for the words to come. “By then Elliot was a beaten man. He didn’t smile like he used to. He played music, but no longer from the heart. And he quit talking about the future.” Killy shook his head. “Elliot, with so many dreams and plans. He’d stopped living long before he died.” And Killy hadn’t saved him either time.
Now Killy sat in a rundown mobile home with a guy he barely knew, spilling his guts—the closest he’d come to confession in years. “Rob showed up too strung-out to play, ranting and raving about Elliot leaving him for Ace, our keyboard player. Pure, unadulterated bullshit.” Poor Ace. He’d been a good friend, and sure the hell didn’t deserve to die so young. “We wound up canceling the concert. I laid into the bastard, told him to get his no-account ass out of my sight, and threatened to kill him if he ever spoke to my brother again—and I meant it. He stomped off without a word.”
Several moments passed before Tex broke the silence. “Since they found his body on the bus, I reckon he crossed your path again.”
Killy swallowed hard and nodded. This part he’d never told another soul, letting everyone believe there’d been an accident and that he didn’t remember a damned thing. Weren’t enough drugs in the world to make him forget, Lord knew he’d tried. “We were cruising along through the mountains when the driver spotted a man standing in the road trying to flag us down. Ace and Elliot were neck deep in a poker game in the back of the bus, and I sat up front, talking to the driver. He slammed on the brakes and opened the door, and lo and behold, Rob hopped on, looking all pitiful, asking if we’d give him a lift to Chattanooga. The others felt sorry for the motherfucker and let him on.”
If only they’d just kept going, leaving Rob standing in the rain, or better yet, run over his sorry ass.
“I kept an eye out, but he didn’t so much as look at Elliot. I musta dozed off, ’cause I woke up to the bus driver slamming on the brakes and Rob screaming.” Killy closed his eyes, opening them again to avoid the images forming behind his lids, burned there for all eternity. “Rob had Elliot by the throat, slamming his head against the wall. Ace was slumped over in his seat, blood pouring from his nose.”
Tears leaked from Killy’s eyes. He wiped them away with a swipe of his hand. Always before he’d hidden them; this time they fell freely. “I tried to pull him off, I really tried…” He trailed off into sobs. Elliot. Sweet, soft-hearted Elliot.
Once more Tex leaned over the side of the bed, trading a now-empty beer bottle for a handful of tissues. His comforting arm around Killy’s neck pulled him close, holding on through the worst. Man, it felt good to be held. With Mama and Elliot gone, and Killy’s father who-knew-where, he’d faced tragedy alone, with no arms to hold him, no one to tell him things would work out. No one to…
“Thanks.” Killy let Tex wipe his face.
“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”
No one had ever spoken so kindly before. “I want to. I don’t have a clue why, but I want to.” Resting his head on the offered shoulder, Killian nuzzled into the embrace, drenching Tex’s bare skin with three years’ worth of pent-up agony.
“The driver stopped the bus and ran to help. Rob jumped up and stormed past us. Elliot was so still. I couldn’t see him breathing.” Killy choked on the words, squeezing them out around the heart lodged in his throat. “I… I tried to help him….”
Elliot! Elliot! Don’t leave me, brother!
Tex clasped his shoulder, a solid tie to the here and now. Killian grasped that hand, hanging on for all he was worth. He took a deep breath. Time to exorcise his personal demons once and for all by sharing them with another. “I left it to the driver to stop that asshole. Next thing I know, we’re barreling down the highway, and… nothing. For a split second I didn’t hear a thing, no tires on pavement, no humming engine, nothing. Then we fell.”
Screaming, searing hot pain. “Elliot! Elliot!” Screeching metal, an explosion… silence.
“I woke up in intensive care two days later. The papers already reported the whole band dead, and I decided….”