Convincing Constance (The Blow Hole Boys) (17 page)

“What did he get arrested for anyway?”

I knew I shouldn’t have asked, but I couldn’t help myself.

“Mr. Russell thought it would be funny to go to the local wax museum and destroy one of the figurines. The museum has had some crazy characters come through, but no one who ever picked a fight with a wax figure.”

I could hardly believe my ears. No way had Tony been so fucked up that he picked a fight with a fake person.

“You’re joking, right?”

I was going to kick
his
ass as soon as I saw him.

“Nope. Afraid not. The figurine of Jack Jenson is barely recognizable. It’s going to cost Mr. Russell a pretty penny to replace it.”

The cop walked away and I stood there rooted to my spot.

Tony had gotten drunk and out of his mind with pills and then proceeded to go to the wax museum and destroy a wax figurine of Jack, the fucker I loathed more than anything.

If I hadn’t been so pissed off, I would have laughed, but it was late and all I could think about was how much I was already missing the bed back at my hotel.

When two cops brought Tony from the back in handcuffs, I did chuckle softly to myself. He was exactly where he deserved to be.

“I should make them leave those cuffs on you and whip your ass for dragging me out of my bed,” I said.

He didn’t respond as they uncuffed him and set him free.

“I don’t want to see your face back in here, Mr. Russell,” the young cop said before he turned and walked away.

“But George and I are in love,” he jokingly slurred.

“Shut up and come on.” I tugged at his arm.

He laughed. “Oh, I’ll come all right. Just as soon as you take me back to your room.”

I ignored his bullshit and pulled him to the cab. He fell onto the seat and I climbed in after him.

“Back to the hotel, please.” I called out orders to the cab driver.

I spent the ride over keeping Tony’s hands from “accidently” touching me everywhere. When we pulled up at the front door, I threw a fifty to the driver and pulled Tony from the car.

Thankfully, there were no raging fans outside. I didn’t think I could handle his heavy ass and a bunch of wild females all at the same time.

The lobby was still busy, but not so busy that I couldn’t drag him onto the elevator without being noticed. Once the elevator doors closed behind us, I leaned back on the wall.

“Remember when we got stuck on the elevator, Constance?” he said with his head against the wall and his eyes closed.

“No. What floor are you on?” I asked in frustration.

“You remember,” he said. “I know you remember.”

His head fell forward and I thought maybe he passed out. Shaking him hard, his eyes popped back open. He looked down at me with glazed, bloodshot eyes and a sideways grin.

“Tony. What floor are you on?” I asked louder.

“Twelve,” he said as he held up five fingers.

We were on the same floor. I didn’t like that. I didn’t want to know we were sleeping so close to each other. I didn’t like that he was there at all.

I pressed the button and stood with my back to him.

“You still smell amazing,” he said as he sifted through my hair.

I reached out and smacked his hand. I tried to ignore him. I promised myself I wouldn’t do this to myself. I promised I’d stay as far away from Tony as possible, and there I was, stuck in another elevator with him and falling back into him. I needed to snap out of it quick.

I was relieved when the door open. I turned around and pulled on his shirt for him to follow.

“Slow down, baby. I’m coming.” He chuckled.

“I’m not your fucking baby. Come on. I’m tired.”

I started down the hallway before I realized I didn’t know what his room number was.

“Room number?”

I was keeping things as short and to the point as possible.

He didn’t answer, so I turned and dug into his pocket for his room card. Still, he stared down at me and grinned. I wanted to kick him in his sexy mouth.

Once we made it to his room, I pushed him in and onto his bed. Turning around, I threw his room card on the TV table and started toward the door.

“Constance,” he called out.

His voice sounded strained with a hint of desperation. I knew it was a bad idea, but I stopped and turned to face him.

“What?”

He sat on the bed, staring back at me. His eyes burned my skin and I wanted to scream at him. I wanted to rage against all he was—tell him how badly he’d broken me. But instead, I stood there and stared back.

“I miss you. God, I miss you so much, baby.” He leaned forward a bit and grabbed at his chest. “You’re my anchor. I just want to stop moving.”

And then his eyes rolled back and he passed out on the bed.

I stood there gawking at him. His words didn’t make sense, but then at the same time, they kind of did… At least to me they did. I let the single tear I’d been holding for the past few years run free. Swiping at it with the back of my hand, I turned and walked away. No matter what, I had to stay the course. No pretty words and heart-filled lyrics were going to change the way I felt.

Or were they?

Getting drunk and fucked up
on pills before going to a wax museum alone wasn’t the best idea I’d ever had. In fact, it was a dumb thing to do.

Once I went to the club and saw that Constance wasn’t there for the second night in a row, I had to leave. I couldn’t stand being there knowing she was staying away from everything fun because of me. She was avoiding me.

The moment I came to the Black Daze exhibit in the museum, all the memories of my time with Constance came crashing down. All the nights we’d lay awake, talking about our pasts and what we wanted for our futures, swam around my mind. The way she looked lying on my bed with her hair sprawled out across my pillows. The way her eyes danced with laughter when I told her something funny. It all came back to me.

The memory of her telling me about her childhood and what it was like having a famous father washed over me. I remembered the tears on her cheeks when I asked her if Jack had ever done anything to her when she was younger. She never gave me an exact answer, but it was obvious he had. Every time I closed my eyes from that point on, all I could see was his filthy hands all over her. It was disgusting.

Jack Jenson looking back at me with his big wax smile sent me right over the edge. I’d had a piece of him years before, but it wasn’t enough. I wanted to put my fist through his face. I wanted to show him all the pain I’d felt over my lifetime. I wanted him to feel her hurt. So I did all those things… and got my ass arrested.

The next morning, I woke up with a few scattered memories of the night before. I remembered getting arrested, but I couldn’t remember how I got back to the hotel. I hated having holes in my recollection, but I’d gotten used to it over the years.

I took a long, hot shower and tried to stuff some breakfast into my turning stomach. I ended up staying inside the rest of that day and watching TV. I didn’t see the guys until it was time to go on stage.

We played our final show in Vegas, and as soon as we were done, we packed up for Denver. I spent the ride playing Xbox with Chet while Zeke and Finn lay in their bunks and talked on the phone with their wives. It was weird even saying that word, but seeing my boys happy and in love was good for me.

Finn’s son had really changed his life. I remembered being young and seeing him go through a bunch of bullshit with his then girlfriend Faith. It was good to see them happy and married, and she was about to pop with their first little girl on the way.

Of course, she wasn’t the only one adding to the Blow Hole Family. Zeke’s wife, Patience, was also due in a few weeks. Except she was having their third girl. It was kind of funny. Both Finn and Zeke were reformed playboys, and both had daughters to protect from assholes like them.

There was once a time when I thought about settling down. Maybe getting married and having a few brats of my own, but I knew in the back of my mind if I couldn’t make it work with Constance, it was never going to work with anyone else.

The day we stepped off the bus in Denver was the day Red Room Sirens’s newest song became a hit. It was a Wednesday, and all the bands on tour shut down a local bar and spent the night celebrating. The Sirens were the only all-girl band on the tour, which meant a lot of the guys spent too much of their time flirting.

I took a hit from a blunt that was passed to me and chased it with a swig from my beer. I couldn’t keep my eyes off of Constance as she laughed with Shane, the lead singer of Savage Will. I ground my teeth together so hard my jaw ached. And when he slyly slid his hand around her side and whispered something in her ear, I thought my teeth and jaw would shatter.

The Constance from years before didn’t let men touch her so easily, and if I was being honest, it was driving me up the fucking wall. I took another swig from my beer without taking my eyes off of them.

“Whose ass we kicking?” Chet asked from my side.

Quickly, I turned my eyes away. “No one. I’m just chilling.”

“Just chilling and staring a hole into the side of Shane’s head. He’s an asshole. I think you can take him.” He smirked.

I’d hoped that Chet hadn’t seen me staring, but no such luck.

“You know, you should go talk to her,” he said.

I was shocked by his words. Chet was the last one to tell someone to go “talk” to a woman. I highly doubted he’d ever had a decent conversation with a woman in his life. He was my boy and all, but when it came to the opposite sex, he was all about the golden arches and the wet play land within.

“You’ll regret it if you don’t. Plus, life’s too fucking short to sit around and dwell. You know what I mean?” He took a shot when the bartender handed it to him and then handed me a shot of my own.

I downed it and the liquor burned my throat. “Yeah, I know.”

I sat in that spot and watched from afar as Constance continued to flirt. She even shocked me by getting on stage and singing karaoke with the rest of her band. The guys in the crowd egged them on with whistles and yelling. She was eating it up.

I left the party early. I could feel my temper climbing, and since I’d just recently been arrested, the last thing I needed was to start a fight. I slammed another shot on my way out.

“See you at the show tomorrow,” I said to Finn as I passed him.

He grabbed me by the shoulder with a smile. “Yeah. Go sleep it off, man.”

I nodded and walked out. Except I didn’t go back to my room and sleep it off. Instead, I went and got some breakfast to try to clear away the alcohol in my system.

I sat there in a booth alone in the middle of the night and drank coffee like some old fuck. Imagine my surprise when the girls of Red Room Sirens, including Constance, came waltzing in.

I sat up straighter and pretended I didn’t see them come in.

“Hey, Tiny,” Mia slurred as she walked by.

She was a decent bass player. I could appreciate her style. She was cute. A little too short for my taste, but she had one hell of a rack on her.

She smiled down at me and her smile pulled at her lip ring.

“Hey. What’s up, Mia?”

“Just catching something to eat before we go crash. I was sad to see you leave early tonight. I was hoping to hang out with you some.”

It was then I realized she was flirting with me. Shit couldn’t have gone any better at that point, and once I felt Constance watching us, I couldn’t help myself.

“Is that so? Well, you could always hang out with me now.” I grinned at her.

She slid into the booth across from me and leaned over to make sure I could see her cleavage. My eyes slid from her face to her neck and landed where she wanted them.

“So what are you hungry for?” I asked.

She giggled and ran her fingers through her hair. “Did you really just ask me that?”

It was then that Constance walked up to us.

“Come on, Mia. We’re about to order,” she said with tight lips.

Mia looked away from me and up at her with big eyes, as if she were trying to pass some secret to her with her expression. Girls were always doing crazy shit like that.

“I’ll be over in just a bit. Tiny wants to show me something.”

I didn’t want to show her anything but the fucking door, but I was pretty pleased with the reaction from Constance.

“I’m sure you don’t want to see anything he has to show you,” Constance snapped.

I couldn’t help myself. My face split into a big, knowing smile. She was jealous.

“I’ll be over in just a bit, Constance. Go have a seat.” Mia tried again to get rid of her.

Constance had obviously never told the girls about our past. That was fine by me. If anything, it gave me more ammunition.

“Get. Up. Now,” Constance said louder.

Everyone in the restaurant turned and looked at my table.

Mia jumped from the table and glared up at Constance. “What the fuck is your problem, Constance?”

Constance towered over her. It was comical to see such a small girl stand up to her that way. I waited to see if I’d have to break anything up, but instead, Constance glared over at me and walked away. Instead of going to the table where the rest of the girls were sitting, she left the restaurant completely.

Leaving Mia standing there confused, I followed her out.

She was power-walking with her arms swinging. Anyone could tell she was seriously pissed off. I didn’t care. I jogged to catch up with her.

“Is that jealousy I sensed in there?” I called out behind her.

She ignored me as she continued to walk. Her boots sloshed through a puddle and water splashed up onto her pants.

“It’s okay if you still have a thing for me, you know? I won’t tell anyone.” I teased.

She turned around quickly, her hair whipping in the wind.

“Fuck you, Tony. I don’t have time to play your stupid fucking games. I just want to get through this tour and go home and forget all about you again. I don’t need you calling me at all hours of the night to pick you up from jail, and I certainly don’t need you purposely flirting with the girls in my band and getting their heads all fucked up.” She stepped up to me and pushed at my chest. “I’m serious. Leave me and my girls out of your shit!”

I reached out and grabbed her hand, pulling her back to me when she turned to walk away. She fought against my hold.

“Let me go!”

“Wait. You picked me up from jail?” I asked.

I’d wondered how I got back to the hotel and now I knew. Her picking me up must have meant something, and I hoped it meant she still cared about me.

She shook her head in disgust. “Of course you don’t remember. I see some things never change.”

“Why did you pick me up? You could have left me there until one of the boys came and got me. You could have left me there to rot. Why?”

I shouldn’t have asked. I should have done what she asked and left her alone, but I couldn’t. Seeing her again opened old wounds, and she was the thing that could hold my insides together.

“I don’t know,” she responded.

“Yes, you do. Tell me.”

She tried to turn away and again I stopped her.

She looked at me with angry eyes. “Because I’m human. Even I wouldn’t kick a stray dog when he’s down.”

Her words hurt, but I grinned instead.

“Are you comparing me to a stray dog?”

“I call it like I see it.” Her voice broke and in that moment I knew.

It didn’t matter what she said; she still cared about me.

I let her go when she pulled away again, and then I watched as she walked away from me. Her hair flew in the cool breeze behind as she moved with determination. We weren’t getting along. Actually, we were doing nothing but fighting. Still, I hadn’t felt this alive in four years.