I should’ve known that. I should’ve fucking known that no matter how much I’d thought I’d missed her after seeing her at the Rainbow, I’d done the right thing by letting her go all those years ago. And now was my chance to fix my mistake. To make a clean break with no one to answer to and no one to worry about except myself.
Footsteps clicked against the floor, and my muscles tensed. I raised my head to see a guy in a worn pair of jeans and long hair that fell down the back of his T-shirt. I didn’t recognize him as one of our roadies, so I figured he had to work at the venue.
“Hey man,” I said, pushing myself up to stand.
He startled and turned around, his eyes wide.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.”
He blinked and walked back toward me. “What, uh…Is Eric okay? What happened out there?”
“Yeah, he’s gonna be fine.” I paused for a second, unsure if that was true, but I shook the thought out of my head as I reached into my back pocket for my wallet. “But I need, uh…I need a favor. Do you have a car here?”
He cocked his head and narrowed his eyes. “Yeah, but why do you—”
“Because I’ll give you a hundred bucks to get me out of here,” I said. “And another hundred to pretend you never saw me.”
TWENTY-SEVEN
Eva
August 1989
“You doing okay?”
I heard Keith’s voice, but it didn’t register that he was talking to me. The city lights blurred as we whizzed past them on our way back to the hotel. My mind was focused squarely on Eric, whom we’d just left at the hospital. I didn’t want to go, but there were rules the nurses kept repeating about no visitors in the ICU, and I was too tired to fight about it.
“Eva?”
I blinked and turned my head, looking over at him through the dim ceiling lights of the limousine. “Hmm?”
“Are you okay?” he asked again, leaning forward in his seat.
“Yeah. I’m okay,” I answered, not really sure if I was.
“They’re gonna take good care of him,” he assured me. “And we’ll get him back out to California as soon as we can and into the best rehab facility in the country.”
I nodded again and turned my attention back to the window, pressing my forehead against the cool glass and closing my eyes.
I’d seen only pieces of Eric, doctors and nurses buzzing around like flies, as he was rushed into the hospital. A worn boot, strands of hair falling over the stretcher, a glimpse of the tube they’d placed down his throat. Finally, one of the doctors had taken Keith and me aside, letting us know Eric had been sedated and it would take time for his body to recover. The doctor couldn’t say how long, but because CPR had been started immediately, it was possible no permanent damage was done. I was sure he was doing the best he could with his statistics and explanations, but I could only stare past him, my watery eyes focused on the tiniest scratch on the stark white wall, waiting for him to say we could unhook Eric from the machines and walk out of the building with him. But he never did.
The limo rounded a corner and approached the hotel, bringing a crowd of people gathered outside the entrance into view. Several vans lined the street and bright lights beamed from the sidewalk.
Keith groaned, running his hand along his forehead.
“Is that…Are thosemorenews crews?”
He sighed and nodded. The phone handset buzzed—the driver calling us from the front of the car—and Keith picked it up.
“Yeah, go ahead and stop,” he said, placing the handset back down.
He looked over at me and slapped his hands on his knees. “All right. I know you know this, but don’t say anything. We’re gonna bust through there, heads down, like we did at the hospital. Okay?”
I nodded and took a deep breath as we came to a stop. The chatter of the crowd, filled with fans and reporters, bled through the windows. Our driver opened the door, and I stepped out, catapulted into a frenzy of activity. I squinted and attempted to shield myself from the camera lights that shined in my face.
A flurry of questions and microphones were thrust at us as Keith put his arm around my shoulder and guided me through the crowd.
“Where’s Eric?”