The producer shut down the auditions as soon as he saw me, shooting me a frustrated look. I shot him a grin, not caring that I was interrupting his day. Drake had to eat and he hadn’t had a day off in over a month. My presence was the only thing that got the producer dick wad to move his ass and make things happen at a faster pace.
“Lana’s here,” Axton told Drake.
Drake stood without looking up from his phone. He was frowning down at something and I could only assume it was a text from Emmie. I went to him, not wanting him to bump into anything in his attempt to reach me. Standing on tiptoe, I kissed his cheek.
“What are you reading?”
His eyes lifted to meet mine, and he raised a brow at me. “Jesse just sent me a really interesting text.”
Dread filled my stomach. I could only imagine what my brother-in-law had to say. He had been chomping at the bit for a while now. The last time I had talked to him he had demanded I tell Drake, but I hadn’t been ready. I still wasn’t ready!
Muttering a curse, I glanced back at my friends. Shane had come out of the woodwork and was talking to Harper, making her laugh like always. The sparkle in his blue-gray eyes was something I had seen in Drake’s eyes a lot. Harper was still oblivious to the fact that she quiet possibly had one of the sexiest rock stars in the world watching her with bated breath. The girl had no self-confidence at all when it came to guys!
A few feet away, Dallas was rolling her eyes at Axton as he leaned against the wall beside her. I was sure the steel support beams were going to melt he was turning up the wattage on his charm so high. Dallas wasn’t having any of it. I would have laughed if I hadn’t felt the tension pouring off the man beside of me.
Turning my gaze back to him, I bit my lip. “Are you mad at me?”
“I don’t know,” Drake told me honestly. “I keep wondering why you didn’t tell me, Angel. Don’t you trust me?”
“Of course I do!” I cupped his face, hating to see the hurt in his eyes. Damnit! I had put that pain there, and it tore my heart to pieces. “I trust you, Drake. I…I just didn’t know how to handle it. I’m sorry.”
“Let’s get out of here,” he muttered, pulling me close for a tight hug but not a kiss. Still holding me close to his side, he pulled me toward the exit. As we passed Shane, he leaned over and whispered something in his brother’s ear.
Shane nodded. “Sure. No problem. Take all the time you need.” His gaze landed on me. “See you later, sis. If you need me, call.”
Tears filled my eyes. Did that mean that Drake was about to breakup with me? All I could do was nod and let Drake push me through the door. Once we were in the back seat of Drake’s car he didn’t speak, not one word until the door to his apartment closed behind us.
I dropped down onto the edge of the couch, my head bowed to hide my tears. “I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I wasn’t ready to tell you.”
“Cole Steel? How the hell did your mom get involved with Cole-fucking-Steel?” he demanded, pacing back and forth in front of the entertainment center.
Swallowing hard around the lump in my throat, I told him. “You know that my mom wasn’t that great. She wanted to be a rock star’s trophy. And if not a rock star then some rich guy’s arm candy. She seduced Tommy Kirkman when she was sixteen, knowing that she would get pregnant…And seven years later, when the money that Tommy had shelled out to keep Layla a secret started to dwindle, she set out to do it all over again with another rocker. Steel Entrapment was the hugest thing in the rock world back then. Seducing Cole was no big feat. Everyone knew that he cheated on his wife regularly. And as long as he kept his dick clean, she didn’t care how many groupies he fucked around with.”
Drake paused from pacing, but I didn’t raise my head to look at him. “So what happened once your mom got pregnant? Once she had you?”
“When Lydia confirmed her pregnancy, she called Cole’s wife, who started divorce proceedings that same day. It was a nightmare and while I hadn’t been born yet, Layla still had to live through it. When I was old enough to ask, she told me all of it.”
Like how Cole’s wife had married him before he had gotten big, so he had to split everything with her fifty-fifty. Since there would be proof of infidelity once I was born, she was able to petition for alimony as well. The threat of having to shell out big money for child support for two children, as well as an outlandish figure for alimony from a vindictive wife, had really pissed Cole off. When I was born he had to be court ordered to take the paternity test. When it came back positive he refused to believe them and demanded another one done. This happened three more times before the judge stepped in and took over, making Cole pay up.
“When it was all over Cole was nearly broke,” I told Drake as I wiped my damp eyes. “He hated my mother for it because really it was her fault. His son was ten and hated him because he had supposedly broken his mother’s heart.”
“And what made you hate him, Lana?”
I flinched, hating for him to call me by my given name. I was his “Angel,” not Lana! “Cole didn’t ride in and save Layla and me from the big bad gorgon. I hoped that my dad would want me. Love me. But he didn’t. He was even given the chance of custody, but he turned it down. I read the court records. He said he ‘Didn’t want the bastard that had ruined his life.’ So I decided that if he didn’t want me, hated me for causing all his problems, then the feeling was going to be mutual.”
“How old were you when you found out?”
“Seven, almost eight.” I pushed my hair away from my face but still didn’t look at Drake. “After that, I started listening for him on entertainment news, and if I saw his face on a magazine I always read it. He was all talk about how he wanted to reconcile with his son, but never once did he mention the daughter he had thrown away…
“A few years ago, right before my mom died, I got a certified letter meant for her saying that the child support was going to be cut off. The lab that had done the paternity tests was under investigation and for the support to continue, I had to show up for another DNA test.” I grimaced. “I tore the letter up before Mom could see it. I didn’t care if she got mad, but I wasn’t going to go through with the test. Not willingly. Screw the child support checks; it wasn’t like I saw any of that money anyway.”
Drake crouched down in front of me and with a finger under my chin made me meet his eyes. “Don’t cry, Angel,” he murmured, wiping a few of my tears away with one of his thumbs. “You don’t ever have to cry over your dad again.”