Chapter Twelve

Cross

 

 

It had taken forever to get out of the mess Indie had created in the coffee shop. The first six girls had been easy to take care of. A few selfies. Sign something for them. But it hadn’t ended there. They’d sent a text out or a tweet because another group of ten had shown up. Then people in the coffee shop had joined in, even if they hadn’t known who I was. The manager had tried to help get me out the door, but the crowd had been overwhelming.

He’d ended up ushering me into the back, where I’d waited until a couple of cops had shown up and done some crowd control. Gone was the idea I’d be able to walk the two blocks back to the arena and enjoy the nice weather.

Instead, one of the officers had offered me a ride and I’d had to take it.

Once I’d gotten over being mad that she’d outed me, I had to admit that it had been pretty good payback. I kept forgetting that Indie had been around this life since birth. She knew the ins and outs better than I did.

“You tried to kick Indie out of the venue?” Ransom asked once we were alone. Though I could barely hear him through his laughter.

“Fuck off.”

“I mean, she has the permanent pass around her neck all the time.”

“I couldn’t see it because of her camera. Can we just do soundcheck?”

His laughter grew and I wanted to punch him in the face just to shut him up.

“Let’s go, guys,” Lawson said, appearing from nowhere.

I slid in behind my kit and finally felt at home. Drumming was what I loved. Each and every day was like coming home. On this stool behind the drums was where I belonged. There was only one thing was missing to get this soundcheck over.

“Anybody seen Eric?” Lawson called out.

I shrugged, Ransom looked away, and Dixon shook his head. Of course, none of us would know where he was. He’d never give us more information than we absolutely needed. It made me miss the early days when he’d actually given a little bit of a fuck about all of this. The success was going to his head.

“Well, let’s do this anyway,” Lawson said.

I counted it off. And then I saw Indie.

She was walking around with that fucking camera taking picture after picture of things that didn’t make any sense. Maybe that was why I was a drummer and not a photographer. I didn’t have the eye for visual artistry. Indie bent and twisted her body in ways that made keeping my thoughts chaste nearly impossible.

I didn’t even think she knew she was doing it. For her, the movements were natural, but they were making my dick come alive. At least until something blocked my ability to see her and I stopped playing.

“Fucking finally,” Ransom said into the mic.

Drink gave him the finger and put his bass strap over his shoulder. I didn’t want to deal with the drama, so I went right into counting off again. But I did a visual search of the arena for Indie. This time she caught me, smiled, and brought her camera up to her eye. I smiled back and her flash went off half a dozen times.

Drink moved farther away from me in her direction, watching her as he moved. Unlike me, he didn’t look away. He kept staring. Yeah, I’d been watching her too, but the way he did it, I could almost read his fucking thoughts and I sure as hell didn’t like what I saw there.

The heat of jealousy rose from my stomach. I didn’t think anything had happened between the two of them, but did I really know? Indie had said Drink made her uncomfortable, but was that because of him in general or something more between them? She hadn’t been with us long, but I also wasn’t around the two of them twenty-four hours a day. The thought of the two of them together brought out a new kind of rage.

I needed to find the answers to those questions.

“All right,” Lawson called out again. “We’re done.”

Drink pulled off his bass, then walked off the stage in Indie’s direction. No way was that going to happen. I hopped up and followed. She’d said he made her uncomfortable and my mother would kill me if I left a woman alone with a man who made her uncomfortable.

“Cross.” Lawson calling me back to him wasn’t going to stop me. Drink wasn’t going to be alone with Indie. “Cross,” he called again.

“What?” I snapped and stopped where I was. Not nearly close enough to where I needed to be, but I wasn’t going to lose ground by going back to Lawson.

“The reporter from Thunder Gods is here and you’re up first.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The spread they’re doing on the Kissing Cinder tour. I told you guys about this. They want to talk to all of you as well.”

“Now?”

“You’re up first.”

After glancing back to Indie, who was leaning against a railing looking at something on her camera and not noticing Drink headed her way, I sighed, then caved and followed Lawson. Indie could take care of herself. She’d proved that the day we’d met, but I still didn’t like it. At least there was enough security around that I shouldn’t have to worry about her too much. Other than Drink being a dick to her.

The reporter, a tall, leggy brunette, introduced herself as she stretched her hand out to me when I entered the small conference room. “Kristin Sokoloff.”

“Cross Rhodes.” I gave her a quick shake and sat down in the chair across from her.

“So we’re going to jump right in. Tell me about how you all came together and when you found out Courting Chaos would be touring with Kissing Cinder.”

That was the same question people usually started with and I could give the answer without having to think about it too much. I wasn’t sure why they cared anymore about how we’d formed. The stuff a lot of people already knew but we still had to cover for newer fans.

Ransom and I had been looking for something to do in high school and we’d told Dixon because we’d known he could play. We’d gone through two other bass players before meeting Drink and that had filled the band out. I left out the part where none of us had really wanted Drink in the band, but he’d been the best we’d known back then. Nobody else needed to hear about that.

I went on to tell her about getting the call with the offer to open for Kissing Cinder. Though I’d never be able to fully describe those feelings. To know that all the hard work was starting to pay off gave me a feeling that would be impossible to describe.

Kristen glanced down at her notepad then back up at me. “So opening for the biggest band in music, one with serious staying power, what’s that like?” She wet her lips with her tongue. “What’s the one thing that’s different than you imagined?”

Indie came to mind right then, but I couldn’t give her as the answer. Yet I honestly never considered being on tour with a girl like her. The attraction clearly there but also her being off-limits.

“The tour is amazing so far,” I said. “As for what’s different than I imagined… You know we’ve done smaller tours, so the actual travel and hectic days aren’t really new, but being on tour with Kissing Cinder, I’d say we’ve upgraded accommodations.”

She chuckled.

We chatted for a few more minutes, just small talk in general, when she asked, “Anyone special in your life?”

“You mean like my mom?” I’d come up with that one a couple of years ago. Even if I had a girlfriend, I wasn’t going to out that during an interview.

She smiled and shook her head. “Or someone else.”

“Nah. Being on the road makes relationships hard.”

She sighed. “That’s what they all tell me. I’m sure it’s hard but I’m not sure I believe that being a musician automatically means there aren’t any girlfriends.”

“Oh, there are.”

Her eyes popped open wider like she thought I was about to give her a scoop.

“But not for me,” I added then shook her hand again and went for the door.

“Oh,” she said, stopping me right as my hand was about to touch the knob. “Could you send in Eric Drinkswine?”

“Sure. Good luck.”

Her smile fell before she recovered it and chuckled. “I’m not sure I like that sound of that.”

She probably shouldn’t like the sound of what I said but all I wanted to do now was check on Indie.