Release Me (The Music Within Book 2) (10 page)

“Me,
too. But I’m not ready to settle down just yet. Maybe by the time I’m forty,
I’ll find someone who knocks my drumsticks out of my hands and grabs my
attention.” Except he’d already met that person. If he went on the road now,
he’d lose any chance at being with Mal later, if he even had a shot at all.
What if Cade blew off the audition only to find out Mal didn’t want him. No,
Cade had to get his head out of his ass and stop thinking with his dick. It had
been really good sex, but it was still just sex. At least that’s what he kept
telling himself.

As
soon as they finished eating, Echo left Cade alone so he could get in some
practice time. He changed out of his jeans and long-sleeved button-up into
loose basketball shorts and tank top. As soon as he sat on his stool and hit
the high tom, his body settled into his practice zone and Cade got lost in the
motions for a couple of hours. He knew most of the songs Divining the Dark
played, and he ran through them, adding his own flourishes to the beats.

When
he finished, his body was drenched in sweat, and Cade felt more alive than he
had since the band split up. Almost as alive as when he’d been on his knees
getting pounded by one smoking hot country boy. Fuck. Between the adrenaline
from playing and his memory of being ridden by Mal, Cade’s cock was ready to
come out and play. He pushed down on his dick, trying to get it to behave. He
made his way to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge.
Two hours behind his kit was a much more intense workout than anything he could
do in the gym. Even though it was still early in California, his body was on
Central Time, so Cade headed for the shower and got ready for bed. He ignored
his hard-on as long as he could, but it wasn’t going away.

Cade
stroked a soapy hand up and down the length while bringing forth the image of
Mal’s deep blue eyes staring at him from his knees. A couple of tugs later and
Cade was shooting his load down the drain, the creamy liquid mixing with the
clear water.

After
finishing up in the bathroom, Cade pulled on a pair of boxer briefs and got
comfortable in the middle of his big bed that he had missed. Hotels might have
nice beds, but Cade’s was top of the line, and he relished his time spent there.
He turned on the sixty-inch television on the opposite wall and flipped through
hundreds of channels, not finding anything that caught his eye. He settled on a
baseball game and tossed the remote to the other side of the bed. He allowed
the noise from the game to fill his room so the quiet didn’t keep him awake. He
needed a good night’s sleep before his audition with DTD.

Cade
knew before he picked up his sticks that he would be a good fit with the band.
Divining the Dark’s music was on the same level as 7’s Mistress with regards to
heaviness and lyrical content. It really was a shame that Shawn Cambridge had
been arrested. He was one hell of a drummer. After four complete songs, Reed
Bennett, the lead singer, turned to Cade with a big grin on his face.

“Well,
what do you think?” Reed asked Cade.

“Don’t
you need to vote or something?” Cade felt right at home delivering the beats
behind these three men.

“Man,
we voted before you ever got here. The gig’s yours if you want it. We’ll just
need to have your people talk to our people and work out the legalities.”

“Yeah,
I’d be honored to back you up. Just promise me everyone’s going to wear condoms
from now on,” he joked, and the guys burst out laughing. Even though the crime
had been serious, the men had been joking about it when Cade walked in the
door. They all believed Shawn when he claimed to have been framed, but the
legal system had to go through the motions and look at the evidence. The band
doubted he would get out of jail anytime soon.

They
spent the rest of the day practicing, cutting up, swapping stories from the
road, and basically getting to know each other. Roarke Fowler, the lead
guitarist, was the clown of the group. He didn’t pull any punches with any of
them, Cade included. Before he technically signed a deal, he made sure they
were all okay with his sexuality. He didn’t ask if any of them batted for both
teams, but Roarke offered up the information freely.

“Yeah,
man, it’s cool. This is fucking rock and roll for fuck’s sake. We’ve all dipped
our wick in the dark passage once or twice. Some of us on a regular basis.” He
cut his eyes at Logan Hicks, the bass player. Logan just shrugged, so Roarke
continued, “Everyone except for Shawn. If he’d been dipping his stick in a dude
instead of that bleached blonde cunt, he might still be with us.” The guys
laughed at the truth, even though the situation wasn’t all that funny.

Echo
and Afton watched them rehearse for a while before disappearing for the rest of
the afternoon. Cade hoped Echo was getting lucky with the pretty woman. She
deserved all the happiness in the world after dealing with his ass for so long.
Cade also hoped that getting back on the road was going to provide his own bit
of happiness.

Mal

Mal
couldn’t contain his excitement, nor could he quell the nerves rolling around.
He had just gotten off the phone with a representative of the holding company
who had purchased the note on his land as well as the surrounding thousand
acres. It had been a long time, almost eight years, since he had worked that
much property at once, but now that he’d let the notion sink in, he looked
forward to getting back to it. This time, he wouldn’t have to do it alone. He
had been given the green light on hiring as many men as he needed to help. He
currently wouldn’t need any help with the small number of animals he had, but
he did need help in getting the barn in better condition.

Once
that was taken care of, the new owners were willing to bring in horses and any
equipment Mal wanted. Basically, he’d been handed an endless bank account to
get the farm back to where it had once been. Only this time, it wasn’t really
for his family; it was for some suit behind a desk. Still, Mal couldn’t
begrudge the suit. He was, after all, saving Mal’s ass, as well as saving his
family’s land from being turned into an asphalt jungle.

The
owners had done their due diligence on Mal. They knew about the bar and asked
if he intended on continuing working there. He told them he had been looking to
sell for a while, but now that he didn’t have to, he would be happy to find
someone to take over as manager, if he could find the right person. He left out
the fact that he didn’t know anyone who wanted to be in charge of the run down
establishment. Maybe he could take some of his savings and spruce the place up.
Since he didn’t have to worry about using the little bit of cash to find
somewhere to live, he could possibly do a little remodeling so the bar would be
more enticing for someone to take it over.

Mal
also planned on fixing up the house. Even though his momma could barely see,
she had to know how badly the house needed painting on the inside. The linoleum
floors needed replacing as well as the carpeting. The outside needed just as
much work, but the overall condition was still livable. Yes, he might not own
the land or the house any longer, but he’d treat it as if he did. All he wanted
was to provide a nice home for his ma. Well, that wasn’t all he wanted. Cade’s
face drifted into his mind, and he sighed. The lyrics to that old Rolling
Stones song came to mind. “You can’t always get what you want, but sometimes
you get what you need.” He couldn’t remember the exact words, but the meaning
was the same. He had been given what he needed to save the land, and he would
be content with that.

Except
for the little time he and Tyler had spent together, Mal had been alone. It was
something he was used to, but having a taste of Cade for just one night had
shown him what he had been missing out on. Even though the two of them were as
different as night and day, Cade made him feel things he’d never felt before.
And it wasn’t just the sex. Cade had touched Mal gently. Had kissed his scar
instead of turning away from it. Had allowed Mal to take him roughly just
because that’s what he needed. As painful as knowing what he could never have
was, he would hold on tightly to the memories of that one night and use them to
keep him company during the long, lonely nights.

Mal
wished he had gotten Cade’s phone number. He wanted to tell someone the good
news, someone besides his ma and Walt. Cade was the first one, the only one,
who came to mind. How pathetic was that? Mal had worked so hard for so long
that he had no real friends. The people who came in the bar on a regular basis
were nothing more than acquaintances, even though he’d known most of them his
whole life. The people in town where he bought his supplies weren’t friends,
either. Sure he saw these people all the time, but he felt as though they still
whispered behind his back, even if what happened to him and his momma was a
long time ago.

 Tapping
the eraser of the pencil in his hand on the blank paper reminded Mal of the way
Cade’s hands tapped out rhythms on his legs. The drummer’s hands were talented
in more ways than one. Mal seriously needed to concentrate on the task before
him instead of dwelling on the night they’d spent together. Blowing out a sigh,
he finally made two columns on the paper and labeled them house and barn. He
started on the barn side since it was needed, and the house repairs were merely
wanted. Okay, they were desperately needed, but they would have to wait. He
began listing out items on the barn side when the kitchen phone rang. He laid
the pencil down and stood to answer it. He wondered if the owners had forgotten
something. “Hello?”

“Hey,
Mal. It’s Cade.” Mal looked at the receiver then put it back to his ear just as
Cade said, “Hello? Are you there?”

“Yeah,
I’m here. Just didn’t expect you to call’s all.”

“Well,
you haven’t called me, and I got tired of waiting.”

“I
couldn’t have called you if I wanted to, Cade. I don’t have your number.” And
he had wanted to. “So, why are you callin’?”

“Look,
Mal. I know the other night was probably just a good fuck to you, but it meant
a little more to me than that. I don’t have a lot of friends in my life.
Actually, the few I had are now living their lives without me. Most of them,
anyway. I was hoping I could call you sometime, just to say hi and see how you
are.”

“I
guess that would be okay. What is it?”

“What
is what?” Cade asked.

“Your
phone number.” Mal wanted to add “duh”, but realized it would sound childish.

“Oh,
I thought… you had caller I.D. You got a pencil?”

Mal
closed his eyes and sighed. He forgot until that moment how behind the times he
really was. He should have caller I.D. on his phone, but since nobody but bill
collectors ever called, he rarely answered his phone. He let the answering
machine pick up, and if it was someone he wanted to talk to, he called them
back. Melanie and his momma had a code so she knew it was her calling. She let
it ring once, hung up and called right back.

“Yep,
what is it?”  Mal wrote the numbers down as Cade rattled them off. “Got
it. Listen, Ma has been houndin’ me about askin’ you to supper. Are you free
tonight?” God, what was wrong with him?
Desperate much?
It had been a
one-time thing. Sure, he’d stayed all night, but it hadn’t meant anything. And
using his mother as an excuse was so juvenile.

“Actually,
I’m back in LA. I got called for an audition.” Cade didn’t sound as excited as
he should have, so he probably didn’t get the job.

“Oh,
how’d that go for ya?”

“I
got the gig. It’s with Divining the Dark. We’re going to be cutting an album in
the next few months, so I won’t be touring for a while, but I will be busy in
the studio.”

“That’s
great. I know it’s what you wanted. Listen, thanks for callin’. I need to get
back to work.”

“I
guess the cows can’t wait, huh? I don’t want to disappoint your mother, so how
about I come back and have dinner with you this weekend? Is that acceptable?”

Mal
was stunned. Cade was offering to fly across the country just to eat with him.
“You’d do that?” Mal felt guilty about the invitation, but it was too late to
take it back now.

 “Of
course I would. We aren’t scheduled to begin practice until next week, so I can
definitely come back.”

“If
it isn’t too much trouble, I know it would make Ma happy.”
Not to mention
it’ll make me ecstatic.

“It’s
no trouble at all. Is Saturday good? What about the bar?” Cade’s voice was
muffled momentarily, and a car door closed. “Hold on a second.” Shuffling
sounds, a loud radio that was quickly lowered, then the purr of an engine all
came through the phone. “Sorry, I put you on speaker.”

Mal
had to wonder what kind of car Cade drove that he could still hear Cade’s voice
above the engine once he got going. Being able to fly back and forth across the
country without batting an eye meant he probably had a high dollar sports car.
Just another reminder of how different they were and why asking him to supper
was such a bad idea.

“Mal?”

“Yeah,
I’m here. Saturday’s fine. I still haven’t done anything about the bar, but
it’s not as big a priority as it was.”

“Oh?
Why’s that?”

“I
got some good news, but I’d rather tell you in person. Anything in particular
you want for supper?” Mal asked, praying Cade didn’t request some fancy-ass
dish he’d never heard of.

“You
do the cooking, right?”

“Yep.
Is that a problem?” Mal replied a little gruffer than necessary.

Cade
purred, “No, I think it’s sexy as hell. Can you fry chicken?”

Mal
laughed. He should have known better than to think Cade was going to offend
him. “Yeah, I think I might be able to handle that.”

“Excellent.
Okay then, I will see you Saturday around five, if that isn’t too early.”

“Five’s
fine. I’ll see you then.” Mal realized he had a goofy grin on his face, and
that just wouldn’t do.

“You
take care, and give your mother a hug for me. Later, babe.” Cade didn’t give
Mal a chance to say goodbye. Babe? That was the third time he’d used an
endearment. It must be a rocker thing. He stood and returned the phone to the
hook.

“I’m
hounding you, huh?” Suzette was standing in the doorway. “So, what’s for supper
Saturday?” she asked, grinning.

Mal
rolled his eyes. Even though they had never discussed his sexuality, his momma
knew he preferred men. She knew, because his father accused her of being the
reason they had a “faggot” in the house. It was why he tried to kill Suzette,
saying she was responsible for Mal’s affliction. He also accused her of having
an affair, because there was no way a son of his could be queer. Thankfully,
both Melanie and Curtis had been out in the fields tending to the cattle when
it happened, or they might have been attacked as well.

Mal
never came right out and told his siblings the reason their father attacked him
and his momma, but somehow Melanie figured it out. She cornered him in the barn
one day and told him she didn’t care who he liked, and never mentioned it
again. Curtis had only been twelve when their father went to jail, but after
that day, the former fun-loving, outgoing kid retreated into himself. He helped
Mal on the farm, but did his chores in silence. Mal had no idea if he knew his
older brother liked boys. Curtis joined the Marines the day he graduated high
school and had never returned home. That was another thing he and his momma
never discussed.

Even
though she couldn’t see his face, Mal schooled his expression and said, “Fried
chicken. And we’re just friends, Ma.”

“Friends,
huh? Your
friend
drove all the way out here to give you his phone
number.”

“What?
When?”

“The
other night, right after you left for Nashville. Here,” she explained, handing
him a slip of paper. Why didn’t Cade just tell him he gave the number to his
momma?

“Did
you happen to tell him where I was goin’?”

“Yes.
I didn’t see the harm in it. He seems like a nice young man,” his momma said
defensively.

“He
is, Ma. It’s okay.”

“Friends
are good, Mal. Take Walt, for example. I rather enjoyed going out to eat with
him last night, but it made me realize how lonely he is. If you don’t mind, I’d
like to invite him over for supper every once in a while. He mentioned more
than once how he was glad to not be all by his lonesome. I think he might have
been hinting around, poor man.”

Mal
didn’t miss the wistful tone in her voice. Walt wasn’t the only lonely one. “Of
course I don’t mind. You know I like Walt, and now that the money’s not gonna
be so tight, we can afford another mouth every once in a while. Just don’t let
Neil know too much, okay?”

“Pfft,
you know I don’t tell that lowlife nothing. I keep trying to convince Melanie
to get her tubes tied after she has this baby, but she won’t talk about it. I
can’t believe she lets that loon snow her over like he does.”

Suzette
didn’t like Neil any more than Mal did. She would never say anything negative
around Melanie, and she doted on the grandbabies like crazy, but she wished
Melanie had found someone with just a tad more ambition and a little less
jealousy in his bones. Melanie was a looker, even after three babies.
Motherhood agreed with her.