Running Game(146)

Up until the dawning light.

“I wish I could go with you,” Angel whispered.

“Do you want to?” I asked.

She immediately propped herself up on an elbow, eager to give me her undivided attention. I could see tentative anticipation on her face.

“What do you mean?” She asked quietly.

“Well…it’s just us on the road, right? The bus has room for you, and it’s not like we have a lot of shows left. We’re pretty much heading straight home after this.”

I could see the cogs spinning in her head.

“I mean…where will I go when the tour ends? You’re not coming back to Alabama...”

“No, probably not,” I told her. “But I think that you and I can probably figure it out when we get to that point.”

I felt her heart practically stop against me.

“You…you would…no, there’s no way…”

“I mean it,” I told her, smiling warmly. “I feel a real connection to you. And if it doesn’t work out, so what? We get you on a bus and you just come straight back. No harm in trying, right?”

“Do you…seriously want to keep me around?” She asked quietly.

“I told you, Angel. I feel something with you. Come with me,” I replied.

“Are you…are you sure?”

“Positive.”

“I won’t, like, distract you?”

“Not at all.”

“What about the others?”

“The others? Fuck the others.”

“Trent, you can’t just–”

“I certainly can. If they have a problem with you, then they have a problem with me. I’m the driving force behind this group. They can’t go on without me. You’re not a damn Yoko.”

“Who?”

“Yoko Ono… The Beatles?”

Her eyes were still searching for understanding.

“I’ll explain it to you later,” I said, laughing. “Just come.”

“Okay,” she nodded. “Let’s do this.”

“Do you need anything?”

She thought for a moment.

“My backpack. It’s back home. My social security card, my state ID.”

I jumped up from the bed, throwing clothes on. “We don’t have a lot of time,” I warned her, lifting a blind with a fingertip. The sun’s rays were already penetrating through the semi-darkness.

Steven was going to be pissed.

I threw a couple of her clothes towards her. “Angel, if we’re going, we need to do it now.”

“Okay,” she agreed, tossing on her miniskirt and shirt. She didn’t bother with anything else. Within minutes, we were in the rental jeep and flying down the Interstate.

Keeping a tired but aware eye out for any state troopers, perched along the shoulder of the highway, my priority was to safely put considerable distance between the bus and us.

Her little ramshackle bar was an hour-ish away, and we definitely had less than two hours to spare.

As I pushed that little rental Wrangler up to eighty miles per hour, a concerning thought occurred to me. I quickly patted at my pockets.

Fuck.

In the rush, I’d forgotten my phone.

Steven was going to be seriously pissed.





16





Angel





Trent drove like a maniac, whipping between the few cars along the Interstate and keeping us over eighty miles per hour the entire way. The jeep felt like it was going to rattle apart as we soared along.

With one hand firmly on the steering wheel and another clasped around my thigh, his eyes were fiercely locked to the road.

“We should slow down,” I warned him.

I could already feel the tension building.

“No,” he told me, a hint of his arrogance shifting back into his voice. “I know what I’m doing.”

“You’re driving like a crazy person,” I pleaded. “They’re not going to leave without us, right? Just…please, please slow it down. For me.”

He coldly turned to regard me for a moment, but then visibly softened. “You haven’t met my band manager…the guy’s a complete prick. He all but has it out for me. Thinks I’m a hotheaded, egotistical jerk.”

“Are you?” I asked, trying to swallow the mounting pit in my throat. I could feel anxiety begin to take its hold.

“Of course I fucking am,” Trent grinned. “But our manager is paid to handle that. If he can’t then, well, tough shit.”

I struggled to nod.

“Listen, I don’t think I can stress too much how little time we have here, so I’m going to need you to be in-and-out when we arrive,” he reiterated. “We don’t really have the time to hang around, alright? If you need to say some goodbye’s you can do it by phone once we’re on the road.”