Stone Cold Notes: A Rock Star Romance (The Seasons Change)

PHONE IN HAND, I paced at my open door.

Wren was coming. Iris was with Wren. Ronan too.

Something was wrong.

They wouldn’t say, but I knew. Why else would she be with Iris? She should have been at work, but she was coming here.

My stomach tightened. I was sick with worry. They’d be here any second. Any second, I’d have the answers. But that didn’t make it easier. That did not relieve the knots in my gut.

I saw Ronan first. He strode down the hallway from the elevator. When he met my eyes, there was nothing but stone behind them. He stepped to the side when he arrived at my door. First, Iris came into view. The smile she gave me wasn’t one of happiness.

My gaze bounced to Wren. At first glance, I couldn’t find anything wrong with her. I took her in, swept her from head to toe, and stopped at the sleeve of her coat hanging loose at her side.

“What happened?” I addressed Ronan.

Wren rushed forward before he could answer and threw herself into my chest. I backed into the apartment with my little bird in my arms. Ronan and Iris followed.

“What happened?” I asked her, softer this time.

“I had an accident.” Her head tipped back, and I was relieved to see she wasn’t crying. I’d seen enough of Wren crying to last a lifetime. It gutted me every single time.

“Are you hurt?”

She nodded, then shrugged her coat off, dropping it to the floor. “My wrist is broken.” She showed me the hot-pink cast extending from her hand up her forearm. “I didn’t need surgery, though.”

I kissed her fingertips, wishing on all that was holy I could take her place. I’d snap all my bones to repair Wren’s one. My Wren was broken, and this was one thing I couldn’t fix.

In my periphery, Ronan crossed his arms over his suited chest. “You need to ask her how she fell.”

I focused on Wren, locking eyes with her. “How did you fall, Little Bird?”

She rubbed her lips together and tried to look away. I snagged her chin in my fingers.

“Eyes, Wren. Start speakin’ or I’ll ask Ronan.”

A sigh fell from her lips. “I met Chrys and Rasc today. She…um, kind of lured me into their RV and trapped me there so she could talk to me. She’s pregnant, and the father—oh, it’s awful. He forced himself on her and left her with nothing. But his parents are willing to help her, they just need to get to California. She needs to talk to you. I told her I’d ask you to call. They let me go, Callum. They barely touched me.”

I turned to stone. My hand fell to my side, clenching tight into a fist. “They touched you?”

Iris laid her hand on Wren’s shoulder. “Honey bunny, you need to tell him everything. He has to know how to deal with this.”

I stared hard at my girl, waiting to see how much worse this could get. As of now, Chrys and Rasc were dead to me, but they were going to hurt first.

Wren’s breath went ragged. “I think they’re really desperate. They weren’t thinking clearly, and maybe they didn’t see any other way out of their situation.”

Ronan cleared his throat. “I’ll say it since Wren is trying to protect them. Iris and I were leaving Good Music when the RV pulled up. The door swung open. Wren was standing there, holding the sides. The woman behind her gave her a hard push, and Wren fell to the pavement. The drop wasn’t high, but she wasn’t prepared. Her wrist nearly snapped in half.”

Black. Ice. Fury.

My fist plowed through the wall beside me. But it wasn’t enough. A roar ripped through my chest the second time my fist met drywall. Nothing would ever be enough. They were dead. They were both dead. Not to me. To the world.

“They touched her.” I grabbed Wren’s fingers, holding up her casted arm. “They hurt what’s mine. No one touches you, Wren. No one.”

Iris came toward me. “Callie, calm—”

Ronan pulled her back, tucking her behind him. “Do you know where they are?”

My shoulders straightened. “I can find them.”

He nodded. “I’m with you, brother. I won’t let you take this on alone.”

My chin jerked. “You carryin’?”

Ronan stared back at me. “I am.”

A wail from my girl. A whimper from Iris. They didn’t like the direction this was going.

“Callum, baby.” Now the tears were leaking down Wren’s perfect cheeks. “No, baby. Stay with me. I need you. You don’t have to help them, I understand, but don’t go. Please don’t go.”

I was already gone. In my head, I was ripping my brother limb from limb. My sister…well, my sister would be taken care of too. This would not stand. No one should dare lay their hands on my little bird. Since they did, they were going to wish they never had.

I strode through the apartment, grabbing my keys and phone. Ronan held Wren back, but through my haze, I saw her struggling against him. Pleading, begging, crying for me. She didn’t understand this part of me. The side of me that grew up rough and raw, with criminals and the lowest of the low. Justice would be served, and it wouldn’t be through proper channels. Rascal and Chrysanthemum were going to receive a clear message that what they did today was unacceptable.

Wren threw herself at me, and I yanked her into my arms, holding her tight. “I know you don’t want me to go, but, Wren, I gotta do this. It’s in my blood to do this.”

She gripped my shirt as best she could with her cast. “Don’t do anything that’ll keep you from coming back to me. If you do, I’m not writing you letters in prison.”

I dipped down, getting in her face. “I’m not goin’ to prison, but we both know that’s not true anyway. You forgave me for stalkin’ you. You’ll forgive me for protecting you how I need to.” I kissed her hard, wet, as deep as she’d let me. “I’m comin’ back, Little Bird. Wait here for me. I need to know you’ll be here for me.”

She let out a tearful, pitiful mewl, but she promised she’d wait. That was all I needed. I could walk away, take care of the business that had to be taken care of, knowing I’d be coming back to my girl.

Ronan’s driver, Bill, took us to a Walmart parking lot in New Jersey. The beat-up RV was parked crooked at the edge of the lot. As soon as we pulled up, Rasc lumbered out the door, crossing his arms over his chest. He’d been expecting me. Had texted me their location himself. He knew what was coming.

I was out, moving toward him with a crowbar in my hand. “You touch my girl?”

He held his hands up. “It’s not like that, Cal. We ain’t hurt that girl. Just needed to talk.”

“You touched my girl. You hurt my fucking girl.” The crowbar connected to the side of the RV, and it crumpled like the tin can it was. “Tell me why I shouldn’t do that to your fucking head, Rasc. Tell me!” I pounded into the RV again, unleashing my rage there first. If I started on Rascal, he wouldn’t walk away.

“Jesus, Cal. What the hell?” He took a step back. “You gonna hit your own brother?”

“Yeah, you fuck.” I dropped the crowbar and charged him. My brother was a big motherfucker, but I was beyond my body’s limitations. Rage and righteous indignation powered my limbs, and I took him down to the pavement. Rasc had had some of the same training I’d had when we were kids, but he’d gotten soft and slow. My fist powered into his cheek, and his arms were seconds too late to block it. His head shot to the side, spittle flying out.

Commotion in the form of Chrys went on behind me, but I was laser focused on the asshole who’d once been as close to me as another human could be. I’d held on to that, even after they’d burned the bridge between us. This was me letting go. The last of my connection to my siblings disintegrated into a bloody mist as I pounded my fury into Rascal’s flesh.

“What the fuck were you thinkin’?” I screamed in his wounded, leaking face. “That’s my woman! You know you don’t touch other men’s women. You know this, Rascal!”

He’d finally gotten his arms up to protect his face, but I was straddling him, legs locked around his waist, raining blows wherever I could reach. He wasn’t fighting back because he knew. He fucking knew he’d done wrong and there was no defending it.

He was bloody, swelling, limp, but breathing and conscious when I hopped off him. He stayed down, right where I wanted him. I could have killed him. I had it in me. But that would take me away from my little bird, and that was not an option.

Bill had my back, and Ronan was containing a snarling, snapping Chrysanthemum. Gone was the sweet, good girl she’d been growing up. A hard life had whittled her down to an angry, rotten core.

“I always knew you were crazy, Cal! Look at you, no amount of money’s gonna make you normal.” Ronan held her by the waist, and still she tried to get to me. I knew my sister well enough to know she’d claw my face to shreds if she could. She’d rake her claws over the world before admitting she was wrong.

“I might be crazy, Chrys, but at least I’m not you.” I took her face in my hand, smushing her cheeks. “You broke her wrist. You shoved her out of this worn-down vehicle like a piece of trash when you were done with her.”

Her eyes narrowed. “I didn’t push her.”

Ronan jerked her hard. “You did, girl. Saw it with my own eyes. That sweet woman of Callum’s tried defending you, but there’s no defense against what you did. You fucked up, love. No comin’ back from this.”

She tried to slam her head backward, but Ronan easily dodged her attempt. “Fuck both of you. I’ll go to the press. I’ll tell them everything about how we grew up. Tell them my brother is mentally ill. You’re not stone cold, you’re crazy.”

I tilted her head back and forth, examining this monster that bore my sister’s face. She hadn’t always been so damned hard, but life hadn’t been kind to Chrys. She hadn’t done much to help herself either.

“You’re not gonna tell anyone.” She hissed, but she didn’t deny it. “You’re a Traveling Rose as much as I am. That shit doesn’t fade. We don’t tell our secrets. We don’t go to the cops.”

Her eyes were slits now, but she didn’t deny one word.

“You’re gonna leave and not come back. My well has run dry as far as you’re concerned. The second you approached my woman, you lost me for good.”

Rasc sat up on the ground and spit a puddle of blood next to him. “Timmy’s with us, Cal. He’s inside the RV.”

“I heard. You’re makin’ a fine example for him.”

Chrys groaned and jerked in Ronan’s hold. “Don’t talk about my son. You don’t know anything about the life we’re givin’ him. You’ve never even met him.”

“True.” My nostrils flared. “Now, I never will. I’m done with you. You are no longer my brother and sister. You come around again, I don’t know you. You talk to Wren, look at Wren, approach Wren, I will not stop her from callin’ the police. I happen to know both of you have warrants out. Don’t think they’ll let you keep that kid of yours when you’re rottin’ in a jail cell.”

Chrys screamed like I’d scalded her, but I hadn’t said anything she didn’t know.

“We just need some money, brother. Didn’t mean to hurt her,” Rasc said.

I glared at him. “Now you’ve got nothin’. We’re done here.”

We were gone, driving away from my bloodied brother and bawling sister. I didn’t feel any better, but the message had been delivered. They might be back, they might not. But I knew down to my depths they wouldn’t try anything on Wren again. Chrys might want to, but Rasc got it. He knew he’d done wrong, broken the code. He’d put a stop to any schemes on Chrys’s part when it came to my girl. I could breathe easier now that that had been imparted.

I felt Ronan’s eyes on me. “Are you good?” he asked.

“I’ll be good when I’m back home.”

He shook his head and clucked his tongue. “I didn’t think you spoke.”

Turning to the window, I knocked my forehead against it. “Only when I have somethin’ to say.”

I’d spoken. I’d said enough. Now, it was time to hold my girl.