Unsteady Rhythm (House of Archer Book 2)

by Raine Thomas

  “Did Sydney tell you what we found on our shopping trip?” Aria said, diplomatically changing the subject. “They had the best little boutiques and specialty shops downtown.”

  Lily wasn’t much of a shopper, not only because she didn’t enjoy it but because she was always broke. Listening to Aria regale stories of great finds was hardly exciting.

  It still made her smile. She had missed this...the simplicity of chit chat with two of her best friends, no cameras hovering over them. No worries that anything she said might get aired on television or taken out of context. No stress pains causing her headaches or stomach cramps.

  They were a couple of hours into the drive when Lily realized the vehicle was slowing down. She figured Barney was stopping to get gas and to allow them a restroom break. Their conversation ceased as they all glanced out the windows and saw they were pulling over onto the shoulder of the highway.

  “What in the world?” Lily said, reaching over to lower the partition. “What’s wrong, Barney?”

  “It appears we have a flat tire.”

  “Really? Ugh.”

  “I’ll just be a moment.”

  Barney released his seatbelt and exited the vehicle. The females all turned to watch him through the windows. Lily hoped he was mistaken. A flat tire would mean a significant delay and she was supposed to be participating in a couple of interviews before the concert that night.

  He walked around the vehicle to the passenger side. She saw him look between the two tires, squatting down beside the rear tire and then doing the same to the tire in the front. His expression was as hard to read as usual. Lily couldn’t tell if one of the tires was flat or not.

  When Barney pulled out his cell phone, she figured there had to be a flat.

  “Why wouldn’t he change it himself?” Sydney wondered. “I can change it. We don’t need to call for a service truck.”

  “Let’s see if we can help,” Lily said.

  “You two go right on ahead,” Aria responded, pulling out her own cell phone. “I just got my nails done.”

  Lily shrugged that off. Since Aria was blocking the passenger side door, Lily climbed into the other seat and exited the driver’s side with Sydney right behind her. Traffic rushed by them close enough to blow their hair back.

  Maybe this hadn’t been the best idea.

  “Get on the other side of the car,” Sydney said over the road noise.

  Lily edged along the SUV with one eye on the road. As she reached the back, a car pulled over and rolled up behind them. She glanced at Barney, who was still speaking into his cell while examining the front tire. Sydney moved around Lily far enough to be able to see the rear tire.

  “Oh, yeah,” Sydney said. “No denying that’s flat.”

  Lily moved beside her. “Both tires are flat,” she observed, pointing at the front tire Barney was describing to the person on the phone. “No wonder Barney had to call someone. I’m sure we’ve only got one spare.”

  “We must have driven over something on that side of the car,” Sydney guessed.

  Their attention shifted to the other vehicle as it stopped about ten feet away. Lily was no expert but she determined it was a Ford by the logo on the grill. The black paint was dulling in places and there was a small crack in the windshield that gleamed like a prism in the sunlight, telling her it was an older model.

  A single male stepped out. He was wearing jeans, a short-sleeved shirt, and sneakers. Large aviator sunglasses reflected the harsh sunlight, making it difficult to see his face. His choppy brown hair blew in the wind caused by passing traffic. He flashed a friendly smile as he approached.

  “Hi there,” he said with a noticeable southern twang. “You havin’ some car trouble?”

  “You could say that,” Lily said, returning his smile.

  “My name’s Jordan,” he said, extending his hand.

  Lily automatically extended her hand and opened her mouth to reply. Barney was suddenly by her side. He stepped between them. Lily’s mouth snapped closed in astonishment as she stared at Barney’s back.

  “Please get into the vehicle,” Barney said to Lily and Sydney over his shoulder.

  Lily hadn’t ever seen Barney looking so ominous. That was the only reason she didn’t argue with him. She felt he was being more than a little ridiculous. This guy had just pulled over to help.

  She couldn’t hear what Barney said to Jordan as she and Sydney made their way back to the driver’s side door. She saw Jordan hold his hands up in a nonthreatening manner.

  “Look,” he said loud enough that Lily heard him, “I was just raised by a mama who would kill me if I didn’t stop to help a couple of ladies stranded on the side of the road. No harm, no foul, okay?”

  Lily was faintly embarrassed as she got back into the SUV. Jordan had looked completely taken aback by Barney’s behavior. He must think that she and Sydney were a couple of self-important divas or something. She was certain he had no idea who they were. Barney was making a far bigger deal out of this than he needed to.

  Aria watched with curiosity as Lily and Sydney climbed back into their seats. “What happened?”

  “We have two flats,” Sydney told her.

  “Isn’t that strange?” Aria said. “How could that have happened?”

  “We must have run over some debris in the road.”

  Lily turned to look out the rear window and saw Jordan returning to his car. Her embarrassment lingered as he got behind the wheel and shook his head as though marveling over Barney’s attitude before driving off.

  The incident had been relatively meaningless in the scheme of things. Yet something about it really brought home the point that her life was no longer her own. She was going to be in the public eye and that meant she had to approach every interaction with others differently than she was used to. She had to expect—rather, she had to assume—that others might have ill intentions towards her.

  It was a harsh and disturbing new reality to accept.

  Just remember you’re doing this for Dane and The Void, she told herself. Being extra careful isn’t really that high a price to pay.

  Now she just had to work on believing that.

  Chapter Three

  “All right, San Diego...are you ready to slow things down?” Archer asked the crowd as that night’s concert neared its conclusion.

  He lifted a hand to his ear as though awaiting the crowd’s response, which was exactly what he was doing. Keith and the rest of The Void were waiting, too. If the crowd cheered yes, the band would roll into the ballad “Stay One More Day.” If the consensus was no, they’d play the more energetic “Bliss Brigade.”

  Keith took the brief moment to roll his shoulders and lower his arms to keep the blood flowing in his fingertips. His custom Fender Jazz rested against him like a lover still warm from his touch. She had been a gift from Archer when The Void’s first album went platinum. She went with Keith everywhere the band traveled. Her smooth whiskey and cream body and maple neck had experienced more action from his hands than any woman ever had.

  Across the stage he saw Xander taking a similar breather, adjusting the strap of his own guitar and tipping his head from side to side to stretch his neck. Noelle was guzzling water behind her drums like she’d never get the chance to drink again.

  He couldn’t blame her. They were all sweating like crazy by then, even in the relatively cool summer night air. The only one who didn’t usually break a sweat at their concerts was Sage, which was par for the course. Sage worked with electronics and spent every concert in front of his mixing board. Keith didn’t begrudge him that. He and the rest of the band knew very well that The Void’s signature sound was due almost entirely to Sage Strickland’s mixing genius.

  “No!” the crowd shouted.

  “Bliss Brigade” it is, Keith thought, once again grasping his guitar and watching Archer for his cue.

  “Nah. Me neither,” Archer told the crowd, turning to accept the proper guitar from the stagehand who ran i
t out to him. “You guys have gotten us way too pumped for that.”

  Keith caught Archer’s glance and slight nod. He began a slow strum on the bass to build the crowd’s anticipation for the next number. The lighting shifted, casting Keith in a cool blue light. Shouts and whistles resulted in the audience.

  Archer stepped briefly away from the mic to slip the strap of his guitar over his head and then went right back to it with his famous smile in place.

  “Would you say you’re happy tonight, San Diego?” he asked.

  The crowd whooped and cheered. Noelle added some soft, teasing cymbal action to Keith’s strumming. Pink light swirled around her.

  “Okay. But would you say you’re...ecstatic?”

  The response was even louder this time. Archer grinned and added a few plucked notes from his guitar to the little interlude. He looked down into the crowd and winked, causing more screaming. Keith knew the wink hadn’t been aimed at anyone in particular. It was just a way to keep fans—especially female fans—excited.

  It was also a subtle way for Archer to search the crowd for Lily. There were three seats near the front that were still notably unfilled.

  “Okay, okay,” Archer said. “But would you say you’re in a state of...bliss?”

  The crowd erupted, now knowing which song was coming. Keith immediately looked at Noelle. She nodded and silently counted it off, using a nonverbal cue the two of them had developed over the years. They were the ones who drove and manipulated the beat, serving as the meat and backbone of every song. Archer and Xander fed off them. Sage enhanced everything and made it sound new again.

  Together, The Void was a musical force to be reckoned with.

  The rest of the set went smoothly, as did the encore. They ended on “Welcome to Wonderland,” the theme song from House of Archer. The song choice had been Christopher’s idea to help indirectly promote the show. The crowd ate it up.

  “Great show, guys,” Archer said to all of them as they moved off-stage.

  They exchanged high fives and fist bumps, a tradition they kept even if their set blew. Keith was glad that hadn’t been the case tonight. He’d had some concerns about Archer’s focus after hearing about the flat tires on the SUV chauffeuring Lily and her friends. There had been some trouble getting a service vehicle out to assist them because they’d been somewhere along the border between Arizona and California. Barney had ultimately had to call out another rental vehicle, which had taken a couple of hours longer than expected to get to them. Keith knew Archer was anxious about it.

  To his credit, Archer hadn’t let it affect his performance. Keith didn’t think he’d ever met someone as dedicated to giving every show one hundred-percent as Dane Archer. It was partly what made him such a solid front man.

  Keith felt that Archer had amped his skills up to another level on this tour. He wasn’t sure if that was due to Archer’s determination to make sure The Void outperformed Suddenly Something every night or because Lily was along for the tour. It was probably some combination of both.

  Archer now moved ahead of everyone else, jogging down the stairs leading off the stage and heading right towards his bodyguard, Trey. They spoke briefly and a relieved look crossed Archer’s features. Looked like Lily had arrived safely.

  Keith would have given Archer a hard time about his obvious worry if he hadn’t been concerned about Lily himself. She had always been something of a lucky charm or unifying force for the band. Keith had liked her from the first time they met. She was a little spitfire who wasn’t afraid to state her opinion and who would stop at nothing to protect Archer, something he could only respect.

  Now she had extended that fierce dedication to the entire band by allowing herself to be vilified on worldwide television. Keith had to appreciate her loyalty, a trait he valued over all others.

  That didn’t mean he had to be happy about the whole script thing though, he silently grumbled.

  He frowned as he recalled Sydney approaching him earlier on the bus about teaching him to read. It wasn’t that he couldn’t read, he thought as he grabbed a towel from a stagehand and mopped off as much sweat as he could. He just couldn’t read well.

  He’d become an expert at keeping that detail from everyone over the years. It chafed that a quiet, prim school teacher had called him out on it.

  How had she known?

  “Hey, Con Man...try not to look like you want to bite someone’s head off while we’re signing, would you?” Archer asked as they approached the fans lining the metal barricades leading to the tunnels and their green room.

  Keith shook off his thoughts. Socializing and interacting with fans wasn’t a strength of his, but he had been doing it for enough years that he could put on his professional face and get through it.

  All part of the life.

  They signed for about fifteen minutes before making their way to the green room. As usual, Keith led the way, always the most eager to escape. Archer was usually the last to break away since the majority of people wanted his autograph.

  Keith spotted Lily talking with Barney outside of their green room. She smiled when she looked over and saw him.

  “Oh, good,” she said. “I was just debating whether I should hunt Dane down.”

  “He’s on the way,” Keith assured her.

  “Cool. Hey, would you take a minute and do a Lily’s Little Nothings with me? I was supposed to have one up hours ago and the stupid flat tires threw everything off.”

  Keith had been avoiding this for days. She had created Lily’s Little Nothings in response to the hundreds of fan questions that had started getting e-mailed to her. She wrote down every question she received and put them in a white plastic bag bearing a Void sticker and Sharpie signatures from everyone in the band. Periodically throughout the day she had members of the band and crew pull questions that she answered in a video clip. It was a fun concept that was gaining some strong momentum on social media.

  But the last thing Keith wanted to do was try to read a random, handwritten scrap of paper in front of anyone, never mind on camera.

  “Can you have Xander do it this time?” he asked, grabbing Xander’s arm before he could walk past. “I’d like to try and fit in a call to Lex before the after-party.”

  “Of course,” Lily said, turning her attention to Xander. “Are you up for it, Phillips?”

  Xander made a show of cracking his knuckles. “Let’s do this. Are there any sexy questions in there?”

  Their conversation faded as Keith slunk into the green room. He had the fleeting thought that he could avoid that kind of anxiety in the future by working with Sydney, a thought he quickly dismissed.

  He washed up and changed before pulling out his iPad so he could call Lex. He carried it over to a relatively quiet corner of the green room and sat on the floor, propping the iPad on his bent legs so his hands were free for signing.

  Lex answered the call herself. She was already in bed wearing a pair of neon yellow Spongebob Squarepants pajamas. Her curly light brown hair was piled on top of her head in a lopsided bun. Her sweet brown eyes, slightly slanted in a way characteristic of children with Down Syndrome, were bright with happiness to see him.

  He smiled and greeted her, Did you give M any trouble today?

  To him, M meant Megan. To Lex it meant Mom. All that mattered was it accomplished the same thing when they communicated with each other.

  She gave him a thumb’s up and a wide smile, knowing that was what he wanted.

  Good, he signed. Did you make any pictures for me?

  She nodded and reached for the red folder she used to hold her artwork. Her mental functioning was on the high side for children with Down Syndrome. She grasped most concepts at between an eight or nine-year-old level. When it came to art, however, she had some remarkable talent that surpassed even her actual age of twelve.

  She held up the first drawing of a butterfly and tilted it back and forth to show it off.

  Beautiful, he signed. And meant it. />
  Her next drawings were of a lizard and a stack of books. Both impressed the hell out of him.

  Those are all for me? he asked.

  She nodded.

  I can’t wait to get them from you when we’re in town.

  She smiled and signed, I can’t wait either. How was the concert?

  Great. We rocked it.

  Since she asked, he went through the names of the songs they’d performed. As always, she got just as excited as if she’d been at the concert herself. It was one of his deepest sorrows that she had never been able to hear his music.

  He caught up on her day for a few more minutes before Christopher gave them all a warning that it was nearly time to leave for the after-party.

  Got to go, he signed.

  She lost her smile, which instantly tugged at him. Will you call tomorrow?

  Of course.

  Her smile returned. Okay. Good night. I love you, K.

  I love you, too. Sweet dreams.

  As he disconnected the call and pushed himself to his feet, he spotted Nikki sitting on the edge of the couch watching him. She was holding something in her hands. When she caught his gaze, she smiled and rose.

  “I didn’t want to interrupt your time with Lex,” she said, walking over and giving him a kiss.

  “You’re fine.”

  “How is she?”

  The question threw him. She hadn’t ever asked something like that before. In fact, he’d begun to think Lex made her uncomfortable.

  “She’s good,” he replied. He barely stopped himself from asking why she wanted to know.

  “I’m glad.” She held up the T-shirt in her hand. “I picked this up for her. Thought it might be something she’d like based on some things Lily has mentioned.”

  He automatically took the shirt since she was holding it out to him. He looked down at it and saw Donatello on the front.

  “She’ll love it,” he acknowledged.

  “I’m happy to hear that. I thought you might consider bringing me along with you to give it to her when we’re back in L.A.,” she ventured.