No one else I knew would be so demanding after only a minute of waiting. I jerked the door open. “Give a man a break, bitch….”

I broke off when I found a girl that looked no more than sixteen or seventeen standing on my door step. With her dark brown hair with golden highlights falling halfway down her back, she looked even younger than I suspected her to be. Eyes that were so familiar I had to blink a few times before I could focus on any other facial feature.

“Do you always greet people like that?” Came the smart ass reply that she’d inherited from her mother.

“Only the ones that annoy the hell out of me,” I assured her, leaning against the doorframe. “What do you want, Nat?”

“I need your help…” 

Chapter 21

Harper

I frowned down at my phone.

Shane wasn’t answering. I had been calling for two days now, and he hadn’t picked up once since I’d been gone. I would have been worried that something had happened to him if he hadn’t answered my texts.

Each reply was the same. He was busy and couldn’t answer my calls because he didn’t have a free second to talk to me. I was confused as hell. He was free as a bird right now. Emmie didn’t have a tour scheduled for at least a few months, and then it was only for two weeks. He didn’t have anything music related to deal with, and I knew that he had nothing other than friends and working out to keep him occupied.

When I had called Dallas to ask if she would go over and check on him she had sent Linc. But when Linc had stopped by after work, Shane hadn’t been home. Or he at least hadn’t answered the door, and Linc said he had knocked for at least ten minutes.

I had even called Emmie, wondering if she had heard from him. She hadn’t talked to him in three days, which wasn’t like Shane at all. Those two couldn’t go more than a day without some kind of communication. Emmie had then called Layla, and Layla said that Lucy hadn’t talked to him since the first evening I had left. Their text conversation had suddenly ended, but Lucy hadn’t thought anything of it at the time.

I could only come up with one conclusion.

Shane was tired of me and blowing me off.

The longer I thought about it, the more plausible that conclusion felt. Shane was just burnt out on me, had gotten his fill, and now I was getting the brush off. My entire body felt like it was being stabbed with a million little pinpricks at the thought. My heart was cracking with every passing minute, and I was having to fight back tears as I boarded my northbound plane the next morning.

My first thought was to go home and hide under the covers. But the more pain I felt over my breaking heart, the angrier I became. So I gave the taxi driver Shane’s address instead of my own. It was late evening and I was dog tired after two sleepless nights and a stress-filled plane ride from Miami. So when the doorman offered me a smile and a “good-evening Miss Jones,” I didn’t even look twice at him.

I was too mad, too hurt, and still rehearsing what I planned on saying to the fucking rocker that thought I was just going to go away quietly.

When the elevator opened onto Shane’s floor, I got off and used the key he had given me months ago. The lights were on in the living room so I knew he was home. I went straight to his room, expecting him to be in the shower. This time of the evening he was probably just getting home from the gym for the second or even third time.

But he wasn’t in there.

“Shane!” I yelled his name, knowing that he had to be somewhere in the freaking apartment.

The noise from the guest room made me turn in that direction, and I threw the door open without bothering to knock. The light was on and the bed was a mess. Unless Emmie or one of the others were in town, this room was closed up, the bed always made, and the lights off.

A muttered curse caught my attention and I stiffened. It hadn’t been Shane’s voice, but a very feminine one. Stomping through the room, I pushed the bathroom door open to find a nearly naked girl standing in front of the shower.

I got a glimpse of long dark brown hair, big eyes, and a gaping mouth before I turned and ran.

Fucking rocker!

Tears spilled from my eyes, and I didn’t even know the real reason for them. I didn’t know if it was because I was so mad or because I was so destroyed. Stupid, stupid, stupid rock stars!

I tossed my key on the table by the door as I grabbed my overnight bag and slammed the door behind me. How dare he do this to me! How dare he claim to love me one night, then replace me the next! But I should have known better, should have listened to my gut when it had screamed at me to keep Shane Stevenson at a distance all those months ago.

As the elevator came to a stop in the lobby, I scrubbed my hand over my face to get rid of my tears, but more fell. As the doors opened, I moved to get off only to find my way blocked by the man trying to get on…

“Hey, baby…”

I couldn’t stop myself. Didn’t even have the sense of mind to even try to withstand the urge as I lifted my hand and smacked him across his handsome face.

“Bastard!” I screamed at him. “You didn’t have the guts to tell me you replaced me. Couldn’t have taken two minutes out of your busy life to let me know that you’ve moved some slut into your apartment. I should have known better…”

Strong arms wrapped around me, trapping my arms against my sides. Shane’s face was a mask of rage as he glared down at me. “What the fuck are you talking about?” he exploded.

“You wouldn’t even answer the phone while I was gone. I should have known something was up then.”

“I didn’t answer the phone because I was busy!” he yelled in my face, his eyes wild as they searched mine. “I had family problems to deal with, dammit.”

“I spoke to Emmie yesterday, Shane. There hasn’t been anything wrong with anyone in your family.” I tried to pull free from him, determined to leave and never look back. I had been such an idiot to think that things could work with this man.

“Fuck this!” He pushed me back into the elevator and punched the button for his floor. “I can’t talk to you in the lobby with you screaming at me, Harper.”

I struggled to get free. There was no way I wanted to go back into his apartment and face his new fuck buddy. I fought against his hold, my hair smacking him across the face repeatedly as the elevator rose. “Harper, stop it. You’re going to hurt yourself, baby.”

“Let go of me!” I cried, tears of frustration and humiliation now pouring down my face. “I hate you!”

Even through my struggle, I felt him tense at my words. As soon as the elevator opened on his floor, he tossed me over his shoulder and lifted my overnight bag. He stomped down the corridor and pounded on the door to his apartment when he couldn’t pull his key from his jeans pocket without dropping me.

Moments later, the girl from the bathroom opened the door in a towel. I glared at her over Shane’s shoulder as he walked into the apartment. “Dammit, Nat!” he exclaimed. “No wonder she’s so mad! You can’t go around like that.”

“I was in the shower!” Nat defended. “She just walked in and then ran off before I could even say a word. This isn’t my fault!”

“Put me down!” I beat my fists against Shane’s back hard enough that I felt him grunt in discomfort. “Put me down now!”

He ignored me as he continued through the apartment and into his bedroom. The door slammed behind us, and he paused only long enough to lock the door before dropping me on the bed. I bounced twice before I landed on my back, my hair in my face.

I pushed my hair out of my face to find Shane glaring down at me like I was the one in the wrong. “You have absolutely no trust in me do you?” he demanded.

“After the last few days, the answer would be a definite no.” I had trusted him wholeheartedly until he had given me a reason not to.

“Natalie isn’t who you think she is.” He started pacing, shooting me dirty looks each time he passed me. “If you had given me two minutes to explain things to you instead of tearing into me like a wild cat, I would have told you that Natalie is my sister.”

I almost snorted in disbelief until I remembered him telling once that he had a half-sister and her name was Natalie. “You said you didn’t have anything to do with your sister.”

Shane continued to pace. “I never have before. Her mother refused to let Nat or my dad have anything to do with Drake and me when she married him. She hated the thought of Dad having had another family before her. It wasn’t until after my mother died that Dad put his foot down and tried to reconnect with us. But by then Drake and I didn’t want to play happy family with a guy that hadn’t tried to be there for us when we had needed him the most.”