Off Her Rockers (Loving All Wrong #3.5) (10 page)

I searched a bit until I glimpsed his golden head out on the balcony off the entertainment room. In just his jeans, he was leaned over the glass railing with his phone pressed to his ear, his hand in his hair.

Not wanting to alert him, I tiptoed to the sliding glass doors that led out to the balcony.

“…not choosing anyone over anyone, Jess…No, of course not. But we together now and you gotta accept that like I accepted it when you were with him…Yeah, I know…Yeah, I know but….don’t care, still want her.”—
chuckles—
“You screwed that up bad, didn’t you?…Doubt it. He’s gone, babe. He’s still in love with her…It’s hard, she’s difficult and stubborn, but I’m hanging in there”…
more chuckles
…“If what doesn’t work?…Uh, guess we could. Yeah…’Kay. Promise…Giving you my word, Jess. But you can’t interfere.
You
can’t be the reason it doesn’t work out…Not—”

Stepping—or more like stomping—out on the balcony, I snatched the phone from his hand.

“What the—”

“Congratulations, Jess,” I spat into the phone, “skip on over to Beach Rock to collect your prize. Whooptyfrickindoo! Turns out you
are
the reason Xavi and I won’t work out after all.”

Without waiting for her response, I reared back and launched the phone over the railing. After hearing the satisfying smash of the device on the giant rocks below, I spun, brushed passed Xavier back into the house, and made a beeline for his bedroom to get my purse and car keys. No worries, though, as Xena was already standing in the doorway with her hands held out. My car keys in one hand, my purse in the other, along with a told-you-so arch to her eyebrows.

Grabbing them from her, I said, “Oh! If I were you, I’d stop fretting over Xavi’s ‘plan’ and ask Tex
who
gave him that black-eye. See? I don’t need special skills to guess that one,
friend
”, before turning and running down the hall.

Xavier was still out on the balcony, staring down at his bare feet, muscular arms across his chest. He hadn’t followed. Hadn’t said a word. He raised his head when he heard me approach, face blank.

I pointed my car keys at him. “You told me
she
was in love with you.
She
wanted more. But clearly, the feelings are mutual.”

“Where you going?” was his response.

Unbelievable! That’s all he had? To everything I just said? Is he not even going to deny being in love with Jess?

“By the way, you
didn’t
accept it when she was with him. You didn’t. What you did was hunt me down, played me, played her, and played Davi. We all thought the game was over, but here you are, still playing us.” I laughed, cold, acerbic, and humorless. “What was I thinking believing you were the good guy? What was I thinking choosing
you
?”

I made a dash for the stairs. Halfway down, I paused and glanced over my shoulder. He’d moved into the house from the balcony and was watching me leave, hands dangling at his sides like broken tree limbs. “And oh, as for where I’m going:
out of your life
.”

C
HAPTER
S
IX

“
M
EN
S
UCK!”
I
SHOUTED TO THE
WIND
.

I was half-standing in the passenger seat of my convertible, arms up in the air, the wind making love to my hair as Danni sped down the highway.

Eleven nights later.

Eleven nights later and Xavier hadn’t called, texted, or showed up at my apartment with an apology or a boombox over his head. My child’s father and I were embroiled in a Revenge War, and my life sucked to the stinking stench of hell all because
I chose wrong
.

Stupid heart.

Everyone knows you should choose what the soul wants, not the heart. My heart loved Xavier. My soul loved Davian. But nooooo, I listened to a mad man. Mick Xander. And now I was on the wrong side of love.

“And love sucks even more!” I screamed again to the wind.

“Sit
down
, Alina!” Danni barked at me.

Like a well-trained dog, I instantly obeyed, sliding down into the car seat.

Earlier, Danni had showed up at my apartment to tear down the disco ball of my pity party and offered to take me to a
real
party. Except we ended up club hopping, as I was restless no matter what club I went to. Kept hoping to see Xavier burst through the doors and haul me into his arms like the big bad Samson he was, hand me a scissors and beg me to cut his hair off and own him.

No such luck.

I’d been drinking, but I wasn’t drunk. Just tipsy—enough that Danni didn’t trust me getting behind the steering wheel and took over.

“Girl, you need to get your shit together,” Danni went on, sounding somewhat annoyed. “This is not the Alina I fell in love with. Where’s my strong, cold, unhurtable biatch?”

“Love killed her.”

“Stop being a cry baby.” He rolled his eyes. “You know damn well that if you pick up the phone and call either of those fine ass rockers right now, they’ll come running in a heartbeat.”

“And that’s just it, I don’t want to see or hear from either of them,” I lied, more to myself than to him. “Do yourself a favor; don’t fall in love with Leo. Rock stars are the biggest douchebags on the planet. They deserve nothing but STDs and eternal loneliness. All of them.”

“Too late,” Danni sang. “I fell for that boy the moment he told me I was his first. I’m his
first
, dammit! And I intend on being his last.”

True, Leo and Danni were happy. Sickeningly happy. Danni spoke about Leo ad nauseam. I was jealous of them, but I was also sincerely happy for Danni. Let’s hope Leo wasn’t a douche nugget like his band members.

“Get a new rocker,” Danni went on to suggest. “I’m sure Tex would love to get all up in that.”

Making a gagging sound, I slid him a side glance, and we both burst out laughing. Because, yeah, that was
laughable
. Tex would no doubt rub Scotch Bonnet pepper on his dick without me knowing and then ask me to suck it. That’s the kind or romance we’d have.

“No more rockers. When I did decide to date again, the guy’s got to be a doctor or a computer geek or a store clerk or something. Someone ordinary, normal, and boring.”

“Girllll, I’ve got the links. Say the word and I’ll start setting up the dates. Oooh, I love matchmaking!”

“Of course you would,” I mumbled through a laugh. “But I’m not—
whoa
! Hit the brakes!
Hit the brakes
!”

Danni slammed the brakes. We lurched forward, narrowly missing the bumper of a beat-up hatchback in front of us.

Frightened, Danni’s head jerk around on his neck. “What?! What is it?”

I knelt up in the car seat, a hand shakily rising to point at the neon-lit building across the street.

“A bar? The hell, Alina. We almost wrote off the car because you saw a
bar
?!”

Vehicles behind us honked and blared, swears and name-calling hurled at us to quit holding up traffic, but I ignored them all.

“The
name
of the bar,” I whispered.

“I-I don’t—hang on, let me get out of traffic.” Muttering something under his breath including the words “crazy bitch” and “head examined”, he pulled over to the side of the road so the other vehicles could move around us.

“Okay, loco brain. What are you trying to tell me? You want to party at some bar called…” He paused and narrowed his eyes at the neon sign across the street. “
Chino
? Why, because it’s what rocker lover number two used to call you? ”

Yanking open the door, I clambered out of the car. “No.
I’m
Chino.”

Danni laughed at me. “So what, you plan on suing them for—”

“The bar belongs to
Xavi,
Danni.”

Dazed, I ambled out into the street without looking, stare fixed on the neon sign. A car swerved around me. A driver honked and called me a “stupid whore”, but I didn’t care.

The five letters of the sign across the street were like imaginary hands pulling the strings connected to my limbs, reeling me across the street like a hook reeling a fish of the sea.

C
HINO

The sonuvabitch named his blues bar after me. I remembered him wanting to rename it because he thought ‘Blues Bar’ was unimaginative.

The bar and inn had been built by his great-grandfather and had since been passed down through his ancestors to him. It had been closed down for decades, and it was only a few months ago that he decided to reopen it. He’d wanted to remodel it, and I’d managed to convince him to just restore it as homage to his forefathers.

And here it was. With my name on it.

As I crossed the street and stood before the building, I could hear bass music pumping through the brick walls. Wow, up and running already? I could’ve sworn he said he wanted to wait. Guess not.

Lights were on in one of the inn rooms on the top floor, but everything was dark except for the glaring ‘Chino’. I knew the bar was on the bottom floor, but there were no windows for the bar. Just weathered brick walls and a big, rustic metal door, which was sealed shut.

How did I get in?

Danni came up behind me. I’d forgotten about him for a minute. “Okay, I’m lost. Are you saying this is Xavier Xander’s building?”

“Yep.”

“And he named it after you
after
you broke up with him for making back-up plans with Jessica Stucco?”

“Yep.”

“And so you—”

He was disrupted by a bouncing, blaring Hummer that swung up on the sidewalk in front of the bar.

Xavier’s Hummer.

I stood frozen, contemplating whether I should run back across the street like a wuss, or stomp around to the driver’s side, drag my heartbeat out of the jeep and kiss his brains out.

Doors burst open and drunken rockers and giggling girls tumbled out like empty beer bottles. Leo and Mark and Tex from Ninety Miles, along with Zach and Styro from Ice Steam.

My eyes were drawn to Tex who’d stumbled out from the front passenger seat with a woman wrapped around him like a crippled monkey who couldn’t walk on her own. First thing I noticed, she
wasn’t
tall, blonde, or classy.

She wasn’t Xena.

No, she was another Saskia lookalike. Laughing at something the woman said, he spun with her still wrapped around him and pressed her back against the side of the jeep. Taking a long pull of the joint in his hand, he nudged her. Forming her mouth in a small O, she sucked up all the smoke Tex exhaled in a straight line to her.

Bastard.

Although I should be smirking right now just as Xena had smirked at me after what happened with Xavier, I couldn’t, because I’d developed a certain sisterly affection for her, and all I wanted to do right then was throttle this douchenozzle on her behalf.

Before I could even attempt to defend Xena’s honor, I felt a tightening on my upper arm. Danni had a death grip on me.

When I glanced up at him, I found him stiff, jaw set, eyes blazing. This took me aback because I couldn’t ever remember seeing Danni pissed before. Following his gaze, I winced when I realized what had him infuriated. Leo. Who had a woman of his own draped over him, their mouths fused together as she humped his leg.

We weren’t noticed yet. All too shitfaced to see beyond themselves.

“Let’s get outta here,” gritted Danni, tugging my arm.

I didn’t budge. My gaze swung to the driver’s side, waiting on fire-hot needles to see if Xavier would emerge with a groupie of his own, too.

“
Alina
,” Danni whined, desperation in his voice.

Headlights went off. Then the music. The driver’s door opened. My heart pounded hard when the door slammed shut, and harder with each movement from the driver’s side.

I didn’t see Xavier’s blond head or impressive height or build. Instead, I saw a little red head bobbing around the jeep. Heard the click-clacking
of stilettos on asphalt. Until she came into view. Tight white shorts and an even tighter red halter-top. Beauty, curves, and female perfection.

Jessica Stucco.

Of. Course.

Xavier had wasted no time at all. Already, his southern sweetheart—as Xena puts it—had the keys to his precious Hummer. Hadn’t she always had the keys to his heart also?

I never stood a chance.

Taking careful steps onto the banking, Jessica raised her small head and eyes widened a fraction upon seeing me. Just as soon, they went blank, a smirk dancing on her lips. I just want to put it out there that I’ve
never
seen Jessica smirk before. She just wasn’t the kind of girl who smirks. She was a good girl. A nice girl. A sweet southern belle.