Bigger Than the Sky (Serenity Point) (12 page)

“You need an oxygen tank?” Brody asks with a grin.

“Shut up,” I say with a frown, still breathing hard which makes him laugh. When I finally compose myself I ask, “Uh, FECK Off?”

“Flynt, Ezra, Cy and Kade.” When I look at him funny, he explains. “The first letter of their names. F-E-C-K.”

“Oh!” Duh. “Well, that’s… original…” I respond. “What happened to his other band?” The guys were all different when we were in high school.

“Moved or got married and had kids and don’t have time.” He shrugs. “Don’t look now, but you’ve got a fan,” he says, nodding his head to my right.

I look around and see Peyton glaring at me. I have to admit, the woman does give good glare. I look back at Brody and state, “Why does she always look like she’s eating a lemon?” He chuckles and when Cass comes up I ask, “And where the hell have you been?”

She grins wickedly and I know she’s seen Jeremy because her hair’s kind of messy. I look around for him but she says, “Ran across the street to the fire station for a second.” She waggles her eyebrows then grabs her lipstick out of her purse.

“Good for you.” I wink at her.

Kade and his band are on stage now and he asks everyone how the fuck they are tonight which gets a huge answering roar from the crowd making him smile huge which is so damned hot. He then turns to his bandmates, counts down and they open up with “Sweet Home Alabama” which makes the bar goes nuts.

“They’re really good!” I yell to Brody who just nods and smiles.

And Kade. Dear lord the man is freakin’ sex on a stick. I’ve watched him perform before and it’s always been a treat, but this is something else. I don’t know, he just seems more relaxed, more sure of who he is and that’s just downright sexy as hell and I can’t take my eyes off him.

They play a very eclectic mix of covers for an hour, from Lynyrd Skynrd to Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child of Mine” before taking a break. I found out from Cassie that Ezra’s the lead guitarist, Cy’s on drums and Flynt’s on the keyboard and also backup vocalist and, of course, Kade plays guitar and is the lead singer. I tell her I’m really surprised at how good they are and she smiles and nods in agreement.

On the break, Kade comes over to the table and sits next to me while he drinks a beer that Brody got him.

“You’re really good,” I say almost shyly, biting my bottom lip. I feel like a friggin’ groupie, all starry-eyed. Ergh.

“Thanks, babe,” he says with a grin and puts his arm behind me on the back of my barstool and starts smoothing his thumb against me, almost touching the side of my breast. I swear I can feel his thumb burning into me like his touch is a brand on me, a mark reminding me that he alone can make me melt with just one little swish of his thumb. Just. Like. That. Gah.

I’m not fully comfortable with how easy this is for him, how he’s so sure about us because, as I’ve tried reminding myself several times now, I’m still freaking clueless about all of this, but for now I decide to let it go because I don’t need any distractions that might muddy my plans of B&E tonight.

Brody and Cass leave and Kade talks with several people who come by, but he keeps his arm around me, still gliding his thumb, now actually touching the side of my breast, which makes me squirm on my stool. I’m at that point when the alcohol first starts kicking in and you’re suddenly very horny (or at least that’s what happens to me), so while he’s talking to a guy I don’t know, I start thinking about what he whispered to me earlier and closing my eyes, remember how his mouth felt on me, how his tongue swirled against my clit, how he knew exactly when to suck me inside his mouth to make me come hard, and I let out a low moan before realizing what I’ve done. My eyes pop open and I jerk my head to the side to catch him and his friend staring at me. Shit.

I lick my lips and mutter an “Uh…”

The friend chuckles and walks away right before Kade moves the hand that’s behind me up to grasp my hip and turn me toward him. His hand then slides down to my butt as he pulls me closer, putting his knee between my legs where it presses against my center and he starts grazing it over me. Gah!

His eyes glitter as he watches me gasp at what he’s doing. But then public establishment be damned, I can’t help but press myself into him and basically start riding his knee right there out in the open.

“Ah, fuck,” he mumbles when my hands come down to grasp his thigh holding on to him as I press myself against him harder.

Just then Cy starts in on a drum solo and I hear Kade mutter another curse. He leans forward, weaving his fingers up into the hair behind my head and pulling me forward, takes my mouth roughly. “To be continued,” he says when he sits back, his eyes burning into mine. He then drinks what’s left of his beer, leans over and touches his mouth to mine, stands and heads back to the stage.

I sit panting as I watch him walk through the crowd and it’s like everyone wants a piece of him as they all reach out and touch him or pat him on the back. I also see that right when he gets to the stage Peyton’s there and she practically throws herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck and slamming her mouth onto his. I can tell he’s stunned for a second before he takes her by the waist, promptly sets her out of the way, gives her “The Look” then jumps up on stage as if that little sidebar never happened. Cassie comes back to the table holding two drinks rolling her eyes and giggling at what just happened to her brother, which makes me giggle with her. This is our third bourbon and we should probably make it our last since it’s kind of making us a little tipsy, which I tell her, but she tells me to lighten up, we’re having fun, so we should just go with it. She’s right. What just happened was pretty damned fun. I smile secretly to myself.

The band’s drum solo turns into Led Zeppelin’s, “When the Levee Breaks,” which is awesome and what’s even more awesome is that Flynt plays the harmonica perfectly. Brody comes back to the table just as Cassie and I stand and cheer for Flynt, as in stand on our barstools almost giving Brody a heart attack. He gets up and steps between us holding our legs and scolding us to get down which makes us giggle at him as we just keep on cheering. He finally hauls each of us down one at a time and sets our asses on our stools, pointing his finger at us both, daring us to “Try that shit again,” which just makes us giggle even more. God, we’re dicks when we drink.

But I’m not giggling so much when I catch the meaning in some of the songs that Kade sings. When he performs, “Baby I’m Amazed” by Wings, and flips around the lyrics to say he’s afraid of her leaving him and the fact that he looks right at me the entire time he sings the song, well, it’s kind of hard not to get it. After that, he dedicates “Brother” by Dark New Day to Brody and Cass. Brody pumps a fist at him, and I have to laugh when he sings the “screamo” parts with Kade. The band segues right into another of DND’s songs, “Follow the Sun Down,” and I find that I’m getting really turned on by Kade now. His voice is amazing and he’s sweating and I want to run up there and wipe his brow, which is ridiculous because I know I’d only look like a fool, so I look at Cass and burst out laughing. This makes her turn her head sideways at me in question, and that makes me laugh more because she looks like a dog that’s heard a weird sound. Uh, yeah. Did I mention I was a little tipsy?

But I sober a bit when Kade gets to the part of the song about not being able to stop running and he looks right at me again which makes me frown. I take a deep breath and look at Brody who’s smirking but won’t look back at me. Ass.

When Martina walks by, I order Cass and me another bourbon in protest of being sung about in such a not so stealthy way. Our drinks come and I yell, “Men. Fuck ‘em all!” as a toast and Cass and I clink our glasses and drink which just makes Brody roll his eyes and Martina snort as she walks away with a nod of agreement.

When it’s eleven-thirty, I tell Cass we need to go, saying this rather loudly, but not giving a shit if Brody hears. I know he wants to ask where we’re going or maybe he does ask, but the band’s playing country songs loudly now and even though Kade’s voice is amazing, I hate country, so I can’t hear Brody and now’s as good a time as any to leave because the twanginess of the songs is killer on my ears. I make sure to scope out where Peyton is before we go because I’m a good P.I. that way, and when I see she’s still stage-side drooling over Kade, I shake my head and roll my eyes then nod toward the door at Cass. After shrugging into our coats, we leave.

“Holy fuck, it’s cold out here!” she says once we get outside.

“Shhhhh!” I shush her rather loudly.

“Well, it is!” she hisses.

“Shouldn’t have worn a tank top. Or a miniskirt. Or no stockings. Or open-toed sandals. Or no panties.” I give her a look. “And you should’ve brought a bigger coat,” I also admonish.

“I had to look hot for Jeremy. Duh,” she replies as we half jog, half race-walk down the sidewalk then out into the street toward Peyton’s house. When I stumble a bit and yell out a loud, “Fuck!” she snickers and says, “Shouldn’t have worn stiletto boots!” and sticks her tongue out at me.

“I had to look hot for…” I begin then stop right in the middle of the street. She stops too and looks at me with a smirk. “Oh, my God. I totally dressed for Kade,” I mutter which blows my mind.

“Of course you did,” she says and grabs me by the arm pulling me along with her. “C’mon!”

“God, I’m a total groupie! I’m a groupie slut! I’m a starfucker!” I moan as we now traipse across someone’s leaf-covered lawn making so much noise it’s a wonder the owner doesn’t come out to see who the hell’s crunching through their yard.

She shushes me and keeps tugging me by the hand.

“Why would I do that?” I ask her.

“Because you’ve still got the hots for him. Again, duh. Now hurry. We’d better get our asses to Peyton’s before she gets home. And I don’t even wanna think about her bringing someone home with her and we have to hide and listen to the sounds she makes. Gross.”

“That’s disgusting,” I agree when she pulls me behind a cute little red brick house with black shutters. “Oh, my gosh! Her house is adorable!” I say loudly and get shushed again.

“Keep it down, Mill, jeez!” She puts her finger to her mouth and frowns at me. Then she goes to a window and pushes up on it and surprisingly it opens.

“How’d you know that was open?” I whisper.

“Didn’t. Plan was to try all of ‘em and I just got lucky. You first,” she says and pushes me toward the window.

“How am I supposed to get in there?”

She squats down and laces her fingers together. “Step in my hands and I’ll boost you in.”

“’Kay,” I reply, putting a foot into her hands.

“Goddamn it!” she squeaks out.

I turn midair and look down at her. “What?”

“Stilettos are like fuckin’ knives. Go!”

She pushes up and I crawl through the window, falling into a bathroom, knocking over a towel rack. “Shit,” I mumble, standing, trying to set it back up picking up the towels and putting them back on it.

“Leave them!” she hisses from outside. When I look out the window at her she says, “Go to the back and unlock the door.”

I leave the bathroom stumbling through the dark house, hands out in front of me trying to find the back door. When I get there, I try to unlock it but when I turn the lock thingy, it won’t open. I mess with it a few more seconds then turn it back the way it was and open it. “It wasn’t even locked!”

Cass huffs out a breath and comes inside. “It’s like she wants us to be here.”

“That’s not creepy,” I say with a shudder.

“She probably leaves it unlocked to give her men even more easy access to her.”

“That’s not any less creepy.” I make a face. “You have a flashlight?” I ask.

“Yeah, it’s hidden up my skirt. No! I don’t have a flashlight.” She smacks my arm making me smack her back.

“I didn’t think! Jeez!”

“We’ll just have to turn a light on and look quickly,” she informs me.

“We need a sound to warn each other in case we hear somebody coming,” I say.

“But we’re right here together,” she says looking at me like I’m an idiot.

“All spies have sounds,” I say matter-of-factly when I know nothing of the sort.

“Jesus. Okay, a sound…”

“How about we make an owl sound, like ‘Hoo hoo!’”

“Fine.”

We’ve tiptoed from the back porch area through the kitchen into the living room, and when Cass stops to turn on a lamp, I run into her from behind. “Watch it!” she says, turning and frowning at me and I start giggling, which makes her giggle back then we start shushing each other. Lord.

“Sorry,” I murmur still giggling a little. “Look!” I say pointing.

There’s a roll top desk, so we go check it out, lifting up the roll part first. We don’t see a notepad, so we start pulling open drawers and BINGO! I find a notepad.

“This is it,” I whisper. “Dwight has the note but it was torn just like that.”

“The pad’s from the Mayor’s office. She tore off the letterhead,” Cass says.

“Wow.” It’s all I can say. I knew Peyton was a bitch but not this big of one who throws bricks at my window. Wow.

“I say we take this and show Dwight that it matches up,” Cass offers.

“But if we take it, it’s like tampering with evidence, isn’t it? I mean, maybe we could come over here tomorrow and see Peyton then make up some excuse to use the desk and ‘find it’ on accident?”

Cass thinks for a second but then we hear a noise that sounds like someone’s turning the front door’s knob. “Shit! Go!” she hisses and I throw the notepad back into the drawer, closing it quickly. She stops and turns off the lamp then we scramble to get the hell out of there.

We’re in the kitchen now where she runs into the table and I run into the back of her again. “Swear to God, Mill! You tryin’ to kill me?” she says through gritted teeth.

It’s not until we make it to the back porch and out that I remember. “I didn’t shut the window!” I say and run back through the kitchen toward the bathroom, surprisingly not running into anything this time. When I get there, I shove the window down then turn and go back out, but just as I turn to the right and start to run to the back porch, I’m nabbed around the waist by a strong arm and let out a loud OOMPH! as I’m jerked back against a hard body and a hand comes up and covers my mouth.