Take Me with You (Take Me #2)(24)

“The Kimberly Hotel, please.”

“Beacon Theatre,” Henry corrected.

“What? Why are we going to Beacon?”

From his jacket pocket, Henry produced a pair of concert tickets and passed them over to me.

I looked down at the tickets, and my stomach turned. “You got us tickets to see The Drift?”

The flashy bright sign outside of Beacon Theatre on Broadway glared down at me. I glared back.

This was the last f*cking place I wanted to be tonight. But I’d agreed. I’d made a deal with the devil, only for it to be thrown back in my face. Hollis had been the connection I used to get Ari and me into that snooty restaurant on Valentine’s Day. All the good that had done me. Even though it hadn’t worked out how I had intended, I still had to keep up my end of the bargain.

That meant I had to walk backstage with the rest of the guys and hear Hollis out.

“Come on, bro,” Miller said, clapping me on the back. “Showtime.”

I wished we were playing this f*cking venue tonight. The Drift had sold out the theatre for the evening on the kickoff of their new tour for their album that had dropped last week. It had soared into the Top Ten on the Billboard charts. As much as I wanted to hate them for it, the music was good, and Donovan’s lyrics were better than ever.

I followed the rest of the band backstage and navigated through the controlled chaos. They had a crew that clearly knew how to run this place like a well-oiled machine.

A pretty brunette in a short skirt gave me a once-over as we passed by. Her friend nudged her forward, and they both broke down into giggles.

Fans, not groupies. It was strange to notice a difference. Before Ari, I’d have probably lured her in. It would have been so f*cking simple, too. Now, I just turned my back on the girl I would have had on her back in about ten seconds.

Hollis stood at the end of a hall, talking to some Asian chick in a pantsuit. She looked pissed and not caught up in his charm like every other f*cking person around him. His eyes lifted from the woman as we walked down the hallway and landed on me. I couldn’t tell if his smile was relief or smugness that I’d shown up. I clenched my fists at my sides and resisted the urge to knock the smile off his overconfident f*cking face.

“ContraBand!” Hollis called. He shook Miller’s hand, fist-bumped McAvoy and Vin, and then clapped me on the back. “Glad you showed.”

“Bet you are,” I muttered under my breath.

“Guys, this is Mia Lu. She’s a face I hope you’re going to get to know around here. She’s our PR rep from Pacific. She keeps your ass in line.”

Mia gave him a thin-lipped smile of disapproval. She didn’t exactly look like the kind of chick I’d expect to work PR for a record company. She clearly had a f*cking stick up her ass. I wondered if she liked it up the ass. In my experience, the girls who pretended to be prudes were usually total f*cking freaks.

“So nice to meet you boys. I truly hope once you’re a part of the Pacific team, you won’t need my assistance as much as Hollis insinuates.” Her forced smile turned into a flat-out glare before she disappeared.

What the f*ck was that about?

And they were awfully f*cking sure that we were going to sign with them. By looking at my bros’ eager faces, maybe they had a reason to be. I wasn’t even sure I could convince my bandmates to give this up.

But if I needed to, I’d make a f*cking effort.

Hollis gestured for us to follow him, and then we entered The Drift’s room backstage. As the door opened, a cloud of smoke billowed out.

The first thought I had when I entered the room was, Ari was going to f*cking kill me.

If she had been pissed about what the backstage looked like at the Poconos music festival with The Drift, she’d f*cking blow a gasket here.

Half-naked groupies littered the room. If I squinted through the smoke-filled room, I even recognized some of them. Jaci and someone…Jennifer maybe, were two of the girls who had been at Donovan’s penthouse party where I’d decked him.

I picked out the other guys in the band in different stages of inebriation. Ridley had his head in his hands, looking as if he might puke. Nic and Joey were cutting cocaine into a straight line in front of a blonde who had her tits out. Trevor was making out with some chick against the back wall. The only person I didn’t see was Donovan.

Then, he walked in from a door across the room—shirtless and zipping his f*cking jeans.

In that moment, all I could picture was Donovan getting anywhere near my girl. Anger boiled through me, and McAvoy and Miller grabbed me before I’d even realized I started storming across the room.

Hollis laughed like an idiot next to me. He’d known this was going to happen. I could see it on his face. I was really f*cking glad I hadn’t told Ari that I was coming up here with the guys tonight. She would never have been okay with me walking into this kind of shitstorm. I couldn’t tell her until I had everything figured out.

“Why don’t you guys grab a beer and relax? The set starts soon for the opener, and Drift will have a short meet-and-greet. No rush,” Hollis said.

“Actually,” I snapped, taking point and ignoring Miller’s exasperation, “I’d like to get this shit over with, Hollis. You dragged us out here. Let’s f*cking talk.”

Hollis had a moment of anger blaze in his eyes before attempting to smother the initial reaction. It worked about as well as cheap cologne covering the smell of a men’s locker room.