Fast Lane - Kristen Ashley Page 0,71

after her Miranda.

And it wasn’t that none of those women were Lyla.

It was that I was looking for my Lyla, when I should have just been looking for what was mine.

But at this point, or any point, for Dave, that’s just not gonna happen.

But what do I say to the guy?

And remember, I got a sister who’s a functioning alcoholic.

Good thing, by this time, she scraped off her first husband.

Bad thing, she’s now with a guy who has the personality of a wet dishrag.

Can’t have someone in her life who actually gives a shit and has a backbone, because if she does, he might want her to lose the booze and face her demons.

[Takes deep breath]

I blew it with her, repeatedly, and would continue doing it.

With Davey, I gotta find my way to sort his shit.

Yeah, that was about me. About my livelihood. About our music and our earning and our legacy.

It was also that I just couldn’t do it again with someone I loved going down that road, no matter there’s no control over what’s pushing you to that path.

So, I just say, “I hear you, I feel you, but going so far Tom’s gotta throw water in your face to rouse you, man, that’s not the answer to anything. Do you need rehab?”

He sits back at that, and I know why. He wonders if Lyla will think he’s weak ’cause he’s gotta go to rehab.

And he says, “No way.”

So, I push, “Clean tour. Lose the tequila and flush any shit you absolutely don’t need, brother.”

No fight, another surprise, but this time it’s a relief, he nods, and we do it together.

Probably hundreds of dollars of coke and hundreds more of uppers and downers down the toilet.

We sit down again, and he asks, “You think Preach and Lyla will do a clean tour?”

I tell him I don’t know.

He says, “I gave her her first toke, Jess. I gave her her first snort. She’s deep into that shit and it was me who fed it to her.”

I got an answer for that.

I tell him, “That’s bullshit and the first person who would tell you that is Lyla. She makes her own choices and she owns them, good or bad.”

It’s gonna be an eventful day at the hotel, because we decide to get away from the minibar and go find something to eat, we’re walking to the elevators, and we hear coming from down the other end of the hall one fuckuva racket.

Leeanne is screeching.

We jog down there, sounds like they’re not only fighting, but tearing up the room.

First cell phones out that don’t look like a brick, Tommy makes sure we all got one.

Though, just sayin’, he had one from the time they looked like a brick.

[Half-grin]

I tell Dave to call Tom, and if he doesn’t answer, page the motherfucker, ’cause Tom was all about his beeper, and I hammer on the door.

Timmy answers and he looks relieved, which does not give me a good feeling, but Leeanne’s shrieking inside the room, “Whoever it is, get rid of them!”

I push in.

Dave pushes in with me.

Tim’s clothes and shoes are everywhere, not Leeanne’s, Tim’s and some of them are shredded like someone’s taken scissors to them.

Now, she’s beautiful. If you don’t know her, man, she’s beautiful. You know her, that’s a different story but good looks are good looks.

Swear to fuck, sister, I take one look at that woman and I get a chill.

That look on her face and in her eyes?

[Shakes head]

That was what Trelane saw before all of us.

That was why he didn’t feature her in any way in that book.

I cannot say that woman was pure evil.

I just know, in that moment, she was.

So, I can say she had that in her.

And Trelane saw before any of us that she had that in her, and he was about capturing beauty or something interesting or making you think or taking you out of your world and exposing you to another, even if that other made you uncomfortable or even squirm.

Her?

He had no interest in her.

I’m all “What’s goin’ on here?”

And she shouts, “None of your fuckin’ business.”

And I say, “It’s my business, my boy’s clothes all over the place, and they’re fucked up and you’re screaming the roof down.”

“If Lyla was fighting with Preacher, you wouldn’t come knocking on the door,” she says.

“Lyla wouldn’t scream at him and cut up his clothes,” Dave says.

Leeanne knows that’s the truth, and she’s smart enough to know she doesn’t get down and