3. Scott
THREE
SCOTT
While it was nice to have a break and lay low for a while, I’m glad to be back on the road again.
The awkward tension in the house was wearing me down.
I probably would have left earlier, but my daddy didn’t raise a quitter.
That, and I was the only one from the security team present for most of the trip, and while I technically wasn’t on the clock, I still feel on edge after everything that’s happened.
The Stay Loud resistance tour was small, but wildly popular. It’s probably the most exciting and inspiring thing I’ve ever been a part of.
It’s also probably the scariest thing I’ve ever been part of.
Because of the insane reception the small tour got, the band added three more shows before they take a longer break.
The crowds have only grown in intensity, and the sheer number of people is unfathomable.
People are coming out in droves, either to see the band perform or be part of the movement.
I don’t know which, but I know for certain there truly aren’t enough safeguards in place for as wild as things could get.
Each stop has the venues and parks we booked overflowing.
A lot of people hold protest signs, mostly for our side, but there have been some counter-protestors.
More of them than there were in the first leg of the mini tour, for sure.
And while they are certainly the minority in the crowd, they are vocal and troublesome.
Halfway through the second show, counter-protestors wearing red hats and mismatched camouflage gear, their faces covered, stop heckling the band from the sidelines and start heckling the crowd instead.
They’re getting in people’s faces, yelling who knows what.
They’re disrupting the peace, especially in the parts of the crowd overflowing into the park and side street.
It’s immediately obvious that they are purposefully trying to instigate fights.
Cory has the security team stay close to the stage area, but each of us is also responsible for managing the teams of hired security that walk around the crowd to make sure there aren’t any issues. The mounting tension caused by these hecklers has us all on edge.
This loud spectacle and fired up response is exactly what the band wanted, but the problematic behavior of the counter-protestors is turning the energy negative.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise. The more popular a resistance like this gets, the louder the opposition.
Fights break out in the crowd, and the police start stepping in, which doesn’t help. It only escalates the tension, and people start getting hurt.
The very last show is the largest by far.
There are people as far as the eye can see, overflowing the streets and every surface within a half-mile radius.
I doubt all the participants can even hear the music, but Jesse does a good job of keeping the crowd pumped and happy, making sure to interact with even the farthest sections he can see.
For a while, his assurances that the hecklers will get bored works, and people do their best to ignore them.
But there are more of them than at any of the previous shows, and it takes even less time than usual for them to get physical with the crowd.
Fights start breaking out, and with the local police and the unmarked, masked agents standing around the perimeter in what looks like riot gear, I know this could get ugly fast.
In my periphery, I notice one of the counter-protestors harassing a young girl wearing a trans flag as a cape. Her friends are trying to defend her, pushing back against the insults, but they’re not much more than kids. She reminds me a bit of my sister with her freckles and dark auburn hair.
That’s when I see it. A glint of metal pulled from one of the masked protestor’s pockets. A switchblade catching the light of the sun before the young girl is too close and gets pushed into his hold. I’m jumping over the barrier and running towards them before I make a conscious decision to do so.
By the time I reach them, the asshole has cut the front of the girl’s dress open.
I hear him say something about seeing what she’s got under there, and I see red.
I tackle him to the ground at full speed, putting him down like a linebacker and grappling for the knife first. Once I’ve gotten the weapon off him, I hold him on the ground with my forearm pressed against his throat and rip the mask off his head.
“You disgusting piece of shit. What the fuck gives you the right,” I growl. I’m so mad my vision is blurring and I can feel my blood pressure skyrocket.
It’s not until I hear one of the girl’s friends say there’s a cop coming that I flip the asshole onto his stomach and wrestle his arms behind his back.
When the officer makes it to us, he stares at us dumbfounded for a moment before getting his head out of his ass.
Continuing to hold the fucker down, I explain the situation to the officer and let him take over.
I check on the girl, whose name is Riley.
She’s understandably shaken up and upset, but I manage to make her smile a little by telling her we share a name.
I escort Riley and her friends closer to the side of the stage, where I hand her a signed t-shirt to wear before taking them to the medical tent where there’s an officer waiting to take her statement.
As I’m standing there, I watch smaller skirmishes break out in the crowd.
Pushing, screaming, fistfights, and what looks like an all-out brawl start before my very eyes.
Our hired security and the cops not standing with the riot brigade are doing their best to keep the peace, but I have a tingling feeling that things are about to go from bad to worse.
The riot douches have been waiting for any excuse to step in, and now they have it.
Making sure Riley and her friends are secure, I head back to my place near the band.
Closer to him, where I’m supposed to be.
I know the other guys have my back and are perfectly capable of keeping the band safe, but I can’t imagine not being there if things get out of control, and I have a feeling they’re about to get pretty bad.
As I round the back of the stage, I notice Blake in a stand-off with several officers.
He’s holding up papers, probably permits, and standing his ground against whatever they’re saying.
My guess is they’re trying to shut us down, likely due to the massive overflow of what were peaceful protestors.
Only, things are taking a turn for the worst with the hecklers and fights breaking out.
“Shut it down, or we’ll do it for you!” I hear one of the officers yell.
I leave the scene behind and make my way to the front of the stage.
The band is between songs, with only three left on the set list. Jesse is trying to direct some of the riot police, who are pushing back peaceful protestors rather than doing anything about the actual troublemakers, to actually help and quit harassing the crowd.
He repeatedly tells the crowd, “Stay cool, don’t give them what they want. ”
Several of our hired hands and a handful of not-shitty cops who are actually here to do their jobs run towards the brawl, but the sound of the riot police moving in gets our attention.
Jesse turns and nods to Naz to start the next song.
Instead of the song I know is next on the set list, the opening riffs of their new anti-establishment protest song ring out and reverberate in the air.
A roar of approval goes up, and the whole crowd begins to sing along, pushing back against the police as they try to disperse the crowd.
I’m not surprised to hear What’s It Gonna Be set against the backdrop of an onslaught of the untrained brute force nobody asked for, screams, chanting, and smoke grenades.
Chaos erupts as a wave of masked so-called police rush in, doing nothing but making the situation worse.
And the band keeps playing.
Unknown: Security doesn’t pay well enough for what they put you through.
Unknown: I can help. Text me back.
—number blocked—
Hours later, we’re all sitting around a conference table at the hotel we’re staying in, debriefing with Blake, several members of the security team, and the chief of police.
Blake just finished a one-on-one with Officer Lund, who I’ve been calling Officer Thumb in my head because he, well, looks like a thumb.
He’s completely bald, with no neck or chin to speak of, and a nearly expressionless face I kind of want to close in a door jamb.
“We’re being cited for failure to comply with emergency dispersal orders, inciting unlawful assembly, public nuisance, and obstruction of law enforcement operations.”
“That’s bullshit,” Will says, getting to his feet.
“Will, sit down and let me take care of this,” Blake says calmly. Will sits with a huff and glares at the officer.
Turning to the chief, Blake says, as calmly and professionally as one can, “With all due respect, he’s not wrong.
This is bullshit. Yes, we were given an order to stop, but without good reason before your people moved in and caused chaos.
Not only that, but we weren’t given a proper chance to comply.
The band didn’t know what conversation we were having behind the scenes, so it’s not their fault they hadn’t stopped yet.
There’s also the fact that they did, without being asked, cut their set list short—”
“By intentionally playing a song that incited a riot,” the officer interrupts. “And when it was clear there was already trouble afoot, they didn’t back down, and instead encouraged the crowd to get violent.”
I cut my eyes at the band. Naz observes quietly, face expressionless. Will looks livid. Ari is giggling at Jesse whispering, “Afoot? Who says afoot?”
“If anything, you should be investigating the hecklers who were actually inciting violence in the crowd,” I say.
“There would be no way for us to distinguish one side from another in a crowd that size.”
“Again, bullshit,” Will cuts in, smacking his hand on the table. “Jesse, clear as day with a microphone in his hand, was pointing them out, and y’all did nothing. If you ask me, every so-called ‘cop’ with a shield, baton, and mask should be the ones being charged with inciting a riot.”
“There’s also the guy I apprehended. He had a knife and was using it to terrorize and cut a young girl’s clothes off.”
“He did what?” Ari exclaims in horror.
“Excuse me, a knife?” Naz says, sitting up and glaring at me with wide eyes.
Blake looks appalled and turns to Officer Thumb. “Has that man been interviewed?”
“I was not told of such a specific arrest, but several noncompliant agitators were detained. I’m sure he would be there among them, and I will of course do my due diligence. In the meantime, you can expect we will be in touch regarding charges and summons.”
“Of course,” Will mutters, clearly not believing a word this man says. Neither do I. It’s very clear what side he’s on, and he came into this day against us from the beginning.
I wait until Officer Thumb leaves before saying anything else, but as soon as he’s gone, I speak up.
“I’d be willing to bet this whole thing was intentional.”
“It’s not the first time we’ve suspected paid agitators.”
“But assaulting a young girl like that in broad daylight?” Ari says in a small voice. “I feel terrible that we didn’t notice from the stage. Was she okay?”
“She was shaken up, but I gave her a t-shirt and pulled her and her friends aside until an officer could take her statement.”
Naz crosses his arms. “I can’t believe you just ran into the crowd because you saw a knife. Are you fucking stupid?”
Maybe I am. I could have killed that bastard, and the more I think about him, the more I’m glad that cop ran over when he did, because I might have beat his face in. I’m sure that piece of shit felt emboldened because she was small and had a trans flag wrapped around her.
A light touch to my arm startles me, and I jerk back, my gaze snapping to Jesse.
I blink once, wondering when he made his way across the room to stand in front of me.
Despite my reaction to his touch, he doesn’t take his hand off my arm, digging into his pocket with the other.
“Dude, you need to chill. He probably saved that girl, if not from injury, then some pretty deep fucking trauma,” he tells Naz, then hands me a cellophane-wrapped cinnamon candy.
“You did good, man.”
Clearing my throat, I make an intentional effort to unclench my jaw and fists, then give him an apologetic grin. “Thanks.”
“On that note, I’m out,” Jesse announces to the room. “Let me know if anyone needs me for anything. I have to spend the next hour reassuring every person in my family and Luc’s that I’m not hurt or in jail. This time,” he says, smirking.
I huff a laugh and turn to find Cory standing behind me. He shakes my hand. “Proud to have you on the team.”
As everyone files out of the office, they each pat me on the shoulder, or in Ari’s case, give me a hug. I hear Ari tell Naz to be nice to me and don’t miss the wink he punctuates the sentence with.
Naz is the last to leave, staying silent until the rest of the crew are far enough down the hallway. Then he looks up, eyes flashing with some unreadable expression.
“Jesse’s right. You probably saved that girl from a lot of pain or worse.” He pauses, voice dropping. “I still don’t like that you ran into danger like that. That’s what the cops are there for.”
“The cops were useless, as you might have noticed. Also, it’s kind of in my job description.”
“Your job is to be my big, scary shadow so people don’t get too close to me. Which, for the record, my resting bitch face does perfectly well all on its own.”
“Is that all I’m good for?”
Naz gives me a blank, unimpressed stare. “Maybe come to my room later and we’ll see.”
“I figured you might need something after that shitshow.”
Naz shakes his head. “I’m fine. You’re the one that had to deal with shit.” He raises his eyes to the ceiling. “Also, I apparently need to be nicer to you. And you do probably deserve something a little special. Maybe.”
“Special?”
“How about tonight you tell me what you need? Let me be there for you. You can use me as you please.”
“Use you as I please?” I repeat, dazed.
“Whatever you want.”
It takes several long moments for my brain to recover from the sudden drop into my balls. Just those words, said in that low, husky tone…
Jesus.
“Whatever I want, huh?”
“Yes,” he says so quietly it could be a whisper. “Whatever you want.”