“Burn Card.”
She bolts from the bed and grabs my shoulder. “Oh my gosh! Your cousins are in Burn Card?!” she shrieks.
“Yes?” I say, rubbing at my ear. Damn, she’s loud when she’s excited.
“Holy shit. Eli! That’s amazing! I mean, wait. Can’t they help you out? Certainly, they must be doing pretty well for themselves.”
I squint at her, tilting my head in confusion. “Um. Yeah, but I’m good.”
By her sigh, she disagrees. She reaches out and strokes my face. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you. That was rude of me to suggest and none of my business. Of course you are.”
I’m about to respond when a scrape from upstairs forces our gazes toward the steps.
“Oh! Someone’s at the door!”
We jump up from the bed and frantically pull on our clothes.
“Down here,” she shouts, lunging toward the stairs while still tugging on her shorts. “Stephen is that you? Stephen, I’m stuck down here!” She races up the stairs, and I follow close behind. We reach the top just as the heavy wooden door swings open. A frigid blast of air rushes in, blanketing our sweaty bodies. Also waiting is a man I don’t recognize—and several I do.
“What the fuck, Eli?” Sweeny mutters when he sees me.
“You okay?” Luke asks. Casey just shakes his head with a smirk like he figured I’d get myself locked in a random basement.
I roll my eyes at all of them and exit into freedom. “I’m fine. Just got lost trying to make a call and ended up trapped down here. Guys, this is…” The introduction stalls on my tongue when my gaze lands on Marina.
• • •
Marina
That’s… that’s Luke Craven. And Casey Barrett. And Mike Sweeny. And several others behind my boss Stephen who look like crewmembers which means… I turn to Eli in shock, his gaze simultaneously confused, apologetic, and amused. I don’t know if I want to laugh, cry, scream, or punch him right now. Maybe all of the above? I just spent heart-pounding, soul-wrenching hours of physical and emotional intimacy with—not Eli the homeless guy—but an “Eli” who’s part of Night Shifts Black!
“She looks shell-shocked, dude. What’d you do to her?” Casey asks, smacking his bandmate on the chest.
Eli ignores him, his gorgeous eyes fixed solely on me. “I—Marina? What is it? What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong?!” I force out. I march forward and shove him so hard he stumbles back several steps. “What’s wrong? You’re… you! That’s what’s wrong! You’re freaking you!”
“But I thought… I mean, you said you knew.” He shakes his head, genuinely confused.
“I said I knew you were homeless!” I shout, smacking his arm. He flinches as the other guys burst into laughter.
“Oh my god. She thought… she thought…” Sweeny can’t even get the words out.
“Dude, I told you to get a haircut,” Casey snorts. They double over, laughing so hard they can’t breathe.
Eli shakes his head, clearly out of words. “I’m sorry, Marina. I thought… I should have told you. But you had the knife and the broom and then—”
“Hang on,” Casey interrupts, gasping for air. “The broom? There’s a broom involved in this?”
Eli glares at them and swats Casey’s hand from his arm. “None of your damn business. Look, why don’t you all go back to the bus while I talk to Marina.”
“Oh, hell no. This is amazing,” Sweeny gasps out.
Luke rolls his eyes and grabs his bandmates’ sleeves. “Okay. We can harass him later. He clearly has some shit to sort out. See you back at the bus?” he directs to Eli, already dragging the others away. “Nice to meet you…” he says to me, fishing for my name.
“Marina,” Eli mutters. “Guys, meet Marina.”
”Marina,” Luke echoes with a nod. “Thanks for taking such good care of my bass player. Oh, and Eli, when you’re done here. You need to call Liberty. She’s freaking out. She’s the one who informed us you were missing and might need help.”
“Yeah. Got it,” Eli grunts.
My boss gives me a confused, angry look as the band and crew depart, and I can only imagine how that conversation is going to go later. For now, we have more pressing matters to deal with. “You going to be okay?” Stephen asks, his gaze sliding to Eli with suspicion.
“We’ll be fine,” I assure him. “I’ll find you in a minute. Thanks for letting us out.”
“We need to get that damn door fixed,” he mumbles as he walks away.
Once we’re alone, I turn to Eli who sighs and shoves his hands in the waistband of his shorts. His hoodie is slung over his shoulder, his hair as messy and sexy as ever. His eyes… sigh. His eyes.
I blink and wish I could stay mad at him. “That’s what you were going to tell me just before they found us, wasn’t it?” I say finally.
His right eye screws into a squint as he lets out a long breath. “Yep. But you said you knew and… yep.” He shakes his head and straightens. “Marina, I’m so sorry. I really thought… I just…”
“Did you mean any of it?” I ask, searching his face.
“Any of what?”
“Anything that happened down there. Was any of it real?”
He looks legitimately surprised by my question. “What do you mean? All of it was real.“
I take a step toward him. “All of it?”
He nods, those dark eyes resting on me. So open. So earnest. So sexy and funny and everything they were before I knew who he was. And then it hits me. I’m mad at him for not telling me who he was, but what about the fact that I didn’t know? I immediately recognized Luke, Casey, and even the lead guitar player at the top of the stairs. Knew their names, could probably even tell you a few random facts about them. But I didn’t even know NSB had a band member named Eli.
I look up into his face when I reach him, enjoying the heat of his body again as we hover close. Reaching up, I touch his cheek, tracing slowly.
“So, I guess you’ll be in town for at least another day,” I say, my gaze lifting to his.
The concern on his face melts into relief. Then a smile that stops my heart. “Yeah, I guess I will.”
“I mean, I know you probably have a ton of plans. Lots of setup and groupies and—”
He steps toward me until we’re pressed against each other. He’s already hardening again. I’m already melting.
“I’m free if you are,” he says. “Just, if it’s cool with you, after I call my cousin, maybe we go out for some real food and get a hotel room instead? Like, a big-ass one with tons of wide-open space.”
“Perfect. I owe you a steak dinner anyway.”
He lifts a brow as I slip my arms around his waist, loving the feel of his body against me. Loving the promise of today and the excitement for tomorrow. But mostly, I love that I’ve just learned I’m the kind of person who can seize a moment and live it to its fullest. I don’t know if we’ll ever see each other again. Maybe this will always be that crazy story I can tell and nothing more. The fact that I learned I’m capable of crafting crazy stories? Pretty freaking incredible, and I’ll always be grateful to Eli the homeless bass player for that. For now, we enjoy the time we have left.