The Infinite Beat (T.I.E. Book 2) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  The Infinite Beat

  *

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  **

  The Infinite Something

  Dancing With Danger

  The Other Princess

  Redemption Weather

  Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

  About the Author

  The Infinite Beat

  T.I.E. Series

  Book 2

  Christine M. Butler

  Copyright © 2019 Christine M. Butler / Christine Michelle

  All rights reserved. Scanning, uploading, copying, and/or any distribution of this book, either electronically or otherwise, is illegal and punishable by law without express written permission from the publisher.

  Help support authors you love by only purchasing legitimate copies of their work through trusted sources.

  Any similarities to persons, organizations, or places written about within these pages are purely coincidental, as this is a work of fiction.

  Editor: Bella Hickman

  Cover Design: © Christine M. Butler

  Cover Image3 & Chapter header art Credit: © Ksysha (Canstock)

  Special font used on cover and in chapter headers:

  BigMisterC: © 1999 Solar Sister Fonts http://www.fontspace.com/solar-sister

  KDP Version

  Dedication

  For everyone who loved the first book enough to snag a copy of the second! Thank you!

  Acknowledgments

  As always, I want to thank my readers for taking the time to read, review, and tell people about my books. Without you, I wouldn’t still be doing what I love to do. Thank you!

  To Lexy and JoJo – I’m sorry for all the times I’ve ignored you while I was working, especially when JoJo tried to make me jealous by getting belly rubs from Lexy and looking RIGHT AT ME while he did it. ;) Yes, our dog is a conniving little thing, but we still love him. Lex – I’m beyond proud of everything you do and your accomplishments! You make my life a million times easier which allows me to get things done. You are my rock even when I’m supposed to be yours.

  To Alex – Dude, I am not your Uber! ;) Seriously, thanks for always being so supportive and excited about what I do. It is the thing that keeps me going when I sometimes just don’t have it in me.

  Dev – I’m beyond proud of you, and even though you’re out on your own doing your thing, you were there in the beginning. You’ve cheered me on, helped me with decisions about covers, books, and everything else. You have all my love and thanks! <3

  Bella – When I got so busy I couldn’t even take a moment to breathe, you stepped in and offered up your precious time to help me out even though you have your own stuff going on. You make me so proud every single day. Thank you for all your help. Thank you for stepping up, and being the best big sister – even from a distance! And thank you for being an amazing daughter!

  The Infinite Beat

  T.I.E. Book Two

  Available March 28, 2019

  Chelle

  I was a stowaway, on tour with a rock band. We were supposed to be on tour with them legitimately - my brother as the bass player for the opening act - Seduction and Sacrifice - and me as their merch girl. Then my brother's band imploded, and they lost their spot. We lost our jobs, our apartment, and almost all hope before he managed to get us on with the road crew.

  I pretended to be a one of the guys in order to go unnoticed. It worked until he saw me, saw through my disguise, and then changed my world.

  Evan

  That was no dude dropping stuff by my kit. Too slight. Too perfect. Too beautiful for anyone to mistake her as anything but the feminine perfection she was; yet these morons on the road crew had referred to her as a dude.

  One look from her stopped me cold. One smile of hers stopped my heart. One laugh brought it all back into focus.

  One test changed everything.

  Forever.

  *

  ~ Chelle ~

  Ryan and Webber, my brother’s bandmates, had screwed us royally with their antics. They got wasted – whether drugs, alcohol, or both remained to be seen – and nearly killed an aging Hollywood producer when they ran him over and crashed the car they had rented to go joyriding in. We were supposed to leave on tour in two weeks. Two weeks, and they couldn’t keep it together. My brother was their bassist, and they were supposed to open for The Infinite Everything. I was supposed to be their merchandise sales girl on tour. We had everything set and ready. Our apartment was emptied of the little we had that we wanted to keep, our lease had been given up, because we thought we could get a better place when we got back. Now, there was a refrain rolling through my head as I processed the information. What are we going to do? I posed the question to myself, but my brother spoke up as if I’d said it aloud.

  “Just calm down and let me think for a minute, okay?”

  “But those idiots got wasted, totaled that car, and landed themselves in a hospital after almost killing a man. If they miraculously don’t go to jail for the incident they’re going to rehab at the very least.” My brother knew all this information, of course, but I was in panic mode. Therefore it was my job as his sister to reiterate all his current woes to him. His concerns were mine too since we were all each other had. Dave’s band mates were supposed to be people we could count on too, but that wasn’t looking so great in the bright light of day this morning.

  “I’ll call Dylan and see what the plan is since Ryan and Webber fucked themselves up. Just hang on a minute and let me wrap my head around that fact that my dreams are falling apart at my feet right when I think I’m finally getting somewhere, okay, Chelle?”

  Ugh. I wanted to cry. My brother’s band, Seduction and Sacrifice, was supposed to be opening for The Infinite Everything on their upcoming tour. The Infinite Everything. This was our big break. It wasn’t even just that we couldn’t go on tour that was upsetting me, or that my brother was going to miss out on his dream. I had to worry about where we were going to live since we never signed a new lease on our super cheap, horribly run down apartment. The funny thing was, super cheap and horribly run down apartments were not easy to come by. So when we refused to sign a new lease because we knew we’d be on tour for months, the apartment had already been snatched up by someone else. I had a job, my brother had a job, we were going places, and both of us just knew that once we got back to L.A. after the tour was over we would be able to upgrade to a not so horrible, slightly more expensive apartment complex. Maybe even upgrade to one that had a functional pool we could swim in instead of watching wanna-be skaters cracking their heads in the perpetually empty pool just outside of our window. I found myself panicking, afraid to lose the only place we had to call home, even if it was the shittiest imaginable apartment.

  David was still staring at his phone when it started ringing. “Shit!” That one word hissed out on a long breath told me that whoever was on the other side of that call was not going to have good news.

  “Hey, Deacon,” Dave answered. Deacon James was the man in charge of Wicked Web Tour Management, and the one who put together
the contracts to ensure Seduction and Sacrifice were billed as the opening act for the duration. My brother listened for a moment and then heaved his body into the lawn chair we were currently using as part of our living room furniture. Our apartment was just as shitty on the inside as it was the outside, because we were broke and had been on our own since Dave was 16 and I was 14. He’d been taking care of me since our parents died. We were left in the care of a distant male cousin named Tim, the only family member who would claim us, and let’s just say he didn’t have the best of intentions where I was concerned.

  The moment Dave walked in on our evil cousin trying to peel my nightgown off of me he knocked him out, gathered up as much of our stuff as he could, stole all the money he could find in Tim’s wallet and the rest of the house, and had us out of there in under 15 minutes. It had been just the two of us ever since. Struggling. This was supposed to be our time, our moment, and the magical thing that was going to finally lift us far enough out of poverty that we could stop worrying about where our next meals were coming from. We could even start buying frivolous things like a couch that hadn’t been pissed on after being left out on a curb by a neighbor, or lawn chairs that were procured by less than honorable means.

  “Yeah, I understand. Can you,” my brother started, stopped, took a breath and then fought through whatever pride was trying to stay his tongue. “Do you think you could let me know if there’s any room with the road crew for the tour? My sister and I were counting on this contract and let the lease go to our apartment, and everything. We…” Dave hushed, and appeared to be listening again before he blew out a frustrated breath and then grimaced into the phone. “Yeah, man, thanks.” Then he flipped his phone shut. Yep, that’s how suck-ass our lives were. We still had flip phones, because they only cost $20, and didn’t require a mobile data plan that we couldn’t afford.

  “Tour’s canceled, huh?”

  “The tour isn’t canceled, but my part in it has been. Seduction and Sacrifice won’t be going on tour since our contracts were nullified when the wonder twins got their asses hemmed up in legal bullshit and bad headlines in the paper. The guy they hit was Sal Giovanni, 82-year-old producer of the Immortal Vengeance Series, and he’s in the hospital with a broken hip and collapsed lung so charges are being pressed. Webber won’t be playing drums any time soon anyway.”

  “What about the crew spots?”

  “He told me I could check in with Smithy, but he was pretty sure the crew was full up.”

  “You gonna check anyway?” I asked not knowing if the depression over failing us was going to kick in and keep my brother down, or if he was going to attempt to rally.

  “Of course, I’m going to check in and see if we can squeeze on. Shit, what the hell else do we have right now?”

  “Yeah.” That was it. What else could I say? We were literally out of options and all because my brother’s band mates couldn’t keep their shit together long enough to get on tour, and possibly get set up with a record contract if they did well enough. All of that was shot to shit now.

  “Guess what happened today?” David asked me as he barged into the apartment, just two days after finding out that we’d lost our spot on the tour.

  “You learned how to shout really loudly and be extremely obnoxious all at the same time?” I teased him considering the way he had just come bounding in our mostly empty apartment like the Hulk on a mission to destroy whomever pissed him off last.

  David grinned at me, his dark, overly long bangs flopping down over his left eye as he did so. “Oh,” he stated as his face took on a sullen turn. “I guess you’re right. I shouldn’t share my news and good fortune with my bratty sister.” He turned around, giving me his back while he slumped his shoulders. “I’ll just go tell someone else.”

  I growled at my drama queen of a brother, whom I knew was just tormenting me, and jumped on his back as if I would be able to tackle him to the floor. That didn’t work and he ended up catching my legs with his hands and locking me in place until he dumped us both backwards onto the couch. I was on the bottom, considering my position after having launched myself onto his back.

  “Wonder where my favorite sister got off to?” He asked in much the same way he used to do when we were small children and he had to entertain me in order to keep me quiet. I played along, same way I always did, because I couldn’t help myself around my big brother.

  “I’m right here, asshole!” I yelped as he wiggled around, squishing me further into our very uncomfortable and not exactly pleasantly smelling couch. “What’s your good news? Did you find a shelter we can both stay in until we get enough for new deposits on a place?”

  “Ah, even better! I just have to convince my little sister to become my little brother for a while.”

  “What did you just say?”

  “You’re going to need a sex change, but don’t worry, it will be all costume changes; no nipping and tucking of your girl bits.” He cringed outwardly as he stated that fact.

  “Um,” I smacked him to get him off of me, and he rolled off this time to show me his face and that he was completely serious. “I don’t understand, obviously, Dave.”

  “I had lunch with Smithy today,” he couldn’t hold his grin in as he told me that.

  “You found a crew position?” My question came out breathy as hope kindled a new fire in my belly.

  “Better!” He reached over and ruffled my long hair. “I found two crew positions. They’re both for stage hands so we’ll be in charge of setting up and tearing down the stages which means your scrawny little arms are going to get a good workout.”

  “Oh my God!” I yelled as I bounced up and down on the couch that had no bounce to it’s worn out cushions. “Wait, what does that have to do with me needing a sex change?”

  “I told Smithy that my little brother, MJ could take the second slot.”

  “You don’t have a brother named MJ.”

  “No, but I have a sister named Michelle Jewel Anderson.”

  “Why can’t I just apply for the job as Michelle Jewel Anderson instead of some boy named MJ?” I asked while pouting a bit. I hated lying, and Dave new that. I also hated being put on the spot, and called out in a lie. Not that it happened often, but sometimes desperate times called for desperate measures, and my brother and I were no strangers to desperate times.

  “Look, Chelle, it was one thing to get you on as a merch-girl when I was in the opening band. I don’t have that sway anymore, or the band bus to house you on. These guys aren’t too keen about hiring on women because then there have to be special rules for the bus. Most chicks are too sensitive to see the shit that goes down with the groupies that get rejected by the bands, and they feel they need to watch their mouths, and you know… can’t be themselves because the chick onboard might get too sensitive and offended by someone scratching his balls.” He scrubbed his hand through his hair as he eyed me seriously then. “I’m not exactly ecstatic that you’ll be put in that position either, but we’re out of options, kid.”

  I sighed. I knew what he was saying was true, even if I hated it. Even if I would never be that girl who was easily offended or the girl who cared if some dude was nailing a nasty groupie on the bus in front of her, it wouldn’t matter. It was all about how they would perceive a woman in my shoes to behave.

  “Okay, genius, but don’t you think it’s going to be pretty obvious that I’m a girl?” I held up a lock of my long chunky brown waves and wiggled them at him.

  He just shrugged. “Lots of guys on the crews have long hair. It’s the rock star way, but you’ll have to tone down the care you put into it though.”

  “What about when I’m on my period? Where the hell am I supposed to store my tampons on a bus full of men who think I’m a dude?”

  My brother’s eyes bulged and he looked thoroughly disgusted as his lip curled up and he moved away from me as if I was contagious. “Seriously? I mention my period, and it’s like the cooties scandal from second grade all over agai
n? Get over yourself, Dave!”

  “Well, I’m sure we can think of something. Just tell them you’re in charge of stocking shit like that for Mags and the other intern chick that’s tagging along with Fourth Down.”

  “I can’t believe I’m going to agree to this,” I sighed out.

  “We don’t really have a choice,” my brother stated sadly.

  “I know. I really hate your band mates for this. This was supposed to be your big break, finally!”

  “Our big break, sis. We’ll get there again. I’ll start looking for a new band when we get back from this tour. If I’m feelin’ lucky, I might even look for bandmates that aren’t complete idiots.” He let out a small laugh and wrapped me into a big hug. “I’m going to fix this shit for us, I promise.”

  “I love you, Dave.”

  “Love you too, sis. We’ve got this.”

  Chapter 1

  ~ Chelle ~

  Dave had been right about the fact that road crews had plenty of longhaired, wiry dudes working for them. If it weren’t for my short stature, I would have fit in with them flawlessly, especially since I had purposely not washed my hair the day before, applied any product to it, or attempted to style it in any way other than pulling it back in a long, low ponytail at the nape of my neck. The baggy clothing Dave had procured for me helped in disguising my womanly figure, as did the one-size, too small sports bra that was sort of constricting my breathing.

  “Yo! Shorty, grab that case and bring it over, would ya?” A man called out from the recesses of a shadowy portion of the backstage area. A moment of panic flared up when I thought about being caught with an unfamiliar man in the shadows while everyone else was too busy scurrying around and working like dogs to notice if something bad happened to me. Then I reminded myself that this was my last option besides dipping into a woman’s shelter until my brother got back from the tour, and that got my butt in gear pretty quickly.