Page 3 of Last One Standing
“What if we don’t want to go?” We all turned to where Four was sitting. He stared unblinkingly at JJ.
“Why wouldn’t you want to go, Four?” JJ leaned his hip against the counter. “It’s supposedly an amazing show.”
“It’ll be loud, and I don’t like crowds all that much.”
JJ bit his bottom lip, but I was sure he’d convince Four. “I got us a roped-off area in the VIP section purposely because I had a feeling you’d hate being smushed by people you wouldn’t know, and there are a lot of us.”
“How’d you manage this if the place is so hard to get into?” Gabe wondered.
“I have my ways.” JJ winked. “I really think this will be so much fun.” He sighed. “Do we need to vote on it?”
“No.” Shep dropped the wooden spoon he had in his hand loudly. “You did something nice for all of us—we don’t vote on gifts.” Shep narrowed his eyes at each of us. “Do we?”
No one responded, so I figured I would. “We’ll all go. If it’s too much on Four, then we’ll deal with it when and if it happens.”
JJ’s eyes widened. “Wow, thanks, Angel. I appreciate you’re willing to give this a try.”
I lifted my shoulder. “I like theater and musicals—how different could it be?”
The room went completely silent, and I hung my head. It was going to be completely different.
CHAPTER TWO
KONA
I was havinga hard time pinning my hair to my head. My shoulder ached, and lifting it was causing me issues.
“I can help you.”
I looked in the mirror. Behind me, my brother, Pika, was standing right outside my dressing room door.
“Thanks. I guess I’m just tired today.”
His gaze fell to the floor as he shuffled over to me. “I’m sure it’s more than that.” He wouldn’t meet my eyes in the mirror, but he didn’t have to.
“I’m fine, but the help is appreciated.” I handed him the pins.
Pika had helped me get into character many times. I never had to tell him how to do anything anymore. He’d been eight years old when he’d become my responsibility and now at fifteen, he could drag me up as if it were muscle memory.
“He’s getting worse, Kona,” Pika whispered in my ear.
He had to whisper because Brick had eyes and ears everywhere—it was his club, after all. Sure, he claimed to have built it for me, but Pika and I knew he’d done it to have another place to keep me.
“This time it may have actually been my fault. I turned too quickly and fell down the three steps by the clubhouse, landing on my shoulder.”
Pika sighed. “And what did you have to avoid that caused you to turn so fast?”
Smart little shit.“Let’s focus on the show tonight, okay? Apparently, there’s a group of guys coming that are friends of Leo’s. He asked if I could move some things around to get them a reservation. It took a couple of weeks, but I did.”
“That was nice of you.” He pinned the last of my long dark hair to my head, then slid the wig cap on.
“Leo never asks for a damn thing. I guess one of them, or all of them, helped him a while back, so of course I’d want to give these guys a great show.”
“Helped, how?” Pika took the seat beside mine as I began my makeup routine. I still needed to get the wig glue on and secure the wig, but makeup first.
“No idea, not my business.” Pika was quiet, so I peeked over at him. “Don’t get any ideas in your head, little brother. We have a plan already.”
“A plan that’s taking forever.”
