Songs of Sorrow by Kate Nova

Author:Kate Nova [Nova, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wildfire Press
Published: 2020-03-23T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Jude

The amphitheater had run some sort of special contest, so there was a grand prize winner who got to bring her friends back to the green room to meet Crows of Carnage after the show. I braced myself to feel a wave of jealousy when I got a good look at the winner—a slim leggy blonde in a leather jacket with legs that went for miles, and her friends were all equally gorgeous. They knew their metal, too—these weren’t desperate groupies who wanted to consolidate power by sleeping with rock stars; they actually loved the music, from what I overheard of their conversations.

But I had no need to be jealous tonight. All three of the guys in the band were obviously distracted. Alex, who usually loved to sit in his beanbag chair after the show and crack open beers with whatever groupies wanted to come in and sit on his lap, was pacing, too angry to sit.

He actually rolled his eyes and muttered when the girls walked into the green room holding the album out for an autograph, and he signed his name on the cover so fast, the marker smeared all over his hand.

Gunner was trying so very hard to be respectful and accommodating, asking about the girls’ lives, where they came from, what other bands they liked… But it was almost too polite. He was asking such boilerplate questions, and never really had any follow-up commentary—and when the girls asked him questions, he gave one-word answers and came across as distant and rigidly sociable. His mind was clearly somewhere else.

Owen was always on another planet, but this was ramped up to eleven when the prize-winners tried to engage with him. He oozed the kind of brooding energy that some metal-heads drank up—but these girls weren’t having it. “Sometimes,” Owen answered vaguely when the girls asked him if he ever got stage fright in front of particularly big crowds, and they exchanged a look of discouragement.

I knew it wouldn’t hurt their reputation. This wasn’t diva-like behavior; these girls would write about their experiences online in forums and on social media, and they would explain that Crows of Carnage seemed too aloof to socialize with them, too tired from their show perhaps, too busy unwinding from the craziness of the spotlights and the screaming crowds.

Crows of Carnage would seem like disciplined rock stars, more married to their craft and their grueling tour schedule than they were to the opportunities to take groupies to bed—so it would be all right. Ignoring a few contest-winners here and there wouldn’t ruin them.

But I couldn’t help but feel guilty. I knew the reason for their collective distraction—Ricky’s surprise visit. And so, when the girls were escorted out by the security guard and the green room was officially shut down, I had barely made it onto the bus before I said, “I’m so, so sorry, you guys. Honestly. I ruined the show.”

“You didn’t ruin the show,” Alex said through gritted teeth. “You weren’t the

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