Rhythm, Chord & Malykhin Read Free

almost a year, and the last time we’d seen each other had been during New Year’s.
    He winced. “I’ve missed you more than I’ve missed Rafe,” Eli offered with a smile before hugging me close again, a little roughly, a little too aggressive, and just like him and our relationship.
    I snickered into his shoulder. “I’m going to tell her you said that.”
    He snorted, another trait we shared; our mom thought his snorts were cute while mine she considered disturbing. It was a real confidence-booster. Thanks, Mom. “I’ll deny it.” He would. Rafe was short for Rafaela, our older sister, who had terrorized us when we were kids. Hell, I think she still scared both of us.
    Rolling my eyes, I squeezed his middle. While it was easy to get through day-to-day life when I didn’t have a constant reminder that I missed him, now that I saw him, I realized how much I had. Being near him felt like home. “You’re a little bitch, but I’ve missed you enough not to care you don’t have any balls.”
    He hugged me back a moment longer, and then kissed my cheek unexpectedly before shoving me away. I didn’t let the surprise of his affection register on my face. “Well, c’mon. Let me show you where the bus is. I still gotta warm up.”
    Pulling me in the direction of the bus’s door, Eli explained what happened with Zeke. He’d been Ghost Orchid’s merch guy for the last two years since my retirement. Apparently Gordo had began noticing that the band was occasionally a bit short on cash a few times in the past, but they hadn’t thought too much about it until the same thing happened on the very first day of their current tour. Not a lot of money went missing but enough that Gordo, who was anal retentive about keeping track of their merchandise, noticed. That morning, Mason found that they were short more than three hundred dollars. According to the merch guy for the other band they were on tour with, he’d seen Zeke slipping bills into his laptop case.
    What a moron.
    So they left Zeke at a gas station with enough money for a cab and a plane ticket with an overnight layover.
    My brother stopped in front of the bus and yanked the huge, heavy metal door open. He motioned for me to leave my suitcase outside.
    “I sorta forgot to tell you that we’re sharing a bus with the other band we’re touring with,” he coughed out in a quick sentence, climbing up the tall steps leading inside the bus. The driver’s seat was vacant.
    “Oh, yeah?” I asked, really not caring that we were going to be sharing fifty feet of moving vehicle. I’d survived with them in the past in fifteen feet. Fifty wouldn’t be a problem.
    He pulled aside a heavy cream curtain that separated the driver’s area from the living space. The space consisted of a flat-screen television behind the driver’s seat. There was a long, narrow cloth couch on each side of the walkway that went straight down the middle of the bus. A small table for two was set up behind the seating area and a kitchenette was nestled before a doorway that led where the bunks would be. The set-up was similar to every other bus I’d ever been in before when I’d visited him on tour.
    “Yeah. We’ve been sharing since gas prices started making my ass bleed,” he explained.
    “Are you sure the ass bleeding isn’t from too much anal with Mason?” I cracked up, poking my finger into his back.
    Eli flicked me off over his shoulder as he walked a little further inside. “I’m gonna fart on your pillow and hope you get stink eye,” he muttered.
    I couldn’t help but laugh as I took in the living space, or rather what would be called “home” for the next few weeks. “You’re awful.”
    Turning around to smile at me in that same sneaky way he’d done our entire lives, Eli winked, which was never a good thing. Him winking was a warning of trouble to come. “Oh, my tiny, eight-pound, six-ounce baby Gaby. I’m gonna show you awful.”

Chapter Two
    “ J esus , Mary and