Strings (13 page)

I appreciate the sentiment, but it makes me
feel weird. Like I owe him something.

And it’s awkward texting him my thanks. I’d
much rather do it in person—maybe even ask him to stop taking pity
on me, though I’m flattered he thinks of me—but we haven’t had a
second to ourselves. Kate’s ever watchful. Rax stays up drinking
until all hours and sleeps in, which makes responding to booty
calls damn near impossible. Although Jillian put her foot down and
had a “come to Jesus” meeting with him yesterday, so maybe I’ll get
some tonight.

I read the ingredients on the protein bar
package. “Says here it’s got one hundred percent of my recommended
daily allowance for every-fucking-thing.” I take a bite of the
cardboard-textured delicacy and hide a wince.

Jillian scoops instant coffee into a mug.
“You can’t live off that shit, Letty. You gotta eat real food every
once in a while.”

I shrug and gobble down the rest of my
lunch. I start to ask when we’ll get paid, but if I do it now,
it’ll be too obvious that I’m in desperate need of cash. I’ll wait
until I can get Jillian alone. Most of the shows have had pretty
good turnouts. I assume we’ll get some decent bank soon. Not that
Shades needs the money. But I’d feel a hell of a lot better if I
could afford my own burgers. Still, it’s nice that he cares. Or at
least pretends to.

“
I gotta have some pussy
tonight.” Rax rubs his cock absently. “How ’bout we stop off at a
strip club after the show? We’ll pick up some ass, do our thang,
and then get on the road.”

Kate looks up. “You
are
not
bringing
skank-ho’s on this tour bus to fuck.”

“
If the bus is a
skank-ho-free zone, then you’ll have to leave too, Kate,” Rax
says.

“
Rax.” Jillian’s
threatening tone deflects Kate’s volcanic reaction.

“
Come on, Jillian.” Rax
tosses up a hand. “I’m used to fucking two or three women a day. If
I don’t lay some pipe soon, I might lose my motivation. And you
can’t afford that.”

Jillian stirs her coffee. “There are other
people on the bus to consider, asshole. I don’t want to hear you
banging girls, either.”

“
Then we need a system to
let everyone know when fuckery abounds.” Rax tosses up a peach and
catches it.

“
Put up a fucking sign.
‘Gang bang in progress. Do not disturb.’ Easy enough.” Toombs
snatches the thrown peach before it hits Rax’s waiting hands and
takes a bite. Juice runs from the side of his mouth.

Goddamn, there’s something about a bad boy.
If I weren’t already in lust with Shades, I’d take Toombs for a
test drive. I flick a glance to Shades, but my gaze collides with
Jinx. She’s staring at Toombs.

Oh fuck. She better not be thinking about
getting involved with him. He’ll mop the floor with her and throw
her in a dumpster when he’s done.

Wait a minute. Did Toombs say “gang bang”?
Shit, maybe the rumors are true.

Double shit. Jinx
definitely
doesn’t need
to get interested in that shit.

After Kate and Rax broke up, I heard Rax,
Danny, and Toombs had taken to tag-teaming girls. Rax would set up
everything—find the chicks, sweet talk them, and seduce them. Then
the other two would come on the scene, do their business, and make
a quick getaway. They left cleanup to Rax. He’s twisted and likes
to fuck with girls’ minds. They say the three of them were
inseparable in the bedroom. I didn’t believe it until now.

The way Toombs always defaults to Rax
confirms it. I wonder what kind of fucked-up relationship those two
have. Are they bi? Definitely not gay. I admit I’d love to find
out. As a vicarious observer, of course.

Well…

Okay,
maybe
as a victim, but only if
Shades got involved too.

What am I thinking? A foursome with the evil
triumvirate of Killer Dixon?

The twat dam opens and liberates a few
droplets of liquid sex from the gates. I look down. I have on a
miniskirt with no underwear, and vagina batter is dripping down my
thighs. Great.

Bathroom break.

I rush to the toilet and clean up. This tour
is gonna do my head in. I’m so fucking horny, I could hump the
toilet paper roll. And now that I have an image in my head of doing
Shades, Rax, and Toombs on the couch, my concentration is
officially balls.

My phone vibrates.

While they r occupied with groupies tonight,
I’ll fuck u against the bus outside.

Matching screams with Rax’s and Toombs’s
scores? I choke on the sudden glut of spit in my mouth.

How can we be sure they won’t look out? Or
that Jillian, Kate, or Jinx won’t see us?

No guarantees. Which is why I have to do it.
The thrill of knowing someone could discover us at any moment will
make the experience even hotter.

Sweet fucking Sally.

I’m in,
I type back.

Gang Bang in Progress: Do
Not Disturb

Though Cherry Buzz Float got off to a rough
start on this tour, each show is better than the last. The crowd
tonight is twice as big as any of the other gigs we’ve played so
far, but I still don’t feel we’ve had a breakthrough yet. Killer
Dixon, on the other hand, makes us look like amateurs. I can’t
figure it out. And worse, Jinx tells me they’re almost a thousand
likes ahead of us on our fan pages. We seriously need a new
strategy. I won’t be stood up by second-rate rockers, no matter how
fucking good they are in bed.

I watch Killer Dixon side stage for a few
minutes and sink my eye-darts into Shades’s ass. The way he moves
under the lights is the same way he moves when we fuck. A master of
motion, a manipulator of pleasure switches, a collector and breaker
of hearts. Totally fucking hot. He may be all about his fans right
now, but I’ll make him forget them soon enough. God, I could come
just thinking about what he’s gonna do to me in an hour.

Kate jostles me out of my reverie. “Freddie
says there’s no strip club near here, but there are tons in
Jacksonville—our next stop.” Kate scowls at the band. “Fair
warning.”

“
Maybe while they’re
trolling the titty aisles, we can use their absence to our
advantage,” I suggest. “We’re booked for two nights in
Jacksonville, right?”

She nods, her expression not eager but
downright conniving. “What do you have in mind?”

“
While the boys pick up
chicks after the show tomorrow, we’ll campaign for ourselves
outside the strip club. Flash a little leg, jiggle some boobs, and
getting the likes we need will be child’s play.”

“
Good plan.” Kate pops her
gum. It may be the first time I’ve seen Kate smile since the tour
started.

“
Jinx, you with
us?”

The drummer balances her gaze between Kate
and me, and then nods.

“
Rock on.”

The guys wrap up their set, and Jillian
flutters over, looking a little rattled. God, is that a misplaced
hair on her head? Methinks so.

“
I just found out
management promised the local radio station a meet-and-greet after
the show,” Jillian says. She looks like she needs a
cigarette.

“
You’re shitting me,” I
say.

“
Nope. Be on your best
behavior, and let’s meet some fans.”

Fuck yes! This is what rock and roll is all
about.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, some
chicks enter the room and head for the sweaty guys eating up a big
chunk of backstage real estate. Ranging in age from about eighteen
to twenty-five, the women flit around Killer Dixon, squawking and
gawking.

Where are the male fans?

A blond bimbo sidles up to Shades, slithers
her arm around him, and poses for a picture. She’s all tits and
ass, and he’s totally checking her out. Heat sears up my neck to my
face. The flash goes off. She doesn’t let go. Shades smiles and
chats her up. Oh, hell no. Bitch better get her hands off my man. I
start over their way. I’m taking this girl down.

Wait a minute.

I stop midstep. Shades doesn’t belong to me
any more than I belong to him. Just because he sends me those
adorable sexts every day doesn’t mean he wants me for anything
else. I gotta put a lid on my rage and remember we’re not dating,
we’re not exclusive, and we certainly don’t care about each
other.

Nobody can know I’m jealous as hell—least of
all, Kate.

I grit my teeth and smile like a good
girl.

Chitchat ensues, and Killer Dixon eats up
the attention. Rax sits on a couch surrounded by barely dressed
women. He has one on each knee, and two on either side. They’re
like pimp accessories—all shiny and flashy. Judging by the looks
he’s giving his groupie harem, feeding the lust is his prime
objective. No problem there. Hell, he might even bag all six of
them.

Toombs stands off to the
side watching Rax like a hungry hawk. He takes an occasional sip of
beer. A couple of girls start to approach him but back off when he
looks their way. They
should
be afraid.

Then there’s Shades. Girls pet his fauxhawk,
pinch his ass, press their knockers against him. I keep expecting
him to look my way, but he’s too wrapped up in his newfound
notoriety to notice me.

I stomp my foot. “Where
are
our
fans?”

Kate shakes her head and keeps quiet.

Jinx watches Toombs from
the shadows, and I feel a little bad for her. But it’s for the best
that he goes on the prowl for someone else. He would
break
her. Jinx deserves
a nice guy who’ll treat her like a queen.

A fresh batch of fans enters, and a few of
them wander over our way. I put on my fake smile and thank them for
coming to see us. A friendly, shoot-the-shit chat reveals they’re
Killer Dixon fans.

Why doesn’t anyone care about Cherry Buzz
Float, goddamn it?

Fuck my life.

The meet-and-greet goes on for an hour. One
of the DJs from the local radio station interviews Shades and Rax.
Toombs wants nothing to do with it. I flash a hopeful smile at the
DJ when he wraps up with Killer Dixon. He smiles back and packs up
his shit.

Seriously?

This. Fucking. Sucks.

By the time the place starts to clear, my
stomach is in knots, and I’ve lost my sexual appetite. I glance to
the couch where the guys sit. I’m totally off Shades’s radar. Along
with everyone else’s, apparently.

“
I’m going to get a
drink,” I tell the girls. Screw my highly limited cash stash.
Surely we’ll get paid soon. I grab my shit, exit the stage door,
and hit the bar.

The bartender tells me he likes my voice and
gives me a free martini. At least there’s that. I guess I am a
little bit lucky about some things. Though, getting lucky with
Shades tonight doesn’t seem like much of a possibility anymore.

I’m so pissed right now. Not only can I not
get laid, but my preferred layer keeps upstaging me at every
opportunity. Fuck this shit.

I finish my drink, thank the bartender, and
return backstage. Jillian, Kate, and Jinx are discussing some
issues with the new song. The members of Killer Dixon are nowhere
in sight.

I gesture to the empty couch. “Where’d
everybody go?”

Kate rolls her eyes. “Guess.”

Fuck. Me. “The bus.”

“
You got it,
sister.”

Donkey cocks humping a dump truck’s
junk.

I engineer an apathetic expression while
swallowing the bile climbing my throat. “Just as well. I met a guy
in the bar,” I lie. “He wants to take me to his car for a quick
boot-knocking. I’ll meet you on the bus in an hour.”

“
I hope you have condoms,”
Jillian calls as I rush through the exit.

It’s not like I’ll need them tonight.

The polar temperature bites hard into my
tits, and my scrawny blubber layer loses the fight against the
cold. I stand in the back parking lot, shivering, scowling at the
bus across the blacktop. That motherfucker.

Even though my head urges me to forget about
it, my heart has to know. I plod over to the bus, my feet filled
with the lead of dread.

So what? It’s not like you own his body. You
have a rental agreement at best. If he wants to bang other chicks,
it’s his prerogative. As long as he’s being safe.

Right. Safety is a good cover for jealousy.
I’ll use that.

When I get to the bus, I hide in the shadows
and listen to the shenanigans inside.

“
Yeah, baby, suck that
cock.” Rax growls. “And you Blondie, play with my balls while you
jerk off Toombs.”

Muffled, presumably wang-stuffed female
grunts escape through a cracked window. Rhythmic banging
accentuates their moans.

Where the hell is—

Shades appears beside me and clamps his hand
over my mouth, as he’s so fond of doing. Well, this time, it was a
good idea. I guess I have a tendency to shriek when he surprises
me.

He holds his index finger over his lips and
leads me by the hand to the back end of the bus.

“
You thought I was in
there.” He grins that sexy grin that makes me want to shoot
strawberries like a love cannon from my cooch.

“
So what if you were?” I
blow off the insinuation, even though I want to slap his
face.

He steps into my personal space and guides
me to the other side of the bus. There’s a nice big wall there. No
one can see us unless they come looking. Fuck, my pulse hammers in
my veins.