The Rocker That Needs Me(61)

“It’s Shane,” he informed me with a frown.

“Answer it,” I told him, still clinging to that pre-sleep phase.

“Hello?” Nik paused and I could feel the tension filling his body.

That tension was all I needed to wake up. Something told me I wasn’t going to like the reason for Shane’s call. It was after two on the East Coast, so I was sure that whatever was going on wasn’t going to be amusing. He knew better than to call after nine my time because of Mia’s bedtime. The look on Nik’s face confirmed my suspicions. His blue eyes were on fire with a temper that looked close to boiling over.

Nik kept listening for a long moment and then, without another word, he gave me the phone. Muttering some curses that I would have smacked him in the back of the head for saying in front of our daughter or Lucy, he started pulling on clothes.

“Shane?” I greeted.

“Emmie!” Shane sounded strange to me. A mixture of emotions in the way he said my name. My heart clenched because whatever was wrong was bad. Very bad. “Emmie, I need you.”

“What’s going on? Are you okay? Is Drake?” Fear made me grip the phone tighter. “Lana?”

“I… Drake got drunk at a party at Axton’s. Liam is in town and he threw a party without Axton knowing about it. Axton invited Drake over after work yesterday and… He started drinking again, Em.”

I bit my lip. “That isn’t the end of the world, Shane. We all knew that he could have set backs. All we have to do is show him that we love him and support him through…”

Shane cut me off. “Emmie, that isn’t what I’m calling you about!” He paused, blowing out a frustrated sigh. “Drake is passed out in his bed, Emmie. And he isn’t alone.”

“Don’t tell me he got Lana drunk too!” I pushed the hair out of my face, already imagining the fit that Jesse was going to throw as soon as he heard about Lana’s partying with Drake…

“It isn’t Lana.” The words came out soft, as if he was trying to break something major to me. I wasn’t all that worried about myself right then. Drake had cheated on Lana. Oh, fuck! Jesse was going to kill him!

“Gabriella Moreitti is in bed with him.”

My head snapped back as if Shane had physically slapped me. No. No. NO! “I don’t believe you,” I whispered. I thought I was rid of that stupid bitch when Axton told me he had called things off with her. He hadn’t reverted to his old ways and let her back in his life after the last bitchy trick she had pulled months ago. Now…

“I swear to you, Emmie. I witnessed it with my own eyes. They are both naked and in bed…Lana just left…”

“Lana! Why the fuck wasn’t she with him in the first place?” I demanded.

“Because she was with me all afternoon yesterday getting ink. She wanted to surprise him with… That doesn’t even matter right now, Emmie!” he exclaimed. “Don’t you dare put this off on Lana. She’s destroyed right now!”

I sucked in a deep breath, trying to gain control over myself. I couldn’t keep blaming Lana for Drake’s mistakes. Everything she had ever done had been to help him, even if I hadn’t seen it that way at the time. Lana was the best thing to ever happen to Drake.

And now he had completely fucked that all up!

Not even I could fix this for him.

“He’s still passed out, Emmie. Both of them are.”

“What do you want me to do, Shane?” I asked.

He blew out a long breath full of frustration, disgust, disappointment, and rage. “If you can’t come take care of this, then no one will. Because if I have to do it, I will kill him. Lana is… I think she needs Layla.”

“How pissed was she?” I know I would have been tearing the place apart if I had found Nik in the same situation. And Lana, she was as big a firecracker as I was when it came to raging.

“That’s just it. She was all calm. Her eyes were all dead, and she even kissed him goodbye before leaving. She wasn’t herself. I’m worried about her. Please, Emmie. Come help me.” His voice was broken.

“I’ll be on the next flight out.”

“Thank you, Emmie.”

“I have to go. I love you.”

“Love you, Em!” And he hung up.

Nik was already tossing my clothes into a carry-on. “What can I do?” he asked from across the bedroom at my closet.

“I have to go to New York.”

“I know. Should I stay here with Mia? Or do you think we should take her?” He looked concerned.

I bit my lip again. I hadn’t spent one night away from my baby girl since we had brought her home from the hospital. “I don’t know.”