Page 93 of Play Dirty (Brooklyn Dawn 1)

I went to the god-mic again and heard Darcy swearing in my monitors. I didn’t wait for her to get pissy. I just wanted to rock the house and make them remember us. That was what this job was all about, goddammit. With all the shit going on in the world, we made sure our shows were even more immersive.

We all scattered. We hadn’t played the song in forever, but some things lived in your brain without needing a rehearsal. I just hoped Darcy would forgive us for going over by not only an eleven-minute extended version of “Dream On” but one of the most over the top and amazing songs that ever came out of the eighties.

Jamie moved from our drummer back to a perplexed Teagan. She bent down to her and Teagan swirled on her bench. “Are you shitting me?”

“Know it?”

“Of course I know it,” Teagan said through my monitors.

Jamie gave her a whack on the back before she ran over to me. We both climbed onto the mini stage and each hooked a bungie-layered chain to the back of our belts from the safety bar bolted to the floor. The hum of the long crane-like arm that would send the stage over the crowd only added to the pump of adrenaline as Cooper provided the iconic drum intro and Zane started us off.

I needed Jamie’s deeper voice for this song. Oz jumped up on the platform with us and the crowd went wild.

Oh, shit, I was going to catch hell for this. There were only two safety chains per stage. But right now, it didn’t make a difference. Oz was born for these mechanical arms that flew out into the night. The awe and screams heightened the badassery of our display.

The three of us sang together into the mic, Oz’s deeper register blending with Jamie’s husky tones and my higher ones.

It didn’t matter how old you were. The fans knew this song. Especially the Chicago natives. There was a point of pride to it, regardless of the age group. Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” rose out of the crowd mixed with laughter and screams as the three of us soared over twenty-thousand elated fans.

All the house lights were up and I tilted my head back as I held the microphone out for the sing-along.

We wound the end of the song into our biggest hit and started the encore from where we were.

Darcy screeched in my ear since Oz wasn’t hooked up to the safety rig. Whoops.

We glided above the crowd as we sang “Wanderlust”. It was a slow build song with a blast of home movies that filled the screens on the four walls of the arena. The frames around the screens ran with little trailing lights glowing in and out to draw the eye. Backstage clips and montages of vacation days from the last two tours were mashed up with memories and the best parts of touring. The people we met, the love we felt each night from the fans who believed in us, the staff and crew who helped make each concert happen.

The emotion rose in the music until the stadium was vibrating with it.

The slow-moving platform finally made its way back to the stage, and our tech people flew out to unhook us. Oz was already crossing the stage to a thunderous applause.

Now it was time to play our final number of the show.

We left them on a high. Me, in the center, as I made eye contact with as many faces as I could from the first few rows. We crisscrossed the stage, waving to the audience, getting everyone on their feet.

“I want to hear every voice, every scream.” I pulled out my monitors and shook my hair back as I stood with my legs braced to sing the shit out of “Unspoken”.

By the end of the song, my legs were jelly and my heart was racing. The adrenaline coursing inside me wanted more, craved another fix of the exhilaration fueled by the crowd, but I knew I was beyond empty. We’d given them two and a half hours and we were well beyond curfew.

Which of course meant we wo

uld be paying for it if they enforced it.

But it didn’t matter. Not when we saw the faces on our fans. As I locked hands with Jamie on one side and Teagan on the other, and we did our final bows, I knew it was going to take forever to come down from this night no matter how tired I was.

We all stood on the flooring that slid into the underbelly of the stage and waved our goodbyes.

“Holy fuck.” Jamie was still in the zone. “I need a fucking drink. I need a fucking fuck. My fucking skin is still vibrating.”

Oz scooped her up off her feet and swung her around. “Calm down, you freak.”

Jamie pounded on his shoulder. “Put me down, Tarzan.”

He laughed and set her down. “Christ, we need to find somewhere to go. I can’t just go to the hotel.”

“It has a bar.” Teagan’s voice was still a bit timid. She wasn’t quite there yet when it came to voicing her opinions, although she was getting better at it.

“Yeah, little one?” Oz grinned down at her. “How many people are we going to have to fight to enjoy it?”

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