Rock All Night(70)

“It’s in the unofficial contract,” Killian said as he puffed on his joint.

I looked at Derek in bewilderment.

He shrugged. “That’s Killian’s term for stuff Miles can’t say shit about. One is trying to stop Killian from smoking weed – ”

“Forbidden to even mention it,” Killian said seriously.

“ – and the other is Joshua Tree.”

“You actually scheduled your concerts so he could do this?!”

Derek and Ryan both nodded in resignation.

“Please, Kaitlyn,” Killian said, putting his free hand – the one not fingering chords on the guitar – on my arm. “It’ll be grand. It’ll be like… Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas.”

He paused upon seeing my alarmed expression.

“Except in Joshua Tree,” he added hastily. “And no fear, no loathing. Just… love. And enlightenment.”

“And a shitload of shrooms,” Derek chimed in.

I remembered Hunter S. Thompson coming up in Derek’s and my first conversation, back in my dorm room in Athens four years ago. I remembered Derek talking about him being a great journalist for the ‘greatest music criticism magazine in the world.’

Which I now represented, too.

I didn’t know if I should take that for a sign or not.

And then something happened that made me have to take it for a sign.

“I’ll give you a proper interview,” Killian pleaded. “With long, expansive answers. Details galore.”

Oh God.

I just knew I was going to regret this.

“…okay?...” I said nervously.

“Yes!” he crowed, and wheeled around and did a victorious windmill swipe at his guitar, just like Pete Townsend in The Who.

“Oh God,” Ryan said, and put his head in one hand.

I looked at Derek fearfully. “Be honest: is this a really, really bad idea?”

He grinned. “It’ll be memorable, I can guarantee you that. But it’s your call.”

I chewed on my lower lip, then closed my eyes. “Okay.”

“Then I’m going, too,” Ryan announced. He didn’t sound happy about it.

Derek did a double-take. “What? Really?”

Ryan sighed, rolled his eyes, and nodded.

“YES!” Killian howled, doing two Pete Townsend windmill swipes at his guitar.

Other than when he was up on stage and totally in the moment, it was a hundred times more emotion than I’d seen him display over the last three days, combined.

“Why?” I asked Ryan.

“Yeah, why?” Derek asked, sounding just a tiny bit suspicious.

“You think I’m going to let Kaitlyn go wandering out there in the desert with you two while you’re high on shrooms?” Ryan said disapprovingly.

“Trippin’ our balls off!” Killian said happily, and continued doing his Pete Townsend imitation.


Ryan glanced at Killian, then turned back to Derek. “Yeah. Think again.”

“So you’re going to do shrooms with us?”

“HELL no. Somebody has to babysit you people.”

“…babysit?” I whimpered.

“What’d she say?!” Riley shouted across the room.

“She said yes!” Killian called out happily as he kept windmilling away at his guitar.

Riley cackled. “Your funeral, Blondie!”

Now I was considering changing my mind.

“You should stay here instead and f*ck me!” Riley hooted.

Okay, that decided it.

I was absolutely, positively going to the desert and doing shrooms.





58




When Derek and I got back to the room, I was freaking out over what I had agreed to do.

“I don’t know if I should,” I fretted.

Derek stepped up behind me and wrapped me in his arms. “It’ll be fine.”

“But it’s illegal.”

“So is speeding. You ever speed?”

“No! Wait – are you talking about the drug, or…?”

He laughed and kissed my neck. “I’m talking about doing 70 in a 55 mile per hour zone, dummy.”

That irked me a little. I don’t like being called a dummy.

But I did feel a little stupid.

“Oh. Yeah, of course.”

“Okay, then. You were doing something illegal.”

“They only fine you for that, they don’t throw you in jail!”

He kissed his way up my neck and nibbled my ear. “You worry way too much, do you know that?”

In spite of my nervousness over the Joshua Tree situation, my body responded the way Derek knew it would.

Unnnhhhh.

I melted a little in his arms as he continued to kiss my neck… but then the merry-go-round of thoughts started spinning again.

“I need to be able to do my job.”

“You will. That’s why you’re going.”

“But what if we get caught?”

“We won’t.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because I break the law all the time, and I haven’t been caught yet.”

“Yeah, you probably go 140 in a 55 mile per hour zone.”