Vintage Volume One (24 page)

forty

Washington DC was a little more than halfway between Boston and Raleigh, and that’s where we stopped for lunch. My dad and Mikey had scheduled an appearance at some bar just outside of DC, so the rest of us scattered around the outskirts of town to find some place to eat. Parker and I ended up with George over our shoulder at some barbecue restaurant while Hank refueled, and then we were back on the road. The only thing the stop did was force us to get out of bed, but as soon as we got back on the bus, we headed right back to our compartment in the back. Parker slammed the door shut and pounced.

Once we’d gotten our shit out in the open and cleared the air, I felt about a thousand times better. I was where I needed to be, which was safe in Parker’s warm, protective, and loving arms.

Our bus pulled into Raleigh and we were forced to emerge from our bus bed haven. We checked into yet another Four Seasons Hotel. I didn’t even bother with my own room this time since I knew I’d be sharing with Parker anyway. I was beyond disappointed I had to tear myself from Parker, but he had stuff to do. Namely, he had a band meeting to review their Boston performance, and since he’d been on the bus with me instead of the rest of the band for over twelve hours, they had quite a bit of work to do.

My dad was conferring with George, which left me alone—or so I thought until I opened my hotel room door and saw Bruno sitting outside of it.

“Where would you like to go, ma’am?” Bruno asked. I hadn’t had the chance to see him up close when he’d been following me around in LA. He was older than George. He had some salty white in his dark hair. He was serious, but his dark eyes were kind. They were eyes that I immediately trusted.

I shrugged. “Nowhere in particular. Just wanted to get out and stretch my legs a little. Maybe to my dad’s room?”

I hadn’t actually planned on going anywhere, but there was a conversation I unexpectedly wanted to have. I’d been so obsessed with everything Parker that I hadn’t had time to focus on my relationship with my dad’s new wife. The sudden need to take control over this part of my life propelled me down the hall.

Bruno knocked on my dad’s door, just a few rooms away from my own.

Jadyn opened the door, camera-ready as usual. I didn’t know anyone who wore as much make-up as she did in real day-to-day life. It was as if she could be photographed at any time, and she always had to be ready. I supposed it was likely that she would be photographed considering she was the new wife of an internationally acclaimed musician, but it still made me wonder what she was hiding.

I hadn’t trusted her from the very beginning, but I didn’t really know her all that well. My dad must have had some reason for marrying her. He loved her. He planned to have her in his life for a long time to come, so I supposed I should give her a chance.

“Is my dad here?” I asked through her glare. She hadn’t invited me in, but I stepped in. Bruno stepped in behind me, and I heard the door latch shut.

She walked over to a wet bar and topped off her wine glass. “He’s with George. And we have dinner plans after his meeting.”

Bruno took a seat at a conference table. Having him there for this conversation should’ve been awkward, but instead it was comforting. It was like someone was on my side. It propelled my confidence forward.

I sighed. “Can I talk to you about something?”

She set the bottle down and picked up the glass. She shrugged in my direction with indifference, and then she walked over to a loveseat situated across the room. I paused and took in the room for a minute. It was about four times the size of the room I shared with Parker, and I thought our room was the lap of luxury.

Even though I’d grown up around extravagance, I still appreciated it when I saw it.

Apparently the new Mrs. Price had already grown accustomed to it. She curled her legs underneath her, hooker heels and all, right on the loveseat.

As she sat there, I realized she hadn’t offered me a drink. It wasn’t really a big deal, except it was. It was manners. It was trying to get along—or at least trying to make a decent impression—with the daughter of your husband.

Apparently she didn’t give a fuck about that.

I sat on a chair across from her.

“Why don’t you like me?”

She glanced in my direction with surprise at my candor, and then her eyes diverted to the window.

“I never said I don’t like you,” she said flippantly.

“You didn’t have to. You act like I’m a nuisance.”

“I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry you feel that way.”

Her lack of a real apology echoed in my head. She wasn’t sorry that she had treated me poorly. Instead, she was sorry that I felt like she had treated me poorly. It was a fine line but a huge difference.

“I’m sorry you act that way.”

“That’s a little dramatic.”

“Look, my dad and I are close. I get that you want time with him, but I need you not to look at me like you’re jealous every time he talks to me. I don’t mean to sound condescending, but I’m his daughter. I will always be his daughter. You’re his third wife in ten years. You do the math.”

Jadyn looked over at me, and I could have sworn I saw a flash of admiration before it was wiped away and replaced with daggers. I saw Bruno shift in his chair out of the corner of my eye, but I kept my eyes leveled on my stepmother. Mother. Monster. Whatever.

She was just about to respond with something that would most likely cut me down to size when there was a knock at the door. I looked toward the door; Jadyn looked toward Bruno.

He stood to answer it, checking the peephole first. He let the visitors in, and I stood when I saw Vanessa and Keith.

Keith looked a little worse for the wear, and Vanessa had lines of anxiety around her dark eyes and fanning out from her red lips. I hadn’t seen either of them since the attack.

I ran over to Vanessa and pulled her into a hug, which was completely out of my character yet instinctual.

She burst into tears, and I rubbed her back as Keith hobbled past us to the chair I’d just vacated. “How’re you doing, Keith?” I asked as he passed by.

“Alright. Been better, but I’m getting there. It’s always the worst a few days after, you know?”

“And how are you?” I asked Vanessa softly, pulling out of our hug to look at her.

Jadyn hadn’t moved.

“I’m okay. I’m scared, Roxy.”

“I know. I am, too. But we have George and Bruno, and don’t forget about Hank and the other drivers. You know our crew’s great.”

She nodded, and a fresh wave of tears rolled down her cheeks. “I know. We never should’ve left.”

“Where did you go?”

“Just out to dinner. But we broke away from the pack. We didn’t bring anybody with us. He was jumped from behind.” She wiped her eyes and headed over toward her husband. She knelt beside him, patting his knees.

“Did you see who did it?” I asked.

They both nodded. “He was short. He was wearing a dark cap and dark clothes,” Vanessa said. “I’ve never seen him before, but I’d recognize him if I ever saw him again.”

“What was the point?”

Vanessa shrugged, but this time Keith spoke. “We don’t know. He took off with my wallet. The police said it’s a mugging. Said it’s not common for that part of town, but violence doesn’t discriminate.”

I rolled my eyes. “Sounds really helpful.”

My dad and George emerged from some other room.

My dad’s eyes connected with mine, and I saw real worry in his.

He was usually better at hiding his emotions. He was good at putting on a blank face. He’d mastered the art of acting. He had to. He was a person just like anybody else. He had feelings that ranged from happy to sad. He had good days and bad. But it didn’t matter what was happening in his personal life, because people paid upwards of a thousand dollars at a chance to see Black Shadow live, so he had learned to hide whatever was going on inside in order to perform the best show he knew how.

But he wasn’t hiding the anxiety he felt from me. Maybe he’d done it on purpose to give me a wake-up call, or maybe he’d forgotten to mask it in front of me. Either way, he’d just come from a meeting with his head of security. The news couldn’t be good if he had emerged looking like that.

Jadyn finally stood. “Can I get you anything, Gideon?” she asked.

What started as a semi-confrontational meeting with Jadyn had become a small party by that time, so our one-on-one conversation was over. I was sure that it would linger between us, though. I’d gone with the intention of finding some answers, but instead I just managed to burn a bridge.

forty-one

I’d performed my list of duties at the Walnut Creek Amphitheater the next day, and I’d grabbed dinner at the catering table. Between time with Flashing Light and meetings with George and my dad all day, I hadn’t seen Parker since breakfast. I felt like I should have been in those meetings with George and my dad, too, because whatever they were talking about concerned me. They made me feel like some weak and pathetic woman who wasn’t allowed in on the big manly conversations.

I knew my thoughts were dramatic, but I didn’t care.

It was a hot and humid June day at ninety-five degrees, so I headed back to the bus to freshen up and change clothes before the pre-show rituals, Bruno ever at my side. He did afford me some privacy to change my clothes, at least.

My dad had a meet and greet a scheduled for a quarter to seven. Flashing Light was scheduled to go onstage at seven. I wanted to watch Parker from the trench. I loved the nights when Parker took lead vocals on their last song, which was often. I hadn’t had the chance to watch them perform since Parker and I had made up, so I couldn’t wait to watch him perform “Trial and Error.” Somehow that song never got old, especially as I thought about the way my tongue traced across the letters tattooed on Parker’s torso.

I reached into my pocket to check the time on my phone. It wasn’t there. I realized that when I’d changed jeans, I had left my phone in the sweaty pair on the bus. “Fuck,” I muttered.

I headed toward my dad’s dressing room. Parker was just leaving as I walked in. He paused, grabbed me by my upper arms, and pressed a hard kiss to my lips.

“Make sure you check your texts,” he murmured so softly into my ear that I almost didn’t hear him. He seemed nervous. I realized then that in the past few weeks, I’d never actually seen him right before he was about to take the stage. I was always tied up doing things for my dad.

Parker headed toward the Flashing Light dressing room for their pre-show traditions, and I informed my dad that his fans were waiting for him for a meet and greet.

“Fuck,” my dad muttered. “I need to talk to you, CC.”

I glanced at the clock hanging in the room. “It’ll have to wait.”

He nodded once, and then he and George headed up toward the fans.

I sat in the empty dressing room, wondering for just a moment where Jadyn was.

I didn’t care, exactly, but I was curious. Too many strange things had been happening, and I wondered if her whereabouts were accounted for.

“Shit,” I muttered to no one in particular.

“Do you need something?” Bruno asked. I’d forgotten that I wasn’t alone.

“I need my dad’s credentials to get into the trench for Flashing Light.”

Bruno nodded. “Let’s go get them.” He typed out a text, presumably to George, and then we headed toward the meet and greet. I stood and watched for a few minutes before approaching my dad.

The clock was inching toward seven. I walked behind my dad and waited for him to finish signing a t-shirt before I knelt behind him. “Credentials?” I asked, and he reached into his pocket and passed me his all-access card.

I kissed his cheek and left him to his fans. Bruno stayed with him, and George followed me down. Apparently Bruno wasn’t a fan of loud rock music, and George could take it. He was used to it.

We entered the trench just as the house lights went down. My heart started pumping in anticipation as I saw silhouettes, and then the stage lit up and there stood Parker.

Everything seemed to stop for a moment as I drank in the sight. He was perfection up on that stage. Women behind me screamed. Fans yelled.

I watched his eyes scan the crowd, but they didn’t land on anyone in particular until they landed on me.

His eyes lit up, as if he drew his energy from the woman watching from the trench, and then the notes of their opening song sounded through the amphitheater.

I grinned as I bobbed my head to the beat.

It seemed like no time at all had passed and suddenly they were playing the closing notes to “Trial and Error.” The entire show had been perfection.

Fitz always made the band introductions right before the last song, and the last song was always the cover. He was in charge of talking to the crowd, of regaling something personal or of getting them excited for the upcoming acts. He introduced Vinnie first and then Garret, and then he nodded toward Parker.

“And this is Parker James, who has something he wants to say tonight!”

I looked up at Parker, who looked nervous as fuck. In fact, as I looked at him, I could not remember a time when he’d looked more nervous in his life.

“We’re going to close with a song that makes me think of someone very special to me. She’s right here in front, just like she has been almost every night,” he paused and searched my eyes out, “and I want her to know how much I love her. Roxanna, this one’s for you.”

The band launched into a cover of Motley Crue’s “Without You.”

Tears filled my eyes as I listened to the words of the song. He sang to me with his whole heart. I felt it from where I stood. I gazed up at him, the light hitting him in some perfect angle that lit up his whole face. As he sang about how he would love only me until we grew old together, I couldn’t help but think how different my life was just a few months earlier. He’d walked into Vintage and made me feel all of these things again after I’d written off getting close to people. He’d become the center of my life in such a short time.

As much as I wanted to hate him for the deceit, I couldn’t help that I’d fallen for him—that we’d fallen in love with each other. 

Love begs forgiveness.

So I forgave.

And now here we stood, our entire future before us.

Nothing hit that point home more than Parker’s words when the song neared its end and he stopped singing and started talking, the band still playing the melody as he spoke.

“Roxanna Cecilia Price, my Jimi, I want to spend the rest of my life showing you that I can’t live without you. Will you marry me?”

to be continued

in Vintage Volume Two

June 5, 2015

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