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Adrian said, “We could mix it up. You guys wanna play ‘Mayhem’ next?”

It was the song with our most complex solo, one none of us had seen Wolf play yet. I said, “Are you ready for that one, Wolf?”

“I was born ready, baby.”

Holy hell. The confidence oozed off the man, not to mention how he’d seemed to instantly loosen some of the tight control he always reined himself back with.

Into the mike, I nearly screamed, “Then let’s fucking do this!” I glanced at Marv…and evenheseemed to be chilling out.

“I hope you guys don’t mind, but I’ve composed a short intro to that song.” I didn’t know what to say to that, because I was intrigued. I wanted to hear Wolf play the music of his soul, not just put his spin on Liam’s compositions—or even any of the artists we would be covering. “I was inspired.”

“Let’s hear it,” Pedro said.

“It might sound better with some percussion, but…here goes.” Wolf began plucking strings, and the tune was soft and quiet at first. As much as I was beginning to love Wolf’s presence in our band, I wondered what the hell he was thinking.

But I closed my eyes and simply listened.

The tune built in volume and intensity, as if climbing a mountain—and it got harder as it went. Then, against the backdrop, he played a bit of a mournful, screaming solo. By that point, I could understand how it matched “Mayhem.”

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

Suddenly, it felt like our band had been elevated to exactly where we’d need to be if we ever wanted to be signed by a label. In just ninety seconds, Wolf had taken us from garage band quality to studio.

But was that just my own perception? When I looked from Wolf to my other bandmates, I saw the same expression on their faces that I knew was on mine.

Kyle even nodded at me, as if he knew exactly what I’d been thinking.

As the notes faded from that intro, Adrian began beating the drums, sensing where “Mayhem” would actually start. Either he was right or Wolf was going with the flow, because we began the song in earnest. When Wolf finally looked up from his strings, I smiled at him.

And tried to keep my heart from flipflopping when he smiled back.

He knew too. We all did. Unspoken was our continued mourning of Liam…but Wolf’s presence in our band had moved us up a notch—and we all knew it in our bones, even if we never fucking said it out loud.

I couldn’t wait to see what the future would bring.

CHAPTER 9

If anyone had ever asked, I would have told them that night had been just another practice.

But it wasn’t. Not by a long shot.

Thanks to Wolf, every member of our band finally seemed to feel the hope I’d continued to shelter in my heart. More than that, though, something seemed to click between him and me. Liam had always been an amazing guitarist and artist, but I’d never felt one-hundred-percent on the same wavelength with him…like we were in the same league, but we played for different teams.

I’d tried talking to Kyle about that once or twice, but he either hadn’t understood what I’d been saying or didn’t care. Or maybe he did care, but for Liam, not me. And although Liam had encouraged me to write lyrics for our band, I didn’t dare even try to discuss the musical composition.

We all respected Liam’s talent and vision—but it washisvision. That had been an unspoken rule.

Now it all felt more democratic. Free.

On fire…like anything could happen.

As the night went on and we ripped through our entire catalog, some songs once or twice, we really gelled as a band.And Wolf seemed to try to match all the fun vocal things I wanted to do.

It was like he was playingfor me.

So I started singing to him, especially as a few people left the bar, realizing they had to get some sleep before going to work the next day. Crazy Stu, of course, stayed for the entire set, but I wasn’t about to sing tohim.

I didn’t need to give that guy any ideas.

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