Never Ending (5 page)

Chapter
7

         
I
t was the best night of my life – that much
was certain. My heart was pounding louder than Steve's drums; I sang so long
and loud that my throat grew raw, and yet I was not tired, but only longed and
ached for more. Every song that we sang seemed to shake through our audience,
infecting them, getting into their blood, making them fall as wildly in love
with us as we were with them. It was more than just our music – after all, we'd
played the same songs in the rehearsal room a hundred or two hundred times
before. No, it was our adrenaline – the energy that flowed through us –
overflowing from us, spilling out into the audience, catching them up in our
excitement and our joy. From the moment we took that stage, stepping so boldly
in front of our instruments, whispering those few words of introduction to a
crowd that went wild for us, nothing else mattered. Veronica Taylor did not
matter. RRR did not matter. The Dusk Riders, glowering in a corner, did not
matter. All that mattered was that we were
back
, that we were
winning,
that no amount of scheming or plotting or backstabbing could bring us down.

          I had never felt
so alive. As I sang the love song Danny had written for me, his words emerging
from between my lips, I felt a joy wilder and more fulfilling than any I had
ever known.
Yes,
I thought to myself, as I poured my heart out onstage,
as I caught Danny's eye as we sang together and let myself break out into an
ebullient smile,
this is what I want to do with the rest of my life. This is
all I want to do.

         
And it
wasn't just me and Danny, either. Steve was bouncing up and down in his
drummer's seat, hitting each cymbal and drum with renewed vigor. Kyle was
rocking out, his long blond hair glistening under the glimmer of the stage
lights. And Luc was crooning softly into his microphone, his fingers lightly
picking over the taut strings of the guitar, making the music shimmer into
life.

         
This is right.
This is exactly where I should be.

         
And then
it was over – over too soon – and the crowd was cheering so wildly and they
were shouting our names, over and over again, “
The Never Knights! The Never
Knights! Bring us the Never Knights!
” Even the front-woman of the Dusk
Riders, nursing her bruises, was applauding reluctantly, a sad smile on her
face.

          I almost felt
sorry for her. It wasn't the Dusk Riders we were competing with, after all, not
really. It was Roni Taylor. But her companions refused to clap for us, instead
starring daggers at us as we took the stage for a final bow.

          “Sore losers,
huh?” Danny whispered into my ear. “Unfortunately, we'll be seeing a lot of
them, lately. We're playing opposite them at ten more clubs on this leg of the
tour.” He laughed softly. “So they're going to have to get used to us, sooner
or later.”

          “Do you think
that's wise?” I whispered back. “Antagonizing your stepmother so openly like
that?”

          He shrugged.
“She's pushed my dad around for long enough – I'm not going to let her push
me.” He grew closer, speaking in a whisper I could barely hear, “The only girl
I want to push me around is you, Neve.”

          “Shh!” I stepped
away from him to take one final bow, my body tingling with desire. Yet, despite
my need for him – ever more palpable at this close distance – I couldn't let
myself stay near him, not if I wanted to preserve my sanity as well as my
reputation. Just being near him was enough to cloud my mind, and I couldn't
afford to do that. Not yet. And I had Kyle and Luc to think of, too. I'd
promised to make sure that, at band events at least, Danny and I remained a
subtle secret.

          But I couldn't
deny how difficult it was to keep control. Looking at Danny right now, with his
hair slick and shiny and his stage makeup slightly smudged with the intensity
of his song, all I wanted to do was jump him then and there, hundreds of
audience members or not.

          As the applause
rang out all around us, deafening us, we took one final bow and headed
backstage, mopping the sweat from our faces, downing every bottle of water in
the room.

          “Well,” Danny
said, arching a wry eyebrow. “That didn't go too badly, did it?”

          “Not bad at
all,
”
Kyle smiled at him.

          “Now,” Steve
furrowed his brow. “It's only 12:30. What should we do next?”

          “I think we
should party!” Luc announced.

          “Why don't we
head back to my suite?” Danny grinned. “I can get us room service, and we can
stay out as late as you like.”

          “Sounds good,”
Luc nodded.

          “No it doesn't!”
Steve put on an expression of mock dismay. “Where are we going to meet all the
girls, then?”

          “How about the
hotel bar, then?” Danny conceded. “A pint or two, a bit of good chat, and Steve
can eye all the ladies he likes.”

          Steve turned
bright crimson, his skin almost the color of his hair.

          “Hotel bar it
is,” I said.

          We cruised across
town to the hotel, and before long, we were sitting in a comfortable booth at
the hotel bar, laughing and joking and talking once again. My heart swelled
with joy – and with relief. It was like the old days, I thought – back before
everything got so
complicated.
Luc was teasing Steve about his love of
women; Kyle was grinning quietly, laughing along with everybody else's jokes,
Luc was telling funny stories about his mother. And Danny, too, was joining in
the fun – slowly at first, and then more boldly – telling stories about growing
up in England, about his undergraduate experience, about the professors he
worked with at USC.

          The boys seemed
to be accepting him, I thought. They asked him questions, laughed at his jokes,
even teased him about his accent a few times.

         
Good, I
thought.
With the boys of the Never Knights, teasing was a surefire sign
that you were in.

          Still, I ached
for him. I wanted to get him alone with me, to take off his shirt, to kiss him
all over and to let him kiss me. I wanted his flesh against my flesh, his mouth
against my mouth, his heart beating so loud and fast and strong against mine. Forbidding
Danny and I to show any affection toward each other was making me hot for him. I
leaned back against the bar, imagining the feeling of his mouth on my skin...

          “Hey Neve?” Steve
called over. “You look a bit flushed, are you okay?”

          I tried not to
let my face get even redder.

          “Yeah...” I
muttered. “I'm okay. I was just...it's a little hot in here, isn't it?”

          “I'm not hot,”
Kyle frowned.

          “I think I'm
going to go get some air,” I said. I needed to get away from Danny – that much
I knew. Before I fell into a nineteenth-century style swoon, like some
courtesan out of
Lady of the Camillas.

          I pushed my way
out of the booth and headed out into the hotel garden. The cool night air was
refreshing on my face; the whole garden smelled of jasmine and honeysuckle,
fragrant and light.
The perfect place to cool down,
I thought.

          “I told them I
had to go take a phone call,” a low, deep voice behind me sent shivers down my
spine. “I don't know if they believed me, but they pretended to...”

          “Danny...” I
turned around to face him.

          “I think it's
working, you know. This whole subtle-thing. The boys are warming up to me.
Which is to say, Kyle doesn't stare daggers at me every time I turn around. But
it's not working
for me
, if you know what I mean.”

          He took a step
closer to me, and I could smell the musk on him. It was intoxicating.

          “Oh, Neve, my
darling. I can't wait to get you alone properly. To get you back to my suite
tonight – to get you naked in the showers, wash away all the stress, all the
sweat, to touch every bit of you...I am so hungry for you, I can get on my
knees and take you right now.”

          He leaned
forward, kissing me with a kiss as light and delicate as the breeze blowing
through the garden. Then he grabbed me, pulling me into him, his kiss growing
rougher, more aggressive.

          “Oh, Neve, you
know how much I want you,” he moaned softly, pressing his need against me. “Seeing
you sing up there is so sexy. And that little strip tease like dance probably
got all of us guys riled up. I know I did.”

          “I know,” I
whispered back. “Me too. I was thinking of you when I did the little dance. I
was imagining how it would to strip dance in front of you.”

          Danny smiled a
wicked smile, as his fingers traced circles on my arm. “I’d like to see that. But
for now – it's time for you to go back inside...”

          It took every
ounce of strength I had to leave Danny in the garden and head back into the
bar, but I managed it. I'd made a promise to Luc and Kyle, and I intended to
keep it.

          Danny came back a
few minutes later, pretending to turn off his phone.

          “Good call?” Luc
eyed him – slightly suspiciously, I thought.

          “I've booked us
another gig,” said Danny smoothly. “All in a day's work.”

          I don't know how
I managed to get through the rest of the evening without jumping Danny in front
of the rest of the Never Knights, but somehow my restraint was successful. It
was torture, holding back from him, but I did it all the same, feeling my
desire increase, feeling my body tense, feeling my love and need grow tighter
and tighter with each passing moment. I loved him – I wanted him – so violently
I could taste it. My need for him was more than hunger, more than thirst. It
was like a drowning person, desperate for breath.

          And when, at
last, we found ourselves upstairs, the rest of the Never Knights having
dispersed to their separate rooms – Steve to the hotel room of a gorgeous
redheaded model who had approached him in the lobby – Danny and I gave
ourselves over to our desperation. The sex was more powerful, more intense,
than any we'd had before. I couldn't think; I couldn't breathe; all I could do
was experience wave after wave of overwhelming pleasure, my mind blank and
ecstatic, craving him even as I received him, an endless dance of satiation and
renewed need.

          I cried his name
over and over again, letting the sound fill the room.

          “Worth the wait?”
Danny started nibbling at my ear. “Are you glad we waited, now? To better
experience this passion, this intensity?”

          “Yes...” I
whispered back. “So glad...”

          Just then the
door flung open. Danny and I sprang apart; I hastily pulled on a silk dressing
gown Danny had left strewn across the bed.

          “N-N-eve...” A
figure groaned, tumbling towards us.

          “Steve?” I looked
closer.

          It was Steve, all
right, but disheveled – covered in blood and sweat, barely recognizable. His
hands were bloodied, bruised.

          “Steve...what
happened?”

          “Not...” he
croaked out. “Sure...”

          Then he collapsed
at our feet.

Chapter
8

          “
S
teve?” It was my voice shouting, but it seemed
to come from someone else, from some
where
else, out of the mouth of a
stranger. My voice had never seemed so foreign to me, so alien. In my confusion
I was hardly in my own body at all, hardly experiencing what was happening
before me, hardly feeling Steve collapse on my feet, his sweat and blood
pouring down onto my naked legs. I was in a dream – that must be it! - a
strange and surreal dream from which I could not wake up, however much I tried.
The blood was everywhere – staining the carpet, staining my legs, staining the
hem of my white silk dressing gown.

          “Steve – Steve,
what happened?” My voice, still, but the voice of a stranger.

          “Steve, I'm going
to call an ambulance, okay?” Danny's voice – calmer than my own – stern, soft,
reliable, brought me back to myself. Steve looked up at me, still reeling,
sweat slicking his red hair across his face, wobbling on his elbows.

          “That'll teach me
to...to...to....girls...” he slurred, before collapsing once more at my feet.

          “Stay calm,
Neve,” Danny said. “Keep him talking – keep him awake. If he's been concussed,
the last thing you want is for him to fall asleep – that could be dangerous.”

          “Steve...” I
murmured, sounding a bit more like myself. “Steve, what happened? Who did this
to you?”

          “Girl...” slurred
Steve again, coughing up blood. His teeth wobbled slightly, as if he'd been
punched in the mouth.

          “A girl did this
to you?” Immediately I thought of Roni Taylor, but she didn't weigh a hundred
twenty pounds soaking wet, and Steve was a muscular guy.

          “No...” Steve
shook his head. “I was with a girl...”

          “What girl?” I
asked him. “Where is she?”

          “Dunno.” Steve
chuckled darkly. “Nice girl.”

          “You went to her
hotel room?”

          “Tried to...”
Steve's eyes seemed to focus on mine. “She left me her hotel room key...I took
it...went up the elevator. Corridor was dark, deserted...”

          “And then what
happened?” I leaned in, mopping the blood from his face.

          “This guy...”
Steve furrowed his brow. “He jumped me.”

          “Jumped you?”

          “Thought he was a
waiter at first. Black hair, spiky, kinda punk-like. Typical LA...”

          “And then what
happened, Steve?”

          “He shoved me. I
said sorry, man, didn't see you there...then he....”

          “He attacked
you?”

          “Punched me.
Kicked me.” He held out his right hand. “Slammed this in the door.”

          I couldn't help
it; I yelped out loud. Angry-looking bruises covered his hand, his fingers swelling
up in sickening shades of purple and green.

          “Looks like the
bone's broken,” Danny said as he hung up the phone. “At least one of them, by
the look of it, and I'd be surprised if it wasn't more.” He sighed. “The
ambulance is on its way. They should be here soon...”

          “What happened to
the guy?” I asked Steve.

          He shook his
head. “Dunno,” he said. “He just vanished. And I got dizzy – wanted to chase
after him, but couldn't...” He almost swooned once again. “That girl...I think
she put something in my drink while I wasn't looking...I had a beer or two, but
not this much. Nowhere
near
this much...” He coughed. “I'm so stupid,”
he said. “To fall for a pretty face like that. I should have known something
was up. She was
way
out of my league...” He gave a bitter laugh. “I
thought it was just my lucky night...”

          Danny and I
looked at each other.

          “Are you thinking
what I'm thinking?” he whispered to me, his voice scratchy and low with worry.

          “That something's
fishy about this? You bet.”

          “Roni?”

          “Roni.”

          Danny sighed.

          “I don't
understand...” I whispered. “I know it's personal but...why make it
this
personal?
I mean – so, you turned her down once? It's not the end of the world.”

          Danny looked
nervous, but said nothing, staring down at his shoes. “Roni doesn't like being
said no to,” he said. “That's all there is to it. But I'm sorry, Neve – so
sorry I dragged you into this mess, dragged all of you into this mess...”

          “No...” I reached
out and took his hand. “It's not your fault. It's
hers.
”

          He jerked away –
almost coldly, I thought with surprise. “We need to call the others,” he said.
“We need to let them know what's happened, to figure out a plan. She will
not
get away with this!” His voice was steely with anger – his rage palpable
and potent.

          “Don't worry, darling,”
I whispered back. “She won't.”

          I texted Luc and
Kyle; they were at the hotel suite within minutes. I couldn't help but feel
self-conscious when Luc and Kyle caught sight of me – still naked except for
the dressing gown, which clung somewhat revealingly to my curves. Even now,
under these circumstances, I hated for Luc and Kyle to see me like this – to
see the bed where, just moments before, Danny and I had been making passionate,
frenetic love.

          They both eyed
the bed nervously, averting their eyes both from it and from me, as I pushed
the dressing gown across my body, trying to cover myself up even more modestly
than I already had done.

          “Don't worry,
Steve,” Luc was saying gently, his voice smooth like honey. “Danny told me that
it's only going to be another five minutes or so...and then the ambulance is
going to get here. You're fine, just a few bruises.”

          “My...hand...”
Steve's voice was shaking, although he seemed more lucid now than he had done
when he first stumbled in. “What are we going to do about my hand?”

          “What about it?”

          “
How am I
supposed to drum with this hand
?”

          We all fell
silent.

          For the past five
minutes, we'd been worried about Steve's health, his safety, the mysterious man
out there who had beaten him up for what seemed like no reason. But now it hit
us. This wasn't just a revenge attack – this was
sabotage
, pure and
simple. There was no way that Steve could drum with a broken hand.

          And we had
another gig in just two days.

          My heart sank –
all
our hearts sank – as the reality of the situation sank in along with it.
We
had two days to find a new drummer.

         
Replace
Steve? How could we replace Steve? We'd only just gotten the band back together
– and now one of us would have to sit things out for weeks, maybe even months?
It seemed ridiculous – absurd, even.

          How could we even
think of replacing Steve?

          “I know what
you're thinking...” Steve's voice was lower, now; calmer, now. “I just want you
to know, Neve...I'm okay with whatever you have to do.” His voice was shaking,
like he was trying not to cry. “The band comes first. And I'll get better – I
know I will. This is just temporary...”

          “No, Steve!” Kyle
was always so kind, so warm. “Nobody's talking about replacing you. We'll go to
the doctor, see what he can do, get you stitched up as good as new...” Just
like Kyle I thought – trying to fix things, trying to make everything better
all by himself...trying to fix things for the rest of us.

          “Don't be silly,
Kyle,” Steve said, his voice low and raspy. “I know what's happened. My hand is
broken. There's no way to fix that that quickly.” He swallowed hard. “Do what
you have to do, Neve. Replace me – as fast as you can. At least until I'm
better.” His eyes were shining with tears. “I shouldn't have been so stupid,
knowing the Dusk Riders were still out for our blood...”

          “You weren't
stupid,” I murmured.

          The paramedics
came soon enough, wheeling Steve off to the hospital. “You stay here,” he
insisted. “I'll have my mom and dad meet me at the hospital. You have band
stuff to worry about now....”

          But we couldn't
talk about the band right now. Instead we sat in still, shocked silence. All of
us, that is, except Danny.

          “Can he do it?”
Danny's voice, brusque and business-like, broke the quiet of the moment. He was
on the phone, pacing back and forth in large strides across the suite. “By
tomorrow – fly him out, whatever airline, don't care. First thing. Yes? Yes.”

          I'd never seen
Danny like this. This wasn't Danny the rocker. This was Daniel Blue, CEO, heir
to Blues Enterprises and all that went with it.

          “Neve?” Danny's
voice had grown a little softer. “Can I talk to you outside for a second?”

          “Sure...” I
watched Kyle and Luc's eyes narrow as I followed Danny out onto the terrace.
“What's going on?”

          Danny took a deep
breath. “Right,” he said, simply. “Novels for Angels. 90's indie band. You know
them?”

          “Yeah?” I said.
“Heard of them, why?”

          “Their drummer. 
Ilford.”

          “Yes – what about
him?”

          “He'll be on the
five o'clock plane from New York.”

          “What?” My mouth
dropped open. “How?”

          “Slayton,” said
Danny. “He'd mentioned them before. Novels for Angels broke up after the lead
singer had an affair with the bassist. Not great for their guitarist – what
with being her husband at all. Not great for their drummer, either...Slayton
mentioned he was looking for a gig.”

          I  looked at him
in shock. I didn't deny that we needed a replacement for Steve – but...so soon?

          He saw my
stricken face.

          “Would you mind
announcing it to the rest of them, though, Neve?” This Danny wasn't
business-like at all, but rather retiring, even shy.

          “Why me?”

          “This is your
band, Neve, not mine. Already I feel like an interloper – stepping in and
running things. The last thing I want to do is make the guys think I'm taking
over. I like them, Neve, really I do, even if I am a bit jealous of them...and
vice versa.”

          My heart swelled
with pride and love. I wanted to kiss him – I would have kissed him, had I not
known that Luc and Kyle could see us behind the glass terrace door. Instead, I
subtly squeezed his hand.

          “Thank you,” I
whispered.

          But as I walked
back in, I saw that Kyle had gone white – white as a sheet, I thought – like
he'd just seen a ghost.
Could one hand-squeeze have bothered him that much
?
I wondered. No, whatever had happened, it was more serious than that, much more
serious. Kyle's eyes were red-rimmed, tears dribbling down the end of his nose.
He was shaking – shaking like a scared little boy that had just woken up from a
nightmare.

          “What is it,
Kyle?” I asked him. “Are you okay?”

          He was rocking
back and forth, now, his arms around his knees. He couldn't answer me.

          It was Luc who
stood up, who led me and Danny into a corner, away from Kyle.

          “He checked his
voicemail,” he said. “It's from his aunt.” Luc looked like he was about to cry,
too. “His dad – they just let him out of jail. He's on parole. And this
morning, his aunt came home to find an unsigned postcard in her mailbox. From
Missouri.”

          “Missouri.”

          “Where his dad's
jail is.” Luc waited for us to understand. “He knows where Kyle and his aunt
live. Which means he knows where
you
live, Neve. He's already killed
Kyle's mom – and Kyle thinks...”

          “That he's not
done killing?” Danny's voice was hollow.

          I looked over at
Kyle, who was still rocking back and forth. How could I even imagine what
horrible images were going through his head?

          Maybe the
nightmare was just beginning.