Page 21 of In the Shadows

That kinky little fucker was inside my head.

Rounding the corner toward the VIP area behind the pavilion we heard Derek’s thunderous voice, “Dude, weather’s perfect, but this sun is fucking blinding.” He took me in a one arm bro hug. “Stoli, how the hell are you?”

“Doing great, man, on the road for a long ass tour, but so far so good. How about you?”

“Things are going pretty good. Hope you don’t mind we had our manager drag you guys in to help out?” he asked, pulling Joey into a bro hug.

“Oh hell no. Happy to help where we can.”

Ryder, Shadow, and Jaxson rounded the corner and headed over to greet us.

“After party tonight, you guys down for that?” Derek asked me.

I could tell by the look that he was giving me that he was trying to ask if all was good with Joey in a subtle way.

I looked at Joey and he nodded. “Yeah man, we’re down. Thanks for the invite.”

“No problem, we booked a couple extra rooms in case. I’ll give Easton the info.” Derek walked off toward Easton who was standing off to the side typing away on his phone. I swear, his phone was glued to his hand.

“Your road crew is over there,” Ryder pointed. “You guys get some new equipment? I was watching them uncrate a bunch of shit earlier.”

“Oh yeah, I totally forgot they picked it up in L.A. on the way here. Let’s go check it out.” Both bands headed over where our equipment was being staged. I fist bumped our road crew manager Isiah, aka “The Hammer” when walked up.

“Dude,” Ryder said, “how’d you score the Hammer for your team? He’s a hot commodity in this industry.”

I looked over, Hammer had already taken his no bullshit stance, but the corner of one side of his mouth rose in a smirk when he looked at Derek.

“We know some guys who know some guys,” I tried to bullshit him, but when I looked over at Hammer he was arching a distasteful brow my way.

“Sal’s my cousin,” he told Derek. “Said he had some guys that could use my guidance, so to speak.” He eyed me, daring me to contradict his statement.

I threw up my hands in mock surrender and he actually fucking laughed. Something I’d never seen before, the man was forever serious.

“Come on, let’s go check out your new toys.”

The BOD guys weren’t playing tonight, so they were doing some sightseeing before heading to Houston to meet for our next show together. Easton gave them the address of the venue, and a lecture before cutting them loose.

Ryder and I trailed behind Hammer, my mouth fell open looking at all the new shit we’d splurged on lined up like the pretty maidens they were, all in a row.

“Whoa,” Ryder whistled. “Freaking sweet. Will they be able to use it all tonight?” he asked Hammer.

“Hell yeah they will. My teams been working on it since six a.m. As soon as this band clears off the stage we’ll cart it up there and have them ready to roll in fifteen,” Hammer assured us.

Joey walked up. “Is that our new gear?” he asked, grinning from ear to ear.

“Yup, and this shit finally gets us out of the damn garage band phase we’ve been stuck in.” My grin was just as big as his.

Hammer smacked his hands together, snagging our attention. “All right guys, time to set up. No time for much of a sound check with the way they have everyone playing in rapid fire succession. But the guys have been on it all day and I’m comfortable with saying you’re good to go.”

We grabbed the guys and headed out to set up with Hammer’s team and to take care of any last minute tweaks we may have needed. They were minimal and when the curtain rose, we were ready to roll. Joey’s long ass hair was a sweaty, matted mess when he performed. I fucking loved it when he swung his hair and came back up with it covering his face. Reminded me of when we were younger and heavy into the concert scenes. I loved head banging and moshing with him. Such sweet freedom. But now, seeing him like this I found to be hot as fuck.

Since we weren’t headlining, Maiden Voyage was, we played a shorter set which went relatively fast. Afterward, we hit the VIP area and headed straight for the catering tables.

“Hey, Stoli,” Ryder called out as we sat down with our plates, “feel like jumping in on a song with me tonight?”

“Fuck yeah, man. I know all your shit includingHer Embrace.” My heart was racing, jamming out with Maiden was high up on my bucket list.

“It’s on, I’ll call you up for that one so keep your guitar handy,” Ryder told me before walking off.

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