With the stopwatch app going, I pushed through the crowd toward the back stage. A few of the crew greeted me with a smile or a nod but were so busy they didn’t stop to speak to me. By the time I got to the dressing rooms I found Cole and Axton sitting with a group of women, laughing and flirting and who knew what else as they sat there. One was sitting on Cole’s lap—definitely not Hilary, but the chick was dressed much the same way as the other woman. Axton had one sitting on each arm of the chair he was sitting in, but his eyes weren’t as focused on them as Cole’s were on his little groupie.

“Hey darlin’,” Cole greeted when he saw me. “Drake wasn’t looking so good a few minutes ago. Might want to check up on the poor fucker.”

Concerned, I just kept on walking. Drake’s dressing room was at the end of the hall and I rushed in without bothering to knock…

The smell hit me first—that all-too-familiar scent of whisky that was like a terrifying ghost from the past. I paused with my hand on the light switch. What the fuck were the lights doing off? Then I heard it, a feminine moan and I turned the lights on before turning around.

I felt the blood drain from my face only to start to boil in my veins. The room filled with a high scream that took me a moment to realize had come from my own mouth. Oh, I was going to kill that fucking bitch.

Drake was lain out on the little sofa, his eyes closed, his breathing slow and even. He was passed out. From drinking? It was the first thought that crossed my mind but I was quick to push it away, ashamed of myself for even letting that possibility enter my head. His shirt was off, and a very naked Bethany was lying on top of him…

She was practically raping my husband who was off in another world, unable to so much as protest—or even participate should he have been of the mind to cheat on me.

For weeks—no, months!—I had known that this bitch was after my husband and had even entertained the idea of what I would do if he did lose his sanity and cheated on me with her. I’d imagined how I would tear him apart, starting with his balls to make sure he remembered me every time he so much as thought of letting his dick get hard. I’d thought maybe I would cry or scream or just turn around and leave—much like I had when I had found him in bed with Gabriella Moreitti.

Now, faced with the picture in front of me, I knew that I had been incredibly stupid. Drake would never cheat on me. Maybe I was conceited and spoiled, but I knew without a shadow of a doubt that he loved me and would probably kill himself before hurting me like that. So I just stood there, seething as Bethany turned her head. An evil smile teased at her lips as she widened her eyes in mock surprise.

“Oh… Oh, no.” She bit her lip, the look of innocence in her eyes if not for the sickness also evident there. Pure hate shined back at me from her soulless eyes. “Lana, I’m so sorry. We didn’t mean for you to find out like this.”

I ignored her and glanced around the dressing room, looking for the source of the whisky smell. If Drake actually had slipped I knew he would have gone straight for only one thing. Jack Daniels. Instead, I saw a bottle of Jameson spilled across the coffee table in front of the couch. Wow, she had really thought of everything. Trying to make me think the worst of my man.

Sure, with the way my emotions had been all over the place lately it was very likely that I could have responded to this scene differently. I could have been too pissed and disappointed by finding him with another woman lying across his bare chest and the smell of alcohol filling the air to even consider that Drake was innocent in all of this. It looked bad. Really, really bad.

I guess it was just too bad for this crazy-ass bitch that I loved my husband as much as he loved me. So even though another strong, gut-twisting contraction had me pausing for a moment to catch my breath, the next minute found me across the room in three steps and pulling that skank off my man.

Her shriek as I grabbed handfuls of her hair and dragged her toward the door echoed through the room, making Drake stir. “Angel?” His voice was rough from his cold and sleep. “Fuck!” he roared when he spotted me struggling to open the door while I held on to my prisoner.

“I’m going to kill her,” I screamed. “She was…” I couldn’t say the words. He had been violated enough and I didn’t want him to ever think of that again. And this bitch had been about to do the same thing to him! Yeah, I was going to kill her.

The door opened without warning, slamming against my shoulder. Cole and Axton stood in the doorway, concern wrinkling their brows but their mouths were wide open as they took in the sight of a pregnant woman ripping another woman’s hair out by the handful.

“What the fucking hell is going on?” Cole burst out, finally finding his voice. “Jesus, Lana!”

I still had hold of Bethany’s hair, tugging back and forth until I ripped handfuls free. She screamed again and if my belly wasn’t in the way I would have punched the psycho in the vagina. I tossed her head aside, feeling a satisfied thrill when her head made a loud thump as it bounced off the floor. I straightened and kicked what I wanted to punch, getting a high-pitched wail from her.

“How dare you touch my husband?” I screamed as I kicked her again. “Taking advantage of him while he’s sick. Trying to hurt him by setting him up to lose me. Messing with his head by making it look like he had been drinking.” Another kick, this one to her ribs as she huddled into the fetal position to try and protect herself as much as possible. Damn, I wished I’d worn my boots. I’d have stomped this bitch into dust.

“You’re sick!” It came out a shrill shriek that hurt my throat I screamed so loud, and more people filled the open doorway. “And if you thought I would let you get away with it you thought wrong, bitch. I protect what is mine. I…” I nearly stumbled as another contraction made me double over in pain.

No one had tried to stop me as I had kicked Bethany into a bleeding, pitiful mess on the floor. Not one person had stepped forward to intervene. Either they were too stunned or they just didn’t care. Now, as I whimpered in pain, Drake’s arms caught hold of my waist to steady me. Axton stepped forward at the same time Cole did, ready to help me at the first sign.

“Angel?” Drake’s voice soothed me as I tried to breathe through the pain. “What’s wrong? Are you in labor?”

“Looks like it.” I leaned into him, welcoming his warmth and strength.

Things moved fast after that. Drake lifted me into his arms, barking orders for Axton to get the car. Cole pushed through the crowd at the door that went all the way down the hall, making a path so that Drake could carry me out. People were whispering all around me, making assumptions—some of them true, others huge whoppers, like Drake and I had been having a threesome with the executive producer’s assistant when I had gone into labor. Wow, really?