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

the number of the door I’m outside. Five minutes later, Will appears instead, striding along the hallway towards me. “You still look like shit, man.”
    Beneath his spiked dark hair and pierced eyebrow, Will’s green eyes are circled by dark rings too. “You don’t look too hot either.”
    “Late night entertaining.” He winks at me. “Guess you chose the wrong girl.”
    “Mmm.” Not like I’m going to tell him the real reason. “There’s always tonight.”
    He laughs. “Or are you saving yourself for Tegan?”
    “Yeah, right. Where is everybody?” I step in the direction Will came from.
    “This way.”
    He leads me back down the hallway, past signs in Portuguese I can’t read, past closed bars and a café before stopping at maroon painted double doors. “Wait till you see this!”
    I follow Will through the door into the empty stadium. After a few steps, I stop and look around.
    Holy crap.
    The size of the expansive floor is impressive enough, but the number of rows of seats and the height they reach blows my mind. I think I’d suffer vertigo if I were at the top.
    “This place is fucking huge!” I mutter.
    “Bit different to The King’s Head,” replies Will.
    A little over a year ago, we played venues where we could see almost every member of the crowd, and the barman. Tonight, we’ll be lucky to see one person’s face clearly. Across the space, the stage holds half a dozen people whose faces I can’t see properly from this distance, who are moving speakers and stage props around. I recognise the scarlet hair of one of them and she’s standing straight, facing our way.
    “What mood is Ruby in?” I ask Will, cautiously.
    “The question is what mood will she be in with you because your name appears to have changed to ‘Fucking Jax’, today.” He claps me on the shoulder. “Good luck.”
    Shit. “But apart from me, how is she?”
    “Not as bad as usual for pre-gig, probably be worse later.”
    Taking a deep breath, I saunter over. I don’t want conflict this early on and Ruby had better not talk to me like a kid, I’m not taking that shit.
    Ruby’s slim frame is pronounced in black leggings and a sloppy red and black striped jumper. The colour of her hair and bright red matching lipstick accentuates how pale and unwell she looks. Ruby narrows her eyes as I approach.
    “Are you feeling better?” I ask, straight off the bat.
    In rehearsals, before we left, she was hit with gastro that’s lingering. She ignores me. “Where the fuck were you? We were supposed to meet at eleven!”
    “Sorry.”
    “Not a great start, Jax, is it?” Ruby says with a sigh.
    I’m unsure whether to be relieved or worried by the lack of yelling; I pull my best apologetic face. “Yeah, won’t happen again.”
    Ruby pulls hair from her face and twists it into a ponytail. “A chick?”
    “No. Drank too much. Getting a little over excited I guess.”
    The view from the stage stuns and terrifies me as I picture the crowd who’ll fill the space later. Last gig I went to at a stadium was Foo Fighters, where I threw myself into the action at the front. How can people stuck in the top seats enjoy concerts? What’s the point if you can’t dance?
    “Your gear’s over there. Five minutes and someone was about to start sound-checking for you.”
    I tense. Nobody touches my guitars. Bad enough I have to relinquish them to be driven from place to place with all the other gear.
    Heading over to the edge of the stage, I grab the battered case, smoothing where the peeling stickers have been knocked in transit. Inside rests my new pride and joy; the Gibson Les Paul I bought with the advance from our record deal. Okay, a mid-list guitar, but this is the start of a collection to one day rival Jem Jones’s. Stroking the wood, I examine for damage but there’s none. Good.
    Nate appears from backstage. He and Will are dressed identically today, black jeans and the new tour t-shirts, same blue Converse. Presumably this