“Drake, you come with me,” I told him. “Shane you and Nik go search on the east side of the trailer park.”

Nik didn’t even question me. He just headed off to get it done. Shane gave me a nod to let me know he would tell Nik what was going on. Drake followed me around the west side of the trailer park, and we pretended to search for Emmie for an hour. I told Drake about Emmie’s lip and his face turned stormy. I knew that he wanted a drink… He was nineteen and already had a problem. I worried about him, but I think I would have worried more if he didn’t have the booze to self-medicate.

Dawn was just breaking when Drake walked into Emmie’s trailer and came out with her. She had cleaned up her face, and I was sure that she had even added a little of her mother’s makeup to hide the growing bruise on her face. Everyone went back to their trailers, but we sat on the front steps of Emmie’s. Her mother was already gone; she had taken off as soon as Drake had appeared with Emmie who had been ‘fast asleep’ in bed the whole time.

“We can’t keep doing this.” Shane muttered, running his fingers through his hair. “Next time who knows what will happen.”

We just sat there, knowing that what Shane said was true…

Chapter 1

Jesse

I woke with a start. My dreams so real that I knew they had been a memory. Heart pounding, I sat up in my bed and ran a hand over my rough scalp. I hadn’t shaved in a day or so and it showed.

It took a few minutes but I finally got my breathing under control. I had to keep telling myself that Emmie was okay. She was just down the hall, sleeping cuddled up to Nik. She was safe. Her mother was dead now. No one could hurt my Emmie. I hadn’t ever told anyone, but after Demon’s Wings had taken off and we had started touring, I had had panic attacks every night. I had lived in a constant state of fear, wondering if Emmie was alright back there in that trailer park with her mother. Thankfully, she had a cell phone, and I could call her every day—sometimes a dozen times a day—to make sure she was really okay.

Muttering a curse, I tossed back my covers and headed for my connecting bathroom. It was barely dawn but I knew I wouldn’t be going back to sleep. Instead I showered, didn’t bother shaving the scruff from my face or head, and went downstairs to fix a pot of coffee that could wake the dead.

After plugging in the coffeemaker I searched the fridge for something to eat. It was pretty bare. The six bedroom Malibu beach house that Emmie had picked out from the many that the real estate agent had shown her was practically brand new. We had moved in just a few days ago, and mostly we had been living on takeout. The furniture wouldn’t even arrive until later today.

I made myself a turkey sandwich and poured a mug full of my special brew. I couldn’t survive without my coffee. I was sure that I would end up with stomach cancer one day from it, but right now I couldn’t care less.

Taking my meager meal outside, I sat on the patio and watched as the waves crashed against the beach. It was soothing, and the rest of my unease from my nightmare began to settle down. I sat there for a few hours, loving the house that was now home.

It might be odd to some people, four rockers in one house, but we were more than just band mates. We were brothers, all of us. Besides, when Shane had suggested that we all needed to get our own places Emmie had lost it…

“Maybe we should get a house in the Hills. You know, me, Drake, and Jesse,” Shane had said over dinner. She had told us about the beach house the real estate agent had shown her and that she wanted our opinion on the place before making an offer.

We were all in the hotel dining room, and I was trying to enjoy my steak, but I had gotten use to home cooked meals all summer and nothing else seemed to set well these days. So I saw the change in Emmie as soon as the words came out of Shane’s mouth. The way she went all pale and the fear and tears that had made those pretty green eyes stick out of that gorgeous face of hers.

“Is that what you want?” She whispered.

Shane frowned. “I don’t care, Emmie. I just think that since the baby will be here in a few months you and Nik would want your own place. Having us around all the time isn’t going to be easy.”

Her chin trembled and I felt my heart crack open. I hated those tears! She was the only person in the world who could break me with a single tear drop. “Please don’t leave me!” she whispered, but she might as well have screamed it at him from the impact it had on us all. “I…I don’t want you to leave me.” Her words came out on a broken sob, and I couldn’t stay in my seat a second longer without holding her.

Nik’s fork made a loud clattering noise as it hit his plate, and he had her in his arms rocking her before I could reach her, but I still crouched down beside of her. She buried her face in Nik’s neck, sobbing brokenly while I rubbed her back. I shot Shane a glare, but when I saw his face, I looked away. He was just as broken as I was by her tears.

“Emmie, I’m sorry. I don’t want to leave you. I won’t, sweetheart. I swear. Please don’t cry, honey.” He scooted back his chair and came to crouch down beside of Nik too. He grasped her hand and tugged until she raised her head to look at him. Tears poured down her cheeks and I wanted to punch something.

“I don’t want things to change,” she sobbed. “I don’t want you to leave. You guys are all I have.”

Shane groaned and pulled her into his arms. Everyone around us was shooting us curious looks, but none of us cared. Shane dropped back into the chair beside of Nik with Emmie now on his lap. He held her tight, whispering over and over again that he was sorry. That no matter what we weren’t going to leave her…

It wasn’t just pregnancy hormones that had caused her breakdown. The four of us were her family. All that she had ever really known. For the last six years, we had all been right there, every day. I wasn’t about to leave her now.

Nik dropped down beside of me sometime later. Dressed in jeans and a smoky gray Demon’s Wings shirt he looked rested and carefree. The break from the constant touring that had been our lives for longer than I could remember had been good for all of us. His carefree attitude was because of Emmie. There was only one man that I would ever trust with Emmie’s heart, and that was Nik.

“Gods, I love it here.” Nik sighed. It seemed that like me he had gotten in the habit of saying ‘Gods’. Emmie’s little knacks rubbed off on all of us. It was something that I didn’t even notice anymore.