Page 16 of In the Shadows

I slid my hand in his. “Come on, babe, it’ll be okay.”

He nodded, but glued himself to my side. His hand was sweaty, and his grip was firm, but he managed to make it out there. Mickey’s reaction surprised the hell out of me. His face was pale and he was not moving. I honestly thought he was going to vomit, but in typical Diamond fashion, he picked the little guy up and tossed him over his shoulder before planting him down beside our group in the middle of the walk.

Diamond kept his hands firmly placed on Mickey’s shoulders to help keep him grounded. But the look Mickey gave him was a cross between,I think I may kill youandthanks, big brother.That was how we rolled, whether you wanted it or not we were there for each other. Even when one of us wanted to tell one or all the others to go pound sand.Ha.

They took pictures of each band, then of both bands together and about twenty minutes later they escorted us off the platform and back onto the bus. But they never made us lock up our phones beforehand. I guess had one of us pulled ours out, that might have changed things, but since we kept to the rules it seemed they let us fly under the radar.

When we hit the Hualapai Ranch, it was me who turned into a kid in a candy store. It was an all-out wild-west town and right up my alley. The sun was shining, the temperature was perfect, and my brothers were experiencing this with me for the first time. Next visit, Joey and I would need to book one of the private cabins that had an awesome view of the canyon.

Diamond’s stomach led us to the Food Ranch where we ate what could only be deemed as a cowboy feast for lunch. Ribs, beans, corn on the cob and cornbread. Once we’d eaten our fill, we headed out to enjoy the town.

Inside the gift shop, I was drawn to the cowboy hats and started trying them on, eyeing at my reflection in the full-length mirror. Joey came up behind me drawing the wild west out of me. I drew my hands into guns, pulling them out of the pretend holsters at my sides at the same time and in the absolute worst cowboy accent humanly possible I said, “Put ‘em up!” to him. His laugh echoed throughout the store as multiple heads turned our way.

“I don’t know what’s going on,” he said, “but I’m finding that white Stetson sitting on top of your head hot as fuck. I’m envisioning that hat and nothing else.”

Holding the hat up in the air I hollered, “Yee hah, I’ll take one in every color, please.” Much to Joey’s delight.

“I think one will be enough, cowboy,” he teased.

And just like that, I was whipping out my card to pay for the hat.

Mickey was loading up on candy, but Diamond was nowhere to be found.

“Where’s the man?” I asked.

“You get one guess,” Mickey said, pointing to the mechanical bull sign on the wall.

“Oh shit. I gotta see this, let’s go.” After paying, we hurried over to where the mechanical bull was set up and spotted Diamond talking with the guy running the show. The nine of us watched closely as he showed him what to do. We couldn’t hear them, but got the gist of it from the hand gestures the guy was using before walking Diamond over to the bull. Once he was seated on top of it, he gripped the leather strap firmly in his right hand before raising his left to alert the attendant that he was ready to roll.

Everyone walking by stopped, as all eyes turned to our friend who clearly had no qualms with trying anything – once. I swear, Diamond lacked an internal “oh shit” meter and dove head first into everything. But when the guy started it out at kid’s speed, we began verbally slinging slurs at Diamond. The operator was laughing his ass off and kicked it up a notch, Diamond’s eyes widened, and his forearms flexed as he increased his death grip on the strap.

With his left-hand whipping wildly through the air, the bull went left and Diamond went with it. Just as we thought it was game over, Diamond surprised us. The crowd gasped as he tightened his thighs on each side of the bull and shifted his weight to the right, damn near pulling the bull along with him, but stayed upright and in control and the crowd cheered. When it was over, he dismounted and threw both his arms up in the air, but when he tried to walk over to us he swayed and fell over on the padded floor, but was laughing his ass off.

“You’re a crazy son of a bitch,” I told him, slapping his shoulder as he emerged from behind the fencing.

“I refuse to let life pass me by. There’s shit to do and you know I’m game for anything.”

And that was Diamond in a nutshell. I had to give him props for that, especially considering how he was raised. But maybe that was why he always grabbed life by the balls, living a repressed existence for as long as he had would have majorly sucked. Once again, we boarded the shuttle and headed for the last stop and found ourselves back at the hotel with time to spare. Everyone broke off into groups and Joey and I walked around for another hour or so until I got the text that dinner was set up in our suite. When we walked in the door, Joey stopped.

“Stoli.”

The staff really went above and beyond. Red rose petals covered the bed, and the balcony doors were open, drawing the beauty of the outside in. A single red rose sat in a crystal vase between two lit, white taper candles on top of the dining table.

I stood behind him, wrapping my arms around him. “Now you can watch a sunset I hope you’ll always remember.”

He turned to face me, placing his forehead to mine. “No one’s ever done anything this nice for me before.”

Looking down at his adorable, slightly upturned nose that I loved, I spoke straight from my heart, “Times have changed, Joey. With me, you’ll always know you come first.”

The glimmer of hope in his eyes as our lips came together took my breath away. The years he spent with that asshole, always taking from him and never giving back fucking tore me apart. I couldn’t hold him tight enough against me. I couldn’t take my heart out of my chest and hand it over to him, proving it was his. I’d have to let my words and actions speak to that for the rest of our lives.

“What time is sunset?” he asked as we parted.

“Five thirty two, so in about twenty minutes.”

“Okay, I’m gonna change real quick,” he said, taking his shorts out of his bag and heading to the bathroom.

I did the same before meeting him at the table on the balcony overlooking the canyon.

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