The Devil's Metal by Karina Halle Read Free Book Online Page A

cab waiting for us.”
    I couldn’t help but feel shy while looking
at him. There was something magnetic about his presence and it was
hard to guess his age. His mannerisms and skin made him look older,
but his eyes and smile placed him at about thirty. He was a beefy
guy, wide at the waist, built like a tree. His knuckles looked fat
and he had a bunch of gold rings on them. His suit was checkerboard
and ugly.
    He turned and started marching toward the
door. I followed behind him, my long legs trying to match his, my
brain lagging behind. I ignored the tingling sensation in my
hand.
    We burst through the main doors and into the
Colorado sunshine. It was brighter here than at home, the air
smelling fresh from the mountains. I immediately imagined Moonglow
tossing up her white mane, Arab nostrils wide, soaking in the
oxygen. This was horse country, a more rugged version of home.
    But now wasn’t time to be thinking about
home. We had stopped at a cab that was running at the side of the
road. Jacob tossed my sign in the trash (kind of a bummer because I
would have liked to have kept that as a souvenir), then opened the
door to the backseat, taking my suitcase from me with the other
hand.
    “Get in,” he gave me a little shove toward
the door. “And be careful, she bites.”
    She bites?
    I got in and sat in the back of the cab,
expecting to see a dog or something. Instead I saw the very
unamused face of Miss Noelle Clark. Bassist. Girlfriend of Mickey
Brown. An original member of Hybrid, and one of the hottest chicks
in the music industry.
    She was looking at me like I’d already
tested her patience. Despite the dullness in her heavily-lined eyes
and the tightness of her normally full lips, she was prettier in
person than I’d seen in photographs and on TV. She was thinner than
I imagined, but dressed straight out of a magazine spread, a
headband on her head, her dark, wild hair trailing down her
shoulders. She wore a slightly transparent black lace dress and
tall platform boots. It was sexy and hard-edged all at once. She
was one of the few musicians who could pull off the Alice Cooper
look without being Alice Cooper.
    And I was very aware that I was shoved in
the back of a cab with her and staring at her blatantly.
    “Hi,” I said awkwardly. I wiped my sweaty
hand on my cords and put my hand out for her. “I’m Dawn. I’ll
be—“
    “I know why you’re here,” she said quickly.
She turned her attention to Jacob who was just coming into the car.
“Can we get a move on or what?”
    Jacob shot her a look over his shoulder.
When his amber eyes narrowed, he looked positively avian. “You
don’t call the shots, missy. You wanted to come along and along you
came.”
    She sat back in her seat and crossed her
arms, looking out the window with annoyance. “Had I known it would
take so long, I would have sent someone else to get the
alcohol.”
    I felt like I had to say something. “I’m
sorry the flight was a bit late and—”
    “And now,” she added, still not looking at
me, “I have to watch what I say because some groupie is in the
car.”
    “Hey,” I protested. “I’m not a groupie!”
    The cab driver and Jacob exchanged a look
and the car roared off. I was thrown back a bit and I made sure I
was fastened in properly.
    Noelle rolled her eyes but didn’t say
anything.
    “I’m a journalist,” I went on to say even
though it didn’t seem like anyone was listening. Jacob was grinning
like a madman from the front seat, like he was really enjoying
himself.
    “You’ll have to excuse Noelle here,” he
finally explained, tucking away those big teeth. “She’s the girl of
the group. You might be infringing on her territory a wee bit.”
    I gave him a funny look. Well why the hell
did he want me to come on the road with him if he thought it was
going to be a problem?
    Never mind, suck it up , I told
myself. I was obviously a bundle of nerves and taking things the
wrong way. I’d win Noelle over sooner or