“Sweetheart…” I kissed the top of her head, “…I’m sorry. I know that you wanted our baby…” My voice trailed off because I didn’t know what else to say to her. Maybe I was a selfish bastard. Okay, there was no maybe about it. I really was a selfish bastard, because right then it didn’t bother me that we weren’t going to get to have a child of our own. I was so happy that I wasn’t going to have to face the fear of losing Harper that nothing else in the world mattered. I didn’t need a kid of our own.

I just needed her.

Chapter 27

Emmie

My calendar was spread out in front of me and I was trying to figure out exactly how to fit in going to New York for the birth of Lana and Drake’s daughter and be back here in time for the twins to be released from the hospital. Lana’s due date was next week and the doctor had said that more than likely Luca and Lyric would get to come home. The twins’ sleep apnea alarms had been going off less and less but still not three nights in a row yet, but next week was looking like a huge possibility.

“You have a meeting with Mia’s preschool teacher in two hours.”

I didn’t even look up at the woman as she spoke and I was sure that she hadn’t been expecting me to anyway. I’d hired three assistants so far and only one of them had made it longer than a week. The first one had quit because she couldn’t take my attitude. I’d told her the day I’d hired the woman that I wasn’t an easy person to work for. She hadn’t believed me, which had been made blatantly apparent when I had started chewing her out for not immediately telling me when Lana had been on the phone—an emotionally wrecked Lana at that. Stupid bitch—the ex-assistant, not Lana.

The second assistant had quit when I had told her point blank that my husband was my husband and not ever going to start an affair with her. I didn’t even remember the woman’s name because for one she hadn’t worked for me for longer than five hours before she was trying to get Nik to sign her tits. For another, she really hadn’t been worth getting to know. The chick probably could make it big on screen, though. She had fooled me into hiring her, pretending to be a serious career-minded individual who wanted to learn the music business.

Rachel was a different story, though. She had proven to be efficient, handling all my phone calls, the mail and most of the emails that came in. She was thirty-eight and had the tone of an angry fifth-grade teacher who only softened when she spoke to Mia and Lucy, which deterred most people who were only calling to annoy the hell out of me. Having spent her life in a house full of nothing but chaos she knew how to micromanage and kick ass over the phone.

Honestly, the woman was a godsend. Now if only I could clone her my life would be so much simpler. “Thanks,” I muttered, still considering the calendar.

“Your husband wants to know if you want to pick up dinner while you’re out or if he should grill steaks.” I flicked my eyes up but only briefly, wincing as soon as I did so because my eye was still pretty sensitive. The scar that went from my hairline to my eye brow was itchy and irritating, but it didn’t compare to the lingering pain underneath. “Shane asked me to have you call him at your earliest convenience…”

I picked up my cellphone, ready to call him back now. Shane and Harper were going through a lot at the moment. Well Harper was, Shane was in a better place than she was at the moment. Which probably made it all the worse for poor Harper. She couldn’t understand why he wasn’t more upset over them being unable to have kids. I could see it from both of their points of view. Shane was just happy to have Harper and not have to worry about losing her to the dreaded C word. Harper was slipping deeper into depression more and more every day because she wasn’t going to be able to have something I cherished every day. That depression was also making old scars resurface and crack open.

“…and Axton Cage is holding on line two.”

“Ax?” I frowned and reached for the phone on my new desk instead of my cell. Everything in the guesthouse was new actually, except for the small kitchen that I hadn’t bothered to have taken out. It had taken two weeks to get the layout I had wanted from the contractor. What had once been the living room was now a reception area that had Rachel’s desk as well as a few chairs and the walls were covered in beautifully framed posters of both Demon’s Wings and OtherWorld. The bedroom was now my office and really my sanctuary since I hid out in here more often than anywhere else. Rachel had made it so easy for me to push off things on to her.

That Axton was calling my office and not my cell was enough to cause me to worry. He texted me twenty times a day even if it was just to say hi or send me a picture he had found on Facebook. “Hey,” I greeted. “What’s up?”

“I want Liam out.”

I blinked at how cold his voice was. I don’t think I had ever heard him as pissed off as he was right now. That it was because of Liam Bryant didn’t surprise me, of course, but Liam was still in rehab in upstate New York. Axton shouldn’t even know where he was, so why the fuck was he so mad? “Why?”

“Do I need a fucking reason?” he snarled and I glanced up at Rachel who was still standing in the doorway of my office. Nodding my head she backed out and closed the door behind her.

“Okay, just calm down,” I told him calmly. “Whatever is going on we can work it out, Ax. Stop biting my head off and tell me what’s going on.”

“He’s a backstabbing dickwad, that’s what is going on. Just because he’s so fucked up in the head he thinks he should be entitled to everything he sees and wants. I want him out or I’m walking.” My eyes narrowed, knowing that whatever had pushed my friend over the edge was huge. Through everything he and OtherWorld had been through he had never threatened to leave the band before. He loved what he did and having his bandmates standing behind him on stage had always been something he was proud of.

“Is this because he was screwing around with Gabriella Moreitti?” Just saying her name left a bad taste in my mouth, but I knew it had to have something to do with the little Italian rocker. It wasn’t until very recently that I had learned that Axton’s ex had been shacking up with Liam, but had kicked his ass to the curb the same night he had ended up in rehab. It had only served as a further indication that Liam was seriously fucked up in the head in my book. What was it about that bitch that had hot guys chasing after her with their tongues flapping in the wind like a dog with his head out the window?