“I don’t believe you,” Shade said as he snatched the phone out of Gabe’s hand.

Gabe shrugged and sat next to Owen on the sofa. He knew how Shade ticked—you didn’t spend ten years of your life living in close quarters with someone and not know how his mind worked. Well, Gabe understood Shade, but Adam was clueless and let Shade push all his buttons. Gabe knew Shade pretended to be cool so no one figured out how insecure he was about certain things. Not about women. Not about his singing. Shade had absolute confidence in those arenas. Shade had become a master of hiding secrets about himself that he was not open to sharing, but Gabe saw through his façade of cool. And he knew the best way to deal with Shade was to never rise to his bait.

“Are you going to call that little hottie you hooked up with, Shade?” Owen asked. “What was her name? Nikki?”

“Darling Nikki,” Kelly said. He reached into the mini-fridge near his end of the sofa and hauled out two bottles of water. He handed one to Owen and kept one for himself.

“Maybe we should do a remake of that song,” Owen said. “It could be metal.”

“Been done,” Shade said.

“You’re not going to call her, are you?” Gabe asked. He didn’t want his newfound relationship with Melanie sabotaged by Shade fucking things up with her best friend.

Shade shook his head. “She didn’t want me to.” He shrugged. “You know how it is.”

Gabe took a deep breath and nodded. Owen and Kelly exchanged knowing glances.

“Whatever,” Shade said. “She did say next time we come to Wichita she’d love to hook up again. Maybe she’ll get her stick-in-the-mud friend to open herself up to a little fun next time.”

“She’s not a stick in the mud,” Gabe said, a bit more perturbed by Shade’s taunt than he should be. He didn’t usually let Shade’s bullshit bother him.

Shade chuckled. “As if you would know the difference. You’re a dud in the bedroom yourself. Probably think doggie style is adventurous.”

Gabe forced a puzzled look on his face. “What’s doggie style?”

Owen laughed. Kelly just rolled his eyes. Adam came out of the bedroom at the back of the bus. “Are we going to hang around here all day? I need to get to Dallas. Like yesterday.”

“Just waiting for the driver,” Owen said.

Adam sat in one of the captain’s chairs across from the curved sofa.

“Can I have my phone back now?” Gabe asked.

“Are you going to call your mommy?” Shade asked. He tossed Gabe’s phone in the air and Gabe caught it in one hand.

“Later,” Gabe said. “I need to call Melanie first.”

Owen leaned across Gabe’s body and snatched the phone out of Gabe’s hand before he could find Melanie’s picture and name in his long list of contacts.

“Twenty-four hour rule,” Owen said.

“Rock stars live too fast for the twenty-four hour rule,” Adam said. “Our average life expectancy is equal to one-half normal divided by number of addictions minus the number of small craft flights per month, the number of fast cars owned, and the number of miles driven on a motorcycle without a helmet. I’d say the three-second rule better applies to Gabe here.”

Gabe chuckled. “See? I’m already late calling her.”

“Nah,” Owen said, “you have fewer addictions than Adam and don’t own a motorcycle. You have at least twenty more minutes.”

The bus driver, Tex, climbed up the steps and did a head count. “Y’all ready t’go?”

Most of the band and crew had lost their Texas drawls after traveling around the country and the world for ten years, but not Tex. Gabe figured he took refresher lessons. And when Gabe hung around with him too much, he started talking just like him.

“We’re ready,” Adam said. “Let’s go. I so need to get laid.”

Adam had a regular hook-up in Dallas. Not a girlfriend, exactly. None of them had girlfriends, exactly. Kind of depressing.

Shade headed for his bunk. “I guess I’ll get some sleep. Sure didn’t get any last night. Darling Nikki has some serious stamina.” He took off his sunglasses, revealing weary ice blue eyes. He tucked his shades into the neckband of his T-shirt. “Don’t let Force call that chick while I’m out.”

“Why are you so worried about him calling her, Shade?” Kelly asked.

“He’ll get all pussy-whipped on us if he lands himself a steady girlfriend.” Shade climbed into his bunk. “Besides who would want to be stuck with the same chick all the time when there is so much delicious variety available?”

“Me,” Kelly said.

“Yep. Me too,” Owen agreed with a nod.

“Fuck that. For once, I agree with Shade,” Adam said. “The more variety, the better.”

“Man whores,” Owen said and shook his head at them. “Both of you.”

Shade grunted and slid his bunk’s curtain closed. An instant later his boots dropped out of his bunk onto the floor.

“You don’t have room to talk,” Kelly teased and punched Owen in the shoulder.

“You either.”

“At least we’re ashamed of our whorish ways,” Kelly said, leveling his most serious look at Owen.

Gabe snorted and burst out laughing. “Yep, you’re a regular pair of cloistered nuns.”

“Nuns?” Kelly said. “I think you mean cloistered monks.”

“I wouldn’t mind being cloistered with a bunch of horny nuns for a couple days,” Owen said.

“As long as they were horny,” Adam said with a thoughtful nod.

Kelly laughed. “They’d think you were possessed by demons and try to exorcise you.”

“I’m more likely to exercise them.” Adam slipped two fingers in and out of the loose fist in his opposite hand and smirked at Kelly.

Were they seriously discussing defiling nuns? Sometimes Gabe wondered why he hung around with these guys. Oh yeah, he had no choice.

“Owen might get some nun action,” Kelly said. “He’s the one with the angel face.” Kelly grabbed Owen’s face in one hand and squeezed. “They’d think he was cute.”

“Until they saw how he’s mutilated his junk,” Adam said.

“Not mutilated,” Owen protested through his squished mouth. “The ladies like it.”

Gabe didn’t care how much the ladies liked it; he’d never get his cock pierced. He could invent less painful ways to keep his woman satisfied.

“The ones who aren’t terrified of it,” Kelly said and released Owen’s face. He gave Owen a thunk on the side of the head as an afterthought.

Owen punched Kelly in the thigh and turned his attention to Gabe’s cellphone.

“Owen?” Gabe said.

Owen’s warm, blue eyes rose to meet Gabe’s gaze. “Huh?”

“I think you should give my phone back now.”

He looked down at the screen and started scrolling through Gabe’s apps. “Why?”

“Because I have a lot of blackmail material on you and I’m not afraid to use it.”

Owen found the game he wanted to play and started flinging birds at pigs. “Not half as much blackmail material as I have on you,” he said calmly. “And you care what your mama thinks of you.”

“You don’t want me to call in a favor from Cuff, do you?” Gabe didn’t have to explain what he meant. Owen knew if Gabe called Kelly Cuff in the privacy of the bus, it meant he wanted to use Kelly’s special talents.

Kelly sat up straighter on the sofa, a devilish glint in his dark eyes. “Do you want me to tie him up or tie him down?”

Owen glanced at Kelly as if Gabe’s threat was reward rather than punishment. While he was distracted, Gabe snatched his phone out of his hand.

“I think I’ll take this to the bathroom so you guys don’t bother me,” Gabe said.

“What?” Adam called after him. “Are you going to jerk off for her with video rolling?”

Gabe sighed heavily and rather than correct Adam’s lewdness, he said, “Yep. Twice. So do not disturb.”

“Are you driving?” Nikki asked Melanie as they waited for the valet to retrieve Nikki’s Bug.

“It’s your car.”

“I’m not sure if I can sit still for that long. I’m a bit tender down there.” Nikki’s eyes rolled southward. “Shade fucks like an animal.”