Page 54 of Sycopation
A nod. “But Domino is untouchable. And I mean that literally.”
Too intimidating. “Not if you’re into that sort of thing.” Dom’s stage persona would probably fit right into some of the dungeons he’d been to.
“ButI’mnot into that sort of thing.” Dom’s voice was quiet. “Not all the time.”
Which gave Zavier a pretty good idea what Dom wanted, and yeah, he could have filled that role. If there was any spark whatsoever between them. There wasn’t. A friendship, yes. But Dom didn’t scratch any of Zavier’s itches—and he suspected the other way around was true, too.
“So, what? You put on the real you and scour the museum set for a hookup?”
A wry chuckle. “Pretty much.”
Well, how about that? “Does it work?” He had to know. He really had to.
Dom’s smile was devilish. “All the time.”
Zavier’s turn to laugh. “Man, if I’d known...” He hated stepping on someone’s plans.
Dom waved his arm. “No, I’ve enjoyed hanging out with you. You were the impossible kid to befriend in high school. This has been fun.” His voice dropped a little. “And I feel better about you helping Ray out.”
Something about the way Dom spoke made Zavier’s skin heat. He glanced over. “What?”
There was that smile again, the one he never saw on Domino but seemed to live on Dom.
Instinct told Zavier he wouldn’t get an answer, even when pressed, and he was pretty sure he understood what Dom was hinting at. He shrugged. “I like Ray.” Needed him as a friend. Wanted even more. The thoughts settled onto Zavier, ill-fitting and scratchy, but he pushed them aside. No time to ruminate. No space.
“Good.” Dom rotated his map. “There’s a place up here I want to check out...”
Turned out to be a used bookstore. Or rather, an antique-book dealer. This was a little higher than the wine-and-cheese set. Nice literature, but not really Zavier’s thing.
He eyed Dom talking to the shop’s proprietor, a tall, broad man with dark hair and tan skin, who was practically eating Dom whole as they conversed. It was like watching a master at work. The way Dom laughed and moved and spoke—all quite real, but also quite enticing to the shop’s owner.
Time to leave him to his conquest. Zavier coughed. “Hey. I’m gonna head back. I’ll catch up with you later.”
Dom grinned like a kid at Christmas. “All right. You know the way back?”
Zavier rolled his eyes. “I’m quite capable of finding my way to the hotel, yes.” He pushed the door open, and headed out, leaving Dom to his prey.
The only problem was that the walk back gave him far too much time to contemplate Ray Van Zeller and all the details he now knew.
Zavierhadbeen a musical prodigy. But...so had Ray. Only Zavier had been the one with money, lessons, and the asshole chip on his shoulder from being told how good he was. Ray hadn’t had any of that, and he’d climbed his way toward stardom anyway.
Fucking hell, where would Ray be if he’d been in Zavier’s shoes? He shook his head. One thing he’d learned, both in school and outside of it, playingwhat-ifgames with the past didn’t get anyone anywhere at all.
So the real question was how could Zavier help Ray now? He had no idea. Well, that wasn’t true—he had many,manyideas. Every single one of them heated his blood.
Zavier sighed. Those were the ones that were out of the question, even if a little voice in the back of his head kept asking,Why not?
CHAPTER
FOURTEEN
Their dayof freedom was over and Carl was back. That smooth, fake voice grated up Ray’s spine to his skull as he stood by the tour buses. They were nearly packed—just the final check to make sure they had everything and no equipment had wandered away.
There was a nasal quality to Carl’s voice Ray’d heard when they’d found videos of Tenacious Dreams, and now he couldn’t unhear it. Wasn’t horrible, a gray dagger across Ray’s vision, but it also wasn’t surprising that Carl ended up in management. Maybe vocal training could have fixed it, but who knew?
When Carl strode up to him, Ray almost didn’t flinch. “You’re on time,” Carl said.
Ray rolled his eyes. The early-morning summer sun was heating up the humid Texas air. “It’s a fucking Christmas miracle.” He stared back as Carl’s face darkened.
