Chapter 11

As they ate Dusty couldn’t help but smile as she watched the two friends try to out do themselves as they tried everything to keep her mind off her woes. She could tell that both men wanted badly to quiz her about the night before but were reluctant to bring the topic up. As she laughed softly at Richie’s outlandish jokes and Jon’s “oh why is he my friend” expressions her eyes kept traveling to Jon’s face. Something was different about him. Oh sure he was a few years older, she recognized that fact, but it wasn’t that. Her eyes widened as it came to her and her mouth started running before she even thought. “You cut your hair, THAT’S what it is.” Jon turned a quizzical gaze towards his golden girl and Richie bust out laughing.

Her cheeks flushed pink as she realized she had spoken her thoughts out loud. “It’s just that four years ago you had this long mop top, and I kept trying to figure out what was different about you and,” she paused as her eyes met his a soft plea within them for him to understand.

“Yeah, I got tired of it about a year ago and just whacked it all off.” His face shadowed briefly as he wondered if she was one of those who only saw the hair and looks.

“Yeah Dusty, man it made the freaking world wide news.” Richie grinned as he reached over to thwap Jon on the back of the head. “Everything the wonder boy does damn near reachs the news.”

She shook her head grinning as her hand brushed over his head. “Pissed you off didn’t it? So much to you than just hair and they chose that to talk about?” She smiled gently before removing her hand. “They just don’t see beyond the package is all, you’ll have to forgive them for not seeing the man behind it, and maybe it’s a good thing, that much will allow you a bit of privacy. They see what you want them too and it keeps that special part of you safe.”

A brilliant smile played over his lips as he listened to her words. She did see that he was more than hair and music, it was evident in her gaze and that afforded him a chance to see if she liked what he had done. “So do you like it short like this?”

“Well now, if I say I do or don’t are you going to think its all about the hair?” She winked and picked up a croissant and took a small nibble as her gaze stayed intently on his.

“Nah, I actually don’t mind an honest opinion.”

She smiled and reached out again the flip an errant lock of his hair away from his eyes. “I like that it’s not all in your eyes, and it’s a very nice look, but honestly I think you’d look a bit better with it longer. Your face is very sharp and the hair serves to soften the planes of your face.”

He tilted his head and smiled a bit the urge to just lean over and sweep her into a kiss dancing through his mind. “Well I might take that into consideration Baby, eventually.”

Richie leaned back with a stunned look on his face. Had anyone else mentioned Jon’s hair they would have probably gotten the back end of his tongue. If he was touchy about anything it was being seen as the rocker with the hair, but this tiny slip of a girl had managed it. He shook his head before taking a sip of coffee and wondered what else might change with her in Jon’s life.

The sudden pounding at the door startled all three sitting at the tiny hotel table. “Fuck it’s probably the guys.” Richie muttered as he looked at Jon with a “what we do now?” look.

Jon sighed and called out, “ONE second guys,” then stood and moved to the bed to pull the vibrant purple sweat pants from the bed. He took them to Dusty and helped her stand and get her feet into the legs. As he began to pull them upwards he glanced upwards and seeing the look on her face stopped with a grin on his face. “Ok, Ok, you can do it yourself, I get that.”

As Dusty finished pulling the sweats on, Jon moved over to the door and pulled it open. “Well come on in guys. I was wondering how long it would take you all to meet the day.”

David, Tico and Alec more or less tumbled into the room, David being rammed from behind as all men stopped short. Being ever the joker David was the first to speak. “Even in this god forsaken town, I walk into your room and you’ve found the prettiest one around. Now last night you were all alone and this morning you’ve got a goddess in your room. Exactly when did you find the time Jonny boy?”

Jon’s eyes flashed momentarily at the blatant desire that was suddenly flittering in each of his band’s gazes. “Guy’s, I’d like you to meet Dusty.” His tone was friendly, but the underlying ‘back off she’s mine’ was there for the men who knew him best.

As the guys moved closer to Dusty she moved closer to Jon. The curly headed one seemed nice, and the dark one was radiating a mix of humor and friendliness but the tall skinny one set her hackles to raise and she didn’t have hackles in human form. The skinny one set her teeth on edge and the only way to resolve that was to be closer to the one whose scent and presence could calm her. She startled as David leaned over and dropped a swift kiss on her cheek. “So this is the famous DG we’ve been hearing about off and on for four years eh?”

“DG?” Her look was quizzical as she studied the curly haired one.

“Yup, that would be Desert Girl, the only woman to leave this man wanting more. Yep, I’ll just call ya DG cuz danged if you aren’t the color of the desert, and he found ya here so it just fits, I’m Dave by the way.” David shot her his famous, I’m the Joker you love me grin, and she knew in that second that he was safe and ok for her to like.

“Well it’s a pleasure to meet you too Dave.” Dusty smiled and watched as David twirled around and shot over to the table snagging the croissant right out of Richie’s hand, jamming it into his mouth as his friend yelped a huge “Heyyyy that’s mine!” David gave him a grin and proceeded to steal his coffee too eliciting a laugh from everyone.

Jon looked at her then back at the band, without even trying she’d already earned a band nick from David, and they hadn’t even gotten to know her yet. He grinned then shook his head, but come to think of it, he knew very little about her either and that was something he’d have to resolve very soon.

With everyone involved in David’s snatch and run, Tico moved to the young woman and smiled. “Hello there Little One, It’s a pleasure to meet you, I’m Tico, but you can call me Teek.”

Dusty smiled softly at the dark man. “You have a nice voice Teek, all gravely and whiskey soft.”

Tico grinned at the lady in front of him. “Well thank you darlin but if you don’t mind I think I’ll go grab me one of those breakfast croissants before the Joker and Richie eat them all up. He waggled his brows and garnered a silly grin from her as he turned and wandered over to the table.

As Alec moved up to greet Dusty she wrinkled her nose and slid closer to Jon. “Excuse me a moment.” She gave Jon a look that screamed she wanted to flee, as she turned and slowly made her way into the bathroom, shutting the door swiftly behind her. She moved over to the sink and turned the tap onto cold hoping that a bit of cool water on her face would remove whatever it was bugging her. She splashed the water over her face with a sigh. What was it about the tall skinny one? He smelled wrong, even to her human nose he smelled poisoned and she couldn’t figure out why. It was almost as if he smelled sick, but he didn’t look sick so it couldn’t be that could it? Not only did he just smell off but he looked off to her, his eyes were a bit glassier than a normal man would have in the mornings. She just wished she could figure out why he struck her so wrong.

Jon stood staring at the bathroom door. Dusty had been in there quite a while and didn’t seem to be coming out any time soon. He began to worry that something was wrong with her wounds or that something else had happened. He walked over to the door and tapped softly before calling out, “Hey baby, you ok in there?”

Dusty sighed and moved to the door, cracking it open enough to allow him to enter. As he slid into the bathroom she moved back, her golden eyes showing the worry flickering in the golden depths. “I’m sorry Jon, I just couldn’t greet that skinny one. I just,” her voice faded off as he took her into his arms.

“Baby, you can tell me anything, don’t worry about being nice all at first, you’re still hurt and shouldn’t have to be dealing with this.”

“It’s not that Jon, really, its that one guy, something just isn’t right about him. He smells off to me, like he’s poisoned, and his eyes are all glassy. He makes me nervous is all.”

Jon’s eyes widened for a moment as he tightened his arms around her reassuring her. He’d been wondering for months if something was wrong with Alec and her observations added to how the wolf had literally snarled at the bassist had his mind in over drive. They had served to make him finally realize that something bad was wrong with Alec.

The only question was, what was Alec’s problem and how were they going to handle it?