AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m worried,” Owen said, his eyes on Kelly as he shook his head to let them know Adam wasn’t answering his phone. “He wouldn’t just run off like that unless it was a life or death situation.” Adam was in trouble. Not the regular trouble that followed the guy like a plague, but trouble that caused him to run off without saying a word. Huge trouble.
“Yes, he would.”
Of course Jacob would contradict Owen’s assessment of the situation. Jacob was incapable of seeing the world through anyone’s eyes but his own.
“I was the one who dealt with him when he was at his worst. You all pretended everything was just fine while I was forced to get him lucid enough to perform. It was only a year ago. Don’t tell me you’ve already forgotten.”
Of course they hadn’t forgotten. And while Jacob had taken a very exasperating hands-on approach to Adam’s struggles with addiction, the rest of them had tried to keep the bomb of a relationship between the two of them from exploding and taking them all out.
“He’s changed, Jacob.” Gabe clutched the back of his neck with one hand as he stared at the floor.
“He has?” Jacob shook his head, his angry voice finally going soft. “Sorry, but I don’t see it.”
Without another word, Jacob climbed up on stage and took his microphone out of its stand. What the fuck was he doing?
“Good evening, New Orleans,” he called out to the audience. “You look ready to rock!” They cheered in anticipation. “Unfortunately, our performance is not going to happen tonight. Our lead guitarist, Adam Taylor, was called away on an emergency. So we have to cancel the show.”
At least he hadn’t thrown Adam under the bus and claimed he was a thoughtless, irresponsible asshole who hadn’t bothered to tell anyone where he was going. Owen truly believed that Adam had been called away on an emergency. An emergency so terrible that he’d forgotten his other responsibilities.
A roar of discontent reverberated through the stadium. The crowd didn’t seem too forgiving of Adam’s troubles.
“I’m not sure if they’ll issue refunds or reschedule the performance,” Jacob said, “but we’ll square you away. I promise.”
“This is a fucking nightmare,” Gabe said.
“Understatement of the century. The fans are pissed,” Owen said. And he couldn’t blame them. If he was in their shoes, he’d be pissed too.
Within a minute Jacob was back to calling out to the crowd and asking them to stay. What the fuck was he thinking? They couldn’t go onstage without a lead guitarist.
A moment later Jacob ushered a skinny teenage boy in a black beanie into the backstage area. Now what was he up to?
“Did you get ahold of Adam?” he asked Kelly.
Kelly frowned and shook his head.
“Okay.” Jacob nudged the wide-eyed kid forward. “This guy says he knows all our songs by heart and can take Adam’s place onstage tonight.”
For real? Owen highly doubted that, but he was willing to give this solution a shot. None of them wanted to disappoint the fans. The fans made the whole rock star gig possible.
“So I say we give him a chance to prove himself,” Jacob said. “What’s your name?”
“Wes.”
“Give Adam’s guitar to Wes,” Jacob said to Adam’s technician. “Let’s see what he’s got.”
Surprisingly, the kid was an excellent guitarist. Not as good as the professional he’d be temporarily replacing, but he had definite talent.
They gave Wes his shot in the spotlight, and he didn’t let them down. Jacob even managed to get the audience behind the young man’s one night as a rock star. Owen felt guilty for allowing someone to fill Adam’s shoes. Maybe they should have just canceled the show, but fan satisfaction was more important than his feelings of loyalty. He just hoped Adam would be back for their next show. They couldn’t continue without him for long.
They played through their entire set list and when the concert was over, Owen couldn’t get to the tour bus fast enough. He wanted to put tonight and New Orleans behind him. He still had a niggling feeling that something was terribly wrong. He kept expecting the state patrol to call and tell them that Adam had been involved in a deadly accident.
“I actually think Jacob was okay with that little scenario,” Kelly commented as he flopped down next to Owen on the tour bus sofa.
“More than okay with it,” Gabe said. “I think he preferred it. He had Sally get that kid’s information.”
“He’s a nice kid and all,” Owen said, “but . . .”
“. . . he’s no Adam Taylor,” he, Kelly, and Gabe finished in unison.
Jacob was near the back of the bus, ignoring them, or maybe just putting off the conversation they had to have. Turning their backs on Adam was not an option, yet Owen was pretty sure Jacob had already done so. He would probably never forgive Adam this time. Disappointing his bandmates was one thing; letting the fans down was an unforgivable offense. And Owen was pretty sure Jacob had never truly forgiven Adam for all the shit he’d put them through in the past. Tonight was one more brick of a burden stacked on an already laboring relationship.
“Anyone hear from Adam yet?” Jacob asked nonchalantly.
None of them had.
“I’ve had it with his bullshit,” Jacob said. “Adam’s out of the band.”
The entire world flipped upside down. Owen blinked to reset his reeling mind and managed to say, “What?”
“He’s toxic,” Jacob continued. “We need to get rid of him. Replace him with someone who takes our success seriously.”
“Adam writes all of our music,” Kelly said. “We can’t just kick him out.”
And not only that, he was a freaking amazing guitarist. They worked in perfect harmony on stage and in the recording studio, even if their personal relationships were a bit rocky—on par with the mountain range kind of rocky—but they cared about each other.
“We’ll write the music ourselves and if necessary, hire songwriters,” Jacob said with a shrug.
Songwriters? Songwriters! They couldn’t hire fucking songwriters. No songwriter could ever match the feel of their music, the sound of it, or the purpose behind it. Had Jacob lost his fucking mind?
“This is bullshit,” Kelly said, giving voice to Owen’s jumbled thoughts. “Adam is one of us. He’s always been one of us. We can’t do this to him.”
“We don’t even know why he took off,” Owen added. “I’m sure he had a good reason.”
“More than two hours later, and he still hasn’t checked in to let us know what the fuck is going on!” Jacob yelled. “He obviously doesn’t give a shit about any of us or the fans or the music. All he cares about is himself. It’s time to cut him loose. If he wants to destroy himself, fine, but I’m not letting him take the rest of us down with him.”
“I want to hear what he has to say before I weigh in,” Gabe said. “For all we know, he’s dead in a ditch somewhere.”
Owen went light-headed. “Don’t even say that.” It was very possible that Adam was dead in a ditch somewhere. In fact, he was almost sure of it. They hadn’t heard from him for hours.
Then again, maybe he was too afraid to call them, knowing that Jacob would likely overreact.
“It would save me the trouble of telling him to fuck off,” Jacob said in a growl of a voice.
Owen couldn’t believe he would say that about a friend. A brother. Not a brother by blood, maybe, but they’d been through so much together, they had important bonds. “You’re such an asshole.”
Jacob got in Owen’s face, so close that their noses were almost touching. “I’d rather be an asshole than a spineless wuss.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Owen shoved him away. What a fucking prick. Just becaus
e Owen didn’t march around like some self-important blowhard didn’t mean he was spineless or a wuss.
“You’re a pushover, Owen. You always have been.”
“Don’t take your frustration with Adam out on Owen,” Kelly said, placing a calming hand on Owen’s thigh. “You’re the one who never bends. You’re the mighty oak, standing tall and rigid against any force that threatens your position.” He slammed his other fist against his own chest.
