Release Me (The Music Within Book 2) (3 page)

Even
though Mal shouldn’t feel ill will toward his sister, he couldn’t help but
think she had abandoned him and their mother, the same way their younger
brother Curtis had. It was up to him, and him alone, to keep the farm going.

Cade
began tapping his hands on his legs in an elaborate rhythm reminding Mal he
wasn’t alone in the truck. Cade had admitted to being a musician, so it held
reason he’d be a drummer with the way his hands were moving to a song Mal
couldn’t hear. He was curious about Cade, wanted to know everything about the
handsome stranger sitting two feet away from him. Then again, what did it
matter? He would drop him off in Nashville and never see him again.

“You
want to tell me what happened back there?” Cade asked, his hands still moving.

Mal
didn’t see the harm in telling him the truth. Part of it anyway. “Several cows
were down. Wild animal got to ‘em.”

Cade’s
fingers stopped their tapping. “Does that happen often? Is that why you told
your mother to stay inside? If she’s blind, how can she go outside?”

Mal
waited until Cade took a breath, and he answered, “No, it doesn’t happen often.
There’s gotta be a hole in the fence line somewhere. I’ll have to repair it
when I get home. Yes, it’s why I told Ma to stay inside, and she isn’t
completely blind. She can see outlines, but nothin’ really clear. Even as close
as you were to her, you were still a blur.”

“Is
it just the two of you? I saw pictures of you with a guy who looks a lot like
you. Is he your brother? I know I stayed in your sister’s room last night.
Where is she?”

Mal
had hoped for a quiet ride, but it seemed Cade was full of questions, and not
just one at a time. “My brother joined the military. Said the farm life wasn’t
for him. He wanted to go blow shit up and get paid for it. My sister got
married about eight years ago. We see her and her kids every Sunday.” He didn’t
elaborate on his brother. He prayed Cade would let that one go. “What about you?
You got any brothers or sisters?” He wanted to take the focus off himself.

“Nope.
I am an only child. Where’s your father? I didn’t see any pictures of someone
who looked like he donated sperm.”

 Cade
had to have noticed the shift in the atmosphere. Dwight Wilson was not a
subject Mal would discuss. “You mentioned you’re a musician. Are you a drummer?
What band are you in? Anyone I’ve ever heard of?” Mal knew it was rude to
completely ignore the question, but the topic of his father was off limits.

“Welcome
to Tennessee,” Cade mumbled when he saw the sign. He turned around in the seat,
looking back at where they’d come from. “What the fuck? Where the fuck were
we?” Cade implored when he turned back around. Mal couldn’t help but laugh at
the concerned look on the dazzling man’s face.

“Well,
we weren’t in Deliverance country, if that’s what you’re worried about.” Mal
continued to laugh as Cade glared at him. “You seriously took a taxi to
Kentucky and didn’t know it?”

Cade
crossed his arms over his chest and stared out the side window. “I guess I
did.” About twenty minutes passed before he spoke again. As they closed in on
downtown, Cade admitted, “I’m a drummer without a band. It’s why I’m in
Nashville – to audition.”

Like
Mal, Cade didn’t give out more information than he felt was necessary. When
they got close to the tall building where Mal was meeting his lawyer, he asked,
“Listen, I hate to ask this, but instead of takin’ you to the hotel, can you
catch a taxi from a little farther away? I’m pushin’ it now to get to my
appointment on time.”

“Yeah,
sure.”

Mal
pulled the truck into the parking garage next to the high rise. It really did
look like Batman’s tower. He grabbed his paperwork and slid out of the truck.
Cade walked beside him, his hands in his pockets. He looked like he wanted to
say something, but kept quiet. When Mal stopped in front of the doors, Cade
found his voice. “I appreciate you letting me stay with you last night. I
really like your mom, and you seem like a nice guy. Good luck with that,” he
said, pointing to the building. “I guess I’ll see you around.”

Mal
doubted he’d ever see the blond god again, so he just shrugged. “You’re
welcome. I… gotta go.” He couldn’t wait for Cade to respond, even though Mal
wanted nothing more than to spend the day getting to know Cade. If things were
only different, and he wasn’t Malcolm Wilson.

Cade

For
some reason, Cade wasn’t ready to say goodbye to Mal, but he had an audition to
get ready for. Still, he waited outside the building while Mal went inside.
When the handsome bartender entered the elevator alone, Cade slipped inside the
lobby and waited until the lights on the elevator stopped. Tenth floor. Cade
found the directory on the opposite wall and studied the business names on ten.
Two insurance companies, one investment company, and two attorneys. Any one of
them could have been where he was headed. Besides, Cade didn’t even know Mal’s
last name, so what was he going to do with the information if he had it?

He
exited the building and hailed a taxi. He probably could have walked the short
distance to the Hilton, but he was ready for a shower and some food. It was no
wonder the driver looked at him like he was crazy when he told him his destination.
Cade had no sooner gotten situated in the back seat before they were pulling up
in front of the hotel two blocks over. He dropped a twenty in the front seat,
grabbed his cowboy hat, and angled out of the cab.

If
the girl behind the front desk noticed Cade had on the same clothes he’d worn
the day before, she didn’t say anything. As a matter of fact, he could have
been wearing a mumu, and she’d have still been looking at him like she wanted
to devour him. He sighed internally and closed the distance. “Good morning. Do
I have any messages…” he studied her name tag, “Tiffany?”

“No,
Mr. Anderson.”

“Thank
you,” he said with his best rock star smile and left her standing with her
mouth open. He knew the effect his looks had on people. It was one reason he’d slipped
off to the little town of… Where the fuck had he actually gone last night?
Kentucky? Shit. His original plan had been to get drunk and find some soft, or
hard, body to give him comfort for the night. Okay, maybe not comfort, but
release. He was still looking for someone to save him from the thoughts of Tag
that haunted his every waking moment. But instead of paying attention to the
women who’d asked him to buy them a drink, he’d kept his focus on the
bartender.

Was
it because Mal reminded him of Tag? In reality, the only similarity was their
dark hair, and Tag’s wasn’t dark any more. He’d dyed it back to its original
light brown after he left the road. Mal’s hair was almost black. When he caught
Cade staring at him in the mirror, his bright blue eyes widened in surprise
before they narrowed to something Cade couldn’t name. Embarrassment? Shame?
Malcolm had nothing to be embarrassed about. He had one of the most beautiful
bodies Cade had ever seen, and he’d seen plenty. Men and women.

Fuck!
His dick came to life at the thought of the bartender’s bare skin. As soon as
he entered his suite, he tossed the stupid hat somewhere in the vicinity of the
sofa and headed straight to the bathroom. Cade didn’t wait on the water to heat
up all the way. He shed his clothes and stepped under the spray. The cool water
did nothing to abate his erection, so he did the only thing he could besides
wait for it to go back down on its own – he grabbed his cock and started
stroking. He propped his empty hand against the wall of the shower, his head
thrown back, eyes closed. His thoughts immediately went to the same scenario it
always did when he tugged one out. Bright green eyes stared up at him from his
knees as that beautiful mouth wrapped around Cade’s length. Only this time, the
eyes were sapphire blue, and the mouth belonged to someone different. Someone
new.

As
soon as Cade realized he was thinking about someone other than Tag, his hand
faltered. He squeezed his eyes shut tighter, and finished bringing himself to
climax. When his orgasm tore through his body, the name that left his tongue
was Mal’s.

For
a long while, he stood unmoving other than his chest rising and falling with
his hand still bracing the wall. Cade tried to make sense of what just
happened. For the past fifteen years, whether he was with a man, a woman, alone
with Tag, or sharing someone with his best friend, he always imagined Tag’s
face in his mind when his orgasm took over. Always. Until today. Until Mal.

That
in itself was even more of a mystery. Malcolm was nothing like anyone Cade had
ever fucked. Nothing like the men he’d ever been attracted to. Sure he had a
rock hard body and a face anyone would be jealous of, but he was a down home
country boy who still lived with his mother. Jesus, he even called her
Ma
.
 Is that what really bothered Cade? That Mal was a pick-up truck driving
country boy? If the rundown condition of their house was any indication, they
struggled to make ends meet. Was Cade really that shallow?

No.
When he thought about it, he realized that didn’t bother him in the least. Mal
seemed like the kind of man who worked hard, and he loved his mother. Cade
could understand living with the woman since she was practically blind. That
was a check in the plus column. Mal had saved Cade from the crazy brothers the
night before and had taken care of him instead of leaving him to his own
defenses. That was another check in the plus column. The way Mal spoke,
dropping the g on certain words and not others, amused Cade, and he found it
sexy as hell. When Cade realized he was mentally making a checklist, he pushed
off the wall and washed up.

As
he dried off, the stark realization that he might finally be letting go of his
obsession with his best friend hit him like a punch to the gut. Cade had held onto
the dream of him and Tag being together forever for so long that he couldn’t
imagine anyone else taking his place. But wasn’t this exactly what he’d been
searching for over the last three months? For the pain to ease, and someone to
make Cade forget about Tag?

Cade
strode naked to the phone and ordered breakfast and a pot of coffee. He went
through the motions of putting on deodorant, brushing his teeth, and blow
drying his dark blond hair. He then slicked gel through it so it stood on end,
sticking out in all directions. It was a little longer than he normally wore
it, but he hadn’t bothered going to his regular stylist when he’d been in LA.

He
stared at his reflection for long minutes, trying to view his body through
Mal’s eyes. Cade was fit. You couldn’t drum for hours on end without being in
shape. He was bulkier than most musicians, but he loved to work out. The
tattoos on his chest were unlike the ones on his back. Those blended one into
the other, but he knew every single one of them. What they meant, where he was
when he and Tag went together to get their ink. Not once had he gone to get one
without his best friend being by his side. When he saw the new ink on Tag’s
chest, the one that incorporated both Tag’s and Erik’s professions as well as a
rose for his baby girl, Cade’s heart had broken a little more.

Cade
brushed his fingers over the ink on his chest. Every time he looked in the
mirror, the compass and two nautical stars reminded him to always stay the
course. Too many rock stars got off track with drugs. He had started down that
road when they hit the big time and began selling out arenas. It took seeing a
fellow musician OD’ing at a young age to bring Cade to his senses. He still
liked to smoke pot every now and then, but that was it.

Mal’s
body had been ink free, his skin a clean slate. Did he not like tattoos? Would
he care that most of the tats on Cade’s body were some reflection of his years
with Tag? A knock on the door indicating his breakfast had arrived didn’t give
him time to answer his own questions. He gave the hotel employee a tip after he
placed the tray of food and carafe of coffee on the table. Once the door
clicked shut, he pulled the silver lid off the food. The biscuits and gravy
looked good, but once he took a bite, he couldn’t help but compare the biscuit
to the one he’d had a bite of earlier.

Cade
thought Suzette had gotten up and cooked their food, but when she shuffled into
the kitchen after being woken by the barking dog, it dawned on Cade that Mal
had made the biscuits. They weren’t uniform in size, so it only made sense they
had been made from scratch. He had only taken a few bites of food when one of
the dogs had gone crazy and Mal rushed off to find out the reason.

While
Cade stood on the porch waiting for Mal to come back, numerous emotions went
through his brain from curiosity to fear to a twinge of longing. Suzette called
out to Mal from inside, so Cade went back in to let her know what was going on,
as much as he knew, anyway. The distraught look that washed the woman’s face
let Cade know that whatever Mal had been alerted to was not a good thing. As
badly as he wanted to question Suzette, he held back and helped her to a cup of
coffee while they both waited on Mal to return. Once the woman settled into her
chair, he excused himself and returned to the back porch to wait. His heartbeat
only slowed to a normal cadence when he heard the four wheeler returning to the
barn.

 As
he took a sip of coffee, his cell phone rang, and he smiled when he saw who was
calling. He was glad that Echo, 7’s Mistress’s former manager, hadn’t
completely forsaken him. She was trying to help him find another group to play
with. Echo Donaldson was a force to be reckoned with. Standing barely over five
feet with heels, she dressed like Joan Jett and would put anyone in their place
in a heartbeat.

“Hey,
Echo.”

“Hey,
yourself. I wanted to make sure you were up, and to see if you could meet the
band earlier than planned. Something came up with the studio, and they need the
place this afternoon.”

“Sure,
what time?” he offered. He would just as soon get it over with. For some
reason, his heart was no longer in meeting with these guys.

“Can
you be there at eleven? I know it’s less than an hour, but it’s not far away.”

“Yeah,
I’ll be there. And thank you, Echo.”

For
a few seconds, he thought she’d hung up on him when she didn’t respond.
Finally, she whispered, “You’re welcome, Cade. Let me know how it goes.”

“Will
do.” He pressed his thumb to the red
end
icon and waited for the text to
come through. While he waited, he realized he’d probably never said
thank
you
to Echo. He had taken her for granted much the same way he had everyone
in his life. Growing up rich, he felt entitled to people waiting on him hand
and foot, even in the beginning of the band when he pretended to be someone he
wasn’t. God, he really had been a dick.

No
longer hungry, he refreshed his coffee, added more sugar, and took the cup with
him as he looked out the window. His hotel room faced the river, which meant he
could see the building Mal had gone into. Mal had been adamant about not
missing the meeting, so Cade assumed it had something to do with money. He
really wished he had gotten Mal’s last name. He wasn’t sure what he would do if
he had it, but at least he would be able to look him up if he ever came this
way again.

No,
it was probably best he let his infatuation die down. Cade needed to get to the
audition and get back on the road. Mal was probably a fluke, and he didn’t need
someone like Cade in his life fucking things up. He finished the coffee and
made his way downstairs. A taxi waited out front, and once inside he pulled up
the address so he could tell the driver where they were going. He sat back
against the seat and used the time to steel his nerves. Even though Cade was
one of the best drummers in the world, he had a feeling the audition was not
going to be smooth.

The
guys from Shattered Cross were warming up when Cade walked into the studio.
They put their guitars down and introductions were made. Echo had explained
that their former drummer had been injured pretty badly in a car accident, and
even though the guy hoped to make a full recovery one day, the band was in the
middle of recording their latest album and were on a tight schedule with the
record label. Cade was all too aware of schedules, but he also felt a little
animosity coming from the bass player.

When
Cade agreed to the audition, the band had sent a list of songs he would be
playing so he could practice beforehand. His kit currently sat in storage, and
being the cocky bastard he was, he hadn’t done any more than bounce his sticks
off the cushions of the sofa. Cade listened to the songs, and after about a
week, had no doubt he could nail them. They were much less intricate than any
7’s Mistress song, so this should be a piece of cake.

After
about the fifth time of the bass player stopping them in the middle of a song
to chastise Cade, he realized this wasn’t going to work out. His playing was
spot on, but he wasn’t about to subject himself to the asshole who obviously
didn’t want him around. Cade stood from the stool and stuck his sticks in his
back pocket, ignoring the bass player going on about his inability to properly
play the beats. Cade held his hand up to stop the bass player’s rant.
“Gentlemen, I appreciate the opportunity, but I can see I’m not the one you
need to sit on the throne. If you’ll excuse me.” He left them staring as he
walked out without another word.