Page 5 of Accidental Fire
my heart tells me to trust you’re yearning for my touch
Oh, I’ll find you, (yeah, I’ll find you)
and when we finally meet, you’ll love me just as much
And when I find you, (when I find you)
Our hearts will know we fit
We’ve been waiting for so long
It will be clear that this is it
“Oh, I like this band. What’s the name?”
“Accidental Fire. Five guys. River Ashe, JD Horne, Arlo Timmons, Goldie Robbins, and Hardy Boyer. River and Arlo are half-brothers, and their father is Regal Ashe. He’s the drummer and lead singer of From the Ashes. They were good, but these kids are damn great.”
“So, I’d be doing what?” I wanted the job description to be black and white.
“How much is the pay?” Pop asked.
Nate chuckled and turned to my father. “You know you have a trust fund from Nina that’s under my control, and I’ll sign it over to you anytime you say, Leif. You can do anything with the money you want, you know?”
“Yeah, yeah. I have my own money. Give it to Kit. Give it to a charity. I don’t really care.”
I turned my gaze back to Nate. “And what aren’t you telling me, Nate?”
My uncle chuckled. “They’re young. They’re wild. They get into trouble, but they really have a lot of potential. All I need you to do is get the equipment to the venue in time for the roadies and the crew to set up for the show. After, they’ll take it down and load it.
“You can do anything you want during their performances, and since the shows are spread out, you can travel to the venues at your own pace. You’ll have plenty of downtime, I swear.”
So far, it was sounding too good to be true. “How often are the shows?”
“Every weekend, basically. Most shows are just one night, but some are two, and we’ve reserved the right to add nights in some of the cities toward the end of the tour as the band becomes more popular. The guys will be traveling by bus most of the time, flying in and out if they get into the studio, but you don’t have to travel with them. There’s a two-week break before Vancouver in September.
“I don’t care what you do while they’re on stage, but when the concert’s over, I want you ensuring that the instruments, the backdrops, and the sound systems are all on the truck. You should be the last out of the venue and the first to arrive at the next one.”
“I can do that. Who’s in charge of the band? Are they headliners, or are they part of a multi-group appearance?”
“After Leif and I play golf tomorrow, we can sit and go through the details, but I promise, it won’t be anything too taxing. There will be layers of other people between you and the band,” Nate said.
Would I be okay doing the job? If it went down the way Nate explained, yeah. I didn’t have anything planned for the summer, and I liked exploring new places.
As long as I didn’t have to deal with the band, I’d be fine.
Chapter Two
River
“Why are we going to Mr. Ashby’s house? Isn’t he still pissed at us? I mean, we paid the hotel for the damage and shit, but we didn’t call him to apologize,” I said to Marshall Kensington.
I’d just returned from West Peoria, where I’d looked after Petey Ritter, the high school student Skyler and Sandy had taken in and had been appointed as guardians. The kid was nice, and he was easy to be around. His girlfriend, however, was annoying as fuck. She came over one afternoon, and Petey introduced us, and the moment he said I was in a band, she followed me around the whole afternoon while I was trying to find a quiet place to work on a song. Thank god, she didn’t come over after that. He went to her house instead.
It was a common case of groupie fever, as Clancey, the band’s bus driver, labeled the throngs of screaming girls and boys chasing us down outside hotels and venues during our winter mini tour. It was absolutely insane.
“Heispissed at you, but he wants you guys to meet the whole team because this is a much longer, larger tour, and you need to know who’s who. The band has acquired quite a following, so we need to be prepared for anything. When someone tries to hustle you out of a crowd, I want you to know it’s someone on your team, and not some crazy bastard trying to kidnap you.” Marsh didn’t crack a smile, which was a little concerning.
JD stopped his discussion with Arlo and turned toward us. “Is that really a thing? Do we have stalkers?” His smile grew like it was a good thing, the stupid asshole.
