Rocking Vegas: Passport 2 Love Read online

  “In your dreams. They never go for the drummer.” I snickered and he flipped me the bird.

  “Fuck you. It’s always about the drummer because we’ve got the right rhythm.” He fluttered his pierced tongue in my direction making me roll my eyes.

  “Women mean drama and I’m allergic to it. It’s why I don’t date. I just hit it and quit it. Never the same chick twice,” Matt said, sliding his packet back across the table in Roman’s direction.

  “Hold up! Rob lifts the picture and points to a gorgeous woman with silver and blue hair. “This is the chick from the sex tape. I mean she had blonde hair before, but I’d recognize those tits anywhere.” His grin was huge. “This might be fun guys. Damn. I remember when that story broke. The paparazzi claimed she had some celebrity fetish or something.” It took everything in me not to knock his teeth down his throat. Nobody talked about my Raine like that. My hands balled into fists so tight my knuckles throbbed.

  Roman’s brow wrinkled and his nose scrunched up. “Listen to yourselves. You’re a bunch of damn drama queens. That tape was leaked by some impersonator that found a way to make a little money by selling the tape. He just happened to sell it to her ex-boyfriend. He’s the guy who posted the video on the web.” He glared at every one of us. “Grow up! This is not up for discussion.” He slapped his hand on the table, causing all of us to pay attention and stare. “Do I make myself clear? You will act your age and not like some horny teenagers looking to get your rocks off. Everyone makes mistakes and you of all people should know that. Or do I need to remind you of the numerous times I’ve bailed your asses out of jail, paid hotels for trashed rooms and last but not least, the paparazzi incident.” He lifted his brow and glared at me. “Now pick up your little pens and chicken scratch your signatures on the indicated line.” He shifted causing his chair to creak under his weight. We all did as we’re told and slid the paperwork back over to him. Just because we signed our names, didn’t mean we agreed to the terms.

  “Now what? What the fuck are we supposed to do now?” I asked as I tossed my pen onto the table and watched it roll off the other side.

  “Studio time tomorrow at two pm. You guys can get to know each other. Find what works and what doesn’t. This can be a positive move for you guys if you’ll get your head out of your asses and give it a chance. Nothing But Trouble is rising up the charts and have a huge following. They’ve got a good reputation and let’s face it, you could really use something positive PR right now. I think you’ll find that the fans will love it.” I moved my fist up and down in a jacking off motion as I headed for the door, the guys falling in step behind me. “Answer my calls!” Roman yelled just as the heavy wooden door swings shut behind me.

  “Where are we going now?” Matt asked, releasing a cloud of vapor from his pen.

  “To get drunk.” I needed something to take my mind off of her. The woman I let slip through my fingers. The woman who haunted my dreams for the last five years. We all climbed back in my Escalade still bitching about what just happened inside. I reached into the center console and grabbed our new stash of pot Lip put there yesterday. I lit up a joint, took a toke off of it and passed it to Matt who was sitting in the passenger seat. When I saw the sign leading us to the older part of Vegas, I decided to take it. I knew it would be less likely for us to be mobbed by fans in that area. It’s located a few miles north of the Las Vegas Strip. Rob burped the alphabet from the back seat while he and Lip just laughed because they had the giggles from the pot. “What are you, two?” I chuckled as I pulled onto the curb in front of the bulls eye. The sign for the club was a huge pink nipple and the arrow a tongue hitting the bulls eye. The Bulls Eye is the only strip club I’d ever been to that has live music along with strippers.

  Lip fell from the backseat with hands in the air and yelled, “I love titties! Big titties, small titties, we all love titties!” he sang. I laughed as Rob staggered toward the front door and almost face planted onto the sidewalk.

  “No motor boating the titties this time Lip. We don’t want to have to call his majesty to get you out of jail.” Lip looked at me as if he has no idea who I was talking about. “Roman man. Roman!” I snapped my fingers in front of his face and he burst into a fit of giggles The sign above the door said thirty-dollar cover charge with a minimum of three drinks per customer. What the sign should’ve said was, “We charge you a ridiculous amount of money to look at our two dollar strippers and drink stale beer.” I pulled some money from my wallet and slapped it against the old man’s palm who was leaning against the wall with a cigarette hanging off his bottom lip. He was as round as he was tall and had slicked back gray hair. “Keep the change old man. Consider that a donation toward your retirement.”

  He grunted something unintelligible and once again Lip shouted, “I love titties!” as he rushed toward the stage like a kid getting free ice cream. The place was practically deserted except for a few older dudes in work uniforms. Probably came straight from work, spending the day’s pay. There was a band on the stage that sits off to the right side of the dancer’s platform playing some twangy country shit. We each grabbed a chair from one of the tables and dragged them closer to the stage. I looked to my left where Rob was sitting with his eyes half-closed. I elbowed him in the ribs causing him to grunt.

  “You gonna sleep or ogle the two- dollar titties?”

  “Man, that was some strong weed,” Rob said, forcing his eyes open with his fingertips. This fucker was not just fried. He was deep-fried. I elbowed Matt in the side and pointed to Rob, who’s head was in his hands, on the table. Dudes was passed out, making Matt fold over with laughter.

  “Hey Lip, I’ll give you a hundred bucks for every ping pong ball you catch tonight. It can’t hit the floor though.” I told him. He grinned wide, rubbing his hands together, eager to take on the challenge.

  One of the last strip clubs we visited one of the strippers showed off her strong Kegel muscles by shooting ping pong balls out of her vagina. Lip was so wasted he began shoving them in his pockets. By the time we left that night, he smelled like twat. It was so disgusting I threatened to put him in the trunk for the ride home. My head began to swim and a heavy feeling spread throughout my limbs. This must be the feeling that Rob couldn’t fight off. Damn. “I’ve never had pot hit me this hard,” I mumbled. I felt chilled the fuck out.

  “It’s sour diesel and purple haze.” Lip replied. “Kicks ass doesn’t it?” He snickered and wiggled his fingers in front of my face.

  “Woooo!” He chuckled as he made fun of me. Everything was moving in slow motion. Purple fog is more like it.

  “I’m kicking somebody’s ass when this shit wears off. Nothing about this is funny.” I heard myself slurring my words and saw Lip and Matt laughing. A woman with red hair was swinging around the pole and twerking her ass for the dollars the guys are tossing on stage. She was wearing a shiny silver g-string and a pair of acrylic heels and unless I was hallucinating, there were goldfish in her shoes. For fuck sake. Who knows?

  “Wake up fart face!” A loud voice sounded at my ear and something nudged my leg. I pried open my bloodshot eyes and stared at Lip where he stood staring down at me with a huge fucking smile on his ugly mug. My head felt like it was going to explode and my tongue was stuck to the roof of my mouth. I seriously needed a drink of water. I growled at him and tried to sit up but my head felt like it was going to explode. I rolled over and covered my head with one of my extra pillows. I didn’t even know how I ended up in my bed. Hell, I couldn’t even remember how I got home.

  “Fuck off,” I grumbled.

  All of a sudden, it was coming back to me, the stripper with the fish shoes. My head popped up and I scanned the room for any signs from the night before. Discarded G-string, shoes, anything. “The chick from last night,” I managed to say through my scratchy throat. Lip chuckled.

  “Don’t worry, you didn’t bring her home.” My body relaxed against the mattress. “It’s not from a lack of trying Dude. You asked
her to marry you if I remember correctly.” That got my attention. I shot up off the bed. Bad idea. My head began to swim and I felt as if I was going to pass out.

  “What the fuck?”

  “It’s all good. Lucky for you she was already married and had two kids. I believe it was little Joey and—” I cut Lip off before he could continue to ramble.

  “Look, dip shit. I don’t care what the offspring were named as long as I didn’t marry her or fuck her.” My eyes shot to his. His shit-eating grin was spread from ear to ear. “Tell me I did not fuck the stripper.”

  “Nah, man. I doubt you could’ve gotten it up even if you wanted to. We pretty much poured you into the car.” He laughed.

  “That reminds me, I’ve got some asses to kick today for whatever that shit was we smoked last night.” I scrubbed my hand over my face and forced myself to take a step. “I gotta take a piss,” I mumbled. “Get out of my house,” I growled as I walked into the bathroom. The tile was cold against my bare feet and my muscles ached with every step I took. After showering and dressing in a pair of faded jeans I pulled on my T- shirt that said, “I shaved my balls for this” and headed downstairs for a cup of coffee. “Why are you still here?” Lip was sitting at the counter with a cup of coffee and helping himself to a bagel.

  “I thought we could go to the studio together,” he said around a mouth full of food.

  “Shit! That’s today.” I ran my hand through my damp hair. I was going to need alcohol for this. I reached high up in the cabinet and pulled down a bottle of Southern Comfort.

  “Do you think that’s wise?” he questioned, arching his pierced brow.

  “Probably not, but since when has that stopped me?” I screwed the top off the bottle and poured a generous amount in my cup.

  “You have a point my friend.” Lip laughed and lifted his mug in my direction. I was definitely going to need some alcohol if I was about to see the woman who held my heart. This was going to be a long fucking day.

  Thirty minutes and one speeding ticket later Lip parked his Tesla Roadster in the no parking zone in the underground garage of Ruby Records. I saw Matt’s Camaro and Rob’s red Ducati Superleggera V4. There were several other unfamiliar cars in the underground lot which I was guessing belonged to the women of Nothing But Trouble. There were various types of expensive rides and one sleek black Dodge Tomahawk that I’d give my left nut for. It was a sick ride. Whoever it belonged to must’ve have laid down some serious money. This thing looked almost futuristic. Lip stepped up beside me letting out a loud whistle.

  “Man, I gotta get me one of these.” He bent down and looked at the instrument panel and mumbled something about three hundred mph. “Damn.” He whistled again. “You think Roman got a new ride?” I laughed a loud gut laugh.

  “I’m pretty sure Roman doesn’t have the balls required to ride this thing. I walked around the back and read the license plate. Butterfly. The pet name I always called Raine. She was still attached to it after all this time. Maybe there was hope for me yet. “Come on, I’m sure we’re already late. We’re always late when it comes to Roman.” We stepped off the elevator and ran right into the man himself. He was built like a fire-plug.

  “What the fuck? You lurking in the shadows now?” I asked.

  “I saw you two dip shits on the surveillance cameras. You’re late. Everyone is waiting,” he grumbled, turned on his heel, and headed down the carpeted hallway. “I don’t get paid enough for this shit,” he mumbled as he pushed open the door to his left. He walked around the large glass top table and took a seat in one of the black leather chairs. The rest of the guys were there, but looking just as rough as I felt. My breath caught in my throat when four sets of female eyes land on me. But, only one woman grabbed my attention. She was even more beautiful than I remembered, her whiskey eyes sparkled beneath the florescent lights and they’re all I could focus on. Everyone else in the room melted away. I opened my mouth to say something, I’m not sure what, but she turned her back to me. That’s when I realized Roman was calling my name.

  “Are you going to take a seat so we can start this meeting or are you just going to stand there taking up space?” Roman asked.

  Some of the women giggled. My skin felt hot and the neck of my T-shirt was suddenly too tight. I cleared my throat and took the chair opposite Raine. Roman was just background noise by then. My eyes were fully trained on the woman sitting before me. She changed since college, matured. Her hair was longer. Long gone is the blonde barbie style she used to wear and in its place is a darker shade of silver with strands of blue mixed throughout. The color hi-lighted her creamy complexion and full pink lips. Those fucking lips that I used to spend hours devouring had my dick straining against the rough zipper of my jeans. She was wearing a short-sleeve pale blue T-shirt with a black leather vest laced up the front which exposed her full sleeve tattoos.

  “Gear don’t you agree?” Roman asked. Shit. Raine lifted a blonde brow and grinned letting me know I’d just been caught checking her out. Reaching beneath the table I adjusted my hard as steel dick and gave her a smirk of my own letting her know that she still affected me like she did all those years ago.

  “Yeah, sure.” I agreed, to what I have no clue. I may have just agreed to give him my left testicle.

  “Good. It’s settled then.” He scribbled something in the black binder in front of him. “You and Raine will appear on WKDG’s morning show to promote the tour. Maybe take some calls from viewers and give away a few tickets.” My eyes shot to Raine to see her reaction, but she was staring at her lap. “If there are no further questions, this meeting is over,” Roman announced.

  “Wait a minute! I have a question,” I blurted. Raine lifted her eyes to meet mine. “Why does it have to be the two of us? Why can’t someone else do it?” Her brow dipped and her lips pulled into a thin line. Great, I pissed her off. Hell, I didn’t know what I was saying. Whenever I was around this woman, I lost all ability to think straight. Just moments before, I was fantasizing about stripping her out of her clothes and fucking her on this table in the middle of our meeting. I’ve got to get my shit together or I’ll never survive this tour.

  “Because you two are the lead singers. It makes sense that you’d be the ones to head up the marketing for this.” I gave him a nod, because what can I say to that? He was right. I knew it. I needed to get a grip.

  “One more thing.” Roman stood from his chair and closed his black leather binder. “There’s a kick-off party tomorrow night at the Warehouse on fifth street. There will be some big- name investors there so be on your best behavior. This charity is depending on us.” He turned his glare on my guys. “Don’t get fall-down drunk and for God’s sake don’t whip your dick out.”

  Rob snorted when Lip slapped him on the back. Dick pics seemed to be a problem with these two. They’ve been known to whip it out anywhere and take a pic. They’d post it on social media and ask fans to guess where they were. Like the whole Where’s Waldo game. According to Roman that’s frowned upon by the label. I couldn’t give two shits what they did. We’re rock stars. We’re there to raise a little hell. What did they expect?

  We rolled up to the Warehouse at ten o’clock which was early for us and headed for the door. I tugged at my shirt and ran my hands down the front of my jeans. I’d been nervous as hell all day just thinking about Raine. I wanted to find her and force her to talk to me. I’d been waiting five years to explain that awful night. It gnawed at me all day, but I didn’t want to try to talk to her when we were at the studio earlier. I wasn’t ready and there were too many people around.

  The music was thumping so loud the windows shook. Flood-lights of blue and white crisscrossed in the night sky. Matt threw open the big metal door and yelled, “We have arrived. Let the ass-kissing begin!”

  “What the hell dude? Bad move. Bad fucking move.” I slapped him on the chest as Roman stepped in front of us.

  “I thought I told you ass clowns, not to pull any shit tonight,” he sco
lded. “I would hate to have you thrown out of your own event, but I won’t think twice about it. Straighten up and be a professional for once in your life.” Matt saluted him while the rest of us mumbled our agreement.

  “Buy you books and send you to school and you’re still stupid.” Roman mumbled as he walked away. I stepped further into the room and spotted Raine and the chick with long blonde hair. I was pretty sure her name was Willow. I remembered her from our college days. It was good to see they stayed in touch. I took a moment to appreciate Raine’s curves. The low back of her black dress showed off the hint of a tattoo on her side. I wanted to peel that gown away and caress every inch of her tattooed skin.

  “Raine,” I cleared my throat and lifted my hand signaling the bartender for a round of drinks. “You ladies look beautiful tonight.” Willow eyed me over the top of her glass before setting it on the bar and walking away without a word. “That went well.”

  “I would like to say don’t take it personally, but it was personal.” Raine sat her empty glass on the bar and took the fresh drink from the bartender.

  “I see you still drink Jack and Coke.”

  “Some things never change,” She said, looking over the rim of her glass. “And then again, some things do.”

  “Why didn’t you ever answer your phone? I called you a thousand times.”

  “Here’s a thought,” her voice full of sarcasm. “How about we do not do this?” Her eyes searched the room, probably looking for Willow for backup, but she was nowhere in sight.

  “How about we do. Let’s get it all out on the table so we can clear the air. If you still feel the same way after hearing everything I have to say, I’ll be nothing but professional for the rest of the tour and then we’ll go our separate ways again.”

  “Too fucking bad. I don’t want to hear anything you have to say. I know what I saw.” She turned to walk away, but I wrapped my palm around her wrist and led her toward the nearest restroom.