He was so caught up in Trina he never saw the tension it caused with Mike. Sure, he suspected Trina was the reason Mike was acting off, but he’d never flat out asked if that was the case. Maybe he knew the truth deep down, but didn’t want to face it. Now, he had no choice but to face it. He turned his head toward the bus. Suddenly, the unmarked black bus with dark tinted windows had a hostile feeling. If Mike felt strongly enough about Trina’s role, how did the others feel? Mark and Brian weren’t original members of Black Castle, but they’d been with Rick long enough that he wouldn’t want to see them go. Would they stick around after hearing Mike left? Shit, how was he going to tell everyone? How was he going to tell Trina? She’d blame herself, and Rick didn’t want that. After all, this was his fault. He didn’t have to have Trina be an active participant in the band. She could have just hung out in the studio while he worked, or off camera during interviews, or backstage. He wiped a hand down his face and sighed. What had he done? Fuck what already happened. What was he going to do now?
He drained the whiskey bottle and set it down in the bus’s small sink. He strode to the front of the bus to find the driver.
“Hey man, you aren’t planning on parking here all night, are you? I haven’t been home in months and we’re only about twenty minutes away. You think you could run me and Trina over?”
The balding man nodded. “Sure thing, Mr. Castle. Um, what about them?” He tried to point toward the groupies nonchalantly.
Rick laughed. “Let Mark and Brian worry about them.” He turned and made his way toward the back of the bus, where the only bedroom on the tour bus was located. He grazed his fingers along Trina’s soft shoulders as he passed her.
“My back is bothering me, and I’m feeling really tired, so I’m going to go lie down. I told the driver to take us home. Will you wake me when we get there?” He leaned over and kissed the nape of her neck. “Unless you want to go back with me?”
Trina patted his hand without looking up at him. “I’ll be back in a few.” She rubbed her running nose before cutting another line.
Rick shrugged off his disappointment as he crawled into bed. It was just as well that she didn’t join him. He had no idea how to tell her about Mike. The muscles in his back spasmed, as they have ever since he fell off stage and landed on a security railing several months ago, interrupting his thoughts. He’d seen any doctor he thought could help him, but none have. After failing to find a position in which his back didn’t hurt, he sat up and reached for the pill bottle beside the bed. He popped the lid, shook out a pill, and broke it in half. He put one half back in the bottle and closed the lid. The other half, he crushed on the bedside table and snorted the dust. He’d been on painkillers for so long, that was the only way he found even the slightest measure of relief without taking more and more pills.
As the pain gradually lessened enough for him to lie back without the sharp twinges that knocked the wind out of him, Rick settled in and closed his eyes. As he drifted off, a warm and comforting sensation wrapped around him, pulling him deeper into its cozy embrace. Somewhere in the dark recesses of his mind, a warning sounded, and breathing became difficult, but he was too far into the soothing embrace of slumber to care as the blackness claimed him.
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Through the Static - A rockstar romance
About the Author
I’m a romantic women’s fiction author with a handful of swoon inducing men and their enticing women waiting for me to tell their tales. When I’m not wrapped up in their romantic worlds, I’m busy building my own romance tale with my high school sweetheart turned husband. Together, we’re raising our young son on our Arabian horse farm in the rolling hills of south central, Kentucky.
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Rule of the Shieldmaiden Page 21