Rock Redemption (Rock Revenge Trilogy 3)

“Nothing’s wrong.” Well, she couldn’t say that exactly, could she? But things right now were better than they’d been recently, that was for damn sure. “Just girl talk. Which, no, you are not privy to, either of you. Don’t you have someone else to hover around for a few minutes?”

Simon’s injured expression instantly made her feel about ten inches tall.

“I didn’t mean—”

“Actually, it’s my turn to hover. I barely got to see you.” Nicky stepped around Lila, giving her a sidelong look as if he expected her to strike out at him like a hissing cat.

Margo figured he was wise to be on guard. Lila did not look amused.

Nicky grabbed the stool and wheeled it closer to the head of the bed. “Be gone, people. Give us five.”

Simon frowned. “If Margo’s tired—”

“Margo can say so.” Margo reached up to tug Simon down to her by a handful of his hair. She rubbed at the tension lines between his brows. “I’m fine. I promise. Stop worrying.”

He nodded and gave her a quick kiss. “Okay. I’ll be right outside.”

Lila arched a brow. “Am I being dismissed too?”

“Yes. But with love.” Nicky grabbed her hand and kissed it, and though she tugged it away, she couldn’t hide her smile.

“Fine. You deal with him for five minutes and see what I put up with.” But she wrapped her arms around Nicky’s shoulders and kissed the side of his head. “Jerk.”

“See how she fawns over me? It’s amazing I can still function with my…ego so large.”

Simon slugged Nicky in the arm on his way out the door and held it open for Lila. “I should’ve warned you about him. Sorry.”

“Yes, a little late there. But I have my ways of evening the score.” Lila turned and smiled at Margo. “See you soon. We have to talk about the tour.”

Margo flipped her off. Lila laughed and shut the door behind them.

“She’s so Zen now compared to the old days.” Margo shook her head. “Love mellows us all, doesn’t it?” She tilted her head at Nicky. “You’re still a dick though.”

“I wear that compliment as a badge of pride.”

“You would. And you’re such a dick you came in here to make sure I’m okay with your own eyes. Because you know better than anyone, if something happened to me, Simon would be at your doorstep.” She tried to make her voice light, but that possibility felt realer now than it ever had before.

Talk about a mortality check.

“He’s my brother. That he has a real one now doesn’t change that.”

“Ian is no more his brother than you are,” she said gently. “You know just as I do that love is stronger than anything, even blood.”

“Yeah.” Nicky swiveled the stool and kicked out his legs. “I don’t have something pithy and meaningful to say.”

“Good. Me either. I kind of just want everything to go back to normal.”

“Jesus, me too. But I feel like I need to say something. Because nothing is normal. Nothing has been since the day that kid showed his face on TV.”

“Their mother is twisted. Did you know her at all?”

Nicky shook his head. “Nah. She was gone before I knew Simon that well. I mean, I knew of him, since we lived on the same block. But not like I knew him later.” Nicky rubbed the five o’clock shadow growing in on his jaw. “This whole thing is fucking crazy pants.”

Margo laughed and shimmied back down in the bed—carefully—so she could lay her head on the pillow. Turned out Simon was right to be concerned if she was tired. Her energy level was nonexistent. “That’s a nice way of putting it.”

“My dad was a waste of space after my mom split. Completely zoned out and on drugs most of the time. Useless. When he wasn’t zoned out, he was fucking with our heads or getting my sister to smoke weed with him. A real piece of work. But this is next level shit.”

“Accurate.” She couldn’t have put it any better herself. “She asked me not to keep her from the baby.”