Page 91 of The Sounds of Her

Well, except for Brooke. That’s new.

I get close in time to overhear what she is saying to the woman, whose face is less smug than it was a few seconds ago.

“We will file an order in court that not only gets you a mark on your record, but your press badge is also going to be stripped from you so fast, you won’t know what the hell happened.” She has her arms folded, as if she is not confronting three jackals, daring them to argue back with her. “Not to mention you put your hands on her without permission, so we will report an assault to the police, too.”

“What? I didn’t,” the woman splutters. The other woman is going to argue back but jumps at the voice behind her.

“She put her hands on you?” Adam growls.

“I’m fine.” Jenna reaches out and touches his forearm. A simple touch that goes some way to cooling him down, but not enough for him to relax.

“I am also going to ensure you have your backstage access badge revoked here. Everyone will know you confronted a lone woman, shoved a camera in her face and started asking her shit you have no right to ask. I will make sure everyone knows the kind of people you are and any tour manager who works in this city, this fucking country, never gives you access to any act on their stage.”

She glances to the side at the man next to her. She doesn’t care he’s still filming, confident she won’t do anything to get her, or the band in trouble. She is a lawyer, after all.

“The company you work for is going to find out soon what it means to mess with innocent people in the name of a story. This woman is not part of the band and, therefore, off limits.”

The woman interrupts again, but Brooke once again cuts her off.

“Don’t give me shit about freedom of the press. You were aggressive and intimidating and you got into her personal space. Trust me, sweetheart, you will never be considered a legitimate member of the press again. If what you even call this bullshit is journalism. I’m pretty sure any professional would fully know the legal parameters they may go to for a story.

“You have no respect, therefore, I’ll make sure you’re stripped of yours.”

She doesn’t need to worry about the camera. I grab it from the dude while he’s distracted watching Brooke be a complete boss, coming to her best friend’s aid. I have no clue what these fuckers said to Jenna, but it has to be something pretty shit to illicit this kind of response.

“Hey,” the camera guy turns to argue, but when he sees it’s me taking the camera off of him, he shuts up and holds his hands up.

I’d love nothing more than to punch him in the face and smash his camera, but I’ve learnt how to handle this kind of shit. Instead, I open it, remove the memory card inside, and throw it back at him. He drops it, his problem. I shove the card into my pocket as Stone arrives along with other security and breaks things up.

Adam is caught between continuing to flip out while standing with Jenna, and the stage manager who is losing his shit. As they’re dragged away Brooke has their lanyards in her hands, staring at their photographs and information. No doubt she is filing it away to carry through on her threats. She isn’t kidding about that. She has no authority here, unable to use her status as a lawyer, but she can help.

Jesus, she is fucking hot. Our eyes meet amongst all the chaos. And after a few moments, she winks at me, making me grin like an idiot.

Someone grabs my arm and I turn to give them shit when I realise it’s Bruno, our tour manager, and he is rounding up the other guys. The noise from out in the stadium alerts me the crowd is still baying for us to come back on. Shit.

I hurry over to Adam. He’s agitated, refusing to go back on stage because he can’t trust any fucker to keep her safe. Not even Jenna’s calm, even tone as she tells him she is fine, is helping.

“What did they ask you?” he demands.

“Adam, get back on the stage, right now,” she puts her hands on her hips. “We can talk about this later. I’m fine, it’s nothing I can’t handle. Well, Brooke can’t handle,” she laughs.

“This isn’t funny. Stone, where the fuck were you?” he yells at him as he comes back to make sure everything is alright.

Stone is more concerned about making sure Jenna is okay, and she assures him she is. I’m pretty sure Adam is gonna kill him later. It’ll all be fine. They’ve been together a long time, they’re friends too, but Stone dropped the ball here and Adam has every right to be pissed.

“Cat’s out of the bag,” Brooke says, stepping up beside me. “They know about the wedding.”

“That’s why they were getting all up on you?” Adam’s face is a mask of pure anger. Our PR has a plan for announcing the wedding, but it’s not happening yet. Whether we’ve stopped those assholes right now, or Brooke has them fired, the news will spread.

Someone says something about Zosia and Adam’s head whips their way.

“What?” he snaps at the roadie.

“They were asking about you and Zosia,” he says.

My eyes meet Jenna’s and I recall her mentioning Zosia while we were on the tour bus on our way to Seattle. She’d asked what I thought about the teenage singer. Fucking hell, is someone insinuating something is going on between Ad and Zosia? That’s all we need. She’s nineteen, so not underage, but Adam is thirty, and married.

“Stop perpetuating their bullshit,” Brooke snaps at the roadies. “Adam, let Jenna go,” Brooke takes Jenna’s hand. “Be a professional and get back on stage.”

---