by Cari Quinn
“Judgement” got the crowd riled. The outdoor shows relied on the chemistry we all had together. A dry summer had killed the pyrotechnics we usually used, and the end stage setup meant no huge mechanical arms sliding Jamie, Zane, and Oz over the crowd.
It was just us—stripped down and ready to rock.
Lindsey flew up and down the front of the stage, glitter and sunshine trailing in her wake like sparks. As always, her mood fed the rest of us. Jamie reached for riffs I hadn’t heard since before the tour began. Even Zane, who was the more solidly steady player, wanted his time in the spotlight. He climbed up on the stacked speakers on his side of the stage. He’d lost his shirt early in the show, leaving his skin sun-soaked and gleaming in the dying light.
We blazed through the first quarter of the set without even taking a breath. Even Lindsey wasn’t as chatty as she usually was.
The music had taken us all by the throat and wouldn’t let go.
Solos were a little longer than usual, and I’d taken center stage twice myself. The music was vibrating out of me faster than I could catch it. I was out of breath and ready to crawl under my gear to soak my head in a bucket of ice water. Between the lights and the warm night, I was toast.
And then Lindsey called an audible. We’d been jonesing to try out some of the new material we’d been writing, and tonight was the night. I gathered all my energy to play the new song. I hadn’t even properly practiced it all the way through yet.
Lindsey came up to my raised platform in the rear, and we played back to back. The song was so heavily layered that we were racing one another down the keys. Then I glanced over my shoulder and we quickly switched keyboards again and again in a waterfall of sound.
The sun had set, and cell phones lights lit the inky night as Lindsey crooned about coming through the other side of darkness. And for the first time, I sang a verse on my own.
I wasn’t just the younger sister of the band. Brooklyn Dawn was my home and my life, just as much as Cooper was.
The crowd whooped and called out my name. I laughed and found Cooper standing at his kit beaming with pride.
I couldn’t help myself, so I blew him a kiss, and the crowd lost their collective minds. I waved them off and we started up one of our summer hits, “Save Me”, which set the tone for the rest of the night.
Jamie tore through her solo, and then decided the lighting rig looked like a good place to park her ass. She climbed the rope ladder and played from the top edge, her feet swinging.
Our security scattered, and I caught Noah tossing his clipboard to follow her up there. I shook my head and kept on playing.
Some things would never change in this band.
We extended the song with a drums and bass faceoff between Oz and Cooper. When we finally finished, the crowd was cheering, and I was fairly sure the whole of the internet would be sharing that particular video. Two massive, sweat-soaked, shirtless dudes playing so hard that Oz ended up falling to his knees, out of breath. And Cooper, triumphant in his endurance, stood on his stool and held up his arms, giving a mighty shout to the heavens.
Oh, yeah, the stuff of wet dreams. And half of that ode to testosterone would be in my bed tonight, thank you very much.
The house lights went down, and a single spotlight lit Lindsey as she brought out her acoustic guitar and sat on a stool. “While we’re waiting for Jamie to turn back into a guitarist instead of a mountain climber, I thought I’d share a little something with you guys.” She strummed her fingers down the strings then tuned them quickly. “Normally, I leave the guitar parts to Jamie or Zane, but I have a special request for this one.” She turned to me. “Think you can pull this jukebox bit out of your hat, Miss T?”
Another spotlight flashed onto me, this one in a soft pink. “Can I have a clue? Or is this a test?”
The crowd laughed.
Lindsey leaned into her mic, and her soulful, husky voice floated out into the night with an old song that I was pretty sure every woman on the planet knew. “From This Moment On” made a lump form in my throat. I knew who might offer up this particular song.
Damn him and his romantic heart. “I think I know that one.”
“Thought you might.”
Lindsey kept going and I easily slid into the piano parts as the melody built. Lindsey’s voice was an easy match to Shania’s romantic song that had starred in a million wedding stories.
I couldn’t see Cooper in the dark, so I just focused on the music. On the song with the sweet lyrics about a love I’d only dreamed of but had found by some bit of grace from the universe.
Suddenly, the crowd started whooping as another light slowly flamed to life, and then Cooper was standing in front of me.
I frowned and mouthed, “What are you doing?”
I could hear drums, but they weren’t coming from him. I peered around him to find Mal giving me a quick nod from Cooper’s kit. Holy shit. What the heck was he doing? My heart was going to pound out of my chest.
Cooper leaned into my space and brushed the mic with his lips. His hazel eyes were serious and full of nerves. “Teagan Daly, I have a question for you.”
“Oh my God.” He did not just say that to the entire crowd.
He drew me away from my keyboards and went down on one knee. My vision went black around the edges. His eyes were wet as he looked up at me, a tiny crystal piano in the palm of his hand. “You’re my best friend and the love of my life. Ever since you came into my world, I knew there was only choice for me.” He cleared his throat and looked down at the dainty crystal piano. With shaking fingers, he flipped open the top, showing off a peachy-blush pink ring with a zillion diamonds wrapped around the band. “Marry me?”
“Oh, Cooper.”
“That better be a yes.”
I nodded and held out my left hand. “Yes. All the yeses in the universe.”
We were both shaking so hard that I had to grip his hand with my other one. He laughed and slipped on the ring. Before he could stand up, I launched myself at him. He caught me close and swung me around. And with me still in his arms, he shuffled over to my mic. “She said yes.”
I laughed and hung on harder. “Only you, Cooper Dallas.” I kissed him under a starlit sky, bathed in romantic pink, with a crowd of ten-thousand people screaming. “What a way to finally say you loved me.”
“I do.” He sniffed, wiping his eyes. “I love you with everything I am, Teagan.” He kissed away my tears. “Besides, you haven’t even said it yet.”
The tears kept coming. “I love you. I wanted to tell you a million times.”
“And what stopped you?”
“What stopped you?” I shot back.
“Man, nothing will ever be boring with you.” He set me on my feet. “I’ve known how I felt for so long, I can’t remember a time when I didn’t.”
“Well, that’s a good answer.” I looked down at my glittering ring, so perfect I could barely believe it. “How did you know I wasn’t a diamond girl?”
“Because I know you better than anyone.” He grinned down at me and dropped a sweet kiss on my lips. “Now that we’ve made a complete spectacle of ourselves, I suppose we should finish up the show.”
“I mean, how can you top this?”
“Guess we’ll have to keep trying. We’ve got forever, right?”
“Damn right.” It was starting now.
Epilogue
Cooper
Late September
I glanced around my apartment. Everything was perfect for Teagan’s birthday.
Almost.
“Shit, man, how many balloons did you buy?” Zane glanced up at the ceiling before stepping back to crane his neck to look through the glass doors to the patio. A fleet of pink and white balloons were clustered near the ceiling and even more were floating in the pool. “I didn’t even know there was that much helium in the city.”
I grinned. “I’ve been planning this for weeks. I thought of doing rose petals, but that shit is messy. I don’t
want to be pulling them out of my ass forever.”
Zane held up a hand. “Hey, what you do with your private time is your business.”
“Thanks for the support.”
“Must be working for you, since our world has been in the crapper while we’ve been in lockdown, but you two are constantly smiling. I gotta ask, is it vitamins? Performance enhancements? Tantric techniques? Jamie thinks you lace your coffee with Viagra.”
“No, but if she keeps it up, I might lace hers with it.”
As soon as the words were out, I winced. Even joking about something like that brought back that night at Purgatory.
On one hand, it was the best night of my life. Being with Teagan had opened up the door to an entirely new life for us.
And it was just the beginning.
On the other hand, she could have ended up seriously ill—and Zane had gone through something that he was still dealing with the fallout from.
He hadn’t told us at the time, but he’d actually done a urine test after that night. Apparently, whatever drug he’d been given had been all but out of system by then, so they’d been unable to identify it for sure.
The physical effects of the drug had changed his life in more ways than one.
Before then, he’d been the least followed and photographed member of the band, and now he got the most attention, even more than Lindz and Jamie. He couldn’t go anywhere without a swarm of paps shadowing him. Speculation about his personal life was constant. Everyone was just waiting for “Wild Man Landry” to crack again and do something even more crazy.
Combined with the continual security threat focused on us, we were all on edge. Oh, we pretended not to be. After our last concert, we’d had some time off. The summer had been quiet. Even restful. But it was hard not to see it as the calm before the storm as we got back on the road this fall with an even more arduous touring schedule.
This difficult year had brought the band closer together, that was for sure. We were tight as a drum, a united front. Even more so since some of the preliminary investigations that had dogged our early summer were finally behind us.
Teagan had been cleared of suspicion of any wrongdoing in the townhouse fire, and the hope was we could start work on rebuilding later in the year. She was still gun-shy about dealing with anything to do with her place, so we were taking things slowly there.
Basically, that meant going at a speed opposite the one we’d undertaken with our relationship. Once we’d made that first move, we’d been all in.
We were also enjoying increased tabloid scrutiny due to our relationship. Including one intimate shot of us kissing backstage that Jamie had insisted on blowing up to life-size and hanging on our bus for “diddling inspiration.” With added fake marker mustaches for both of us.
That hadn’t slowed us down one bit. If Jamie thought she’d embarrass us into embracing the chaste life, yeah, not happening.
Especially now that one more hammer had been lifted from above our heads once Noah had confirmed Pat wasn’t harassing the band. He’d had an alibi for the recent incidents, and his phone records were clean. Teagan had gotten her new phone a bit ago, and she’d received no ominous calls since then.
We’d finally found our joy again. I would protect it at any cost.
But as much as we all wanted to believe the relatively quiet summer meant we were out of the woods, none of us were that naive.
I figured faux Priscilla was just biding her time.
Especially now that Roth had informed Lila that the real Priscilla had been missing for months. Faux Priscilla had stolen her identity…or worse.
Who knew how long this chick had been planning to come after us and use Teagan to gain entry into Ripper? If that was even the plan. I was pretty sure Noah was right. Things were bigger than just Brooklyn Dawn.
“So, yeah, I’m thinking of calling that number,” Zane said, obviously continuing a longer stream of consciousness that I had accidentally tuned out.
“What number?”
“You haven’t been listening to me. Let me guess, are you planning to buy Teagan a fairytale castle in her Irish homeland?”
“Huh, a castle.” I rubbed my chin and pretended to think it over while Zane flicked my forehead.
“The number on my hand, dick. The one I found the next day and didn’t know how I’d gotten it?”
“I remember. It was a phone number?”
“Yeah. I need to start piecing more of that night together.”
“What if it’s like a porn star or something?”
He shrugged. “What the hell, I’m single. And I’ve been tested. She didn’t give me anything sketchy if something did happen.” The momentary humor fled his face. “I just need to know more, man. It’s like I’m missing a slice of my life. It was just one night, but anything could have happened.”
“The tramp stamp was bad enough. Let’s hope anything else you remember is better than that.”
He gave a mock shudder. “It has to be.”
“Maybe you should just leave it alone?”
“Could you?”
Grimly, I shook my head. “No, it’s better to know. No matter what you find out.” I didn’t add if you find out, but I was thinking it.
But he didn’t need any negativity right now. He needed my support, and I was giving it.
And not only because I intended to ask him to stand up for me at the wedding.
The front desk buzzed me and I went to answer. “Yes?”
“Sir, your rowdy bandmates are causing a scene in the lobby.”
I couldn’t stop my laugh. “Sorry. Send them up.”
My crazy friends poured out of the elevator into the apartment, led by Jamie wearing a giant sparkly headband for the occasion with the number 27 attached. Everyone else came in behind her, laden down with bags of presents.
I barely had a chance to say hello, show them where to stack the presents, and point them toward the alcohol before the front lobby buzzed again.
“Sir, your fiancée is here.”
I would never get tiring of hearing that word. “You know you can just send her up.”
Bill harrumphed. “She is causing a scene.”
I laughed. “Her too?”
“Even worse than the others. At least they were fully clothed.” He clicked off before I could respond.
The volume of the classic heavy metal music pumping through my system rose just as the elevator dinged and Teagan stepped off with a chagrined Cole at her side.
I was too busy trying to breathe to look away. Unfortunately, the part of her I was focused on meant I missed her expression of delight at our friends being present—even if she was a shiver away from being naked.
“Oh. Oh my God. Oh. What’s all this? Oh.” Teagan covered her face as I rushed forward to wrap my arms around her.
“Surprise party,” I said belatedly as our friends shouted “happy birthday” from behind us.
Cole disappeared down the hall, probably to shut himself in the blessed silence of the music room. It was his favorite place lately.
Considering the din as our friends dragged Teagan away, I couldn’t say I blamed him.
Zane cleared his throat as he came up behind me. “Gotta say, I like her party attire.”
I whacked him in the gut.
Though he had a point. Despite it being the end of September, Teagan was wearing the skimpiest hot pink bikini I’d ever seen underneath a see-through thigh-high trenchcoat with a pair of pink stilettos. Combined with her miles of sunset hair tumbling down her back and her sexy, dramatic makeup, she was stunning.
No wonder Bill had said she was causing a scene. I was in mortal pain and hoping like hell no one would look at me below the waist.
“She matches the pink theme,” Zane added as he went to say hello to her along with everyone else.
I just grinned as she sent me a helpless look from within the circle of our friends.
Toasts were made. Drinks were consumed. A towering p
ile of gifts was opened and oohed and awwed over.
Finally, once all of our guests and their assorted bodyguards had gotten the hint and moved the party elsewhere, I blindfolded Teagan and led her into the music room.
Thankfully, Cole was nowhere in sight.
“What are you doing?” Teagan laughed as I guided her into the center of the room. “You’ve given me enough. Custom diamond-studded nipple clamps, really?”
“Blame Lindsey.”
“Lindz? Not Jamie?”
“I know, shocking. She got some from Nash for her last birthday and said they changed his life.”
She giggled. “Ahh, so it’s really a gift for you.”
“At least partly. But this is all yours.” I untied the blindfold as we came to a stop.
For a moment, she didn’t speak. Or seem to breathe.
Then she pressed a hand to her mouth.
“My piano?” She moved to the pink Grand piano we’d found shopping that day and ran her hand reverently over the gleaming surface. “You got it for me?”
I tucked my hands in my pockets. “Either I did or one of your many admirers outside. You drew a crowd, Daly, and I see why. You’re a fucking wet dream.”
“It was all for you.” She ran her fingertips over the keys as her glossy pink lips trembled. “This is the most beautiful gift I’ve ever been given. Thank you.”
“It was yours from the moment you saw it.” I swallowed over the rock in my throat. “I will try my damnedest to always give you a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. No matter how many times the world tries to destroy it.” I moved to her and brushed her hair out of her face as she tilted up her chin. “We’ll always find more sunshine. Together.”
“I love you. So much. Sometimes I feel like I can’t contain it all.”
“I love you more. I also love this bikini. Holy fuck.”