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Chapter 13 - Between the Notes

Dani sat outside the Starks' garage, head on the steering wheel. Jon had left the church by the time she got out of Kari's office, and Vic didn't know where he'd gone. He wasn't at his trailer, so Dani figured she'd find him here. Who knows? Maybe Bobby, too. 

"Lord, I don't want to see either of them."

A tap on the car window. Basil. Perfect. Wonder how long he's been standing there. Her stomach turned. She shrugged the neckline of her blouse higher before cranking the window handle. 

"Missed the applause?" he lit a match off the car door, taking a drag and leaning his arm on the window, allowing smoke to curl into the car. 

"Just saying goodbye to the guys."

"Smart move."

Dani narrowed her eyes as he tamped ash from the cigarette. 

Never going to get that smell out of my car. 

Basil leaned in, resting his claw on her shoulder. "Drop 'em, kid. I'll have you filling stadiums in six months."

"Yeah, I'll be the next Lita Ford." Dani rolled her eyes, pulling away. "Singing duets with Ozzy and opening for Mötley."

"You'll make 'em forget all about Lita. And Joan. And Pat. And all the rest. Give me two albums, and I'll have Crüe opening for Dani Glass."

"What happened to Dani Grass?"

"Glass is better." He tamped the cigarette again, ash landing on her jeans. "More pure, but more dangerous. Fragile. Vulnerable. But it'll cut you. I'm telling you, you're a star, kid."

Dani closed her eyes. He did paint a picture. She felt the rush of the bar crowd, tried to imagine multiplying it a hundred, a thousand times over. The tingling worked its way to her toes. 

Inferno's rhythm section shocked her from her dream, blaring from inside the garage. It sounded like they were working on the complex bridge she'd added to "Straight to the Top," one of Jon's better originals. 

"Jon know you're out here?" Dani slid away, adjusting her top against Basil's stare. She let herself out the passenger side and headed inside. 

***

Marc and Cal were just starting to nail the bridge, Cal's shoulder-length locks sporting a new perm, when Dani peeked in. She giggled in spite of herself, biting down on her lip. Don't say anything; he's going to look like a poodle for six months. 

Marc had worked up a sweat, his T-shirt hanging from one of his cymbal stands. Keeping a solid beat with one hand, he pointed a drumstick at Bobby's Les Paul, leaning against the stacked amps. 

Dani waved him off. 

Marc leaned into a boom mike. "Baby, baby, baby, pleeeeeeeeeeeease…"

It was the first time she'd heard him sing. Not bad. She laughed and strapped on the guitar. If nothing else, it'll tick Bobby off if he finds out.

By the time Dani reached the second measure, Cal and Marc kicked their playing into another gear. One more time and they nailed the bridge, sailing into the climactic chorus. Seamless. Dani noticed her pink nail polish flaking onto the fretboard as she played the finger tap solo . She tapped harder. 

Marc was still pounding out the big finish when Dani turned to Cal.

"Where's your brother?" she said. 

"Not my turn to watch him."

"Bobby?" She set his guitar down, making sure to put it in a different place than she'd found it. 

"Comes and goes as he pleases," Marc said, one of his twirling drumsticks getting away from him and clattering to the floor. "We're a better band with you anyway. C'mon back."

Dani looked at Cal. Cal looked away. Fishing a lavender pick embossed with a silver butterfly out of her pocket, she slid it between the Les Paul's strings. 

Marc chuckled. "Jon would take you back."

Cal shot him a shut up look. 

"What? She's all he talks about."

Dani bit her lip, chewing on that. "Not at the airport."

"So he's a jerk," Marc said. "It's lead singer syndrome."

"I don't think I could be just his bandmate."

"I've never seen him so into anyone," Marc said. 

"Other than himself." Cal funked a bass riff, flipping his head to bounce the curls out of his eyes. "Look, I don't blame you. He doesn't deserve you."

"But you gotta play one more show with us." Marc's smile faded and, for the first time she'd seen, he looked serious. 

"Here's the thing," Cal said, hesitantly. "Basil said if you don't play, we're done. And even if we could talk him out of it, we've got no show without you. Bobby's MIA."

"I'm twenty-six, Dani, and I still live with my parents." Marc pleaded and laughed at the same time. "If we don't get this deal, I'll have to cut my hair and learn to ask if you want fries with that. Can your conscience handle that?"

"What good will playing one show do?" Dani shook her head. But, truth be told, she didn't want that on her conscience. "Besides, I don't think I could just be Jon's bandmate."

***

While Dani looked for Jon in the Starks' garage, Vic looked at him across his desk in the Fidelis Garage. 

"Can't believe I lost her." Jon stared at the floor, slurping black coffee from a Styrofoam cup, his eyes less bloodshot than they'd been this morning. 

"Can't believe you had her." Maybe this guy wasn't as bad as he seemed. Looked like he was paying attention to Pastor Stenger this morning. He'd said the sermon was still on his mind. 

"You got nothing to worry about," the singer blew hair out of his eyes, giving half a chuckle. "She's a good girl."

Vic rapped a crescent wrench on the desktop. "Good girls fall for bad boys all the time." Like every girl I've ever been interested in. 

"I just wanted a guitar player." Jon looked away. 

Is he choking back tears?

"Didn't mean to fall for her."

Vic considered going over all the things that were wrong with that kind of music and why Dani shouldn't be around that scene to begin with, why it wasn't fit for pigs' consumption. But it looked like God might be working on Jon's heart. And Vic knew he had scared people off by coming on too strong about worldly music and movies and stuff like that in the past. Maybe a 

different approach would be better. 

Vic retrieved an old burgundy leather Bible from the drawer and flipped it open to the page marked with a frayed ribbon. Turning it around, he pointed to a verse he'd highlighted in yellow and underlined in red the year he'd first started reading the Scriptures. 

Jon leaned in, focusing bleary eyes. "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers." He scrunched his forehead as Vic motioned for him to go on. "For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness?"

Vic sat back, steepling his fingers and silently studying Jon. 

"What concord hath Christ with Belial?" Jon stammered, face scrunched. "Who's Belial?"

"It means Dani shouldn't be dating you," Vic said, drawing in a deep breath. "If you're not following Christ, it'll force her to choose between walking in the light and running with the devil."

"You calling me the devil?"

Vic stood, leaning over the desk as close as he could and waiting for the rocker to make eye contact through his sheepdog bangs. "If you love her, you won't put her in that position."

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