Page 748 of End Game

“Good phone explosion or bad phone explosion?”

“I don't know yet.”

The messages are from Dex.

Dex

before you panic

open this

There's a link underneath.

I look at Griffin.

“Dex started with before you panic.”

Griffin shuts the dishwasher. “Bad phone explosion.”

“Almost certainly.”

I tap the link.

It opens to Front Range Frequency, one of the local music pages I've seen Dex tagged on before. They cover shows, new releases, interviews, venue news—the sort of site big enough that most people in the Denver music scene know it, but small enough that the same four people seem to appear in half the comment sections.

The headline reads:

FROM GRAVE INTENTIONS TO SIGNAL SAINTS: WHO IS DEX MERCER?

“Oh, fuck.”

Griffin comes around the island.

The article isn't mean.

That's almost worse.

It starts with this morning's release of a short Signal Saints behind-the-scenes documentary promoting their upcoming collaboration. Dex is in several minutes of it because, shockingly, a camera pointed at Dex does not result in Dex becoming less noticeable.

There's a link to the documentary.

Another to the single that dropped last week.

Then a video embedded halfway down the article.

Austin playing an acoustic guitar at Micah and Dex's wedding.

The caption underneath says:

Fletcher surprised guests at Mercer's March wedding to Denver tattoo artist Micah Vale.

Then comes the paragraph that makes my stomach drop.

Fans familiar with Grave Intentions quickly recognized Mercer, but the wedding footage has also revived questions about a group of people frequently photographed with both newlyweds over the past two years.

“Oh,” Griffin says.

“Yeah.”