Reckless Redemption: A Bad Blooded Rebel Novel (Bad Blooded Rebel Series) (13 page)

“You
know how you could alleviate that irritation? By going out and getting laid,”
Ryder said, shoving his arm. “Seriously, bro, how long has it been? A year
now?”

Jude
scrunched his face and said, “Fuck me, has it been that long? I guess I hadn’t
noticed.”

“I
still can’t believe you quit sex cold turkey when you moved in with my sister,”
I said, laughing. “How many times has she busted your balls over that?”

“She
hasn’t. Actually, she’s been pretty cool and said she would give it up too for
a while,” he answered.

“Damn,”
I laughed, “I don’t know why that’s funny to me but it is.”

“Still
though, as much pussy as you used to get, it had to have been rough on your
dick to just stop completely,” Ryder said.

“It
was difficult but I had never lived with a chick at that point and I didn’t
want Sadie to see all the usual girls I had hanging around there. I also didn’t
need the added drama trying to get them out the door and having Sadie laughing
her ass off at them as they did the walk of shame.”

“So
how many times do you masturbate in a day since no one’s playing with your dick
now?” Ryder teased, and Jude shoved him.

“Shut
the fuck up, man,” he said, flipping him off.

After
they teased each other some more, we placed our orders and I cleared my throat.

“Listen,
guys, there was actually a reason I wanted us all to meet tonight. There’s
something I need to say and it can’t wait,” I said, my tone serious.

“What’s
up man? Whatever it is we’ve got your back, you know this,” Kris answered.

“Well,
I’m sure you all know by now that Danni and I are finally back together,” I
said.

“That’s
awesome,” said Kris.

“Finally,”
replied Jude.

“Thank
fucking God,” Ryder answered.

Smiling
slightly, I went on.

“Listen
guys, we talked yesterday and she told me about the intervention you guys
staged for me six months ago.”

Suddenly
it got very quiet and I looked carefully at each of the guys. They were looking
at each other, obviously trying to decide what to say.

“Before
anyone says anything, I have to say I’m sorry,” I answered. “I knew I was bad
but I didn’t realize how bad. I had no idea any of that happened until Danni
told me last night.”

“The
fact that you didn’t know and no one told you should prove that we love you,
man,” Kris said. “You were already such a mess that you didn’t need to be
reminded of what happened. You got your shit worked out so we all just let it
go.”

“We’re
just glad you’re okay, man,” Ryder said.

“Thanks,”
I said, looking at the table. “I just can’t believe I blocked out something
that huge and you guys still stuck by me.”

“Hey,”
Jude said, putting a hand on my arm. “We will always stick by you because we’re
brothers. We were a family long before any of the music and we will be one long
after. I’m so glad Danni came back when she did because we were all afraid we
were going to lose you.”

“I
can’t believe I let myself get that bad, especially over a woman. But she’s not
just any woman. She’s the one,” I said, feeling the guilt start to go away.

“Danni’s
a special girl, that’s for sure. This has been a difficult year for all of us
and it’s about time we all got a break,” Kris said.

Ryder
raised his beer and nodded his head.

“Ain’t
that the fucking truth. That whole month in New York was just a shit storm all
the way around.”

“Yes
it was,” I agreed. “Seriously though, I just wanted to say thanks for being
there like always, guys. It’s just going to get better for me from here on out
now that I have my girl back.”

Jude
raised his beer and said, “To getting girls back, getting pussy on a regular
basis, and to the one asshole in the bunch that’s getting none of that.”

We
all raised our drinks (beers for them, soda for me) and laughed as we toasted
to the future and for the first time in a while, I was hopeful for mine. It was
all tied to Danni and I hoped nothing would come along to ruin it.

“What
are you talking about, Sadie? The song is perfect,” Jude groaned, rubbing his
hand through his Mohawk in frustration.

Sadie
shook her head and pursed her lips in thought.

“No,
it’s not right yet. Something’s missing. Just let me listen to it again and
I’ll figure it out,” she said and pressed the button to replay the song we
thought we’d just finished.

To
say Sadie was a perfectionist and took her job seriously was the biggest
understatement ever. We’d recorded another track for our album three days ago.
It sounded perfect to us, but Sadie was insisting something was missing.

“Well,
I’m tired of sitting on my ass and doing nothing. I’m going to grab lunch. You
want me to pick you up something?” Jude asked Sadie, and she nodded.

“Just
bring me back an order of whatever you’re having,” she said, waving him off.

Sighing,
Jude turned to me, Kris and Ryder and asked, “Well, I’m hitting the burger
joint down the road. You guys want to come with me?”

“Yeah,
I’ll go,” Kris answered. “Jess is doing office shit so I’m free.”

Ryder
shook his head. “If we are on a quick break I think I’m going to head home and
have lunch with Evie.”

“Naked
lunch you mean,” I teased.

“Fucking
right, man. This pregnancy has her horny
all the time
and I’m not
ashamed to let her have what she wants,” he said, smiling. “Besides, she’s
almost three months along and now that her belly’s rounding out and her boobs
are getting bigger she looks sexy as
fuck
.”

Everleigh
was finally out of the first trimester of her pregnancy and she was starting to
show. She was a very pretty girl anyway, but even I had to admit that she was
looking more and more beautiful every day as her stomach started to get bigger.
I could only hope that Danni and I would have that some day. She’d look
incredible with my child growing inside her. But I wasn’t about to tell her
that. I just got her back and I wasn’t going to scare her off with any baby
talk.

“Well,
you go enjoy your
lunch
,” I teased, nudging his arm. “As for me, I think
I might call Danni and see how she’s feeling.” Danni and I had been back
together officially for a little over a month and things were damn near perfect.

I
wanted to check on her anyway. She’d come down with the flu and had been throwing
up; she was barely able to get out of bed for the past week and a half. She claimed
she was starting to feel better but I just wanted to make sure.

I
heard a light tapping on the recording booth door and it opened before anyone
could speak.

“Knock
knock, am I interrupting?” Danni said, walking into the booth.

I
smiled and stood up. “Well, hey there beautiful,” I replied, walking to her and
enveloping her into my arms. “I was just telling the guys I was going to come
by your apartment to check on you. How are you feeling?”

“
Much
better,” she answered. “Thank God whatever I had is finally gone. Since I am
feeling better I was hoping to kidnap you and take you to lunch.”

“Well
Kris and I were about to go get take out. Why don’t you hang around and join
us?” Jude suggested but I wanted to punch him. Since Danni wasn’t sick anymore
my dick was quickly rising to full attention.

She
smiled and said, “Sure, that sounds great. I feel like I’ve missed so much
while I’ve been sick so I need to catch up.”

I
sighed and kissed the top of her head.

“Okay,
well, why don’t you sit down and chill with Sadie while I go with the guys to
get food?”

“That’s
sounds great,” she said, leaning up and kissing my lips. “We can talk shit
about you guys while you’re gone.”

I
smiled and hugged her close.

“We
were going to go to the burger joint down the block, but I can go to another
restaurant if you think a cheeseburger might upset your stomach.”

“I’ve
lived off bananas, dry toast, and Gatorade for the past three days. I’d knife
someone for a cheeseburger right now,” she said, and I laughed.

“Okay,
cheeseburger it is then.”

I
pulled her into a deep kiss. As soon as we broke apart she looked at me, dazed.
“I won’t be gone long.”

“Good,”
she mumbled. “Hurry back, babe.”

I
looked at her face, so beautiful and perfect, and I felt the familiar need to
pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.

Kissing
her once more, I said, “You know it,” and I followed Kris and Jude out of the
studio.

Danni

“So,
what’s been going on with you lately? I feel like we never get to hang
anymore,” I asked Sadie, who was busy at the mixing board.

“Nothing
much really, just working my ass off for our guys, getting shit done. How about
you? How’s it been going with Beau?” she asked me, smiling.

“It’s
been
amazing
,” I said dreamily. “I don’t think I’ve been this happy in
my whole life.”

“I
can see that. Jesus Christ you’re
glowing
,” Sadie replied. “God my
brother must be good in the sack to make you look all shiny and shit.”

I
giggled and nudged her arm. “God, Sadie,” I laughed. “Seriously though, it’s
been so wonderful being with him again. I love him so much.”

Sadie
slid another button on the mixing board and stopped.

Turning
to me, she smiled and said, “I know you do and as his sister I couldn’t be
happier. He’s had a rough life, even before the big disaster in New York.”

“Yeah,
he mentioned you two didn’t have it easy growing up,” I answered, not sure what
else to say. Beau and I never talked about his past mainly because it made him
angry to think about his mother and about how his father abandoned him. All I
wanted was for him to be happy so he wouldn’t be tempted to drink again.
However, I had to admit I was curious about his past beyond the band.

“Well
knowing my brother I bet he’s not told you shit about how we were raised. Then
again, why would he want to talk about it? The world became a better place when
Sharon Cavanaugh kicked the fucking bucket,” she said, hatred brewing in her
brown eyes.

This
woman must have been truly evil because I couldn’t ever imagine hating my
mother so much that I would be happy she was dead. I guess I got lucky.

“How
did she die?” I asked softly.

Sadie
snorted and replied, “Dumb bitch drove home drunk from the bar one night. Hit a
van full of kids on their way home from some church function. Thankfully all of
the kids were okay.”

“Oh
Jesus,” I whispered, placing my hand on her arm. “I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t
be, Danni. That woman was pure fucking evil and had put Beau and me through
hell. She was abusive, neglectful, and just plain disgusting. There were days
she would get beaten or dumped by some loser and would get so drunk that she’d black
out. When that happened she’d turn on me and Beau and beat the fuck out of us.
He protected me as best as he could and took much more than I did in the
beginning. It still hurts to remember watching him being beaten and kicked for
something as simple as playing too loud or sneaking some food from the fridge
so we could eat that day.”

I
gasped and put my fingers over my lips. I felt a pain in my chest as I thought
of a young Beau being hit and abused…it made me feel sick.

 “Oh
my God,” I said.

“Yeah,
but I’m glad he got out when he did. He spent too much time taking care of me
and protecting me that it made me so happy to know he would be away from here
when the band took off.”

“Weren’t
you afraid that she was going to turn on you when he left?” I asked.

“Of
course, but I never let him see how scared I was. He only had to deal with our
mother because none of the guys she fucked wanted to mess with him. I had to
deal with her
and
all of her fuck buddies that would hit me or try even
worse things. If Beau had known about that, he never would have left and we
wouldn’t be here now. I’d gladly take it all over again if it meant my brother
could get out of here and be free.”

“Wow,
Sadie,” I said, the tears falling openly now, “You are fucking amazing, you
know that? I can’t imagine growing up in fear like that. I was fortunate to
have amazing parents that loved me.”

Sadie
studied my face for a few seconds and then smiled.

Putting
an arm around my shoulders, she said, “Yes you were. Every kid should grow up
like that and if I ever have any, they are getting fucking spoiled.”