Time Out of Mind (Suncoast Society #43)(57)

“You don’t need me. Just remember, don’t drink from any opened water bottles if they’ve been out of your hand, and be careful what you eat. I wish I could be there but I can’t put these sessions off and I have to finish these reports. I’ll be there tomorrow night for the concert. You’ll do great. I have faith in you.”

Doyle found Mevi’s right wrist and kissed it. “Make sure you have your marker with you. If you need to, go into the bathroom and trace your marks and think about me. You need to be able to do this for me, buddy. I can’t do my job unless I know you’ll try your hardest.”

“I will, Sir.”

“That’s my good boy.”

Eventually, Mevi finally drifted off to sleep in his arms, leaving Doyle lying there and hoping he wasn’t wrong, that Mevi could do it.

And that he’d be on his guard against Erique. Doyle would make sure to talk to Clark that night, alone, to see if they could kick Erique off the tour sooner, now that Mevi had proven himself.

Because at least in that way, Doyle had full confidence in Mevi, that he’d be able to hold on to his sobriety.





Chapter Twenty


The next morning, after breakfast, they all headed over to the venue, arriving there a little after eight in the morning. Mevi hated leaving Doyle behind, but he had his marker in his back pocket and tried to focus on that.

Mevi also finally found his nerve to tell them about the new songs, and when they reached their dressing room area, he showed the sheet music to them.

“I want to play these tonight.” While they studied the songs, Mevi nervously stared at his bandmates.

It was Erique who finally turned first and spoke. “You want us to play this stuff tonight cold?”

“I’m playing lead guitar,” he said, fighting the urge to punch the guy. “These will be acoustic. Tell the crowd it’s a special trial run, hint it’s for a new album. We’re recording tonight anyway. It can be on the concert album. Tell them that they’re getting a treat. Three songs, that’s all I’m asking. We can fit it in, and people won’t be bitching we did nothing but play the old classics.” He glared at Erique. “If you can’t follow along, well, my acoustic will be fine. It’s okay.”

Bonnie walked over to him, staring up into his eyes. “What’s going on, Mevi?”

“I want to do this.” He dropped his voice, even though he knew Erique knew about Mevi’s battle with sobriety at this point. He just hadn’t been told the details.

“Look, I’m sober. I worked my ass off.”

He raised his voice and, skipping Erique, met his bandmates’ gazes in turn. “I’ve been f*cked over, fell down, nearly gave up, and yet I’m here. I won’t let you guys down this tour. You know me, I’ve never f*cked a tour. Never missed a goddamned show unless we all missed it because of a flight or something. How many times have I been sick or something and got out there and put on a good show for the crowd? Yes, I f*cked up. I’m not going to say I’m magically healed, but I know where I f*cked up and I will not repeat it. I’ll keep working my ass off. All I want to do is one f*cking acoustic set near the end, before the closing medley. I want to see how the audience responds.”

Actually, he wanted to do it for Doyle, an “I love you” to him, since the songs were about him anyway.

But he couldn’t tell the others that. Not yet, anyway.

“But you’re already doing an acoustic solo number for the close,” Erique protested, his tone borderline whiny.

Mevi turned on him. “Listen, Wannabeme, nobody has ever f*cking heard of you. They aren’t here to listen to you. They’re here for Mevi and Portnoy’s Oyster. I can hook up my goddamned iPad and play studio tracks in place of you and not get attitude from it. So shut the f*ck up.”

Erique turned on the others. “You gonna let him talk to me like that?”

Garth snorted. “Yeah. Because he’s absolutely right. Only reason you’re here in the first place is because you roofied Pasch, blew him, took pictures of it, and threatened to go to his ex with them if he didn’t get you an in with us.”

Pasch’s face turned red but he didn’t say anything.

And that was the first Mevi had heard of that. But it certainly explained what Doyle had witnessed and the seeming underlying thread of animosity from Pasch over the past week for a guy he supposedly vouched for to get him in.

“What?” Bonnie and Troy said, both seeming as shocked as Mevi felt.

Mevi stared at Pasch, his jaw gaping. “Seriously? You let a guy who’s blackmailing you and who drugged you onto the f*cking tour? And you didn’t bother to tell the rest of us?”

“You’re not the one he’s threatening to sic TMZ on,” Pasch muttered. “My ex is going to claim I was cheating on her and try to screw me on custody, okay?”

“I didn’t think you were bi.”

“I’m not. Yeah, I’ve been blown by guys a couple of times when I was single and horny and lonely and we had eager groupies wanting to, but the date-stamp on the video was while we were still married. Even though we were separated. Man, she will f*ck me over with my daughter, and you know I can’t lose visitation with her. She’s all I give a shit about in this world. I don’t want her Googling her daddy when she’s older and finding a sex tape of me, or her friends seeing it and giving her a hard time.”