Free A Song For Us (Fallen Tuesday Book Two) (A Brothers of Rock Novel) by Karolyn James Page B

alone in the parking lot of the hotel. There was
something poignant about it. It was sad yet beautiful, and there was definitely
a song somewhere in that image, but first things first, he needed to get
moving.
    The day had already gotten far away
from him. It was early afternoon when he called the hospital to check on Peter.
There was no change in his condition. Gray found it no use to go to the
hospital, or to his mother’s house. He set his sights back to the apartment. He
thought of Carina more than he thought of Peter as he walked into the building.
    He went to Peter’s door and tried
the key.
    It wouldn’t work.
    Using the move Carina taught him,
Gray pushed down on the doorknob and turned. The key clicked and the door
opened. He stepped inside and shut the door. The apartment was deathly silent.
Not even the hum of the fridge.
    It was messy, just how Peter would
have kept it. It had the smell of body odor, garbage that needed to be taken
out, and just stale air, probably from the apartments above and below the
apartment.
    Gray walked carefully, looking
around. He first wondered where Peter had been found. Was it right on the floor
in the living room? Was it in the bedroom? Maybe the bathroom. Hell, it could
have been the kitchen.
    The couches in the living room were
old. Peter probably found them on the side of the road. The coffee table was
beat up and covered in papers and magazines. There were ashtrays filled and
Gray was more than certain it wasn’t cigarettes being used in those ashtrays.
Gray kicked the coffee table and it tipped to one side, spilling everything to
the floor. It felt really good to do that.
    Gray then hurried into the bedroom.
It was trashed. Clothes thrown around. The bed not made. The pillows and sheets
stunk of sweat. Gray opened a few of the drawers and didn’t find anything
suspicious, but Peter wouldn’t be that stupid to leave stuff out in the open.
Gray looked in the closet and there were more clothes on the floor than were hanging
up. As he walked along the bed, a terrible feeling came over Gray. This was the
home of a junkie. The way it smelled and looked. The feel of it. This wasn’t a
home or an apartment. This was just a place. A place to get high and crash. A
place to die.
    “Damn,” Gray said.
    He kicked the dresser and left the
bedroom. Next he checked the kitchen. There was a pan on the stove with dried
grease in it. It looked creamy and smelled burnt. The bread on the counter had a
greenish patch of mold on it. The fridge had eggs, orange juice, and beer on
the bottom shelf. The freezer had only an empty ice cube tray. Gray walked to
the small window in the kitchen and peered out.
    "What the hell am I doing
here?” he asked.
    There was nothing to find. Even if
he did find some drugs, what would it prove? It would prove that Peter really
was doing this. Gray wanted to be in denial of it all. Gray lowered his head
and thought it through. He pictured Peter as his baby bother. It was hard to
imagine him as a guy that would end up with addictions that took him here. When
he got his brother into rehab, Peter was alert and willing. Peter wanted to go
to rehab. He didn’t want to talk about what he had done or his problems, he
just wanted them solved. It was easy for Gray to accept that. But now, seeing
his brother in a hospital bed, hooked up to machines, it brought on that
reality.
    Gray took a shaky breath. He lifted
his head and wiped his eyes.
    There was nothing else for him
inside this apartment. The good that was that he had a key. He had Josh’s key,
which meant Josh couldn’t come here and snoop around or think he could crash
for free.
    Gray walked through the apartment
one more time and then left. He pulled the door shut and locked it. He tapped
the door a few times.
    “I’m sorry, Peter,” he whispered.
“I wish there was something I could do.”
    Gray looked to his left and smiled.
There was the stairwell where Carina came from. The temptation to go