“All of it?”

“Yeah. I figured she needed it more than we did. We were almost home. We had some great gigs lined up. I knew we’d make the money back in no time. And then the bus broke down, and we were stuck without a dime. I was going to tell you, but Jon said you were already pissed at him, a little more wouldn’t hurt. Next thing I knew, Jon was out of the band, and we were stuck without a tour bus. We had to cancel a bunch of shows. Lay off some of the crew. It kept snowballing from there.”

“Jessica dumped me.”

Eric winced. “Yeah.”

“At least, I thought that’s why she dumped me. Turned out it was really because I was a conceited ass, but at the time, I blamed Jon for wasting all our money, so I couldn’t pay her law school tuition.”

“I’m really sorry. If I’d have known, I wouldn’t have given that lady the whole five hundred dollars. I just felt bad for her, and her kids were so cute.” Eric peeked at Sed through one eye. “Did I mention they were hungry and thirsty?”

“You gave some stranger five hundred dollars?”

“Yeah, I know. She could have gotten gas and food and stuff for a lot less. I probably should have given her a hundred bucks or so.

I’m just…”

“A generous sucker. Yeah, I realize that.” Sed wiped a hand over his face. “There wasn’t five hundred dollars in that lockbox, Eric.

There was eight thousand.”

Eric stuck his finger in his ear and wiggled it around. “I don’t think I heard you right. I know there was only five hundred in there.

I took it. Emptied the whole thing.”

“Which was a fuckin’ bonehead move.” Sed slapped him in the arm. Not even hard enough to hurt. Shouldn’t he be more pissed?

Maybe it was because so much time had passed, and everything had turned out al right. Eventually. “Ever wonder why Jon was so willing to take the fall for you?”

“He was my best friend.”

Sed shook his head. “He didn’t want you to know that he’d spent seventy-five hundred dollars on his drug habit. He’d just gotten out of rehab, remember?”

Eric nodded.

“Remember what landed him there?”

“He took the band’s ATM card and cleared out the checking account to pay for one of his weekend benders.”

“And all of the crew’s paychecks bounced.”

“Yeah, that was a mess.”

“So I had to start paying everyone with cash.”

Eric glanced at Sed, trying to reconstruct past events with this new information. “He took all the payroll money?”

“Good morning, Eric. Glad you’re finally waking up.”

“So all this time, he’s been making me feel like shit to hide what he did and—”

“Keep you under his thumb.”

“That asshole!”

“I’ve been trying to make you see what he’s really like for years.

You’re so blind when it comes to those you care about. You’ve always been as faithful as an abused dog.”

It was true. Eric couldn’t deny it. He wasn’t sure he appreciated being compared to a dog, but he’d been called worse. “So why did you let Jon fill in for Jace? Why is he on tour with us now?”

“Because you wanted him to be.”

“Since when does anyone listen to me?”

Sed chuckled. “All the time, Eric. Where would Sinners be without you? Not where we are today, that’s for sure.”

Eric stared at him. What did he mean? Most of the time the other guys tolerated his eccentricities, but he was unquestionably the least celebrated member of this band.

“You’re the creative genius behind our music, Eric. That little bit of gray matter floating around in your skull is what makes us great. Always has been. Always will be.”

“So why do you always boss me around? And take charge?

And act like the leader of this band? And take all the credit for our success?”

“Do you think I like all of this responsibility?” Sed paused and grinned sheepishly, both dimples showing. “Okay, I do. But you’d hate it. Your heart’s too big, Eric. People would take advantage of you. You’d have to deal with a whole lot of logistical bullshit, and it would stifle your creative energy.”

Eric snarled. “Why are you always fucking right about everything? Do you know how annoying that is?”

“Nope.” Sed wrapped an arm around Eric’s shoulders and walked him toward the tour bus. “Do you feel better now that you got that big secret off your chest?”

“Sorta.” Eric sighed remorsefully. “So what do we do about Jon?”

“I’m going to leave that up to you.”

Oh sure, the one time Eric actually wanted Sed to be in command, he hands over the controls. When they passed one of the open dressing rooms backstage, Eric caught sight of Jon sniffing something off the side of his hand. Jon’s eyelids fluttered as he held one nostril shut and then he covertly handed something to one of their temporary roadies. Very temporary. Sed shook his head in disgust and followed the guy back to the stage area where he was supposed to help with teardown. Eric was glad he didn’t have to fire him. He hated to admit it, but Sed did make a better bandleader than he ever would.

Jon spotted Eric standing in the doorway. He beamed a bright smile and hurried over to Eric. “I have this great idea on how to prank Sed,” Jon said. “We can tie a stuffed rat to a string and hide it inside the refrigerator. When Sed opens it to get a beer, the rat will fly out and scare the piss out of him. What do you think? It will work. I know it will. We just have to make sure he’s the one who opens the refrigerator.”

Eric had really wanted to wait to collect his thoughts before he confronted Jon. But if he did that, Eric knew he’d start to feel sorry for Jon and make excuses for him again. Enable him. “I know about the lockbox.”

“I didn’t take anything,” Jon said nervously. “I don’t even know the new combination.”

Eric shook his head. “But you tried, didn’t you?”

“Prove it.”

Dealing with this guy made Eric tired. He knew his life would be a whole lot easier without Jon in it. “I wasn’t talking about the current lockbox. I was talking about the old one. The one I supposedly emptied out, and you claimed to take the fall for me. The incident you’ve been holding over my head for years. Ringing any bells?”

“I did take the fall for you.”

“Sed told me that there was eight thousand dollars in there, not five hundred. You took the rest of that money for what? For drugs?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Jon said. “I didn’t take any money out of the lockbox.”

Eric hesitated. “You didn’t?”

“No. You should get your facts straight before you start accusing people of things.”

Jon shook his head and stormed away, his hands shoved deep in the pockets of his jeans.

Eric watched Jon stalk off down the corridor. Maybe Jon hadn’t taken the money. Maybe Sed was wrong.

Or maybe Jon was lying.

“Fuck my life,” Eric muttered under his breath.

Over two weeks later, somewhere between Buffalo and Detroit, Rebekah squirmed onto the dining table to sit next to Trey as they waited for dinner to finish cooking. Both booths were full, so she didn’t have many seating options to choose from. Jace sat next to Brian on one side of the table, and Sed next to Eric on the other. She might have squeezed onto Eric’s lap, but he was trapped against the wall, and Sed took up more than his fair share of the booth with his broad shoulders.

Eric had been pensive since their Austin show. She knew why.

He’d told her about his situation with Jon. She’d advised him to cut all ties with the guy, but Eric was big on second chances and third chances and twenty-seventh chances. So Jon still played the shows, following the tour buses in his Jeep, and Eric tried to avoid him as much as possible. Rebekah patiently waited for Eric to get his head out of his ass, and Sed held his tongue.

“This tour schedule is killing me,” Trey complained, rubbing his face with both hands. “The venues are scattered all over the fucking place.”