Pretty Little Hellion (Rocker Universe: Pretty Little #3)

7. Hayat

Chapter Seven

Hayat

Vaughn had superpowers, and no one would ever be able to make me think differently.

My breaking Maddie’s nose should have been trending on the top of every social media platform, but nothing about my punching my cousin in the face popped up. Not even her deranged meltdown beforehand that had cracked my chest open for her to play Operation with my heart.

How Vaughn had done it when we’d had no fewer than three hundred phones pointed at us the entire time, I didn’t know. Hence, my conclusion that my bestie’s husband possessed superpowers. Whether he was a hero or a villain was an entirely different discussion that would need a dozen charts and at least three days of debating the pros and cons of Cristian Vaughn Vitucci—or whatever the fuck his full legal name was.

While I made calls with my good hand, Jamie held a bag of ice to my knuckles, refusing to release me while I contacted the three people who needed to know immediately what had gone down. First was Aunt Emmie, and then I added Nana to the conversation so that I didn’t have to continually retell the same story over and over and over. I was already feeling emotionally raw, and I wasn’t sure how much longer I was going to be able to keep it together.

“You did what?” Nana demanded when I told her about Maddie’s broken nose.

“Nat.” Emmie’s voice broke in before my grandmother could go ballistic. “Let’s get the full story before you react.”

Nana inhaled deeply a few times before I heard Pop-Pop’s voice in the background. “I’m putting this on speaker so Dev can hear too,” she muttered. “All right, Hayat. Let’s hear it.”

Closing my eyes, I swallowed the lump that filled my throat, reinforced the dam that was holding back my tears—fighting so motherfucking hard not to let the judgment in her voice scratch away the scabs over the wounds on my heart—and gave her a full rundown of everything that had happened at the club.

“I think you guys should get her into some kind of inpatient treatment ASAP,” I finished, throwing in my personal opinion.

“I just find it hard to believe that she, of all people, would say something like that to you,” Pop-Pop muttered, the first to speak after my long recounting of the events.

I flinched, causing Jamie to whisper an apology as he readjusted the bag of ice on my hand. But it wasn’t he who had caused me pain. Turning my head away so Jamie couldn’t see my face, I blinked rapidly against the insistent sting of tears. “Are you saying I’m lying?”

There was a long pause. Pop-Pop’s hesitation, his lack of words, hurt me just as brutally as all the ones Maddie had thrown at me like grenades and had eviscerated me emotionally.

My family was amazing. I’d always thought that we had the most incredible dynamic because so many within it were there by choice instead of from simple DNA connections. We didn’t judge who or how someone loved. Their happiness was our sole focus for anyone’s relationship. I’d felt safe in that knowledge when things had begun to happen with my rockers. My only hesitation at the time had been because of Ky’s connection to the Renchfords and how that might hurt Maddie.

Poppy hadn’t even blinked when I’d told him how much I cared for Sparks, Jamie, and Ky. He’d given me an encouraging smile when I’d talked about them, even if he had been on the fence regarding Ky—because, fucking hell, he’d broken me more than once. But Poppy’s reaction was exactly how I’d expected the rest of my family would respond to our relationship.

Situationship.

What the fuck ever it was.

With the exception of my parents, of course. Mostly my dad, with Jace thrown in. That was how I expected him to react to my dating anyone, though. Dads were wired like that.

Yet now, I understood clearly that I’d been wrong. Colossally.

Not everyone was going to be as accepting of what I had with my men. I’d gotten a hint of that when Pop-Pop had helped move my drums into the studio. But at the time, I had been hoping it was because he needed a little more time.

Hearing what I could only describe as condemnation in my grandfather’s voice and that I could almost feel the vibrations of Nana’s identical reaction to it, even over the phone, was so unexpected I nearly doubled over from the blow to my soul.

“Hayat, I believe you,” Emmie announced, while both Pop-Pop and Nana remained silent. Continuing to judge and, even worse, continuing not to believe me.

Would the blows keep coming? I didn’t think it was possible to hurt more than I already did after Maddie’s verbal assault. But I could, and I very much was, because it was obvious my grandparents thought I was either overembellishing the situation or flat-out lying. Maybe if Vaughn hadn’t wiped everyone’s phones and my name were being splashed across every gossip site in the country, they might have believed me.

“And I agree that an inpatient program at a mental facility would be the most beneficial for her at this time. Where is she now?” Emmie asked calmly.

Swallowing the huge boulder in my throat, I was able to choke out a response. “Abi and Vaughn took her to her apartment. They’re going to stay there with her until everyone figures out what to do next. Vaughn’s bodyguard, Walter, is a nurse, so he’s taking care of her nose. He doesn’t think it’s broken, but I guess she should get an X-ray just to confirm it.”

“You should be the one getting the fucking X-ray,” Jamie barked.

“Are you even going to be able to play tomorrow night?” Pop-Pop asked, an edge to his voice that opened another crack in my chest.

“Don’t worry about me or my fucking hand,” I snapped, the last few threads of my emotions breaking. “Just deal with the granddaughter who does need your attention. Get her some help because I’m done with all of this bullshit.”

Ending the call, I dropped my phone down onto the cushion beside me, but I continued to keep my face turned away from Jamie so he didn’t have to see what a hot mess I was, with tears spilling down my face and snot bubbling out of my nose. Gross. Definitely not how I ever wanted any of my boyfriends to see me. But Jamie got this crazy look in his eyes when he saw me cry, and I was too tired to talk him off a ledge—or, in this case, talk him out of doing bodily harm to members of my family.

There was another call I had to make, but I needed a few minutes to get myself under control before I picked up my phone again.

Sparks sat down on the coffee table in front of me. I let my hair shield my face from his view, but he wasn’t having any of that. Tucking my curls behind my ears, he grasped my chin and turned my head so I was looking at him.

Unable to hide my blotchy face with the trails of tears and the dripping nose, I only wanted to cry harder. Karma and fate were back to being total bitches to me. I was getting pretty damn tired of being their punching bag.

Pulling his shirt off over his head, Sparks used it to mop up my face. “Tell us what you need, goddess.”

I licked my parched lips. “A rewind button to go back in time so we never left the apartment tonight is probably undoable, huh?”

His smile was so damn sweet and sad. “I’ll get someone to invent a device for you tomorrow. But until then, what can we help you with right now?”

I lowered my lashes, but not before a few more tears spilled free. “I have to call my parents. If they find out about what happened from someone other than me, it won’t be pretty. And I’m trying really hard not to give them a reason to be against our relationship.”

Ky walked out of the kitchen with a fresh ice pack and a bottle of ibuprofen. Jamie exchanged the melted bag of ice for the new one while Ky opened the bottle and poured three pills into his palm. Avoiding his gaze, I accepted the medication and tossed them back with a drink of water from Jamie’s bottle.

Sparks picked up my phone and offered it to me. “It’s better to get it over with. Just rip the bandage off quickly to minimize the pain.”

“It couldn’t possibly go worse than the call I just had with my grandparents,” I muttered, swiping my thumb over my mom’s contact. It rang twice before I heard her voice.

“Hayat?” From the garbled way she said my name, I knew I’d woken her up. Perfect. Not. “What’s wrong? Are you okay? Safe? Do you need bail money?”

A choked laugh escaped me. “Why do you always ask those same questions when I call you?”

“It’s after midnight. They’re the necessary questions I need answered,” she yawned, but then I heard a sharp inhale. “I’m not getting any answers, Hayat.”

“I don’t need bail money. And yes, I’m safe.”

When I didn’t answer any of her other questions, she got quiet, as if she was holding her breath. “But you’re not okay?”

“I…” Shaking my head, I dived in headfirst, explaining what had happened when Maddie had shown up at the club earlier. And everything that had come after.

When I was done, I was the one holding my breath, waiting. For the disbelief. For the criticism. For all the unspoken things Pop-Pop and Nana had left hanging between us earlier. All the pain from that call was still bouncing around inside me.

“Nat and Dev know?” she asked, sounding concerned.

“Yes. I told them and Aunt Emmie everything. But…” My chin trembled and I hated it. Hated it.

“But what, sweetheart?” she asked quietly, in that calming mom voice that always soothed something in me. But this time, it didn’t. Couldn’t.

“Aunt Emmie believed me,” I choked out. “But Pop-Pop and Nana… I guess they didn’t.”

“You guess?” she repeated. “You’re guessing that Dev and Nat don’t believe you about what happened?”

“Yeah,” I whispered.

Her sharp inhale was followed by a very slow, controlled exhale, but when she spoke, there was no tension in her voice. “How are you feeling, honey? Do we need to go to the ER for an X-ray? Is anything swollen?”

“My knuckles are bruised and I have a little discomfort, but I don’t think anything is broken. Jamie is making sure I keep ice on my hand, so there hasn’t been much swelling. I should be good to go for tomorrow’s show at First Bass.”

“Good, that’s good. I’m glad Jamie is taking care of you.”

“They are all taking care of me,” I assured her, needing her to understand that they were all there for me.

They were. Even Ky, although I wasn’t exactly receptive to his care. I had too much noise crowded in my head for me to sift through it all yet. I had questions—so many fucking questions. But not yet. Not tonight. Not when I was already too…overwhelmed.

“Okay,” she accepted, and I could almost hear a smile in her voice. At least she was trying. She didn’t understand what was going on with my three rockers and me, but she was trying. And that meant so damn much. Her voice softened again. “How are you feeling about what Maddie said to you?”

It was my turn to go silent. I didn’t know how I felt other than hurt in a big, huge, agonizing way that I was unfamiliar with. Because this was new to me. Having anyone in my family treat me or someone else in our tribe the way Maddie had was uncharted territory for me.

“Hayat baby, you know what she said was bullshit. You know that.” I couldn’t get my voice to work, and she made a pained noise. “You are allowed to have a relationship with those boys if it makes you and them happy, Hayat. That doesn’t make you any of those horrible names she called you true. Your happiness is all your dad and I care about. What you have with them isn’t conventional, but who gives a fuck? Love whomever and however you want to. I will be standing right behind you, protecting you and them. Just tell me you understand that those ugly words Maddie threw at you aren’t true.”

“I don’t want them to be true,” I whispered. Jamie pressed a kiss to the side of my head, and I had to fight back a sob.

“Okay, that’s a start in the right direction, I guess,” she muttered with a heavy sigh. “Your dad is still at work. They had some VIPs at the club, and he had to show them a little TLC. I don’t want you to worry about telling him about this. I will do it. He and I need to have a big talk about a few things when he gets home anyway. You are already stressed, and we’re going to talk about this again. Very, very soon. But right now, I want you to take a hot shower and get some sleep. If tomorrow your hand is swollen, or it hurts worse, we will get an X-ray. Your poppy will fill in for you if needed.”

“Mom.” My voice quavered, but I cleared it and tried again. “I love you.”

“I love you so much, Hayat. Everything is going to be okay. I promise.”