Imperfect Harmony (House of Archer #1)

by Raine Thomas

  There was no time to nap before the concert that night, especially because Lily needed to get to the venue earlier than usual to meet up with Bill Laceny. She was looking forward to getting a look behind the scenes with the production manager and meeting some of the road crew. It had been years since she’d had the chance to experience this part of one of The Void’s concerts. There was also the possibility she’d meet one of the performers from the other acts and could broach the idea of interviewing them.

  “Wow,” Sydney said as they entered their green room. “This is even nicer than the last one!”

  Lily’s eyebrows rose as she also looked around. The room wasn’t any bigger than the last green room they’d had, but the furniture was nicer, the décor more updated, and the food even more plentiful. Once again she saw many of her favorite snack foods topping the round dining table to the right of the door and a vase of pink plumeria sitting on the pretty vanity. She crossed over to the flowers and plucked the card from among the blossoms.

  Thinking of you...Love, Dane, they read.

  There was nothing overtly romantic in the sentiment, but Lily tapped the card lightly against her bottom lip as she wondered what Dane was up to. He’d never given her flowers when she’d attended his concerts before, nor had she ever warranted her own green room. Why had he arranged all of this now? Was he trying to send her a message?

  “Don’t forget to call Johnathan before Bill comes to get you,” Aria said.

  Lily pulled her focus from the flowers. “Huh?”

  Laughing, Aria shook her head. “You told me to remind you to call your boyfriend when we got here.”

  “Oh, right.” Lily flushed, reaching for the phone she had shoved into her pocket. “I didn’t forget.”

  Aria exchanged a look with Sydney. “Mmhmm.”

  As she had done the day before, Lily took her phone with her into the bathroom. She tapped Johnathan’s name from her recent contacts list and waited for the call to go through. She lifted the floral card she still held in her hand and sniffed it. The beautiful scent made her smile.

  Johnathan’s recorded voicemail message picked up and Lily absently waited for the beep as she stared at Dane’s signature. He had filled out the card himself, just as he had the one the day before. It was another significant touch that made her question his motives. A welcome bouquet had been one thing...daily floral with personal messages was quite another.

  Wasn’t it?

  The phone beeped in her ear. “Hi, Dane,” she said. “Just wanted to let you know I’m thinking about you. I’m about to get a behind-the-scenes tour at the venue here in Seattle. Try not to be too jealous. Hope your day went well. I’ll reach out to you again soon, okay?”

  It was only after she clicked off and mentally reviewed her message that she realized she had said the wrong name. Her eyes widened and her stomach pitched.

  “God, Lily,” she said to herself. “Get a grip, you idiot.”

  She hit redial as quickly as she could and fought for a humored tone when she left her second message. “And by Dane I meant Johnathan, of course. That’s what I get for trying to do three things at once. Sorry about that, hon. Love you.”

  The “Love you” slipped out more as an apology than a sincere expression of her feelings. Lily ended the call and dropped her phone on the bathroom counter with a loud rattle. She pressed her palms into her temples to try and calm the pounding that had started there.

  What the hell was wrong with her? She wasn’t a clueless person. If anyone else had told her that they questioned their relationship with their boyfriend or girlfriend like she questioned hers, she’d immediately tell them to move on. So why was she clinging so hard to the idea of a future with Johnathan and trying to pretend she didn’t understand what was happening right under her nose?

  She needed to get her head on straight...and she really needed to talk to Dane.

  Fortunately for her head and aching stomach, she wasn’t given much more time to dwell on her stupidity. Bill came and collected her for the venue tour only minutes after she left the bathroom to rejoin Sydney and Aria. She barely had time to grab a notepad and a pen before they were out the door.

  Dane had introduced her to Bill the night before. He was a gruff, forty-something white guy with closely-cropped dark hair liberally peppered with gray. He had the tall, muscular build of an NBA player and hands the size of meat platters. Lily practically had to run to keep up with his long strides as they left the tunnels and headed for the stage where the sound checks were taking place.

  As they pushed through a set of swinging doors at the end of a wide tunnel, the noise hit Lily like a dart between the eyes. Her headache thudded in her temples, making her feel like a DJ’s speaker at a nightclub. Bill glanced at her and then fished around in one of his pants pockets. He produced two blue ear plugs.

  “Put these in.”

  She didn’t even hesitate. Though the plugs certainly helped, the music still pounded through her body with a physical pulse. She thought longingly of the ibuprofen she had in her purse back in the green room.

  “I figured that rather than just doing intros with the crew, you could tag along as I complete my walk-through,” Bill said, leaning closer to her so she could hear him over the rising noise. “Genevieve Shaw is just starting her sound check right now. It’ll be at least an hour before The Void does theirs. There’s plenty of work for us to do back here between now and then.”

  Lily nodded, flipping to an open page in her palm-sized spiral notebook so she could begin taking notes. The toe of her sneaker hit the edge of a black storage trunk, making her stumble. She caught herself before she fell on her face. After a quick glance around to see if anyone had seen her and deciding everyone was too busy to worry about her, she hurried after Bill. He had continued on, oblivious to her near-fall.

  “Hey, Lou,” Bill called out, drawing the attention of a man currently bent over a tangle of cables.

  It took two more shouts over the ongoing sound check to finally catch Lou’s attention. Lily struggled to ignore the amount of butt crack exposed by his sagging khaki pants and pasted a smile on her face when he finally stood and hitched his waistband up to his thick midsection. He lifted the black ball cap emblazoned with the single word “Crew” that he wore and ran a hand over his long, thinning brown hair as though attempting to improve his appearance. His efforts merely served to wipe some dark smears across his damp forehead.

  “Lily, this is Lou Higginson, our Sound Engineer,” Bill introduced. “Lou, I’m sure you’ve heard about Lily here.”

  “Sure,” Lou said, extending a hand. “Nice to meetcha.”

  Lily returned Lou’s sweaty handshake and fought the squeamish instinct to pull away. She knew the crew worked their asses off for every show. Lou had a friendly smile and was taking time away from his tasks to meet her. The least she could do was ignore a little sweat.

  “Nice to meet you, too,” she said.

  “Lily here is planning on shadowing each of us at some point on the tour,” Bill explained. “She’s collecting research for articles.”

  “I don’t want to take time away from what you’re doing,” Lily clarified when she saw Lou’s eyebrows draw closer together. “I’d love the chance to speak with you when you’re not so busy.”

  “Sure, sure,” Lou said, his smile returning. “Anything you need, just let me know.”

  “How’s the setup coming?” Bill asked him before Lily could reply.

  “Good at the moment. We were having an issue with one of the line arrays...”

  Lily tried to focus on what they were saying so she could take notes but the ear plugs muffled their voices too much as they moved off to examine some kind of rigging. She silently debated whether it was worth risking their ire to get closer so she could hear them. Maybe she should just use this time to introduce herself to someone else. There were plenty of people milling around, including more of the camera operators that seemed to be everywhere.

&nb
sp; Turning out of sight of the cameras, Lily noticed a good-looking guy come trotting down a set of stairs leading to the stage. He also wore a Crew ball cap and a headset. Unlike most of the other road crew, he wore shorts instead of pants. It made her think he was a college intern of some kind until he got close enough for her to see the deep-set lines around his hazel eyes.

  “Who are you?” he asked Lily with a frown. “Reporters aren’t allowed back here.”

  “She’s with me, Paul,” Bill said, witnessing the exchange. “This is Lily Montgomery.”

  Paul’s expression eased into less hostile lines. “Oh, right. Archer’s chick.”

  Bill lifted his eyes to the ceiling. “She’s his friend, not his ‘chick.’ Lily, this is Paul Stamkos. He’s the Stage Manager.”

  Lily raised a hand in greeting as she decided whether or not to be insulted by Paul’s initial reaction to her. He seemed distracted and kept holding the headset’s mouthpiece close to his lips so he could issue orders into it. It didn’t seem fair to judge him when he was clearly in the middle of something important.

  “Look, I’d love to chat,” Paul said after another squawk issued from his radio, “but I’m neck-deep in shit right now. Can we do this later?”

  “Sure,” Lily said.

  Paul had already turned and jogged back up the stairs before the word left her mouth. Although she knew things were chaotic right then, the entire interaction rubbed her the wrong way. Her throbbing headache wasn’t helping matters any.

  Thankfully the few other roadies she met after Paul were as welcoming and agreeable as Lou. They all seemed open to the idea of interviewing with her. She had no idea whether there would be any interest in stories about The Void’s road crew, but she was light on other options and had to start somewhere.

  She paused to make a few notes when Bill stepped aside to talk to a member of the backline crew as they unloaded the band’s instruments. She decided to prioritize the interviews she wanted to conduct based on what she figured would hold the most interest in readers, beginning with Mandy Dierx. As a lighting technician among a mostly male crew and the girlfriend of Noelle Fox, she was a pretty sure bet.

  A heavily-scented cloud filled Lily’s nose, pulling her from her notes. Her stomach rolled in reaction to the smell. She spotted Nikki stepping out from behind a stack of equipment. The tell-tale glaze in her eyes made Lily frown. She pulled out an ear plug so she could speak with her.

  “Oh...hey, Lily,” Nikki said, her gaze shifting off into the distance rather than meeting Lily’s. “What are you doing back here?”

  “Never mind that.” Lily moved closer to Nikki and deliberately sniffed the air between them. “It’s clear enough what you’re doing back here.”

  Nikki pursed her lips and tugged Lily by the arm to pull her out of the heavy foot traffic around them. “Come on, Lil. It was just a little pot. A couple of tokes to take the edge off, that’s all.”

  Anger had Lily’s throat tightening. What Nikki had done was put a member of The Void at risk. That was completely unacceptable. When she saw more cameras moving into the area, she pitched her voice low so it didn’t carry over the music.

  “You know Keith can’t be around drugs, Nikki.”

  “I do know...really. I specifically came over here to make sure he wasn’t nearby. I’d really appreciate you not mentioning this to him,” Nikki pleaded. “Please, Lily. I don’t want to hurt Keith. You have to believe me.”

  Lily’s temper eased somewhat over the obvious worry in the other female’s voice. She thought she knew how Nikki felt about Keith. Still, she couldn’t risk Keith having a relapse of any kind.

  “Get out of my way,” warned a smoky female voice. “I hate being behind schedule.”

  Glancing up, Lily spotted Genevieve Shaw. The popular singer wasn’t overly tall, but she exuded power and importance, causing people to step out of her way. She wasn’t yet dressed for performing, wearing jeans and a tank top that revealed her lush curves. Her dark, curly hair was piled on top of her head in a messy bun. The pink color in her otherwise cream-colored complexion was either from the exertion of performing or her irritation over something. Her expression was set in severe lines.

  Lily tried to catch the singer’s attention as she passed, but Genevieve didn’t look in her direction. There was a male and female hovering near her who appeared to be either assistants or bodyguards. They moved ahead to clear a path through the crew and equipment, Genevieve following in their wake.

  Of all of the performers there, Genevieve intrigued Lily the most. She’d once topped the charts as one of the most recognized and lauded female vocalists in the world, only to fall from grace six years into her career when she struck and paralyzed a teenager while driving under the influence. Only twenty-three at the time, she’d hit rock bottom and was now, after serving out her sentence, clawing her way back into the world she loved.

  What a powerful and influential story that could be.

  “Lily?”

  Glancing back at Nikki, Lily remembered what they’d been discussing. She huffed in impatience and waved a hand as she turned to hurry after Genevieve. “Okay, I won’t tell him,” Lily said. “Just don’t do it again.”

  Nikki drew an X over her chest with her fingertip. She faded from Lily’s thoughts as Lily darted among the backstage crew in pursuit of Genevieve. Her mind raced as she worked out what she would say to the singer when she reached her. She prayed she wouldn’t come across as yet another member of the paparazzi.

  They soon reached the tunnels where more crew members and venue staff members moved industriously in every direction. Lily pulled out her other ear plug so she could hear better when the sound check noise faded. It wasn’t long before she saw the female assistant with Genevieve open a door similar to the one leading to Lily’s green room. She realized the singer was about to enter her own green room.

  “Ms. Shaw,” she called out.

  The male turned to look at her. His expression made Lily lean more in the bodyguard direction. She offered a smile in hopes it would disarm him.

  It didn’t.

  “Ms. Shaw,” she called again when she got closer.

  “I don’t want to talk to anyone before my performance,” Genevieve said to the male as though he had been the one to call out to her.

  Lily stopped in her tracks as the singer sailed through the open door and slammed it shut behind her, leaving the stony-faced male standing guard outside. Clearly, she wouldn’t be getting this particular interview.

  Defeated, she went back in search of Bill. Maybe another story opportunity would present itself before the night was over.

  Chapter Twelve

  Archer exited the stage after The Void’s last encore without talking to anyone. He knew if he did that he’d likely say something he’d regret.

  What a fucking disaster.

  Oh, things had started well enough. He and the other Void members had enjoyed their usual pre-concert ritual of fiddling with an old acoustic guitar and listening to songs that had inspired each of them early in their careers. The songs ranged from “Smooth” by Santana to “Lose Yourself” by Eminem. Then they’d all done a single shot of Jägermeister to loosen them up before heading to the stage.

  Even the dreaded duet with Brandon had gone better than he expected. Archer had observed the end of Suddenly Something’s set from the wings and noted that not much had changed since his time with them. Brandon continued to step on the lyrics of his band mates. He had even assumed some of Archer’s mannerisms, which only amused Archer.

  When he got his cue, Archer walked purposefully out on stage singing his part of the duet. The resulting crowd noise had fueled him in a way nothing else could. He shifted into full performance mode, plowing right over Brandon when he tried to stomp on his lyrics. The crowd had eaten it up, chanting, “Archer! Archer!” He had bowed and departed after the song, feeling euphoric and wondering why he’d ever hesitated to perform the duet in the first place.


  Things quickly went downhill from there, though. No sooner had he exited the stage than he discovered that the stage hands were hunting for Noelle’s lucky drumsticks, which had somehow gone missing from The Void’s equipment. Archer had grown up in the highly superstitious world of acting, so that didn’t sit well with him.

  Brandon had then barreled off-stage and headed right up to Archer. “What the hell do you think you’re doing, Archie?” he hissed as he got into Archer’s face. “You completely cut into my performance.”

  Archer stepped even closer, moving mere inches from Brandon. “I’m just giving as good as I get, Bran. Doesn’t go over so well when it’s you on the other side, does it? Now if you don’t want a fresh fight all over the evening news, you’ll back the hell off.”

  Keith had walked up then. “Is there a problem here?”

  “No,” Archer replied. “Brandon was just leaving.”

  Glancing around and seeing all of the cameras zoomed in on him, Brandon growled and spun away, stalking down the tunnel to the band’s green room. Archer had wanted to feel victorious, but the invasive cameras just added to his already faltering mood. Seeing Elijah smiling in the distance had only darkened his mindset further.

  It seemed his dreams of achieving international fame were coming at a steep price.

  He had tried to clear his head before the concert using some of the yoga techniques Christopher had imposed on them over the years. It had helped a little. Still, their performance was far from stellar, fraught with miscues and poor timing. It took all of Archer’s energy to bring them back on track when they veered off.

  Now that the performance was done, his mood was stormy. The only person he wanted to see right then was Lily.

  His gaze remained focused on the backs of the security guards leading him and the rest of the band to the green room. He ignored the flashing cameras and desperate calls for autographs from the fans who had been allowed backstage, relieved when they finally reached the relative peace and quiet of the deeper tunnels.