Текст книги "Hot Ticket"
Автор книги: Olivia Cunning
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Текущая страница: 21 (всего у книги 22 страниц)
“I do realize that,” Jace murmured. He brushed Aggie’s hair from her cheeks and slid his slackening cock in and out of her a couple times. “Because this is mine.”
“Fuck, yeah, it is,” she murmured and kissed him.
“Will everyone shut up?” Brian called miserably from his bunk. “I can’t do this with all that yammering.”
Chapter 36
Jace shifted the barbell off its pegs and struggled to keep the bar even. His weak arm trembled immediately. Sed stood over his head as his spotter.
“I wonder when Brian will get back to the bus with Myrna,” Sed said. “I hope nothing happened. They should have been here by now. We’re going to be late for our show if we don’t get on the road soon.”
“They’re probably screwing somewhere. You know how those two are. Even married, they can’t keep their hands off each other.” Jace lowered the bar to his chest and pushed up. Keeping the bar even was damned near impossible, but whenever it tilted, Sed pressed on the high end as a gentle reminder to work harder on the low end.
Jace tried to ease the dumbbell back on its stand, but Sed nudged it forward. “Three more.”
Jace had already broken out in a sweat. The enclosed space in the back of the equipment truck made the air hot and heavy. Even with the back doors wide open, the circulation was minimal. Within minutes, Jace’s entire body was drenched. His arm was so tired, he doubted he could lift a paper clip, but he lowered the bar, confident that Sed wouldn’t let him crush his chest if he got into trouble. Jace gritted his teeth and pushed the bar up.
“Two more.”
Again.
“One more.”
His weak arm shook uncontrollably. He felt the weight slipping. Sed’s hand hovered near the bar, but he didn’t grab it.
“Focus, Jace. You can do this.”
Jace couldn’t explain the feeling Sed gave him. Always gave him. It was as if he wanted Sed to be proud—such a strange ambition. It did give Jace the fortitude to lift the bar one last time as he drew on strength he didn’t know he possessed. Sed grabbed the bar at once and shifted it onto the stand. “That’s it.”
Jace forced himself to sit up.
“How did that feel?”
“Exhausting, but great. I’m getting stronger already. Thanks for your help.”
“No problem.” Sed added weights to the bar. “Spot me?”
Jace tried not to grin too widely at being asked, but he couldn’t help it. No one else worked out with Sed. Just him. “Yeah, of course.”
“Jessica can’t keep her hands off me. I think it’s the extra muscle. Must make sure I maintain it.”
Jace figured it was her undying love, not Sed’s impressive bulk, that kept her hands on him, but Jace didn’t want to sound like a wuss, so he kept those words locked inside.
Eric hauled himself into the back of the truck. “Whatcha guys doing out here?”
“What does it look like?” Sed asked.
Eric’s vivid blue eyes moved from Jace to Sed and back to Jace. “Having a ‘who can sweat the most’ contest? I think Jace is winning.”
“He’s working on getting the strength back in his shoulder and arm,” Sed explained.
Jace braced himself for the dis that was sure to erupt from Eric’s mouth.
“Good. Then we can send Jon home.”
Jace was smiling like a dipshit now. When had things changed? When had these guys, who he’d always admired, even idolized, started to include him as one of them? Maybe they were just jerking him. He couldn’t let his guard down too much. Jace remembered he was supposed to ask about Jon playing bass live in those songs Jace would play piano.
“We might need to keep Jon around,” Jace said.
Eric and Sed stared in disbelief.
“For the songs on the new album where I play piano. Maybe he could play bass when we do those songs live.”
“No,” Sed said without hesitation.
“Why not?” Eric said.
“I caught him sharing a crack pipe with one of our temporary roadies yesterday,” Sed said. “I fired the roadie on the spot. Jon’s had his one and only warning. We can’t get rid of him fast enough.”
“Maybe if he has something to look forward to, he can quit the drugs,” Jace said.
Eric nodded. “I agree.”
Sed lay back on the weight bench and wrapped his large hands around the bar, flexing his fingers to find a good grip. “Doubtful.”
“Think about it,” Eric urged.
“I know he’s your best friend, Eric, but the guy is bad news,” Sed growled, lifting the weighted bar up and down as if he was at war with it.
Eric’s brow furrowed. “He’s not my best friend. He uses me. I know that. Jace is my best friend.”
Jace’s heart thudded until he realized Eric was teasing him again. The stupid follow-up joke never came.
Sed made a sound of exertion, and Jace helped him lift the weight bar onto its stand. Sed sat up and wiped his sweaty face on a towel.
“I don’t know. We’ll see what Brian and Trey think. As far as I’m concerned, Jon doesn’t deserve another chance.”
“I need to talk to him,” Eric said. He hopped out the back of the truck.
Sed stood and picked up a twenty-five-pound dumbbell. He handed it to Jace. “Get to work. We need you back. Soon.”
* * *
Loud arguing on the opposite side of the tour bus drew Aggie from her thoughts. She climbed from the log where she’d been sitting and watching a squirrel bury nuts beneath the leaf litter. She brushed her hands off on her jeans and went to investigate. Eric had Jon cornered against the bus.
“How could you do something so stupid again?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jon said.
“Sed told me about the crack pipe, Jon. You promised me. You begged and begged me to give you a second chance with the band. Said no more drugs. Reminded me how much I owed you, until I finally relented and promised the first time an opening presented itself, I’d get you in. How the hell was I supposed to know Jace would get himself shot, and I’d have to keep that promise?”
“Why are you jumping my ass? Chill. Sed won’t catch me using again. I’ll be more careful.”
Eric growled in frustration. “You just don’t get it. I promised Sed you were clean. I vouched for you, knowing Sed would hold me accountable for every stupid thing you do. I even alienated Jace to get you here, and you do this?” Eric shoved Jon against the bus with both hands.
Jon shoved him back. “Don’t act all holier than thou, Eric. Do you really think this temporary stint makes us square? You still owe me.”
“You think I don’t realize that?”
“Then get the fuck off my case.”
“How did you get Jace to ask us to keep you on? Did you threaten him?”
Jon laughed. “Do you really think I could threaten Jace? He doesn’t take shit from anyone but the four of you. I had Aggie ask. I knew he couldn’t say no to her. She has him wrapped around her finger.”
Aggie took a hesitant step forward. Gravel crunched beneath her shoes. Both men turned to look at her. “That nice guy routine last night was all an act, wasn’t it?” she said.
“Just shut up,” Jon said.
Eric cuffed him on the side of the head. “You know what? Just get the fuck away from me. I can’t stand to look at you.”
A taxi turned into the roadside. It drew to a stop beside them. Brian opened the door and tugged a beautiful thirty-something woman from the backseat as he climbed from the car. She wore a classy, plum-colored skirt suit and matching stilettos. What had probably been a neat, twist hairstyle was all mussed up as if someone had been raking his fingers through it. The woman couldn’t keep her eyes, mouth, or hands off the lead guitarist, and he couldn’t stop smiling.
“Myrna,” Brian said breathlessly, “this is Jace’s girlfriend, Aggie, and that guy is Jon. You’ve heard a bit about him.”
Her pretty hazel gaze touched briefly on Aggie and Jon before returning to the reason she’d flown to Canada. “Nice to meet you both,” she said. “I hate to be rude, but if I don’t ride The Beast in the next five minutes, I’m going to die.”
Brian laughed and tugged her toward the bus steps. “Now we wouldn’t want that, sweetheart. Eric, would you mind paying the driver and getting Myrna’s luggage from the trunk?” He said this without taking his eyes off his wife.
“I suppose,” Eric said with a knowing grin.
The couple disappeared into the bus.
“Hi, Myrna!” Jessica said inside the bus. “How have you been?”
“We’ll catch up later, Jess.”
A moment later Jessica stumbled down the stairs, a blush staining her cheeks. “They made it as far as the sofa,” she murmured.
“Oh hell yes,” Eric said and entered the bus with Myrna’s suitcase in hand. He didn’t return. No doubt, he found a new couple to watch.
“So what do we do now?” Aggie asked.
“Looks like we’ve been banished to the pigsty bus.” Jessica shuddered and rubbed her hands over her bare arms. Southern California girls did not have wardrobes suitable for Canadian autumns.
Sed and Jace came around the equipment truck, their bodies slick with sweat. Both looked entirely fuckable. Aggie wasn’t the only one to notice. Jessica produced a sound somewhere between a growl and a purr.
“Why are you two standing out here by yourselves?” Sed asked, drawing Jessica against his body and doing something to her ear that made her shiver with something other than cold.
Aggie glanced around. They were by themselves. Jon had apparently slinked off somewhere again. Someone slammed the back door of the equipment truck. “We’ll see you in Montreal,” the roadie, Travis, called before climbing in the cab and pulling out of the roadside stop. A moment later, the pigsty bus followed, leaving them to stand there in the chill.
“Brian and Myrna have commandeered the living area of the bus,” Jessica said. She traced a bead of sweat down the side of Sed’s neck with one finger until it disappeared into the low neckline of his white tank top.
“Does that mean the bedroom is available?” Sed said in a low growl.
Eric poked his head out of the open bus door. “Aggie, Brian wants to see you.”
Aggie’s brow knitted with confusion. She touched a hand to the center of her chest. “Me?”
“I think you’ve been volunteered for one of Myrna’s sexual exploration experiments.”
Chapter 37
Aggie climbed the bus steps and found Brian and Myrna breathless on the sofa, still fully clothed, looking simultaneously hungry and satisfied. Myrna was straddling Brian’s lap, her skirt hiked up around her waist, his cock buried inside her. He was whispering, “I love you,” into her ear repeatedly.
“Eric said you wanted to see me,” Aggie said.
“Do you do couples?” Myrna asked.
Aggie’s hackles rose. “Do I do couples?”
“She doesn’t mean it like that,” Brian said, dropping a tender kiss on his wife’s temple. “She means do you instruct couples on the proper way to, you know… do what you do?”
Oh!
Oh, yeah…
Every nerve in Aggie’s body shifted into high alert as Mistress V clamored to be set free. She loved working with couples. Teaching them. Helping them explore their dark sensuality together. It was her favorite thing to do in the dungeon. Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible here. “There really isn’t the space to do this properly, especially when the bus is in motion,” she said. “When we get back home, I’ll invite you over for some couple’s therapy.”
“And us too?” Sed asked from the front of the bus. Jessica’s head snapped up to stare at him in surprise. He wrapped an arm around her as the bus started forward and eased onto the highway.
“Sure,” Aggie said. “I love to see big, tough guys beg for mercy.”
“And I get to watch, right?” Eric said.
“And they’ll all practice their techniques on me, right?” Jace murmured.
Aggie chuckled. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
Jace nodded eagerly.
“We should go into business together, sweetheart. We’d have quite the partnership. I’d get to boss a bunch of dommes around, which is so much more fun than watching men crawl around at my boots. You’d get all the pain you could ever want. We’d be in seventh heaven.”
He stroked her hair from her cheek tenderly. “I’m already there.”
“Hey guys!” Dave shouted from the driver’s seat. “It’s snowing.”
Aggie had never seen snow fall.
She rushed to the front of the bus to stare at the gray sky. Large, fluffy snowflakes flew toward the wide windshield, accumulating on the wipers and slowly painting the desolate landscape white.
“It’s beautiful!” she said, watching the flakes zoom toward them. “It looks like we’re traveling in space at warp speed.”
“Are we going to make it to Montreal on time, Dave?” Sed asked as his brow furrowed with concern.
Coming to stand behind her, Jace wrapped both arms around Aggie’s waist and rested his chin on her shoulder to watch the snow through the windshield. She covered his hands with hers and relaxed against him. A few weeks ago, he never would have embraced her in front of the guys. He’d grown so much since she’d forced her way into his life, but not half as much as she had.
Dave’s attention drifted to his speedometer. “We should. Do you want me to push the pedal to the metal?”
“Are the roads slick?”
“Not yet,” Dave said.
“Better safe than sorry,” Eric called from the dining area. He leaned against the counter and pulled his lucky rabbit’s foot out of his pocket to rub it with his thumbs. He kissed it seven times for good measure.
“What the fuck is that?” Myrna yelled.
Aggie could hear her even through the closed bedroom door, where she and her husband had disappeared to continue catching up. Brian said something in response to his wife that Aggie couldn’t make out, but he sounded apologetic.
The bedroom door burst open. “Eric Sticks, I’m going to fucking kick your ass,” Myrna bellowed. She had lost her jacket and blouse but didn’t seem to care that everyone on the bus could see her bra.
Eric grabbed Jessica, who had been kneeling in a captain’s chair snow-gazing along the side of the bus. Eric used her as his human shield. “What did I do, Myrna?”
“How could you? On his ass, Eric. Brian has a fucking kitten riding on a unicorn permanently etched on his ass!”
Huh? Aggie glanced from one band member to the next, having no idea what they were laughing about.
“Hey, the rainbow background was Jace’s idea,” Eric said.
Myrna went after Eric with a paddle. She struck him twice before he managed to escape.
“I have one too,” Trey said.
He shucked his jeans and presented his bare ass to the bus occupants. A vibrantly bright and colorful tattoo of a fluffy calico kitten riding a galloping, majestic unicorn adorned a third of Trey’s left ass cheek. A rainbow and wispy, white clouds surrounded the mythical creature. Little girls would be ashamed to have that feminine monstrosity on their lunch boxes. Why would a guy have that tattooed on his ass? Correction—two guys.
Aggie joined the laughter. Clutching his abdomen with both arms, tears pouring from his eyes, Sed was lying on the floor, rolling back and forth in the aisle as he laughed. Myrna paused and ran a hand over Trey’s flank as she inspected the “artwork” that matched her husband’s.
“Son of a bitch! You inflicted Trey with that grotesque thing too? I’m going to kick your ass twice, Eric Sticks.”
“It’s not my fault. They lost the bet,” Eric shouted. Trapped in the corner between the bathroom and bedroom, he tried to catch the end of Myrna’s paddle as she struck his thigh.
“You can hit me if you want, Myrna,” Jace said, grinning. “I did suggest the rainbow background.”
“I’m not going to hit you, Jace Seymour,” Myrna growled. “You’d like it.”
“If I wasn’t so scared of you right now, I’d tell you how hot you look in your bra, Myrna,” Eric said. “You’re giving me such a boner.”
She hit him harder.
The interior of the bus dimmed as it entered a tunnel. Aggie squinted out the windshield. Ahead, she could see daylight and something flashing red. Hazard lights?
“Dave? I think someone is stopped up there,” she told the driver.
“I see him,” he said and eased off the accelerator. When they emerged from the tunnel, they came upon a truck parked halfway in the road. Its owner was putting chains on the tires. With no time to stop, Dave veered left to avoid the truck. The bus skidded toward a guardrail on the opposite side of the road. Slamming on the brakes, Dave veered right and narrowly missed the truck.
A patch of ice sent the bus spinning sideways around a hairpin corner. The vehicle tipped onto two wheels. Aggie reached for the back of his seat for balance. A loud horn—like that of a semitruck—sounded a warning.
“Oh fuck!” Dave yelled as headlights approached at high-speed.
Someone grabbed Aggie around the waist just as the semi clipped the right side of the bus and sent it spinning in an uncorrectable circle. The back of the bus hit the guardrail, sending everyone tumbling to the floor. The sounds of shattering glass, rending metal, and her own scream ricocheted through Aggie’s mind. The bus flipped on its side. Jace held onto Aggie as they tumbled through the interior, banging against hard surfaces and sharp edges as the bus rolled side over side. It slid sideways across the pavement—metal grinding—and finally, lurched to a sudden stop as it crashed into something solid.
* * *
Jace took a shuddering breath, holding Aggie’s head against his pounding heart. Completely limp, she lay sprawled over his body. She’s dead, he thought. Aggie’s dead. Just like every other person he’d ever loved. Aggie was dead. Crippling anguish washed over him. Sharp talons pulled his heart and soul apart in every direction. He drew her nearer, wanting to follow her in death, rather than face life without her.
After a moment, she stirred. Moaned.
“Aggie?” His voice cracked.
“Jace,” she whispered.
His arms tightened around her. He opened his eyes, but everything was blurred by the tears. “Are you okay?” he said hoarsely. “Aggie?”
“I think so.” She tried to move away, but he was incapable of releasing her from his hold. “Let go, Jace.”
“I can’t.” He kissed the top of her head. “I can’t let you go. Not ever.”
“We need to get out of here now. You can hold me forever later.”
She was right. They did need to get out of the bus and make sure everyone else was all right. He forced himself to release her and recognized they were lying on the sofa’s back—except it wasn’t in the appropriate orientation. The side window Jessica had been looking out of not five minutes ago was broken out and facing skyward. The bus was resting on its driver side. Someone helped Aggie climb from Jace’s body.
Sed. He had a gash on his temple and blood running down the side of his face, but had never looked more solid. Aggie took a step toward the back of the bus, glass crunching beneath her feet. “You can’t get out that way,” Sed said. “There’s a cliff.”
“Where are the others?”
Looking physically ill, he shook his head. “I don’t know.”
Sed boosted Aggie out of the broken window above. She scrambled from the bus.
An acidic smell filled Jace’s nose and burned his eyes. The bus filled with smoke. Sed helped him to his feet. “We have to get out of here,” Sed said.
“Is everyone okay?”
Sed didn’t answer, but looked anxiously over his shoulder. Jace followed his gaze. The back half of the bus was missing, and beyond the torn edge lay open space—an endless chasm beyond a cliff.
Chapter 38
Aggie stood on the side of the bus that now faced skyward and looked at the debris littering the road. The back of the bus had not plummeted over the edge of the cliff as she had first suspected. It was yards away at the entrance of the tunnel buried under an avalanche of enormous logs. The semitrailer that had been carrying the timber was on its side against a rocky embankment. The truck that they’d swerved to avoid sat untouched near the end of the tunnel. Its owner was yelling into a cell phone—hopefully calling for help. Jessica was sitting in the middle of the road, clutching her head in both hands and screaming Sed’s name. Aggie was too stunned to tell her Sed was okay. Her brain and body operated in slow motion. She watched Brian pull Myrna from the wreckage. Trey wriggled out next. Aggie waited for the one person unaccounted for, her heart thudding as if it were stuck in a time warp.
“Eric?” Brian called into the wreckage.
No answer.
“Eric!” Trey yelled.
Still no answer.
Sed scrambled over the side of the bus and ran toward Jessica. He drew her into his arms, and they clung to each other, oblivious to the chaos. A hand settled on the small of Aggie’s back. She turned to look at Jace. He had little bleeding cuts all over his face from being pelted with broken glass, and grime blackened his skin, but she could honestly say he’d never looked better.
“They’re all okay then?” he asked breathlessly.
“Eric,” she whispered.
His face fell. He climbed down the undercarriage of the bus and helped her to the pavement. Aggie’s ankle protested when she put weight on it, but she ignored it. They ran and limped, hand-in-hand toward the back of the bus. “Where’s Eric?” Jace asked a bewildered Trey.
“I think he’s still inside.”
“Did you see him in there?” Jace asked Trey, trying to crawl between two logs that were arranged like a giant game of pick-up sticks around what was left of the bus. “Did you see Eric?”
“How are we alive?” Trey murmured, his green eyes distant and glazed over. “How are we alive? We should all be dead.”
“Eric!” Jace called, pushing a log with his shoulder. It refused to budge. “Eric!”
“Li-little man?” Eric’s barely detectable voice came from deep inside the bus.
“He’s alive,” Jace said breathlessly.
He thrust an arm into the open space between two logs. “Grab my hand, Eric. We’ll get you out.”
Inside the bus, Eric gasped in agony. “Can’t move. My leg is trapped.”
Jace squirmed to extend his reach. “Try, Eric. Grab my hand.”
“I guess I don’t have to wonder when the new album’s curse is going to get me anymore.” Eric chuckled.
Count on Eric to make a joke at the least appropriate time. Aggie couldn’t help but grin and roll her eyes.
“I need a few more inches, and I can get in there,” Jace said as he attempted to squeeze between the logs.
“Wait for the emergency crew,” Brian suggested.
“We’re miles and miles away from emergency services,” Jace said. “It will take too long for them to get here.”
Aggie knew Jace wouldn’t be able to stand there and wait while Eric was trapped. She squatted next to Jace to see if there was a way to help.
“Sed,” Jace called over his shoulder. “Do you think you can move this log?”
Sed kissed Jessica’s cheeks and released her. When he moved away, she made a sound like a wounded animal. “It’s okay,” he promised. “I’ll be right back.” He approached the bus. “Where are you, Eric? I don’t want to crush you with one of these logs.”
Eric laughed. “I’m in the fucking bathroom. My foot is stuck behind the toilet. I can’t get it loose.”
“But you’re okay?”
“I think so. I-I smell gas though.”
“The bathroom always smells like that,” Sed said.
Eric laughed. “True.”
Sed grabbed the log blocking Jace’s entry and growled with exertion, his muscles bulging as he lifted it several inches. Jace scrambled into the wreckage, trapping himself voluntarily to help a friend. Aggie’s chest swelled with pride. “You’re so brave, baby,” she said, tears streaming down her cheeks. “So selfless. I love you so much.”
Sed released the log, and it settled back in place.
She could see a bit of Jace’s white T-shirt in the interior darkness, but nothing else. “Be careful.”
Aggie heard debris scatter as Jace picked his way through the bus to the bathroom.
“It’s a good thing you’re so little, man,” Eric said. “No one else could have squeezed in here and saved me. Ow, fuck, dude, my leg doesn’t bend that way.”
“It does now,” Jace said. “Why are you wet?”
“Uh, toilet water. Hello.”
“I hope the last person to use it remembered to flush.”
“Thanks for adding to my list of concerns, little man.”
Jace chuckled.
After several minutes of grunting, Eric cried, “I’m free!”
“Now, how do we get out of here?” Jace asked.
“No idea.”
“How did you guys get out?” Sed asked Jessica, who was clinging to his waist. He touched her hair.
“U-under the dining table,” Jessica managed to say.
“Try under the dining table,” Sed yelled.
After a moment, Jace and Eric found the route out. “Thanks, tripod,” Eric said, holding his weight off his left leg, while hugging Jace so hard his feet lifted off the ground.
“Tripod?” Jace asked.
“As hung as you are, you practically have three legs.”
Jace laughed and patted Eric on the back enthusiastically. “I don’t care if you call me little man. I’m okay with it.”
“Don’t lie. I know you hate it. I’m calling you tripod from now on.”
Beneath the grime and sweat, Jace blushed. He glanced at Aggie out of the corner of his eye. His brilliant smile made her heart sing.
“I’m glad everyone is accounted for,” Brian said, his arms around Myrna, who was impossibly calm in her half-naked state. “I think I shit my pants. What a ride!”
“We are the luckiest motherfuckers on the planet,” Sed said, and wrapped his arms around Jace and Eric, squishing Jessica between them. Brian drew Myrna and Trey into the circle against Eric’s back.
“You don’t think I’m stupid for hanging seven horseshoes on the wall now, do you?” Eric said.
“We still think you’re stupid, Eric,” Brian said.
“But we’re glad you aren’t dead,” Trey added.
Someone’s arm snaked around Aggie’s waist, and she soon found herself trapped in the middle of a group hug. These guys. Family. No other word described them. She was glad to be part of what they shared. And doubly glad that Jace had them in his life.
Jace suddenly jerked away from the group. “Where’s Dave?”
