What I had against the whole thing was that it wasn’t going to be just Wroth, Liam, and Marissa at the farm. It was going to be the entire band. Which included Axton Cage.

Emmie and I had nearly come to blows over her keeping that little bit of news from me. I swear if that bitch hadn’t been pregnant I would have gone to town on her auburn head. I might love her, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t kick her beautiful ass. She’d known it too, and hadn’t bothered to hide her smirk as she reminded me I had signed a contract. Bitch.

If it hadn’t been for that contract I would still be in New York, maybe cuddled up on my couch with a beer and a few boxes of pizza, looking for a job online. I didn’t need the money. I had my mother’s credit cards that I maxed out on a monthly basis—but that she paid for with the money she had made off of my years as a model. I also had a trust fund from my dad, which I had gotten the day I had turned twenty-one. Money my mother couldn’t touch. Money that I didn’t want to touch because I wanted to earn my own way.

Instead, with that iron clad contract in Emmie’s hands, I was now in the back of a freaking Hummer limo with Liam, Linc, and Natalie. It was better than an ambulance, which was what the hospital had wanted us to take to transport Liam from New York to Tennessee. I’d have much rather have taken a plane, but the doctors didn’t want Liam flying at the moment.

Two days ago, Wroth and Marissa had left to get the house ready for Liam. A hospital bed was supposed to be delivered and a few other supplies that I would need since I was taking over as his nurse as of now. Liam still had bandages that needed regular attention as well as pain meds that had to be monitored. He didn’t want them at all, because he was terrified they were going to hurt his addiction recovery. Unfortunately, the pain was still too extreme for him not to take them.

The drive down wasn’t horrible, but snow made it take longer than expected. I wasn’t looking forward to getting there though. Natalie had let it slip that while Zander, Devlin, and Harris had yet to arrive, Axton had already left for the farm. For some reason everyone thought that was odd. Apparently Ax didn’t visit the farm, or Tennessee for that matter, unless he absolutely had to.

The closer we got to our destination, the more my heart raced. Why I was so anxious to see Axton I couldn’t honestly say. Over the last three weeks I’d seen plenty of Axton in passing. He always arrived at the hospital in the evenings, just as I was getting ready to leave for the day. He would bring Liam something special each time, whether it was something to eat, a book or some magazines, or even a Blu-ray and some movies to watch. What had really surprised me was that Axton had been staying all night with Liam, because he was still there every morning when I arrived. When I’d asked Liam about it he had remained tight lipped. The only thing that had kept me from pushing the issue was that Liam was obviously sleeping enough. Of course, that only left me with more questions that I knew wouldn’t get answered from Liam, and he knew I wasn’t going to ask Axton.

Seeing so much of him, even if only in passing, had woken up memories I had thought I had locked away tight. Memories of a time when I had been happy, but convinced that I was going to lose Axton. Of course I had been right, but part of me couldn’t help but wonder if my continued prediction had pushed us apart just as much as my jealousy of that fucking tattoo of another girl’s name on his wrist.

“You’ve been awfully quiet,” Linc murmured as the driver slowed down to take our exit, pulling me out of my musings.

I shrugged. “I have nothin’ to say.”

He snorted. “That’s a first.”

Despite the apprehension I was feeling about spending the next month under the same roof with my ex, a grin teased at my lips. “Shut up, you.”

Linc bumped his shoulder against mine. “It’s not gonna be that bad, Dallas. He’s only one man.” It was my turn to snort. Only one man. Sure, it wouldn’t have been so bad. If he wasn’t the only man to make my body come alive just by breathing the same air. If he wasn’t the only man that still owned my heart. A heart that he had bent and broken, but still owned. The fucker.

Twenty minutes later the limo pulled to a stop in front of a huge three-story house. It looked newer than I was expecting, but I did know that once OtherWorld had taken off in a big way, Wroth had built his mother her dream house here on the farm that had been in his family for multiple generations. Liam had told me all about the farm, and how Wroth’s dad had nearly lost it to the bank. When Wroth was eighteen he became a marine simply for the sign-on bonus that had gotten his parents caught up on their mortgage and put some extra money in the bank. That, along with Liam’s part time job after school, had helped get the farm operating in the black.

The smell that was always associated with cows drifted in the air and I couldn’t help but feel nostalgic for home. It felt like forever since the last time I had been in Texas, although my dad visited me often in New York. My father lived on a million-acre spread. He mostly dealt in Herefords, which were beef cattle. When I was old enough to ride a horse and showed so much interest in them, my dad had turned over the majority of the running of his cattle to his ranch foreman so that he and I could start up a hobby of collecting some of the most beautiful horses in the world. When I was seven he had flown me to the Middle East so that I could pick out my own Arabian…

My heart clenched as thoughts of Raad tried to enter my mind. It had been forever since I had allowed myself to think of the horse that had become my best friend. The horse that my mother had ultimately used against me so that I would eventually follow her on her stupid pageant tour. Raad was why I didn’t go home anymore. Because of Raad, I had learned to never trust my mother with anything that was precious to me.

“Home at last,” Liam said with a tired sigh. The long drive down from New York had taken a lot out of him even though he had spent a few hours sleeping. I gave him the best smile I could muster with my heart now aching. “Is it bad that all I want is a shower and the bed I’ve slept in since I was a kid?”

“Sounds like a good idea, actually,” Linc said as he opened the door before the driver could do so. Cold air blasted into the back of the limo, snapping me out of my melancholy. Holy shit, it felt colder here than it did back in New York. Even though I was only going from the limo into the house, I wish I had left my parka out instead of just wearing one of my old hoodies.