Page 64 of Anger Bang
Kade took one short trip to Wyoming, and the entire world as he knew it changed. Christ, nowhewanted a drink.
“She’s not so bad, you know,” Dex said.
Kade didn’t need to ask who his brother was talking about. “I know.”
“And areyougoing to take her advice?”
He rubbed the back of his neck, trying to work out the tension of realizing he’d fucked up beyond redemption. “It’s too late.”
“Never give up. Never surrender,” Dex said, quoting the old movie they must have watched a million times growing up. “You’ve got to fix this with Thea.”
Yeah. Too bad there wasn’t a way to do that. Gut twisting, he shot up from the couch and started pacing the RV again, racking his brain for a solution and coming up with jack shit. What in the hell? He was a writer. He came up with plots. He investigated the facts. He researched and created and made things happen.
But not now. Not when it counted.
“You got a time machine?” he asked in frustration.
“I’m not a doctor, but I sure would like to play one on TV,” Dex said.
Kade reached inside the mini-fridge and grabbed a can of Sprite and another of Dr Pepper. “They ever cast an American as Doctor Who, there would be a riot.”
“And you’d be right there in the middle of it?” Dex asked with a chuckle.
He handed his brother his soda. “Fuck yeah.”
The sound of the cans being popped open and the sizzle of the caffeinated bubbles filled the RV a second before they both drank half their can in one gulp.
Dex sighed and shrugged. “I guess I’ll stick to being the star of this summer’s biggest movie.”
Kade almost dropped his soda in shock. “Are you serious?”
His brother grinned. “We got a distribution deal today.”
Pride and excitement filling his chest to beyond capacity, he yanked Dex up from the couch, and pulled him into a bear hug.
“It’s just what you’ve always wanted,” Kade said once they had some distance between them again and he could wipe off the Sprite that had spilled onto his hand.
“Cheers to having it all,” Dex said, raising his Dr Pepper in a toast. “Or at least almost it all.”
“You’ll figure out what to do,” Kade said, clinking his can against his brother’s.
“We both will,” Dex said, “because I’m not going to grow old with you. God, I can’t think of a worse punishment.”
Kade flipped off his brother, but he was laughing. So was Dex, until his phone buzzed and he read the text on the screen.
His face went white. “Fuck.”
“What?” Was it their mom? Had the distribution deal fallen through?
“Jackie can’t find Thea,” Dex said. “No one has seen her since she snuck out of her RV hours ago.”
Kade was on his feet and out of the door before he’d even taken his next breath.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Several hours—and almost an entire small bottle of vodka—later, Thea sat underneath a tree overlooking the beautiful if utterly foul-smelling river and contemplated the absolute shit she’d made of her life. This was what happened because she’d listened to her therapist and tried to find her true self.
Disaster. Heartbreak.
