Laughing, I nod. “But only after you promise I’ll come out of this alive.”
Chapter Seven
Slater
“Did you see the new chick?”
Sonny nudges his head to Kylie and Emily, who are standing in the corner of the room. I noticed Kylie the instant she stepped into the wings of the stage, but I’ll never admit that to Sonny. Sonny is the lead roadie who sets up the band’s equipment at each concert. He’s a year older than me and currently the highest-ranking groupie fucker out of the two dozen roadies who travel with us.
Yes, they keep a tally. It’s displayed in the roadie’s tour bus. They follow us to each location but travel in their own bus. Unlike the band, their bus is also their hotel room on wheels.
“She’s fucking hot.” Sonny grabs at his crotch as his eyes roam Kylie’s alluring body.
I keep my gaze planted on my drum kit. We’re in the process of working out the mess another crew left my kit in. They dismantled it for a concert during the week, and when they re-assembled it, they got the angle wrong. The entire set up is out of whack. People assume I just show up and play on any drum kit. In reality, that’s far from the truth. The setup of a drum kit is just as important as tuning a guitar. Nick wouldn’t perform with a guitar that wasn’t tuned any more than I’d play on a drum kit set up incorrectly.
My eyes flick up from my drums when Sonny groans, “She looks sexy and innocent at the same time.” He’s eye-fucking Kylie from across the room, his hands rubbing together as he rocks from heel to toe.
“I haven’t noticed her,” I lie.
Although Kylie looks different than the girl I used to date, my cock still stands to attention when she enters the room. When she strolled into the elevator the other day, the smile on her face was so bright, I nearly fell to my fucking knees. Then, when she leaned in to smell me, I wanted to pretend she was the nice country girl I met at the bar two and a half years ago. If only I could forget what she did to me, then I wouldn’t despise her as much as I do.
“How could you not notice her? She’s fine.” Mark adjusts my middle tom-tom drum to the angle I prefer before his eyes stray back to Kylie. “No ring either.”
Half the road crew used to follow Emily around like a bunch of dogs in heat. That all stopped when Noah caught on. It took him firing two and knocking one of them out before they got the hint to leave his wife alone. Now they reserve their chasing for girls without rings on their fingers. That doesn’t mean they don’t enjoy the visual stimulation Emily and Jenni bring to the table. They’ve just learned to keep their dirty thoughts in their heads instead of sharing them out loud. I guess they figure Kylie is a prime target since she doesn’t have a ring on her finger, not even the one I gave her for her birthday.
“Those lips wrapped around my coc—”
“Shut the fuck up,” I interrupt, my voice a vicious snarl.
When I stand from my stool behind my drum kit, Mark’s eyes drift to Sonny. Sonny shrugs, apparently confused as to why I’ve suddenly grown a second head. Usually, I’m more than happy to hear stories from the roadies about the groupies they’ve hooked up with—I’ve even shared a few myself—but if he doesn’t shut his mouth about Kylie, I’ll fucking shut it for him.
“No dibs, Slater, you know the rules.” Sonny acts as if he’s talking about a piece of meat and not an actual person. Furthermore, I don’t think groupie rules should apply when they’re talking about a girl I used to love.
Upon noticing our intense stares, Kylie’s pretty eyes stray our way. When she smiles and waves, Sonny, forever a pompous prick, waves back. Kylie smirks at him before her eyes dart away. Sonny chuckles, wrongly believing Kylie is shy. Not many people know she has a wild side hidden underneath her country girl appearance.
Once Kylie leaves the room, I lock my furious gaze with Sonny and Mark. “If either of you touch her, I’ll cut your fucking balls off and feed them to you.”
Sonny smirks, pleased he sparked a reaction out of me. Mark is on the other end of the spectrum. He swallows harshly before nodding.
“Now do your fucking job and fix my drums,” I instruct before storming to my dressing room.
I tried to convince myself earlier this week that I only offered Kylie a job to help Emily. I’m full of shit. I agreed solely to help Kylie. I thought she was the girl of my dreams. We had a good, stable relationship. The six months we had together were some of the best months of my life. Then, the day we visited the cabin, it was all over. No explanation, no reason, she just vanished.
The first week I was panicked out of my mind. When I returned from doing the radio tour on the West Coast, I rode five hours straight to her family ranch. I even went back to the Bar N Barrel. Everyone was as clueless as to Kylie’s whereabouts as I was. She appeared to have vanished off the face of the earth. I was so desperate, I lodged a missing person report at the local police station that same weekend.
My panic receded a few days later when I received a text message from her. The instant I read the message, my panic turned into anger.
Kylie:I’m sorry. Please stop looking for me.
That was the last time I heard from her. It has been nearly two years since that text. Even though I’m pissed at the way she left, I hated that she couldn’t afford her hotel bill. Neither Kylie or I had money when we dated, but that didn’t stop us from having adventurous month after adventurous month. I hoped she left me for bigger and better things, but seeing her struggle to pay for a crappy hotel room makes me realize she didn’t.
Kylie has been working with Emily for the past three days, but I’ve barely seen her. It isn’t that I’m avoiding her. Other than doing press conferences and meet and greets at the end of our shows, I don’t have much interaction with Emily, which means I hardly see Kylie. Half of me wants to ask her why she took the coward’s way out by vanishing without saying goodbye, whereas the other half tries to pretend I don’t give a fucking shit.
I loved her as much as I could, but only after she left me did I realize you never love someone as much as you miss them once they’re gone. Serena’s death was already proof of this. Kylie’s betrayal merely sealed the deal.
Chapter Eight
Kylie
