Chapter Twenty-Six #2
Remi kept helping the other girls escape over the barricade. They were screaming and crying, and the crowd’s anger exploded. Beer cans were flying. He was pretty sure he heard a bottle shatter, even though glass wasn’t allowed at the festival.
Remi and West were getting soaked with booze. From the corner of his eye, he saw Ollie and Liam jump into the crowd, trying to help people.
The madness continued, and Remi didn’t know what was happening. He and West worked together to get as many people as they could over the barricade and out of the violent stampeding crowd, except then someone grabbed Remi’s shirt and socked him in the eye.
“Oh fuck no!” Remi yelled. He was not getting two black eyes in one week. He lunged, fists first, into the guy. West hopped over the barricade and was right there with him.
“Remi!” Skye’s voice filtered through the shouting. His heart sank. No, no, no. Skye could not be here. She needed to be safe.
He ducked out of the guy’s next punch and then grabbed West’s shirt, and they both ran back to the barricade.
“Get the fuck out of here, Skye!” he yelled as she started climbing over the barricade.
“Not until you come with me!” she yelled back.
Her stubborn refusal infuriated him, but his racing heart wasn’t from anger. Skye’s cheeks were red from exertion, her hair wild and her eyes fierce; the red of her irises blinked in and out like she was barely holding on to her powers.
“I’m not standing by while my band gets hurt,” Skye said over the noise. “Either get out of the way and let me in there, or come with me, but you aren’t getting rid of me.”
A hand curled into the back of Remi’s shirt, and he lost his balance, but West was there to knock the guy off him. Skye jumped over the barricade to steady Remi before he tumbled.
“Let’s go!” Remi shouted to West, squeezing his shoulder. He couldn’t stand by while Skye and West got hurt, and there was nothing left for them to do here.
With graceful, supernatural speed, Skye hopped over the barricade. West and Remi ran behind her. Liam dragged Ollie out of the mess and helped him limp over to the side of the stage.
A blowhorn sounded, cutting through the noise. Someone official-sounding bellowed out a threat to disperse or risk getting pepper-sprayed.
Remi whipped around to Skye. “What the fuck were you thinking? Running out there like that? You could have gotten hurt. Don’t fucking do that again.” He pulled her close, wrapping his arms around her. His heart was hammering. His entire body buzzing like he was vibrating off the earth.
“I can take care of myself,” Skye said, but her arms settled around his back. “And I had to take care of my band.” Her voice lowered into a whisper as she spoke the next words into his neck. “You. I had to take care of you.”
Something shifted inside Remi. The tectonic plates that shielded his heart. They’d already been moving, but the overwhelming quake of his feelings crumbled anything that remained.
Every moment he experienced with Skye—in real life and dream life—all of it jumbled up in his head. His brain was slower than his heart, but his body caught up to the awareness that cleared all of their past transgressions against one another.
He cupped her face and slammed his lips to hers, pouring all the intensity and passion of his realization into the kiss.
Remi had never fallen in love before, but he knew with every piece of his soulless being that he was in love with Skye.
All of his past anger and resistance had just been a useless fight against the inevitable.
Their mouths slotted together, and Skye’s fingers twisted Remi’s shirt. She made an intoxicating little moan, and Remi responded in kind with his own growl of approval as her tongue swept into his mouth.
It wasn’t slow or sweet. There was hunger and something almost destructive in the way the energy exploded through them, destroying all the past distrust between them, destroying every moment of hurt, and leaving only what had always been there underneath it all—care, obsession, possession, need.
Visceral aching need tugging through his body.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Jillian screeched. Remi pulled back, dazed and lost, magnetized by a similar look on Skye’s face. They needed to get to the tour bus. They needed to get to the hotel. They needed to get somewhere, anywhere. He needed to get her alone and never separate from her again.
“This is all her fault! And you’re kissing her like you just came back from war?” Jillian asked.
Skye blinked, her face sobering. “My fault?”
Jillian put her hand on her hip. “This crowd was never going to accept them. This gig wasn’t the saving grace that you promised it would be.
You’re a shitty band manager.” Jillian turned to Remi.
“She did this, Remi. She’s manipulating you, probably stealing from you.
I know people who would be so much better at managing your band—”
“I don’t think it’s Skye’s fault,” Liam said, staring down at his phone.
Remi had sort of forgotten that his bandmates were there.
“Metalfest’s social media has been blowing up for the past two hours about how Tilted Haze got Crushing Skulls kicked off the lineup.
That’s why the crowd was pissed. It was a tinderbox about to light up. ”
“Why would they think that?” West asked.
Liam shrugged and continued scrolling on his phone.
“Remi, I didn’t—” Skye started.
He kissed the back of her hand. “I know,” he said. “I know you didn’t do this.” He didn’t need to question whether she’d sabotaged them. Skye always found some way to turn things around, even when the deck was stacked against them.
A cautious hope bloomed in her eyes as he interlaced their fingers together.
“It’s my fault,” Remi said. “I wanted to win them over, but it was never going to work, and I just couldn’t stand up there and watch our fans getting trampled like that. I’m more to blame for this than anyone.”
“You did the right thing,” West said. “I was watching those girls get pushed around too. The security people weren’t even bothering to help.”
“Fuck this place,” Ollie said.
Remi nodded.
“Okay, someone with the username CrushAllTheSkulls started the rumor,” Liam reported. “See?” He turned the phone around to show everyone the forum, and they read the damning comment that the entire internet rallied behind.
“I want to find those girls,” Remi said as he looked at Jillian.
“Can you message them? I’m pretty sure that I recognized them from that photo.
Maybe we can check the medical tents too?
I don’t want any of our fans to walk away from this festival with a bad taste in their mouth.
Let’s get them t-shirts, concert tickets, whatever. ”
Jillian smiled like she’d tasted something sour. “Sure. I’ll get right on that.”
“And I want to do a livestream,” Remi said.
“Oh, now you want to do a livestream?” Jillian muttered. She sighed heavily and then said, “Maybe you should clean up your face first?”
Remi wiped his hand over his cheek, coming away with mud, blood, and beer. He chuckled. “Nah. This is rock ’n’ roll.”
Everyone headed back to the tour bus in the VIP area with the rest of the bands. While Jillian set up her tripod so the Tilted Haze logo was in the frame, Remi pulled West aside.
“You alright?” he asked.
West nodded as he wiped his face with a towel. “Yeah, I’m fine. It was just like the old days, jumping in the middle of your fights and trying to pull you out.”
Remi laughed. “Yeah, thanks for having my back, man.”
“Always,” West said. His eyes glanced over Remi’s shoulder. Skye’s pretty laugh floated from behind him. “So we’re really all good with her now? You know what you’re doing there?”
Remi couldn’t help but turn around, needing Skye in his line of sight.
She was helping Liam and Ollie clean up their faces, throwing her head back to laugh at something Liam said.
The tumble of her hair curled down her back.
Her chest shook, and her cleavage swelled enticingly out of the top of her shirt.
“Yeah,” Remi said. “We’re all good. Better than good. Really.” They were quiet for a beat as Remi smiled like an idiot at Skye. When he finally pulled his gaze away, West was studying him.
“Just be careful, alright?” West said.
“Sure thing.”
West gave him something between a smile and a wince. “Well, I’m going back to the hotel to get some shut-eye.”
“Still not sleeping?”
West’s gaze went faraway, and he threw a dismissive hand over his shoulder. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about it.”
Remi nodded but sucked on his lip ring as his best friend walked away. West was just feeling the effects of their cross-country tour. Only a few more weeks and they’d be home. He’d just have to watch him until then.
Jillian called Remi over. She forced him into the right position in front of her tripod.
“Do you want me to prompt you with questions?” she asked.
“I’ll just talk,” Remi said. He shifted back and forth. He couldn’t blame cocaine for his awkwardness this time. What was he supposed to do with his hands anyway? Maybe he should just be holding the phone and walking, making it less of a production and more of a heartfelt discussion.
But he wasn’t a publicist, so what did he know?
“You’re live,” Jillian said, placid as she watched him through the screen.
“Hi everyone,” he said. He had no idea what was going to come out of his mouth, so he just started at the beginning.
“As you know, Tilted Haze was asked to fill a slot at Metalfest when Crushing Skulls couldn’t make it.
The band agreed playing this show would be out of our comfort zone, but it seemed like it’d be a fun time.
The shows we got to see yesterday were amazing.
Truly talented people were on those stages, and we felt lucky to be here, but something happened at our show just an hour ago that needs to be addressed. ”
Remi found himself unable to hold still as his passion rose. He was leaning forward, even as Jillian gestured for him to stop and back up.