Patrick checks his phone. “I should go. I’m the opener tomorrow and we still need to get some stuff done.”
“Good luck! I’ll try to catch your performance,” I assure him before we go our separate ways again.
I’m pleasantly surprised every time I run into someone I know over the course of the evening. I’m not naïve enough to think there isn’t gossip going around behind my back, but face to face, everyone is friendly and kind.
All the excitement has worn Caden out, and I’m just putting him to bed when Axton and Dani return. There’s a light in Axton’s eyes I haven’t seen in a while. Just being back on a stage to rehearse, in his element, has been good for him. He sweeps his long hair back with his fingers and I can smell the faint scent of his sweat when he takes Caden out of my arms. It does terrible things to me.
Axton takes him to my bedroom to read him his bedtime story, returning after just a few minutes. “He’s out.” His gaze travels from me to Dani. “Are you two in for the night?”
“Yes,” I reply and Dani nods absently, looking at her phone.
He glances at Dani. “The interview tomorrow for the local radio station. Have they been sent the guidelines?”
“Yes, they know not to ask any personal questions or anything pertaining to the kidnapping or court case. Just talk about the music. The VIP fan meet and greet gathering is at five. You’re sharing the room with Patrick Thorn and Sharp Edge. Soundcheck is at seven, you go on at nine. There’s an itinerary in your room if you forget.”
“Got it.” He regards me. “Don’t leave the hotel with Hatch and have security with you when you’re outside of the room. He’s with you, Dani, or me at all times.”
“Understood.” We’ve been over and over this, but I know how nervous he is.
Satisfied, he heads for the door. “Security will be in the hall.”
Dani looks up at me after he leaves. “Do you feel okay being here alone with Caden if I go out for a bit?”
“Of course.”
“I’m just going to have a few drinks with Clara. Don’t worry if I’m back late.”
Once she’s out the door, I lie on the sofa watching TV for a couple of hours until I doze off. The sound of the door closing startles me out of a strange dream that flees my memory almost instantly, and I jerk my head around to see Dani practically tiptoeing through the sitting room.
It’s my turn to startle her when I sit up where she can see me. “Oh, hey, I didn’t think you’d still be up.”
There’s not a sign of intoxication in her voice and anyone with a brain stem would be able to see what she has been doing. Her clothes are rumpled, lipstick almost gone, hair hastily pulled back to disguise how messy it is. I’m glad someone is getting laid.
When I grin and raise my eyebrows at her, she smiles and shakes her head. “Don’t even.”
I stand up and raise my palms. “I wasn’t going to say anything. I’m heading to bed.”
“Good night.”
“Apparently was.”
Her giggle follows me back to my room. A few minutes of lying in bed reminds me that I’m one nosy bitch, because I wonder who she was with. There were plenty of guys on offer, and ones we’re both familiar with so it’s anyone’s guess. I know she doesn’t plan to move with us when the house Axton is having built is complete, and though I’ll miss having her around all the time, I’m happy for her. She needs a life too, and it looks like she’s trying to find one.
Maybe she can teach me how.
We’ve been backstage for almost two hours and Caden is getting cranky. Since the last tour, he has decided that the noise cancelling headphones are an affront to his existence and I have to put them back on him every few minutes. There’s no help for it since the music is loud, even back here.
“I know you don’t like them,” I say, putting them on him for the tenth time. “But you have to keep them on.” Swinging him up onto my hip, I step out into the hall and see the guys heading toward the stage.
Axton stops and drops a kiss on Caden’s head. “Be good, you little monster.”
“Da-di!” he screeches as Axton walks away.
“Let’s go watch Daddy. But you have to keep your headphones on,” I lecture. Dani pops out of the next room and joins us. The roar of the crowd when Axton steps out is deafening, and we get to the side of the stage just in time to hear them start playing.
He slides into his role of sexy rock star like he never left. At the first notes of Tragic’s biggest hit, cheers from the crowd overpower the music for a few moments, and he grins, shaking his head.
When it dies down a bit, he approaches the mic. “I can just play that part over and over if it makes you that happy.”
His teasing is met with more screams of approval, and I can’t remember the last time I saw him like this. Not just happy but lit up inside. He needed this.
The audience loses it again as he restarts the song, but this time he keeps playing. I’ve heard him play these songs before, but I could never get tired of them. The sight and sound of him, the way he sings with so much passion, whether it’s a fast rock song or a slower, bluesy number. He always seems to feel every chord and note, his facial expressions shifting from joy to pain to sadness with the lyrics.
I’m surprised to see him step off the stage during one powerful song and step up onto a platform right against the metal barriers holding back the crowd. As he sings, a mass of hands reach to touch him, landing on his chest, his sides, grabbing his arms. I’d have a heart attack with people pawing at me like that, but he just keeps singing while grabbing a random hand to squeeze here and there.
I notice one hand hasn’t moved the whole time he stood there singing. It rests on his chest, over his heart, and the girl it belongs to stares up at him with eyes filled with awe and admiration. He lays a hand over it and winks down at her before stepping back down and retreating to the stage.
His effect on people is amazing. There are always women drooling and lusting over musicians—god knows I’m guilty of it—but his effect on his audience is so much more than that. He forms this connection with them, makes them feel through the music. I understand wanting to feel his heartbeat, to put your hand over the source of that energy.
The song is almost over when Caden yanks off his headphones, and I hastily put them back on. He promptly removes them again and twists around, trying to get out of my arms. Squatting down, I set him on the floor and slide them back over his ears.
His response is to throw himself to the floor. His screams can’t be heard over the music, but I know when I’m beat. Before I can tell Dani that I’m going to take him back to the green room, she scoops him up and leans to talk into my ear. “I’ve got him. Stay. There’s only one song left. We’ll meet you in the green room.” She walks away before I can argue or thank her.
Axton pauses between songs to say something to Brysen, then nods. His smile has fallen away and dissolves into a frown when he glances over at me.
He must be upset that I sent Caden with Dani, but it didn’t break his instructions. He always had to be with one of us. For the first time, he seems a little stressed onstage, running his hand through his hair before stepping up to the mic.