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 dirty about Lyla with any of the band, so she doesn’t continue down that road.
“What I’m sayin’ again is,” she goes on, “it’s none of your goddamn business.”
And I just brave the beast, look right into her eyes and say, “Tim’s my brother. So, he’s my business.”
She looks at Tim and demands, “Tim, get rid of them.”
Now this is not a good situation for a brother to be in.
Somehow, she’s got him whipped but his two boys are standing there.
No man should let a woman, and just sayin’, that shit is vice versa, pull his leash ever, but definitely not in front of his boys.
Shades of the real Dave shine through and he says to Timmy, “I get it. She ain’t hard to look at. But you can get any pussy you want, dude. Lose this chick. She ain’t worth it.”
[Smiles]
Well…
[Starts laughing]
Needless to say, this does not make Leeanne happy and she loses it.
I mean she…fuckin’…loses it.
She’s in the middle of aiming her shit at Dave with Tim holding her back from goin’ at him when Tom shows.
And me and Dave are about looking out for our brother.
Tom’s about looking out for the band.
He sees the state of the place and gets a load of Leeanne and he says to Tim, “She goes or you’re on a break and you go with her. You need to snap out of it and take a look around you. A lot is at stake right now, Tim. And I don’t got time to be pissing around with the likes of her.”
Now I cannot say I’m totally down with Tommy laying it out like that.
And I get the vibe Dave isn’t either.
That said, it mighta been harsh, but he wasn’t wrong.
But Leeanne tips it by flying totally off the handle, screeching at Tommy that he’s not important. He’s not in the band. He doesn’t get to make decisions like that. He can’t tell Tim what to do. Tim’s actually the star of the Roadmasters, everyone knows that, and it’s about time he gets his due, whatever she thinks that is.
And a bunch of other shit.
[Lifts one shoulder in a shrug]
Whatever.
One thing we had that was solid, we all knew none of us would be where we were without the rest of us.
And that includes Tom.
And you know what, maybe that especially includes Tommy.
So, that shit spews from her mouth, whatever hold she has on Tim disintegrates, and he says, “Pack your shit.”
In the end, security had to escort her out.
Tom stayed and sorted it while Tim went with Dave and me to go get something to eat.
But when we get back, they take off and I go right to Preacher and Lyla’s room.
Because, you see, now I’ve had a few days to think on things and I haven’t had the most pleasant afternoon.
[Laughs harshly]
And he took my band.
It’s his band.
We all get along and we all do our jobs and it’s okay for you to have your own thing when it’s working.
But when you got something good, something worth it, you take care of it.
In other words, when it’s not working, you get stuck in and sort shit out.
And it did not escape me, and just sayin’, it didn’t escape Shawn, Tim or Dave either, that in the last few days, we were all in different ways in the mix to take care of it.
And Preacher was not.
I knock.
Preach answers and says, “Not a good time, brother.”
“Shit is goin’ down with the band,” I reply. “And you need to engage.”
He says, “I got my own shit.”