The Rocker That Holds Her (The Rocker...) Read Online Free

her mind—Emmie’s homelife became a little safer. We all called her several times a day, and I was doing better emotionally since we were now talking like we used to.
    Even with the medication, my mom wasn’t doing any better. More often than not she didn’t know who I was when I went to visit her. But other than the dementia, she didn’t look unhealthy. The nurses were taking exceptional care of her and that made me sleep a little easier at night, especially when I was off touring with the guys.
    Our name was getting out there. Our second album in three years had gone triple platinum. We were winning music awards and having our songs added to movies and television shows. I was starting to write more and fans were going crazy for my songs. I didn’t know I had such a passion for songwriting, but I was pretty talented.
    Three years had flown by so quickly. There hadn’t been any downtime since our rocker life had started, and we were all feeling the need for a vacation. At the moment we were halfway through a tour with OtherWorld. Of all the bands we had toured with over the last few years OtherWorld was the most interesting.
    We had all become friends, but we kind of adopted Axton into our brotherhood. If we were touring with him, he was on our bus more often than his own. OtherWorld wasn’t nearly as close as we were. With Demon’s Wings, we weren’t just bandmates, we were brothers. We had grown up together, seen each other at our lowest, and stuck together through the harshest of times. Jesse, Drake, Shane, and Emmie were my family—all I had in the world now that my mom was checking out in the mind department.
    There were three hours to go before Demon’s Wings were scheduled to take the stage. I was sitting on the long couch backstage drinking a beer and tossing my phone up and catching it. I was bored out of my fucking mind. Shane was off getting cozy with two girls that had snuck backstage, while his brother was getting cozy with another bottle of Jack Daniels. Who knew where Jesse was, because really it could have been anyone’s guess. He could have been getting lost between some girl’s legs or off causing trouble with Liam and Zander.
    When my phone rang I knew who it was. Knew that she was calling to tell me how her day was. Emmie and high school were not mixing well. For one, she didn’t do the whole friend thing with girls. Most of the girls that she went to school with knew that Emmie was under our protection, so they only ever approached her in hopes of getting to approach us . And… well… Emmie was strong willed with a temper to match her hair, and a mind that saw everything from every angle.
    I was smiling as I hit connect on my cellphone and lifted it to my ears. “Hey, baby doll. How’s my favorite girl?”
    Instead of jumping into bitching about her day she was quiet. I could feel her tension even over the phone. My stomach bottomed out as I tried to keep all the possibilities out of mind—Emmie hurt, broken, bleeding. If her mother had dared to hurt Emmie again I would tear her apart this time.
    “ Em?” I croaked out.
    “ Momma’s dead. She overdosed.” Her voice was devoid of all emotions. It was like I was talking to a robotic Emmie. “I called the cops, but they said it could take them a while to get the paramedics out here to get the body…”
    I was already on my feet, already mentally making a list of what had to be done. “Are you okay? Where are you now?”
    “At the trailer… but the cops said social services will be coming to get me soon…”
    I started jogging, the urgency to get back to Ohio hitting the red zone now. I couldn’t let social services take Emmie. I would never see her again. She would get lost in the system. And only god knew what would happen to her in a foster home. “I’m coming. We will be there by tonight.” Even if I had to hire a private jet to get me there I was going to be there that night. “Hide. Do you hear me, Em? Hide. Don’t