Page 51 of Rock God

“Don’t make me cry again!” I said, smiling even as I swiped at my eyes.

“Let’s go backstage,” Sasha whispered. “So you guys can have a few minutes to pull yourselves together before we let the press in.”

She was probably referring to me, since it didn’t l seem like the guys needed to pull themselves together, but that was okay.

“I have never been as proud of you as I am right now!” Greatty said, coming over and slipping her arm through mine. “You were amazing.”

I covered her hand with mine as we walked. “Thanks, Granny. I love you.” I called her Greatty ninety-nine-percent of the time, but we had an inside joke where I occasionally called her Granny because she was so old and there was always fun banter that went with it. It was a term of endearment, though, and tonight there was no banter. Just a loving smile and the squeeze of her hand.

“I love you too, sweetheart.”

When we got to the room they’d set up for us as a makeshift backstage since there wasn’t a traditional one at the Whiskey, I gulped down a bottle of water. I’d probably sweated out a gallon and needed to hydrate or I’d be hurting tomorrow. Especially since I had a feeling we were going to party tonight.

“What’s your drink of choice?” Kingston asked me.

I hesitated.

Once upon a time it had been Jack Daniels.

That stuff tended to get me into trouble, though.

These days Greatty and I drank a lot of wine, and we’d begun to acquire expensive taste too.

That wasn’t going to happen at a venue like this.

“I’m a simple girl unless we’re drinking wine,” I replied. “And this isn’t a wine kind of night.”

“It is not,” he agreed patiently.

“Vodka cranberry,” I said. “No lime.”

“You got it.” He spoke to what appeared to be a waitress sent up to take care of us, so I sank into the nearest chair.

“How do you feel?” Sasha asked, sitting down next to me.

“Excited. Overwhelmed. Like I just fell in love.”

We both laughed, understanding how that statement was equal parts ridiculous and ridiculously accurate. “I don’t know firsthand, but from what I’ve heard, rock and roll can do that to you.”

“It has to be the right rock and roll setting,” I said. “It doesn’t happen automatically. In fact, in some cases, it can be the opposite.”

She met my gaze curiously. “You had a bad experience with Lace and Venom, didn’t you?”

I nodded. “Well, let’s be clear. I had a bad experience with Larry Hanks. The other guys were decent. And the music was good. It was just… everything else.”

“Is there anything I need to know going forward?”

Well, if that wasn’t a loaded question, I didn’t know what was.

There was so much she probably needed to know.

But there was very little I was willing to talk about.

“About Larry?” I asked slowly.

She shrugged. “Larry, the other guys in the band, whatever you think might be pertinent now that you’re about to become a household name in rock.”

I refused to let the past continue to fuck with my present. Tonight had been one of the best nights of my life and I wasn’t going to allow Larry to ruin anything else. I’d given him power over me once—never again.

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