by Kailin Gow
“Just a second, please!” The manager was striding onto the stage, waving his hands in a vain and desperate attempt to calm the crowds. “Just give us a moment.” He turned to me and Danny. “She might have a concussion – you don't think....” He winced. “You don't think you have enough material for two sets, do you?”
Danny and I looked at each other and grinned.
“We've been writing songs nonstop for the past week and a half,” Danny said.
“How about you just go straight up, then...” The manager looked nervous. “When the crowd gets restless – they get angry. And I don't like them when they're angry.”
“No problem,” Danny's grin was wicked. “We're happy to go straight on up.”
“You ready, guys?” I turned to Kyle, Luc, and Steve. Their faces were shining, incandescent with joy – and, I had to admit, the sweat of the nightclub. They looked happier than I'd ever seen them.
“Abso – bloody – lutely!” Luc smiled. “It's been far too long already.”
“Let's do this!” cried Steve.
“Let's go,” Kyle added.
Together we strode onto the stage.
“Ladies and gentlemen...” I began, feeling my heart swell with happiness. It had been far too long since I had spoken those wonderful few words. “We give you...The Never Knights!”
Chapter 7
It was the best night of my life – that much was certain. My heart was pounding louder than Steve's drums; I sang so long and loud that my throat grew raw, and yet I was not tired, but only longed and ached for more. Every song that we sang seemed to shake through our audience, infecting them, getting into their blood, making them fall as wildly in love with us as we were with them. It was more than just our music – after all, we'd played the same songs in the rehearsal room a hundred or two hundred times before. No, it was our adrenaline – the energy that flowed through us – overflowing from us, spilling out into the audience, catching them up in our excitement and our joy. From the moment we took that stage, stepping so boldly in front of our instruments, whispering those few words of introduction to a crowd that went wild for us, nothing else mattered. Veronica Taylor did not matter. RRR did not matter. The Dusk Riders, glowering in a corner, did not matter. All that mattered was that we were back, that we were winning, that no amount of scheming or plotting or backstabbing could bring us down.
I had never felt so alive. As I sang the love song Danny had written for me, his words emerging from between my lips, I felt a joy wilder and more fulfilling than any I had ever known. Yes, I thought to myself, as I poured my heart out onstage, as I caught Danny's eye as we sang together and let myself break out into an ebullient smile, this is what I want to do with the rest of my life. This is all I want to do.
And it wasn't just me and Danny, either. Steve was bouncing up and down in his drummer's seat, hitting each cymbal and drum with renewed vigor. Kyle was rocking out, his long blond hair glistening under the glimmer of the stage lights. And Luc was crooning softly into his microphone, his fingers lightly picking over the taut strings of the guitar, making the music shimmer into life.
This is right. This is exactly where I should be.
And then it was over – over too soon – and the crowd was cheering so wildly and they were shouting our names, over and over again, “The Never Knights! The Never Knights! Bring us the Never Knights!” Even the front-woman of the Dusk Riders, nursing her bruises, was applauding reluctantly, a sad smile on her face.
I almost felt sorry for her. It wasn't the Dusk Riders we were competing with, after all, not really. It was Roni Taylor. But her companions refused to clap for us, instead starring daggers at us as we took the stage for a final bow.
“Sore losers, huh?” Danny whispered into my ear. “Unfortunately, we'll be seeing a lot of them, lately. We're playing opposite them at ten more clubs on this leg of the tour.” He laughed softly. “So they're going to have to get used to us, sooner or later.”
“Do you think that's wise?” I whispered back. “Antagonizing your stepmother so openly like that?”
He shrugged. “She's pushed my dad around for long enough – I'm not going to let her push me.” He grew closer, speaking in a whisper I could barely hear, “The only girl I want to push me around is you, Neve.”
“Shh!” I stepped away from him to take one final bow, my body tingling with desire. Yet, despite my need for him – ever more palpable at this close distance – I couldn't let myself stay near him, not if I wanted to preserve my sanity as well as my reputation. Just being near him was enough to cloud my mind, and I couldn't afford to do that. Not yet. And I had Kyle and Luc to think of, too. I'd promised to make sure that, at band events at least, Danny and I remained a subtle secret.
But I couldn't deny how difficult it was to keep control. Looking at Danny right now, with his hair slick and shiny and his stage makeup slightly smudged with the intensity of his song, all I wanted to do was jump him then and there, hundreds of audience members or not.
As the applause rang out all around us, deafening us, we took one final bow and headed backstage, mopping the sweat from our faces, downing every bottle of water in the room.
“Well,” Danny said, arching a wry eyebrow. “That didn't go too badly, did it?”
“Not bad at all,” Kyle smiled at him.
“Now,” Steve furrowed his brow. “It's only 12:30. What should we do next?”
“I think we should party!” Luc announced.
“Why don't we head back to my suite?” Danny grinned. “I can get us room service, and we can stay out as late as you like.”
“Sounds good,” Luc nodded.
“No it doesn't!” Steve put on an expression of mock dismay. “Where are we going to meet all the girls, then?”
“How about the hotel bar, then?” Danny conceded. “A pint or two, a bit of good chat, and Steve can eye all the ladies he likes.”
Steve turned bright crimson, his skin almost the color of his hair.
“Hotel bar it is,” I said.
We cruised across town to the hotel, and before long, we were sitting in a comfortable booth at the hotel bar, laughing and joking and talking once again. My heart swelled with joy – and with relief. It was like the old days, I thought – back before everything got so complicated. Luc was teasing Steve about his love of women; Kyle was grinning quietly, laughing along with everybody else's jokes, Luc was telling funny stories about his mother. And Danny, too, was joining in the fun – slowly at first, and then more boldly – telling stories about growing up in England, about his undergraduate experience, about the professors he worked with at USC.
The boys seemed to be accepting him, I thought. They asked him questions, laughed at his jokes, even teased him about his accent a few times.
Good, I thought. With the boys of the Never Knights, teasing was a surefire sign that you were in.
Still, I ached for him. I wanted to get him alone with me, to take off his shirt, to kiss him all over and to let him kiss me. I wanted his flesh against my flesh, his mouth against my mouth, his heart beating so loud and fast and strong against mine. Forbidding Danny and I to show any affection toward each other was making me hot for him. I leaned back against the bar, imagining the feeling of his mouth on my skin...
“Hey Neve?” Steve called over. “You look a bit flushed, are you okay?”
I tried not to let my face get even redder.
“Yeah...” I muttered. “I'm okay. I was just...it's a little hot in here, isn't it?”
“I'm not hot,” Kyle frowned.
“I think I'm going to go get some air,” I said. I needed to get away from Danny – that much I knew. Before I fell into a nineteenth-century style swoon, like some courtesan out of Lady of the Camillas.
I pushed my way out of the booth and headed out into the hotel garden. The cool night air was refreshing on my face; the whole garden smelled of jasmine and honeysuckle, fragrant and light. The perfect place to cool down, I thought.
/> “I told them I had to go take a phone call,” a low, deep voice behind me sent shivers down my spine. “I don't know if they believed me, but they pretended to...”
“Danny...” I turned around to face him.
“I think it's working, you know. This whole subtle-thing. The boys are warming up to me. Which is to say, Kyle doesn't stare daggers at me every time I turn around. But it's not working for me, if you know what I mean.”
He took a step closer to me, and I could smell the musk on him. It was intoxicating.
“Oh, Neve, my darling. I can't wait to get you alone properly. To get you back to my suite tonight – to get you naked in the showers, wash away all the stress, all the sweat, to touch every bit of you...I am so hungry for you, I can get on my knees and take you right now.”
He leaned forward, kissing me with a kiss as light and delicate as the breeze blowing through the garden. Then he grabbed me, pulling me into him, his kiss growing rougher, more aggressive.
“Oh, Neve, you know how much I want you,” he moaned softly, pressing his need against me. “Seeing you sing up there is so sexy. And that little strip tease like dance probably got all of us guys riled up. I know I did.”
“I know,” I whispered back. “Me too. I was thinking of you when I did the little dance. I was imagining how it would to strip dance in front of you.”
Danny smiled a wicked smile, as his fingers traced circles on my arm. “I’d like to see that. But for now – it's time for you to go back inside...”
It took every ounce of strength I had to leave Danny in the garden and head back into the bar, but I managed it. I'd made a promise to Luc and Kyle, and I intended to keep it.
Danny came back a few minutes later, pretending to turn off his phone.
“Good call?” Luc eyed him – slightly suspiciously, I thought.
“I've booked us another gig,” said Danny smoothly. “All in a day's work.”
I don't know how I managed to get through the rest of the evening without jumping Danny in front of the rest of the Never Knights, but somehow my restraint was successful. It was torture, holding back from him, but I did it all the same, feeling my desire increase, feeling my body tense, feeling my love and need grow tighter and tighter with each passing moment. I loved him – I wanted him – so violently I could taste it. My need for him was more than hunger, more than thirst. It was like a drowning person, desperate for breath.
And when, at last, we found ourselves upstairs, the rest of the Never Knights having dispersed to their separate rooms – Steve to the hotel room of a gorgeous redheaded model who had approached him in the lobby – Danny and I gave ourselves over to our desperation. The sex was more powerful, more intense, than any we'd had before. I couldn't think; I couldn't breathe; all I could do was experience wave after wave of overwhelming pleasure, my mind blank and ecstatic, craving him even as I received him, an endless dance of satiation and renewed need.
I cried his name over and over again, letting the sound fill the room.
“Worth the wait?” Danny started nibbling at my ear. “Are you glad we waited, now? To better experience this passion, this intensity?”
“Yes...” I whispered back. “So glad...”
Just then the door flung open. Danny and I sprang apart; I hastily pulled on a silk dressing gown Danny had left strewn across the bed.
“N-N-eve...” A figure groaned, tumbling towards us.
“Steve?” I looked closer.
It was Steve, all right, but disheveled – covered in blood and sweat, barely recognizable. His hands were bloodied, bruised.
“Steve...what happened?”
“Not...” he croaked out. “Sure...”
Then he collapsed at our feet.
Chapter 8
“Steve?” It was my voice shouting, but it seemed to come from someone else, from somewhere else, out of the mouth of a stranger. My voice had never seemed so foreign to me, so alien. In my confusion I was hardly in my own body at all, hardly experiencing what was happening before me, hardly feeling Steve collapse on my feet, his sweat and blood pouring down onto my naked legs. I was in a dream – that must be it! - a strange and surreal dream from which I could not wake up, however much I tried. The blood was everywhere – staining the carpet, staining my legs, staining the hem of my white silk dressing gown.
“Steve – Steve, what happened?” My voice, still, but the voice of a stranger.
“Steve, I'm going to call an ambulance, okay?” Danny's voice – calmer than my own – stern, soft, reliable, brought me back to myself. Steve looked up at me, still reeling, sweat slicking his red hair across his face, wobbling on his elbows.
“That'll teach me to...to...to....girls...” he slurred, before collapsing once more at my feet.
“Stay calm, Neve,” Danny said. “Keep him talking – keep him awake. If he's been concussed, the last thing you want is for him to fall asleep – that could be dangerous.”
“Steve...” I murmured, sounding a bit more like myself. “Steve, what happened? Who did this to you?”
“Girl...” slurred Steve again, coughing up blood. His teeth wobbled slightly, as if he'd been punched in the mouth.
“A girl did this to you?” Immediately I thought of Roni Taylor, but she didn't weigh a hundred twenty pounds soaking wet, and Steve was a muscular guy.
“No...” Steve shook his head. “I was with a girl...”
“What girl?” I asked him. “Where is she?”
“Dunno.” Steve chuckled darkly. “Nice girl.”
“You went to her hotel room?”
“Tried to...” Steve's eyes seemed to focus on mine. “She left me her hotel room key...I took it...went up the elevator. Corridor was dark, deserted...”
“And then what happened?” I leaned in, mopping the blood from his face.
“This guy...” Steve furrowed his brow. “He jumped me.”
“Jumped you?”
“Thought he was a waiter at first. Black hair, spiky, kinda punk-like. Typical LA...”
“And then what happened, Steve?”
“He shoved me. I said sorry, man, didn't see you there...then he....”
“He attacked you?”
“Punched me. Kicked me.” He held out his right hand. “Slammed this in the door.”
I couldn't help it; I yelped out loud. Angry-looking bruises covered his hand, his fingers swelling up in sickening shades of purple and green.
“Looks like the bone's broken,” Danny said as he hung up the phone. “At least one of them, by the look of it, and I'd be surprised if it wasn't more.” He sighed. “The ambulance is on its way. They should be here soon...”
“What happened to the guy?” I asked Steve.
He shook his head. “Dunno,” he said. “He just vanished. And I got dizzy – wanted to chase after him, but couldn't...” He almost swooned once again. “That girl...I think she put something in my drink while I wasn't looking...I had a beer or two, but not this much. Nowhere near this much...” He coughed. “I'm so stupid,” he said. “To fall for a pretty face like that. I should have known something was up. She was way out of my league...” He gave a bitter laugh. “I thought it was just my lucky night...”
Danny and I looked at each other.
“Are you thinking what I'm thinking?” he whispered to me, his voice scratchy and low with worry.
“That something's fishy about this? You bet.”
“Roni?”
“Roni.”
Danny sighed.
“I don't understand...” I whispered. “I know it's personal but...why make it this personal? I mean – so, you turned her down once? It's not the end of the world.”
Danny looked nervous, but said nothing, staring down at his shoes. “Roni doesn't like being said no to,” he said. “That's all there is to it. But I'm sorry, Neve – so sorry I dragged you into this mess, dragged all of you into this mess...”
“No...” I reached out and took his hand. “It's not your fault.
It's hers.”
He jerked away – almost coldly, I thought with surprise. “We need to call the others,” he said. “We need to let them know what's happened, to figure out a plan. She will not get away with this!” His voice was steely with anger – his rage palpable and potent.
“Don't worry, darling,” I whispered back. “She won't.”
I texted Luc and Kyle; they were at the hotel suite within minutes. I couldn't help but feel self-conscious when Luc and Kyle caught sight of me – still naked except for the dressing gown, which clung somewhat revealingly to my curves. Even now, under these circumstances, I hated for Luc and Kyle to see me like this – to see the bed where, just moments before, Danny and I had been making passionate, frenetic love.
They both eyed the bed nervously, averting their eyes both from it and from me, as I pushed the dressing gown across my body, trying to cover myself up even more modestly than I already had done.
“Don't worry, Steve,” Luc was saying gently, his voice smooth like honey. “Danny told me that it's only going to be another five minutes or so...and then the ambulance is going to get here. You're fine, just a few bruises.”
“My...hand...” Steve's voice was shaking, although he seemed more lucid now than he had done when he first stumbled in. “What are we going to do about my hand?”
“What about it?”
“How am I supposed to drum with this hand?”
We all fell silent.
For the past five minutes, we'd been worried about Steve's health, his safety, the mysterious man out there who had beaten him up for what seemed like no reason. But now it hit us. This wasn't just a revenge attack – this was sabotage, pure and simple. There was no way that Steve could drum with a broken hand.
And we had another gig in just two days.
My heart sank – all our hearts sank – as the reality of the situation sank in along with it. We had two days to find a new drummer.
Replace Steve? How could we replace Steve? We'd only just gotten the band back together – and now one of us would have to sit things out for weeks, maybe even months? It seemed ridiculous – absurd, even.
