Wicked Beat

Rebekah tilted her head back for a kiss, which Eric gave eagerly. When they drew apart, she patted his butt before returning to work. He watched her until she was out of sight and then turned to find Sed grinning.

“What?”

“Nothing. Just happy for you.” Sed clapped him on the shoulder and directed him toward the tour bus.

Eric was happy for himself as well. There was still one thing that continually ate away at him though. It was past time that he spilled his guts to Sed. Sure, Sed would be pissed for a while. He might even hit him, but it had to be better than this constant cloud of darkness hanging over his subconscious for almost three years.

“Sed?”

“Yeah?”

“Sed, there’s something I need to tell you about me and Jon.”

Sed’s head swiveled, and his eyes were the size of saucers. “You and Jon? No f**king way.”

It took Eric a few seconds to realize why Sed was so shocked. “Ew. No, not that. Shit, where did that come from?”

Sed released a long breath through pursed lips. “Sorry. Now that I’m not getting it on with three or four different girls a night, I’ve been noticing Trey’s activities more. That guy will f**k anyone.”

Eric laughed. “You’re just now noticing that? He actually has excellent taste and a lot to choose from on both teams.”

They paused in the corridor that led to the stadium exit. “So now that my mind is out of the gutter, what were you actually trying to tell me?” Sed asked.

“Do you remember when the old bus broke down outside Phoenix and the cash that we kept in the lockbox for emergencies was sort of missing?”

“How can I f**king forget that? Jon used every penny we had to buy drugs. That was the last straw. We had no choice but to fire him.”

Eric winced. “Well…” Eric was starting to reconsider this confession. Maybe it was better to let Jon take the blame.

“Well, what?”

“There was this lady at a gas station near Tucson. She laid this sob story on me about running out of gas and having no food for her two little kids. They were in her van all sweaty and hot because it was frickin’ almost a hundred degrees that day. Crying that they were thirsty and hungry. So…” Eric sighed. “I didn’t have much cash on me. So I gave her the money out of our lockbox.”

“All of it?”

“Yeah. I figured she needed it more than we did. We were almost home. We had some great gigs lined up. I knew we’d make the money back in no time. And then the bus broke down, and we were stuck without a dime. I was going to tell you, but Jon said you were already pissed at him, a little more wouldn’t hurt. Next thing I knew, Jon was out of the band, and we were stuck without a tour bus. We had to cancel a bunch of shows. Lay off some of the crew. It kept snowballing from there.”

“Jessica dumped me.”

Eric winced. “Yeah.”

“At least, I thought that’s why she dumped me. Turned out it was really because I was a conceited ass, but at the time, I blamed Jon for wasting all our money, so I couldn’t pay her law school tuition.”

“I’m really sorry. If I’d have known, I wouldn’t have given that lady the whole five hundred dollars. I just felt bad for her, and her kids were so cute.” Eric peeked at Sed through one eye. “Did I mention they were hungry and thirsty?”

“You gave some stranger five hundred dollars?”

“Yeah, I know. She could have gotten gas and food and stuff for a lot less. I probably should have given her a hundred bucks or so. I’m just…”

“A generous sucker. Yeah, I realize that.” Sed wiped a hand over his face. “There wasn’t five hundred dollars in that lockbox, Eric. There was eight thousand.”

Eric stuck his finger in his ear and wiggled it around. “I don’t think I heard you right. I know there was only five hundred in there. I took it. Emptied the whole thing.”

“Which was a f**kin’ bonehead move.” Sed slapped him in the arm. Not even hard enough to hurt. Shouldn’t he be more pissed? Maybe it was because so much time had passed, and everything had turned out all right. Eventually. “Ever wonder why Jon was so willing to take the fall for you?”

“He was my best friend.”

Sed shook his head. “He didn’t want you to know that he’d spent seventy-five hundred dollars on his drug habit. He’d just gotten out of rehab, remember?”

Eric nodded.

“Remember what landed him there?”

“He took the band’s ATM card and cleared out the checking account to pay for one of his weekend benders.”

“And all of the crew’s paychecks bounced.”

“Yeah, that was a mess.”

“So I had to start paying everyone with cash.”

Eric glanced at Sed, trying to reconstruct past events with this new information. “He took all the payroll money?”

“Good morning, Eric. Glad you’re finally waking up.”

“So all this time, he’s been making me feel like shit to hide what he did and—”

“Keep you under his thumb.”

“That ass**le!”

“I’ve been trying to make you see what he’s really like for years. You’re so blind when it comes to those you care about. You’ve always been as faithful as an abused dog.”

It was true. Eric couldn’t deny it. He wasn’t sure he appreciated being compared to a dog, but he’d been called worse. “So why did you let Jon fill in for Jace? Why is he on tour with us now?”

“Because you wanted him to be.”

“Since when does anyone listen to me?”

Sed chuckled. “All the time, Eric. Where would Sinners be without you? Not where we are today, that’s for sure.”

Eric stared at him. What did he mean? Most of the time the other guys tolerated his eccentricities, but he was unquestionably the least celebrated member of this band.

“You’re the creative genius behind our music, Eric. That little bit of gray matter floating around in your skull is what makes us great. Always has been. Always will be.”

“So why do you always boss me around? And take charge? And act like the leader of this band? And take all the credit for our success?”

“Do you think I like all of this responsibility?” Sed paused and grinned sheepishly, both dimples showing. “Okay, I do. But you’d hate it. Your heart’s too big, Eric. People would take advantage of you. You’d have to deal with a whole lot of logistical bullshit, and it would stifle your creative energy.”