Rogue (Bad Blooded Rebel Series) (2 page)

Two long hours later, we had just
reached the outskirts of Muncie and I was trying not to get pulled over as I
sped to Everleigh’s house. She lived on the east side of town and we were only
about five minutes from her home. “Hey man, you all right?” Kris asked.

“I’m fine,” I lied, as my stomach
twisted in knots. I knew what was coming and I would have given everything I
had to keep Everleigh from feeling what I knew she was about to feel.

“Ryder, it’s going to be okay. Just help
her get through this. She’s going to need you. She’s probably at one point
going to try to push you away but you just have to be there for her any way she
needs you to be,” he said.

I snorted out a laugh. “Thanks, Oprah,”
I said.

“I’m serious. Just think about what I
said, okay?” he asked as I turned down the road to her house.

“Yeah, all right. Hey listen, in case I
don’t say it later, thanks for coming with me. It means a lot that you guys are
behind me in this and not telling me I’m crazy for following this girl here,” I
said.

“Hey, I’ve followed you into worse shit
than this. We’re brothers, and we’ll always have your back,” he said, and we
bumped fists.

“Thanks, man.” A few minutes later, we
were at Everleigh’s house and I pulled in the driveway. Someone must have
tipped the press that we’d gone back to Cincinnati today and it looked like the
reporters had followed. I knew that they would find out we came back
eventually, but thankfully we’d gotten a head start on them and had some time
alone to deal with this.

Kris and I got out of the Escalade and
quickly jogged up to the front door. I knocked several times and after waiting
for a few moments in the frigid December air the front door opened. “Ryder?”
said Trish, Max’s live in nurse. “What are you doing back already? I thought
you went home.”

“Where is she?” I asked.

Trish nodded sadly. “In his room,” she
said, and stepped aside to let me and Kris inside. I immediately went down the
hall past a puffy-eyed Danni to the room I had carried Max into last night and
knocked gently on the door.

“Come in,” a tiny voice squeaked out. My
heart tightened in my chest as I opened the door. It was dark inside except for
a tiny lamp that was on at Max’s bedside. I took in the sight of Max lying on
his bed, near death, and Everleigh’s head down over his hand, sobbing softly. I
tried to ignore the burn in my eyes and the tightness in my chest.

“Everleigh?” I asked quietly.

Her head snapped up and when she saw me,
her eyes widened. “R-Ryder? What are you doing here?” she asked with surprise.

“Where else would I be?” I said, taking
a step closer to her.

“How did you know?” she sniffed, her
eyes swollen from crying.

“Danni called Beau,” I admitted. “Is it
okay that I’m here?”

“You didn’t need to come, Ryder. I’m
fine,” she lied, turning her head back toward Max.

 “Everleigh…”

“I don’t want you to see this. I care
about you and I don’t want you to go through this again,” she said.

I took a few steps until I was beside
the bed. I knelt down next to her and swept her long dark hair away from her
tear stained face. “Everleigh, I’m glad Danni called. I care about you too and
I refuse to let you go through this alone.”

“I’m not alone. I have Danni and Trish.”

“You have me too, Everleigh. You also
have Jude, Kris, and Beau. They came up too because they already care about you
as much as I do.”

She let out a small sob. “You all didn’t
have to come. You’re going to be in trouble with your record label now because
of me.”

“I don’t care. Those assholes weren’t
even there when we got back to Cincinnati. Our manager Steve is loading up our
studio as we speak and he’s shipping our things here so we can record our album
in Indiana. Those douche bags will get their record and I will be right where I
need to be. Here with you,” I said.

“Ryder…”

“Don’t try to get rid of me because I’m
not leaving your side in this gorgeous,” I said, wrapping my arm around her
shoulders and pulling her to me.

She grew quiet as tears steadily fell
down her cheeks. I just sat there and held her while she cried. I still hadn’t
looked directly at Max…as much as I hated to admit it to myself I was scared to
see him. I just needed a few moments to collect myself before I looked. I
didn’t have much time however because I suddenly felt a cold, clammy hand brush
mine. “Well, hey there, son,” Max croaked.

I took a deep shaky breath and looked up
at him. When I met his eyes, the lump in my throat started to choke me. “Hey
Max. How are you doing?” I whispered, trying to clear my throat.

“Glad to see you with my Evie girl.
She’s going to need you,” he said, straining to speak above a whisper.

Everleigh openly sobbed as I squeezed
his frail hand. “There’s nowhere in the world I’d rather be,” I said.

“That’s good,” he said. “Promise me
something?”

“Anything,” I answered.

“Take care of her, son,” he whispered. At
that moment, I couldn’t stop the emotions anymore and I felt two fat tears fall
down my cheeks. They were the first tears I’d cried in the five years since I
lost my mom.

“I will. I promise,” I said, my voice
cracking.

“Thank you,” he said, and closed his eyes.
I started to think the worst but I saw that he was still breathing and relief
washed through me for one small moment.

I gripped Everleigh tighter in my arms
and kissed her hair. She still smelled like warm vanilla…the smell was soothing
to me. She looked up at me and wiped the tears from my eyes with her free hand.
I kissed her fingertips and tasted my tears on them. I had barely blinked when
I felt her lips on my cheek. She darted her tongue across my stubble and I
asked, “What are you doing?”

“Now I’m kissing your tears away,” she
whispered. I gritted my jaw tight and pressed my forehead to hers.

I felt Max squeeze my hand and my head
shot up. He weakly nudged my hand over to Everleigh’s and urged me to take her
hand. Once I did, I felt his cold hand cover ours and he whispered through
ragged breaths, “Take care of each other. At the end of it all, love is the
most important thing. I love you, Evie girl, and I’m so proud of you.”

She started to shake and I held on as
hard as I could. “I love you too, Daddy. So much,” she cried.

His eyes flicked to mine and he barely
said, “Take care of my girl, son. Don’t let me down.” He took a few more ragged
breaths, and then suddenly, he was still. Max was gone.

I blinked back more tears and quickly
tore my eyes away from him and over to Everleigh, who was sobbing hysterically
and shaking his hand as if to wake him. “Daddy? Daddy, wake up! Please, don’t
go, I’m not ready to say goodbye! Daddy, please come back!” she cried, shaking
violently. I slid my hand out from under his cold one and wrapped both my arms
around her to try and calm her. I ran my hands along her hair as she cried and
cried, begging him not to go. It took all the strength in me not to break down
right along with her. I wish I had better prepared myself for this because in
that moment I felt like that scared twenty year old kid that lost his dad all
over again.

I held Everleigh in my arms for what
felt like an eternity as she grieved over the loss of the first man she ever
loved. I knew there were no words I could say to comfort her so I just held her
and let her cry. I don’t know how long we stayed like that because before I
knew it, Max’s bedroom door opened and Trish came in, her eyes bloodshot and
red. She gave me a pleading look and I nodded. I needed to get Everleigh out of
here so they could get him ready to move to the funeral home. I leaned in and
whispered in her ear, “Everleigh, we need to step out so Trish can take care of
him.”

She shook her head. “No, I’m not leaving
him!”

“They’re just going to get him ready, sweetie,”
I said, rubbing her back.

She looked up at me with sad eyes and I
nearly broke down looking into them. “I can’t let go yet.”

I wiped a tear from her cheek just as a
fresh one fell. “He already has, Everleigh. Now you need to,” I said, trying to
soothe her as much as possible.

I looked into her brown eyes, pleading
with her silently. She looked from me to Max and started crying hard again.
Suddenly, she stood up and leaned over his still body. Bending down to his
face, she kissed his cheek one last time and said, “I’ll love you forever,
Daddy,” and she stood up and stepped away from his bed.

She began to reluctantly move to the
door and as I followed her out, I looked back at him one last time and said, “I
won’t let you down, Max.”

Everleigh

The next four days went by in a blur.
The day after Daddy passed away, we were at the funeral home and I did the best
I could to make his funeral arrangements. Ryder had been at my side the entire
time, involving himself in every last detail of the service. I should have been
offended that a virtual stranger had shown up and taken over my dad’s funeral,
but I wasn’t. Planning a funeral is a hard thing to do, but to try and do it all
alone was unbearable. When he saw how overwhelmed I was, Ryder stepped in and
helped with every single detail, right down to the music and what Daddy would
be buried in.

He’d pretty much moved in temporarily at
home too, keeping a constant eye on me and attending to my every need. He made
sure I ate and showered (he jokingly offered to give me one himself to try and
make me smile). He also slept in my bed, holding me close, which was actually
very comforting. He tried to sleep on the couch the night that Daddy died, but
I felt scared and alone so when I begged him to come in and sleep in my room,
he didn’t hesitate.

It was now Thursday…the day of the
funeral. Sadly enough, it was also New Year’s Eve. Everyone should have been
getting ready to celebrate and countdown to the New Year but instead we were all
gathering to say goodbye to my father. After I had dressed in my best black
dress and pinned my hair up, Ryder had made me choke down a small amount of
breakfast before taking me to the funeral home. As we left my house, just as
expected, there were cameras everywhere again. Even though they were annoying
and I really wish they would go away, they surprisingly kept their distance and
took long range shots of us so they weren’t too close. I guess sometimes the
press can have respect for the dead.

We made it to the funeral home and Ryder
and I were quickly ushered inside a back entrance by John. Once we were inside,
he took my coat and hung it on a hanger. As he shrugged out of his jacket, I
noticed for the first time that he was wearing a suit. It was a sharp black
Armani suit and looked like it had been tailored to mold perfectly to his tall
muscular frame. He looked absolutely gorgeous. I looked at him and for the
first time in four days, I smiled. His eyes caught mine. “What is it?”

“You look good in a suit, rock star,” I
said, and he grinned at me.

“You don’t look so bad yourself,
gorgeous.”

I smiled again. “Listen, before we go in
there I just want to say thank you.”

“For what?” he asked.

“For everything. For helping arrange
Daddy’s funeral when I was incoherent, for taking care of me, for staying with
me every night so I could sleep…just everything. I’m very grateful for you,
Ryder Matthews.”

He smiled a sad smile at me. “Thank you
for letting me do all of those things. I am glad you let me help out.”

I moved in close and hugged him tightly
around his torso. “I’m glad you wanted to.” We stayed like that for a few
moments before the back door opened again and Beau and Danni rushed inside out
of the cold air. “Hey Danni,” I said, stepping away from Ryder and hugging her.

“Hey Ev, how are you holding up?” she
asked.

I shrugged. “As well as can be expected,
I guess.” As she took off her coat, I stepped over to Beau. “Thank you for
coming, Beau. I know you didn’t know my dad, but-”

“No, I didn’t unfortunately. However, I
do know you and I am so sorry to see you go through this. I know how much this
hurts you…we’ve all been through it before. If there is anything you need,
anything at all, you can ask us, okay?” he said.

Tears pricked at my eyes. What did I do
to deserve such a wonderful group of friends as these guys? I leaned in and
gave him a hug. “Thank you Beau. So much,” I said, sniffing. I pulled away and
wiped his suit where my makeup had left a stain. “Oh, I’m sorry.”

He smiled and waved his hand. “Don’t
worry about it.”

Ryder took my hand and squeezed. “Are
you ready to see him one last time?”

I took a deep breath and nodded. “I’m
ready,” I lied. I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to my dad at all, but I really
didn’t have a choice. He was already gone. Ryder’s hand never left mine as we
walked down the hall toward the main room.