Audra slowly lifted her eyes and met the probing stares of Angel, Tommy, Jessi, Alyssa and Damien. As she stared back at them, she realized that this group of people, who she had known for many years, were like family, and a little thing like hearing each other in the throes of passion wasn’t cause for embarrassment. She held her head high, like Alyssa said, and greeted them with a proud smile.
Chapter Seventeen
Three days later, the band was back on American soil. Canada was beautiful and South America was paradise. They had played a show at Madison Square Garden on the night of their arrival, but nothing felt more like home than The Quadrangle. The Brooklyn dive bar was where Immortal Angel got its start, and a place where they would always return.
The old crowd gave them a reception almost as loud as a venue that held 20,000 people. These were the fans that saw Immortal Angel rise from a local neighborhood band and catapult to mega stardom. It was where Jimmy first met Audra, and the years that they had known each other played back in his head.
He looked over his kit, past Angel, and found Audra and Kira standing at their old spot at the front of the stage. Kira still gazed up at Angel with adoration, but Audra’s eyes were glued on Jimmy. His heart did a little gallop in his chest when she blew him a kiss.
The band just finished Without You. It was their first number one hit and the song in which Tommy always pulled Jessi on stage and dedicated a guitar solo to her. It was a testament to his love for her and gratitude for her unyielding devotion.
Jimmy watched Audra, watching him, as he pounded on the drums. He saw the same devotion and loyalty in her as Jessi had for Tommy. Audra stood by him, against her father’s wishes, and sided with him when the naked groupies showed up on the tour bus.
Filled with intense love and respect for Audra, a surge of adrenaline coursed through Jimmy’s veins. He twirled one of his sticks between his fingers and threw it high into the air. The crowd erupted into a loud cheer. He caught the stick on its descent, gave it another twirl and pointed it at Audra. “For you, baby.” He derailed from the usual beat of Overdose and threw together a spontaneous array of drum beats.
Angel, Tommy and Damien all stopped playing and turned toward Jimmy at the unexpected deviation from the song. The crowd threw their fists in the air and hollered, but it was Audra who had the most significant reaction. She had a smile on her face that lit up the room, and she gazed at him with so much love, it made Jimmy’s heart soar.
Fueled with energy, Jimmy was too excited to sit behind his kit. He stood up and kicked the stool out from underneath him. He pounded on the drums with enough force to cause one of his sticks to splinter and break in half. He threw the remnant into the crowd and pulled another stick from the stickbag. He tossed it in the air, while he twirled the other stick in his left hand and kicked the bass drum in rapid succession. He caught the stick, pounded on his snare and sailed across his toms. He ended the solo with a dozen simultaneous strikes on his cymbals and a loud roar from the crowd. His bandmates gazed back at him in wonder and esteem and gave him a round of applause.
Angel brought the mic to his lips and extended his arm toward Jimmy. “There’s no containing the spontaneous beats that stem from Jimmy Wilder! That was fuckin’ awesome!”
Jimmy wiped the sweat from his brow and listened to the crowd chant his name. He acknowledged the recognition from his bandmates with a humble nod of his head, and then his eyes rested on Audra. She made it all real. He ran down to the front of the stage and knelt before her. “I love you, babe.” He gave her a quick kiss and handed her his sticks.
She clasped them in her hand and held them against her chest. “Love you, too!”
Jimmy ran back behind his kit and picked up with Overdose exactly where he left off before he broke out with the sudden drum solo. The guys joined in, and they finished the song without skipping a beat.
The band had a private roped-off VIP section in the rear of The Quadrangle where alcohol flowed freely, and they stayed long after the show ended. They spent the night with the old crew. They were the same guys who had helped set up and break down their equipment when Immortal Angel was a regular at the Brooklyn staple.
Jimmy grabbed two beers from the waitress and handed one to Audra. It had been a long night and the effects of life on the road left Jimmy drained. “I’m ready to go after this one. How about you?”
“Already? Are you turning into an old man on me?” Audra teased him.
Her question made him stop to assess the changes in his life over the last few months. No more wild parties or drunken escapes. A 90-minute show and a few beers and he was wiped. He chuckled and nodded. “I guess I’ve been living large for too many years.”
She reached across the table and squeezed his hand. “I guess we can go. You look tired.”
“You splittin’?” Damien asked. “What about your kit?”
Jimmy’s drum set still sat in the middle of the stage, a demonstration of the crew’s efficiency. “Are you fucking kidding? This guy’s gonna take an hour to break down my kit.” The stagehand was just getting around to disassembling it.
Angel stood up and headed to the stage. “We’ll give you a hand.” Tommy and Damien followed. Even the girls trailed after them to help.
“Aw, thanks man. I really appreciate it.”
There was a figure just past the side of the stage that caught Jimmy’s eye. There was something familiar about the woman’s silhouette, but she was in the shadows of the darkened corridor that led backstage, so he really didn’t pay much attention to her. He turned back to his kit and gathered the cases for his toms.
Jessi’s loud and angry voice startled him, and he dropped one of the cases.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Jessi’s eyes were blazing with fury, and anger burned her cheeks to a hue that matched her hair.
Angel gasped, and Tommy’s mouth fell open. Their anger and shock were directed toward the corridor at the side of the stage, but Jimmy still couldn’t see who caused the upheaval.
Jessi advanced across the stage with an aggressive stomp, fists clenched at her sides and eyes narrowed into menacing slits. “I told you to stay away from Angel and never come back! What the fuck do you want?”
“I don’t want anything from you, princess.”
The voice sent an eerie chill down Jimmy’s back. It was Kendall Rose. It had been over three years since she disappeared from the bar scene – since Jessi banished her after a failed attempt to blackmail Angel with a sex tape.
“I don’t care about Angel anymore.” Kendall challenged Jessi with a nasty sneer. “It’s you I loathe. You continue to have everything I want. Your life is just perfect.”
“Knock it off. My life is far from perfect. Take responsibility for yourself. Leave us the fuck alone and get the fuck out of here!” Jessi was ready to explode, but Kendall maintained a flippant attitude and took a few steps toward Jessi.
“I disagree. After you destroyed everything that I planned, I vowed to get even with you.” Kendall’s face turned into a hideous scowl. The hatred between the two was palpable. “I tried everything to ruin you. I planted a seamstress in your store to mess up the production of your clothing, but you figured it out right away and fired her.”
Jessi’s cheeks flamed redder and her eyes widened. “That was you? You planted Martha in my store to alter production and sabotage my designs?”
“Yes, but when that didn’t work, I moved on to my next plan – to ruin your perfect life. I persuaded a photographer to print some sensationalist headlines and photos that proved Tommy and Angel don’t need you in their life. It was working too, until Tommy punched him and Falcon Records paid him off. Now he won’t have anything to do with me. Something about a cease and desist order.” She waved her hand through the air. “You’re untouchable.”
“You fucking bitch! You were behind that bastard harassing me?” Jessi’s blood pressure reached a boiling point, and she lunged at Kendall. Tommy swooped in and grabbed
his wife around the waist and lifted her clear off the floor. She wriggled and twisted to break free. Her arms and legs flew madly in every direction, but Tommy wasn’t letting go and carried her to the other side of the stage.
“Why are you here?” Angel demanded. “Money? Is that what you want? Fine! I’ll give you whatever you want. Just leave us alone.”
“You’re not giving her anything!” Jessi yelled from across the stage.
“I don’t want your money. I don’t care about you anymore.” Kendall turned her nose up at Angel. “I’m here for Jimmy.”
A queasy feeling settled in the pit of Jimmy’s stomach. Kendall was the most manipulative, heartless person he had ever met. She was selfish and vindictive. He had no idea why she had it in for him, but he had enough unease in his life right now.
Audra was by his side in an instant. She folded her arms across her chest and challenged Kendall with an ice cold stare. Kira joined her sister, and they formed an alliance.
Fuck. This was bad. He didn’t need Audra and Kira to have a confrontation with Kendall and add more fuel to the ever-growing pile of ammunition their father had stockpiled against him.
“Jimmy’s with me now.” Audra stood in front of him and guarded him with her stance.
“I don’t want him,” Kendall replied, eyeing Jimmy with disgust. “I already had him. So did half of Brooklyn and probably hundreds of girls across the county.”
Jimmy was enraged. He’d never experienced such a rush of anger. “Get fucking lost, Kendall! We’ve all had it with your bullshit!”
“I have something that belongs to you.” Kendall was as smug as ever and still wore that haughty smile like she was better than everybody. It was infuriating.
“Whatever it is, I don’t want it. Security! Get this bitch outta here!”
“Watch your language,” Kendall replied. Her calm assertive demeanor was grating. She turned to the side of the stage. “Aunt Mary, can you come out here please?”
Security bombarded the stage. Two muscle-bound bouncers took hold of Kendall, one on each arm. They started to drag her away but stopped when an older woman passed in front of them with a small boy at her hand.
“Mommy?” The boy’s eyes were large and fearful – worried about his mother. He couldn’t be more than three years old.
“It’s okay, Mason. The nice men were just playing policeman.” Kendall’s voice was sickeningly sweet, before she turned and glared at each of the bouncers. At the sight of the child, they unhanded her.
“What is this?” Jimmy demanded, more confused than ever.
“I told you,” Kendall said. “I have something that belongs to you.”
She brought the boy over to Jimmy’s drum kit. The kid’s eyes and mouth opened wide with awe. He looked up at his mother and bounced on the balls of his feet, asking permission to play. She looked to Jimmy for an answer.
Too flabbergasted to speak, he muttered a few incoherent syllables and nodded.
The boy climbed up on the stool and almost toppled over from his exuberance. One of the stagehands helped him and adjusted the stool so the kid could reach the drums.
“Sticks,” the kid said, and the stagehand handed him a pair of Jimmy’s drumsticks.
The kid looked tiny behind the elaborate Tama setup, and the sticks looked almost as big as he was. A flashback invaded Jimmy’s memory. For a brief second he saw himself, about the same age, sitting on his father’s lap, pounding out one of his first beats. Sweat trickled down his back, and the hairs on his neck stood up.
The boy knew how to hold the sticks. He didn’t grab them in his fist like most small kids did. He had a matched grip. He held each stick exactly the same in each hand.
Everyone was frozen while they watched and waited.
The boy hit the snare first. They were tentative taps that tested the sound and strength of the skin. The kid hit the toms to his left and right, testing them in the same way. His face scrunched up with concentration as he formulated a steady beat and put together a rhythm. He even incorporated the cymbals. This young child, practically still a toddler, put together a rhythm in under a minute.
A booming sound reverberated in Jimmy’s chest. The kid was kicking the bass drum with his foot. He was using the tip of his sneaker to kick the large center drum to keep the beat. It was exactly what Jimmy did when he was a small boy. He ran to the kid, with a million panicked thoughts filling his head. “Where did you learn how to do that? Did someone teach you?”
The kid froze, frightened by Jimmy’s sudden outburst, and shook his head.
“How did you know to kick the bass drum with your foot?”
The boy raised his shoulders up to his ears and let them fall. “Dunno. I couldn’t reach the pedal.”
Jimmy’s head was swirling. Could this possibly be his kid? He tried to do the math in his head and calculate how much time had passed since he had a brief fling with Kendall, but it was impossible to pinpoint him as the father. Kendall was the town whore.
The steady beat of the drum brought his attention back to the child prodigy in front of him. The natural ability on the drums couldn’t possibly be taught to a boy his age. It was inborn – inherited – the same way Jimmy had inherited his talent from his father. But why was Kendall just showing up with his kid now? He took her by the arm and pulled her several feet away. “What the fuck is this? Why didn’t you come to me sooner? Why did you wait until now?”
Kendall shook his hand off of her arm. “I had no idea Mason was your kid. I thought that deadbeat drug dealer that used to hang out here was his father. Me and him were sleeping together on and off for years, until he heard I was pregnant. Then he took off like the DEA was on his tail.”
“What do you mean you had no idea? Look at the way he plays the drums.” Jimmy turned back to the kid, who was still wailing away on the drums like a veteran.
“My aunt bought him a kid’s drum set few weeks ago, on a whim. Mason took one look at it and his face lit up like it was Christmas morning. He jumped on the seat and started playing, exactly like he did just now. I plugged my iPod into the docking station and played an Immortal Angel song for him. By the time it was over, he was playing along to the beat of Hit & Run. Believe me, I was as surprised as you are.”
So many emotions went through Jimmy’s head. He knew he needed a paternity test to confirm the kid was his son, but the evidence was sitting in front of him, pounding on the drums like a Wilder. His immediate reaction was panic and anxiety, but the sound of the drums broke through his fear.
He watched Mason. This kid was a genius and would, no doubt, surpass his own musical ability. Pride and delight filled Jimmy’s chest. He wanted to guide his son and nurture the talent that ran through to the third generation of drummers in his family. Reality crashed down and shattered his heart. How the hell was he supposed to be a father when he was on tour? He swore he would never compromise family or music.
It felt like a two ton weight hit him in the chest. He was so consumed with the knowledge of a kid that he forgot all about Audra. He quickly turned in her direction. Her arms hung loosely by her side, and her shoulders drooped with despair. Her face was a mask of sorrow and betrayal, and her eyes were filled with tears. She slowly shook her head at him. He quickly went to her, but she turned and ran off stage and out the front entrance of The Quadrangle.
He ran after her, past the gawking eyes of the band, Jessi, Alyssa, and about a dozen other people still left at The Quadrangle. He caught Audra flagging down a passing taxi. “Wait! Audra, please.” He held her by her shoulders and stared into her eyes. There was so much pain behind them that it cut deep into his heart. He realized he had no idea what to say to her. He couldn’t explain. He was still in shock. “I’m sorry. I had no idea—”
“With her?” Tears brimmed on Audra’s lower lids, and her mouth curved into a painful frown. “Out of all the women you’ve been with, you have a kid with her?”
“I didn’t know anything about it until fift
een minutes ago. I’m sorry. I wasn’t keeping it from you.”
Audra pulled out of his grasp and ran her fingers through the roots of her hair. “I can’t believe this is happening.”
The cab driver beeped the horn.
“I have to go.”
“No! Please stay. We’ll sort this out. Together.”
Silent tears spilled down Audra’s cheeks, and she shook her head. “Not her. Anyone but her.”
Jimmy’s heart beat frantically in his chest as panic overtook him. He watched the woman he loved drive away, but he wasn’t letting her go. First, he needed to address Kendall and find out what she wanted, because she always wanted something. Then he would go after Audra. He turned to head back inside and Kira was standing in front of him. The pain in her eyes mimicked her sister’s. “Please,” he begged. “Talk to her. You know how much I love her.”
Kira nodded with a sad, solemn frown. Then she entered her car and drove away.
Heartache burned Jimmy’s soul as he returned to The Quadrangle. Jessi and Angel rushed toward him as soon as he entered the door.
“Are you alright?” Angel asked.
Jessi looked over Jimmy’s shoulder. “Where’s Audra? What happened?”
Jimmy’s eyes shifted between both of them. His head was reeling. “This is so fucked up, man. What the hell am I gonna do with a kid?”
“You’ll make it work,” Angel said, with a reassuring hand on Jimmy’s shoulder. “Whatever you need, we’re here for you.”
“Audra just ran out on me. I can’t make it work. Not with Kendall. You know what she’s like. She’ll never let me and Audra be happy.”
“Paternity still needs to be proven,” Jessi pointed out. “It could be some kind of fluke. Or a set up. You never know with Kendall.”
Jimmy didn’t doubt that Kendall was capable of finding the most gifted kid on the planet to pass off as his son, but she had to know a DNA test would blow her plan to pieces if she had fabricated the whole thing. He turned his attention back to the kid, still pounding on the drums. Tommy was kneeling next to the boy, already acting like a proud mentor.
Rock Star Redemption Page 15