Free The Devil's Tattoo by Nicole R. Taylor

attraction towards me. The hateful death stares were
just a minor hiccup. I'd affected her.
    That was the moment she chose to leave
with Dee and tomorrow, I'd try talking to her again.
    I pulled away from the girl coldly and
she cried, " Hey ."
    Putting my empty bottle on the bar, I
said, "Not gunna happen," and wandered off
in search of Pete for a ride home.

 
     
 
    CHAPTER NINE

 
    ZOE

 
 
 
    We were starting the Walls on Fire tour in Brisbane and travelling right down the east coast, through all the
capital cities and a few regional towns before hitting Victoria again,
bypassing Melbourne via the country cities of Shepparton and Ballarat . Then to South Australia for gigs in Mt
Gambier and Adelaide. We'd come back the eight hour or
so drive from there to Melbourne for a final two shows before the tour
officially ended. We had a planned twenty gigs to get through in the next month
and a bit and that didn't include interviews and photo shoots along the way.
    Much to my relief, I got stuck next to
Frank on the flight and we made it to the hotel at the edge of the CBD with a
few hours to kill before the gig. We had a tight turn around so we had to make
do with no sound check and hope for the best. We were playing at Brisbane's Hi-Fi
Bar , so hopefully that would sort itself out.
    Check-in seemed to be a slow process
for a busy Saturday afternoon and we loitered in the lobby as the staff coded
key cards for us. I leant against the tours counter and flipped through some
travel brochures. Not that we'd get the time to see anything, but there were a
lot of things about rainforests and tropical islands that looked like a great
way to stop my eyes wandering.
    A shadow loomed in my peripheral vision
and automatically, I glanced out the corner of my eye and there stood Will with
his sexy wild hair, and now that he was close enough in daylight so I could
see, stormy blue-grey eyes. My whole body began to tingle and it unsettled me,
how attracted I was to him.
    "Hey," he said, leaning
against the counter.
    "Hey," I said slowly and it came
out like I was suspicious. Well, that'd be the truth.
    “I’ve seen you around. You know, before
this.” He waved his hands around, gesturing towards the others.
    “Oh?” I tried not to let on that I knew
exactly what he’s on about.
    “There was this show at  The
Corner  a while back,” he said, frowning at me. He seemed to think that
I would remember the awkward stage sexy eyes he gave me and
the odd eyebrow-raising incident . And that thing at
our first gig. Of course I remembered, but I wasn't going to let on. It
was months ago.
    “Oh, yeah. I was there,” I said
nonchalantly, putting the brochure I had in my hands back on the rack.
    “I wanted to come say hi to you, but
your mates seemed rather protective.”
    “Who? Dee and Frank?” My eyebrows rose.
“Yeah, well, probably Dee, but Frank would probably push me on anything that
looked my way.” Will looked confused, so I said, “He’s all for havin ’ a good time, if you know what I mean.” This didn't
seem to be going well.
    "Well,” he said. “ It’s gunna be a great tour. I
guess we’ll have heaps of time to hang out and get to know one another.”
    I’m not sure if he just said it to be
polite or to get away from the crazy person, so I just nodded. Dee chose this
moment to come along and thump my room key on the counter and I turned around
to pick it up. Obviously Will chose this moment to escape, so when I turned
back, all I saw was his back as he went over to pick up his bags.
    “So awkward,” Dee shook his head at me.
“I like, need to coach you on social interactions or something.”
    “Shut the hell up,” I hissed and pushed
past him, picking up my bag.
    "Don't be so bitchy, Zoe."
    "Don't be such a smart ass."
    I pushed the button for the elevator
about a million times, like it would make the hunk of junk faster. I heard the
rest of the guys loitering in the foyer as the door slid