Chapter 2

2

J ake Bradshaw tuned his guitar, strumming the strings a few times to make sure it was perfect. He had already done it a dozen times that night, but something gnawed at him. His nervous energy over the show had him grabbing everything in sight and fiddling with it. But he couldn't quite put his finger on why.

He had performed hundreds, if not thousands, of shows with his band Chaotic Notes. They weren't new to it. So why was he so nervous?

A phone pinged across the room and Jake looked up to find his best friend and bandmate staring at his screen before a smile split across his face. Ben stood up and rushed to the door of their dressing room before opening it, which amplified the noise raging in the arena, and glanced down the hallway.

"Hey, Lonnie!"

The large man appeared in the doorway. "What's up?"

"Claire is here. She just texted that she's out front, but they don't believe she's my sister. Can you go rescue her?"

"I'm on it." Lonnie disappeared, and Ben shut the door, closing out the noise with it.

"Claire is here?" Jake asked before he could catch himself.

The little sister of his best friend had avoided them for years. Ben had tried to talk her into going on tour with them, or at least meeting up occasionally, but she always declined. It had killed Ben. Not that he had ever told Jake, but Jake could see it written across his face.

Ben nodded as he typed out a text, bouncing on the balls of his feet. Jake could remember the last time he had seen Claire. It had been four years, just when their band started gaining momentum. Claire used to come around to their sound checks whenever she could. She joined them on their very first tour and helped with their wardrobe, but it eventually stopped. Jake had never told Ben, and he suspected Claire hadn't either, but the two of them had hooked up drunkenly one night. After that, things became strained, and she eventually left the tour.

Jake wasn't proud of it. He knew Ben would hate him if he knew Jake was the reason Claire left. But it hadn't just hurt Ben. Jake had been just as crushed. He cared for Claire. Cared for her a whole hell of a lot, but she hadn't been interested. She left before they had a chance to make a relationship work.

Last he had heard, she was dating a guy and had stopped hanging around everyone. She rarely showed up for family events, according to Ben, not that they were great about it either. Their work schedule kept them on the road a lot, but the band tried to get home as often as possible. Ben usually complained that he didn't see Claire because she couldn't pull herself away from her boyfriend to see her family.

A lady with a headset walked into the room and smiled at the guys. "We're ready for you."

Ben glanced down the hallway again. "Is there a chance I can see my sister first? She just got here."

"Let me see." She spoke into her headset, asking for an update. She nodded her head at whatever response she received before looking back at Ben. "I'm sorry. There was a snag at the door. Your sister is fine, but it's going to take a bit for them to get back here. It's better if we start the show now."

Ben sighed and threw one more glance down the hallway before following the lady out, their other bandmates tagging along. Jake looked down the hallway, hoping to catch a glimpse of her because he didn't know how he was going to get through this show, knowing Claire was watching and he hadn't even seen her yet.

"Dude, what happened out there?" Liam, their drummer, asked as soon as they left the stage. It was hard to hear over the screaming crowds, but they had gotten pretty good at shouting things to each other only an inch from someone's ear and making it look normal.

Jake only shrugged in response. The show was one of the most grueling shows he had ever performed. Not because the set list was hard. It was the same as they had for the last ten shows they performed. He could perform it in his sleep. But apparently not when Claire was in the audience. His heart thrummed in his chest the entire time, and he scanned the first few rows looking for her, but he never found her. It wasn't until he screwed up a few more notes and he started getting looks from his bandmates, asking if he was okay that he realized he needed to stop.

One step at a time , he reminded himself. He just needed to get through the show and then he could see her and get the awkward reunion over with. For all he knew, she wouldn't even look at him, and he was worried for nothing.

But he wasn't worried. He was eager. His heart beating rapidly had nothing to do with the 50,000 people in the stadium. It only had to do with one, and he was about to see her for the first time in four years.

They made their way down the hallway, back toward their dressing room. Ben was practically skipping down the hallway, knowing his sister was close by, and his excitement radiated off him during the show. Ben was their lead vocalist and played lead guitar, and he put extra emphasis on the notes as he sang their songs. The crowd had gone wild and ate it up. Jake would daresay it was Ben's best performance to date.

Ben was the first in the dressing room, and Jake brought up the rear. Before Jake even got into the room, Ben's voice met him.

"What. The. Fuck."

"It's not that bad," Claire's voice came back softly.

When Jake got into the room, his stomach plummeted because the beautiful little sister of his best friend didn't look the same. Not at all. Instead of being met with a glowing smile and dimples, they were met with a face of worry.

Because Claire's face was black and blue.

Jake saw red.