Strung Tight (The Road To Rocktoberfest #1) - Ann Lister Page 0,34

leaving with him is Dallas. He should be out by the loading dock working with the equipment crew,” Mason quickly added for me, and Griffin nodded in understanding.

“Got it,” Griffin said and then looked at me. “We’ll take a walk back that way and see if we can find him.”

It was probably a good idea at this point if I just kept my mouth shut and followed Griffin’s lead. I had every confidence he’d get Dallas and me back to my apartment as quick as possible. At this point, any further discussion on my part would probably end with me mentioning how I hoped to have Dallas naked five minutes after we walked through the door. I was certain Griffin didn’t need to know that information.

I gave Mason a wave, and then Griffin and I left the room together and started down the hallway to the loading area at the back of the club. My body was still vibrating with energy from the show, and the pads of my fingers were hot and worn from playing my guitars. I was damn near desperate for the kind of release I knew Dallas could give me, and admitting that to myself didn’t come easy either. I only hoped he was up to fooling around tonight because I really fucking needed it.

Chapter Twelve

Was it weird that I didn’t remember much of the ride home, and I was mostly sober? It was true though. Dallas was ready by the time Griffin and I reached the loading dock, and we walked together straight outside and slid into the back seat of a big SUV that Griffin led us to. I remember exchanging a few goofy grins with Dallas, and at one point, he reached over and squeezed my thigh. The zing of electricity that shot through my body from that one touch made me dizzy, and I was grateful to be sitting down.

Griffin remained quiet for the ride. I only heard him speak when he pulled up in front of my apartment building, and even then it was brief. It was almost like he knew how nervous I was and that it’d be best he didn’t say anything.

“I’ll need to bring you to the door,” Griffin said after we all stepped outside of the vehicle.

“Is that really necessary?” I protested.

Griffin casually scanned the wide, mostly empty street of my quiet residential neighborhood with the Queen Anne homes dotting both sides of the road. This whole area had been used as dormitory housing for a local college but was later converted over to apartments after it closed down back in the eighties. Anyone into architecture would be drawn to these apartments with their high ceilings and ornate woodwork and trim. Most of it was lost on me though. Mike and I just wanted an affordable place to live, and this suited our needs. A lot of the homes needed work done, ours being one of them. The years of neglect were starting to show on the structures, which was probably why our two-bedroom place wasn’t overly priced.

I watched Griffin sizing up the area. The sound of distant traffic and a dog barking a few houses down was all that could be heard. There wasn’t so much as foot traffic at the moment, which had Griffin standing in place beside the vehicle.

“Our protocols mandate us going inside to clear a dwelling for our principals,” Griffin stated as if he were reading from his company manual. “Sometimes a room-by-room clearance is necessary for the job.”

“I’m not Dagger, and my tiny four-room apartment is hardly worth your coming upstairs to check all the closets and look under the beds,” I said and rolled my eyes as Dallas and I stepped up onto the sidewalk. “No one around here gives a shit about me, nor would they even know the name of my band.”

“That status is going to change a lot sooner than you may think,” Griffin pledged as he pointed to me with a big shit-eating grin, like he already knew the answer to the great mystery of my future.

Dallas and I continued up the front walkway to my building, and after I unlocked the huge wooden door to the foyer, I turned around and gave Griffin a final wave before I shut it behind me. It wasn’t a surprise that he was still watching us intently as he leaned against the front bumper of the vehicle. I supposed that was also part of his job. I pointed toward