Too Many Rock Stars (Access All Areas #1) (12 page)

When I walked into the club and saw her sitting with him all lovey-dovey, my heart shattered. I mean they weren't snogging or anything but she was letting him sit close to her. That was a huge deal with Violet. She was like a wounded animal that didn't let anyone close.

I fought down the sick feeling rising in my gut and put a friendly smile on my face. That was the best way to handle this.

"How's things?" I asked. Not exactly witty conversation but good enough.

Carlie poured me a drink.

I don't know what happened after that but Violet left and Alex sat on his own, looking dejected.

"Sorry to cut your grass," Alex said.

"Huh?"

"You were here to see her, weren't you?"

"No, mate. Actually I was here to see you. Hoping you were around." Ha, that'd take the wind out of his sails. I could play it cool.

He raised his eyebrows but didn't speak.

"I wanted to work things out. With Dazza. I said you could borrow him not hog him. We need a plan."

Alex nodded. "I gave him the rehearsal schedule."

"It's a damn heavy schedule. I mean, obviously we don't need to rehearse as much as you do..." One point to me… "But we do need to have some time. And Dazza, he's not a machine. He needs to sleep and eat."

Especially eat. No one I knew ate like Dazza did. The guy had hollow legs. Lanky, hollow legs.

Alex grabbed some papers out of his man bag.

"This is the schedule. What do you think?"

I had a look, then grabbed a pen off the bar and crossed out a heap of the squares.

"That's the prime time. You can't have it all. I'll give you Tuesdays and Thursdays."

"No dice. Maybe this was a bad arrangement. You've got plenty of time to find a new drummer. You have my guitar, I want my drummer all to myself."

He had my woman too but I wasn’t going to mention that.

Alex folded his arms.

"This isn't about the drummer. This is –"

"It's about the drummer."

"It's never about the drummer."

Before I could answer, Carlie reached over the bar and took the schedule from me. She grabbed a pen and ran down the list, making some notes. Then she handed it back.

"That's your split of Dazza. It's fair. It works. No arguments and no back chat. It's hard enough to get a decent drummer. If the two of you start fighting over him, he'll quit altogether."

"No he won't. He likes eating too much."

For once, I had to agree with Alex. I left the bar still wondering what had been going on. There was definitely something between those two and it was something I wanted to nip in the bud.

Carlie walked into my office as soon as she arrived at work for the day and lit up her cigarette.

"Your boyfriends are getting a bit snarly with each other out there. Again. I've dealt with them out for the moment but you need to get this sorted out.

"There's nothing to sort."

She laughed.

"Deny it all you want. You have two hot guys chasing after you. Pick one."

"I pick neither but they won't believe me. Too many rock stars, that's my problem."

She snorted again. "There's only two of them."

"Two is way too many. The ideal number of rock stars is zero."

"If it's not rockers, who do you expect to meet? A banker? A fireman? Not going to happen in this place. You meet rockers or you meet guys who want to be rockers. Even worse, the guys who used to be rockers and are now just burnt out."

"I'm happy single."

"You looked even happier when you walked in the door with Alex the other night. Until you saw Razer. Feeling a bit guilty, huh?"

I didn't feel guilty. Not exactly.

"Anyway, the decision has been taken out of my hands. I have no say in my love life. It's been sacrificed to the gods of rock n' roll."

"To be honest, it's a piss-poor sacrifice, considering how lacking in action your love life has been to date." Carlie crushed out her cigarette. "Got to run."

She was out the door before I could throw anything at her.

What did people expect though? All I wanted was to get through this competition and get Trouble out of trouble. I didn't need any more stress. Stress cut into your napping time and napping time was the best time.

It got even worse when I overheard the guys at the bar.

"Razer for sure. He's a local. People love him in this town," said Drew.

He wiped down the table behind Jackson then looked at his work and wiped some more. He'd never realised those stains never come out. He had as much chance of getting those stains out as he did of removing Jackson from his bar stool.

"Don't be so sure." Jackson didn't look up from his whisky glass when he talked. His voice rasped with the suggestion of smoking too many rollies. "People like a bit of novelty. They can see Razer any time."

"Yeah, but this is different. They'll want Razer to win. I'd put good money on it. Local boy always wins."

"Underdog always wins."

"I'm not so sure about Alex being an underdog," Drew said. “He seems pretty fancy if you ask me. I’m not saying he’s not a great guy. I’m just saying he isn’t going to win. Razer and Violet make a better couple anyway. Alex is not the man for her.”

What the hell did Drew think he was doing, having an opinion about my love life? The only thing he should have an opinion on was shutting the fuck up.

Carlie grabbed a notepad from under the bar. "So, Drew, when you say you'd put good money on it, exactly how much are you talking? Because I know you don't earn much and I'm only taking serious bets."

I did a double take. Carlie had to be joking. She wasn't joking.

"This is no betting matter!"

Everyone turned to face me. Drew put his head down and scrubbed some more.

"Everything is a betting matter. Are you in? Actually maybe you should stay out of it, having insider information and all that."

"Well, technically we all have insider information."

The buzz was going around about the competition. I'd told the guys to NOT under any circumstances, mention the date part of the deal. I'd die with embarrassment if the general public found out about that. Enough people knew as it was.

"I can only go as high as twenty bucks. Will that be enough?" Drew asked.

"Drew, you cannot bet on this. All of you. Don't even think about betting."

As I looked around the bar, no one met my gaze. The bastards. They were all in on it.

"It's no fun if we can't have a friendly bet," said Jackson. "And my boy, Alex, is going to pay out big time."

That would've been far less embarrassing if Carlie hadn't waggled her eyebrows at me when he said "pay out". That girl could make anything seem dirty.

I wondered myself who’d win. The competition was a game to them but the bet worried me. These guys weren’t fooling around and eventually, I’d have to kiss one of them. Even though I tried to push the thought away, the sensual curve of Razer’s bottom lip figured way too much when I thought about that.

-0-

The first of the lead-up gigs featured Razer and his band, who were simply called Razer.

"The dude doesn't even know how to spell it," Alex said. "And he names his band after himself. Wanker."

Like Alex wouldn't name his band after himself if a band called Alex didn't sound so stupid. Alex's band was called Zero, and Razer had plenty to say about that too.

Alex had been lingering around during sound check. Making a nuisance of himself, Razer said. He'd actually told me to ban Alex because he'd stealing their secrets.

"What secrets?" I'd asked. As far as I could tell, they just got on stage and played music. It wasn't like they had some gypsy charm to make them play better or anything like that.

"You never know. This is getting serious now. He could be copying our sound mix or something like that. People get weird when they have something to lose."

I told Alex to keep away from the sound desk. I didn't have time to babysit him though, I had to get back to work. I had a mass of paperwork. The idea of that had about as much appeal as root canal. But even root canal was preferable to being around either of those guys. When I was with either of them, there was chemistry and feelings and all that messy stuff I wanted to avoid. I pushed those things into a dusty cupboard and slammed the door shut.

Then Razer went into a run through of one of their songs.

"They've got the mix all wrong. They need to get a better sound guy." Alex had to lean over a bit too close to be heard.

I glanced at Hamish. He was the resident sound guy and worked with all our bands. Was Alex planning on bringing someone else in? Because that would cause a world of trouble. Hamish didn't like relinquishing control.

Maybe I needed to stick around for a while. When sound check finished, I'd find out exactly what Alex had planned. I didn't want any nasty surprises.

Even though it was just a run through, Razer moved like he owned the stage. He radiated raw power. You could feel a change in the energy of the room. Even Alex sat up and paid attention.

Alex was the better musician, that was clear, and a much better lyricist, but there was something to Razer on stage that Alex lacked. While Alex had the subtlety, Razer had the power. He worked on a much more primal level.

When they finished playing, Razer gave Hamish a nod to let him know everything was okay.

"Sure you don't want another run through? We can try it again."

"No mate, she'll be right. Sounds good to me."

He picked up his guitar and walked off stage, giving me a wink. I blushed. I stupidly blushed because he winked at me. What was going on with my hormones?

Alex shrugged. "That's his problem. Too easy going and not focussed on the details. Good enough is not enough. It has to be perfect."

I wasn't so sure about that. In a room full of beer-swilling punters, who'd notice the details? Sure, that might be important if you were recording but people came out to have fun. If the band on stage is having fun and giving them a good time, they probably wouldn't even notice an off-key note or a missed beat. It was entertainment they were after, not some pitch-perfect performance.

"Any chance of something to eat?" asked Dazza, jumping off stage. "That worked up an appetite."

"Go ask Carlie. She's in charge of the bar snacks." I turned in my seat to face Alex. "So, what did you mean about the sound mix? You know Hamish does all the sound work here."

He sat back, studying my face for a moment. A long moment. It made me uncomfortable and I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.

"I want to bring in my own guy."

"No."

He cocked his eyebrow. "No?"

"I'm not having all kinds of sound tech drama. Hamish is like a dog with bone over that sound desk. He's not going to let some stranger come in. It's been a nightmare getting someone to fill in when he's sick. He came in once with a broken leg, said you don't need legs to mix sound."

I folded my arms. This was a fight I was not even going to enter.

"I think I can persuade him."

That arrogant shrug he gave should've annoyed me but it didn't. Alex was as cocky as all fuck and determined to get his own way.

"Look, if you can get him to say it's okay, I'll be okay with it too but if I have to listen to one bitch or moan from him, that's it. I have enough shit in my life without all that."

"You don't need to have all that shit in your life, you know."

Whoa, heat coming in waves from his eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"You need to have more fun, Violet. You can't devote all your life to this club. I can understand you love your job and that it means everything to you but, once in a while, you have to blow off some steam. If you work hard, you have to play hard too."

I shrugged. I tried to make it casual but I was caught in the fire of his gaze. Alex got me sometimes. Really got me. He understood my drive and my need to be the best at my job.

Before I could say anything, Razer sat down with us.

I figured he needed to know the situation.

"Alex is bringing in his own sound guy. If he can work things out with Hamish. You have the same deal. You can bring in someone of your own, so long as I have no dramas."

Razer gave a cheeky grin.

"Why would I do that? No one comes to see the sound guy. Unless you're getting a hot chick soundie. Are you planning on that? Because that'd be a real cheat."

Alex just rolled his eyes.

"This competition is going to be a breeze if you aren't even taking it seriously."

Razer's eyes suddenly flashed and he faced Alex square on.

"I'm taking it serious, mate. You'd better believe that. I don't need to take it seriously by telling other people how to do their jobs or by splashing money around. Being the best on stage, that's my plan."