Page 54 of Pretty Little Rocker

That was when my hot minute turned to ashes, and I’d been floundering ever since. Even when Jamie took me from Abi’s house, back to my guys, nothing had gone right since. Because of Ky.

I shouldn’t have felt greedy. Having Jamie and Sparks—if they still wanted me—should have been enough for me. I’d find another band. It wouldn’t be the perfect fit like Autumn’s Slumber, but I’d make do. And I’d have two of the three rockers who possessed my heart.

It was more than poor Abi had. Her maybe-husband was dead at the hands of his sister, and she was likely pregnant. Not that she’d told me yet, but we were both keeping secrets from each other left and right. Keeping things from my bestie was why I was having such bad karma, or why fate had a hair stuck up her ass and was being such a bitch to me. Karma and fate needed to get laid and leave me the fuck alone. I didn’t actively go out and screw around with their existence. They needed to show the same courtesy, damn it.

Two taps on the studio door were all the warning we got before it opened. Aunt Emmie walked in, but she barely cleared the doorway before Jamie was rushing past her and lifting me into his arms. Instinctively, my legs wrapped around him, and I buried my face in his thick, blond hair that hung around his shoulder, hiding my swollen eyes and red nose from him.

Sparks came up behind me, his hands rubbing up and down my spine in firm strokes, attempting to melt away the tension that was causing my body to ache. Lifting an arm, I reached for him, pulling him closer so I was hugging them both.

Fresh tears filled my eyes, but I kept my face hidden in Jamie’s hair so it didn’t upset my guys. Sparks did not do well with tears. He got this look in his eyes that reminded me of something I’d seen in Sammy’s. A little touch of insanity, a huge dose of blood lust. It was scary and kind of hot when I saw it in Sparks’s brown eyes. But I didn’t want to be the reason he went around stabbing people.

“Boys, I expect you to take her home—her parents’ house,” Poppy clarified. “She doesn’t want to be around Ky. And I think she needs a day or two to think about what she really wants.”

“She wants us,” Jamie told him, not sounding the least bit intimidated by my grandfather. Which was kind of hot. Jesse Thornton could be scary as fuck at times. Jamie talking back to him could have got him a beatdown.

“She wants you and… Are you Sparks?” Poppy asked.

“Yes, sir,” Sparks muttered respectfully, making me smile despite the tears that kept flowing.

“That your legal name?” Poppy questioned.

“Jess,” Aunt Emmie cut in. “Let’s talk later.”

Oh shit. That meant she knew exactly who Sparks had been before he’d joined the band. She knew, but she wasn’t going to stop representing him and Autumn’s Slumber. Fuck, I loved her. After her own screwed-up childhood, she had empathy for others and believed in second chances. For the most part, at least.

But it made me curious about Jamie and what she’d learned about him. He hadn’t told me much about his past, but I didn’t need to know. Not his or Sparks’s or Ky’s.

What mattered was the men they were now.

Even if Ky was a jerkface prick.

“Lucy and Harris are expecting her home. They’re both at work, but they are aware that Hayat isn’t feeling the best, so they will be home this afternoon,” Poppy announced. “And I’ll be stopping by later tonight to make sure she’s there. Until she’s certain about what she wants—and who she wants—you will let her have time to think.”

“She can think at our place,” Jamie argued, not backing down. I snuggled closer, needing his pit bull cuddles and the feeling of being utterly safe in his arms. Not just safe in the from danger kind of way. But safe in that I knew my heart was protected with this man. “She has her own room. If she’s mad at Ky, we won’t let him in there.”

“Jamie, I want to go to my parents’ place,” I told him quietly, and I felt him turn to stone. “I’m sorry. But Ky… I just need a little distance from him until I’ve thought about a few things.”

“Do they have a spare room Sparks and I can bunk in?” Jamie asked hopefully. “I don’t want to be so far from you, Hellion.”

“I’ll make sure Lucy and Harris let you two visit often,” Poppy promised, his tone firm but reasonable. “Hayat’s tired. You two boys take her home.”

“Yes, sir,” Sparks said again, grumbling under his breath, “Wait until I get my hands on Ky.”

“Play nice, boys,” Aunt Emmie warned, but in that sweet tone that said she was only saying the words for whatever legal reasons. What she really meant was Whatever you do, don’t leave any evidence behind. And if you decide not to kill him, don’t leave any marks that can easily be seen. “I’ll be in touch. Take good care of our girl.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Jamie

Sparks opened the back door of his car and then helped me out while I still had Hayat wrapped around me like a cuddly koala. When I was out, he combed his fingers through her tangled hair, his face tormented as he saw the trails left behind from her tears.

Muttering a curse, he took her from me. With a growl from me, but a happy sigh from Hellion, I relinquished her to him. Wrapping herself around him exactly as she had me, she pressed her face into his neck and let her hair fall over his shoulder. Kissing her forehead, he reluctantly started up the pathway to the Cutters’ front porch.

Following behind them at a slower pace, I pressed the doorbell and waited for someone to answer. It was the middle of the day. Would her parents even be home?

It took a few minutes, but the door finally opened, and Evan Cutter stood there, staring at me with sleep-blurred eyes. He was a more welcome sight than that Bentley motherfucker. Added bonus for the kid wearing long basketball shorts and a tank top. The top of his head reached past the top of the doorframe. He would have to duck to get through. He was only seventeen, so he still had a few more years of growing to get through.

Seeing his sister in Sparks’s arms, he snapped fully awake. “What the fuck did you do to my sister?”

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