Strings (20 page)

“
You go out first. Make
sure the coast is clear,” I whisper. “I’ll come out in a bit. Do
whatever you have to do to get Kate away from here.”

He nods, pecks the soft spot behind my ear,
and replies, “One day I’m gonna fuck you proper, foxy lady. See you
on the bus.”

I smile. Anyone else talking that ’70s
bullshit would sound like a total fucking head case, but it works
for Shades. Fuck knows it works for me too.

He lays a panty-wringer of a kiss on me and
struts out of the stall, smoothing his fauxhawk. The slaps of palms
bounce off mirrors and tile, and roars of appreciative laughter
barrel between the guys out there.

“
Hey, you’re the singer
for Killer Dixon,” one of the dudes says.

Oh, fuck-a duck-a.

“
I’ll bet you got a hot
piece of ass, huh? Come on out, jailbait.”

“
Yeah, Killer Dixon. You
wanna meet the band?” Shades says.

“
They’re here? Hell yeah,
man.”

The voices trail off, and the door closes
again. I wait a few minutes. More people come in and go out. When
it’s mostly quiet, I sneak to the door, look both ways, and get the
hell out of Dodge.

When I return to the guys’ table, Shades is
nowhere in sight, but Rax is sweet-talking the brunette from
before. He’s totally fucking wasted, pawing all over the poor girl
who seems to be held against her will on his lap. His words slur so
badly, they’re almost indecipherable.

“
See, Lola, that’s why I
want you to come to my big bus. I got all kindsa shit to show you
there. Have you seen my bald-headed yogurt slinger?” He reaches for
his belt buckle, but she lays a hand on his to stop him. “It’s good
to the last drop and built for speed. Strippers like big dicks,
right?”

Nice. Could this asshole be any more
insulting? Actually, yes, he probably could.

“
Come on, man.” Toombs
pats him on the shoulder. “We gotta roll.”

“
But Lola and I were just
getting to know each other.” He reaches for the remains of his
drink. I snatch and shoot it before he can. Dude is so drunk, he
doesn’t even look at me. Just stares at the empty space on the
table.

Lola smiles a thank-you at me and eases his
arm from around her waist. “I have to go too.”

She’s pretty. I feel sorry for her. Probably
deals with stupid fucks like Rax every night. Doesn’t mean she
deserves to be treated like a piece of meat.

“
Lola, come to the bus.
Toombs and I will take you for a ride on the D-train. Twice the
dick is twice as sick. Right, Toombs?”

Toombs tosses a glance toward Jinx, who’s
currently being eaten by the seat cushions. Ah, fuck. Poor Jinx. I
gesture to the door with a quick nod, and she gets up.

“
I can’t go to your bus,
honey. I’m working.” Lola stands, somehow avoiding Rax’s slimy
tentacles, and steps next to me.

“
Sorry about him,” I say
under my breath.

“
It’s all right.” She
looks down. “I’ll catch you next time you come to Jacksonville,
okay, Rax?”

His bleary eyes narrow.
“Next time you see me, I’ll be a rich motherfucker, Lola.
I’ll
pay
for a
night with you if you don’t wanna give it to me. I’ll make it rain
for you in more ways than one, honey.”

I wince.

“
I’m sure you will.” Lola
smiles and walks away.

I wish I had an extra twenty to give her for
putting up with Rax’s obnoxious shit.

Rax hangs his head like an overly dramatic
three-year-old. “There goes my woman, Toombs.” He lifts an
invisible glass and salutes her, then face plants on the table
before them.

“
You’re a fuckin’
cone-headed cock knocker, Rax.” Toombs gets up and stretches. His
shirt rides up and reveals the butt of a tattooed gun on his hip
and half a six-pack of abs. A thin treasure trail of dark hair
disappears down the fly of his leather pants.

Jinx and I sneak sideways peeks at each
other. Shit, Toombs is ripped.

I can see the allure for Jinx, but that guy
is bad fucking news. I slide my arm around her shoulder and hug her
head to my neck for a second. She leans in and hugs me back. “Let’s
book,” I say.

She nods.

“
Pack it up.” I point to
Toombs, and we leave him to clean up Rax’s mess.

“
Jillian’s gonna be pissed
we took so long,” I say as we head for the door.

“
You had sex with
Shades.”

I consider puking up the shot I stole from
Rax just so I can spray it all over the place like they do in
comedies when someone says something insane.

I stop and face Jinx. “What? No. Why would
I…? No.”

“
You totally
did.”

Blinking slowly, I touch her upper arm.
“Okay, maybe that did happen once—”

“
Lots more than
once.”

Damn. I don’t give Jinx nearly enough
credit. I bite my bottom lip and pray for a miracle. “Please don’t
tell Kate. If she finds out—”

“
I won’t tell,” Jinx says
softly. She looks away. “You know I’ve got a crush on Toombs, so
we’re even.”

I worry about Jinx. I hug her. “Be careful
with him. He’s hiding something dark.”

“
Aren’t we
all?”

I’m not sure exactly what she means, but I
kinda get where she’s coming from. “He scares me a little.”

“
Me too. That’s why I like
him.” Her eyes sparkle with muted fascination. I hope her curiosity
doesn’t lead her to take unnecessary risks.

I stretch my neck to check where Toombs and
Rax are. Still at the table. “If you get involved with Toombs, you
get involved with Rax by default. They come as a matched pair.” I
don’t tell her about the one-time exception to that rule. She may
already know. She’s a hell of a lot more perceptive than I
realized.

“
I’ve seen how they look
at each other. The way they talk. There’s more to them than what’s
on the surface.”

I could say the same about Jinx. Shit, this
night is full of surprises.

“
All the more reason to
tread carefully. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“
I’m tougher than I look.”
She hits me with a hard stare. I believe her.

“
Sorry if I get a little
overprotective. I’ll back off.” I smile. “And by the way, you’ve
been pounding the skins at our shows like nobody’s business.
Sometimes I forget to say thanks for being the best fucking drummer
in the universe.”

“
We all rock. We don’t
have much of a choice.” Her sweet blond pixie face and gentle voice
remind me of a fragile doll sometimes. Other times, she’s
un-fucking-breakable. Jinx, the enigma.

We walk to the door and step into the cool,
humid night air. I check my watch. It’s two o’clock. Jillian’s
gonna hit the roof.

Where the hell did Shades go? I pull out my
phone and call the queen bee.

“
Where have you been,
Letty?” Jillian demands.

“
Sorry, we had a few
drinks, talked to some people, and got thoroughly
distracted.”

“
Get your ass over to the
parking lot on Talleyrand. Now.”

“
We’re on our way. Are
Kate and Shades with you? I haven’t seen them. Rax and Toombs are
still inside the club.”

“
Nobody’s here except me
and Freddie. Round up the children and come home.”

“
Yes, Mother. We’ll be
there in ten.” I hang up.

Great. Shades is missing.

“
I’ll get Rax and Toombs,”
Jinx says a little too eagerly.

“
Okay. I’m gonna see if I
can find the other two. I’ll meet you at the parking lot.” As soon
as she’s gone, I start walking and dial Shades. No answer. Now I’m
getting worried.

Five minutes later, the parked bus comes
into view. And I hear familiar voices outside.

“…
Can’t let anyone else
know about this.” Shades. Where is he? And who’s he talking
to?

I dart to the shadows and
home in. I tiptoe closer. He’s on the other side of the bus.
Our
secret
hideaway.

“
Did you hear that?” Kate
says.

Kate?

Silence.

“
No, I didn’t hear
anything.” Shades’s voice is quieter than before, so it’s harder to
hear him clearly. What the hell is going on?

My stomach begins a slow descent, and my
asshole puckers up. I don’t like the sound of this at all.

“
Take me right here. Like
you did that slut in the bathroom at the strip club.”

I don’t believe my ears. This is not
happening. What would Kate want with Shades? She loathes Killer
Dixon with every ounce of concentrated hatred in her body. This
must be some ploy to sabotage the tour. Kate’s always thinking of
herself and never about how her actions affect those around
her.

“
They’re probably on their
way back now,” Shades says. “We can’t risk anyone seeing us
together.”

I swallow hard. Oh, hell no. Hell fucking
no.

“
Tomorrow after the show,
then,” the bitch replies. “I’m sure we can find somewhere
private.”

No. No. Just no. I might expect this kind of
sneaky behavior from Kate, but Shades? After all we’ve been
through…after he promised…

He wouldn’t two-time me.

Would he?

“
Let’s go inside before
someone catches us,” he says.

That slimy motherfucking traitor. Both of
them.

My hands shake. My stomach rebels. My eyes
tear up.

I trusted him. I had goddamn unprotected sex
with him, and this is how he treats me? He tricked me into thinking
I was special. That I meant something to him.

I can’t believe I was naïve enough to dream
I was more than a convenient fuck.

The tears break loose and stream down my
face. I shoo them away with a quick swipe and head for the door,
not bothering to hide. Let them wonder whether I heard them.

A few minutes later when Shades and Kate
board, he flashes me a surprised look. Yeah, pretty fucking
shocking, isn’t it, dick nut? I carefully engineer a neutral
expression just for him.

“
Where have you guys
been?” I chuck the guitar magazine in my lap to the side and note
their messy hair. “Did the wind get at you? Funny, I didn’t notice
a breeze when I came up a few minutes ago.”

Kate shrugs as she passes me on her way to
her bunk.

I lower my gaze down Shades’s body. “You
look like you’ve been to hell and back.”

“
Busy night.” He lifts his
studded brow like some kind of secret signal.

I snort. Yeah, I’m in on the secret. Just
not the one he thinks. “What-the-fuck-ever.”

Jillian wanders from the back of the bus to
the lounge where we are. “Where are the rest of them? I swear,
you’re worse than children.”

“
Yeah, you just can’t
trust rock stars, can you?” With that comment, I give
puzzled-looking Shades my back and crawl into my bunk. Fuck that
asshole.

Ha, already did.

Chaos erupts when Rax, Toombs, and Jinx come
in, mostly because Rax is falling-down drunk and super loud. I tug
my curtain all the way to the edge and bury my head under a
pillow.

Phone in hand, hoping for some kind of
explanation from the guy I thought I loved, I wait for a text I
never get.

Interlewd Three

I can’t sleep. I keep hearing Shades and
Kate’s conversation outside on a continuous playback. I try
listening to some music on my iPod, but not even Jimi Hendrix
comforts me. At some ungodly hour, I get up to pee.

As I near the bathroom, whispers and clipped
movements snag my attention. In the back of the bus on the couch,
Kate shuffles off Shades’s lap onto the cushion beside him and
sweeps a frantic hand through her hair. Shades wears the expression
of a guilty-as-sin cookie thief with his chocolate-covered fingers
in the jar.

I’m fucking speechless.

He stands up and runs a hand over his chest.
“It’s not what you think.”

Feeling my face heating, I step closer. At
least he has his pants on.

“
Wow. For someone who
claims to hate Killer Dixon with every shred of her miserable
being, you sure have a funny way of showing it, Kate.” Underneath
my flannel pajama bottoms, my knees shake. I hitch my hands to my
hips and assume an offensive pose.

Kate glares up at me through her black mess
of hair.

“
And you?” I say to
Shades, “You’re just the disappointment I pegged you to be.
Entitled fucking rich boy who thinks he can buy his ticket through
life. You two deserve each other.”

Shades’s jaw tightens. He points at Kate.
“She attacked me.” Anger laces his voice.

Nice try. My laugh is full of derision.
Kate’s is full of disbelief.

“
I
attacked
you
?” Her lids pop open. “Motherfucker, you propositioned me
outside the bus after the show and dragged me back here in hopes of
screwing me while everyone was asleep!”

My heart takes off at a gallop. I’m about to
lose my shit.

Shades shakes his head and steps toward me.
“That’s a fucking lie. Letty, I swear, it was the other way around.
Come on, you know I don’t give a shit about her.”

“
Really?” My voice
trembles, and I have to wait a few seconds to reclaim control.
“That’s funny. I heard you two earlier behind the bus.”