No Quarter (NOLA's Own #2) (31 page)

“Oh. Wow,” she breathed.

“Rita, this is my boyfriend, Phil.”

Her head snapped around to face me once more. “Your
boyfriend
? When did you get a boyfriend? And where did you get
that
one?”

Some people might have been insulted by her tone, but this was Rita, and she always sounded insulting, even when she didn’t mean to be. But Phil didn’t know that. His face twisted up into a scowl, and he opened his mouth. I could sense he was about to unleash a litany of rudeness at my boss and benefactor.

“Phil, this is my boss, Rita Holmes.”

That shut his face but did nothing for the scowl.

Rita marched her skinny ass up to him, with her hand extended, and shook his whole arm with the power of a small dragon. “How wonderful to meet you.”

“Uh, likewise,” he grunted. “Kenna and I met years ago.”

“Really? She’s been hiding you this whole time?”

“No, I’ve been away,” he replied in a surly tone.

Rita turned back to me. “Well, enjoy your…lunch,” she said, her mouth curling into a lascivious grin.

I found it hard not to laugh but settled for a cheeky smile instead. “Thanks.”

Phil moved into the room so that Rita could make her way out.

Giving me a thumbs-up, she mouthed,
Wow
, one last time, and disappeared down the hall.

Phil didn’t like Rita and didn’t see why I would want to work for such a “hedonistic virago”—his
exact
words.

Educated caveman.

I thought it was a bit of a double standard to call Rita a hedonistic anything, considering
his
colorful and seedy past. I still hadn’t gotten around to telling him about the contract I’d signed with The Center because I had the feeling that he’d fly off the handle—or worse, try to pay back the tuition.

A huge hot palm grasped my denim-clad thigh and squeezed gently, bringing me back to the present.

“You excited?” asked Phil, his voice low and sweet.

“I am,” I replied, turning my face up to his. “I can’t wait to see you guys on stage again.”

His eyes darkened just a little, and he leaned down to plant a soft kiss on my lips. “You’re too cute,” he murmured, brushing his mouth over my Third Eye.

A woman’s voice sounded over the PA and announced our flight was ready for boarding. We all stood and grabbed our gear, except for Sheri and Tim. They were busy making sure the band’s expensive equipment that hadn’t gone with the roadies earlier in the week was safely put into cargo hold.

Taking my hand, Phil steered me out of the lounge, and we made our way to our gate. We were the first to arrive for first-class boarding, and a very attractive flight attendant took our passes and waved us through.

First class fucking rocks
.

There was enough legroom for even Phil to sit comfortably. Seriously, with the amount of space alone, the difference between first class and coach was ridiculous. The last time I had been on a plane, I had traveled to Scotland with Connor the summer I graduated from high school, and our giant asses had flown coach. Our legs had cramped up, and our bums had been numb by the time we landed at Heathrow for the stopover.

Phil took my carry-on and placed it in the overhead compartment with his before he plopped down next to me and opened his magazine again. I noticed that the back of the seat rested on his neck, and he would have to scooch down to get any head support.

Alys and X had the seats in front of us. Jason took the seat behind me, and I could hear him flipping through his own magazine as he waited for Sheri to show up. Flipper, Vivian, Lili and Lewis took their seats across the aisle.

With a smarmy look on his face, X popped his head above his seat to leer at me.

“Ready to join the Mile High Club, Baby Girl?” he asked, his orange eyebrows wriggling suggestively.

Phil, with a speed unknown to normal human beings, rolled up his magazine and whacked X in the face.

“Ow, man! I wasn’t propositionin’! I’m gonna do my woman in the restroom. Thought you might want to, too!”

Alys scoffed, “I said I’d think about it. I’m not sure I want to be a member.”

I turned to face Phil. “I guess
you’re
already a member?”

Gods above, Phil’s face turned the color of a tomato.

“Oh, shit!” I cracked up, pointing a finger at him. “I could fry an egg on that!”

“Hush,” he hissed.

My whole body spasmed with my guffaws.

Again, Phil whacked X on the head over the back of the seat.

“Damn, man! What was that one for?”

“’Cause you’re an asshole!”

“Ha-ha, yeah, I am.”

We were the only ones in first class, so the attendants didn’t seem overly concerned about their rowdy behavior.

Sheri and Tim showed up, looking harassed and a little sweaty. Tim’s curly brown hair had turned into an Afro, and the cool AC blast from walking onto the plane had fogged his black-rimmed glasses up a little. Not for the first time, I wondered just how old he was. He seemed older than the guys but not by much.
Maybe early thirties?

“So, how’d you earn your wings?” I asked Phil, opening up a magazine for the airline mall.

His lips went flat, and he glared at the back of X’s seat, pretending he hadn’t heard me.

X’s head popped back up. “It was on the flight from New York to Amsterdam—”

Whack! Whack! Whack!

“Ow! Shit, man!”

Next to the soulless ginger, Alys had gone into silent laughter mode.

“Turn your ass around,” barked Phil.

X’s flaming head sank slowly behind the back of his seat, only to reappear between the crack of his and Alys’s seats. His electric-blue eyes winked at me. He sucked in a deep breath, and as fast as he could, he said, “Phil was
wasted
and got cornered in the restroom by
somethin’
. Only, we still don’t know to this day”—Phil stood up and was now beating X with the rolled up magazine—“if it was really a chick because,
my God
, she was a beast, and he swears, it only gave him head, but then it really makes us wonder if it was really a dude—ow! That one stung!”

Alys’s nose had started clicking. She was laughing so hard. My own sides and stomach ached with the force of my laughter. Behind me, Jason whistled and laughed continuously.
He might need surgery to correct that.
And Sheri erupted into honking snorts. All of first class had lost it.

“She was just a big-boned woman,” piped up Sheri. “I got a good look—no Adam’s apple or anything. But I think she bleached her mustache ’cause her sideburns were black. She looked Romanian or something.”

We were all howling with laughter at poor Phil.

Tim had gone up to the attendants, assuring them that everything would be calm by takeoff.

After that, he marched up to Phil and X, scowling. “Cool it, you two!” he snapped.

In front of me, I heard Alys gasp for air while X tried but failed to control his giggles. I wiped tears off my face as Phil once again sat back down and tried to read his magazine.

“Are you
sure
it was a chick?” I whispered before clamping my lips together to hold back my laughter. I simply couldn’t help myself.

The look he gave me was one that was not amused, which turned out to be so amusing, I snorted behind my clamped lips. That noise made his lips twitch.

“Yeah, I’m sure. And up until a couple of months ago, it was the best fuckin’ head I’d ever had. She swallowed three-quarters of my dick and never bothered to ask for my name.”

“Nice.” I laughed.

“She did have a blonde mustache though.”

My eyes watered as I wheezed for breath.

Half an hour later, we were in the air. Looking around, I noticed that we really were the only ones in first class.

“How’d we end up being the only ones in here?” I quietly asked Phil.

“We bought all the seats,” he replied, not looking at me.

“Are you serious?”

Then, he looked over and met my eyes. “We wanted to have it all to ourselves. Lucky thing, too, since Lewis wanted to come.”

“Damn, Phil.”

He just shrugged. “Travel expense.”

The flight attendants came around, offering champagne and orange juice. Phil took two juices. I noticed Lili grabbing two flutes of bubbly for herself. Lewis gave her a cocked brow, but she just shrugged.

“When in Rome,” she said.

“We’re in a plane, not Rome,” stated Lewis.

At some point, X and Alys did disappear together, and I could only assume it was so that Alys could earn her wings. I wasn’t interested in earning them myself, and Phil seemed content to simply sit beside me and hold my hand.

“When we get there, it might get hairy. I don’t want you out of my sight, you got that?” he told me with about an hour left on the flight.

“What do you think will happen?”

“Who the fuck knows? But there are a lot of bands flyin’ in, and a lot of them are stayin’ at the same hotel we are. The press knows this, which means the fans know. Just don’t let your sweet ass go wanderin’ off, yeah?”

“All right,” I replied.

The whole trip was fully scheduled. Tonight was kicking off a huge bout of PR for the House of Horrors concert where all the bands were going to meet with the press and fans who had won contests and whatnot. Music magazines, radio, and television stations would be there to catch interviews with band members. There would be live music from several up-and-coming acts, so at least Alys, Lili, and I would be entertained while we waited out the meet-and-greet process that NOLA’s Junk would have to go through.

Of course, what I was looking forward to most was the actual concert tomorrow night. Some of my favorite bands would be taking that stage. I would be there, watching this thing
live,
something I’d never thought in a million years I would ever have the opportunity to do.

Alys trudged back down the aisle, trying desperately to look as though she hadn’t just been fucked in a tiny cubicle. Her gaze briefly met mine, and I smirked at her while a brilliant blush bloomed over her fair cheeks. She attempted but failed not to grin. The Mile High Club had just initiated its newest member.

The flight took about three hours, give or take a few minutes, and the landing was nice and smooth.

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to LAX…” The flight attendant continued with her little speech.

Phil unbuckled his belt, stood up, and grabbed our carry-ons.

“Remember, woman, don’t leave my side.”

“Yes, sir!”

He rolled his eyes at me.

Then, the reality of the situation hit me when security detail greeted us at the gate.

Back home, Phil and the guys never had anything of the sort hanging around them. They were free to go where they wanted, whenever they wanted, with very little recognition.

“Mr. Deveraux?” asked one of the huge, burly bodyguards.

I snickered at that.

“Yeah?” replied Phil.

Jason, X, Flipper, and the rest of the entourage lined up behind us.

“We’ll need you guys to stay tight once we get through the terminals. There is a mob by the drop-off zones—”

“Can you take our girls first?” asked X. “Get them in the car and come back for us. We can wait. It’s not a big deal.”

“That we can do. At the hotel though, it’ll be more difficult. We’ll have to take all of you at once. The Ritz-Carlton is also surrounded, but we already have a team set up there, and they’re working with getting all the arrivals in quickly and safely.”

Behind me, Lili’s little voice chirped, “Holy shit, The
Ritz-Carlton
?”

Lewis snorted in response. “Babe, really?”

“Shut up! How was I supposed to know?”

Pulling me close with one arm, Phil cupped my face with his free hand. “I’ll see you in about ten minutes, okay? Just stick close to these guys.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m not the one who needs the detail, babe.”

His eyes narrowed. “Don’t take this lightly.”

I nodded. “I’m not. I swear. Just trying to be funny.”

He nodded and then pressed his lips to my Third Eye. I felt a frisson of trepidation pass through me. He was nervous about letting me out of his sight. This situation was completely unknown to him. He didn’t want to let me go, but the need for me to be safe outweighed his need to have me glued to his side.

“Two of us will stay here with you guys while four of us will escort your ladies,” Security Detail One—I’d named him—told us. “Ladies, are you ready?”

“Go with them,” Jason whispered to Sheri. “They’re not used to this kind of shit.”

Phil squeezed my hand one last time, and then we were hustled out of the terminal.

“Oh my God!” hissed Alys as we were escorted through arrivals. She grabbed my hand. “This is mad!”

Hundreds of people were crowding, herded behind barricades along the exits, most of them bearing cameras. As we showed up with the bodyguards, people started screaming and waving, not realizing that we weren’t anything more than a bunch of chicks from the backwater bayou.

“Who the hell do they think we could possibly be?” asked Lili, her short legs running to keep up.

I thought about telling the guards to slow down for her, but I decided that grabbing her hand and hauling her up with Alys and me was a safer bet.

Through the exit doors and straight to a limousine, the bodyguards all but tossed us in and slammed the door behind us.

Vivian looked stunned. “Jeez,
this
is what they go through?”

“Is it always like this?” asked Alys.

Sheri shook her head, a small smile on her face. “No. But for venues like this and especially since we’re in LA, it’s to be expected for
all
the bands that are this well-known. This time of year is huge for rock concerts and shows. Lots of bands will come in just for the PR at clubs or just because all their friends are playing. You’ll see tonight. You guys will be meeting a lot of people.”

“I think I’m going to crap my pants,” huffed Lili. “All these famous people and stuff. I’m going to be walking around with a shit stain before the night is over.”