Page 188 of Second Sets Omnibus

The only thing my stalker has done is send me pictures of myself from a distance. No notes. No trying to get at me or kidnap me. I’m worried, yes. But they seem to be resigned to the sidelines and watching from afar.

“Fine. So, is your assistant Kitty Kat single yet?” Rocco grins, leaning his chin on his hand.

“You’re despicable,” I mumble. “You’ve both been captivated since meeting her six months ago. Too bad she’s still in a relationship with Trevor,” I say, sticking my tongue out at him.

He shrugs. “We’ll be here when they break up,” he says confidently, staring wistfully at the wall. “There’s just something about her that connects the three of us. She seems to complete our void—our perfect third. But alas, my elusive Kitty Kat hasn’t realized it yet,” he pouts, sticking his bottom lip out.

“One day,” I say, plucking his lip with a soft laugh. “Thanks, Roc. I’m feeling so much better now.”

“You still look like shit,” he quips, flicking my forehead again.

“Dick,” I huff, sitting straight up as a loud knock sounds at the front door before it flies open.

Almost in slow motion, we turn our attention to the wide-open front door where four rock stars with angry scowls stare at Rocco with untamed jealousy roaring through their systems. Lyric grins in her mismatched outfit, staring up at Rocco with stars in her eyes.

This should be good. Especially when she runs toward him with her arms opened wide, waiting for a hug.

“What the hell is he doing here?” Rad growls, pointing directly at Rocco, who holds his hands up in a placating manner and steps back.

Great. This will be fun.

A Few Hours Earlier

“You went outfor lunch and brought back that?” Asher’s brows furrow as I set the large bag on the counter of our kitchen at the band house, along with the food bags and drinks.

I grunt in response. The tension between the four of us stifles the damn house with its thick fog. It’s the giant elephant in the room we’ve avoided for hours now. The only entity able to break through the thick cloud currently sits on Callum’s lap, asking a fresh round of unrelenting questions about his tattoos. The ones she can see crawling up his arms, on his fingers, and wrapping around his neck, she pokes at them.

Ink has been his therapy over the past few years. Rarely does he talk about the miserable night between River and Van, instead throwing himself into complicated riffs on the bass and under the tiny needle. Or in the fight ring, where he risks his life every Saturday, getting the shit knocked out of him.

He and I aren’t so different. While I take out my haunted past on the swinging bag until I can’t feel anything anymore, he pounds flesh until her memory is beaten away.

Out of the corner of my eye, I watch her with rapt attention, soaking in the presence of this tiny being I helped create. Me. I did that. With the help of River, of course. Somehow, someway, we brought this life into the world. Only I wasn’t a part of it. Not entirely. Not at the beginning. I was away living what I thought was my dream. Instead of taking care of the one responsibility unknowingly thrust upon me. Watching her now, I note her familiarity with each of us. Openly calling us daddy and laughing at whatever we say. There’s always a smile for us when we talk and a hug when she needs it.

Fuck.

A sharp, painful ache pounds in my chest, desperate to drag all the answers out of this tiny being. River never hid us from Lyric. So, why weren’t we allowed to know she existed? The familiar rage I’ve come to know spikes in my veins like an old familiar friend, but I swallow it down. Now is not the time to lose my shit like I want to. Like I always do.

“That’s something we need to talk to River about,” Asher informs me when I stompmy way through the house, shouting my anger until the walls bleed and break.After I had left River in her bed, softly snoring her sickness away. The compulsion to beat the answers out of the three men I considered my brothers drove me through the door with a scowl.

“Yeah, bro. We don’t have all the answers either. We only found out, too.” Rad grimaces as he speaks, rubbing a finger over a scratch on his cheek.

“You need to cool down.” Callum gives me a knowing look, discreetly cracking his scarred knuckles in my direction.

Deep down, I know he’s eager to pop me in the fucking nose again as retribution for my damn attitude—like always. We’vebeen at each other’s throats for years since we left the woman across the street behind. Now, it’s hitting a fever pitch. If I don’t go, I’ll wreck whatever semblance of a relationship we have left and bury it in a grave so deep, it’ll never have a fucking chance to resurface and renew.

So, I did. I grabbed my keys and split for fresh air, which led me to the children’s store. A place I never thought I’d step foot in. I wandered around the deserted aisles with my head in the damn clouds, wondering what the hell was happening and how it happened without my knowledge. How could I not have known? How could she not have reached out and told me? She knew. She fucking knew what my dad did to me… What her dad did to her. So, why did she fucking keep this secret from me like I wouldn’t fucking care?

“My dad disappeared, too,” I mumble, laying back on the grass and staring at the stars.

“We’re bastards,” Blue mutters with a pout, looking over at me when I burst out laughing.

“Bastards under the moon,” I say through a sad smile, keeping the pain of his absence to myself.

“Dear man in the moon,” she says, turning on her back and clasping our hands together in the grass for support. “Will we ever meet our fathers again?” I bite my tongue. She may. I’ll never find mine. He’s long gone, dust in the wind.

I thought my life was spiraling out of control when River walked into the conference room with her head held high. Then came her announcement. Our band manager. Meaning she’d be in our lives for the next six months without pause. We’d see the ghost we’d left behind daily until our contract said otherwise, haunting us for eternity. Well, okay—six months. But six months can change everything. Six months can become a lifetime.

Now this bombshell.