Five guys. Five thoughts on things. Five opinions. Walking in five different directions.
Toby stood behind his desk, moving his eyes from rock star to rock star.
“What do you want me to do?” Toby asked. “I mean, there’s a lot we can do. Depends on your decision.”
“Like what?” Nash asked.
“This is an ongoing legal issue,” Toby said. “I know you guys hate the business and legal side of this thing, but when you’re as big as you are, it’s part of it all. You’re a brand. You’re a business.”
“I hate when you say that,” Reed said.
“I know you do,” Toby said. “But with that branding comes power. You have the backing of SLECK. Their PR team. Their legal team. Plus, you have your own lawyers.”
“What does it mean?” Dex asked.
“We call the lawyers and get some paperwork done. Mitchy has been nothing but a pain in our ass. Collectively. Every time he wants money, he calls up his lawyer and stirs the pot again. He wants more royalties. He wants a cut of the merchandise. He even had the balls last time to ask for touring money because the songs being played he was part of when they were originally recorded.”
“Fuck him,” Sab said. “That’s it. Fuck him.”
“Guys, you’re getting on a plane for Vegas,” Toby said. “I should be worried to death you’re going to end up hurt, in jail, or dead. Instead, we’re talking about Mitchy?”
“He’s in the beach house,” I said. I stopped pacing. “I have him hidden for the moment. We need to go talk to him. Right now.”
“I wouldn’t do that,” Toby said.
“So we communicate through lawyers and paperwork?” Reed asked. “The guy was an original member.”
“Sort of,” Dex said.
“Reed is right,” Sab said. “He was there for everything. He partied with us in those strippers’ apartments. He picked mold off bread to make a sandwich like the rest of us.”
“And he also almost took the entire band down for good,” Nash said. “Should we go through the list of shit he did?”
“Should we go through the list of shit you did?” Sab asked. “Did you not need someone like Liv to follow you around and write good stories about you?”
“This is pointless,” I said. “We’re all rock star assholes. We’ve all done crazy shit. That’s why we need to go talk to him. Before we head out to Vegas. Cleanse our souls before we go commit more sins.”
“Vegas is old,” Reed said.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” I said. “I forgot you locked down one pussy for the rest of your life. You’re as sad as Dex and Nash. How the fuck do you do that? One slit… for the rest of your life…”
“We’re not in the mood for this rant, Jay,” Nash said.
“Okay, fine,” I said. I looked at Toby. “Keep it in mind with Mitchy. That he’s lingering. Get someone to keep an eye on him while we’re gone.”
“I think the best bet-”
“As for me,” I said, cutting Toby off, “I’m going over to the beach house. To speak my mind. Then I’m going to get higher than the private jet that I’m going to be in as I fly to Vegas.”
I walked to the door and opened it.
A woman stood there and jumped back.
Her face turned bright red.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“Uh… I’m a fan…”
“You want an autograph?” I asked.
She nodded.
“Got a marker?”
She had a marker and an old magazine with FILTHY LINE on the cover.
I scribbled my name over my face and handed it back to her.
“Next time, if you really want my attention, be topless,” I said.
She let out a gasp and smiled.
I loved saying things like that.
Plus, I had a reputation to take care of.
I opened the door to the limo style SUV and put my hand out before Nash climbed inside.
“I have a present for everyone,” I said. “To help take the edge off.”
“Jay…”
I let out a whistle.
Two beautiful women climbed from the backseat of the SUV.
One wearing an oversized, torn up FILTHY LINE shirt looking like a LINE WHORE… the shirt hanging down her shoulders, revealing that (shockingly) she wasn’t wearing a bra. The other woman was in a leather jacket and nothing else. Leaving a line of skin showing from her face all the way down to a pair of neon green panties.
“What the hell is this?” Dex asked.
“My treat,” I said. “They’re going to dance for us on the ride to the beach house. Well, dance, strip, grind, suck, fuck… whatever we want.”
Nash looked at me. “I’ll walk.”
“What? Come on, Nash. Is this because of Liv? Are you that tied down?”
“No,” Nash said. “This is because we’re going to talk to Mitchy. This isn’t a time for strippers.”
“Is there ever a time not for strippers?” Sab asked.
“Thank you,” I said to Sab. “You get it.”
“I’m with Nash on this,” Dex said. “I’m not in the mood.”
“Neither am I,” Reed said.
“Get rid of them,” Nash whispered to me as he got into the SUV.
Dex grabbed my shoulder. “They’re fucking sexy, but this isn’t the right time.”
I looked at Reed. He shook his head.
Sab, however, touched the top of the woman’s FILTHY LINE shirt. “Your shirt’s all ripped up. Why don’t you take it off and we’ll get you a new one?”
“Sure,” she said.
She grabbed the bottom of the shirt and lifted.
“Fuck,” I growled. “Wait. Don’t take your shirt off.”
They looked at me.
I nodded for Sab to get into the SUV.
I was alone with the two beauties.
I put my hands together. “I obviously overplayed my hand here. I’m going to regret this and miss this moment more than anything else in my life. But I need you to go into that building right there” - I pointed - “and go up to the third floor and ask for Toby. Just tell him Jay sent you. You don’t have to do anything with him. Unless you want to fool around with an overworked guy with a dad bod who’s lacking sleep. He’ll get you a ride to wherever you have to go next.”
I took each of their hands and kissed them.
Then I got into the SUV.
When I shut the door, I put my hand to the window.
“Goodbye,” I whispered. “Who knows what could have been…”
“You’re pathetic, Jay,” Nash said.
I looked at Nash. “What? What if one of those women was the one for me? I may have just walked away from my future wife.”
“Wife?” Reed asked. “You’re never going to get married. You’re never going to settle for longer than a long weekend.”
“Well, maybe one of those would have been a long weekend for me,” I said.
“Do you need a tissue?” Dex asked.
“Yeah,” Sab said. “He needs it to jerk off into. He doesn’t cry. He gets hard and has to whack it.”
They all laughed.
Personally, I didn’t see a problem with that.
The beach house was my little getaway from everything.
It obviously sat on the beach (hence the goddamn name) but it had this old and rustic vibe to it. I left the place the way it was when I bought it. Everything had been touched up and fixed up so the place didn’t collapse or blow away in a storm.
I walked up the creaky steps and opened the front door.
The first thing I heard was music.
And it wasn’t coming from a stereo or some speakers.
It was real, live music.
It was coming from Mitchy.
The rest of the band followed me as we walked through the open living room area.
I looked across the room to the large windows, out to the ocean.
The view was always comforting.
I paused for a second and then followed the sound of the music.
It took me to the spare bedroom in the beach house.
That’s where Mitchy was sitting on the bed with a guitar on each side of him and an old keyboard in front of him.
Of course he was playing a FILTHY LINE song.
I felt Dex grab the back of my shirt. “Swear on your life you didn’t tell him we were coming.”
“I swear,” I said.
“So he’s just sitting here playing old songs for the fuck of it?” Dex asked.
“I guess so,” I said.
Mitchy had always been like a mad scientist behind the keyboard or piano. He hung his head forward, bobbing up and down, his hair dancing around - when it was really long. Now his hair was short, down to his eyebrows, so it still bounced around but not with the same effect as it used to have.
His fingers moved up and down the keyboard with speed, never missing a note.
I had no idea how he did it.
The closest we ever came to replacing him was with Linx. That guy could do it all. He could play any instrument and any song. He could follow our lead during live shows and act like he had been part of the band since day one.
I missed Linx.
I missed Mitchy too.
And nobody could be Mitchy.
When the song ended, Mitchy looked up and he smiled.
“Holy fuck,” he said.
He ran a hand through his hair.
“Roll up your sleeves,” Nash said as he entered the room.
“What?” Mitchy asked.
“You heard me. Roll up your fucking sleeves right now.”
Nash picked up the keyboard and threw it to the bed. Then he kicked the stand out of the way.
Mitchy unbuttoned the bottoms of his sleeves and pushed them up.
Nash grabbed his wrists.
Mitchy looked at me and his eyes looked dead.
He’d been through this routine a lot.
Someone looking for track marks on his arms.
“There’s nothing there,” Mitchy said.
“What about between his toes,” Dex said. “They love to shoot up there.”
“I’m sure there’s other places too,” Reed said.
“Tell you what,” Mitchy said. “I’ll get butt naked and you assholes can do what you want. Okay? Search anything.”
“You’re really clean?” I asked.
“Like I’m fresh out of the shower,” Mitchy said.
Nash backed off.
Mitchy stood up. He opened his arms. “How have you been, Nash?”
Nash didn’t hug Mitchy.
“You got that old keyboard to work?” I asked, wanting to kill some of the deserved tension.
“I had the time to fuck around with it,” he said. “Works great. Enough to-”
“Why is everyone yelling?”
There was a new voice in the room.
We all looked back to see a completely naked woman standing in the doorway.
Her hair pulled up in a really messy blonde bun.
Her right arm was tattooed from her shoulder down to her elbow.
She had sleepy, stoned eyes and didn’t even seem to realize she was in the presence of the band.
“Oh, I’m sorry, baby,” Mitchy said.
He walked by us and went to the woman. He touched her arms.
He whispered something to her and she smiled.
He spun her around and smacked her ass.
“Hey,” she said. “Not in front of people.”
“Go tell your two friends that,” Mitchy said.
“Two friends?” Sab asked.
Mitchy looked back and winked.
The naked woman trotted away.
“Same old Mitchy,” I said.
“How the fuck did you pull that off?” Dex asked.
“Money,” Nash said.
Mitchy laughed. “Yeah. Money. And a nice dick. Everyone always loved my dick. Remember?”
“Yeah, we remember,” Reed said.
“Hey, do you remember that time we jumped off the water tower? Fucking naked?”
“Mitchy,” I said. “It’s not the time for stories…”
“Why not?” he asked. “What are we doing here then?”
“We’re wondering what you’re doing here,” Dex said. “You’re not supposed to be here.”
“Fuck it,” Nash said. “You’ve been trying to sue us for years. Then you just show up like this? Like things are okay?”
“That’s business,” Mitchy said. “I just wanted to talk personally for a second.”
“Are you sick and dying or something?” I asked.
“No,” he said. “Look at me. I’m good. I’m solid. I don’t… I don’t… I don’t need it like I used to. Okay? I wanted to come tell you guys that. I don’t need it. It’s not this urge that I base my life around. I know I fucked up. A lot. But can we agree we all fucked up a lot?”
“You’re trying to blame all of us?” I asked.
“No,” Mitchy said. “I’m saying we all did stuff in the past.”
“Wait a second,” Nash said. “Are you actually sober?”
“I’m good,” Mitchy said.
“That’s not what he asked,” Reed said.
“Fuck this,” Nash said.
He darted out of the room.
“Nash! Wait!” Mitchy yelled.
“Fuck,” I said.
We all ran out of the room.
Mitchy came after us, talking a mile a minute.
I already knew how this was going to play out.
Nash opened the master bedroom and there were three women in the bed.
Two of them popped up, looked at us, and then went right back down to the bed.
They were all naked, on top of the covers, sprawled out.
The room smelled of sex and booze.
“Sober, huh?” Nash asked.
There were bottles everywhere. Beer and whiskey.
On the floor.
On the nightstand.
On the bed itself there were baggies with pills and powder.
Everything a scattered mess.
“Fuck, Mitchy,” Sab said.
“It’s not what it looks like,” he said.
“How so?” I asked.
“They love it,” he said. “They were going wild with it.”
“So it’s all theirs?” Dex asked.
“Not all,” Mitchy said.
Nash grabbed a bag of pills and threw it at Mitchy’s face.
“This isn’t fucking sober!” Nash yelled.
One of the women sat up. “Will you shut your fucking mouth, man?”
Nash looked at the woman.
I stepped to block Nash’s path.
“Hey, sweetheart,” I said. “Just go back to sleep. Don’t worry about this.”
“Are you going to come fuck me or what?” she asked.
“Two minutes,” I said.
“Okay,” she said.
They were all strung out. They had no idea where they were or what they were doing.
I looked at Mitchy. “This is my house, man. One of them dies and my ass will get fried.”
“He’s not welcome here,” Nash said. “Call the police. Get him arrested.”
“Mitchy, what the fuck are you doing here?” Sab asked.
There was a sadness in Sab’s voice that actually hurt me.
He and Mitchy had been the closest. Mitchy was the one who helped Sab with a lot of personal issues. And when Mitchy was out of the band… poor Sab…
“I said I don’t need it,” Mitchy said. “Okay? Look…” He walked to the bed and grabbed a few pills. “See these? I take these three and I’m gone for a day. I don’t want to though. I don’t need to take these pills. You know? But if I feel like it, for fun, fuck yeah, I’ll toss one back and write some music. Shit. Guys. I’ve written so much music too…”
<
br /> “We have to go,” Nash said. “This is a waste of time.”
Nash left the bedroom.
Dex and Reed followed.
Mitchy stood there with the three pills in his hand.
His eyes looked ready to cry.
“This isn’t sober,” I said.
“This is rock star sober,” Mitchy said.
I shook my head and looked around the room. “This place needs to get cleaned up. And you need to get out of here. I can’t have this shit here while I’m gone.”
“Where are you going?” Mitchy asked.
“Vegas,” Sab said. “We’re touring.”
I punched Sab in the arm.
He turned into an open book with Mitchy so quick.
It was almost heartbreaking.
“Fucking Vegas,” Mitchy said. “I was just there last month. What a time.”
“I’m sure you were sober, right?” I asked.
“Jay… come on…”
“We have to go,” I said. “Come on, Sab.”
I backed up toward the door.
I surveyed the room one more time.
It wasn’t even a rock star setting. The drugs, the booze, the women… sure, that was all rock star. But the vibe. This was a junkie room. This was where you went to die.
I had to drag Sab out of the room.
Just before I turned away, Mitchy threw the three pills into his mouth, shut his eyes, and swallowed.
I grabbed my bag and my guitar out of the trunk of the limo.
I looked at the private jet and smiled.
The rest of the band grabbed their bags and guitars.
We loved to have jam sessions while in the air.
In the past we’d need a bigger jet because we’d have a party on there, but now it was a little more subtle.
Liv, Candice, and Abby were joining us for this show.
Which meant Sab and I couldn’t have any naked women slithering around the jet, looking for a dick to play with.
That was okay.
All of us were still thinking about Mitchy.
I knew Sab was hurting the most out of all of us.
I walked up to him and elbowed him.
“Fucking sucks, man,” I said.
“Nothing changes,” he said.
“At least we get to rock the fuck out.”
Sab looked at me. “Yeah, we do. And we get all the women since these guys are pussy whipped.”
“Vegas… you and me, Sab. It’s going to be a ride.”
A FILTHY Marriage (Filthy Line Book 4) Page 3