“Hmm,” I eyed him up and down, taking in his black skinny jeans and My Chemical Romance t-shirt. I wondered if he wore that ironically. He resembled Gerard Way circaWelcome to the Black Parade. “Eighties power ballads, for sure.”
“You caught me,” he smirked. “Country.”
“Really?”
“No,” he laughed. “Rock, obviously.”
“Obviously. I’m more punk and metal, but I will croon the shit out ofJolene.”
“You play guitar?”
“I can.”
“Got a good set of pipes?”
“Duh.”
“You’re up at ten,” Reggie said. “Better get it figured out.”
“You pick the song,” Hail instructed.
“Are you sure?”
“Yup. Pick. Let’s see what you got.”
“Okaaaaay,” I said, knowing the perfect song for a rock-ish duet. “I wantforget me tooby MGK and Halsey. You know it?”
“Yup,” Hail said with his ghostly smile. “Good choice.”
He grabbed my hand and led me backstage. We were ready to fucking go.
Chapter 8
Kane
Afterhoursofexchangingniceties with people I didn’t like and being followed by a girl I didn’t want, I was ready to bounce from the Arlington mansion like nobody’s business. I put my time in and did my duties as Dad instructed–building our business relationships and introducing myself to anyone I wasn’t familiar with.
It was a lot of work. I felt like a clown, like I wasn’t being myself. Just a sack of skin and bones playing the part, reciting the lines, smiling. Fuck.
Bobby was good at this shit. He was good at talking to people, meeting people, and making them feel like they had a shot at a piece of our ventures. I, however, was absolute dogshit when it came to talking to the rich pricks. I didn’t have it in me to suck up, which was essentially what it was, but I did my best. Because that’s what Dad needed from me.
When Theo texted me that he was at Ethereal and Dani was there too–on the first floor tonight—that was my sign to get the fuck out of there. Unfortunately…Lauren wasn’t ready for the party to end, begging me to take her along. I could’ve blown her off but Dad would be all up in my shit if I cut the night short and didn’t include her.
I parked in the employee parking lot, bypassing the huge line of people waiting to get in the club. Lauren was awestruck, acting like a goddamn celebrity because we came in through the back entrance.
As soon as the door opened, I heard her. She was crooning Halsey’s part from one of her favorite songs. A guy picked up Machine Gun Kelly’s part of the song as we exited the hallway into the main room.
The crowd was going nuts, jumping and cheering during the chorus. Dani was on stage, wearing a sexy-as-fuck red dress and black boots that went up to her thighs. I’d seen the guy she was singing with around a few times. He wasn’t associated with any of Dad’s enemies–at least none that I was aware of–and we were good at sniffing out shit like that.
“Oh my god. What’s she doing here?” Lauren sneered as she grabbed onto my arm, remembering that she wanted to claim my ass.
I ignored her as we pushed through the edge of the crowd heading for Theo. He was at one of the reserved tables along the edge of the room, a half-circle booth that already had drinks waiting for us. It was up on a platform so we had a good view of the crowd and the stage.
Theo was in the middle of the booth and I sat on the side of him so I was facing the stage. Lauren huffed and sat on the other side so her back was to it. She turned and glared as Dani and the punk guy finished their song.
“She’s doing amazing, bro. The crowd fucking loves this shit!” Theo bellowed, leaning over to me so I could hear him among the cheers of the crowd.
And they did love it. It was reminiscent of the handful of concerts I’d attended. Ethereal wasn’t your average club.