by Thia Finn
“Good idea.” He picked up his phone and shot off another text. As I watched him hit send, I remembered I needed to talk to G’Anna. Never had I needed to check in with a female. Answering to anyone went out the window for me a long time ago. But today, I wanted to check in with her.
My mind wandered to what she’d been doing all day? She got most of her work done, so she left on tour with few worries about her business? Had it been a good day for her? Was she sore from all the sex we’d had? My mind drifted back over the last time I pushed into her in the early hours of the morning. I couldn’t keep from smiling thinking about our night.
“Something on your mind, Ryder?” Daniel asked in a low voice from beside me?
I turned and looked at him. The street lights gave an eerie on and off light, but I saw a definite smirk on his face. “Yeah, there is.”
“Something or someone?”
“Busted,” Joel spoke up. “That woman will damn sure cause you all kinds of trouble, Ryder.”
“Shut the fuck up, Joel. I know what I’m doing.”
He turned back and faced the front as we pulled up to the back entry. We needed to keep our appearance quiet until we hit the stage. Phones ruined a lot of surprises these days. The band stepped out and moved directly through the back door with the manager closing it behind us.
I pulled up G’Anna’s number to call, praying she had time to talk. Better yet, would she want to come hear us do this brief show? Her studio wasn’t that far away. If she left now, she would only miss the first song or two.
I wanted her opinion on the new song. The lyrics told of a lover from long ago. As I sang it for the recording, my mind drifted to her beautiful face. I thought about how she looked as I made love to her, and the way her eyes stared hard into mine just before she gave up and let the orgasm flow over her.
A song waited to be written about that look. It rested on the tip of my pencil needing to be scrawled on the page. Hell, words needed to be laid down about her eyes alone.
“Ryder?” Someone interrupted my thoughts.
I glanced around, and all four members stared. “Yeah?”
“You going to make the fucking call or are you admiring your home screen?” Joel chuckled at his own words or at me. I sure as hell didn’t care which.
I pushed the green call button and waited as it rolled over to her voicemail after a few rings. Not being prepared to talk to a machine, I hit end. Guess she wouldn’t make it if she didn’t get the message in time.
Opening my text messages, I typed one out.
Ryder: Hey, sorry I’m just now getting back to you. We’re playing a quick set at the Continental Club in a few minutes to try out our new song. Love it if you’d come over and hear it
With the message sent, I opened my guitar case and prepared to plug in.
From the stage, we heard, “Hey, guys. We’re cutting our show a little short tonight because there’s a special band who wanted to hit us up with a few tunes.” Boos blasted the stage. “Okay, okay. We know you love us, but I believe you’re going to get a freaking hard-on over what you’re about to hear and see.”
His band and helpers frantically cleared off some equipment but left what we needed to plug and play. “This Austin native band is what all of us newbies aspire to be. Hell, I’ve wanted to be their lead singer since I understood there was something besides nursery rhymes on my Playskool record player.” The audience laughed but got eerily quiet. “I’m not even going to introduce this band since I…” he looked at his bandmates, “… no, we, are too in awe to speak their names.”
The lights went completely out, and we eased up on stage to plug into the band’s amps. I stepped up to the mic and nodded at Brett to start the song with his sticks. The loud tap, tap, tap, tap sounded, the lights came up, and Steel launched into the first song amidst the roar of the small crowd. Phones texted messages and shot live video to share their luck with friends.
Our security guys and the club’s stood at the street. The fire marshals only allowed so many into these small old venues, so they would have a potential riot on their hands in no time with social media blowing up over our appearance.
We planned to head out as soon as the last note sounded from the speaker to make sure crowd control succeeded. The audience sang our music to the four known songs and rocked to the new one. This was what our music was truly all about. Seeing fans singing along with the band spoke volumes to our notoriety. The last song sung we could perform in our sleep, so we let the audience shout it to the rooftops only carrying them in the second verse.
The looks we shared onstage reminded me of some of our first concerts after we’d made it big. We knew we were at the top of the heap. We realized our dreams for the first time.
We left to a roaring crowd both inside and outside after taking time to thank the bands we sandwiched between. If the second band didn’t gain more listeners, it was their own fault. We’d set them up to an overly full house. The manager opened the doors to allow the music to drift out onto the street to the hundreds who ran up in time to hear.
Unplugging our guitars, we ran out the back door and loaded into our waiting vehicle.
“Damn, that was the best motherfucking set we’ve played in forever. I miss playing the small venues.” The enthusiasm Jason felt flowed from all of us. Being on stage always left us with a high like no other. “It was like the old days when we could see all the fans joining in and play to them in a personal way.”
“Yeah, that shit right there, that’s why I wanted to be in a band,” Brett added.
The talk continued back over to the studios. After we carried the guitars in, we all left in separate vehicles. We’d be together for the coming four months, so as much as the adrenaline flowed, spending time with each other wasn’t on our minds.
RYDER
I stepped to my Harley and pulled out my phone. I hadn’t had a chance to check it while after we started playing. If I was honest with myself, I hadn’t thought about it again until I headed to my bike.
My messages had gone unread anyway which I found as soon as I opened the screen. It surprised me because she almost always read and replied immediately unless she was too busy. Even though it was late, I knew she was probably still in her studio working. Like we did with music, she sometimes got lost in her art.
Starting the bike, I headed out to check on her progress. Maybe we could catch a late dinner before going back to her place. Austin traffic stood still as usual especially in the area where our offices were located, so it took forever to get to her. As I sat in various spots waiting to move forward, I thought about last night again. I tried to keep my mind clean, but the rolling and tumbling we experienced together created too strong images. Her moaning, her nails scraping down my back, her licking up my abs and around my nipples haunted me each mile I drove. By the time I turned off the heavy, vibrating machine, my dick pushed against my zipper seeking relief.
The lobby door stood open. We needed a discussion about her safety. Being here this late at night, probably alone, with doors unlocked needed to stop. As I stepped through, the lack of noise caused the fine hairs on my neck to stand up. I knew something wasn’t right.
Not wanting to disturb anything or anyone, I carefully stepped through the lobby and down the darkened hallway, another sign of a problem. With the natural sunlight from all the windows, G’Anna turned lights off when not needed, but at dark, this one should be on.
Working my way down, I tipped opened doorways to rooms used for storage and meetings. She kept these closed when not using them. The fact they stood only half-closed set off panic I worked to keep pushed down. I stopped outside her office door and listened. Nothing.
Slowly, my foot moved the door open further. I might need my hands for something else. I spotted her on the floor.
“G’Anna,” I cried out as I moved to her. “G’Anna?” She laid face down, and panic tried to take over until I heard a low moan from her. She pulled her hand up to brace her
self and tried to turn over. “Don’t move. I’m calling 911 now.”
“No, don’t. I’m okay. Help me roll over, please.”
“That’s not a good idea. You need to let paramedics look at you. We might do more damage.” I wanted to scoop her up and hold her close, but the fear of hurting her scared me into doing nothing.
“I’m okay, Ryder. Just help me.” This time she spoke with more conviction, so I decided her determination to turn over outweighed my fear.
Placing my arm under her partially turned body, I guided every move to roll her completely over so she lay on her back. “G’Anna, you have a nasty bump on your forehead. Did you pass out?”
“No. Someone hit me. I’m pretty sure there’s one on the back of my head, too.”
“Someone hit you?” I repeated, but in rapid fire, I asked, “What the fuck? Who was it? Did you see them? We need to call the police.”
“What good would it do? They’re long gone by now.” She tried to sit.
“Let me help you, sugar. You’ve gotta go to the hospital. You probably have a concussion from at least one of these knots.” I softly ran my hand across the back of her head. Thank God neither one killed her.
“I don’t want to go to the hospital, Ryder. I’ve got too much to do, and they’ll want me to spend the night for observation and run lots of tests. They’ll order me to rest for a few days, and I don’t have time for any of that. I need to finish my pictures before we leave.”
“Those damn pictures will be on your computer when we get to Europe. You’ve got eight or more hours to work on the jet. Forget the fucking pictures.” Her lack of worry for herself pissed me off.
“I want to stand up. I need to look around to see what they stole.”
“They? There was more than one?”
She looked at me with indecision on her face. “Yeah, I think so.”
“That’s it. I’m calling the police and an ambulance.” I hit 911 on my phone before she could talk me out of it again.
Help made quick work of getting to the building. Paramedics knelt beside her doing their best to get her to cooperate with them. “Ms. Lucian, we need to do these things to make sure you’re in condition to move to the stretcher.”
“I’m not getting on a stretcher. I’m not going to the hospital.” She glared at him and then at me. “See, I told you so.”
Rocking back on my calves, I gave her a hard look right back. “G’Anna, you’re going to the hospital to get that bump checked out if I have to help them strap you to that gurney. Now, please, sugar, let them do their job.”
A loud huff rolled off her tongue, and I received a deadly look, but she put her hand down beside her and let them begin their ministrations. Once they determined she could move, they helped her on the rolling table.
“Stop,” she demanded before they rolled her out of her office.
“Ryder, please find my camera and my laptop. Those are my most important pieces. If they’re gone, I’m screwed.” She turned her attention to the two EMTs. “Don’t move until he gets back.” They both nodded to her.
I wanted to laugh at the looks on their faces. My sugar could be as intimidating as fuck when she wanted to be. I needed to store that knowledge for later. I went into the studio to the tall desk she used to work on photos. Her laptop sat in the middle of it. Her camera peeked out the top of her camera bag where it looked like it had been thrown in haphazardly. She would never treat that baby in such a way.
The door to a compartment on the bottom hung open. I scooped up the entire bag and her laptop using a lens cleaning wiper. There could be fingerprints on it that the police might match.
As I made my way back to her office, the police stopped me. “Don’t take anything from here. This is a crime scene.”
From her office, G’Anna yelled, “I want to see if they took anything and these two bozos won’t let me get up.”
Looking up at the uniformed officer, I raised one eyebrow. He responded with a curt nod. G’Anna grinned knowing she got her way. “Let me see the camera first.” I carefully lifted the camera from the bag by its strap. The small doorway on the bottom hung down as I held it over her face. “My damn card’s gone. See if it’s on my laptop.”
I inspected the side of the silver case, but nothing stuck out from the slot where a card would fit. “Sorry, no card.”
She reached out and snatched the laptop from my hands. “My fingerprints are already on it.” Opening it, she pulled up some files. Empty. “Shit, shit, shit. They wiped out all my photos. The card’s gone so no photos there either. Maybe some are in my camera still.” As I handed her the camera, she shot me a look of uncertainty and worry. “Those are gone, too.”
The police spoke up. “What was on all of this you’re looking for?”
“The photos from the weekend. It’s all Assured Distraction and Steel pictures from the concert in New York and Boston.” She dropped her eyes to her feet at the end of the gurney.
“We’ve got four months to replace those. Don’t worry about them, G’Anna.”
“They were my photos, Ryder. Mine. Someone stole them. How would you feel if someone stole your guitar or the recording of your next big hit?” I understood her anger when she put it that way.
“I don’t give a shit about them. They are replaceable. You are not.” I leaned down and kissed her cheek, careful not to touch the huge lump. “Now go let them check you out. I’ll follow the ambulance.”
“What about the office. Don’t leave it unlocked.”
“My security guys will stay until the police finish. They specialize in locking things down.” I winked at her.
With my Harley parked close to the ER door, I walked in beside G’Anna. She barked off orders on who she wanted called first. Pain shot through her when the EMTs bumped and rolled her into the holding area. The curtain to a room opened, and they told me to wait until they finished doing their job. I sent a text to all the people she wanted to know and the few I thought should know. It would be a long night if they kept her and the media got wind of who the break-in involved. More security than the hospital kept on duty needed to be around for that shit show.
G’ANNA
After the poking and prodding and testing ended, the pain tyrants left me alone in a room. I knew they would keep me for the night for observation. Going home sounded better to me, but they and Ryder nixed the idea right off the bat.
They destroyed all my hard work. Why would someone do that? My remarkable shots went up in smoke. Who stood to gain from that kind of misdeed? The only person I could decide on was another photographer. Someone wanted my job. Some hack thought if they destroyed my work, they could step in and snag the position.
I stumbled from my bed and landed on the floor just as Ryder and the doctor walked in.
“What are you trying to do, sugar? We need you well, not hurt worse.” He turned to the doctor. “You might have to restrain her to keep her here.”
“I’m afraid restraints are no longer an option unless she’s threatened to hurt herself.” He flipped open his chart, and I stuck my tongue out at Ryder. Mature, right?
“I need to go.”
“After looking at the CT scan, that’s out of the question. You need to rest and let your brain calm down some. It’s had a good knocking on it. It’s obvious someone wanted you unconscious from the lump on the back of the head. I believe the one of on your forehead happened in a fall, either from the floor or something on the way down.”
Ryder spoke up. “Someone hit her hard enough to knock her out?”
“Yes, they did. I assume the police will want to speak to you about this.” The doctor never looked up from the clipboard while talking.
“They’ve already asked me questions. I saw no one walk in, but my back faced the doorway while I worked on editing photos.” My mind raced trying to think who would do this to me. “I know it had to be another photographer, Ryder. Someone wants my job with you.”
He took my hand and lifted
it to his mouth, kissing my palm. “You don’t need to worry about that. No camera shoots my picture unless you’re behind it. Understand?”
I nodded. “Thank you.”
“Okay,” the doctor interrupted. “Depending on how you make the night, and if you’re feeling better in the morning, we’ll probably let you go home.”
“Perfect.”
“One thing, though. I expect you to rest and stop worrying about what happened. Your blood pressure reading tonight will tell the tale. Right now, it’s elevated from the trauma. Remaining calm and resting changes that number.”
He shook my hand and Ryder’s before walking out the door.
As the door closed, Ryder leaned over with his face next to mine and let out a breath he’d been holding. “Thank God you’re okay. This worried me to death all the way over here. When I found you on the floor, I almost lost my shit at that moment.”
“You seemed calm when you spoke to me.”
He pulled back, and his eyes met mine. “Calm? Sugar, any word but calm describes how I felt. I instantly thought of the worst possibility when I spotted you.”
I considered what he said and perked up. “You thought I was dead?”
He tipped his head before pulling me to his chest in a tight hug. “Feelings I buried long ago returned to torture me. Kneeling next to you, a yell bubbled up my throat, and it took everything in me not to let it go. Then you moaned, and I knew you were alive. I prayed to God you were all right, and you answered with a moan, sugar. It topped any moan I’ve ever heard you make.”
I wanted to laugh because he’d heard me moan during our long night of lovemaking. Those moans stayed buried for me to think of when I saw him walking toward me or smiling at me across the room. “This is the only time you will hear me moan in pain, Ryder.”
“Please let that be true, sugar.”
“I’ll give it my best shot.”
I woke the next morning to Ryder holding me in the hospital bed. All night long the machine beside me beeped and made horrid noises. I didn’t remember him taking me in his arms, but at that moment, I felt safe with him around me.
