Last Chance: Rock Romance #2

Chapter Eighteen

Liam

I have no idea who I am upset with the most; myself, for being so fucking blind or Natalie, for not confiding in me. I should have known something was up, when Ryan confronted me outside of Natalie's hospital room. Or how the guys had told me he was reacting, while at the hotel awaiting updates on Natalie's health. I wanted to talk to him, to tell him to keep his distance.

Natalie isn't one to want attention, people fawning all over her, and I knew he had some responsibility in why she was in the hospital in the first place. I could tell that when she recognized that it was Ryan wearing the woman's getup, she hadn't wanted him there.

I just let myself believe I was seeing things. I convinced myself that she just disliked him that they didn't mesh well. Maybe she had found out that he manipulated her Professor, and that's why she was on tour with us. Maybe it was his domineering personality. I made umpteen excuses inside of my head, of why she didn't like him.

Initially, he had set out to make an example out of her in front of an audience. That was our way. But then she became some sort of battle that Ryan had to win. I'm pissed at Ryan for not telling me that he slept with her. When he staked a claim, I had no idea that he had a reason behind it. I thought it was for another notch. A conquest. Not that he truly wanted her.

I'm upset with Natalie for not telling me. Every day I show her that I am there for her. I am always by her side. She isn't aware of my past, but narcotics are a rough subject for me.

My dad has always wanted me to become a commercial fisher, like him and his father before. I knew at a young age it wasn't what I wanted, but I let him believe it was. He started training me early on in life for a career.

When I fell in love with music, not only with listening but wanting to make it, I knew at that moment music was my destiny. I earned cash and bought my first guitar, practicing whenever my father wasn't home. I did what I was born to do. I didn't want to stay in Alaska my entire life and fish. To say my parents were upset with my decision, is an understatement.

My mother was upset but not as disappointed as my father. At sixteen he gave me an ultimatum. Carry on his name in the business or leave. I chose the latter. I didn't want to leave, but he gave me no other choice. That night I packed up some of my clothes into a backpack, grabbed my guitar and left. Not before my mother slipped me some cash, of course.

It didn't matter how upset she was with me of the decision, she still loved me. I left, and didn't look back for a couple of years. I traveled the country, until I met Ryan. When I met him I was addicted to some hard core stuff. I didn't care about myself at all. I would sleep on a park bench, if that meant I could use what little money I had on pills.

Ryan saved my life. He gave me a place to stay, and forced me to clean my ass up. Then the music rolled on for us. We worked harder than anybody that was out there in the industry at that time, and it paid off. Big Time.

With my past wars there was no way I was going to leave Natalie's side. I will try my best to hold her up when she can't stand any longer, and to be the shoulder she rests on when she's too tired. She may not have an addiction, but she has demons just the same.

Thinking of the new situation and how Natalie plans to handle it, I hope like hell she tells him, and soon. When she tells him, he's going to do anything and everything he can to win her and keep her by his side. With his past, there is absolutely no way he would never let her go through a pregnancy alone, nor would he let his child be raised alone.