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“Hell,” Slade said. “Give him the whole fucking bottle. You need to chill, man.”
“Chill?” With a hand on his hip, Brian rubbed his other fingers across the bridge of his nose and then said in a lowered voice, “I don’t think you realize what’s at stake here tonight. I will ‘chill’ when you five get on that stage, wow the audience, and remind them all why they fell in love with you. Tonight needs to be perfect. You all need to be perfect.”
Was he fucking kidding with this shit right now? Talking to us as if we didn’t know what was at stake? This was our livelihood. Our jobs. Christ, he had some nerve.
Shoving to my feet, I was about two seconds away from putting a fist in the bastard’s face, when Killian intervened by grabbing my arm.
“Viper was just about to go and find Halo and let him know it’s time. Right, V?”
If the choice was between that or murdering Brian, I knew which I preferred right then.
“Right, V?”
I aimed an eat shit look in Brian’s direction, and when he rolled his eyes, I ground my molars together. “Right.”
As I turned to leave the room, I took the shot Jagger still held in his hand and slammed it back, and when he offered the bottle, I took it from him. Not for me, but just in case Halo needed a shot of liquid courage.
It’d been a couple of days since we’d finished up the recording of “Invitation,” and with tonight’s interview, the track about to hit, and the trip to Florida all happening at a whirlwind pace, none of us had really had a chance to stop and think about everything going down.
That wasn’t so much of an issue for me and the guys—we were used to the chaos that sometimes surrounded our lives—but for Halo? I had a feeling that things were starting to catch up with the angel.
Pushing through the door of the men’s room, I wasn’t at all shocked to find Halo standing at the far end of the vanity in front of the mirror, staring at himself as though he were looking at a stranger—and tonight, he probably felt like one, at least to himself.
To me, however, he looked sexy as fuck. In black boots he’d left half unlaced, jeans that were ripped in all the right places, and a fitted white shirt he’d only buttoned to mid-sternum, the man standing in front of the mirror with the disheveled curls and luminous sea green eyes looked like a man who people would lose their fucking minds over.
Add in the black leather jacket, and when Halo stepped on that stage tonight, every person sitting in the audience, and at home in their living room, was about to fall in love.
“How you doing in here, Angel?”
Halo looked in my direction, and when his eyes fell to the bottle in my hand, he said, “Do you always carry a bottle of alcohol around with you?”
I raised the tequila and shrugged. “Maybe. I thought you could do with a shot before we hit the stage.”
“Ugh.” Halo scrunched his nose up.
“Or maybe not.” I put the bottle on the vanity and walked to where he was back to staring at himself in the mirror.
“I already feel like I’m going to be sick,” he said. “That will not help.”
I’d figured as much, but as I stared at Halo’s profile, I couldn’t for the life of me imagine why someone like him would ever be nervous. He was…magnificent.
“Angel.” When Halo didn’t respond, but kept staring at himself, I moved around behind him until he could see my face in the mirror beside his. “You are going to kill it out there tonight.”
Halo’s eyes searched out mine, and I could see the real worry there, the real…fear.
“I don’t know, I… What if it’s like it was back in Savannah? We all thought I was going to kill it there, and look what happened. I killed it. As in TBD is dead because of me.”
Without even thinking about it, I grabbed Halo’s arm and spun him around so he was chest to chest with me. Then I took hold of his chin and said, “TBD is dead because of Trent. Not you. Do you hear me?”
When Halo remained mute, I dragged my thumb over his lip and followed the path with hungry eyes. “You are giving us a second chance. Your music kicks ass, your lyrics are hot as fuck, and this face with that voice? Angel, you’re about to be a fucking superstar. Enjoy that. Be proud of it.”
When Halo slowly nodded and shifted closer to me, I groaned.
“And keep that look that’s in your eyes now, would you? It’ll make me uncomfortable as shit, but it’ll be perfect when you hit the stage.”
