Page 3 of Crossroads

I growled, jumped out of my truck, and went into my barn. I had a gun, but I wasn’t going to use it. Instead, I pulled out my axe and figured I’d scare the teenager or whoever was using my cabin as a place to hook up. That had to be it. After all, the person who used to try to squat on my property was dead. And I didn’t even miss the old man.

Hands fisted, I stomped my way toward the cabin. Without another word, I banged on the door, growling, “Whoever the fuck you are, get off my property.”

No answer. I banged again and reached for the door handle. Unlocked. What a fucking idiot.

I slammed open the door, axe in hand, and blinked as the woman in front of me screamed bloody murder. She held up a bat, eyes wide, and when she finally quit screaming, she bared her teeth.

“A fucking axe murderer? Could you be any more cliché in the mountains?”

“Kiera?” I asked, aghast.

The light from the fire she had set, even in the summer heat, not only filled the room but glinted off her septum ring and her brow ring. She was covered in tattoos, from what skin she showed, and her eyes were swollen. So damn swollen, that I was afraid she’d not only been crying, but someone had hit her.

“What the hell are you doing here, Kiera?”

“So glad that you remembered my name.” She dropped the bat, her chest heaving. “If you could maybe let go of the axe, that would be wonderful. Because you’re starting to scare me.”

I looked at the axe in my hand and let it fall to my side, careful of the blade. “You didn’t answer my question. What the hell are you doing here?”

“Teagan said I could stay. I just need a moment. Can you let me stay?” she asked, her eyes filling with tears.

I didn’t know Kiera well, but I’d never seen her cry. Not once.

And I had no idea why a world-famous, Grammy Award-winning artist and drummer in one of the biggest rock bands in the world would be hiding in my cabin.

Yet all I could think, even with the fear on her face, was that she had taken my dead twin’s place in the band.

And if my brother were alive, she wouldn’t be here.

And I had no idea what the fuck I was supposed to do with that.

“Bodhi? Can I stay?”

And with no other good answer to that, I shook my head and sighed.

“Fine. But you want to tell me why you have that bruise?” I asked, my voice cutting.

And that’s when Kiera West, the one woman who made my dick twitch after all these years, burst into tears.

What a great way to end this day from hell.

Chapter 2

KIERA

I should have known this would be too good to be true. Of course, the moment that I had tried to feel safe, and even pretend that word meant anything, it would be thrown back into my face.

It wasn’t Teagan’s fault. I knew that. It was my own for trusting the idea that I could have time to breathe.

“Fine. But you want to tell me why you have that bruise?”

I swallowed hard and nearly pulled my gaze away from him, but couldn’t.

“Kiera.”

It was odd to hear my name on Bodhi’s lips. I wasn’t even sure Bodhi had said my name ever before this. No, that was wrong. He had. When he had been growly at me. Angry for some reason that I could never fathom. Bodhi Ashford did not like me. I was used to people not liking me. Yet for some reason, the idea that he didn’t hurt something deep within me that I’d rather not think about. I barely resisted the urge to touch the bruising on my jaw and the ones that slid down my back and spine. No, I couldn’t think at this moment. Not when everything hurt.

People didn’t like me. I was too brash, too loud. I played drums when I should have been quiet. I was covered in tattoos, colored hair, and piercings. I had a piercing that one of my exes had blasted to the tabloids, and that had caused thousands of people to learn what a triangle piercing was. I loved women and men and tried to live life to the fullest. I wore sundresses and leather and tried to be my own contradiction just because I could.