Page 73 of Rock Giant

They were now surrounded.

“Exactly.Except I’m not sure they found out who did for the troll’s cock.”

“Humans haven’t,” Spook said, casting a sly look out of the corner of his eyes.“I imagine the culprit’s been dealt with appropriately by other agents.”

“You know trolls aren’t real, right?”Ronnie said to him.

“Right,” said Spook, fingering an iron pendant dangling from a thong around his throat.“The legends say they take the skinny ones and the goats first.”

“We don’t have any goats.”

Spook grinned.

Ronnie sandwiched himself in the middle of the group between Rock Giant, Luthor and Allegra.

“I’ve been thinking about getting a pet goat,” she heard him say to Allegra.

“Ronnie, you couldn’t look after a hamster.”

“Meteor!”Lee grabbed her arm, diverting her attention westward.

**

Rock Giant lit a fire, and the two bands settled around it.The drivers had gone to bed, as had Brian, but the few other crew members travelling on the Ghost Boys bus were lurking on the fringes.Beers got shared.Marshmallows toasted.Stories told.Jodi settled contentedly between Nash and Jez, her head resting on Jez’s upper arm, Nash holding her hand.It was like it’d been in the early days back in Valencia, complete with constant ribbing, only with the addition of five super famous rock stars and their partners to the group.

The Black Halo gang were clearly loving the bit of downtime from being on the road.If she’d learned anything these past few weeks, it was that touring wasn’t half as much fun as everyone supposed.Mostly, it was boring.It also involved a lot of being herded about like cattle, and lectures from Brian about where and what they were supposed to be doing, and some serious bollockings if they dared to deviate from the script.

For all that, she liked Brian.Brian was cool.The overall tour manager, though, he was fucking scary.Mostly he spoke to Brian though and let him wrangle the Ghost Boys.Black Halo were his priority.She wondered what they’d done to sweet talk him into this stopover.Or maybe folks were just more amenable to requests when you were a big-name band.

“I’ve missed this.”Nash leaned over to whisper in her ear.

“Me too.”She’d always loved the crackle of a campfire, and the swell of togetherness that came from sharing one.

“Come here.”Nash reclaimed her from Jez.“Whoever made this call, it was a good one.”

“Time out from the bustle.”

“Yeah.”He shared his beer with her.“Course I might have to drag you off into the bushes in a bit for some private time.”

“I might even let you.”He looked pleased to hear it, and he gave her hand a squeeze.

“Let’s stay awhile yet, though.I’m enjoying the vibes, and it’s still early.”Her guys and Black Halo were intermingled.The them-and-us feelings that had lingered even during the party of a few nights back had dissolved.She was nestled in between two of her favourite people.Things were pretty perfect.

“’kay.”Nash claimed another kiss, his mouth gentle against hers.The scent and taste of hops lingering after their smooching was done.“Love you.”

“I love you, too.”

“Forest sex later though,” he winked.

“Who’s having forest sex?”Ronnie blurted from the opposite side of the fire.He had to have superhuman hearing to have heard them.

“Odds are, everybody but you,” Xane replied.

“Don’t tease him,” his girlfriend said.

“Hey, I’m not the only single person here.Some of them are single,” Ronnie swept his arm in an arc to indicate her boys, “And Rock Giant got mar—”

Ginny stuffed a smore into his open mouth.“You wanted one, right?Yes.”