Straight from the Heart (26 page)

Both Lucy and I thought that was the
funniest thing in the world. I didn’t know if she was serious, or
just joking around.

Tyler itched his nose and cocked his head to
the side, grinning like a little kid. “How about a truce?” He
outstretched his hand, and she took it reluctantly.

“I suppose, just for a day.” She laughed.
Everyone got the equipment off the buses and chatted it up while
the first band was taking the stage. Like a crowd warmer so to
speak but when I got a glimpse of the crowd, this area was already
packed in by the thousands.
How come I never heard of this
festival before?
I wondered as we took everything towards the
back of the stage and headed back to our buses.

There was Ace Patterson, talking on the side
of the stage with what looked like an older version of himself.
Both tall, around six foot, with curly copper hair, they had their
arms crossed as the two were talking casually.

Ace noticed us first and gestured all of us
over. “Hey! Glad you guys made it okay!” Ace shouted with his
Boston accent. He gestured over to his dad. “Dad, I want you to
finally meet my good friends from Everlasting.” He went down the
line and I was last. “This is their new guitarist Bryn Schaefler.
Wait until you hear her Dad, she’s amazing.”

I blushed. Here I was in front of a huge
rock star, and his son called me an amazing guitar player? Harley
stuck out his hand and I shook it. “Nice to finally meet you
everyone. Glad Ace suggested you guys to play today. He gave me a
rough recording of one of your shows and the new song he recorded
with you and I knew you had to play here at the festival.” Harley
Patterson was intimidating to say the least. This guy had been in
the music business for over 30 years, and for him to even
acknowledge us was huge. “Excited to hear your new songs. Good luck
up there.” Harley patted us all on the back and we went back to the
bus to relax before Ignite the Flames performed.

 Lucy wanted me to come onstage for a
song and I told her I’d be ready with my guitar strapped on just in
case.

“You nervous at all?” I asked Tyler, as he
spun his drum sticks around and played with them against our tour
bus. He shrugged his shoulders, unzipping the Ignite the Flames
jacket he had on the whole morning.

“With it being my first actual live show in
months? I’m just a littttttttle terrified, I won’t lie,” he replied
honestly. “Last time people saw me, I was getting beat up on stage
for sleeping with my best friend’s girl. How bad is that?”

I snickered, clasping his shoulder. “It’ll
all be fine. The ladies missed seeing you, that’s for sure.” It was
the truth. A lot of times during the break after tour, a few
curious people would ask ‘What happened to Tyler?’ and ‘How’s his
face holding up?’ I had a vision of Cale sucker punching Tyler on
stage, and was thankful I wasn’t there to see it. Tyler was
attractive, but I wasn’t going to put myself in the same position
Lucy was in not even a year ago. But looking at his ruffled up
black hair and the way he carried himself like Cale, it was hard
not to fall for him.

“You’re just saying that, Bryn. But I’ll
take it as a compliment.” Tyler beamed, walking towards the side of
the stage where Ignite was getting ready to take the stage.

Before Damon ran onstage, he walked over to
me and kissed me on the cheek. “Good luck Charming,” I said, and he
winked in my direction.

“The Hell was that?” Cale asked with an
attitude, striding up beside me. “Is he hitting on you again?”

Rolling my eyes, I replied “You wish, huh?
Just saying good luck, Pelton, that’s all. Watch the set.” Cale
kept his arm around my waist and his mouth shut as we watched
Ignite the Flames rile the crowd up with one of their biggest hits.
I tried to push the nerves out of my mind, but all I was thinking
about at that moment was screwing up a note or tripping on
stage.

The music stopped and Lucy snatched the
microphone from Damon. “How’s everyone doing?!” She growled, and
the guys went nuts. Lucy knew how to work the crowd to their
advantage. “We only have two songs left, but right now I want to
bring out a very close friend of the band who we have gotten to
know since our last tour. She’s the lead guitarist of Everlasting.
Bryn Schaefler everyone!”

Vince handed me my guitar, tuned up and
ready to play, and I strapped it on. I waved to the crowd as I
walked out and high-fived Lucy and Damon, who were standing closest
to me.

“Doing ‘Freakshow,’” Damon warned me, as
Lucy set the mic back in place. I nodded my head in
acknowledgement, preparing my fingers for the string of notes I was
about to play. I fell in love with this song hearing it every night
on their set during the tour, and was happy they asked me to play
this with them today. This was the song that made Ignite the Flames
bigger then Everlasting would ever be. The guitar chords that Pauly
and Xavier, the other guitarist, played chilled me to the bone. The
song had a ‘sexy’ vibe to it, reminding me of Hinder.

Once the song ended, Damon shouted into the
microphone “Bryn from Everlasting everyone! Girl can shred, can’t
she?” the crowd responded by yelling “Hell yes!” and chanted
“More!”

I mouthed “Thank you” to the crowd, waving
once again before stepping off stage to tune up for our set which
was coming sooner than I thought.

“Don’t go leaving us now, B. That rocked.”
Vince high-fived me as I took off my guitar and set it down by the
other ones.

“Thanks guys. I think that just got me even
more ready to play now.” I admitted, still feeling the adrenaline
rush through my body. Before we knew it, Hal and Raptor were
helping us get our equipment on stage and set up.

Here we go,
I told myself, jumping up
and down to keep myself warm. I had forgotten that it was in the
middle of November in Southeast Michigan. But luckily there was no
snow on the ground or any cold winds. Once we had our cue to go on
from Ace, who was standing on the opposite side of the stage, we
huddled up and told each other good luck.

As soon as Tyler stepped foot on stage to
start out the first song, it was like all hell broke loose. He
lifted his sticks into the air before sitting, unleashing the drum
beat. I bounced up and down again, singing the words to “Never
Again” as everyone took their turns running out. Before taking my
turn, I kissed Cale on the lips and said “I love you.”

“Love you too, B.” He grinned, shooing me
onstage.

I couldn’t hide from it.

There it was. That eerie feeling that
something was going to go wrong. Ignite the Flames had played such
an incredible set before us, I knew Everlasting was doomed. We were
already three songs deep into the set when Vince and I had started
our duel guitar solo we had come up with on the way to the
festival. It was our first performance with Tyler back in the group
and everything had been running so smoothly, we were hitting every
note and every chord. I was pretty pleased.

Cale, Luke and Tyler left the stage for a
quick break, so it was just the two of us battling back and forth,
feeding off each other’s energy as we played a medley of a few of
our favorite songs. I enjoyed the feeling of my fingers plucking
against the strings, sending howling notes into the crowd. They
were going absolutely wild. I had seen crazy, but when they were
chanting both of our names, Vince and I decided to make this a
little competition. Who could play the fastest string of notes, and
the highest?

We were nearing the end where it was Tyler’s
cue to come back on stage and start “You Were Young.”

But Tyler was nowhere to be found.

“What the hell is going on?” I mouthed to
Vince, who was standing towards the corner of the stage now,
getting the girls riled up.

He shook his head at me and mouthed back “I
don’t know.” Moving towards Cale’s microphone in the center, he
growled, “Does anyone want to hear more!?” More screams erupted
from the people in front of us, giving us our answer. At least it
bought us another minute or two of time before people got bored. We
played “Eruption” by Van Halen, and at the end, my whole body
stilled.

Gunshots.

My head searched frantically until I saw
Luke running from by the buses towards us on stage.

The crowd hushed as the three of us huddled
by the far corner of the stage.

“What happened, Luke?” Vince asked, sounding
panicked.

His whole body was shaking. “Cale’s been
shot.”

I wanted to faint right then and there. I
had no words.

“Is….Is it bad?” I managed to spit out of my
mouth. I ran a hand through my hair as Luke took a deep, rugged
breath.

“Tyler is trying to tackle the shooter right
now. The bullet hit his chest but he’s still breathing.” Luke
replied softly.

I slipped the guitar off of my body and let
it fall. I didn’t care if it broke into a million pieces.

“I’m sorry everyone, but we’re going to have
to cut our set short.” I notified the audience. “Our lead singer
Cale has just been shot and the shooter hasn’t been found.” As soon
as I said shooter, everyone was running for the hills. Literally. I
didn’t even pay attention to see if anyone was still there. I
wanted to get Cale to a medic and keep him alive.

“Who is it?” Vince asked.

“I don’t know. I ran to get you two before I
could get a closer look.” Luke explained. “Cale had to use the
bathroom before coming back out and we went to go get him and that
was when we saw this guy shoot him as he was coming off of the bus.
I just managed to escape but they’re all back there still.”

“We have to go back there.” I exclaimed,
running as fast as my feet could take me. I maneuvered through the
buses of the other bands and stopped dead in my tracks. Tyler was
on top of someone, punching as hard as he could at his neck, not
aiming for his head. The guy had a baggy black zip up jacket on and
a matching black hat to cover up his hair from the back.

Tyler looked up and saw us. That split
second was all the guy needed, and he had Tyler down on the ground
with a gun to his head.

“Put the fucking gun down.” Luke growled,
and the shooter fingered the trigger on the gun, seconds away from
shooting again.

Taking a step closer, I felt something oddly
familiar. I saw a glimpse of dark green eyes that bore through my
skin and I couldn’t believe it.

Brayden.

Luke and Vince knew it too as soon as they
saw me stumble backwards, almost tripping on a cable line.
 

“Long time no see, sis,” Brayden huffed,
lowering the gun to his back pocket, standing up to face me fully.
“I really wish I didn’t have to do this you know.”

My fist curled into balls. “What do you
mean? You’re my big brother…why are you doing this?”

“It’s very easy you know,” he snarled, “I
reconciled with mom and dad. They wanted you to come home, at any
cost, so they asked for my help. You shouldn’t even be doing this
shit. You’re not supposed to be with these punk guys who think
they’re going to make it big someday, when all they’re doing is
dragging you down with their ship. ”

I could feel Vince’s breathing growing
heavier by the second, but I put a hand behind me to stop him from
trying to attack my brother. I just couldn’t understand why in the
Hell he would shoot my boyfriend, and attack a good friend of
mine.

“What’s gotten into you, Bray? Did mom and
dad pay you to do this just so it would scare me or something?” I
asked furiously. “You don’t have to hurt them to get through to
me.”

“That’s where your wrong, little sis.” He
cut me off, then kicking Tyler in the side. “You weren’t going to
come home so easily, so mom and dad asked me to help them out a bit
after they saw you weren’t back.”

I should’ve figured. But who in their right
mind thought that shooting and nearly killing my band mates would
have done the trick? I couldn’t believe my parents brainwashed my
brother into doing something so stupid. He was my only real blood
family left, now that’s thrown out the window.

“So what happened with Raptor…you’re the one
that beat him up?” I wondered, my blood boiling.

Brayden laughed. It wasn’t a friendly laugh
between brother and sister, but much more wicked and sinister.
“That? Well you see, that was a little present from myself and a
good friend of mine I met at the gym. We wanted you to know that
you’re not safe. Obviously you see that now.”

That was it. “Grab the gun” I mouthed to
Vince and he nodded slightly as I lunged towards my brother. Vince
ran past me so he could snatch the gun out of his back pocket. I
used enough force to get him to the ground, while Vince struggled
to hold onto the piece of metal that could kill us at any
moment.

“No chance in Hell,” I spat at him, my eyes
narrowing. “Next time, a phone call is better than trying to scare
me.” His eyes turned a few shades darker, as he shoved me against
the tree next to us.

I landed with my head hard against the bark
and slumped down. Brayden got off the ground and grabbed the pistol
before Vince could reach it.

“Run Vince!” I yelled towards him. His eyes
met mine and used my hands to shoo him off, telling him to go. He’d
find someone, a cop, medic, anyone. I had to muster up every ounce
of strength I had to stand up to Brayden.

Vince was able to run past the buses towards
the busy main street, which I could tell pissed Brayden off he let
someone go.

I tried to get up, but my head felt so
dizzy, I couldn’t muster up the strength just yet. I saw blood
trickling down my arm, but I was too weak to even care, or to try
and stop it. My brother was about to kill Cale and Tyler, and I
couldn’t let him. Who knows who else he could kill if we didn’t
stop him.