A Second Chance at love The Rocker Girls Series (18 page)

“
Yes.”

He looked surprised by her answer, but
then looked over to Win. “So you think she’s, like your
girlfriend?” he questioned him in disbelief.

Win stood glaring at the
man who was standing in front of Addison. “She
is
my girlfriend, asshole,” he
growled.

Mickey’s hand flew to his head in
disbelief, and his one friend laughed at Win. “Addie Richardson
doesn’t have boyfriends, you stupid fuck. She has men throwing
money and jewels at her, begging her to marry them.

“
She’s the world’s most
famous female guitarist, and married to the rock god James
Richardson from Death Ever After! Who are you to think she’s yours
now?” he laughed cruelly. Win’s head whipped around to look at
Addison, who just stood there, not denying anything as tears rolled
down her face.

That’s when he remembered reading about
Addie Richardson, married to the lead singer of Death Ever After.
Shit, that’s when he first saw her. On stage at a concert about
eight years ago, when he and the guys went to see them in concert,
and she played with Death Ever After…

“
You guys totally suck!”
Tia yelled at them.

The guy with the dreads started to
laugh again. “You were always good at sucking, baby,” he said in a
very intimate voice, letting everyone around them know that they
had been together. Tia gasped at his hurtful words, and Addison ran
over and punched him in the face even before Andy could do anything
about what he’d said.

“
You don’t talk to her like
that, do you hear me! You’re a piece of shit, Buddy!” She smacked
him one more time before that fucker Mickey pulled her off him. She
shrugged off his hands, walking back to the girls.

Andy took hold of Tia, who looked as if
she thought Andy might be mad at her after what the asshole just
said, and he pulled her from the scene. She held onto him like she
needed help to even stand up. Win could hear her whisper “sorry” to
Andy as he rubbed her back.

Mickey shook his head. “Really, I
thought I was going to come here and have to deal with Jimmy or
Dax. Man, I was shocked that you were still even here since the
video I saw was two months ago.” He looked over at dread-man. “I
thought for sure he already would be making your ass go back home
to him.” Then turned his head back at Addison angrily. “I didn’t
expect to be fighting a little nobody for you!” he yelled at her
now.

She looked over at Win and crossed her
arms, looking confidently at him. “He’s not a nobody. He’s more of
a man than you and Jimmy will ever be.”

Mickey got pissed at that statement.
“You want to give up everything, Addie? The fame and money, to be a
nothing little doctor, in some nothing little town?” He ran his
hands through his hair.

“
Yes, that’s exactly what I
want,” she told him.

“
You finish your schooling
and you just up and disappear from me? There was a time you said
you’d marry me, what about that!”

Win’s eyes widened hearing that, and he
thought back to the night of Nickels showing up and asking if he
“wanted to marry her too.” Addison’s mouth dropped open in complete
contempt of this man. “I can’t believe you! What part of ‘this is
just a fling’ did you not understand? I’m not in love with you,
Mickey! And you sure in hell aren’t in love with me! I’m a trophy
for you. If you have the great Jimmy Richardson’s wife, then I’ll
be the one they’re calling a rock god!” she screamed.

He looked at her, not believing what
she was saying. “And what about the baby, Addie, are you going to
deny it was mine?” he yelled out, and Win knew he said it just to
get to him.

She gasped and stumbled back, and her
lip quivered. She looked over at Win now, as he looked at her in
disbelief. Lynn looked at Win the same time Addison did, and
frowned at his nonmoving ass.

Lynn turned her head back to Mickey,
placing a protective arm around Ad. “You are a son of a bitch to
even bring that up to her. We all know what you did, even your boys
know what you did to her!” she hissed. “Buddy even laughed about
it!”

Addison stood tall in front of this
supposed rock star. “I told you eleven months ago it’s over. I
don’t understand why you won’t leave me alone. I already have one
territorial ass I’m hiding from, I didn’t realize it was
two.”

Her hands came up, wiping tears from
her face as Margie now stood on her other side, protecting her from
the man in front of her. “You told him about us… Are you not going
to be happy until he puts me in the grave, Mickey? Do you think you
can stop him, because you haven’t so far!”

The looks on everyone’s faces fell, and
Win knew this wasn’t a secret, what Addison’s husband had done to
her. These guys knew what was happening and did nothing to help
her. Margie pulled Addison from Lynn’s arm. “Come on, sweetheart,
let’s go home.” She looked back at Win, shaking her head, clearly
disappointed by him.

Lynn growled at Troy. “I swear if Jimmy
comes and finds her I’m calling the cops and telling them that your
boy broke the restraining order she has against him.” She turned to
go to the van. “Just leave us the fuck alone! We’re out of the
game, let someone else have the titles!” she yelled as she walked
away.

Win, South, and Rex stood now in front
of the three men who had the nerve to let someone hurt his angel.
“You fuckers knew her husband was hurting her, and you did nothing
about it?” he questioned them angrily.

It was Troy who spoke up. “All of
Jimmy’s friends know what happens when he tries to get her back and
she says no. But there’s nothing any of us can do. Addison doesn’t
tell anybody until it’s too fucking late, and Jimmy has Nickels,
and Nickels cleans everything up for his boy,” he said
disgustedly.

Win looked at Mickey. “You just show up
here, causing her pain after she ended it with you. It’s obvious to
everyone here she dumped your ass and doesn’t want you back, and to
top it off, you weren’t man enough to take care of her when this
asshole was hurting her!” he yelled, outraged.

But before Mickey could say anything
Win punched him again in the face. Mickey stumbled back, spitting
out a mouthful of blood. He righted himself, coming back at Win and
hitting him once in the jaw.

Win ducked a couple of punches that
were thrown, going for an uppercut in the gut. Mickey grunted at
the first one and coughed on the second, stumbling
backwards.

Win couldn’t think straight he was so
pissed. “Come on, that’s all you got, rock star?” he said, moving
in his direction. “I’m going to give you a beating like you
deserve!” He punched him in the face again. Mickey came back and
got in two more punches to his face, but he was numb from the
anger.

Win punched him again in the face, then
the kidney, and Mickey fell to the ground coughing. South came and
grabbed his arm. “It’s done. You’ll end up in prison if you lay
into him anymore. And then who’ll protect Addison?”

Win huffed over Mickey’s body,
breathing hard. “You keep him away from her! You hear me, no more
of this bullshit! She’s done with all of you. She’s mine!” He
turned and ran to his truck so he could go talk to Addison, leaving
South and Rex to deal with these idiots.

He drove like a madman, making it back
to their apartment building in record time. He ran up the steps to
the girls’ apartment and knocked on the door, but no one answered.
Next he started pounding on it. “Open this fucking door, Lynn, I
need to talk to her!” he yelled.

The door swung open, and a very
pissed-off Margie stared up at him. “What the hell do you want?”
Marge swore at him. That stopped him, but just for a moment.
“Please, just let me see her, Margie. I promise I’ll make it
better,” he pleaded with her.

She looked him over, then stepped
aside, opening the door for him. “She’s in her room with Lynn.” And
he ran to her bedroom.

When he knocked he heard Lynn whisper
to her, then the door cracked open. “If you’re here other than to
say you’re sorry, you can go fuck off!”

“
Lynn, it’s fine. Just let
him in,” he heard Addison say softly. She opened the door, glaring
at him before she left and shut it, giving him and Addison some
privacy.

She was sitting on her bed with her
knees tucked under her chin. “I guess you have some questions?” she
sighed.

He sat on her bed, looking at her
crouched in the corner and so damn small up against the wall.
“Yeah, but I wanted to tell you that I was sorry. I’m sorry that I
didn’t do more, but I was kinda caught off-guard by who you really
are.“ He touched her leg and she flinched, making his gut
turn.

“
I’m afraid that you think
I’m angry at you, because you didn’t tell me anything. But I’m not,
angel, I just didn’t know what I was supposed to say, if you wanted
me to say anything at all?” he said, reaching over and taking a
finger from her hand that she had wrapped tightly around her legs,
and she let him.

“
I was embarrassed,” she
whispered.

“
Why would you be
embarrassed?”

“
Because you got a
front-row seat of how stupid I was. My choice of a man like
Mickey,” she said, hiding her face in her knees.

“
Oh angel, my choices of
women before you… I would be embarrassed to have you see any of
them. You are so much more than anything I’ve ever even thought I
would have in my life. If you saw those girls from my past, I would
be terrified that you wouldn’t want me.”

“
Yeah, that’s what I
thought you’d think of me,” she whispered, looking over her knees
at him.

“
No, Addison. I never
thought that, baby.”

“
It looks like someone got
into a fight after I left?” she said, looking over his
face.

“
Yeah angel, I did. When
you and the girls left, I had a talk with that asshole. I don’t
think he’ll be bothering you again.”

She sighed, wiping a tear off her
cheek. “This will be your one time to ask me your questions about
my past. After tonight I’m never going to talk about Addie
Richardson again. It will be like she never existed.”

He frowned, looking at her. “Angel, I
don’t think I should…”

“
Do you have questions for
me, Win?”

He looked down at her. “Yeah, I guess I
do.”

“
Then just ask
them.”

“
You’re James Richardson’s
wife?”

She nodded.

“
So when you said you knew
the best Japanese tattooist…”

“
I know Terry Chin. He’s
the best tattoo artist in the world. He’s also a good friend of
mine…he’s done all my tattoos.”

He nodded; he’d broken the ice, now to
the hard questions. Hard for him to hear, and hard for her to talk
about.

“
How long have you been
married?”

“
Twelve years.”

“
So you were married to him
before he became big.”

She nodded.

“
You played with them in
concert. I remember seeing you.”

“
Yeah, Jimmy and I always
played together in the beginning. But when he was on tour,
sometimes I’d play with them, every once in a while. He liked
having me on stage with him.” She shook her head at the
memory.

Damn, that was harder for him to hear
than he thought it would be. “What about this Mickey, when did you
get involved with him?”

“
Over a year ago. Jimmy and
I had been having…problems, for quite some time. He kept having
affairs, then he’d come home smelling of alcohol, drugs, and
whatever woman he was with… I can’t explain how something like that
makes you feel so ugly. How you question everything you do, wonder
what you’re doing wrong in bed to make your husband do that to
you.” She looked down at the bed, biting her lip.

“
After the first affair,
things went downhill for us. I always knew he had women throwing
themselves at him, but he never cheated on me. But after he did,
the drinking became worse and then the anger towards me was
terrible… It was like he’d cheat on me, but would take all of his
anger at himself out on me, like I made him do it.” Her voice was
hoarse from screaming at Mickey, and the deepness of her voice made
it hard for him to hear her.

Her eyes met his as she bit her lip,
and he could tell she was thinking whether she wanted to tell him
this part. “Mickey was one of Jimmy’s best friends outside of the
group. He was always very nice to me, and I never really thought
anything about it because I was with Jimmy, everyone knew that. But
when I got my place in the hills with the girls, he’d come by with
Buddy. Who, you could probably guess after tonight’s performance,
Tia had a crush on.

“
We’d watch movies, eat
pizza, play cards, and just talk. Hell, we even helped them write
some of their songs for their last album. It was nice to have a guy
pay attention to me without having to worry about other
complications getting in the way.

“
He was coming over more
and more to check in on me. Making sure I was doing okay with all
the things the tabloids were saying about Jimmy’s flings.” Her eyes
met his. “It was hard going into the grocery stores for a while
there.” She tried to crack a smile, but didn’t quite make
it.