Out of Beat (Boys of Fallout Book 1)

by Cassandra Giovanni

  Zack stops rubbing his eyes and looks at me. “Ah, fuck.”

  “What?” Danny asks.

  “Lauren screwed up again–and then Joey fired her,” Zack responds, putting his head on his arms as they rest on the table.

  “He what?” Danny asks as he spins around to look at Joey, but he still has his head in the sink.

  “I,” Joey begins before dry heaving again; “had her send the details of everything she booked to the email, though.”

  I lean my head back, looking at the ceiling. “How many hours until we need to be in Delaware?”

  Danny sits down next to me. “If we wanted to do the meet and greet beforehand? Too few.”

  “Okay,” I say as I look back down in between each of the hung-over ones and then to Danny. “What email and what’s the password, and please tell me you have your record label contract around here somewhere.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Danny says as a smile returns to his face. “I’ll get the laptop for you.”

  “And I’ll get some coffee going for you and these fools,” I reply as I kick a now dressed Aaron who’s somehow managed to fall asleep again.

  He grumbles, but I pull my foot away before he can hug it like Zack did Danny’s.

  “We need to hit the road like now–so how about we go through a drive-thru. Be my co-pilot?” Danny asks as he hands me the laptop and nods to the driving area.

  “Always,” I reply, leaning up and kissing his cheek.

  The guys are all too hungover to notice.

  Chapter 17

  If the band’s contract didn’t confirm how badly Lauren screwed them over, my call to the record label does. I sit next to Danny with the laptop in front of me and my earbuds in as I try to figure out a way to fix the epic mess they’re in. I put the phone on mute and look over at Danny.

  “Who recommended this chick to you anyway?” I ask as I multi-task listening to the record label rep explaining exactly why the guys don’t have a tour bus when their contract clearly states that the label will provide ‘sufficient transportation and staffing that allows band members to concentrate on their music.’ It’s somewhere along the lines that a huge check has gone missing, even though it was cashed and that Lauren was supposed to get them a bus that had enough space for a sound tech and lighting tech to stay with them.

  Danny nods to my phone, and I look at the ceiling as I take a deep breath and unmute it.

  “It’s Brad, right?” I ask and somehow my voice is polite and not as bitchy as I want to be.

  “Yeah,” the guy answers stopped in his tracks.

  “Here’s the thing — I get that apparently Lauren misappropriated funds, and we need to try to rectify that, but the label recommended her to the band,” I begin, smiling at Danny. “So I’m curious how the label is going to fix a situation that they helped cause. I’m sure you’d agree the current situation doesn’t supply sufficient transportation for the band since there’s no place for us to have the techs we need stay if I can even get them here. Plus, it’d be in everyone’s best interest if a band member wasn’t rushing around driving this tin can here. Can you see what you can do about this? I’ll be managing the band from now, and I expect to have a call before the end of the business day with a resolution. Do you agree that we can work together to ensure the band performs at their peak?”

  There’s silence on the other end, and I wonder if I’ve crossed some sort of line. I close my eyes, pinching the bridge of my nose. Maybe I was more bitchy than polite? Joey’s going to kill me.

  “You have a point. If we can arrange for the band to pick up a tour bus and driver at the next stop, would you be able to handle getting the techs along with seeing about a refund on the RV? I’ll work with my manager to get approval to pay what’s occurred thus far. We’ll have the accountants start researching the missing check,” Brad replies, and my mouth drops open. I’m almost as silent as him for a moment.

  “The band appreciates it. As a side note, I’d recommend checks being made out directly to the vendors and not band management as a best practice. I’m sure any good manager would be able to arrange for direct payments or delivering of a check made out to the correct agency within reason.”

  “Absolutely, I’ll call you shortly with the details of the bus and what else we’re going to do to help with the situation,” Brad finishes, and I think a part of the reason I’ve gotten somewhere is the fact I didn’t completely blow a gasket at him.

  “So,” Danny says as I hang up my cell phone.

  “You’re getting a tour bus, driver, and a refund on the RV,” I reply, and Danny glances over at me.

  “You’re joking, right?”

  I shake my head. “I have more phone calls to make, though. Are all Joey’s records on the rental in this email?”

  “Should be,” he replies, reaching over and squeezing my knee before I put my earbuds back in to concentrate on finding the information I need.

  The RV company is more of a pain in the ass than the record label, but I manage to get them to agree to let us turn in the rental at one of their locations in Dover tomorrow morning. Then I make calls to the techs the guys prefer and manage to get the sound guy to meet us there. The lighting guy lives too far away to drive, and there are no flights that would get in on time, so I arrange to have him meet us in Baltimore and then call the venue to talk to the lighting crew about general expectations. When one o’clock rolls around, I’m exhausted from hours on the phone negotiating, and my stomach is growling.

  “You’re a God send, Sky. We’d be so screwed without you,” Danny says as I let my head rock over to my shoulder to look at him. He nods towards the exit sign coming up. “Looks like a good place to stop and get something for lunch. I’m assuming you don’t want to make anything.”

  I shake my head, and he smiles. “You’re going to need a nap before tonight.”

  “You’re telling me — I have to work through a ton more events Lauren arranged and get some more details. You guys have a radio interview tomorrow at a station out of Dover– good thing we have a few days before Baltimore.”

  “Plus, lights and photography tonight,” Danny reminds me, laughing when I groan and lean forward to put my head on my knees.

  “Being a grown up with a job blows,” I say, looking at him out of the corner of my eyes. “And I doubt I’m going to be able to sneak you into my bedroom again.”

  One of Danny’s eyebrows rises as he turns off the exit. “You need me to help you relieve some stress?”

  I blink hard at him, and he blushes to the point I realize he doesn’t mean what I’m thinking of, which makes me blush even more than him. He runs a hand over his eyebrows, and we sit in an awkward silence for a minute.

  “It always helped me to destress when we laid down together…and when you run your fingers over my tattoos,” Danny says, and he’s still blushing wickedly — like that’s just as embarrassing as the dirty things I was thinking. He pulls into the parking lot of the fast food joint and stops before looking over at me, his lips curling up on one side. “Although, sometimes your fingers on my tattoos was a bit too much.”

  “Who’s fingering your tattoos?” Zack asks as he pokes his head into the driving area.

  Danny’s gaze locks on mine, and I feel like our expressions must match. Caught red-handed, kind of talking dirty to one another, both our mouths are perched open– eyes wide. Zack slides into Danny’s lap and runs his fingers over one of his arms.

  “Ah, yes. Me,” Zack says, smiling and I’m glad he’s apparently over his pissy mood with him from the day prior. Danny cringes and pushes him off. Zack pouts and Danny rolls his eyes.

  “Food?” Danny asks, nodding to the sign.

  “Food!” Joey shouts as he comes into the already crammed driver’s area.

  “Yeah, but you’ll need to negotiate salary with our new band manager during lunch,” Danny says as he opens the door and hops out. He’s followed by Zack and Joey.

  “Aaron?” I look into
the passenger area to see he’s still passed out where I left him on the floor. At least he’s wearing pants. I lean down and smack his cheek lightly. His eyes blink open. “Hey, Sleepyhead, how much did you drink?”

  He swallows as he sits up. I sit across from him as he signals a little bit with his fingers and then his finger separate to show a lot.

  “Why?” I ask as I cock my head at him.

  He puts his hands on his thighs and then presses them up until they fall over his knees. The soft smile that never shows his teeth isn’t there as he looks up at me. “You’re special to all of us in different ways. You’re the sister I didn’t have, and I couldn’t get the image of that bruise and your face out of my head. None of us were there to protect you, Sky and that bugs all of us.”

  “So you guys all got loaded because of me?”

  Aaron shrugs. “It’s a shitty reason, I know– just kind of what guys do when they don’t know what to think or feel. And none of us are Danny.”

  “What does that mean?” I ask, my heart hammering against my ribcage.

  He reaches back and rubs his neck as he searches for the words. “Danny knows how to comfort you. That’s never been any of our jobs.”

  I stand and hold my hand out to him. He takes it, and when he’s standing I wrap my arms around his bare body, so my head’s on his chest. I think it’s the first time I’ve hugged him in all the years we’ve known one another, and he doesn’t seem to know what to do. Then his arms come around me, and he squeezes me tight.

  “I think I’m pretty much the luckiest girl alive,” I say as I pull away. “I have the most amazing brothers.”

  And secret boyfriend.

  “You still say this after cleaning up our messes for a week?” Aaron asks as he rifles through his bag and pulls a shirt over his head.

  “You don’t even know the half of it yet, but I’ll tell you and the other fools over lunch,” I reply nodding towards the door.

  Aaron’s stomach growls. “Danny already knows, I’m guessing?”

  “Jealous?” I ask, looking over my shoulder as we get off the van.

  He puts his arm around my shoulders. “Not at all, sis. That’d be gross.”

  My head jerks to look up at him and he gives me that toothless smile just as we join the others.

  Chapter 18

  The tour bus is already parked in the lot when we drive in to drop off the RV. It takes up six parking spaces in its black glory, and Joey puts the RV into park while eliciting a string of colorfully happy curse words.

  I squeeze his shoulders. “Calm down, big brother.”

  “B…but–I mean, look at it! It’s magnificent!” he replies as he starts to stand without actually unbuckling. He’s yanked back down and shakes his head before figuring out how to get out of the seat.

  We disembark in a daze, hauling our bags with us as we walk up to the beauty that we’re going to be living in. Joey leads us onto the bus, dropping his bags and turns with his arms spread open.

  “We’ve made it!” he says, a broad smile on his face as the guys push past me to hug him.

  I stand back with my arms crossed as I watch their brotherly love. Danny’s on the outside of the pile and opens up an arm, signaling for me to join them.

  “Did ya’ll shower today?” I ask, and Joey somehow manages to wriggle his head to the top. He narrows his eyes at me, and I pout, stepping forward, so I’m sucked into their hug.

  “Selfie-time!” Zack mumbles as he manages to snake an arm out with his cell phone and take a picture before we separate.

  “Alright,” Joey says, rubbing his hands together. We need to select bunks,” he points at me; “You get the first choice since you managed to secure this beauty.”

  Aaron huffs, his shoulders slumping but he’s smiling as he says, “She always gets first pick.”

  “When she stops saving our asses, then I’ll let someone else get the first pick– but I kind of doubt that person would be you– unless we need muscle for some reason,” Joey says, stepping forward to grip one of Aaron’s biceps. “Then you’d totally win.”

  I walk to the hallway of bunks and choose the one at the end on the bottom. I drop my pillow and bags on the bed, and as I turn, I see Danny catapulting forward, racing Zack to get to the bunk on the side of me. I smirk into my hand as Danny manages to scramble around Zack’s lankiness and roll onto the bed. He puts his arms behind his head and looks up at Zack to wink. He huffs before choosing the bunk in front of Danny. Joey takes the one above me, and Aaron the one above Danny. Even with the two techs and the driver, there’s one extra bunk. We make our way to the back of the bus to find a lounge area with a big screen TV and a table with booth seating around it.

  “Paul’s bringing his xBox, right?” Joey asks, turning to face me.

  My shoulders rise. “How the hell am I supposed to know? He’s the sound tech — I didn’t realize I needed to check on his gaming ability.”

  Joey pulls his phone out and starts texting furiously. He comes up smiling. “We’ve got games, boys!”

  I roll my eyes and lead the way back to the main living area. Now that I’m not covered in guy hug, I take a chance to look around. There’s a kitchenette, like the RV, but there’s definitely more moving room. There’s an eating area, and even a couch-like seat directly across from another TV, smaller than the one in the back but still big. There’s a curtain that leads to the driving area, and we hear a door open and close from behind it before a gentleman in his mid-fifties pokes his head in.

  “I’m Jordan,” he says, stepping through and holding his hand out, but he’s a bit confused who to shake hands with and stops mid-way.

  “Fabulous to meet you!” Joey says, stepping forward and taking the awkwardly held out hand. “We’re so stoked to have you onboard.”

  The guys go around and introduce themselves. I’m the last one to go. “Pleasure to meet you. I’m Skylar — Joey’s sister and band manager and photographer.”

  “Ah, yes, you sent me that email with the schedule, which reminds me,” Jordan begins, looking down at his watch. “We have to leave in ten to get to that radio interview. You guys still have stuff on the RV?”

  “Groceries. I’ll go get them,” I reply.

  Danny heads towards the door, opening it for me. “I’ll help.”

  I smile at the idea of getting the tiniest bit of alone time with him, but Zack heads towards the door.

  “Me too!” He cuts me off to go out.

  I narrow my eyes at his back and Danny shrugs, his smile going a tiny bit smaller. We pack the groceries back into the plastic bags I saved from the shopping trip all while listening to Zack humming to himself. He leads the way off the RV, glancing over his shoulder to make sure we’re keeping up.

  “Does it feel like he’s spying on us?” I whisper to Danny.

  “He’s always been a bit off…but he seems a little weirder the past few days,” Danny replies. “Not sure why.”

  “Probably the whole Macy thing. He’ll probably be more of a perv since he’s not getting laid,” I reply and Danny chokes on his laughter.

  Zack turns to walk backward. “What you two talking about?”

  “Your inability to get laid,” Danny replies, and his smile goes huge, eyes playful.

  “Says the guy who hasn’t even been kissed for three years other than by me,” Zack shoots back, raising his eyebrows before he turns back to the bus.

  My body flushes as I think about how good Danny kisses for someone who’s been out of practice. I glance over at him, and he bites his lower lip. It’s so sexy that if our relationship wasn’t a secret, I’d push him up against the bus and kiss him right here and now. My mind starts racing, and I realize I need to get the thought off my mind fast before I actually do it.

  “Please don’t tell me you’ve been making out with Zack,” I say. “Because then it’d be like I kissed him.”

  Danny shakes his head. “I’d never let that happen.”

  Joey sticks his h
ead out of the bus and taps on the metal exterior. “Chop-chop you two! Last time I checked neither one of you was a turtle!”

  The twenty-minute drive to the radio station is spent putting the groceries away, followed by me re-putting them away because the guys just throw them where ever. At some point, all of them except Danny give up on the process and turn on the TV.

  “Ah, the wonder of WiFi-enabled TVs,” Aaron says as he sits back on the couch and turns on football.

  “I didn’t think it was football season,” I comment as I put the cereal in a cabinet with his birdseed bars.

  “Preseason,” he replies without looking at me.

  “Which is?”

  “Games that don’t count toward championships or anything,” he says and I look over at Danny. He shrugs.

  Hockey and motocross are about the only sports he’s into, which just happen to be the ones I like. From the way Zack’s plopped down in front of Aaron, I get the feeling I’m going to be learning a lot about football.

  The bus comes to a stop and Jordan peeks his head in. “Be sure to take whatever you need for this. I’m going to the train station to get Paul.”

  I grab my camera and meet the guys outside to find Aaron and Zack have acoustics while Danny has a tambourine. I blink hard at him, and he smiles, lifting it and tapping it against his hand before starting to spin in a circle. Joey and Zack start hooting like mariachis and Aaron starts picking strings to the crazy ass beat Danny has going. I take a picture before stopping the whirling dervish my boyfriend has become, effectively ceasing the craziness that is my brothers.

  “You’re no fun, Sky,” Joey whines as I tap on my watch and nod to the building.

  Once the interview starts, it doesn’t take long for the guys to act like the fools they are. I sit next to the broadcaster trying not to laugh every two seconds. We cut to break, and the guy looks at me.

  “It must be fun being with them.”

  “I’m always laughing, that’s for sure,” I reply, and the interviewer’s eyes move back to the lights that signal they’re coming back on. He uses his hand to signal 3,2,1 and does another short intro before going back into the questions.