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Luna was on her phone, thumbs moving rapid fire. She looked up at me from where we were all standing in the dark wings, waiting to go on stage. All of us except Cash, anyway.
It was the night after the fight, and Cash had been MIA ever since we’d last seen him at the arena. I’d told Luna not to worry when he didn’t show up last night. Yes, he’d probably fallen off the gambling wagon. But he was one lucky bastard. I assured her he’d be fine.
… He’d never missed a concert, though. How far down the rabbit hole had he fallen this time? It had to be bad if he wasn’t here.
Or was it like Luna always warned him, and his luck had finally run out? It had to one day, didn’t it? The coin couldn’t always land the way Cash predicted. How deep in would he be when that happened?
“Come on,” Bishop said, grabbing his guitar by the neck. Cash was the lead—Bishop just played basic chords and sometimes not even that. He was a vocalist at heart. Cash did all the impressive guitar solos. “We’ll be fine without him.”
“I think we should wait—” I started, but naturally Bishop acted as if I hadn’t even spoken. He just headed out onto the stage with his arms lifted. The crowd responded, erupting in a deafening roar. Worshipping their god. I shook my head in disgust but there was nothing but to follow Luna and Tank onto the stage after him.
I stared at Luna’s ass, and my fury evaporated. I jerked my eyes away out of habit.
Then I remembered last night.
Fuck, I couldn’t believe I’d come so quick. I’d never been a premature ejaculator before. As in, never before Luna.
It was fucking embarrassing for one, but more than that, it was maddening. She was the only woman I actually wanted to go slow with. I wanted to make it so good for her.
I always saw to the pleasure of the women I was with. Granted, I hadn’t been with anyone in the last couple years. Luna had filled my thoughts too often for it to feel fair. Even with groupies… it had just started to feel wrong.
Their skin felt rough or they smelled too pungent with cheap perfume. Even if there was nothing obviously objectionable about them, none of them were… her.
And now that I did have her, even if it meant sharing her, I couldn’t last longer than a few pumps! Fucking maddening.
I took my place behind the electric keyboard and double-checked the settings for the first song. Except that Bishop was waving at us.
I frowned as he walked upstage, towards where Luna’s drums and my keyboards were set up. “Let’s cut the first song. It’s too guitar heavy. Don’t wanna do it without Cash.”
Dammit. He was right. The song had a two-minute guitar solo in the middle. We could probably work around it. I might be able to fill in with keys, but it would be hard to pull off without rehearsing.
So I nodded. “Fine. Skip to Road to Nowhere.”
Bishop nodded and spun back around. He grabbed the mic. “How are you doin’ tonight, motherfuckers!” he shouted.
The crowd roared back. I rolled my eyes. The fouler mouthed he was, the more they loved it.
“Let’s lose our motherfucking minds tonight, what do you say?” He struck a chord on his electric guitar to punctuate his words and the screams elevated even louder.
It was hard not to keep rolling my eyes. That was basically all the poser could do with that damn guitar. He knew some basic chords, but otherwise the guitar he wore around his neck for the hour and a half we were on stage was just an expensive, ostentatious ornament.
Which was why, no matter how much he whipped up the crowd, this was not gonna be an easy concert. We relied on every member of our band. If we’d known Cash was gonna be out tonight, we woulda lined up another lead guitarist.
I swore, if Cash was just lost at a Blackjack table somewhere, I was seriously gonna kick his ass. If we were anywhere except Vegas… I mean sure, Cash didn’t take much serious in life, but he’d always showed up for concerts before.
Except when he was gambling. He’d missed concerts before when he was at his worst. Which was why we’d had an intervention for his ass and got him in Gamblers Anonymous. Him falling off the fucking wagon—
Yeah, I was gonna kick his ass either way.
Naturally, Bishop didn’t wait for me to give the signal that I’d had time to switch my settings before he strummed the first chord for Road to Nowhere. Bastard. Usually it was Luna who started us off, but this one song he did, and he was fucking me over.
