Believed (My Misery Muse) (3 page)

Chapter 4

Jules

I finally found a guy holding a piece of what
looked like a pizza box with my name scrawled across it.  I cocked my head and
looked the guy over, he was wearing khaki pants with a baby pink polo tucked in
and loafers.  I was trying to figure out how he fit with the guys.  He was
wearing Buddy Holly glasses granted, but that was the only thing I could find
on his body that even resembled rock ‘n’ roll.  It was like a which one of
these is not like the other moments, I shrugged my shoulders and walked up to
the guy.  He had to be around my ripe old age of twenty-one, younger than the
guys in the band, and obviously gay with his rainbow lapel pin proudly
displayed.

“Hey,” I said brightly.

He looked me over from head to foot and rolled his
eyes. “Jules?”

“That’d be me.”

“Great, another one,” he muttered under his breath.

“Another what?” I asked sweetly.

He just shook his head. “Luggage?”

“Probably still on the conveyor belts,” I told him
then walked over to search for my three duffel bags.

I easily found all three of them and grabbed them
before turning and walking back over to the unknown guy.

He blanched when he saw my bags. “Why do you have
three bags?”

“Dunno, didn’t pack them.”

“Who packed then?” he asked quietly.

I smiled. “Devi.”

I tilted my head and watched him get even angrier,
I was waiting for his head to pop off or steam to flow from his ears.  It was
entertaining as hell, and I knew whoever he was X tortured mercilessly.

“There is a rule,” he ground out, “one bag per
person on the bus.”

“Well considering almost two of these bags are not
for me I followed those rules, by the way who are you?”

“Who are they for then?” he snapped.

I blinked and stared at him. “Who are you?”

He straightened his spine and looked at me
haughtily. “I’m Ian, their personal assistant.”

I sighed. “Of course you are.”

“I don’t know who you are or which one you’re
fucking, but I earned my place with this band,” he growled.  “Don’t think
because you’re sucking one of their cocks that I’ll become your servant.”

I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. I laughed so
hard I dropped the bags and bent over trying to breathe.  He stood there
sputtering but I couldn’t stop.   With the crazy shit going on with my life,
and being sent out here like an errant child, this guy thought I was fucking
one of them.  Oh how far he was from the truth.

I finally stood up and wiped my eyes of the tears
that had gathered. “Let’s go,” I said still chuckling.

I grabbed the bags and walked out the door away
from the sound of clanging slot machines, tourists, and suits running around on
business.  I wanted to get to the bus so I could be settled before having to
deal with the guys.

I followed him to the SUV and tossed my bags into
the backseat, so much for chivalry and all that shit, and then climbed into the
passenger seat.  He sat there staring straight ahead for a moment before
turning his eyes my direction.

“You never told me which one you’re sleeping
with,” he said snidely.

I scratched my head and looked at him blankly not
answering his question.  I didn’t get this guy, I mean yeah the guys could be
pricks when they wanted to be, but something had caused a bug to crawl up his
ass.  There had to be a story here, no one was this much of a douche, right? 
At least not for no reason.

“So what do you do for the guys?”

“I told you I’m their personal assistant,” he
snapped.

“I get that, but what do you actually do?”

He sighed and looked me up and down then sneered.
“Whatever they need me to do.”

I nodded. “Yeah, because that slims it down.” I shook
my head and looked out the window.  I watched Las Vegas in the daytime stream
by, it looked vastly different from the nighttime version I remembered.  Though
the last time I was in Vegas, I wasn’t exactly awake during daytime hours, it
was a learning experience.  The families that walked through the different
attractions and men in suits that power walked around them were out in droves. 
The city had a different vibe during the day than at night.

“Where are we staying?” I asked Ian.

“The MGM Grand.”

“Not the bus?”

“Uh no, since the concert tomorrow night is at the
MGM Grand Garden Arena it doesn’t make sense.”

“The concerts tomorrow?”

He nodded. “Did you not even look at the
schedule?”

I shrugged. “No time.”  I sat back and looked back
over the strip, thinking whose dumb idea was it to give X and Eli a night in
Vegas.

Sam

“Whose fucking idea was it to give Xavier and Eli
a night in Vegas?” I growled while looking around the empty suite once more
before sitting down on the couch.

“Didn’t you make the schedule?” Seth said sounding
part pissed and part amused.

“No, the original yes but the label did this one
since it’s a reschedule.”

“I take it you didn’t have us spending  a night
and day in Vegas?”

I rolled my head over and looked at my friend. “Uh
fuck no, I had us hitting the city then driving out the same night.”

He nodded. “Nothing we can do now, especially
since we can’t find the idiots.”

“They are going to end up on TMZ half-naked in a
water fountain with strippers,” I groaned and rubbed my face with my hands.

Seth started laughing. “That is a possibility, but
as long as neither of them get married or arrested, we can deal with the rest.”

I groaned. “Don’t mention marriage, god, they
couldn’t be that stupid, could they?”

We looked at each other and both reached for our
cell phones quickly calling the security guys I had on X and Eli giving very
explicit directions while Seth once again tried their cells to find out where
they were.

“They’re still not answering,” Seth grumbled. I
held out a finger while I continued talking to Coop, one of our bodyguards.

After I hung up, I glanced over at Seth. “They’re
at the Caesar playing poker.  Coop’s already put tracking devices on them, and
he knows not to let the dumbasses get married.  Regardless of what a great idea
it sounds to them at the time.”

I leaned back into the couch and looked out the
floor to ceiling windows at the Las Vegas strip.  I let my mind wander over
various things I needed to do before tomorrow’s show.  I knew I should get up
and make some calls. I had a list of things to do.  Instead, I felt my eyes
start to droop and just gave into a short nap.  Sleeping on a tour bus sucked,
and the thought of sleeping while not moving sounded like a great plan to me.

Chapter 5

Jules

I walked into the MGM Grand and stopped, it took
my brain a moment to catch up with my eyes.  The typical gaudy, ostentatious
décor that is expected from Vegas smacked me upside my head.  When I finally
adjusted, I took in the gold trimmed everything, plush red carpeting around a
large gold statue of a lion.  It was just very gold, even down to the marble
floors.  I followed the sound of slot machines to the gambling floor off to the
side, where more red carpet and gold awaited me.  I shook myself out of the
sight of over the top and looked over to find Ian smirking at me.

“First time in Vegas?”

“Nope, just first time at MGM.”

“Where did you stay last time?”

“Bellagio.”

He nodded. “That’s a nice place.”

“It was, but it was similar to this with just too
much.”

“It’s Vegas,” was all he said and then walked
off.  I followed him to the elevators.  When we finally got on, he swiped a
card and pressed the button for the top floor. I leaned against the elevator
wall and closed my eyes.  I had to remind myself that I had agreed to this,
even though I didn’t want to be here.

I got off the elevator into a huge foyer that
continued the gold and red theme; I was hoping that it was toned down in the
room.  Ian walked to a huge set of double doors, swiped his key card, and
walked in.  I realized I was no longer in Texas where men did simple things
like hold doors open for women because it was taught to them at a young age.  I
quickly grabbed the closing door before I was locked out and walked into a
living room that would fit my entire old apartment in.

Don’t get me wrong I’ve been friends with Devi for
over five years now, I’ve seen stuff like this before.  It’s just that I never
got used to it, I couldn’t understand why someone would need this amount of
space.  Hell even Devi and Seth with their house full of people didn’t have a
living room as large of this, and this was a hotel.

I walked farther in the room where I eventually
spotted Sam sleeping sitting up on one of the couches. Seth sat on a couch
across from him with a laptop.  I smiled at seeing familiar faces, the day of
traveling had made me anxious.  It’s not that I thought Beau would have
followed me here, hell he couldn’t afford it, but I’ve gotten so used to having
to watch out for him that the busy airports were hell on me.  So seeing two people
that I knew was a relief, even if he had followed me here he would never come
near me around them.  He was too much of a pussy to start anything unless you
were a female alone and he knew he could overpower you.

I quietly walked over to the couch so I wouldn’t
wake Sam and sat down beside Seth. “Hey,” I whispered.

He jerked his head my direction and frowned. “When
did you get here?”

I shrugged. “Just now.” I looked over to where Sam
slept quietly.  He looked so much younger while he slept, more like his
brother, Max.  You could actually see the stress and responsibilities removed
from his face when he was like this.  Sam had always been gorgeous with his
rumpled blonde hair and clear blue eyes, but now he seemed more cherub than
rock musician.

“Where’s Ian?”

“Don’t know, don’t care.  Your P.A. has some
issues.”

“We know, he’s a spy by the way.”

I nodded and looked over at Seth and grinned.
“How’s that working out for him?”

Seth smiled back. “Not well.”

“Oh I have something for you.” I pulled my
messenger bag off my shoulder and dug into it looking for the envelope from
Devi.  “Here,” I said giving it to him, “it’s from your wife.”

He took it from me opening it, and I went back to
looking at Sam.  Out of all the guys, he’d always been the one that appealed to
me the most.  Don’t get me wrong all of them are gorgeous, but Sam had this
almost American good boy look meets rocker that was different.  It intrigued
me, I knew he turned down a football scholarship to play music and I could see
him on a football field surrounded by cheerleaders drooling after him.  Though
at other times with his guitar on his lap his eyes closed in repose, he looked
like the rock star he was.  He was a dichotomy, a breathtaking one, especially
when he awarded you with one of those rare smiles.  I frowned though at what he
must be going through right now.  He was here with his band while also trying
to deal with his father’s illness.  He hadn’t wanted to tell the guys about it
yet especially since Seth and X looked at Sam’s dad as their own.  I didn’t
know how he was handling being away right now, if I’d been lucky enough to have
a dad like his I don’t think anything would have kept me away.

Seth elbowed me in the ribs and I tore my gaze
away from Sam to Seth who was giving me a look.  I just shrugged and looked at
the picture he was holding.

“Thing one and Thing two?”

“Yeah,” he said smiling like the Cheshire cat.

“They are two very beautiful blobs,” I told him
looking over the sonogram.  “You excited?”

He nodded looking at a different picture from the
envelope. “I am very excited, if I could talk her into it, I’d want to have a
house full of kids.”

I looked over at Seth. “Isn’t four a house full?”

“Not even close.”

“She may actually castrate you this time.”

He laughed while still staring at the picture.
“It’d be worth it, she’s gorgeous when she’s pregnant.”

He showed me the picture of Devi sitting on the
couch in their family room, baby Cait was sitting beside her kissing her
belly.  Devi wasn’t too impressed with the fact that she was already showing. 
This picture made me envious of her though, she had something that I never
had—a family.

“You guys are lucky,” I said quietly.

“We are, but the thing is, we know it.”

I knew some about Devi and Seth’s history, neither
came from a happy childhood so it didn’t surprise me that they realized how
lucky they truly were.

“She,” I said pointing at Cait, “is going to be a
heartbreaker.”

“She’s not dating until she’s forty.”

I giggled at the overprotective father Seth was when
it came to his little girl.

“What’s going on with you?” he asked nudging me
with his shoulder.

“Nothing.”

He raised an eyebrow at me. “Liar.”

“Beau realized he liked dope more than me, except
when it comes to my paychecks, then he liked me fine.”

“And?”

“And I left him, I should have left him earlier
but I thought I could fix him, ya know?”

“Yeah I know,” Seth said sadly.  “He’s not going
to get near you again.”

I smiled sadly up at Seth. “Sure he will, just not
now.  Where’s my room?  I want to shower and change clothes, I smell like an
airport and old lady perfume,” I said ending this conversation.

Seth stood up dragging me with him. “Come on, I’ll
show you.” He grabbed my bags that they must have sent up without me realizing
and led me to my room.  “My wife send anything else?” he asked over his
shoulder.

“She did, but with directions that I can’t give
them out until we’re on the bus.”

He nodded and opened a door to a bedroom that was
much too large for one person. “Seth, this is too much,” I whispered.

He snorted. “This is the smallest room out of the
bunch.” He dropped my bags. “Let me know if you need anything,” he said before
walking out closing the door behind me.

I took in the room before running into the
attached bathroom. The sight of the giant whirlpool tub had me skid to a stop. 
Oh, I was so going to put that to use.

Sam

I woke slowly stretching my body as I went while
trying to figure out what had woken me up from my nap.  Between the tour, my
family stuff, and general band things I was averaging two hours a night.  I
leaned my head back against the couch, why couldn’t they just let me take a
nap?  I eventually realized that my cell phone ringing angrily on the coffee
table is what woke me.  I stared at it dreaming of picking it up and tossing it
off the balcony, unfortunately my daydream was wrecked by the stupid thing
ringing again.

“What?” I barked when I answered.

“Is she there?  Is she okay?  Her plane landed
over two hours ago, did something go wrong?” I pulled the phone from my ear double-checking
that it was in fact my brother calling.

“What are you…?” Then like a light bulb it
clicked—Jules. “I don’t know, let me check,” I grumbled.

“Why don’t you know?  Where were you?” he yelled.

“I was sleeping, just hold on,” I said dropping my
hand that held the phone and started to get up when Seth walked back into the
main room.

“Seth, is Jules here?”

He nodded. “Been here about an hour.”

“Is she okay?”

“Yeah, just tired from traveling.”

I nodded and picked back up the phone. “She’s
here, she’s fine, now leave me alone.” Then I swiped the end button and dropped
the phone on the floor.

Seth was looking at me curiously, I just grunted.

“Max?” he asked amused.

I grunted again.

“Why didn’t he just ask Dev, I texted her when she
got here?”

I just looked at him, like I had any fucking idea
what was going on in my brother’s brain.  Seth just shook his head at me then
padded towards the kitchen. “Coffee?” he called and I grunted an affirmative.

When I could smell fresh coffee, I rolled off the
couch landing on my hands and knees and thinking of crawling my sorry ass
towards caffeine when a pair of bare feet with the toes painted electric blue
stopped right in front of me.  I knew who it was with the butterfly and
nautical star tattoo that adorned one foot the other had a script tattoo that
said
‘Once upon a time.’
   I followed the toned calf muscles up to a
pair of jeans that were rolled up about half way up the calves.  I followed
noticing the blown out knee and other rips in some interesting places until
they reached the soft swell of hips made for grabbing on to.  Until I came to a
torso covered in a tank top with the picture of Kurt Cobain printed on front
that flowed around her breasts, hinting at what laid under.  Her arms were
completely covered in tats that led to a long neck that had stars swirling down
from behind loose chestnut hair but I knew they began behind her ear.  A mouth
made to make angels weep with its plush bottom lip that made me want to bite
and suck on it.  Her slightly upturned nose that lead to the most beautiful
pair of purple eyes.  I never knew eyes could be the color of lilacs until I
met the woman before me, and I’d never seen a pair similar since.

“Jules,” I said hoarsely.

She smiled down at me her eyes alight with
mischief. “Sam, whatcha doing down there?”

“Taking in the view.”

She laughed softly. “Was it worth the trip?”

“Definitely,” I murmured.

“Come on, big guy, let’s go get some coffee.” She
held out her hand, her nails painted in the same electric blue as her toes.

I grabbed her hand and let her help pull me off
the floor, then groaned when my knees popped.  Jules tilted her head and looked
me over. “Come on, old man, caffeine awaits.” Then she skipped off towards the
kitchen.  I watched her ass as I slowly followed until she turned the corner, I
had to remind myself that she was the girl Max liked, and I didn’t do shit like
that to my brother.

The kitchen, like the rest of the suite, was
pretentious with its gold plated everything, I was reminded why I hated coming
to Vegas.  I found Jules arranging herself on the counter sipping her coffee,
eyes closed and a look of sheer ecstasy on her face.  Max’s girl, I reminded
myself once again.  I looked over and found Seth’s eyes on me with a knowing
gleam, I flipped him off and went to work fixing myself a cup of coffee.

“What’s the plan for tonight?” Seth asked.

“We have to meet up with the tour manager for
dinner, then have drinks with a couple of label guys.”

He nodded. “What about you, Jules?”

Her eyes snapped open. “Huh?”

Seth chuckled. “What are your plans tonight?”

“Sleep,” she said eyeing her coffee.

It was then that I noticed the dark rings under
her eyes and her pale skin.  She also seemed to be more jumpy than usual,
though trying to hide it by acting as if everything were normal.  I clenched my
teeth, when I saw the bruising around her wrist, Max had told me, but it wasn’t
the same as actually seeing it.  I’d missed it earlier because of the tattoos
that were there, but below where they ended, you could see the black and purple
that looked to circle her tiny wrists.

“You sure you’re going to be okay here on your
own?” I asked trying to sound casual.

“I’ll be fine, you guys do what you need to.”