Page 24 of Reverb
Kid started and turned, looking at David’s badge. His hadEricon it. “Shit. Um. Okay.”
He clapped Eric on the back and they made their way to the men’s room.
“Must have had a giant sign over my head, huh?” Eric’s neck was red, and David twinged sympathetically.
“Eh, been there, done that, mastered the stand-and-pee.”
Nowthatmade Eric’s head whip around. “No fucking way.”
“Way,” he said, like it was still the ’80s. They went in and did their business in peace.
Most of the venue staff were polite and respectful to him and to the other various members of crews, though. Yeah, maybe some of the “regular joes” thought they were strange, but this was a fucking concert venue. They’d likely seen it all.
His main concern was safeguarding Mish. With all the entrances and exits, he wasn’t sure they could keep Mish’s stalker out of the restricted areas if he wanted to waltz in. Anyone could be charmed, and it only took one lax member to look the other way while someone snuck in where they shouldn’t be. Never mind that they couldn’t keep the guy out of the venue if he bought a damn lawn ticket.
In theory, it shouldn’t be that big an issue, but in practice, Mish had been attacked in a crowd, so the shithead knew he could get to her.
He’d already caught one would-be fence jumper trying to climb in, and pointed him out to venue security. Groupies were also hanging at the back gate as the crews unloaded. David watched them for a while, but the crew and the venue security kept them in check. It was all normal concert stuff, but also shit that could hurt the band.
He headed back down toward the stage where the crews had finished unloading the equipment for both bands. There’d be two sets of sound checks and then they’d get the stage prepped for the evening’s concert. Two sets of everything existed. There were two crews with a careful plan for the placement of equipment so that Two Times Strong’s setup could be removed and loaded while the Twisted Wishes crew set the stage after the opening act.
The band had discussed what would happen on tour, but seeing all the chaos in person before the start of rehearsals gave David a taste for the intensity that would be this assignment, even without guarding Mish.
God, that conversation this morning. Holding her hand. What Faith had noticed. They were definitely heading in the direction of hooking up, and god, that was such a bad idea.
This damn band. He liked them all too much, and yeah, he wanted Mish. Probably would let her take this where she wanted it to go. Entirely the wrong thing to do, but he couldn’t help it.
Well, no. He could. He was an adult, but one that was tired of being alone, even if that was his natural state of being. If Mish wanted him, he wasn’t about to say no to her, regrets or not. He was enough of a professional he could keep from being distracted, couldn’t he?
How much he was lying to himself, he didn’t know. Twisted Wishes hadn’t even played a concert yet, and David already had a hard time not sinking into the music.
Didn’t help that Mish had worn jeans, fuckingkillerboots, and a bright green T-shirt that clung to her in all the right ways to sound check. She’d danced and played and even sung a little into the mic—ostensibly to check the levels—though Mish would sing with Ray, not behind him, tonight.
Luckily, when they were on stage, David could relax. Only so many entrances and they were all covered.
All he had left before the concert was the meet-and-greet, where the band would hang out with a couple dozen fans who practically vibrated with excitement. They’d set them up in a bar area away from the stage. Good location. They could control the flow of traffic. Check for wristbands. The VIP experience folks who worked for the band were efficient and friendly. Among the fans, there was a good mix of ages, races, and genders—a lot of rainbow everything given that it was the start of Pride month. Helped him relax a little.
The guy stalking Mish?Hadto be straight and white. The sheer amount of hubris told David that. He was probably in his late forties or early fifties, given his speech and text patterns, at least according to David’s forensic linguistics buddy, Salha. He’d sent some samples to her for a profile.
No one seemed nervous in a way that wasn’t also coupled with excitement. No malice or slippery feelings among the VIP guests. The hair on the back of his neck didn’t stand up. Everything felt good.
A stirring in the crowd made David rotate to watch Adrian climb the short flight of stairs into the bar, cell phone out and his Twisted Wishes all-access badge bouncing against his crew T-shirt. The tee stretched tight over his chest, making him look more bouncer and less social media expert.
He also had quite a few fans swooning, despite nottechnicallybeing part of the band. But everyone knew Adrian Doran belonged to Domino—that had been all over the internet last year. Though, after watching the practices, David had a feeling the whole “belonging” thing swung in the opposite direction. Dom melted when Adrian was around.
Would be interesting to see howthatplayed out in concert.
Turned out, Dom in public wasn’t the soft-spoken, demure man David had encountered during practices. Domino Grinder was—quite literally—something else. Loud and brash, though he wore the same smile. His glances at Adrian were steady, steely, and sinful. It was as if Dom had turned the extrovert dial up to eleven. Adrian merely smiled back at his lover and filmed the rest of the band entering.
David’s breath caught in his throat. Mish was wearing the same jeans, shirt, and boots combo as before, but now sported a loopy silver necklace with some kind of glass bauble, and a silver-and-turquoise ring on her right hand. They shone in the sunlight as she, Ray, and Zavier followed Domino into the shade of the covered bar area.
She flashed him a smile that was brighter and warmer than the sun as the band filed to the chairs that had been set behind a folding table. Each had a mic, but it was Ray that started them all off.
“Hey there! How ya doing?” There was more than a little Jersey boy in Ray’s voice, which was fitting for the venue—they couldn’t be too far from where most of the band grew up.
The fans were nervous and quiet.
“Oh, come on now,” Domino said as he swept his gaze over the crowd. “You can do better than that!”
