Cadence (Ruby Riot Book 1) by Lisa Swallow Read Free Book Online Page A

something to do,” says Bryn
    “Something to do?” asks Tina.
    “Yeah. She doesn’t have any skills really, so maybe you have some ideas?”
    “Cheeky bugger!” I say and shove his arm. “Just because I’m not musical.”
    “I mean you don’t have training in anything useful for the tour.”
    “What did you have in mind?” Tina asks Bryn, frowning at me.
    “Dunno.”
    “Useful…” She sighs.
    “I can be your PA, big brother,” I say with a snigger.
    “Very funny, Tegan. I don’t have or need a PA.”
    “Oh, well, maybe Jax will be interested in my services.” Bryn looks around sharply, and I grin to indicate I’m teasing. Serves him right for interfering.
    Following the sexually charged encounter in the lift, I don’t think Jax would say no to anything I could offer him. It would’ve been easy to drag my fingers through his messy, blond hair and meet my lips with his. I blink away the image of us together. Hot, yeah, but with that comes the inevitable burn.
    I turn to Tina. “I can do some promo? Help out with marketing?”
    Tina taps her fingers on the iPad. “Do you have any experience?”
    “I have a blog,” I suggest.
    “You and thousands of other people, honey. That’s not experience.” I bite my tongue at retorting. “We need people to sell merchandise at every venue. Usually we contract locals, but Tegan could help out. Takes a while to set up, and she’d need to be there for sales in the evening.”
    “Fine by me,” I say.
    Bryn nods. “Keeps her out of trouble in the evenings, at least.”
    “No problem. I can cause all the chaos in the daytime.” I shake my head at him. “Seriously though, I’m confused about what you think I’m going to get up to on tour, Bryn. I’m not exactly a wild child.”
    Bryn crosses his arms and again I catch a hint his sense of humour has taken a vacation. “I’m responsible for you.”
    “I’m responsible for myself.”
    Tina’s phone rings and she glances at the display. “I need to take this. Tegan, come back here around four and I’ll introduce you to Sam. He’s in charge of the merchandising and can show you the ropes.”
    “Okay. Cool.”
    Tina gives us a pointed look and indicates her phone. I leave the room with Bryn and snatch my chance. “Are you sure you’re all right? Didn’t you want to tour again?”
    “I’m fine.”
    “Liar.”
    He rubs his tired eyes. “I’m happy to be on tour. I prefer being around the Blue Phoenix world. I guess I’m tired and stressed about the first gig of the tour.” He’s avoiding looking at me. Definitely lying. “I’ll back off, Tegan, but I’m here if you need something.”
    I take Bryn’s hand. “And I’m here if you need someone to talk to.”
    As kids, we shared every secret and Bryn would confide in me about things. I didn’t fully understand his problems when he was a teen and I was still young, but that’s why he told me, I think. Bryn could talk to me and it didn’t matter I had no answers, just that I was there.
    “Yeah. Stay out of trouble while I’m busy.”
    Bryn walks away and I wrinkle my nose. He’s not okay. For the first time he doesn’t want to talk to me about what’s bothering him, and that stings.
    He disappears out of sight and I look around. Time to explore.
     
    ****
     
    JAX
     
    I climb out of the cab and the bright sunlight hurts my eyes. Tegan’s advice about sunglasses was right. The lighting in the venue isn’t much kinder and I squint as I head inside. Nobody is around, so I pull out my phone and text Will; let him know I’ve arrived. When he doesn’t respond, I set about finding the stage area myself. Can’t be that hard and each extra minute I’m late, the bigger the argument with Ruby will be when I arrive. Disorientated by the uniformity of the place, I wander yet another corridor with doors every hundred metres. Large numbers on the wall above indicate seating sections; I’m up to 30 so far.
    Will returns my text and I send him