“You, dude, are the god of drummers,” his fan proclaimed. “No one tears up a set of skins like Steve motherfucking Aimes.”
Interesting middle name. Toni wondered if the guys ever tired of fans calling them gods. If she had a dollar for every time she’d heard them called gods today, she could retire to the Caribbean and spend her days on the beach sipping mai tais.
“We really need to leave, guys,” Butch said, obsessively checking his watch now.
“Then we’re taking the long walk around the building,” Max said.
“Absolutely not!” Butch said.
Toni wasn’t sure what was meant by “the long walk,” but she followed the band as they stood, thanked the record store owners—smiling for pictures with them that were sure to grace the store’s walls in gilded frames before nightfall—and then headed out the front doors, where the waiting crowd was still milling.
“We have another engagement,” Max yelled over the screaming crowd. “We have to do the rest of this like sluts.”
Steve tilted his head, his brow crinkled. “Fast and easy?”
“Exactly.”
And thus began the assembly-line signing. The band started at one end of the crowd and signed anything shoved in their face—music scores, guitars, CDs, posters, boobs, T-shirts—if it had a surface, it got a signature. There wasn’t time for much personal interaction, but none of the band members seemed to mind all the touchy-feely going on. Toni would have taken a swim in a vat of hand sanitizer after being grabbed by that many strangers.
The band reached the end of the line, lifted hands of farewell to the enthusiastic crowd, and dove into the limo like a synchronized swim team. Toni scrambled in after them, followed by Butch. The rest of their security team got into a minivan and they all headed off to sound check.
When they arrived, crew members were putting the final touches on the stage assembly. So much was happening all at once that Toni didn’t know where to start with her data gathering, so she mostly gawked.
“Close your mouth or you’ll attract flies,” Steve said.
Her jaws snapped shut, and she shoved him.
“Where did Logan go?” Steve asked. “Didn’t get to see much of him yesterday. I have to tell him about the twins I meet at the bar Monday night.”
“Female twins?” She was teasing, but Steve scowled.
“Yes, female twins. I thought I made it clear that I’m one hundred percent heterosexual.”
“I didn’t mean to insinuate . . .” She cut off her apology and slapped him on the arm. “Don’t be so sensitive. I was just joking.”
“Oh.” His gorgeous face lit up with a smile. “Good one, Toni.” He returned her slap on the arm.
“What time do they start setting up the stage?” Toni asked. It was an amazing work of engineering. Assembling the hydraulics must take hours. Disassembling must take just as long. And then they had to load it, drive it to the next destination, and assemble it again. Toni suspected the road crew needed those days off even more than the band did.
“Hell if I care,” Steve said. “Why don’t you talk to Colby? She’s the head engineer.”
Toni’s eyes widened. “You have engineers?” She wondered just how many hands it took to put this tour together.
“I wouldn’t step onto that moving drum platform without them. So where’s Logan?”
“I don’t know. He said something about going to the dressing room.”
“Thanks.”
He turned to go, but Toni called after him. “When you find him, give him a kiss for me.”
Steve stopped in his tracks and turned to scowl at her. It must have occurred to him that she was teasing again as a grin soon replaced his frown. “With extra tongue,” he promised and strode toward the backstage area.
Toni went off in search of Colby the engineer. After asking around, she was directed under the partially assembled stage. She located the woman cussing up a storm under Logan’s platform.
“These things aren’t designed to carry that much extra weight.” Bang! Bang! Bang! A hammer ricocheted off a metal bar. “Next time one of them wants to bring a guest up on their goddamned platform, they’d better fucking ask me first.” Bang! Bang! Bang! Colby shifted the hammer to her other hand and wiped the first hand on her grease-smeared coveralls. “Fucking thing!” Bang!
Toni cringed, realizing she was the extra weight the engineer was cursing about. Toni started to back away. She probably shouldn’t bother the woman. Especially when she was busy repairing Logan’s hydraulic lift.