Free Trust Me by Melanie Walker Page B

slowly drifting off, but I didn’t want to sleep. “It wasn’t you, Chad.” I whispered, not wanting to break the moment of peacefulness.
    “What was it, baby?” He asked just as quietly. Even his whisper was sexy as hell. He kissed my forehead and waited for my reply.
    I knew that once I told him what I was upset about, the peacefulness between us would fracture and dissipate, but I had to tell him. “Noah was shooting up in the bathroom right before you got here.”
    I felt him stiffen at my words and squeezed my eyes shut desperate to hold onto him and the peacefulness between us. “Fuck.” He said in a low voice and looked down at me lying upon his chest. “You’re sure?” He asked, his voice barely a whisper, calming me immediately.
    I went over the scene in front of the bathroom for Chad, who hung on every word, wishing, just like me, that there was a mistake. Sadly, there is no mistake in admittance.
    “That explains why he cancelled all his appointments for today and tomorrow at the last minute.” Chad continued to smooth his hand over my hair in a calming manner.
    “He wasn’t at work?” He told me upstairs when I caught him that he just got home. I had zero desire to know where he was.
    Chad shook his head. “I tried calling all day, but didn’t get through till I threatened to fuck him up when I texted asking about you earlier tonight.”
    “So he planned it!” I spat and felt more tears fall.
    “Jesus, baby.” He said and pulled me closer. “I have to talk to the guys about this, Carrie.”
    I nodded. “I know, but please, Chad, don’t kick him out, give him a chance to get it right.” I knew that without Thick as Thieves, Noah was as good as dead. The band had literally pulled him from the gutter once before.
    “I can’t promise that, Carrie.” At his words, I tried to pull back, but he just held me firm. “Baby, look at me.” He gripped my chin and forced me to look at him. He was the most perfect looking man I had ever seen. He was so far out of my league. Men like him didn’t want a basic girl like me. I was so generic it was funny. Even at my best, I was not in the same stratosphere as Chad Blake, but for some reason, he wanted me.
    “I can’t promise that Noah will give a shit that we know. I hope he will, I hope he will take it for what it is and get off that shit for good. But I can’t make that promise. We have a shot at making it. We have an enormous fan base and we get played on the local stations and sell out the hottest clubs in the state. No matter how much I love Noah, I can’t risk all our futures because he craves a needle.” He shook his head and dropped his hands to his sides. “I have a future babe, even if I chose to leave my music behind, I’d have a steady and solid income as a tattoo artist. Shame would become crabber, he’d hate it, but he’d do it, and Jerry and Cal would probably stay in construction. We are at the top of our game and we busted our asses to get there. This isn’t just my dream, Carrie, this affects us all.”
    He made sense, I knew that. I agreed with every word he said. They were the most sought after band in Washington State, and they couldn’t risk a future that was all but guaranteed knowing that Noah was putting his heroin first.
    “God, Chad, I don’t know what to do.” I cried again and he sat up pulling me to sit across his lap like a child. He held me close and rocked me. I’ve never in my life felt so safe.
    “How did he clean up last time?” He asked. That was this nightmare in a nutshell. We had been there and done that with Noah so many times it was a broken fucking record. “It was me or the drugs. I was going to move into Aunt Lilly and Uncle Seth’s and dissolve all ties with him. Being my guardian was everything to him. He had fought and bled to get us here and we won. It mattered to him, but now I’m an adult and I have nothing to hold over his head, Chad.”
    “You do if you just leave him. Hell