Cowboy Ending - Overdrive: Book One by Adam Knight Page A

wasted!” He whooped again, making the girls
with Aaron flinch back slightly and then laugh awkwardly.
     
    Parise and
Aaron laughed as Mackie motioned to Miller, leading him into the
main bar area. Aaron shared a glance between them with Parise
nodding fractionally.
     
    “You in a rush
to get home tonight, Joe?” Aaron asked, looking me right in the
eye.
     
    I paused.
     
    On the
surface, this seemed like an innocent question. I interpreted the
subtext. Wanna stay for the after party,
Joe? Like I said, sounded innocent enough. It had been
a shit few weeks. The kind that felt like months.
     
    But there was
something in the way he said it. No, in the way he looked at me
when he said it. Just in a way he and I had never spoken
before.
     
    Seriously.
     
    Aaron’s never
serious.
     
    He’s the
life of the party. The sleaze supreme. The front man for Cowboy Shotz .
     
    He never does
serious.
     
    The pause got
long in the tooth.
     
    I coughed,
covering the silence.
     
    “Sorry,
something in my …” I coughed some more, hoping the flush in my face
would be confused with choking as opposed to sudden, onset
embarrassment.
     
    Parise
stepped up and gave me a few whacks on the back. “You
okay?”
    “Yeah,” Coughed
a few more times to really sell it. “Yeah sorry. Should really
start smoking so I can quit.”
     
    Nobody
laughed.
     
    Can’t win ‘em
all.
     
    “So yeah, you
want to stick around after? Join us upstairs for a few drinks? A
few of the other doormen are invited as well. We want to talk some
business. For the club.” Aaron smiled widely and both girls with
him suddenly turned on the sexpot eyes, aiming them in my general
direction.

    I returned my
poker face to its full and upright position, hoping the fact that I
suddenly felt myself approaching boner factor five at something
resembling warp speed wasn’t registering in my eyes.
     
    “Sure,” I
replied taking a glance up the stairs. “Depending on how the night
goes, I’d be happy to hang around. Check out the penthouse.”
     
    Aaron smiled
widely and Parise clapped his hand on my shoulder. Then they turned
into the main room with the girls, leaving me behind.
     
    I glanced up
the marble staircase again as people filed in past me from the main
entranceway. Then I shook my head. With my luck Mom would want to
go to early Mass or something, guaranteeing me a very long
Sunday.
     
    Still, a
party’s a party. And everyone needs to blow off steam every now and
then.
     
    Among other
things.
     
    I wandered past
the not yet packed dance floor, waved briefly to the DJ spinning in
the high tech booth just off to the left of the stage where
tonight’s band was warming up for their first set. All the power to
the stage and lighting grid flowed through that spot, at least
that’s where all the heavy duty cables and lights seemed to start
from. Forty thousand watt system all flowing underneath that guys’
feet. Buddy looked like he could barely get his head out of a bong
but there he stood, working away on his turntable and laptop.
     
    I stepped up
onto the stage and ignored the cracking sensation in my knee. My
surgeon’s voice echoed in my head rambling on and on about rehab
exercises, proper stretching and maintenance. I tuned out the
memory the way I tuned him out in person. My knee still bent the
way it was supposed to and I could still squat like a linebacker in
the gym.
     
    Pain is
manageable. One of life’s truest lessons.
     
    Turning out to
face the bar I went over my mental checklist one last time as the
rush of the people filling into the club began to buoy my energy
levels. All of my points had been covered and everyone was in
place. People were starting to file in steadily in small groups.
The hockey game would be ending soon so the real party was about to
get started.
     
    We were ready
for anything.
     
    So of course,
anything had to bring friends.
     

Chapter 6
     
    It ended
up being a really big
night.
     
    By some