ONE

Slippery When Wet Tour - 2nd Leg

June, 1987

Jamie jolted awake.  The hiss of hydraulics followed by her world dropping at least half a foot, signaled stop number…fuck, what day was it again?  God, she hated the damn bus.  “Where the hell are we?”

Ashley dropped from the top bunk, ‘Freak Me Friday’, stamped on her bikini underwear. “Minneapolis.”

“Right.”  She winced and turned back to the carpeted wall.  She so didn’t need to see Ashley half naked this morning.  Male fantasies of pajama parties and tiny shorts weren’t far off if you lived in Ash’s world.  The girl just didn’t believe in clothes.  It had to be a Texas thing.

She rolled onto her stomach, and dragged the pillow over her head.  They’d been spoiled the previous week with the prop plane that Jon liked to call the Jovi Jet, but it was down for repairs.  Of course, the guys had conned some stupid PR guy to fly them into Minnesota from blustery Illinois, but they’d been bus bound.

Ronnie lifted her pillow. “Wakey-wakey.”

She flipped her sheet over her head.  “No.”

“If you’d said no to that college boy, you’d have had enough sleep.”

“That college boy was hung like a porn star.” She peeked out from under the sheet.  “You’re just jealous.”

“I got nothing to be jealous of, darlin’.  I dragged his best friend into the rig.  He was very appreciative of my bass collection.”

She snorted.  “A whole new pickup line.  Would you like to come up and see my etchings…I mean my, bass collection?”

Ronnie laughed.  “C’mon. If you don’t move, you’ll end up with Ash for a roommate tonight.” 

Jamie snatched the pillow back.  “Unh-uh! I had her last night, dammit.”

“And I had her three nights in a row last week.”

“Give her to Steph,” she mumbled from under the pillow again.

“Good luck with that.  She’s already off the bus.”

“Shit!” Jamie flipped back her blankets, yelping when her sheet wrapped around her ankle and she ended up on the floor. 

“Are you all right?”

“Don’t you laugh,” she ordered Ronnie. 

Ronnie’s lips twitched, but she didn’t say a word, just tugged her bag down from the bunk directly across from her and waved on her way out into the hallway.  Jamie kicked out of her tie-dye sheets and dumped them back into her cubby.  Sucking diesel fumes and burnt popcorn all night wasn’t exactly what she’d signed on for.  Her head throbbed like the inside of a kick drum.

She slapped her foot against the storage drawer under her bed and dropped onto her back.  God knew what was on the carpet, but she just couldn’t make herself move.  She was tired. 

They’d been on the tour for two months now, and Doc McGee was a grueling taskmaster when it came to public relations.  She should be grateful.  He’d been willing to take on Jovi and Devotion for the marketing and management through the tour.  They were paying a pretty penny for his goddamn marketing, too.  Fucking leech.  But he was doing his job.

Devotion’s second single, Desperate, was screaming its way up the Top Twenty Countdown on MTv.  They’d even won over more crowds than they’d lost since they’d joined the tour.  She didn’t have anything to bitch about.

Too bad she was feeling so bitchy anyway. 

“Well, there’s a picture.”

From bad mood to worse. Awesome. “What the hell do you want?”  Fully awake now, she stood, dragging a hoodie out of her drawer.  Alec John Such’s eyes raked down her body.  How the hell had he gotten on the bus?  Her sleep shorts and tanktop could have been see-thru with the way he was looking at her. Just…ugh.

He leaned against Veronica’s bunk.  She was pretty sure he was wearing the same clothes as last night.  “You should be nicer to me.  I’m the reason you’re on this tour.”

No, you’re only on this tour because you’re an old friend of Jon’s. She managed to bite back that thought. “What, you’re in here for a thank you?” She tugged the sweatshirt over her head, her eyes disdainful. “Thanks.”

“I was thinking something more give and take.”

“What, me on my back? Please.”

“I hear that’s what you do best, James.”

She whirled on him. “Don’t call me that,” she snapped.  Alec had a twisted sense of humor, but this was just too much. She grabbed her knapsack and pushed her way past him.  A wiry arm shot out, stopping her cold.  “Let me by,” she said through clenched teeth.

He lifted the ends of her hair and brought it to his nose.  “From what I saw on Wednesday night,  you’re up for just about anything.”

The first trickle of unease prickled between her shoulder blades. Her eyebrow arched, but she stood absolutely still.  She wanted to take two steps back away from him, but that’s what the little freak wanted.  He’d been sniffing around the Devotion bus since April. 

She tried to think back to Wednesday night.  God, it was only two nights ago.  She couldn’t exactly say that she was an innocent on this tour.  They’d been in Detroit.  She’d…her skin went tight with goosebumps.  She’d hooked up with a baseball player in the stairwell.  He was a big fan, and she’d been more than happy to go for a home run.  Her voice went hard and cold.  “I only fuck men, not weasels.”

Alec fisted his hand in her hair.  “You can’t talk to me like that!”

“And I didn’t say you could touch me.”  She stared him down.  Richie had taught her everything there was to know about self-defense.  She could take the little twerp down if she needed to.  His brown eyes jittered twice and she swore inwardly.  He was tweaking.  Fuckhead wouldn’t have touched her if he was in his right mind.  Richie would rip his ball sac off and feed it to him.  Not that there would be much to swallow.  “Don’t make this ugly, Alec.  Whatever you thought you saw the other night, doesn’t mean I’ll repeat the performance with you.”

“It would be a step up from the groupies.  I’m with the band,” he said with a whiney, nearly hysterical laugh. 

She was pretty sure that worked about eighty percent of the time, but not with her.  Booze and last night’s concert reeked off of him.  He was crashing hard, and a speedball never treated Alec well the next morning.  “Look, why don’t you just go find Marcus.  You’re not thinking straight.”

“I’m thinking plenty straight.  I’ve been watching you strut around the parties with your Miss High and Mighty airs, or whatever.  I’m plenty good enough for a whore like you.”

Mean carved grooves into Alec’s face.  She liked to party as well as anyone, but her gut was starting to twist at the look in Alec’s eyes.  She’d suspected that Alec was dabbling with the harder stuff, but this clinched it.  Switching tactics, she dropped her voice to soothing.  “What’s up, Alec? What brought this on?” 

A hideous laugh had her backing up a step.  “I watch all  you girls coming into our parties, stirring things up. Thinkin’ you’re better than everyone.  I’m plenty good enough!”

Jamie frowned.  Completely lost with the conversation and the man.  Alec was spiraling and she was alone with him.  Good Christ, she wasn’t sleeping in again.  Ever.  Where was Mike, their driver?

“You think you’re so much better than everyone because you’re Richie’s sister.  What would Richie say if he knew how easily his sister gave it up?”

What? He thought he was going to blackmail her now? She looked down at him.  She was a few inches taller than him, even with the lifts he wore.  He put his hand on her hip, his fingers digging into her ass.  “Don’t make me break your fingers, Alec.  You already play like shit.”

The backhand came without warning.  She saw a flash of rings and then black dots.  He was wearing enough hardware on his fucking fingers to make it feel like she’d been cold cocked with brass knuckles.  The force of it barreled her back, rapping the base of her head into the divider between her and Ash’s bunk. 

She crumpled like last night’s setlist.

The thump and shouts that followed her down to the floor, rang in her head like microphone feedback.  She shook her head, but couldn’t focus enough to back away or even move.   

When she could focus again, it was a tirade of Spanish that broke through the clanging.  She flinched at the hand to her face. 

“It’s me, querida.  Shh…he’s gone.”  More murmurs of Spanish soothed her, not to mention let her know just how bad she must look.  Tico only drifted into his native tongue when he was upset or tipsy.  “C’mon, let’s get you up.”

Wrapping her arm around his neck, she let him drag her off the floor.  He walked her out to the living area of the bus, backing her onto the couch. 

He took a towel full of ice off the table.  “Here.”

The puppy-dog brown of his concern filled eyes had her tearing up. “Oh, Papa Bear.”

“Oh no, you’re not going to cry on me are you?”

She sucked it back, shaking her head. “Of course not, only wimps cry.”  She leaned her head onto his shoulder and set the ice on her cheek.

“That’s my girl.”  He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and huddled her in against his chest.  “What happened?”

She met his eyes. “I swear I didn’t lead him on or anything!”

“Baby, I know you didn’t.” He kissed her forehead and pushed her head back down on his chest, putting her hand back up to her cheek with the ice.  “I had to put him in a headlock to drag him off you before I could even get him off the bus.” Tico sighed.  “He was on something.”

“Something serious, T.” The wildness in his eyes, just before the crack of his hand…she shook it off.  Alec was a sleazeball, but he was usually harmless.  “I can handle myself, you know I can.”

“I know, querida.”

She hated the shudder that rolled through her.  “Don’t tell anyone what happened, okay?  Alec was just coming down off of something hardcore.  He didn’t know what he was doing.”

“He knew.” Tico’s voice was flat and cool. So unlike him.

She dropped the towel into her lap.  “He—“

“That was more than being an asshole.  Sorry, kiddo, but he was out of control.  What if I hadn’t been here?”

“But you were here!” She clutched at his wrist and tightly muscled forearm.

“I can’t do that, Jamison.  Doc needs to know, and you know Jon needs to know about this.”

She sat up.  “I’ll just make sure none of the girls are alone with him.  Devotion’s just getting into their groove on the stage.  I don’t want to make waves.  He didn’t hurt me.”

“This time.”  He cupped her face, his thumb brushed the raised skin where the rings had hit.  “How are you supposed to explain this?”

“You accidentally cracked me with your elbow?”

Tico rolled his eyes. “What, so now I beat on women? Jamie, I couldn’t reach your head with my elbow. You’re taller than me.”

“I fell?”  He just stared at her solemnly.  “C’mon, Papa Bear.”

“We have to tell Jonny.”

“Shit, shit, shit!”  She knew he was right, but just…well, shit.  Jon was going to flip out, then he’d tell Richie and then it would just go downhill from there.  “Let me tell him.”

“I don’t trust you.”

Jamie smiled.  “I swear, I’ll go tell him now before anyone sees my rapidly swelling eye.” She stood up and went to the mirror in the kitchen.  “Shit, I’m going to need to put my makeup on with a trowel to cover the shiner that’s coming through.”

He came up behind her.  “Keep the ice on it.”  He put his hand on her lower back. “Let me walk you over to see Jonny.”

She frowned down at him.  “Not going to let me get around this one, huh?”

“Nope.”

She sighed.  “Let me get my bag.”