Chapter 12
Jack
Sandy is giving me shit about my boots. I’ve had them for years. They’re comfortable and more than good enough to get me through this hike. I read up on the information Jordan and Alessa gave us. It said there isn’t much climbing involved.
“As pretty as these boots are,” I point at the brand-new footwear. “I’m not about having my feet chewed to pieces.”
“Or you think they’re not cool enough,” she sasses me.
“I like you, Sandy,” I tell her with a huge smile. “But nothing you say will make me wear those.”
She eyes me, in that way moms do, when they know they’re right, but can’t convince their kid to believe them.
“I’ll take some, Sandy,” Archer appears behind us.
Sandy beams, dropping the pair she was holding out to me and taking a box from the pile beside her. They have his name on. I’d seen some others taking her up on the offer.
Ciro didn’t even look before striding outside, adjusting a ball cap on his head to cover his face.
Adrestia brought sensible footwear, because, of course, Adrestia would be prepared.
“You’re making me look bad, bro,” I tell him as he plonks his ass down on the stairs to change his shoes.
“Oh, it’s way worse than that,” Archer told me. “Disappointing Sandy Montanari is a mind fuck. You’ll never recover.”
I glance back at Sandy. She stares at me with puppy dog eyes. They’re fucking with me, but I fold anyway and hold out my hand. She hands me the box with a look of triumph, but then grabs my cheek and pinches it.
“You won’t regret it,” she smiles and lets me go.
I huff out a laugh and sit beside Archer as he finishes his laces and stands. He tests out the shoe by banging his feet against the floor. He looks down at me as I finish doing up my laces, a brow arched.
“Fuck off,” I say, not wanting to admit how comfortable they are.
He just laughs at me, then wanders off, kissing Sandy’s cheek as he goes.
I head outside. Everyone’s gathered, waiting for our next instructions. Ciro is standing off to the side, looking across towards the mountains, like the broody motherfucker he is.
Nick and Elsa are lost in their own world. He has her pulled against his chest, kissing her neck. Her head is back, resting on his shoulder with a dreamy smile. I can’t imagine ever being like that with one woman.
I flash back to a different intimate moment between them and my dick twitches in my pants.
Fuck, it surprised me to see her there when that kid was sucking me off.
It hadn’t been planned at all. I didn’t even know his name. I wandered away from all the loved-up couples to check the place out and came across him brushing down the horses. He was shirtless and looking fine, with a sheen of sweat over his muscles.
I’d never push myself on anyone, especially when you don’t know their sexual orientation. I offered to help and unbuttoned my shirt when the work got sweaty. His eyes lowered to my chest and abs, they got hooked on my treasure trail. Then the growing bulge in my pants as I watched him watching me.
I hadn’t jumped him right away. We flirted and teased each other, figuring out if it was mutual. It comprised smoldering looks and small touches before I just grabbed his neck and started kissing him. He’d been anxious about being caught at work, so I’d moved us to the back of the stables before unbuckling his pants and grabbing his cock.
I would have gone down on him because I love and am amazing at sucking cock. He held me up with a hand on my chest before getting down on his knees for me.
He was good, and I’d been lost in his hot mouth on me. That lust and pleasure went into a whole new stratosphere when I spotted Elsa watching us.
For a split second, I thought about pushing him off. Until I saw how her chest was heaving as she stared. First at my face, then her eyes trailed lower and locked on my cock, going in and out of his mouth.
She’d shifted, clenching her thighs and her hand went to her throat. Her lips parted when I winked at her. I didn’t mind one fucking bit if she wanted to stand there and watch me. But she got skittish and left just as I blew my load down his throat.
He spooked when he heard the sounds from Elsa and Nick slipping into the tack room. I let him leave, promising I’d keep my mouth shut, before he scurried out the back door. I pitied him because I could see his hard cock still hanging out of his pants as he fought to zip up.
I like women. A hell of a lot. I could worship at the altar of pussy for hours. I experimented during my one year in college. I’m not turned off by men. It isn’t often I hook up with a guy.
Surrounded by loved up couples, knowing they are all getting it on had me horny and jealous. When that opportunity arose, who was I to turn it down?
The guys in the band know I dabble, not sure they realize how much. I’ve built up a reputation with the ladies since we got to New York. I came out of my shell, when we hit the big time. We slogged for so long and worked so hard, with no benefit.
For a long time, I thought it would never happen. Having Declan come on board was the catalyst, but even that got derailed when he had his accident.
Dec is close with Nash, I know they talk about the accident, but it’s like he has PTSD or something. Sometimes, he goes into a dark place, and we don’t hear from him for a while. I don’t know whether there is more to the whole thing.
He went after his girlfriend, Waverley, just before the accident. She didn’t come back to North Carolina with him. I heard from the guys at the bar she got back with her ex-boyfriend from New Jersey, some Motorcycle Club gang member.
That shocked the shit out of me. Waverley was so nice. Tough when she had to be, but she was sweet and had her head screwed on. So hearing she’s caught up in something like that is weird.
Their breakup hit Declan hard. The accident was the straw that broke the camel’s back, I guess. Once he was back on form, though, he threw himself into work.
That passion and drive worked out for us. Here we are, almost a million albums sold, a headlining tour in the works. It is all going fucking great.
Apart from the shit with Riley. I look at Nash and Dylan. They are goofing around while Adrestia is on her phone, probably to that Paul Bunyan lookalike of a best friend of hers.
I watch Nash and although he’s laughing, it doesn’t quite reach his eyes.
I’ve always got on with Riley. I’d have fucked her if she weren’t so in love with Nash.
Turns out I misread that, we all did. Her cheating on Nash shocked the shit out of me. All of us, really. But that doesn’t compare to what she’s up to now.
I didn't tell the rest of the guys, but I called her when I heard rumors about her doing the tell all. She met me at a bar and I begged her not to do it. Riley may come across as the blonde, innocent, sweet girl next door, but she can be devious when she wants to be.
Problem is, now she is seeing what she’s lost. And not just Nash, which pisses me off more. The band is taking off, with a world tour being discussed. She is starting out at the bottom of the pile at a new record label. And from what she said, things aren't running as smoothly as she thought. So yeah, she is bitter about more than losing Nash.
He would have given her the fucking world. She could have been celebrating our successes. All she cares about is screwing over Red Alert because of her bad choices.
We argued, and I’m pretty sure I made the situation worse, because she left even more determined to destroy us. Hence, why I haven’t told the guys.
And why I got fucked up blind drunk. Then went home with a model I’d bumped into in the VIP area of the bar I was at.
The only saving grace that night, I was too drunk to have sex with Jasmine, even though I told the guys I did. No one wants to admit they got whisky dick.
Then there is the fact that I actually really like Jasmine’s sister. I’ve met both of them many times.
Mae is Jasmine’s manager, she created her sister’s persona and pushed her career, and now Jasmine is one of the top models around. Not supermodel status, but I can see her getting there.
I’d never admit it out loud, but Mae is way hotter than her model sister.
Mae isn’t interested in a guy like me. She got my measure pretty early on. We’ve talked a bit, and I got her to smile a few times, and I thought, for a millisecond, there might be some interest reciprocated. I was breaking down her incredibly high walls and getting to know more about her.
Then I went and took her sister home and Mae saw. She will never believe nothing happened. So that ship has well and truly sailed.
I don’t know what I feel. I feel something . Guilt, maybe. Regret? Jasmine isn’t even my type. At the time, I felt bad about not performing but afterwards I felt relief.
Luckily, Jasmine was almost as drunk and still passed out when I left her apartment to get to the airport.
My brain flashes back to Mae as she watched me leaving the club with her sister. I wasn’t discrete about it, my hands on her ass, one up her skirt.
Mae's eyes landed there, narrowed in disapproval and for a moment I hesitated. Then she turned her head as if she didn’t care one way or the other I was about to fuck her sister.
It put an end to any chance of being with Mae. She won’t come within a hundred feet of someone who’s been with her sister. Even if nothing happened.
“Move, asshole,” Ciro’s voice breaks into my thoughts.
Everyone has boarded the bus except us. Ciro looks like a stick has fucked him in the ass, and I want to laugh. It will just make him surlier.
He is an acquired taste for sure, but I like him well enough. Being the only two single guys left in the band, we stick together.
Shit, that isn’t even true. I ask him to come out and enjoy himself, he gives me those dead eyes of his. No need for words to tell me that will not happen.
One on one, though, we get on. He doesn’t like many humans. Brooke, though, I see him hankering after her. It is a lost cause, that woman is so far into Archer Harris, there is no way he’ll get between them.
I only see it more clearly than everyone else because I kinda, sorta have that unrequited thing going on, too.
Fuck, I have to stop thinking about Mae.
“Let’s do this.” I clap my hands and rub them together, making Ciro roll his eyes.
I board the bus, looking around at the varying different facial expressions on the occupants.
My eye catches Elsa’s and a cute little pink blush stains her cheeks, but she smiles. I wink, then look at Nick, who is watching me.
He collared me this morning and asked I keep what happened last night under wraps. It offended me he even had to ask. But I slapped his shoulder and made a zipping motion over my lips.
Nothing will ever come of that. It’s clear it was a onetime thing, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it woke something in them. They seem like that kind of couple. Not a lot of guys would allow another man to watch him fuck his girl.
Alessa is sitting at the front, her ear pods in, listening to music. Jordan is sprawled beside her. He can’t just sit. He’s always slouched. It’s natural, nothing is forced about Jordan. He’s looking out of the window but holds her hand.
I head to the back where there are empty seats and Ciro sits a couple of seats over from me.
Archer and Brooke are bickering about something I don’t care to eavesdrop on. Jenna looks like she’s sleeping on Adam’s shoulder.
Ocean is kneeling on her chair, talking with Adrestia. Fuck knows why the women don’t just sit together. Dylan and Nash are possessive assholes. Something as simple as letting their woman sit away from them is too difficult for them to comprehend.
“Where’d you disappear to last night?” I ask Ciro.
He looks over at me, his head moving slowly, reminding me of the Terminator. I half expect red laser eyes to stare back at me.
“My room.”
“I got that, dipshit. What were you up to? You didn’t want to hang around and party with the rest of us.”
“I think the answer to that is obvious, don’t you?”
Yeah, it is. We pull away from the ranch. Jenna’s mom is busy telling everyone everything about what we are doing, but I zone her out.
“What you said on the plane about us not needing the keyboards? You think that’ll work?”
Ciro takes his phone from his pocket and fiddles with it. At first I think he is ignoring me, but he hands it to me along with his headphones. I take them and slip them on, then hit play on the track he lined up. I recognize the beat of my own drums, then Dylan’s guitar and Alessa’s base. Ciro and Nash will come in after Riley’s keyboards.
But that doesn’t happen. Ciro picks up his part and then Nash sings. I look up at him in surprise as the song goes on. It is our latest single and our biggest hit to date. And it sounds amazing.
It’s the same, but different. It’s not bad without the keyboards. In fact, it’s good. Very good. I listen all the way through and Ciro watches me.
“Got any more?”
He takes the phone and queues up another of our hits. Turns out he’s had the entire album redone without Riley in it. Now I know what he means.
Getting a new band member could be a massive disaster. Lots of bands have done it successfully but some have never got over losing a member.
Alessa and Ciro are an acquired taste. Nash and Dylan are brothers, so breaking into their relationship is hard. Getting someone else settled in with us won’t be easy. We've worked with Ashton, the session keyboardist a few times, so he fits in okay, but he's not interested in joining the band.
I take off the headphones and pass them back to Ciro along with his phone. He isn’t even looking as though he wants my opinion. He already knows from how I listened intently.
“You got my vote,” I say, thinking back on my conversation with Riley. How she’d walked away from me swearing she will ruin the band. “Pretty sure you’ll have Dylan’s. It’s Alessa and Nash you need to sway.”
“Alessa is on board,” he says, making me shift to look at him. “We talked last night.”
Okay then. It’s just Nash. Adrestia convinced him yesterday that Riley is better left in the past. Red Alert is about to change for the better.
More fool Riley if she goes ahead with this interview. We’ve moved on, and if this new sound is anything to go by, we’ll be fine without her.
We soon pull up to a stop at the entrance to the Rocky Mountain National Park. It is a fucking gorgeous day and I grab my sunglasses as we all spill out of the bus.
There is a tour guide waiting for us. He introduces himself as a park ranger which amuses the hell out of me and I laugh to myself, drawing Jenna’s eye. I wink and she smiles.
He goes through some safety details. We are all given little packs that contain survival kits, drinks and food. I stash mine in my pockets, noting some of the guys have brought along backpacks.
Elsa has a huge camera around her neck, the kind with a paparazzi sized zoom lens. She is a total nature lover, and in her element here.
Jordan plops his Stetson on his head and holds out his hands to get everyone’s attention. When he doesn’t achieve it, Alessa sticks her fingers in her mouth and lets out a whistle. It’s so piercing, I am sure dogs in New York heard it.
“Whoa, babe,” Jordan looks at her, covering his ear.
“You were not getting job done.”
“That’s not what you said last night.”
She elbows him, and there are a few chuckles around us. Ciro shakes his head.
The ranger steps forward.
“I'm Dawson, your guide for today. We’re heading up to the Ouzel Falls, which is about a thirty-minute hike at a good pace,” he tells our group. “The falls are forty feet high, with several viewing platforms to take pictures and admire the incredible waterfall. We’ll stop for something to eat or take breaks if required.”
“Sounds so good, I can’t wait!” Elsa claps her hands.
It’s after two. I reckon with the hike there and back, pausing for food and pictures, we’ll be back around dinnertime.
I hope Jordan has something fun planned for our last night here. As much as I’m not a hiker, this seems like it is gonna be fun. Especially watching Brooke as she glares at Jordan and Alessa.
“Okay, is everyone ready for the best fucking afternoon of their lives?” Jordan shrieks.
“Bold statement buddy,” Adam deadpans.
“Trust me, you fuckers are gonna love this.”
We follow Dawson onto the trail. Despite it all, I smile at the surrounding chatter.
I have to give it to Jordan and Alessa. This has been one hell of a trip.