Trapped with the Bad Boy (Wild Preachers Club Book 2)

by Winter Travers

  “Are you even listening to me?” Ruby drawled.

  “Listening? Yes. Caring about what you say? Not at all.” I raised my hand to the bartender. “I need two more of these,” I called.

  Ruby swiped her hand across her forehead. “How did I not know you two dated?”

  I pushed the empty shot glass toward the bartender. He filled it up and set down another glass. “Because I don’t broadcast my shit for all the world to know.” And neither did Jonas, thank god. Though he obviously did to his sister.

  She leaned close and lowered her voice. “Were you ashamed of him?” she whispered.

  Ashamed of Jonas Rowe?

  Not in the least.

  The surface of the man was what my wet dreams were made of.

  While I was all rocker on the surface with ever-changing hair color and piecing’s and tattoos, there was something about the stark difference between Jonas and myself.

  Though under those long-sleeve button-down shirts and ties were more tattoos than the average person had. And a piercing. Just one, but it was a good one.

  I crossed my legs, squelching the memories I had with that piercing. Sweet, sweet memories. “Your brother is one of the most educated and smartest guys I know. I was anything but ashamed of him.”

  “He said you guys were different,” Ruby slurred.

  I waved my hand in front of my face. “Uh, yeah. Kind of hard to miss the differences, Ruby.”

  She poked my arm. “Yeah, on the surface there are differences, but I think under that, you guys are awfully the same.”

  I shrugged and tossed back another shot. “Whatever you say, Ruby.” She was drunk, and I was well on my way to joining her.

  Last night Jonas had tried to hold my hand, and what I assume was to comfort me.

  That was too much.

  I couldn’t handle that.

  Now we were in a new city, a rare night off, and in a hole in the wall bar getting shitfaced.

  Rock ‘n roll, baby.

  “So why don’t you seduce the man, and then we can become sisters-in-law?”

  I furrowed my brow and cocked my head to the side. “Uh, you do know that I’m just Harrison’s cousin, right? Not his sister.”

  Ruby waved her hand in my face. “Ya know what I’m cooking.”

  Yeah, Ruby was drunk. Harrison was going to have to come get his girl pretty damn soon. “Newsflash, Ruby. I’m not the one who called it quits between us. That is all on your brother.”

  “Then, you should like him back.” She patted me on the shoulder. “I told you that he likes you. You need to listen when I tell you that.”

  “Just when you tell me that?” I laughed.

  “All the things I tell you should listen to,” she slurred. “I has the smarts.”

  Then she should have known she should have stopped two Long Island iced teas ago. I tossed back the other shot. “Whoa! That is some awful shit.” But it was getting me drunk. Drunk to numb my brain.

  Jonas had been roped into playing pool with the guys. Thankfully he wasn’t sitting right next to me, but I, unfortunately, had an amazing view of his ass every time he bent over to line up a shot.

  “I think you’re ignoring me again.” Ruby sat up straight. “We should start from the beginning.”

  “What beginning?” Harrison asked. He snaked his arm around Ruby’s shoulders and pressed a kiss to her cheek.

  Thank god for his annoying acts of PDA. It distracted Ruby.

  “Let’s go!” Darius called. “Jonas kicked all of our asses at pool, and I’d rather lick my wounds on the bus than here.”

  Ruby slipped off the stool, stumbled for a second, and Harrison wrapped her in his arms. “Whoa there, baby,” he laughed.

  Ruby giggled and leaned into Harrison. “I am possibly drunk, Harry.”

  Harrison growled. “I hate when you call me that, baby.”

  She reached up and patted Harrison’s cheek. “It’s the Long Tea Islands talking,” she laughed.

  “I think you mean Long Island iced tea, baby. And I think I need to limit you to just one from now on.”

  Ruby pointed at me. “I was just trying to keep up with Maudrey.”

  I closed my eyes and chuckled.

  “You really gotta change people’s names when you’re drunk?” Harrison chuckled.

  Ruby laughed. “Yup.”

  Harrison led her out the bar, following behind the rest of the bad.

  I grabbed my wallet to pay the tab for Ruby and me, but fifty appeared in front of me.

  “I got it.”

  I turned and looked up at Jonas’s profile. “I have money.”

  He nodded to the bartender. “Keep the change.”

  “Did you hear me?” I drawled. “I have money.” Probably no near as much as Jonas had, but I wasn’t doing half bad.

  “I never said you didn’t, M.”

  I narrowed my eyes.

  M.

  He called me that when we were dating.

  We weren’t dating anymore.

  “It’s Maud. Maudrey, if you’re drunk.”

  Jonas smirked. “I take it Ruby had one too many?”

  “Yeah,” I grumbled. It was my fault since I made sure her glass never got empty.

  “She calls me Joey when she drinks too much.”

  I cringed. Jonas did not look like a Joey at all. Though whenever I heard the name Joey, I pictured Joey Tribbiani from Friends. I fished around in my wallet and pulled out a fifty. “You’re not paying for my drinks.”

  He pushed away the money. “I paid for my sister’s.”

  I rolled my eyes. I shoved the fifty back in my wallet and pulled out a twenty and a five. “Then take this.”

  He shook his head. “Not taking it. You’re letting me stay on your bus for a week. Consider the drinks my rent.”

  “Do you know you make me roll my eyes a lot?”

  He chuckled. “Yeah. Though even when you roll them, you’re still prettiest girl in the room.” He grabbed a lock of hair. “Even when you have normal hair.”

  I scoffed. “It won’t be normal for long.” My usual bright, vibrant blue hair was a normal mousy shade of brown. The last time I had gone to my hairdresser before the tour, she had advised me that my hair was severely damaged from years of bleaching and dyeing. We had struck a deal that I would refrain from dyeing it for a few months to let it be.

  I counted down the days until I could get back to my blue hair and feel normal again.

  “I think you’re the only person I know who blue hair suits them better than brown or blonde.” He dropped the lock of hair and sighed. “You ready to go?”

  We had walked to the bar from the tour bus, and Jonas and I were the only ones left in the bar.

  I shoved the money back in my wallet and zipped it shut. “I can walk.”

  Jonas stepped back. “Never said you couldn’t, M.”

  There was that nickname again—a familiarity used between lovers.

  My step faltered at the thought of lovers.

  “Whoa there,” Jonas laughed. He looped an arm around my waist and pulled me to his side. “I think those shots are hitting you.”

  I wrinkled my nose. “You may be right because I can’t remember how many I had.”

  “Let’s get you back to the bus.”

  Jonas’s familiar scent wafted around me, and I leaned into him without thinking about why it wasn’t a good idea to be this close to him.

  Jonas pulled me through the crowd of the bar and out the front door. He kept his arm around me and slowly walked us back to where the bus was parked.

  “Do you like Hong Kong?” There wasn’t anything wrong with small talk, right? Even though I was mad how Jonas had ended things with us, I still hoped he was happy with where he had landed.

  “It’s different.”

  I hummed under my breath. “And different is bad.”

  Jonas chuckled. “In somethings.”

  “So, what is so different about Hong Kong?” I was
too drunk to tread on the top of the differences between Jonas and me. I barely could string two words together that made sense. That cheap vodka was hitting me hard. My head swam, and I struggled to keep my eyes open.

  “The people. The buildings. The culture.” His chuckle drifted around me like a warm hug. “Everything is different.”

  I hummed and tried to open my eyes. My feet kept moving along with Jonas, but I was thankful he was leading me because otherwise, I would have fallen right on my ass.

  “The food is amazing, though.”

  I bet it was. Jonas had an addiction to Chinese food when we dated, and I assumed it didn’t go away when we broke up.

  My step faltered, and I cracked open an eye. “I think I need to take a nap right here.” I had drunk too much. I had tried to walk the line of drunk and really drunk. Unfortunately, I had dove straight into really drunk. A really drunk Maud was a sleepy Maud.

  Jonas scooped me up into his arms and held me to his chest. I wrapped my arms around his neck and held on.

  “I missed this,” he whispered into my ear.

  I had too. My eyes drifted closed, and I laid my head on his shoulder. “I missed you, Jonas.” The words were out of my mouth before I could think about them, and I was asleep before I could regret them.

  *

  Chapter Seven

  Jonas

  “Last show!” Malik shouted. “Let’s do this!”

  The air on the bus was electric and a buzz with excitement.

  Last night the band had played in Sioux Falls, and now we were in Chicago. Today had been our longest drive, and Maud had spent the whole time either in her bunk or in the back room with Harrison working on new music.

  The bus was small, but Maud was damn good at keeping her distance from me.

  The morning after she had basically passed out on the walk back to the bus, she acted like nothing had happened.

  Hadn’t told me she missed me. Hadn’t acted like she didn’t hate me.

  Grumpy Maud was back, and I didn’t know if I would ever get back to the woman I had been with a year ago.

  Maud sat toward the back of the bus in the kitchen area. “Let me know when it’s five minutes.”

  “You got it,” Darius shouted.

  The band filed off the bus, and instead of following, I stayed behind.

  Behind with Maud.

  She held her head in her hands and took a deep breath.

  “You never answered my question before.”

  She jumped back and held her hand to her chest. “Jesus. I thought everyone left.”

  I grabbed a beer from the fridge and sat down next to her. “Nah, it’s too fucking loud out there. I’d rather be in here.”

  She laughed and leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. “You get used to it.”

  “I’m good when it’s you guys in there. Not really into the band you got opening for you guys.” I watched them two times, and that was enough for me. They didn’t have the same magic that The Wild Preacher’s Club did. When Maud and the guys got on the stage, it was just another level of greatness that most bands never reached.

  Maud scoffed. “I’ve seen you when we’re playing. You look like you’re having as much fun when you’re doing your taxes.”

  I chuckled and popped open my beer. “Well, I may not be headbanging along with Ruby, but if I close my eyes and the crowd isn’t loud as fuck, it feels like I’m at home listening to your latest album.”

  Maud’s head snapped back. “Now, you’re lying.”

  “About?”

  “Actually listening to our music when you aren’t forced in to being here,” she mumbled.

  I shook my head. “You of all people should know I can’t be forced to do anything I don’t want to.” I took a drink of my beer. “And, I know every song you guys sing every night. Word for word.” I had preordered their latest album and had listened to it numerous times over and over.

  Even though Maud and I didn’t make it work between us, I was still a fan of theirs. Being on the tour bus with them gave me a behind-the-scenes look at the band that most fans would kill to have.

  Maud moaned. “I can’t deal with this information right now, Jonas. Not when I’m about to walk on stage.”

  “Do you really get this nervous every night?” I asked. It seemed crazy to me that Maud still had stage fright.

  “It’s a lot of fucking pressure going out there.”

  “So, you sit here before every show and worry your ass off?”

  She laughed and shook her head. “I just go over the playset in my head and try not to think about embarrassing the hell out of myself by playing the wrong chord or singing the wrong words.”

  I scoffed. “As if any of those people would give a shit if you sang the wrong words. They’re just wanting to see you guys in person. Pretty sure you could sing the dictionary and you’d guys would still pack them in every night.”

  “Ugh,” she moaned. “If only that were true. Things can change so quickly, Jonas. I’m here right now, but for all, I know a month from now I could be back to living in Harrison’s parent’s basement living off ramen noodles and Kool-Aid again.”

  “Not gonna happen.” Maud was crazy to think that The Wild Preacher’s Club could be on a downward slide. “I think you’re cemented into being a rock chick, Maud. Your fans aren’t there going to let you go.”

  “If I were one of the guys, I would feel much more confident about that.”

  “What the hell does that mean?”

  “Jonas,” she whispered. “Can we not talk about this right now? I’m trying not to freak out, and you’re wanting to talk about one of the very things that make me freak out.”

  Now Maud was talking in circles, and I had no idea what she meant. “Then maybe you need to face the thing that freaks you out.”

  “Oh, for fucks sake, Jonas. I’m not a guy with chicks panting after me. I’m a bitch who plays guitar decent. I can guarantee you that I make one wrong move, and I’m out of the band.”

  “You really believe that shit?” I laughed.

  She peeked out from behind her eyes. “Could you not laugh at me?”

  “You’re as much a part of this band as Harrison or one of the other guys is. You leave, and it’s not The Wild Preacher’s Club anymore.” Yeah, Maud was a chick who played guitar, but she’s more than that. She co-wrote more songs with Harrison than I could count. She sang backup vocals on all of the songs and had more than a few lead parts.

  The Wild Preacher’s Club was made up of five people, and Maud was one of them.

  “Five minutes!” Niko shouted into the bus.

  I hadn’t even heard the door open. I was too into Maud and the bullshit she had swirling around in her head.

  “I gotta go,” she mumbled. She stood and wiped her hands on her pants.

  I grabbed her hand and threaded my fingers through hers. “We’re not done talking about this.”

  “Yeah, we are.” She dropped my hand and strutted down the aisle of the bus.

  That’s what Maud thought.

  I was going to be the one to change her way of thinking.

  I shouldn’t care, but I did.

  I hadn’t broken things off with Maud for her to doubt herself and think she would be replaced at the drop of a hat.

  She was a rockstar, and I was going to be the one to remind her of just how much of a badass she was.

  *

  Chapter Eight

  Maud

  “Later!” Niko called.

  I grabbed my duffel bag and dropped it on the floor. “See ya at Thanksgiving.”

  “Pie,” Darius moaned. “Better get there early, cuz. I can’t promise there will be any left if you get there late.”

  I rolled my eyes. “It’s at my parent’s house, Darius. Pretty sure my ass is going to be there before yours.”

  “We’ll see,” Darius laughed.

  Niko and Darius climbed off the bus, and I looked around. This had been my home for ba
sically the past year, and it felt strange to leave it.

  An hour ago, we had pulled up to the storage shed we parked the bus at, and everyone had been eager to get off.

  Except me.

  After the show last night, I did everything I could to avoid Jonas, and I had been successful. I only saw him for a brief second before I slipped into my bunk. This morning when I had woken up, I stayed in my bunk until my bladder made me get up, and by that time, everyone was in the kitchen area. Jonas had been sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee in front of him and a smug smile on his face.

  His tattoos peeked out from under the short-sleeves of his shirt, and my step faltered when I glimpsed new ink I had never seen before.

  Pretty soon, it wouldn’t be so easy for Jonas to hide his ink under his button-down shirts and ties if he kept adding tattoos.

  I heard the door to the bus open and close.

  “Rico?” I called. I hefted my duffle bag onto my shoulder and gave the bus one last glance. “I know you want to lock the bus up.”

  “Already locked up.”

  I whipped my head around, and my eyes connected with Jonas’s. “Uh, what?”

  “The bus is all locked.” He took a step toward me. “No one getting on or off.”

  I looked around and then down at my bag. “Uh, what?”

  He stalked toward me, and I stepped back. My calves bumped into the side of my bunk, and I grabbed onto the bunk above mine.

  I gulped when he was only a step from me. “What is going on?” I asked.

  Jonas reached up and brushed my hair back from my face. “We gotta talk, M.”

  “Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, Jonas. We need to get off this bus and go spend time with our families.”

  He shook his head. “Not until we talk.”

  “So, the only way we can talk is by being trapped on the bus?”

  A smirk spread across his lips. “Had to figure out a way to make it so you couldn’t run away from me.”

  I rolled my eyes. “This is ridiculous. I’m calling Ruby. I know she’ll help me get off of here.” Jonas thought locking me on a bus with him would work? Yeah, no. I dropped my duffel bag and reached into my back pocket.