AllFreeNovel
Share Us
That was the irony of it all.
Mom seemed to think my brother and sister, Stepan and Marina, should earn things the old-fashioned way for some reason. It was all the distant relatives she wanted to help. Cousins, aunts, uncles, and even a handful of family members back in Armenia—people she’d never even met in person. I honestly didn’t understand it, and at least until we saw each other in person, I didn’t have enough brain power to try anymore. If she wanted to talk this weekend, I’d be willing to listen, but enough was enough.
“Have you seen Carter?” Pete asked me as Nobody’s Fool played their encore. Once they got off stage we would start warming up, stretching and jogging in place to get the blood flowing. I usually played a few riffs, to get myself in the right mind set.
I rolled my eyes. “Seriously?”
“I haven’t seen him since soundcheck,” he said, his dark eyes narrowed with concern. It was loud, so I was half-listening and half reading his lips. “He took off with some groupie and she looked… rough.”
“Rough?” I questioned.
“Rough. Like, drug dealer rough.”
“Fuck.” I looked around for Kingston and motioned him over. “We might have a problem.”
“What kind of problem?” He looked from me to Pete.
“Carter may be AWOL,” I said.
“King!” Tommy let out a whistle to get our attention. We all turned, and he made a “come here” motion with his hands.
“What’s up?” I asked as we joined him.
“We have a problem.”
“Didn’t I just say that?” I muttered, following him down to the dressing room. He opened the door and there was Carter, butt naked, sprawled on the floor, and fast asleep.
“I couldn’t wake him up,” Tommy said. “He’s breathing, but he’s out cold.”
“Get some cold water,” I said to Pete, who hurried over to the hospitality table. He tossed me a bottle, and I unscrewed the top, leaning over and emptying it on Carter’s face. Carter turned his head from side to side, coughed a little, and then batted his hands, as if trying to stop the water.
“Wh-what’s hap-ing?” he asked, his speech slurred.
“We have a show!” Kingston snapped. “What did you take?”
“Ughhh.” Carter’s eyes closed again.
“Fuck, he can’t play like this,” Tommy said, his face tight with worry.
“Go find Tyler,” I said to Kingston. “Ask him if he can fill in if we can’t get Carter going.”
Kingston didn’t hesitate because Nobody’s Fool’s last song had just ended, which meant they might be headed out any minute now. They were based in Vegas, so they would be sleeping in their respective homes tonight. In fact, this was the end of the tour for them, so ending it in Vegas had been perfect and I didn’t know what their plans were. We were headed to Europe in two weeks, but we hadn’t been able to work out the timing to take Nobody’s Fool with us.
“Where’s Ross?” I asked, looking around. “We can’t leave Carter alone, but we need to get on stage soon.”
“I’ll find him.” Tommy took off and I knelt next to Carter, putting a gentle hand on his shoulder. I was annoyed as fuck, but I worried about him too. This had happened before, and I’d thought we’d gotten past it. Obviously, we all needed to pay more attention. Yes, he was a grown man, but he was a rich one who was tempted every fucking day.
Last time this had happened, we’d hidden the issues from the public, but maybe it was time to put it out there. We had great fans in general. They brought us gifts, homemade food, invited us to their homes and businesses, sent us wonderful fan mail. Sure, there was the occasional dickhead, but that happened in every walk of life. So maybe if we made it clear that Carter was struggling, people would stop trying to party with him.
Or maybe not.
Maybe I was living in a goddamn fantasy world where people cared about each other.
“Hey, what’s going on?” Tyler and Kingston came into the room, and Tyler’s gaze fell on Carter. “Jesus fuck. Does he need a doctor?”
“Tommy went to get Ross,” I said.
“How much of our set do you know?” Kingston asked him.
