Beneath the Stain - Part 5 by Amy Lane Read Free Book Online

Mackey Sanders was blindingly, terrifyingly, scorchingly beautiful, and Trav couldn’t believe that even for this moment, Mackey was all his.
     
     
    T HEY HAD to move, and the next hour as they took care of their gear and grabbed cars for the hotel was an agony of embarrassment for Trav. He felt like he had “I just got a closet blow job” painted over his face in come, and he wanted to shower, preferably with Mackey either in the shower with him or waiting, clean and happy, for when he got out.
    He had things to do first. He had to oversee the worst of the equipment (which he ordered donated to the local YMCA) and the official firing of the two guys Mackey wouldn’t let touch the shitty equipment. He also, apparently, had to adopt a techie Mackey had fallen platonically in love with. Mackey spent the entire trip back in the car talking about Briony this and Briony that, and how they had to get her to LA and let her stay in the guest room and set her up as a journeyman so she could be their tech master before they left for Europe.
    Trav simply nodded, texting Heath and Debra as Mackey spoke, making sure they got it done, but after they got to the hotel and Mackey stumped off, an irritated tornado, he turned to the band.
    “What in the holy blue fuck?” he asked, completely bemused.
    Kell shrugged. “I don’t know. It was like… like she stood up, told him the truth, and he said, ‘You! You are the one! Come here and work with me!’ Fuckin’ weird.”
    Shelia blew out a breath. “You guys are stupid,” she pronounced. “I’m going to go take a shower, and you all try and figure out what kindergarten meant to you.”
    Trav watched her go, feeling thick. “I’m an idiot,” he muttered.
    Jefferson and Stevie low-fived. “Mackey made a friend,” Jefferson said with satisfaction, and they followed Shelia with a solid dependability Trav admired. It occurred to him that with the exception of the fact that there were two guys and one girl in that relationship, it was the quietest, most solid dynamic he’d ever encountered. They were practically boring.
    Kell and Blake nodded, and Blake looked sincerely happy. “Yeah,” Blake said seriously. “It’s like, all that shit he has to explain to us, she got right away.” He looked embarrassed. “I mean, we all know he’s really smart, and we’re….”
    “Not,” Kell said grimly. “We’re not. It’s why he just gets in the middle and leads us. The only one who could ever match him was Grant.” Something melancholy crossed Kell’s stolid workingman’s face. “I think Mackey might have missed Grant as much as I did for that.”
    Trav swallowed, and Blake looked away. “Grant was pretty smart?” he asked wistfully.
    Kell sighed. “Yeah. Left me behind most of the time. I can’t believe he’s not climbing the walls in Tyson.” He grinned then, tiredly, because the adrenaline of the concert was probably wearing off, and since the two of them weren’t going to party or find girls, they were probably looking at a quiet night with the television and some video games to come down. Kell shrugged. “Well, I guess it’s his fault he’s not out here in the world, yanno?” His smile at Blake, the friend he’d been shoring up since rehab, whom he’d given up his own partying for in order to provide moral support, was blinding. “I mean, me and Blake do okay, right?”
    Blake’s smile was shy, like a schoolboy’s when asked to play with the cool kids. “Yeah. And we’re gonna do better than okay when I’m grinding you into the ground in Titanfall , right?”
    “You wish.” Kell nodded at Trav then, and the two of them wandered away, leaving Trav to follow a few paces behind.
    They didn’t get a suite this go round—it was only one night in Oakland before they took an early flight back to the house, so everybody doubled up except Debra, who, Trav assumed, was still explaining to this Briony girl how she’d become Mackey’s pet techie, probably