“Maybe,” I whispered, opening my eyes and meeting his calm gaze.

A small smile tilted his lips. “Okay, let’s check what the results are, then. Together.”

“This will hurt Harper…”

Linc grimaced. “A little, but she loves you. She will be more happy than hurt, I promise. Now look at the freaking stick, woman. As much as I love you I’m tired of touching your piss.”

Sticking my tongue out at him I took the stick and finally glanced down at it. When I saw the results, I grabbed the next test, and then the next. My heart stopped for a moment, then started up at twice its normal speed. Thinking something and then having the proof whether or not it was true in front of your face were two different things.

And here was my proof.

I wasn’t pregnant.

The disappointment that washed over me was something I wasn’t expecting. New tears spilled from my eyes and I blinked them away as fast as I could. Images of a little boy who was a mixture of me and Axton vanished in a puff of smoke and I felt like I’d just lost something incredibly special. “But… I was sure.”

“It’s negative?” Linc took the tests from me then looked at the boxes again to confirm. “It says it could take up to five minutes on this one, Dallas. Maybe we should just wait a little longer.”

I shook my head, letting the new tears fall. “No. It’s okay. I’m not pregnant. I-I probably just have a little bit of a bug.”

“I’m getting you another test.” He stood and left the bathroom before I could say another word, leaving me alone with a pain that I’d never felt before. Was this what Harper had felt when the doctors had told her she wasn’t going to have her own baby? My heart broke all over again for my friend.

Linc was back in less than two minutes and shoving two more tests at me. “Take them,” he commanded and picked up the three tests I’d already taken.

I didn’t feel up to arguing so I peed on two more sticks. As soon as I was done I washed my hands again, but I didn’t want to wait around for the results this time when I knew that it would just make me more depressed. “I just want to go back to the bus and go to bed.”

“Dallas, wait.” Linc stopped me as I opened the door. “Just look at the tests again. For me. If nothing changes I’ll throw these other two tests away and we can forget this ever happened. Okay?”

“Linc…”

“Just one look, Dallas. It won’t hurt anything. One little look.” He held out the three sticks and I reluctantly took them. “Look at them.”

The trip to the drugstore took longer than expected. By the time we got back to the arena it was getting dark. Glancing at my phone I saw that it was less than an hour before OtherWorld went on stage. I also had five missed text messages from Axton and one from Emmie.

I didn’t know what to say to either of them in a text so I ignored the messages and put my phone away. I was still an emotional mess and I had thrown up twice while I had taken three more tests before we had left the drugstore. Just to be sure.

Linc was with me every step of the walk back to the bus where I changed clothes again because I’d gotten vomit on my shirt. When I was clean I went searching for Axton. Knowing that he would probably be with Emmie getting the stage set up for the closing show tonight I headed straight for the main stage.

But I didn’t get past the second line of buses before I saw Axton. My heart leapt at the sight of him standing there talking with Liam. As I walked closer I saw that they weren’t alone. Gabriella was with them and she was visibly upset. She had tears streaming down her face and she was spitting Italian out fast and feverishly.

Liam just stood there and watched her with what appeared to be dead eyes at first glance with the light of the street lamps that were starting to come on, but at a closer look just masked what he was feeling. I was pretty sure he didn’t understand half of what she was screaming at him, because I sure as hell didn’t understand a word.

“I just want to be with you!” Gabriella switched to English on those last words, her small body shaking with emotion.

I stopped, not wanting to interrupt the emotional moment. I might not like the chick, but I wasn’t going to embarrass her right then. Liam flinched then shrugged his shoulders like the douchebag I’d assumed he was the first time I’d met him, but now knew that he wasn’t. “I don’t want to be with you, Brie. Move on. I already have.”

“You don’t mean that, Liam. You can’t.”

“Go, Brie. You’re just making a fool of yourself. We don’t belong together, we never did. Go home and live the life you’re supposed to lead without me there to mess it up for you.” He turned, ready to walk away—or limp away in his case.

“What the fuck do you mean, the life I’m supposed to lead? I don’t have a life without you.” Liam kept walking and her tears fell faster. “Liam, don’t,” she pleaded brokenly.

His shoulders stiffened, but he kept walking. I remained where I was as I watched Axton’s reaction to what looked like the end of Liam and Gabriella. His gaze followed Liam as he walked away, his jaw clenched as if he was pissed off at his friend. Why would he be mad at Liam? If anything I had expected him to be happy about them being over. Gabriella was going to be prime for the taking after this…

With a sob Gabriella threw herself against Axton’s chest. He hadn’t been expecting it and stumbled back a few steps before he wrapped his arms around her shoulders. The sight was like a stab to the heart. As I’d stood there, my heart in my throat, I’d been waiting for it to happen. For one of them to wrap their arms around each other. But fuck, now that I was actually seeing it I wanted to wipe that picture from my mind. It hurt too much to watch him comfort her.

My hurt at seeing them like this, on top of all the other emotional bullshit I’d gone through in the last few hours, brought out the bitch in me. It was my coping mechanism that had never failed me before, so I let her out with a vengeance. Clearing my throat loudly, I took the last few steps that would bring me into Axton’s line of sight.

As soon as he saw me he seemed to jerk as if he’d been stabbed, and took two steps back from a still sobbing Gabriella who tried to cling. He shoved her hands away and stepped around her. “It’s not what you think, I swear.”

I nodded. “Yeah. I saw. Liam broke the troll bitch’s heart, so she threw herself at you. And of course you were all too willing to offer comfort. Seems like a pattern. One I’m getting pretty fucking tired of.”