Rocked in Pieces Page 2

  My mouth dropped open and I just sat there for a moment, unsure what to do. Half of me wanted to applaud her balls and fist bump her. The other half wanted call her a bitch and toss a drink in her face.

  In the end, I did neither. I nodded silently, stood up, and walked away with as much dignity as I could manage. Which, let’s be honest, isn’t much on my best day. So, mostly I slunk off to the lobby to find Steven, and hopefully, some more liquor. It was going to be a long day.

  All too soon it was time to meet the band. I’d spent the intervening hour catching my brother up on the sit down with Becca and trying to keep from sucking down the entire bottle of vodka he’d slid over to me when I finished my story.

  Now we were riding up to the suite where the members of Dream Defiled were staying, working on ice-breakers. Or rather, I was. Steven was, as usual, humoring me.

  “What if I just Electric Slide in, or walk in topless? They can’t hate me then.”

  “Maybe if you combine the two. But warn me first so I don’t accidentally see your boobs and go blind.”

  I bumped him with my hip. “Shut it. What about a joke? A good joke would do it.”

  “You don’t know any jokes.”

  “That’s not true.”

  He crossed his arms. “Really? Tell me one.”

  “I will. Okay… I… shit. You’re right. I don’t know any jokes.”

  “Told ya.” Steven turned and put his hands on my shoulders. “Look, you’re going to do fine. If you could charm Bree the B, you can charm anyone.”

  I smiled and nodded. “You’re right. There’s no way these guys are tougher than her. That woman made your social worker cry, and she was practically a robot.”

  He shuddered dramatically. “Don’t remind me.”

  The elevator stopped and the doors slid open.

  Steven hefted his equipment bag up and gestured for me to go ahead of him. Even though we weren’t shooting and he didn’t need it, he never went anywhere without the thing.

  I ran my tongue over my teeth to make sure I didn’t have any lipstick hiding there, took a deep breath, thrust my shoulders back and sauntered out like I wasn’t secretly terrified.

  The elevator opened right into the massive two-story suite. The floor under my feet was gleaming white marble, and the walls a rich patterned paper. There was a glass table directly ahead, loaded down with a giant bouquet of flowers.

  I went around it and got my first good look at the living space. Windows that stretched from the marble to the ceiling of the second floor displayed the setting winter sun over the city. The wide open space was dotted with seating areas interspersed with sculptures. It was part lounge, part modern art museum, and I couldn’t possibly have felt more out of place. Who knew Louisville even had places like this. The rest of the hotel was nice, but I had no idea this kind of luxury was waiting for me. I wondered if I should have put a skirt on. Or a ball gown.

  What I didn’t see in the room was any people. I glanced over my shoulder at Steven and he shrugged.

  “Are we early?”

  “No,” he said. “Right on time.”

  “Hmm. Should we go looking for them?” There were hallways jutting out from the room to the right and left of me, with no hint of what was where. “Scratch that. Let’s just wait here.”

  By the time I’d finished getting the last word out, Becca appeared. She’d taken down her hair and it fell around her shoulders in golden waves. I thought I might be developing a bit of a girl crush on her.

  She strode over to us, smiling. “Hi, guys. We’re running a little behind schedule as you can see. Have a seat wherever, I’ll gather the troops.”

  “Okay.”

  “Great.” With that she was off in the opposite direction of the way she’d come, and I could hear her yelling for the guys as she went.

  “I like her,” Steven muttered.

  “Told you.”

  He grinned and followed me over to a white leather sectional sofa. We sat down, hip-to-hip, and listened to the minor din coming from what had to be the bedrooms. There was muffled stomping, some door slamming, and the low hiss of Becca’s voice.

  I bit down on the tip of my tongue to keep from laughing as familiar famous faces began to appear in the hallway.

  First was Joe, the band’s lead singer. He was lean and appallingly gorgeous in person. His dark hair was artfully messy and his blue eyes actually fucking twinkled as he approached us. In his typical tight jeans and sleeveless t-shirt that showed off the tribal-style hawk tattoo on his shoulder, being in the same room with him was a surreal experience. Like watching a character from a movie climb out of the screen.

  Steven and I stood up.

  “Hi,” Joe said, not quite smiling, but pleasant.

  “Hello. I’m Ellie.”

  “I figured.” He looked over at Steven and nodded.

  My brother crossed his arms and grunted. In guy speak that meant they were best friends, probably.

  Joe plopped down on the sofa and pulled out his phone. Before I could say anything else, he was engrossed in the screen, and completely ignoring us.

  The next band member to show up was drummer and well-known jerk, Rick. In person he was, well, huge. Close to six-and-a-half feet tall, and massively muscular. But not in a gym rat kind of way. More like he’d been roughly chiseled out of a whole slab of granite. He was shirtless and even though skinny was more my type, I had to appreciate the view. Skin damp, he strode into the room, frowning.

  “What the fuck. Where is everyone?” he asked no one in particular.

  “Still gathering,” Joe answered casually. “It was hard to concentrate on being on time with all the screaming coming from your room, bud.”

  Rick snarled at him, but it was more playful than actually angry. “Can’t help it if I know how to satisfy my woman. Maybe if you had better moves in the sack yours wouldn’t spent most of her time so far away.” He grinned.

  Joe flipped him off and went back to typing on his phone.

  I glanced at Steven, unsure what to do. They were acting like we were invisible, which could be good or bad. Possibly both. So, I just stood there silently, waiting to see what would happen.

  And within a few seconds, what happened is Rick’s aforementioned ‘woman,’ Julia appeared. She was rushing down the hall, zipping up jeans while her long red hair dripped everywhere.

  She looked up, noticed us, and swore under her breath. “I’m going,” she said to Rick who was crossing to meet her. She waved him off while adjusting the brief, clingy fabric of her tank top that revealed a rather large amount of her lacy red bra.

  I could feel Steven practically drooling next to me. He’d had a crush on Julia since we were kids, and she was on some TV show about a singing and dancing clan of loving family members or some shit. Stupid, if you asked me, but I certainly wasn’t the expert on family.

  Julia planted a quick kiss on Rick’s lips and went over towards the door before noticing that she was barefoot. She headed back the way she came, nodding in our direction as she went.

  Rick noticed my attention on her and his frown deepened. “Seeing that must make you happy,” he said, deep green eyes staring at me intently.

  “What? Why?”

  “You probably think I’m too dumb to read, but I’m not. I saw all the shit you wrote about her. I bet you’re drafting some special new poison right now.”

  I shook my head and held up a hand. “That’s not why I’m here. I won’t be writing anything or reporting anything about this meeting. And unless you guys choose to include her, Julia’s not part of my coverage of this tour.”

  He grunted. “So what, I’m supposed to thank you?”

  “No, I’m just clarifying.”

  The big bastard got right in my face. Well, right far above my head, actually, because he’s a giant mutant. “Clarify this, you vulture. We don’t want you here,” he said, muscles flexing.

  Julia, who’d reappeared in sky high boots, grabbed his ar
ms from behind and tugged him backwards. “Rick, leave her alone. She gets the message.”

  I arched an eyebrow and looked at her, past the mass of pissy man-mountain. “Isn’t love supposed to mellow people out?”

  “Don’t act like we’re friends, bitch. I don’t like you either. I just don’t want him to waste his breath on you.”

  Well, that was as clear as a knife in the eye. Hoping to lighten the mood, I smiled. “What’s the big deal? Is it because I called your boyfriend a ‘roided out grumpy-cat?”

  No one laughed. This wasn’t going well at all. I’d only met half the band so far and I’d struck out both times.

  Three

  Fortunately, before I could stick my foot in my mouth any more, Becca walked into the room with the other two members of Dream Defiled. Dex Winters, bass player and Becca’s boyfriend, entered holding hands with her. When she saw me notice, she let go and crossed her arms in front of her. Always the professional.

  Behind them was Matthew, rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist. He was the cipher of the group. And because of it, the one I paid the closest attention to. He didn’t have Joe’s effortless charisma, Dex’s wounded animal sex appeal, or Rick’s raw masculinity, but he did have… something.

  When I’d spent hours watching performance videos and interviews with the guys, I always found my attention drawn right to Matthew. And even in this room, though he was quiet and seemed to be trying his best to fade into the scenery, I couldn’t keep from staring at him.

  He was of average height and wiry. His sandy hair hung in his face as he stood with his hands in the pockets of low slung jeans that revealed a tiny strip of skin below a novelty t-shirt. His face was blank, unreadable. Big hazel eyes with sinfully long lashes above an even nose and a pair of soft-looking lips. His chin, firm and chiseled, gave the only hint of what he might be feeling. It was tense and jutted out slightly as if he was trying to keep from speaking. Or screaming.

  “Okay, great. We’re all here. Let’s sit down and chat, what do you say,” Becca said, interrupting my examination.

  Everyone except Rick and Julia sat down. She stroked a perfectly manicured finger along his bare chest and then left. He crossed his arms and stood in the entranceway menacingly.

  “Ellie, do you want to start?”

  I nodded and licked my lips. Dazzle them, girl. Turn it on.

  “Sure, thanks. Guys, I really appreciate you taking the time to sit down with me now. As I think you know, we’re not doing any actual interviews until later. My cameraman and I will be heading over to the venue with you for rehearsal. We’ll be filming the whole process, but try not to get in the way. When you’re done, we’ll all sit down for some really quick interviews. I’ll just be looking for a couple of sound bites from each of you for the site.”

  “Site? I thought this was for television,” Joe interjected.

  I turned and looked at him. “It kind of is. It’s for Hot Sheet TV. A brand new site with entertainment news, all in video format.”

  “You mean gossip,” he said.

  “Some, yes. But real news too. And in depth stuff like this tour. We’ll have fun short videos to get people to the site and keep them with longer series and information.”

  “What about the live stream?” Becca added.

  “Oh, right. Those will just be for special occasions. For the re-launch we’ll be streaming almost all day. Giving the fans a look backstage and at how the show comes together. Plus we’re running a feed of the whole performance, so people who can’t get tickets will be able to experience it all in real-time.”

  “Everything else will be taped?”

  “Almost. I’ll do a few live shots here and there, mostly for actual television channels who are covering the launch of the site. Promos, I guess you could say. Honestly, the best thing is all of this is new for us too. So we’ll see what works and what doesn’t.”

  “Sounds more like you don’t have any idea what you’re doing to me,” Rick said.

  Matthew frowned at him, which gave me a little thrill for reasons I wasn’t interested in exploring at the moment.

  “It’s a new site, that’s true. But the people behind it are pros. And I’m new to working in front of the camera, but I wouldn’t be here if I couldn’t handle it.”

  “Where would you be, back at your computer writing lies about us?”

  I took a deep breath. “Look, I get it. You guys only know me from what I’ve written. And gossip blogging isn’t exactly doing the Lord’s work. I won’t apologize for it, but I also won’t pretend I don’t understand how you feel. This is different. HSTV isn’t about spreading rumors. It’s about showing people the real story. Looking behind the hype. Seeing the truth. That’s what you give your fans at your shows. This is just expanding the audience.”

  “Seeing the truth?” Rick took a half step forward before stopping himself. “You mean like buying and showing pictures of people mourning at a private funeral service?”

  Becca stood up and called his name.

  I held a hand up to her. I knew this would come up and I was ready for it. Not only had I outed Rick and Julia as a couple, the article I wrote about Ryan’s death pretty much got me this new job. I’d have to be an idiot to expect anything less than a strong negative reaction. And as much as I didn’t want to have to deal with it, in the long list of bad shit that’s gone down in my life this ranked very, very low.

  I looked at Rick and then each of the others in turn. “I know it must have been hard to see those pictures and read that story. But the whole world mourned with you. They all saw how much you loved your manager and how much you leaned on each other to deal with losing him. I’m really proud of that article. It was honest and respectful. And as much as it may hurt, it was news. Ryan’s death was real news. And now all your fans know his name. Know how much he meant to you. I hope you can see that as a good thing.”

  My eyes scanned the room again, curious how that had gone over. Joe was nodding. Dex was sitting up straight and looking at me for the first time. Matthew was smiling faintly.

  Rick, on the other hand, seemed unmoved.

  “This is bullshit. I’ll dance like a good trained monkey when I have to, but I’m not sticking around for this.”

  He glowered at me and held out his arms as if daring me to respond. I kept my mouth shut. He grunted something and stomped off down the hallway.

  Dex laughed. “Meeting adjourned? I’ve got a date with a freshly restocked minibar.”

  A while later I’d spackled on more makeup and changed into something camera-ready. I was standing in front of Dream Defiled’s tour bus, rattling off the alphabet for Steven. He was half-hidden behind his camera, getting some audio levels before the band arrived.

  “Are we good?” I asked. “I’m starting to hypnotize myself over here.”

  He flashed a ‘thumbs up’ and then flipped me off.

  I laughed. “Nice.”

  He lowered the camera and smiled at me. “We’re ready. Everything looks and sounds great.”

  “Good. Here they come.”

  The band followed Becca over to us. I stepped to the side so Steven could catch them climbing onto the bus. No one looked at me. Once they were on, I shifted back into frame and rolled through a brief intro, explaining where we were and why. Then I turned and boarded the bus myself, carefully.

  As I passed the driver I signaled and he shut the doors as we’d arranged. I stood there for a few moments until my phone vibrated. I checked it and read a message from Steven that the shot was good.

  I thanked the driver and he opened the door again. Becca and Steven climbed up and she headed towards the main seating are where the guys were while Steven and I chatted briefly about where I should sit for the short ride to the stadium.

  It was kind of funny, really. On one hand we had a huge responsibility and budget to match, launching this new project. But on the other hand, it was just me and my brother out here, not even a producer to guide decisions.
Some people might have found that more stressful, but I liked it. Being in control, not having anyone looking over my shoulder made me happy.

  Once the camera was situated and my chosen spot was lit, I told Becca we were ready to go. I noted a bit of irritation in her voice and decided we needed to be quicker. The last thing I wanted was for the band to feel like we were holding things up.

  As we pulled out from the parking lot, I leaned over and spoke to Steven. “From now on, we need to pre-plan setups better. And if we can’t, we’ll just have to wing it, count on production to fix any lighting issues.”

  “Agreed.”

  Behind me there was silence.

  I turned and looked. The band members were draped comfortably over furniture, but no one was speaking. “Guys, we’re not getting any audio during the ride. Feel free to do whatever you’d normally do on the bus.”

  Rick snorted.

  I bit my tongue and turned back to Steven. “Want to get some footage, just so we have it?”

  “Yep.”

  I sat up straighter in the padded leather seat. “Am I okay here?”

  Steven picked up the camera and looked for a moment. “Um, you look kind of isolated. Like you’re not part of the group.”

  “Story of my life,” I muttered, smiling. I turned again. “Would anyone mind coming up here for a few seconds?”

  Unsurprisingly, no one jumped at the chance to come sit with me. I rolled my eyes. “You don’t have to talk to me, just sit here for two minutes.” I looked at each member of the band in turn to see who might be willing. They ignored me. And then my gaze swept over to Matthew. He was looking right at me. I raised an eyebrow.

  Matthew shrugged and stood up. He walked towards me, his gait slow and languid. I wondered briefly how many hundreds of hours they’d spent on tour buses, practically living on the big moving apartments. Now, I’d learned, they mainly traveled by private plane for long trips and the luxurious buses like this one were reserved for short hauls and photo ops.