“Not sure. Can I see you with your hair down?” I replied.
He looked like he wanted to throw a glove at me instead of putting them on but settled for flipping me off.
“He didn’t say what he wanted, and I didn’t give him your number. I’ve got his in the drawer for you,” Deisel said. “I kept meaning to text it to you, but you know how it is.”
“Yeah, you stuck it in the drawer and forgot about it,” I said. “That’s how it is.”
“You know me too well.”
“I should, after all the nights we partied together,” I said. “Kinda odd that he’d be looking for me though. Last time we spoke didn’t exactly end on a pleasant note, now that I think about it.”
“I heard you two got into it over something, but he never said what.”
“Meh. Chances are one or both of us blew it completely out of proportion,” I muttered.
He chuckled and got ready to position the transfer. “Don’t remember, do you?”
“Do you know how many people I piss off?” I asked.
“Is the list as long as it always was?”
“Until this morning, I’d been working on making it shorter.”
“Yeah? Who’d you piss off today?”
“More like who pissed me off,” I admitted. “You know how Knightly can get.”
“You still speak to that asshole?”
“At the moment, no, he fucked around and got blocked.”
“I blocked his ass a long time ago.”
“Starting to think I’d have been better off doing that too.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Bad habits are hard to quit.”
“You can say that again,” he grumbled.
The position looked perfect, so I popped a Tootsie Roll Pop in my mouth and settled in, thinking about the way some of the roughest patches in my life had begun and ended with Knightly and how that wasn’t a road I ever wanted to go down again.
Chapter 23
(Steel)
“Hey, I need to touch base with you before they come down off the stage,” Sully said, pulling me away from the rest of the band’s guards and roadies as we stood listening to the last few songs of Blissfully Immune’s set.
“What’s up?” I asked. “I thought I was off an hour ago.”
“You were,” Sully said, “and still are. So, if I give a command when we’re in the park, it implies to you too. I wanted to make sure that was clear.”
“Understood,” I replied. “I’m just looking forward to a fun evening on the rides.”
“Yeah, about those,” Sully began. “On the two-seaters, I want you next to me, directly behind Kit and Rebel. I want to keep a row of guards between the principals and the fans on as many rides as possible. I’m just glad the park has been shut down to other visitors for this event.”
“You’re not the only one. Twenty superfans will be far easier to deal with than a park full of random encounters every time one of them is recognized.”