A Rock & Roll Romance (21 page)

“My fiancée was in an accident and needed time to recover. It wouldn’t have been fair to the fans for me to perform under those circumstances. I definitely wouldn’t have been at my best. As much as I’m married to the music for better or worse, Aubrey is my top priority.” Jake said.

“Glad to see she’s better.”
Ryan said looking at me. Jake growled. “Alright here’s the doozy. Word just broke that you guys will be one of the headlining acts at this year’s Radioactive Tour alongside Blood to Bleed. The industry is no stranger to the longstanding feud between Jake and Ian. It’s also rumored that Blood to Bleed just acquired a new bassist that could rival Blake. Any comment?”

“Ian’s a shit stain. My skill is unparalleled
. Yes, I know that’s conceited, but it’s the truth.” Blake said smugly.

“Ian reminds me of
something a cow would shit out.” Derek chimed.

“Listen
, I don’t want to go around kicking a dead horse here. Yes, Ian Voss and I don’t get along. He tried to sabotage my career from the beginning and failed. Yet he refuses to give up. Battlescars has its own following of fucking kick-ass fans. We’ll go to Radioactive, we’ll kick ass. Then I plan on getting married and getting into the studio. The end. Ian has no place in my life other than acting like a flea.”

“Are wedding plans in the works?”

“Nice try. They are, but I won’t be disclosing anything until after it takes place. It will be a low key event, just family and close friends.”

“Thanks for your time tonight guys. I
really appreciate it and good luck Jake. She’s a knock out.”

“Look at her like that again and I’ll knock you out.” He smirked.

He walked over to me and put his arm around my shoulder.

“Let’s go.”
He led me over toward the door.

We climbed
into the waiting car and headed back to the hotel.

Jake

We got back to the hotel and as much as I wanted to get wrapped up in the sheets with Aubrey something about the interview was bothering me. I told her I wanted to talk to the guys about something and that I would be back in a bit. She smiled and went to go take a bath. Brett and I headed to their room. I knocked and walked in. It was a pretty low-key night for them. At least there weren’t any groupies philandering around. I told them that I needed to talk to them. We raided the mini bar for some beer and sat around the living room of their suite.

“I love you guys like you were my brothers
, and I’m going to tell you something in absolute confidence. If one word of this gets breathed outside this room, I will personally fucking kill you, with my bare hands.”

They looked at me to proceed.

“Tonight at the interview the guy mentioned something about Blood
to Bleed having a new bassist. I looked it up on my phone on the way back, and it’s someone that Aubrey knows. It’s not a good thing either. See, when she was a teenager she dated a bassist, and it’s this guy Jeremy. He has some sort of sick obsession with her. Here’s the thing… almost all of her tattoos are to cover up scars. Scars that he gave her.”

“You’re fucking with us
right? Are we on an episode of Punk’d?” Blake asked, looking around for a hidden camera or something.

“You a
re just kidding right?” Derek asked.

“I wish I was. He attacked her pretty
bad man. She’s got
a lot
of scars. He took a hunting knife to her and pretty much carved her up like a piece of meat. He actually carved his name into her chest. She’s had some surgery to reduce the scarring, but it didn’t go away completely. That’s why she got the tattoos to cover them up.”

“That’s sick!” Derek yelled
, kicking over the coffee table.

Kevin looked like
he was going to be sick. I knew he really liked Aubrey and they’d grown close over the past couple months. He thought she was good for me.

“I don’t want her to find out if we can help it. He has some vendetta against her
, and I want to protect her as best I can. It’s going to be a problem since she’s at every show, and now we have to play with them. I need to try and find a way to get her to stay home from the show that day. I need you guys to help me come up with a plan. She’s not going to be easy to placate.” I cringed.

“We’ll figure it out
bro.” Blake said. “I can’t promise that one of my guitar strings won’t end up wrapped around his neck, but we’ll make sure Aubrey’s safe.”

“Fuck a guitar stri
ng! I’m gonna stab that asshole in the eye with a drum stick.”

“Kill with kindness.” Kevin laughed.
All of us looked at him like he’d grown another head. “Just sayin’.”

I retreated back to my room and packed up for our next gig. I couldn’t shake this feeling of dread hanging in the balance. I looked at a sleeping Aubrey and tried
my best to get some sleep too. Brett was going to start carrying his gun again. He always brought it along just in case, but the instance never came where we felt threatened. Now knowing that Jeremy was out lurking we needed to take extra precautions. There were instances that we could end up in the same town for an overlapping period of time. I was still awake when Aubrey woke up the next morning. She eyed me skeptically. I admitted that I had a rough night because of the interview and couldn’t sleep. She berated me and told me I should have woken her up. I just pulled her close to me and breathed her in. It didn’t do anything to settle my nerves. I knew I was going to have to tell Tim, but I needed to make sure Aubrey wasn’t anywhere within earshot when it happened.

We showered and headed to the plane.
We were due to play in Denver in two days. I was looking through my phone when a reminder popped up that it was Aubrey’s birthday next week.
Shit!
I needed to think of something memorable. I wanted to make it special for her. I started racking my brain for ideas. We touched down in Denver and checked into a Bed & Breakfast that I picked out. It was off the beaten path, and we would be able to maintain some privacy there. We pulled up to the mini mansion and were greeted by the owner, Ruth. She showed us to our room and left. It was a nice place. Our room was painted red and was exceedingly Victorian-esque.

“A bed and breakfast.”
Aubrey teased.

“What can I
say? I told you, I’m a sucker. It’s even better now that you’re here to share it with me.” I kissed her.

She started crying.
What did I say?

“Baby
, are you okay?”

“I’m
fine.” She laughed.

“Why are you crying?”

“I don’t know. I’m just feeling emotional today, that’s all.”

“You’re going to be excited tomorrow when you see
who we’re playing with.” I grinned.

She was going to freak out and go total fan girl on me.

Aubrey

We arrived at the Red Rocks Amphitheater
and were hanging around back stage. Jake had finished his sound check. I was surprised to find out that they were actually the opener tonight. We were walking when I stopped dead in my tracks.

OHMYGOD!!!!!!
My pulse started hammering.

“That’s Brian Fallon
! From Gaslight!” I screeched.

“Yeah.
You want to meet him?” He cocked an eyebrow.

I beamed and nodded my head. He took me by the arm and led me over. Jake tapped him on the shoulder.
He turned around.

“Hey Bri.”

“Jake, how’s it going man? I hear congratulations are in order.”

“Definitely. This is my fiancée, Aubrey. Aubrey, meet Brian Fallon.”

I was
completely star-struck.

“It’s nice to meet you.” He smiled.

“You too. I’m a
huge
fan!” I chimed.

He laughed at me. “I’m glad to hear it
. It was nice meeting you Aubrey. Good seeing you Jake.”

“Why don’t you get all fan
girl with me?” Jake teased.

“Shut up.” I teased and pinched him in the rib.

“Ouch.” He laughed.

All the sudden I
started feeling really icky. I didn’t want Jake to worry, so I didn’t say anything. It was most likely from being on the road for too long and the lack of sleep that went along with it. I still wasn’t completely recovered from the incident either. I watched as he rocked the stage. I begged him to stay so that we could watch Gaslight play. He smiled and pulled up a chair so we could sit and watch. I absolutely loved them, and they were so much better live… if that were even possible. They opened with ‘Handwritten’, and I sang along. Okay, I sang along to the entire set. They were utterly electrifying. I was completely captivated. I felt mildly embarrassed that I was more excited about seeing them than my future husband. At least Jake was a good sport about it. When they finished the set Brian handed me a guitar-pick, and I nearly fainted.

Jake carted me to the ca
r, and we headed back to the B&B. I pretty much violated him on the way there. Once we were inside our room I all out assaulted him. He didn’t mind. If anything he was right there along with me. Until, I started feeling icky again. I pulled away and ran to the bathroom. Jake was on my heels and held my hair back as I threw up. I was groaning.

“I hope you didn’t pick up another bug. Kevin said he wasn’t feeling
great either.”

He ran a washcloth under some cold water and held it to my forehead. I stood up and brushed my teeth.
Jake called down and ordered some crackers, chamomile tea and ginger ale. He helped me get into my pajamas and put me to bed. He fed me crackers, but my stomach was still feeling unsettled. I spent most of the night puking, so did Kevin and Blake. I was feeling miserable. Jake had to have them reschedule the next two shows. By the time I was feeling better, he got it. Thankfully, it was just throwing up and not the shits. Thank goodness for hotel suites with two bathrooms. I felt bad because he was woozy and we still had a flight to catch. I helped him into the car. Brett closed the door and poured hand sanitizer into his hands. Brett and Derek were the only ones that remained unscathed.

We touched down in Seattle and
decided to stay in and rest. I was still tired from being sick, and Jake was still sick. We got into our pajamas and rented some movies. I was playing nursemaid to Jake who looked miserable. I felt horrible knowing that he was going to have to perform tomorrow. It was a big show too, and there was going to be a lot of press there. I made sure that we both got to bed at a decent time with no hanky-panky.

The next morning
I was thankful that I felt much better. I showered and got all decked out for the big event. I dressed in black leather pants, a slinky silver top and black stilettos. Jake whistled approvingly when I walked into the bedroom. He still wasn’t feeling great, but since they couldn’t afford to reschedule without fucking up the rest of the tour dates he was doing business as usual. He pulled me onto his lap and kissed the top of my head.

“I want to run an errand while you’re
doing sound check. I won’t be long.”

“Where
are you off to?” He cocked an eyebrow.

“It’s a surprise.” I
said coyly.

I
kissed him and climbed off his lap. I headed to the door feeling naked not having my other half. For almost three months straight, we’ve barely been apart. Most people would have killed each other. Not that there weren’t times I felt the urge to choke him, but I felt naked without him. I walked out the door and headed to Lulu’s Bridal Boutique.

I had been doing dress research and
Lulu’s designs were unique. I decided since we were already here I would check her out. I walked down the street until I came across a pink and black damask awning reading Lola’s Bridal Boutique. I opened the door and went inside. The store was small and decorated very Parisian chic. There were lots of blacks and whites with pops of pinks and turquoise throughout.

“Hi. How can I help you today?
” A girl asked.

She couldn’t have been much older than me. She had bleach blonde hair with red and black streaks. She was
beautiful and eclectically dressed in designer threads that she probably made herself.

“I actually wanted to look at some of your dresses.” I told her.

“I’m Lulu.” She walked from behind the counter and offered her hand.

“Aubrey.” I smiled. “I’m actually really interested in one of your black dresses.”

I pulled out my phone and showed her the picture I saw online. She looked at it and grinned. She walked over to the wall and pulled off a black garment bag.

“
One of my personal favorites. It’s probably because it was my first bridal design. This is just a sample. We can alter yours to exactly how you want. We can change colors and ribbons to whatever you want. When’s the big day?”

“April first.”
We both laughed.