Chapter 4
There”s one benefit to your musical rival blowing up one of your tires in a rainstorm: it breaks up the monotony of being on tour.
Not that I don”t love it, of course. Being a musician is... well, it”s the only thing I”ve ever known how to do. It”s in my blood, or so the saying goes. But there comes a day when the daily grind becomes a daily haze of road signs, hotel rooms, and blinding lights. That day usually hits around... Missoula, Montana. This malaise I”m feeling is right on schedule.
So… thanks, Logan Shock. Or whoever pinned our tire.
Also, don”t do it again.
Dick move, bro.
Once the rain lets up and the tire gets changed, we pack up our pillows and blankets and get back to the grind once again.
Road signs. Hotel rooms. Blinding lights.
“Let me hear you sing it, Missoula!”
And Harvey Moons.
Cheers carry throughout the auditorium. It’s the smallest venue we’ve played at since the Sin and Sand bar in Las Vegas at the start of the tour, but it’s still thousands of voices. And they’re all singing along to Sideways Serenade, his most popular song.
Guy’s got charisma, that’s for sure.
I watch his set from the wings of the stage. At the start of the tour, he was a bundle of nerves. I was a total wreck the first time I performed for an audience, too. But he’s since grown into his confidence. A real rockstar-in-progress.
But I knew he’d get there way back when we met in Chicago.
Back when?—
Someone nudges my elbow. I glance over to find Knox grinning at me. “What’s up?” I ask.
“See something you like?” he teases.
I sigh. “No. Thanks for discouraging him, by the way,” I add sarcastically. “You did a real bang-up job.”
“Oh, come on. It’s adorable!”
“You told him I was going through a girl-on-girl phase?”
Knox squints. “I don’t remember doing that, but it sounds like something I’d say, so I can’t refute it.”
I let it go. “It’s a distraction none of us need right now.”
“What is?” Jonah asks, suddenly standing on my other side.
“Harvey Moon,” Knox answers, still teasing.
Jonah raises his brows. “Oh, really?”
“No,” I say. “Not really.”
“But yes,” Knox says. “Really.”
I release another sigh. “Nothing is happening between me and Harvey Moon!”
Jordan grinds to a halt beside us, her clipboard locked in one hand. “What’s happening between who and Harvey Moon?” she asks, looking at me. “You?”
“Nothing,”I say as Knox says, “Everything.”
“Better be nothing. We have rules here.”
“I know the rules!” I say. “Harvey and I are friends. Barely.”
“Try telling him that, though,” Knox says, his smile digging in.
“And whose fault is that?”
He shrugs happily.
“I don’t care whose fault it is,” Jordan says. “Shut it down. Now. We’ve had enough drama for one tour already,” she adds with a hard glare at Knox.
“Hey,” Knox says defensively. “It all worked out.”
“Barely.”
Before I can say anything, Katrina rushes toward us from backstage. “Guys,” she says, her eyes wide, “we’ve got a situation.”
We follow her back to the ladies’ dressing room without argument. When we arrive, we spot the situation in all its glory standing side-by-side against the wall.
Chrissy and… Chrissy.
They’re both wearing black slacks and stylish matching suit jackets, but one is wearing a red blouse. The other, blue.
A security guard stands by, looking so very over this mess. “I believe one of these belongs to you guys?” he asks, annoyed. “Caught one sneaking in, but I can’t remember which.”
“Uh…” Knox glances between them with Harmony now at his side. “Harm?”
“I’m… not sure, either,” she says nervously.
“Oh, come on,” Chrissy in Blue says. “It’s me, Harmony. This is ridiculous!”
Chrissy in Red says nothing. She just stands there with her arms crossed.
Jordan squeezes through us and groans. “Oh, for heaven’s sake. Chrissy, what’s the password?”
Chrissy in Blue opens her mouth, then goes quiet.
Chrissy in Red, however…
“Vodka tonic,” she says.
Jordan points at her. “That’s Chrissy,” she says. “The other one can go.”
The security guard nods before grabbing Chrissy in Blue’s arm. In that instant, her face goes sour and a smirk forms on her mouth.
“Whatever,” she says. “See you guys in Austin.”
“Get bent, Prissy,” Knox says. “Wait, why Austin?”
“The BNB Fest?” She scoffs at Chrissy. “You really are bad at this job, aren’t you?”
“Get her out of here,” Jordan says.
The guard nods, already pulling Prissy toward the door.
“Yeah,” Knox says. He steps forward, withdrawing the Electrics pin from his pocket as he goes. “And give this back to your dick of a boss while you’re at it.”
He tosses it at her. She catches it with ease, taking the moment to admire it in her palm before tucking it into the pocket of her blouse. “I don’t know what you mean by that,” she says with a devious smirk.
“Yeah, yeah.”
The guard gives her a shove and Chrissy blows us a kiss as she walks out the door.
“Buh-bye, losers!” she shouts back over her shoulder.
And there she goes. Out of our lives forever.
Nah. Even I’m not that optimistic.
Once they’re gone, the real Chrissy sighs. “Thanks, Jordan,” she says.
Jordan nods. “That’s why we have passwords.”
“Gotta change it now, though,” Jonah says.
“We have a system,” Jordan says. “No worries.”
“What’s the system?” Knox asks.
“We’re not telling you.”
“Why not?”
“Only me and Chrissy know the system. It prevents leaks.”
Knox gasps. “You think I would leak something that important?”
Jordan doesn’t answer. She just glares.
“Yeah,” I say with a laugh. “Best keep that one to yourselves, I think.”
Knox scoffs, but he doesn’t actually care that much. His arm curls tighter around Harmony and his smile returns. “Whatever. What’s the deal with this DND Feast?”
“BNB Fest,” Jordan corrects.
“What’s that?” I ask.
“The Bass and Bliss Music Festival,” Chrissy says.
“Oh, right,” I say, nodding. “That’s happening again.”
“It is,” Jordan says. “But it doesn’t matter. We’re not going.”
“What?” Knox says. “Why not?”
Jordan’s brow arches. “Because they offered you a slot weeks ago, but you turned it down.”
“We did? Why?”
“Because you’d be touring at the time.”
“Oh.” Knox looks at Jonah. “That true?”
Jonah nods. “That’s true.”
“But The Electrics are going?” Knox asks.
“Yeah, seems like,” Jordan says.
Knox’s eyes narrow.
“Knox…” Harmony warns.
“No, no,” he says. “It’s fine. I’m not gonna do anything dramatic.”
I scoff. “Since when?”
“All those in favor of doing the festival, raise your hands!”
He and Jonah shoot up their hands. Bronson, too. I do the same and Katrina slowly does, too.
Everyone but Jordan. “Really?” she says with a sigh.
“Hey, if Shock is going to be there, then I want to be there, too,” Knox says. “He and I have unfinished business.”
With a tepid glance around at our determined faces, Jordan releases another sigh. “All right. Fine. I’ll make some phone calls. Try to get our slot back.”
“We’re Criminal Records, Jordan,” Knox says. “They’ll make a slot for us.”
Normally, a statement like that would draw an eye roll out of me, but he’s not wrong. “When is it?” I ask.
“A few weeks off,” Jordan says. “Lines up pretty well with our Austin show, if I remember correctly.”
“Good.” Knox stands tall. “Now, let’s go put on a show.”
We trickle out of the dressing room. I return to my spot in the wings, recognizing the second-to-last song in Harvey’s set. He’s sitting down with nothing but his acoustic and a microphone, gently strumming his way into the heart of every lady in the house. Some guys, too, no doubt.
A shiver dances down my spine as the crowd erupts in swoony applause.
Not bad, Harvey Moon.
Harvey looks over his shoulder suddenly. I flinch as he makes eye contact with me, feeling a sudden rush of warmth spread down my back. I do nothing as he fires a wink in my direction and looks forward again at his beloved crowd.
I wait until the end of the song, then I join my band for our last-minute warm-ups.