A dark look swept over Jacob’s face. “Are you for fuckin’ real?”
Noah raised his hands. “Sorry, brother. Just funnin’ with ya.”
“Yo!”A shout came from the stage where Griff was gesturing for us to get out there.“Are we doing this?”
Noah took my hand. “Come on before Griff shits his shorts.” He tugged me out on stage behind him, and the crowd erupted in cheers.
The bright lights blinded me for a moment before my eyes adjusted to them.
Somebody shoved a guitar in my hand, and Blue moved away from his microphone, allowing Noah to pick it up and set it down next to his for me.
He stepped toward his mic and murmured, “Look who I found.”
The crowd roared.
Blue approached us, his signature smirk in place as his eyes raked down me and up again to my face, and asked, “What are we playing?”
“What about “Escapism” by Raye? It sounded cool when we jammed out to it together at Jax’s party.” Noah suggested.
“Got it; gonna improvise, though, make it heavier,” Blue stated. “Same as before? Saint takes the lead, and you come in on the harmonies, Carb.”
“Sure thing,” Noah agreed.
I glanced at both the boys and nodded.
Blue stepped away, went over to the other two boys, glanced at me, and jerked a nod while he relayed the information to them.
After twirling his drumstick in the air, Styx, the drummer, counted us in, and the boys began to play.
I leaned into the microphone, sucked in a breath, and closed my eyes to center myself, allowing myself to get swept away with the notes as I fell into the current of the music. Then, keeping my lungs full of air, I counted down the beats, opened my mouth, and began to sing.
The music wrapped me in a cocoon until nothing else mattered but the meaning behind the words.
I sang for the girl who was shredded by heartbreak and tried to find solace in drink, drugs, and sex, much like I did when I cut Jacob off after discovering he was married.
Blue meant it when he said he was going to play it heavier, but by doing so, he also made it rougher and dirtier. My voice took on a raspy, hard quality, living the story just like I’d lived it two years before when Jacob broke something inside me that I’d never been able to patch back together.
Music made me feel alive. The familiar rush of adrenaline, along with the high I got from performing for a live audience, coursed through me, leaving me intoxicated.
My eyes opened, and I turned to admire Blue’s playing, but in doing so, my gaze caught stage left and locked with Jacob’s, and my heart stuttered when I saw the rawness blazing from his icy blue eyes.
The intensity of his gaze thrilled me, and everything melted away. In that moment, we were the only two people in the room. I sang every word for him, unable to stop my voice from dripping with the pain he caused, the disappointment wracking me, and the ache I still felt every damned day.
I leaned into the emotions tugging at my heart because that was what I did best. I took the ugliness of pain and turned it into something beautiful, especially when I was on stage. It was my domain, and nobody, including Jacob, could deny it was where I belonged and where I thrived.
Jacob’s expression softened slightly, a flicker of understanding passing over his face before he masked it with his usual blankness. Except his face may have been void, but his icy eyes smoldered, never leaving mine as I sang the last words of the song, waiting for the music to fade out.
Just for a split second, silence hung in the air, and then the crowd went wild.
Screams and cheers filled the room, almost lifting the roof. Feet stamped and hands clapped while the audience bellowed their approval.
I broke my gaze with Jacob and looked at the crowd, inhaling a sharp breath when I felt the waves of energy crashing toward me.
Noah put his mouth up close to the microphone and murmured, “You want one more?” Only to be met with screams of affirmation.
A song drifted into my head; one we’d played acoustically backstage at the festival where I’d met Jacob. I leaned toward Noah and whispered the title, watching his eyes light up, and he grinned.
He moved toward Blue and the others, telling them the song, and then I heard atap, tap, tapas the drumsticks crashed together.
