Chapter Two

Cross

 

 

I just wanted to get this band meeting over with. Honestly, we shouldn’t need one in the first place.

This issue wasn’t new. We all should’ve been well aware of our responsibilities, yet here we were having an official band meeting to give Eric Drinkswine, or Drink as we called him, a verbal kick in the ass. And right as we were embarking on our first major tour, too. With Kissing Cinder no less. We couldn’t screw this up.

“What’re we doing here?” Drink asked once Lawson had shut the door behind us.

“Take a seat,” Lawson said, pointing at the nearest chair.

Dixon, Ransom, and I were already sitting around the table in a small meeting room. Of course, Drinkswine would be the holdout just to be a pain in the ass.

When the three of us had formed Courting Chaos, we’d had a lead guitar, a singer, and a drummer but still needed a bass player. Eric was the best around, though not the one with the best reputation, and I’d never been completely sold on asking him to join the band. Now that he was about to fuck this all up for us, I wished we’d never found him in the first place. Though in our defense, we couldn’t have predicted that Courting Chaos would actually go anywhere. Most bands don’t go on to make records and grow beyond local gigs, let alone go on an actual US tour. Especially with Kissing Cinder.

It still blew my mind. We’d grown up listening to Kissing Cinder. They were who we hoped to be one day. Now we were opening for them on tour. It was just mind-boggling.

“Eric.” Lawson started the meeting. Managers handled shit like this. Shit like when one member was trying to turn your life’s dream into a sinking ship. He’d stuck with us when we weren’t making much money and his loyalty paid off with the big salary bump he’d just gotten given our new status. “We would like some assurance that you’re going to take this tour seriously.”

“Why is that being directed at me?” Drink countered.

“Because it’s only been two weeks and you’ve been late every day,” I said, even though I shouldn’t have. We’d agreed to leave this to Lawson and that was exactly what I should’ve done. So Drink didn’t think this was personal for me. Even if it was.

“And when you show up you’re drunk,” Dixon added.

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who had a hard time holding my tongue.

“Isn’t partying why we’re in a band?” Drink asked.

“No,” the rest of us answered together.

“Look,” Lawson said, sitting down beside Drink. “This tour is a game-changer for everyone. We need you to be on top of your game; otherwise, you could fuck us all over.” This wasn’t Lawson’s first go around as a manager. He’d managed several moderately successful bands. Which was why I couldn’t believe it when he’d wanted to work with us.

“How about this?” Drink stood and swayed on his feet. He’d been drinking already and it wasn’t even noon. “You all can go fuck yourselves. Or each other. I don’t care which.”

Then he staggered out of the dressing room.

“He’s gonna ruin this,” Ransom said.

“We’re going to keep that from happening,” Lawson assured us, but it was honestly hard to believe him. Nobody controlled Drink but Drink.

“Know any good bass players?” I asked him with a raised eyebrow.

Dixon sighed. We knew plenty of good players, but replacing Drink on a tour where people expected to see him could either go really, really well or career-endingly bad. Not to mention contracts and the legal side of it that I had no idea how we’d work around.

“Fuck,” I muttered, pushing off the chair, then leaving the room.

We should’ve seen this coming. Drink was unreliable under the best circumstances and had been for years. We’d always brushed it off as one of his quirks because he’d never taken it to the extreme. Now he was and we never should’ve thought he could keep it together for something this big.

Instead of going around the arena in the corridor, I decided to cut back through the arena the way we came to the meeting. That way I could just cross right through without the added time.

As I stepped out on the other side, I heard the telltale click of someone taking my picture. It’d started to happen more and more since we’d been announced as openers on the Kissing Cinder tour. Normally, it didn’t bother me, but today… I wasn’t feeling it. I was pissed and annoyed and ready to erupt.

Fuck.

It was her. The girl from before that I had told to get the hell out of the arena. Obviously, she didn’t listen really well. She was hot but persistent. The short blonde with the cutest pissed-off face stood there scowling at me. Where the fuck was security when you needed them? And what reason would she have to be pissed at me other than the fact that I’d tried to make her follow the rules?

“Hey,” I called over to her.

“You stepped into my shot,” she said back as if I was supposed to know what that meant.

“Didn’t I tell you to leave already?”

“Luckily, you’re not the boss of me.”

“Nice,” I said and rolled my eyes.

The fact that this girl was sexy as hell and if I was in a better mood I might have approached the situation in a different way meant nothing. Because right now, I was in a bad mood and her still being there was only making that mood worse.

“Look, I get it,” I said. “You want to catch a glimpse of Kissing Cinder or whatever. They’re not here yet and you need to leave.”

She cocked her head to the side and smirked, her full lips pressing against one another like she was trying not to smile or say something. “Are you security?”

“No.” Obviously, she wasn’t a fan of Courting Chaos. Fine. “But I do have a little pull here, so why don’t you get the hell out before I call security?”

Her smile grew wide and her eyes sparkled. “Double dog dare you to.”

Man, this girl didn’t scare easily. Usually, all I had to do with the younger ones was threaten to get security and they’d run off. Especially if the band wasn’t even around anyway.

“Listen,” she said, folding her arms under her breasts. Breasts obstructed by that damn camera. “I can see you’re in a shitty mood, so I’m going to let you off the hook. I’ve got somewhere to be anyway.”

She walked away and I watched. I’m a guy—of course, I watched. But she sure wasn’t dressed like a groupie; she had on shorts and a T-shirt that actually fit. Her clothes weren’t two or three sizes too small the way the girls wore them when they really, really wanted you to see what they had to offer. And chucks. The girl was dressed for comfort. Not to impress anyone.

It didn’t add up, but I wasn’t going to dwell on it. We had lunch with the guys from Kissing Cinder before soundcheck. Something I was told they did every tour.

“I wouldn’t give Indie such a hard time,” Dean said as he appeared beside me.

I hadn’t even seen him around, which meant he’d gotten to witness my shitty-ass mood. Dean’d been with Vince Cinderstone for years, so he’d dealt with more security issues than anyone.

“Who?” I started walking and he followed.

“Indie. The girl you were just fucking with.”

“And who the fuck is Indie?”

Dean burst out into a louder than necessary laugh. I didn’t seem much humor in the situation. Of course, Dixon and Ransom decided to join us just then, meaning they’d get to hear about my shitty mood, too.

“What’s so funny?” Ransom asked.

Dean continued to laugh, which I just found annoying and Ransom then Dixon laughed at him laughing. What a clusterfuck start to the day. Finally, Dean got himself together enough to speak.

“Who the fuck is Indie?” Dean repeated my question. “That’s the girl you were just giving a hard time.”

Ransom and Dixon both cocked their heads to the side while looking at me. At least they hadn’t seen that part of my day.

“That same girl taking pictures in the venue?” Ransom asked.

“Yeah.” Dean chucked again. “Indie Cinderstone. Vince’s daughter. She’ll be at lunch today with her dad.”

My bandmates broke out into a round of laughter that put Dean’s to massive shame. Assholes.

“Fuck,” I muttered.

Indie Cinderstone could possibly put an end to Courting Chaos being on this tour if she wanted to. And I didn’t even know Vince had a kid. Or maybe I did, but I sure as hell didn’t remember. Either way, we were working hard to keep Drink from fucking this whole thing up for us, so I sure as hell wasn’t going to do it by not watching my manners.

“Vince Cinderstone’s daughter, asshole?” Dixon pushed me from behind as we made our way down the hall toward the dressing rooms. “You had to go be a dick to her?”

Thank fuck I shared a room or a bus with Ransom on the road. He wouldn’t ride me about this as long as Dixon and if Drink never found out, that’d be perfect.

“How was I supposed to know she’s his daughter?” I shot back. “Drink has me in a terrible mood and she keeps taking pictures.”

“Did you break her camera with your ugly face?” Ransom asked.

I flipped him off and kept walking.

Courting Chaos had picked up steam. We were on the radio and had some decent sales, but we needed this tour as a band. Landing the opening act gig with Kissing Cinder was supposed to solidify our spot. This was our time.

We had to focus on the music, not letting Drink mess this up for us with something he did or forcing the rest of us be his fucking babysitters.

But that meant I couldn’t fuck it up either.