FRAUD: An Unfit Hero Novel

by Faiman, Hayley

  Curling my fingers around the door handle, I tug it open, watching as the stairs slowly glide down. Releasing Hutton’s hand, I press my fingers against her lower back as she walks up the staircase.

  When she’s inside of the bus, I watch as Laurie follows her. I hear Laurie’s gasp and close my eyes, knowing that Austin and Jesse have fucked up somehow.

  Climbing in behind the women, I narrow my eyes at the men in front of me. Austin is bent over a table, a straw shoved up his nose as he does a line of coke while some bitch is on her knees sucking his dick.

  Jesse is completely naked, but thankfully not fucking anyone. Instead, he’s scratching his stomach, frozen, with a bag of nacho cheese Doritos in his hand. His eyes flick from mine to Laurie’s and then focus on Hutton.

  “Hey, Hutton.” He winks.

  Laurie clears her throat, taking a step toward him. “I’m Laurie,” she offers, tilting her head to the side.

  Fucking shit.

  Laurie with Jesse is the last fucking thing that I need.

  “You two have five minutes to get yourself cleaned the fuck up.” I growl. “And get her gone,” I say, dipping my chin to the woman who hasn’t stopped sucking Austin’s cock.

  “You’re no fuckin’ fun anymore,” Austin grumbles.

  Turning my back to them, I look at Hutton whose eyes are wide as she continues to stare at what is happening in front of her, probably traumatized by these men who are supposedly my friends.

  “Let’s go outside,” I murmur.

  Hutton’s eyes flick to mine, and her lips twitch as she shrugs a shoulder. “Rock-and-roll, right?” she asks.

  I snort. “Not like this, not anymore, and not on my fucking bus.”

  Leaving Laurie behind, I wrap my hand around Hutton’s and none too gently tug her behind me as I descend the stairs and make my way outside. Once we’re off the small staircase, she stops in her tracks.

  Turning around, I face her, my nostrils flaring with my anger. I’m not mad at her, but fuck me, I am pissed the hell off at Austin and Jesse. I mean, Hutton saw Jesse’s fucking dick, right there in the middle of the room.

  “Are you angry because I saw what I did, or because they were doing it in the first place?” she asks, keeping her voice soft.

  Balling my hands into fists, I plant them on my hips and drop my head before I slowly lift it and find Hutton’s gaze with my own.

  “All of the above,” I spit.

  I hear her giggle. My eyes flick from her mouth to her eyes, and I tilt my head to the side in confusion. I don’t see anything remotely funny about this shit. She takes a step toward me, then lifts her hand and runs her fingers through my beard at my jaw. I growl when I feel her nails scrape against my skin.

  “They’re single men living a different lifestyle. I can’t begin to even think about all of the things that you guys do and have done on the road. The things you’re offered or the things you’ve seen,” she whispers.

  I watch as she licks her lips and fuck me, but I can’t wait to have them wrapped around my own cock later. I let out a grunt, releasing my fists from my hips and reach out, wrapping my fingers around her waist before I pull her roughly against my chest.

  “They knew you were coming. I told them no more booze or drugs on the bus and definitely no more women,” I remind her.

  She shakes her head, rising to her toes and touches her mouth to mine. “Don’t. Not for my benefit, Beaumont. I want you to be you, to be healthy and happy, but never change.”

  I nip her bottom lip with my teeth before I soothe it with my tongue. “I’m changing for me, darlin’ girl. I like who I am with you. I like the man that I have become over the past year. It’s not for your benefit, but rather for my sanity, and my health. I could keep drinking. I could keep living this life, but I wasn’t happy and I never will be, not like this. Not like that,” I say as I wave my arm toward the bus.

  “Then you need to change, but you can’t expect them to, Beaumont. I learned a long time ago that you cannot expect other people to change just because you want them to, because you want to be better. They have to do it on their own time. Just like a couple of years ago, would you have wanted to change by force?”

  Lifting my hand from her waist, I cup her jaw, my thumb running along her bottom lip. “Who did you try to change, Hutton?”

  “It doesn’t matter, it didn’t work,” she exhales.

  Shaking my head, I lean in slightly and touch my lips to hers again, enjoying the way her soft mouth feels against my own. She sighs and I greedily swallow the sound, the breath from her body.

  “My parents. I tried so hard to make them be better, Beaumont. It never worked because they didn’t want to be better,” she admits on a whispered breath. “Then they passed away from their own vices and the guilt could have consumed me, but I didn’t let it. Because I knew that it wouldn’t have mattered what I said, did, or tried, they were who they were.”

  I hum, touching my mouth to hers again just as the door to the bus slams behind us. “Then I won’t try to force change, but darlin’, I don’t know if I can surround myself with that life anymore.”

  She nods, her eyes finding mine. Her green orbs shimmer and I know that she’s holding back her tears. I don’t know if they’re for me, for Austin and Jesse, or for her parents or maybe they’re just for herself. For the little girl who tried to change her parents, who tried to make her life and theirs better.

  It’s probably a combination of all of the above. I’m not sure she’ll ever admit it though, so I don’t ask.

  “That’s okay, Beaumont. You don’t have to surround yourself with it, but also, don’t hate them because they are who they are. Accept them.”

  I grunt, my lips touching just her bottom one in a quick kiss. “Fuck, but how did I find such a smart woman? There’s no way you’re here because you’re attracted to my brain.”

  She laughs softly, her fingers sliding from my beard to around the back of my neck and squeezing. “You’re smart, sexy, and sweet.”

  “Lies.”

  She laughs softly as her eyes slowly slide closed and her mouth finds mine. “Truths,” she whispers.

  My tongue slips inside of her and I taste all of her, not giving a fuck who sees. Hutton is so fucking special. I kick myself every minute of every day that I let her slip through my fingers. This woman is more than I could have ever dreamed of for myself and I’m fucking keeping her—forever.

  HUTTON

  Once we break our kiss, we both look at the closed bus door and inhale deeply before we let out a long sigh. Brian suddenly appears and I frown, wondering where he’s been. He looks from us to the bus, then back to us.

  “Made a phone call,” he explains.

  He looks nervous. I frown because he has been nothing but calm, cool and collected the entire time I’ve been here. But right now, he’s fidgety, shifting his feet and his eyes are darting around.

  “You’re not inside,” Brian points out.

  Beaumont snorts. “They had a guest and for some reason nobody was wearing any fucking pants.”

  “And Laurie is?” Brian asks, a smirk playing on his lips.

  “She liked the fact they weren’t wearing pants, I think,” I chime in.

  Brian chuckles. “Sounds about right, c’mon,” he says, jerking his head toward the bus. His body relaxes, but only slightly. Together, the three of us head back.

  Beaumont seems a bit hesitant, but I don’t let him stand back. He wants to retreat and I know it has to do with the fact that he’s trying to separate himself from them, from temptation, from every part of his old life.

  He doesn’t need to though, what he needs to do is accept his old life, the friends that he had and if he wants to move on, that’s fine, but he cannot make them change.

  I wasn’t lying when I said that I tried to make my parents change, more than once. I tried dozens of times and all it did was end up in heartbreak, for me. They didn’t care, they were lost in themselves, in their addic
tions, in their hamster wheel life. It hurt me over and over, and yet, they didn’t care. Then they died, and I expected the hurt to disappear, but it never has.

  I don’t want Beaumont to go through that level of turmoil, not when he’s trying so hard to change himself for the better. That will only make him feel worse and probably challenge his own sobriety.

  “Sorry if we pissed you off. Sorry if we offended you, Hutton,” the man that I know as Jesse says from his place on the sofa.

  Thankfully, he now has on a pair of jeans, even though he’s still shirtless. I’m not surprised to see Laurie sitting next to him, her eyes focused on his profile, drifting down to his cut abs and then back up, over and over.

  Austin only grunts. He hasn’t moved from his place at the table, but his pants are back up and the cocaine is gone from in front of him. His eyes are wild, moving from me to Beaumont, to Brian and then back again. It reminds me of how Brian looked when he walked up to us just a few minutes ago.

  “It’s okay, this is y’all’s place, you don’t have to act any differently because I’m here,” I offer with a grin.

  Austin chokes back a laugh and Jesse only smiles. It seems to me that Austin is the one with all of the anger and Jesse is his faithful follower. I tilt my head to the side, taking in all that is Austin. He’s frowning, his eyes still shifting, but there is an underlying sadness along with his anger.

  Beaumont walks over to a chair that is across from Jesse and Laurie on the sofa and sinks down, pulling me down on his lap. I grunt as my ass lands against his thigh too hard. I try to tug down my skirt a little so that I don’t flash anyone, and Beaumont, ever the gentleman, flings his arm across my thighs to cover me.

  “Anyone need a drink?” Brian asks, taking a couple of steps toward the refrigerator.

  “I could use a fucking beer… oh wait,” Austin mumbles, his gaze focused on Beaumont.

  “Why are you acting like a child? Because I don’t want that shit in the place I call my home?” Beaumont asks, his tone much calmer than I’m sure he intends. I can feel his body tight beneath my body as he tries to control himself.

  Austin stands, the chair falling down on the hard floor behind him with a crash. He takes an intimidating step toward us. Beaumont doesn’t even flinch. Austin glares down at us, his gaze flicking between me and Beaumont until he finally settles on Beau.

  “I get it. She’s hot, I’d give up some shit for a piece of tail like that too. I wouldn’t change everything about myself and I damn sure wouldn’t become a fucking cunt for a piece of ass. Not when I could get hotter, tighter, and better in every town in the country.”

  I gasp, Laurie lets out a whine from somewhere in the room, and me, I go flying down to my ass as Beaumont stands faster than I thought possible.

  Without a word, he steps over me. His hands reach out fisting in Austin’s shirt and I watch from my place on my ass as he charges forward until Austin’s head snaps back and hits the wood cabinet against the wall.

  I stare up at them in horror. My stomach wrenches that these two bandmates, friends, are fighting. I can’t hear what Beaumont is saying, his voice is too low, but I don’t miss the way that Austin smirks as he looks at him. He’s high, he doesn’t care what he’s doing right now and maybe even if he was sober, he may not care because he’s so damn angry.

  Beaumont pushes off of him and takes a step back, he lifts his hand, running his fingers through his hair.

  “I don’t give a fuck anymore, Austin. Do what you want. This is your last tour with me though,” he sighs.

  Slowly, I gather myself and stand to my feet, trying really hard not to flash the bus. Laurie hasn’t moved, her mouth is dropped in awe and her eyes are moving between everyone. Brian is just leaning against the counter as if he’d been expecting this and Jesse looks torn.

  “I plan on it, Beaumont. Try playing tomorrow night without drums,” he spits.

  We all watch silently as he storms out of the bus. Beaumont lifts his hand, running his fingers through his hair. He lets out a long exhale, then shifts his gaze over to me.

  “I’m sorry, darlin’,” he breathes.

  I shake my head, opening my mouth to speak when Jesse stands and clears his throat. I snap my lips closed and turn to him.

  “He’ll play tomorrow. I’ll talk to him,” he offers. “Beau,” he calls out. Beaumont turns to him, lifting his chin. “He’s just having a hard time seeing you become different. I see now it ain’t a bad thing. Seeing you with Hutton, it fits. You were never the party animal, even when you were drinkin’. Not like him, not like me.” He smirks.

  Beaumont dips his chin. “I can’t have him self-destructing and trying to bring me down with him at every turn. I have to think about myself, my health, and Hutton,” he says.

  Jesse jerks his chin. “I get it,” he mutters. “I’ll talk to him when he’s sober.”

  “Why don’t we call it a night?” Brian suggests.

  “Yeah. You stay here, I’ll take the girls to the hotel,” Beaumont murmurs.

  “I’ll go with you,” Jesse offers.

  Beaumont snaps his head over to look back at Jesse. “I’m not coming back here tonight,” he points out.

  I watch as Jesse’s hand slides around Laurie’s waist. “Me either.”

  “Fuck,” Beaumont hisses.

  Laurie grins. “I came for a good time, Beau,” she reminds him. He only grunts and together, the four of us leave the bus.

  “Don’t worry about me here all alone. I’m going to be just fine,” Brian calls out with a laugh.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  BEAUMONT

  Rolling over onto my back, I try not to wake Hutton up. Sitting up, I scrub my hand down my face. Glancing at the clock, I frown. Two hours straight. It’s got to be a record. I should sleep longer. I wish that I could.

  My mind immediately fills with thoughts of Austin. Fuck. I did not want that shit to go down earlier. Granted, I’m not really sorry about the outcome. It’s been coming since we started this tour.

  He is starting to get out of control and obviously not happy with the changes that I want to implement in my life. He’s so fucking angry though. I’m not sure why, I just know that I can’t have it around me that way anymore.

  Slipping out of bed, I walk toward the small balcony, glad that this room has one. I need some fresh air. Before I walk outside, I grab my pack of smokes from the coffee table, and my pad of paper and pencil that is never far away.

  I need to write, but without my guitar, I don’t know that the lyrics will fit the music. Right now, it doesn’t matter though. I just need to do something and I can’t fuck Hutton again, she’s exhausted.

  After leaving the mess of a bus, we separated from Laurie and Jesse and made our way into our own room. We spent two hours wrapped in one another and I know I wore her completely out. Now that I’ve had a couple hours rest, it’s safe to say I could go again.

  Slipping my cigarette between my lips, I light it and close my eyes as I take my first drag. Outside, naked on the balcony, I let the warm air wash over me. I think about everything that’s been going on the last couple of weeks and it’s safe to say that my life is completely changing.

  Not only did I meet someone that I want to spend a hell of a lot of time with. I’m not drinking, I’m writing again, and I’m changing my entire lifestyle. Which means I’m possibly losing connections that I never thought I would.

  My phone dances on the table and I’m surprised to see who is calling. “Everything okay?” I demand as I answer the call.

  The voice grunts. “Having a rough night, figured you’d be up too,” Rylan murmurs.

  “You know it,” I chuckle. “What’s up?”

  “Channing is pregnant again,” he blurts.

  I freeze, my lips parting slightly in surprise. “What?” I breathe.

  “I had about the same reaction.”

  “I guess I should be worried and shit, but honest to fuck, you guys are good parents and the
re’s nothin’ wrong with adding another baby to your lives,” I offer.

  He clears his throat. “I don’t know if I can handle another. We’re good. Financially, we’re okay, every raise, every bit of overtime, every storm, it gets better. I don’t know if we can afford another though and I’m feeling really fucking anxious.”

  “Look at it this way,” I offer. “You have all the baby shit already. The startup cost is going to be way less than when you had Reese,” I explain.

  He lets out a laugh. “Startup cost,” he says between his laughs. “You’re fucking ridiculous, Beau.”

  “I know.” I shrug. “Happy for you, Rylan,” I offer.

  “Me and Wyatt are gonna be havin’ babies together. Swear to Christ, I’m not sure if the world is ready for the next generation of us runnin’ around.”

  “World may not be ready, but Gallup is, and your women will wrangle those feral fuckin’ kids in, I’m sure.”

  He snorts. “No shit. Saints is what we got, Beau. Goddamn saints.”

  “Me too,” I agree.

  “Hutton’s sweet. I remember her vaguely in school, way fuckin’ hotter now.”

  “Stop checking out my woman,” I rib.

  “Happy for you, Beaumont. She compliments you well. Channing fucking loves her.”

  “Yeah.”

  He ends the call without saying goodbye and I’m perfectly fine with that, I’m just glad he called when he needed to talk. I hope that one day, I’m in the same place as he is. Able to pick up the phone and call my friend when I just need a listening ear, even if it’s only for five minutes.

  “I seem to always find you smoking, naked, and outside,” Hutton’s sweet voice murmurs from behind me.

  Turning my head, I look over my shoulder to the woman of my dreams. She’s standing in nothing but my t-shirt from earlier. Her hair is a fucking mess because my hands made it that way. She’s never looked better, except when she’s taking me inside of her body.

  “Come cover me up then.” I grin as I stub out my smoke in the small ashtray on the table.