Hard Freak

He didn’t need to remind Polly of things like that. I was plenty old enough to date Crow. The way these guys acted, you’d think I was still underage.

I kicked Jax. He tried to dodge, but I got his ankle hard enough to make him grimace.

“More like, he doesn’t want to cause trouble on the tour,” I said. “You know what Damo’s like.”

Then, to emotionally kick Jax on top of the actual kick, I added, “Wow, everyone’s going to be paired on this tour. Damo and Polly, Elijah and Rose, Matt and Fiona, and... oh, wait, then there’s you, Jax. All alone.”

He looked like he wanted to kick me back. I tucked my feet under the seat just to be on the safe side.

“I’m fine,” he said. “I can take care of myself.”

I chuckled. “Yeah, you can.” And I did a jerking-off hand gesture. “That’s Jax ‘taking care of himself’. But there’s Fartstard. He’s single. Go for it, Jax. You’d make an awesome couple. Except for his conniving, double-crossing ways.”

Jax screwed up his face. I didn’t blame him. I still had to make that bastard pay for ratting me out to Polly. Even if everything worked out fine in the end, he’d betrayed my trust.

“Good thing he did,” Polly said.

I shrugged that off. I didn’t want to open that discussion again, not with things starting to work out.

I stared out the window as the train got closer.

“Paris. It’s the city of love,” I said.

“It’s the city of working our asses off onstage,” Polly said. “But it’ll be nice to get a chance to look around a bit.”

“And eat French food,” Jax added.

“The only French food Polly will eat is French fries, I bet,” I said with a grin.

“I have an Eiffel Tower view from my room,” Polly said. “I’ll be able to see it from my bed.”

“Me too?” I asked. That would be the greatest. I’d be able to take the most jealousy-inspiring selfies for my Instagram.

Polly gave me a fake pout. “Oh, sorry, no. We have the luxury suite.”

Polly always got the luxury suite. Mainly because of Damo.

It didn’t take long until we had to gather our things to get off the train. Fartstard met us at the station to take us to the hotel.

“We can’t be too careful after that incident at the festival,” he said.

I hoped Polly wouldn’t notice what he’d said, but she turned to him. “What incident?”

Fartstard nodded at me. How did he even know about that? Only Crow and Elijah knew, and neither of them would talk. Sure they wouldn’t.

“I heard from the festival organizer that this little Firecracker got in some trouble.”

I wanted to punch him for saying that. He made it sound like my fault. I hadn’t gotten into trouble. Trouble had found me.

“It was nothing,” I said. “Some creep came on a bit strong, but I got away from him, and then Crow and Elijah sorted him out.”

“Fay...” Polly stopped walking and looked at me.

“Seriously, Polly, it was no biggie. It could happen anywhere. If I’d stayed at home, even. Guys like that are everywhere.”

Hell, the last thing I wanted was her getting some idea that hanging out with Crow was a bad idea. I balled up my hands into fists, wanting to slam one of those fists right into Fartstard’s pudgy pudding face. He could’ve kept his mouth shut, but nope, he had to blurt it all out.

“I don’t like this,” Polly said. “I don’t like it one bit.”

“Well, you can’t change the world,” I told her. “If you’d been there with me, if we’d been playing the festival or whatever, it would’ve been the same. It wasn’t like I encouraged the bastard at all.”

I hadn’t been to blame, and now it might ruin everything. Damn Fartstard. I would totally get him for this. Maybe itching powder in his jocks, except then I’d have to go near them, and ick, no.

We arrived at the hotel. It sure was a fancy place, like a palace. The lobby took my breath away. We’d stayed in some fancy hotels, but his was so much lusher than any of them. It had those fancy French chairs and all kinds of chic Parisian touches.