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But not when he finished his beer and sent the bottle flying across the stage into a receptacle, nearly taking out Molly in the process. He laughed like a loon, but she did not. He jogged up to her and leaned in close, saying something that erased the annoyance from her face. An apology, probably. West didn’t mean to scare her. He could a little crazy onstage, but he wasn’t reckless.
At least he wasn’t normally.
Molly’s irritation had just seemed to abate when West grabbed her mic stand. “I think I should buy some of you a beer. Whaddaya say? I think we need to tear this place up. Get this party going in a big way. Bet a few drinks would do that, right?” He yanked out his wallet out of the back pocket of his jeans and yanked out a wad of bills, tossing them at the audience. Shrieks rang out as people scrambled forward, barely contained by the burly security guards who were shouting things at West.
But he wasn’t listening. He grabbed hold of the microphone again as Michael and Elle exchanged glances and kept right on jamming out, doing an extended mix of “Cascade” so the place didn’t plunge into silence.
No chance of that happening. The crowd was on fire.
West pointed at someone just off the side of the stage. “C’mon up, John. Think we should do that shit now before I get my ass hauled off by security. Can’t even have a good time anymore.” He slung an arm around Molly, who looked at him as if he were deranged. “Tonight, we’re here for a special purpose. This isn’t just about us, you know. Music is important, but it’s not fucking everything. People are what count. Without them, the rest is just goddamn noise. Right, Mol?” He kissed her hard on the side of the head and she laughed uneasily.
A tickle teased the back of Lauren’s throat. He’d be hearing an earful later from their lead singer, she was sure.
If they even got through the set.
“We’re here to support all these freaking amazing charities tonight. So many worthwhile ones, and there’s just not enough money to go around to support them. We have to do more. Have to make sure our pets and our people are taken care of. It’s our only purpose on this fucking planet, and if we can’t even do that, what good are we?”
The audience yelled back in agreement, lifting their fists in the air.
Tristan, Lauren, and Denver just exchanged glances. Lauren was the newbie in the group, but already she felt like she knew West so well. And despite his incredible, necessary message, something felt very wrong.
That tickle in the back of her throat was about to choke her.
“This is John from Wigs for Kids, one of the kickass charities we’re donating proceeds from these shows to. You’re supporting them by supporting us, so thank you so much. But I think we should kick it up a notch.” West let go of Molly to jog back to the keyboard to grab another beer that had materialized out of nowhere. He took a long drink, then grinned and raised his hands into fists high above his head. “Time to lose this fucking hair!”
John approached West with what appeared to be a pair of clippers.
Holy shit.
Lauren gasped and Denver clutched her arm. “Did you know he was going to do this?”
Stunned, Lauren could only shake her head. “I had no idea.”
But it was already happening. The buzz somehow sounded through the place as West’s glorious blond hair fell to the stage in big clumps. The entire time he was grinning. He held u
p his bottle and seemed to look right at Lauren.
“Sorry for the surprise, baby, but you can get a handful of another part of me instead,” he yelled out, making Lauren’s cheeks blaze with heat.
And not from amusement either.
It wasn’t even what he said or what he was doing. It was the way he was doing it. For fuck’s sake, his voice sounded a little slurred. Had he had that much to drink already? He definitely hadn’t seemed drunk before his set, just a short time ago.
Just tense.
She should have asked questions, not written it off as normal pre-show jitters. Because the fact was she didn’t know what his normal routine was like.
There was still so much she didn’t know. She’d thought they had plenty of time to figure it all out. To figure each other out. But maybe she’d missed something vital. He was obviously upset, and she didn’t know why. Clearly, it had to be something big if he was shaving his damn head.
And he hadn’t told her. Hadn’t said a word.
She gripped her bottle in boneless fingers as John finished up his unholy task and held up several handfuls of West’s gorgeous hair. “Thank you, Weston, for such an incredible donation for kids! We hope some of you visit us in our booth too and do the same.”
West patted John on the back and ran his hand over his new buzz cut. He looked completely different. Harder. She didn’t doubt that if she was close enough to see his eyes, that irrepressible glow from within wouldn’t be there.
Something had happened, and it wasn’t just a yen to change his hair. And now Denver and Tristan kept sliding her little looks, the kind that warned her to be on guard. She’d thought maybe she and West were on their way to their first fight if he wouldn’t admit what was going on with him, but Denver’s expression said something else entirely.
Lauren was amazed she didn’t hold up a sign that said “it’s been nice knowing you” because that was definitely the vibe she was picking up. It could’ve been paranoia. Lord knows she had plenty, and for good reason. She was still such a newbie to this scene. So unsophisticated when it came to understanding all the subtle rhythms between men and women.
