“A quick break,” she told me. “We have to be back on that stage in ten—”
“Five,” a woman with a headset on told her. “Here, we’ve got water for you guys. Do you need a touch-up?”
Five minutes. Jonas and Jackie were getting Jennifer out of here. Gibs was still there. So was a bloodied Teddy. Maybe I should punch him again.
“We got this,” Yvette told Ace, and when Ace turned away from her dad and just leaned into me, I wrapped an arm around her. Ramsey shifted to her other side. Right. We were going to have to do this the hard way and that was fine.
“We do have this,” Aubrey said, her assurance nearly as strong. “We’re gonna need headsets for this… ”
Headset microphones. That made sense.
“We have them,” the handler said.
“KC—” Teddy started but cut off when she raised a hand and I glared at him.
“Not now,” she told him.
That was all she needed to say. Awareness of Gibs watching her kept the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. I didn’t leave him an opening, though. Too soon, the girls had their headsets on and Ace gazed up at me with the saddest eyes.
“Thank you,” she whispered and I touched two fingers to my lips then to hers. A faint smile curved her mouth and I nodded. Better.
“We’ll be right here, Siren,” Ramsey promised her and she squeezed his hand before pulling away from both of us. Jonas wasn’t back yet. But then, maybe crazy Jennifer came out to play after docile Jennifer was ushered out. Still, Gibs stood there and when I spared him a look, he was studying us with a million questions in his eyes.
Questions I wasn’t going to answer. Not right now.
Then the girls were striding out together, their playful voices and banter a far cry from the painful display back here.
She really was a rock star in more ways than one.
Three
KC
Returning to the stage let me flee the internal chaos provoked by the presence of Dad, Mom, and that insane guru she was engaged to marry. Tonight wasn’t supposed to be about any of them. Goddamn Teddy.
I couldn’t believe he set me up like that. As angry as I was, and as twisted up as I felt on the inside, I couldn’t take that emotion out there. Not internally. I needed to channel it and pour it into the music. With every step, I shed the weight of their presence. I abandoned the uncertainty.
I embraced the pain and let love and friendship carry me the rest of the way. The guys were right there for me and hadn’t moved to back up Dad. If anything, Lachlan and Ramsey kept themselves between me and them.
“Are you guys ready to rock?” I challenged the audience.
“Of course they are,” Yvette answered for them as she pivoted to face me. “The question is, are you?”
“Am I?”
“You heard her,” Aubrey peeled off the three words like she had all the time in the world. “Are we rocking it tonight?”
The crowd roared.
“Sounds like they think we should,” I quipped. “Think we still got it?”
The longer we stood out here, the easier it became to breathe. The stage was where I’d grown up. It was where I’d found myself. It was where I could be myself.
“What kind of question is that?” Aubrey snarked and then eyed the crowd. “Did we sound like we still had it earlier?”
The roar of hell yes and the cheers answered for us, making me grin.
We weren’t looking at the audience anymore, but at each other. Hands on my hips, I met Aubrey’s gaze, then Yvette’s. Our backup band was here. The crew we’d toured with. They knew us. Knew our music.
Yvette raised her eyebrows, and Aubrey tilted her head. Tells. Tells for me anyway. Tells that asked me what I wanted to do. Asked me how I wanted to do it. Old school? First album? Second?
The third album had been our most popular, but the first? The first had a lot of classics on it. Songs we’d written together. It wasn’t like they didn’t have opinions, but they were giving me the lead.
“I think something classic,” I speculated aloud, and the audience shouted their approval. They were also shouting their suggestions. A laugh broke free because, yeah, that was exactly what we needed to do.
Challenge us.
“You wanna pick a song for us?” I said, trusting the mics to carry our voices. We were rolling with the impulsiveness and the spontaneity. The minute they started chanting the Bangles song, I cracked up.
We’d done a cover of one way back in the beginning. It was theatrical rock and a hell of a lot of fun. So, we let that kick us off. Hell yes, our guys back there fired up on the drums and the acoustics. Keyboards were coming in, too. I really missed my guitar right about now.
Missed it like I’d miss my arm. And as spontaneous as the performance appeared, we followed the one cover with a set list we’d rehearsed earlier. All old songs, first two albums with one from the third.
When we finished that, we held our pose, fists up as the applause rose in a crescendo and splashed over us. After we dropped them, I took two steps forward. Here, we formed a triangle.
“Are you guys still having fun?”
Their applause, shouts and catcalls assured me they were.
“I can’t say thank you enough for coming out; there are so many more great performers here for you. Don’t worry, we’ll be back before the night is over with a brand new song—”
I had to pause ‘cause the screams rose. It was kind of humbling to feel their excitement throb in the air around us.
“You like that, huh?”
I chuckled but let them get their shouting, stomping, and clapping out. Sometimes, you just had to feed the moment.
“Thank you—as I was saying—the three of us will return before the evening ends. We’re going to perform a brand new song for you. A song that I wrote for a very special someone. That someone is part of the reason we’re here. This concert is about raising funds to help find a cure for pediatric cancers. Someone very close to me was diagnosed last year, and that sweet angel has been fighting ever since. We’re lucky, because we have access to great doctors and she has an amazing medical team that I am so grateful for.”
Tears clogged my throat, but I took a deep breath.
“I am so grateful for that team and for our team—our fans and our listeners who got tested when we said we were looking for a donor. The fight is far from over, although tonight is for all the kids fighting that battle. We can do this, to help arm them to do that. So—before we go—one more song, and then we’ll turn the stage over. Stick around though … and we’ll see you later tonight.”
I had to blink due to the tears, but what was more was the shouts and the applause and the just simple caring. Yeah, they were here for the show and for all the acts that weren’t just us. But they were here.
That mattered.
Aubrey took point, and I followed her lead even as I threw her a grateful smile. We ended up doing three more songs and we were gonna run this show over. The producers could yell at me later.
When we finally headed backstage, I was dripping sweat. We needed a costume change, since I needed to peel off the spandex after all the sweating I had done. Dix was waiting with the guys when I got there. Teddy was nowhere to be seen.