by J J Cobban
“Alright, everyone who isn’t with the band needs to leave.” I found my voice as I looked at the three women. I glanced to Alex next.
“I take it you haven’t got anyone stashed in the room somewhere?”
“Nah, my friend cut out a few hours ago,” He smirked.
“Alright ladies, out.” I gestured to the door and felt my frustration build when only Mikey’s ‘partners’ removed themselves from the bed. Thankfully at least one of them was half dressed. They slipped into their miniscule dresses and made quick work of sprinting out the door. My eyes moved back to Asher’s waitress and narrowed my eyes when she made a show of stretching out in the bed. Asher smirked at her audacity and held his hands up in a ‘what can you do’ gesture.
“What’s wrong with her?” The waitress suddenly asked, nodding to Lacey. I turned to see Lacey’s eyes held nothing but devastation and defeat as she looked at them. Ash frowned as he finally looked at her, seeing the emotions warring in her hazel green eyes.
Travis moved closer to Lacey and turned so his back was towards Asher. He wrapped an arm around Lacey’s waist as he whispered something in her ear. She nodded weakly as she allowed him to turn her and lead her from the room.
“Lace?” Asher sat up now, forcing the blonde to move from his chest. Lacey kept moving with Travis until they left the room. My anger was at boiling point now. The room fell into a thick silence as the waitress scoffed annoyingly.
“God, talk about ruining the atmosphere.” Her dig was clearly made towards Lacey and nobody in the room seemed to appreciate it. I took a deep breath, trying to rein in my temper as I moved towards the bed. I was beaten to it though.
“I don’t fucking think so.” Jez snapped as she broke off into what I assumed was a slew of Russian curse words. She stormed towards the bed with fire in her eyes and sneer on her face that I didn’t know the quiet girl was capable of. Asher had the good sense to flinch when she reached the bed. She shoved his chest forcefully as she wrapped her long fingers into the waitress’ hair. The girl screamed as Jez hauled her from the bed. She wore nothing but a pair of panties as Jez dragged her across the room and threw her, literally, into the hallway.
“Where’s her fucking clothes?” she snapped. Alex comically dove for them and handed them to Jez. Jez moved back to the hall and threw them at the girl.
“Gather up your dignity and find yourself a man who won’t want to fuck you in a room where any of his fucking friends can watch.” Jez snarled, the girl glowered back at her as she pulled her clothes on hurriedly.
“You’re fucking insane,” She snapped as she threw her hair over her shoulder.
“You’ve no fucking idea, bitch.” The waitress stormed down the hall, leaving us all in a shocked kind of silence. Jez was breathing heavily as she struggled to get herself back under control.
“You know,” she spun around to look at a stunned Asher “For someone who values loyalty as much as you do, you sure have a shit way of sticking up for your friends. That bitch made a shitty remark about Lacey and you just lay there with your dick out. Get your head out of your fucking ass and see what’s in front of you,” She glanced around the room, “now we’re running behind schedule, get your ass’s down to sound check in the next ten minutes.”
“You heard the lady,” Mikey sighed “let’s go.”
I turned to follow Jez out of the room. I was more than a little impressed at how she commanded a room. There was no bullshitting and no arguments. For someone as young as her, it was damn right awe inspiring.
“Hey,” I called, catching up to her “I might have a job for you in the future.”
She smiled over at me, her cheeks still flushed from her outburst.
“I might take you up on it.” She chuckled as we reached the elevator. Jez hit the button for the ground floor as we stepped inside the confined space. Soft pop music filled the elevator as we both watched the floors counting down.
“I don’t get why he can’t see how in love she is with him.” Jez sounded nothing but heartbroken now “Everybody else can see it, why can’t he?”
I shook my head, not really knowing how to answer her.
“It’s easy to see when you’re on the outside looking in but something else entirely when you’re in the spotlight. Maybe Ash doesn’t want to see it. The two of them seem to work well as friends. Maybe he’s scared to ruin it. Or maybe he really is that dense?” I tried to lighten the tension.
“I vote for the latter.” Jez smirked at me. We stayed silent for a minute or so before laughter spilled from the pair of us.
We were in mid laughter when a man that looked to be in his mid to late fifties stepped onto the elevator. His grey hair was thinning on the top of his head and his dark blue eyes were fixed on the both us as he moved towards the buttons. Jez and I moved further over in the elevator, giving the man his space as he hit the button for the ground floor again.
“You’re that girl from the magazine.” His hoarse voice suddenly spoke out. He sounded like he smoked twenty packs a day and from the yellow stains on his fingers I assumed he did.
“I wouldn’t know, sorry.” I answered politely. I had a funny feeling he meant the picture from the fighting incident, but I wasn’t offering that option up independently.
“Yeah, that poor guy got knocked out by that fucking animal.” The hairs on the back of my neck rose as I fought the urge to immediately jump to Drake’s defence. I had to remain professional. As hard as it was I would have to smile and put up with the guy’s bullshit for a couple minutes longer.
“It was a misunderstanding, it’s all sorted now.” I turned away from the stranger and focused on the door.
“You fuck him?” he suddenly asked rudely, looking me up and down.
“Excuse me?” I spluttered, “That’s none of your business.”
The man’s hand shot out, hitting the emergency stop button. The elevator came to an abrupt halt, jolting Jez and I.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“I asked you a fucking question.” My heart rate sped up as he took a threatening step forward. My mind raced as I backed into Jez, putting myself firmly between her and the creep. “I always thought it was the skinny bitch he was fucking, makes sense he’d pick his manager.”
Okay, this asshole knew entirely too much about us. I was faced with a decision, I either told this guy the truth and hoped he was just a pushy fan or I make him back down. My thoughts flashed back to the night on the street. I’d tried to make that guy back down and he’d nearly knocked me out. I had Jez to think about in this situation not just me.
“Look, I was just surprised by your question. If I answer, will you let the elevator go? We have somewhere to be.” I was trying to keep my voice calm but on the inside I was a wreck.
“That’s all I asked. I’ve followed the band from the beginning. Just curious.” I nodded at his explanation. He was still an asshole but at least now he was calming down. There was something about his demeanour that told me he had no problem smacking me around.
“Drake and I have recently started seeing each other,” My voice shook slightly, “I’d appreciate it if you kept it to yourself, if you don’t mind.”
The man looked me up and down making my stomach churn and my skin crawl.
“That’s good,” He nodded, hitting the stop button again and allowing the elevator to finish the journey. “That’s all I needed to know.”
I kept myself pressed against Jez so that I could watch him. As soon as the doors opened I shoved Jez out and jogged towards the reception area. We stopped at the desk and I turned to find the man who’d threatened us.
“Where’d he go?” Jez whispered, clearly shaken by our close call.
I shook my head, not seeing him anywhere. It was like he’d just vanished. Had he gone back up? What if he went looking for the guys? I turned to the receptionist.
“I need to report hostile behaviour in the elevator. I think the guy is still in the hotel
. You need to have security looking for him. He stopped the elevator and threatened us.” I went into a detailed explanation of what the guy had looked like and everything he’d said. The receptionist nodded his head and looked to be taking our claim seriously. He called up security to get them to check the security feed before assuring us that the man was being looked for.
Just as I was gearing up to go in search of the guys I saw them stepping out of the elevator. My heart eased as I turned to look at Jez.
“We tell them nothing. I have security on it and until we have some answers, the band doesn’t need the distraction.” I told her.
“What? You don’t think they need to know?” she argued as the bands got closer.
“Of course they do.” I rushed, “If we tell them now though, they get protective and distracted and another show gets ruined. We keep it to ourselves until tonight. Okay?”
Jez gave a quick nod as we were joined by everyone. After a subtle head count we were ready to move. The mood had lightened considerably as we separated into the various cars. Drake wrapped an arm around my shoulders, dropping a kiss to my head as we climbed into a black car. He was in a good mood, which only made me more determined to keep the elevator incident to myself. He didn’t need the added stress. There was no rush to share our crazed fan experience.
If I’d known just how badly tonight’s show was going to go I would have told all the guys about what had happened. I could have upped security. I could have changed everything.
Whoever said hindsight was twenty-twenty wasn’t kidding.
Ｃｈａｐｔｅｒ Ｎｉｎｅｔｅｅｎ
Ｄｒａｋｅ
Something was up. I didn’t know what it was but there was definitely something going on with Scout. If there was one thing I’d learned over the past week, it was that the girl couldn’t lie for shit. Something was bothering her and she didn’t want me knowing about it. I wasn’t pushing the issue right now but later? Yeah, I was finding out what the fuck was going on.
“You ready?” Lacey asked as she slid the strap of her guitar over her head.
Jez and Scout had caught me up on what had happened earlier with Lacey. I’d checked in with Travis to see how our guitarist was doing and he’d calmly told me that Lace wasn’t one to let a guy get her down for long. In other words, she was putting on a brave face.
“Damn straight. You good?” I twirled my drum sticks around my fingers as we waited at the edge of the stage. Lacey looked onto the stage and cringed slightly as she watched Asher hammering the drums with a look of concentration on his face.
“I’m mortified. I acted like such an idiot. Ash isn’t mine and I need to accept that.” She was close to yelling in order to be heard over the music from the stage “He asked me if I was alright, said Jez gave him an almighty earful.”
I smiled at that. Jez was coming a long way from the scared kid who’d snuck onto our tour under false pretences. I was damn proud of her.
“So I heard. What did you say to Ash?”
“Told him that I was surprised that all the guys fucked girls in front of each other.” She laughed humourlessly.
I threw an arm around her shoulders, kissing her temple.
“It’ll get better, Lace,” I spoke into her ear. She nodded, her eyes watering slightly. As if realising she was opening up a little too much, she shook her head and nudged me gently.
“Alright, let’s get this shit show on the road!”
Travis approached from behind, wrapping an arm around her waist. Jo showed up next, making an exaggerated gesture at the three of us.
“Were you guys bonding without me? Assholes.” Jo pouted playfully as Travis pulled her in to his chest. She fought against him, laughing when he poked her ribs.
“I knew you wanted me, Yancy.” Travis released Jo as Scout came up to us with her phone and clipboard in hand. Her business mask was firmly in place as she made sure that Ultimate Corruption had wrapped up their set without any hitches. Once they started to make their way off the stage she turned to us.
“Alright, let’s go, give the fans what they’re screaming for,” She yelled. Ultimate Corruption were hollering and bouncing with energy as they passed us. We high-fived them all, Nico pressing his lips to Jo’s in a passionate kiss before smacking her ass and walking backstage. Jo laughed as she tightened her ponytail and sashayed onto the stage. She would work the crowd up as the sound and lighting guys did some last-minute checks. Jo loved this part of the show. She loved riling the crowd into a frenzy. Travis bounced on the balls of his feet as he waited for Jo to give us the signal. I took the minute to move closer to Scout.
“Hey, darlin’,” I grinned.
“I don’t think so, stud, you kiss me and you’ll screw up the timing.” She laughed, taking a step back. I ignored her and moved my face closer to hers. Her smile turned devilish as she covered her own lips with the back of her hand. My lips made contact with the palm of her hand as Lacey thumped my shoulder, telling me that it was time to hit the stage.
“You’ll pay for that,” I teased as she shoved me towards the stage while I put my ear plugs in.
Jo did the usual introductions, giving us all the limelight for a few seconds. Travis did his usual posturing and working up the ladies. Lacey gave him shit for it on stage, the crowd seeming to love their relationship as much as we did. Then we were diving into our first song.
The energy of the crowd was exhilarating. I felt my lips stretch into a broad grin as I watched my family dancing around the stage. Jo strutting her stuff, Lacey throwing herself into the music and Travis acting like a clown as he played the bass. Being on stage made you lose sense of time. When you first hit the stage, it’s like time stands still, everyone waiting for that first beat. Then it’s like the scales tip and suddenly you’re playing your last song and the adrenaline is deafening you. As Jo sang out the last note of our final song the crowd went wild. It was a heady mixture of excitement and disappointment. The fans had enjoyed the show but at the same time they knew this was our last song. We’d played our encore and now this was it.
Jo held her hands up in the air and looked up to the ceiling, something she did after every show. It was a sort of silent shout out to her grandmother, for whom the band was named after.
“Thank you!” she screamed to the fans as she took a bow. Jo held her hands out at either side of her and Travis and Lacey joined her. The three of them held they hands up, taking another bow. Travis and Lacey then began throwing guitar and bass pics into the crowd, laughing when they saw someone who’d managed to catch one. I grabbed my drum sticks and made my way from the drum set to the front of the stage.
I walked along the front of the stage, waving, until I reached Jo. Everybody had spread out by this point. Travis was to the far-right hand side while Lacey was far left. Jo was still in the middle but she looked to be making her way over to Lacey. I held my arms up, loving the cheers a little too much than I maybe should have, before throwing my drum sticks into the crowd. Travis used the towel by his feet to wipe the sweat from his face as he moved behind me, shoving me jokingly. Lacey jogged to the right-hand side of the stage to grab her bottle of water before falling in to step behind me.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as the adrenaline continued to course through my veins. My steps faltered as I took one final look at the crowd. A face I hadn’t seen in ten years was sneering back at me. Sure, his face was more weathered and his hair had changed colour but it was him. I’d recognise him anywhere.
My father’s face would forever be etched into my mind.
As if in slow motion, his arm raised. His hand clasping something that even from this distance was easy to make out. Lacey shoved my back, unaware of exactly how much danger she was in. I froze for a split second before my father sneered and pulled the trigger.
My first thoughts were Lacey. She had been behind me as he’d pulled the gun out. I pivoted quickly trying to knock her out of the way. Screams rang out as my father empt
ied the clip at the stage. I knocked into Lacey, sending her flying as a burning sensation flooded my body. It was like my body had become one giant blister. My skin felt flushed as I tried to work out where the pain was coming from. White spots filled my vision as I tried to push through the pain.
“Drake!” Lacey’s agonized scream flooded my ears as she rolled me onto my back. My vision swam as I tried to focus on her face. Her sweaty, blond hair was pushed away from her face as she scanned the crowd.
“Oh god, Drake,” She cried.
“Get backstage. Not safe.” I coughed, my back and side’s feeling like I’d been struck with a red-hot poker.
“He’s gone,” Lacey sobbed, searching the crowd for my father, “I can’t see him.”
“Drake!” another shrill scream filled the air as Scout’s gorgeous face appeared above me. Tears smeared her make-up as she cupped my face. I lifted my arm to touch her face but only managed to reach her bicep. I held onto her for as long as I could before my arm went limp. It was just too much energy.
“Hey bud,” I tilted my head to see Jace appearing, “Ambulance is on the way and the cops are looking for whoever did this. Did you get a look?”
“It was,” my breathing was becoming shallow as I tried to make the name roll off my tongue. Fuck, I couldn’t get anything out. Scout’s sobs wracked her body as she clutched to me as if I was her lifeline. Not the other way around.
“Baby, stay with me,” She begged. I was trying. I was trying so hard to keep my gaze fixated on her but her face was becoming blurry and distant.
“I need to slow the bleeding, Jesus, how many did he take?” Jace cursed, panic lacing his words. He looked over at me from where he was crouched by my side.
“You got a name for us, bud?” Jace asked. “We need something to go on, I have no fucking idea how they got a gun in here.”
I tried to gather up my remaining strength as my energy left me. If I was going to die then that bastard was going to be behind bars at the very least.