Chapter Thirty

Cross

 

“Cross, get in here,” Lawson called from the dressing room. I’d rather have gone with Indie, but the band had shit to figure out.

“Hey.” I tugged on her arm to get her attention. “I have to go deal with this. See you after?”

“Absolutely. Text me.”

“You don’t have your phone, remember?”

“Oh shoot. Right. Well, come find me then.” Before she continued to follow Vince, she pushed on her toes and kissed me on the lips like she didn’t care who saw her. I know I didn’t.

Lawson shut the door behind me after I got into the dressing room, where Ransom and Dixon stood, leaning against a wall, on one side of the room and Drink was on the other. I chose to sit on the table because I didn’t want to be anywhere near that asshole.

“Obviously, things have escalated,” Lawson said. “Some decisions have to be made.”

“Does that include him not being in my sight?” I asked while glaring at Drink.

“When did you turn into such a whiny bitch?” Drink said back.

It took all of my willpower to keep my ass on that table and not spring forward to choke him to death. If karma was a thing, he was going to be getting his soon enough and I hoped like hell the court system would be the one to deliver it.

“Anybody want to tell me what happened?” Lawson asked, ignoring him.

“These guys have turned into whiny bitches who’ve forgotten how to have fun.”

“Or,” I said, “he’s sleeping with underage girls and threatening anyone who might know.”

“That’s bullshit.”

“You put your fucking hands on Indie. And I happen to have a picture of you with the girl accusing you. So don’t tell me it’s bullshit.”

“Fuck,” he roared. “I knew that bitch had something.”

“Enough.” Lawson’s voice commanded the room, but anger still burned in my veins. “What do you guys want to do now?”

“I want Drink out,” Dixon said first. This surprised me because he was pretty quiet on the Drink front.

“Same,” Ransom agreed.

I took another minute. It was one thing to say I wanted him gone. But this was bigger than just that. Lawson knew we wanted him gone. This was the time for me to make my stand. So instead I said, “I won’t play with him again.”

“That’s a big statement,” Lawson said.

I nodded. “It is. But that fucker put his hands on my girlfriend. I won’t play with him again.” I had no idea if Indie thought she was my girlfriend, but for me, I didn’t need a statement between us to feel it. And with her, I fucking felt it everywhere.

Lawson nodded, then turned his focus on Drink. “You’ve got to go, Eric.”

“What?” Eric stepped back with wide eyes then scratched at his right eyebrow.

“You’ve got to go. You’re constantly late, mostly drunk, now the accusations of sex with underage girls… Not to mention Vince won’t let you stay on tour once Indie fills him in on everything. You’ve got to go. We need to make a statement that this was your choice. But you’ve got to go. Now.”

“We have a show tonight.”

“If you stay, we don’t have a drummer,” Lawson countered. “I’ve organized sets without a bassist. I once even got it done without the lead singer. But a show doesn’t exist without the drummer. We’ll have to cancel tonight.”

“What about Kissing Cinder?” I asked, hating the idea of canceling at all, but I really hated the idea of letting them down when they’d given us this opportunity. Especially now that I was with Indie. I didn’t want to let her down.

“They’ll either get a stand-in for tonight or they’ll cancel, too. Once we figure this shit out, we can schedule a makeup for your fans if they still play tonight. Shit happens. We’ll figure it out.”

“You’ll all regret this,” Drink said as he grabbed his bag and began stuffing shit into it. “I didn’t want to be here in the first fucking place.”

Ransom, Dixon, and I kept our mouths shut and let Lawson handle him. Plus, I was pretty sure if I got involved, I’d put my fist through Drink’s face again. I didn’t need the headache. Right then I just wanted to get back to Indie. Make sure she was OK.

“Aw, man,” Dixon said as were about to leave the room. “Does this mean we’ll go down to one bus?”

I chuckled. “Doubt it. We do still need a bassist. Besides, even if we went down to one, I don’t think I’ll be on it much, so you’ll be back to two-per-bus.”

“You’re leaving us for Indie Cinderstone?” Ransom asked, pretending to be outraged.

“Not leave, Ran.” I gave his cheek three light taps. “Just growing the family.”

Ransom snapped his head back from my hand. “Touch me like that again and I’m going to start calling her ‘Mommy.’”

I shuddered. “That’s disturbing.”

Leaving that room that night, a weight lifted from my shoulders. We wouldn’t be playing that night, which sucked. But I wouldn’t have to look at Drink’s face anymore. All in all, I called that a win.

“Hey,” I called out to Indie as she exited Kissing Cinder’s dressing room.

“How’d it go?” she asked as she pulled me over to the side, where hopefully no one would overhear.

Sometimes privacy wasn’t easy to come by, but we did our best.

“How’s this?” I pushed at her much more purple bruise causing her to recoil. Just seeing it made the rage surge again.

“It’s fine. Probably looks worse than it feels.”

“Really?”

“No. It hurts like hell, but I want to know how it went with you guys.”

Before I told her, I leaned in and kissed her softly on the lips. When I pulled back, I said, “He’s leaving. Now, I assume. You won’t have to see him except maybe on the news.”

“Really?” she asked with so much hope in her voice.

“Really. And Lawson’s canceling our show. I don’t know what your dad’s going to do.”

Indie looked away and shifted her weight as her teeth scraped across her bottom lip. “They’re not canceling,” she finally admitted.

“Oh.”

“They have friends who happen to be in town. Rolling Thunder. They agree to play tonight. Some fans will be disappointed.”

“Lawson has a plan.” I stepped in closer to her. “But that means I have tonight off.”

“You do,” she said back with a smile.

“I think that means we can actually go out on a date.”

Indie’s head fell back as she let out a full laugh. “We’ve gone out.”

“Not properly. Both times we went out, I didn’t even get to kiss you goodnight.”

“True.” She wet her bottom lip and tugged at the bottom of a lock of hair. “Give me an hour. I know it’s early, but we can go out, have fun, then come back.”

“And have fun.” I wiggled my eyebrows at her.

She giggled again. “Just go away so I can get ready. Casual tonight, right?”

I wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her out of the arena. Once we got to her bus, I let her go, then went back to my own. She’d said she needed an hour. I only needed about fifteen minutes, so I had forty-five to kill.