Looking For Trouble (16 page)

"We could stop by there, and check out the
stage set up too, if you want," Wade suggested looking in the
mirror at Jazzie. Anger nipped at her and Jess bit her tongue, so
she didn't say something smart to him, like this was
her
band, not Jazzie's. She realized she was being prickly again and
reined herself in. Maybe he was just talking to Jazz, because
noticed how quiet she'd been too.

But when she saw Jazzie look up into his
eyes in the mirror and they smiled at each other, Jess lost her
generosity and ground her teeth. Something was definitely up there,
and she didn't like it one bit. She spun in her seat to face
forward, then crossed her arms and looked out the window, trying to
control the simmering anger and jealousy inside of her.

Wade pulled up in front of the bar and
parked, then came around and opened her door, then opened the back
one and helped Jazzie down. Jess huffed out an angry breath, then
slid down to the ground. She was already out and hobbling toward
the front door, by the time he came back to help her. Walking as
fast as she could in the cast, she pulled open the front door and
walked inside the dim building. Jazzie and Wade walked in behind
her and stopped by her side.

Jess could tell the acoustics in here were
going to be crap. They'd have to make speaker and amp adjustments
to try to compensate, because it might be a low dollar venue, but
she still wanted to sound good.

She saw Mike, Denver and Tony setting up
instruments on the stage and hobbled that way. "Hey guys, how's it
going?" she said with a big grin, then grabbed the rail to take the
stairs up to the stage. Before she got a foot on the first tread
though, her feet were swept out from under her, and Wade carried
her up the stairs then set her down.

"Be careful you don't trip on a wire,
sugar," he told her then went back down the steps.

All three of her band mates walked over and
gave her a big hug, Denver was last and he lifted her off her feet
and hugged her tightly. She put her arms around his neck and gave
him a big kiss. "Glad ya'll didn't desert me..."

"Never darlin'...you know we love you," he
told her then squeezed her again, before setting her down. "You
wanting to practice, doll?"

"Thought we'd better make sure I didn't
break my voice along with my ankle," she told him with a
chuckle.

Denver shook his head and crossed his arms
over his chest, then told her, "I can't believe you dance around up
here on this stamp sized stage like a gazelle, then you run across
an open pasture and break your damned ankle."

"Try it in high heel boots and you'll
understand how it happened," she told him, and he laughed.

"No thanks, I'll stick to my combat
boots...they're safer," he said then walked back behind the drum
set and made some adjustments, then nodded.

Mike adjusted the amps, strummed his guitar
a little, then adjusted some more, before he nodded too. Tony was
last, and played a little run, and nodded, then walked over to pick
up a stool, a mike stand and her acoustic. He set the stool and
stand down by her, then handed her the guitar. "There you go,
sugar," he told her with a wink and a big smile.

She really did love these guys, they were
like her family they'd been playing together so long now. Jazzie
came up on the stage last and got her violin case and opened it,
then rosined her bow and plugged up. When she was set, Jess nodded
and Denver started a drum rhythm for their first song, and then
they practiced through their normal first set. When they were done,
she leaned back and told Denver to start, Angel, then got her
electric guitar and plugged it up, and gave him a nod. Playing her
electric on the stool was a little awkward, because she couldn't
move around like she usually did, but would just have to make it
work.

Jess looked down and saw that several of the
bartenders, who had been setting up behind the bar earlier, were
now standing in front of the stage to watch, with Red, the owner.
Then she saw Wade standing off to the right, with Angel in the car
seat beside him. Her eyes roved down the row of bartenders then
settled on the cutest one, then she locked eyes with him, and
started singing the song, moving as much as she could on the stool,
so her playing didn't sound or look flat.

Wade could flirt with Jazzie, well she could
do more than that, she thought and poured on the sexuality in her
tone. The guy she was singing to took three steps forward, until he
was in the spotlight, and she could see he wasn't unaffected by the
attention. He looked up at her dreamily, and his smile was ear to
ear. With a wink she crooned the last line, " You're my angel, come
and take me all night...come and save me tonight."

When the last sound faded, and the bar was
quiet, he let out a whoop, then ran up to the stage and hopped up
there. Wade was faster and he jumped up there then got between the
guy and Jess, and gave him a heated glare. "Not a good idea,
man...you have a job to do, go do it," he told the guy cockily,
then crossed his arms over his chest, which made his chest puff up
under the t-shirt he was wearing, and his biceps bulge.

The bartender studied him for a minute, then
shook his head and hopped down off the stage, and walked quickly
across the dance floor toward the bar. Jess rounded on him, but the
anger in his eyes stopped her short from blasting him. He put his
hand over the mike and leaned down in her face, "Don't ever sing
that song again," he said in a low lethal tone.

She swallowed hard to stifle the nasty
response that sprang to her lips, then nodded and got up off the
stool and walked to the stairs with tears burning behind her eyes.
Grabbing the hand rail, she stepped down and found it, even though
it was blurry, then she went for the second one and stumbled.
Strong arms grabbed her waist, then she was swung up into Wade's
arms again and stiffened her spine, then grated through clenched
teeth, "Put me down...
now
."

"You're determined to break your fucking
neck, aren't you?" he hissed right back, then set her down on her
feet at the bottom, and stomped off, then picked up the car seat
then went to sit a table by the door.

"What the hell would you care if I did!" she
yelled across the bar and Red and the bartenders who were walking
off turned around to stare at her. Jess felt heat rise to her face
and she said, "Sorry..." then turned around and took several deep
breaths to calm herself down.

Jazzie came down the stairs and stood in
front of her, and huffed, "You need to grow up, Jess...this is
getting ridiculous. You knew that would piss him off, and you did
it anyway. Then you yell at him for getting pissed off."

"Go fuck yourself, Jazzie...or go fuck Wade,
I don't care which, that's what you really want," she said snottily
and gave her a disgusted once over. Jess had never talked to her
like that before, and she heard Jazz suck in a shocked breath then
she turned and strode across the bar toward Wade.

Denver came down the stairs next and his
face was full of concern, as he asked, "What's up with you, sugar?
You want to talk about it? You and Jazzie never fight...this shit
is worrying me. You're just not yourself."

"Not a good time, Den...I don't want to piss
you off too. My mouth keeps getting away from me," she huffed out a
frustrated breath and the tears she'd been holding back tracked
down her face. Denver growled then pulled her into his arms and
murmured soothing things into her hair.

She had her face in Denver's chest, but she
heard another growl behind her, then she was jerked out of Denver's
arms and spun around to face Wade. His face was mottled red and his
jaw clamped tight, he gritted his teeth a couple times, then he
said, "We need to talk," then shot Denver a heated glance, and
added, "Privately." Wade took her arm and dragged her across the
floor to the back exit and opened it, then pushed her outside.

Jerking her arm out of his grasp, she rubbed
it then said, "Keep your hands off of me."

He stepped into her space and got in her
face, "Jazzie told me what you said to her, and you need to
apologize,
now
...she's upset."

Jess whimpered as jealousy and hurt surged
through her. She turned her back on him, and folded her arms around
her middle, determined not to let him see her cry. In a trembling
voice, she told him softly, "Go take care of her then, Wade...I
think Angel and I are going to stay here with the guys
tonight."

"Like hell you are...my daughter is not
living above a bar," he told her forcefully, and she whimpered
again.

"Okay, you take her then, and
I'll
stay here..." she said then sank to her knees, and put her hand to
her chest, because it felt like her heart was being ripped from her
chest. Sucking in a painful breath, she told him, "This isn't going
to work...I'm going to get an attorney."

"With what, Jess? You don't have any money,
and Angel needs you, you can't run out on her, because you're mad."
His voice was calmer, but his tone held disgust.

"I'm not running out on her, you haven't
left me with a choice," she said in short gasping breaths.

"Goddammit, Jess," he yelled then dropped
down to his knees beside her and grabbed her shoulders, "What the
fuck is wrong with you? What did I do?"

She shook her head and wailed,
"Nothing...you didn't do anything except make it impossible for me
to get away from you
and
keep my baby."

"How the hell do you figure that? I'm buying
a fucking house for you and Angel that I'm not even going to live
in, and giving you anything you need, what more do you want from
me?"

"You're just like Ray, he used
my
money to try and control me, and you're using
my
daughter
for the same thing. I'm broke, because I trusted him...and I'll
lose my daughter if I trust you. Just go settle Jazzie down, she
needs you...
wants
you."

Wade was thirty-four years old, almost
thirty-five, and he'd never in his life met a more infuriating
woman than Jess Sparks. He just couldn't figure her out. He sat
down on his butt beside her, then pulled her into his lap and
asked, "Who the hell is Ray, and why do you think Jazzie wants
me?"

"Ray is my ex-boyfriend...and I know Jazzie
better than anyone on Earth...she has a crush on you.

"That's bullshit, Jess...and what did this
Ray guy do to you?"

"He stole my songs and copyrighted them in
his name and sold them, then he took all the money, he used me and
robbed me blind, just like my dad. I don't even know how much he
stole, but it was probably a hundred thousand dollars or more."

"Holy shit, Jess! Did you call the police?
Sue him?" Wade barked then pushed her away from him to look into
her face.

"I talked to an attorney and he said I
didn't have a leg to stand on, because I didn't protect my
interests...I didn't even look over the books, I let Ray control it
all, because that's what he'd always done...he was my manager."

"Do you still have the books?" Wade thought
she should probably talk to another attorney and the police, file
charges against him for theft.

"Yeah, but I can't look at them...I get sick
every time I do."

Well, Wade got sick every time he thought of
her singing that damned song to another man, and he asked not
really wanting to hear the answer, "How did you meet this guy? Was
he an '
angel
' too?"

Bile rushed up his throat, and he tamped it
down. Wade was more determined than ever that she was never going
to sing that song again, he just couldn't take it. He knew that's
why she'd named the baby Angel, and hearing her sing it to someone
else felt like she was betraying him
and
Angel. He couldn't
explain it, that's just how he felt.

Jess looked up at him with regret in her
beautiful green eyes and said, "No, he wasn't an angel...far from
it. He was a member of the commune, about your age, and my dad
wanted me to marry him, before I turned eighteen. He did too, but I
said no, and left on my birthday. He followed me, because he said
he wanted to be with me, even if I didn't marry him. Jazzie tried
to tell me he was using me, but I wouldn't listen...I trusted
him."

Wade could certainly see why she no longer
trusted men, but she was going to have to trust him, if they were
going to be good parents to Angel. "I am not like him, Jess, I
don't want anything from you, except for you to take care of Angel,
and work with me to be a good daddy to her."

He heard her suck in a deep breath, then she
let it out slowly and told him, "I know you want Jazzie, and she
wants you, so I can't stay at the bunkhouse anymore. I need some
space, Wade...I have to be somewhere else, so we can both get on
with our lives."

Wade dumped her on her ass then stood up
with his hands on his hips and glared down at her. "Where the
hell
did you get the idea that I want to be with
Jazzie?"

"I see how you look at her, and it's not the
way you look at me. You look at Angel the same way..." she told him
then her lower lip trembled, then she dropped her chin to her
chest, and finished, "I don't want to stand in your way, so it's
better if I stay here and just visit Angel."