The Chick and the Dead (32 page)

Pot.

I looked around for its source, and that's when I saw a man standing in the halo of a security light over near the door to the hall.

He had long, dark hair. It was wavy and sleek, and he was wearing leather pants that showed off an equally tight butt. His eyes were dark. His chest was bare.

My heart slammed against my ribs, and I looked from the man to the billboard and back again. It couldn't be! And yet—

"Sure you don't want a ride?"

I hadn't realized a car had pulled up beside me, and I yelped my surprise and whirled to find Doug, Mindy, and Harmony in the Jag.

"Come on!" Harmony hung her head out the back window. "We're going out for burgers to celebrate. We'll bring you back later to pick up your car."

It was a kind and generous offer, but I wasn't exactly thinking straight. Instead of saying yes or no, I pointed at the billboard. "You guys are—"

I looked at Doug and Mindy—nice middle-aged people—and gulped down the
old
that had nearly escaped my lips. "You guys probably know more about rock and roll than I do. Who's that guy? The one in the front of the picture?"

Mindy leaned forward for a better look. "That's Damon Curtis. You know, the rock legend. He was with the group Mind at Large. I hear they're going to be giving some huge concert here at the Rock Hall. Gosh, Damon Curtis…" She studied the picture and smiled. "I haven't thought about him and his group forever. He's been dead for forty years."

Dead.

Yeah.

Kind of what I thought.

And exactly why I jumped into the Jag to make a quick exit. As we pulled away from the curb, I glanced back toward the hall.

Yeah, Damon Curtis was still there. And yeah, he was still the hottest thing I'd seen in as long as I could remember.

But in this case,
hot
was just a descriptive term. Because even before Mindy confirmed it, I suspected that this was one cold dude.

And he was watching me.

Oh, shit.