Rock God, page 16
He answered on the first ring. “Hey, King. What can I do for you?”
“Hi, Mark.” I explained the situation.
“Check or wire transfer?” he asked. “I already have her info on file since she’ll be getting a share of the proceeds from the tour.”
I looked at Devyn. “Wire transfer into your account okay?”
She looked surprised but nodded. “Yes. Thank you.”
I wrapped things up with Mark and disconnected. “What else can we do?”
“I’ll let you know.” She rubbed her temples again.
“You need an aspirin or Tylenol or something?”
“My head is killing me,” she admitted.
“Why don’t we can rehearsal?” Z suggested. “Let’s order takeout and just hang. We can talk about the set-up for Thanksgiving, which we were going to do anyway, and chill. Our live show is pretty tight, so no need to overload you tonight.”
“Are you sure? I’ll be okay after I get some food and take something for my head.”
“Nah. Carter used to take mental health days all the time,” Kellan said. “Besides, I was kinda dragging today anyway.” He faked a yawn that was so ridiculous I almost laughed. But I appreciated his effort.
Devyn seemed to as well, smiling at him before closing her eyes and leaning back on the couch, letting her head hit the cushions. “You guys are awesome,” she whispered.
Z and I exchanged a pointed glance. She looked a little worse for wear after her ordeal at the studio, and I felt a twinge of guilt. I should have anticipated something like this would happen after the success of the gig at the Whiskey, but I’d been too busy thinking about her tits. What it felt like when I was inside of her. How long it would be until I could be alone with her again.
While they discussed what to order for dinner, I surreptitiously sent a text to Dorian, asking her to scour the internet for information. If some new article had come out mentioning her day job, that would explain the media suddenly showing up there.
As far as I was concerned, this was a blessing in disguise. I knew she was worried about money, but we would make a lot on this tour, and her share would literally be more than she made in a year. I didn’t know exactly what her current salary was, but I was confident she’d make enough to hold her over until we made some decisions about what to do next.
My phone buzzed not long after we ordered Chinese food, and I stepped out of the room to talk to Dorian.
“Hey. What’d you find?”
“It looks like that Lara bitch did an interview with your buddy Larry Hanks.”
“Fuck me.” I figured this wouldn’t be good. “What’s the damage?”
“The damage, so to speak, is minimal in the grand scheme of things. But that’s how they found her at Black Kat. Larry Hanks basically says that they had a record deal in the works, but that Devyn wanted to go home to take care of her grandmother. He insinuates that she chose the safe route by working at Black Kat instead of taking a chance on the band. He also noted that the record company didn’t want the band without the gimmick of a female bass player, but I’m doing some digging into that.”
“What fucking record label was this?” I demanded. “Can we verify any of this?”
Dorian was quiet for a moment. “We could ask Devyn.”
“She had a rough day. The studio put her on an unpaid leave of absence, and I don’t want to ask her shit that’s going to upset her.”
“Kingston. This is her job now. Unless something goes horribly wrong on tour, she was never going back to the studio.” She paused. “Was she?”
“No. But shit happens, and it was smart of her to keep her options open.”
“That feels like she has one foot out the door. Is she committed, King?”
“I don’t think it’s a lack of commitment,” I said slowly. “I honestly think it’s more a matter of her wanting to protect herself and her great-grandmother. She takes care of her and that’s a burden for someone so young, you know? I don’t know the details of their finances, but I know they don’t really have any other family to turn to in case of an emergency.”
“And I get that, but my priority is Onyx Knight. We’re pouring a lot of time, energy and resources into her. If she’s not fully invested, we need to rethink what we’re doing.”
She had a point, and in almost any other circumstance, I would put the band first.
In this case, I had to bite back the reflex to snap at Dorian. I needed to be cautious about how I approached these types of things going forward since we had to keep our relationship quiet for now.
“The contract we had her sign isn’t open-ended,” I said carefully. “We can’t expect her to give up everything when we literally gave her an end date and we made her sign it.”
“Oh.” Dorian was quiet. “I didn’t realize that.”
“Yeah, so that’s why it’s not as black and white as it might seem from the outside looking in.”
“I apologize, King.”
“No need. You’ve always got our best interests at heart, which is why we keep you around.”
She laughed. “Thanks. I think. Anyway, I just got a notification about a little online gossip piece saying that you and Devyn have been carrying on behind the scenes, and that Cheyenne left the Light Box in a huff after the Whiskey gig because of it.”
“Even if that were true, Chey and I have been done for months. We were all dancing and completely lit that night so there might have been some innocent flirting—but the thing with Chey is a non-issue.”
“Okay, that’s all I needed to know. Don’t forget to ask Devyn about what happened with her old band.”
“I will.”
“Talk to you tomorrow.”
“Good night, Dorian.” I disconnected and turned to find Devyn leaning against the wall.
Crap.
How much had she heard?
“How long have you been standing there?” I asked.
“Long enough to know you were talking about me.”
24
Devyn
I hadn’t heard much but it was enough to glean that the topic of conversation was me. Not that I should have been surprised after what happened earlier today. I was annoyed with myself for letting it upset me like this, but poor Danny Reimer had been rattled, and he was such a nice guy. This was our fourth project together, and he always asked for me, so I felt bad that something had happened to upset him.
“I guess there was some speculation about me cheating on Cheyenne with you after all the dancing at the Light Box. But like I told Dorian and have already told you—Chey and I have been done for months. And I’m not one of those guys who can’t be friends with an ex. Unless something bad happened, like cheating or abuse or something, I don’t understand the whole vibe where people who used to sleep together can’t just go back to being friends.”
I cocked my head. “I feel like that last part was meant for me.”
“No.” He leaned against the wall. “But it’s not bullshit. I honestly feel that way. Chey and I are still friends. I’m still friends with Kinney Lane, who I dated like ten years ago. And she’s married with a bunch of kids now.”
“But you don’t work with her on a daily basis.”
“True. And that’s why I said my comment wasn’t directed at you. I know our situation is different. But it doesn’t make me want you any less.”
I sighed, not wanting to get into that conversation here, where too many people could potentially overhear us. “I’m going to go out on a limb and say that’s not what you were talking to Dorian about.”
He smiled. “No. We were talking about the record deal you were offered when you were with Lace and Venom. Apparently, our friend Lara interviewed Larry.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” I leaned against the wall next to him and stared off at nothing. “Look, this sounds really arrogant, but the truth of the matter is, I was the star of that band. Larry is a bass player, but he’s not as good as me, so he played rhythm guitar. Roscoe, our singer, was good, but he was a smoker who didn’t take care of his voice, so it was hit and miss on any given night. Some nights he hit it out of the park, and others, he was a growly, off-key mess.” I paused. “The other guys were good, but not great. So, at the end of the day, it was all me. I did most of the songwriting. I sang background vocals. I added harmonica and keyboards when we were in the studio at school doing our demo.”
“So, the label wanted you and not the others.”
I shook my head. “Not exactly. When Hi-Hat Records came calling, they wanted me and Roscoe. Because he really was amazing when he was on. They wanted to get him a vocal coach to teach him how to sing properly, so they met with us privately. Roscoe was loyal, and he put his foot down, saying without the others, he wasn’t willing to do it. And the label wasn’t willing to take just me, even though I basically did everything but sing. We went back and forth for a while, but the other guys didn’t know what was going on. Larry and I were dating, practically living together, so I was in a tough spot. Finally, one night I broke down and told him.”
“I’m guessing he didn’t take it well.”
I laughed, but it was without mirth. “Well, let me rephrase. I told him everything except the part about how I was willing to sign without the rest of them. I made it seem like Roscoe and I were on the same page. This was spring semester of my senior year, so I was feeling the pressure. If the band wasn’t going to get to the next level, I had to consider going home, right? In my head, this deal was the only option. I wasn’t willing to stay in Boston and continue paying to play on the club circuit. Every gig cost us money and if we didn’t have a contract in place by May, I was done.
“Larry came up with a plan, though. He decided Roscoe and I just needed to stick to our guns about us being a package deal. It was all of us or none of us. And Roscoe was on board with that.”
“So Hi-Hat backed out.”
“Sort of. They had a particular vision that included Roscoe’s voice and my songwriting. And to be fair, the deal was sketchy. It wasn’t like Warner Brothers was coming at us with advances and a tour and all that. There was no advance, they wanted to pick the guitarist and drummer, and we’d go into the studio to do a three-song demo first, before they officially signed us.”
“A spec deal?” he asked, making a face.
“Yeah. It was a mess. And then, I found out Larry had been in there talking to one of the A&R guys, insinuating that he was really the songwriting genius in the group, that we wrote all our songs together. You know, since we were a couple and lived together, that’s how it happened.”
“And he believed it?”
“It can be a very misogynistic business. You know that.”
“Yeah.”
“With Larry mucking up the waters behind the scenes, Roscoe determined to drag his buddies along for the ride, and me a little naïve about it all, things fell apart fast. Then graduation happened.”
“Uh oh. I feel like this is bad.”
I wanted desperately to tell Kingston everything, but there was no way to do that without also revealing things I never wanted him to know. Some secrets were just embarrassing, and the details of mine were the kind of thing I wanted to try to bury forever. Not because I’d done anything wrong, but because I’d allowed my boyfriend to talk me into things I would never have done otherwise. Because I’d been weak and stupid and thought myself in love. I wasn’t that naïve, insecure girl anymore and it scared me to think Kingston and the rest of the band might not like that version of me.
“We had a party. We were excited and drunk and ready to take on the world. Our last meeting with Hi-Hat had been encouraging, and we were meeting with them again the next Monday. So I’d kind of let my hair down, so to speak. The party was at the house of one of our professors, a younger guy who liked to party. It turned into the kind of event you see in movies, with people in every room, the yard, the street… loud music, more alcohol than you can imagine, and of course, everyone is having sex.”
I paused to gather my thoughts. “I went looking for Larry around midnight. I found him in one of the guest rooms. And the A&R guy from Hi-Hat was blowing him.”
“Oh, shit.” Kingston bit back a laugh. “So, the night with Carter wasn’t a one-off.”
“No. But in the moment, I was frozen, because it caught me by surprise. Things between us hadn’t been great the last six months, but cheating was a hard limit for both of us. At least that’s what he’d always said, so I felt betrayed on multiple levels. And the worst part was, when he saw me, he laughed.” I chewed the inside of my cheek. “Like hurting me was funny.”
“Aw, babe.” He reached out and slowly linked his fingers through mine. “I’m sorry. He really is a shit human being.”
“It was an ugly scene. Crying and yelling and—I’m not proud of this—I shoved him when he tried to talk to me. Like hit him hard, in the chest, and he stumbled and went down a few steps. I mean, maybe three, it wasn’t like he fell down a flight of stairs or anything. Then a fight broke out between him and our professor, the one whose house it was. Which turned into a free-for-all. Neighbors called the cops and it was a whole thing. I slipped out the back and walked home to our apartment. I packed up all my shit and called Greatty. She was in town for graduation, of course, and staying at a hotel.
“Basically, we stayed up half the night packing up what was left in my dorm room and spent the night at her hotel. We flew home to L.A. in the morning, and I walked away from all of it. Didn’t go to the upcoming meeting, told the rep from Hi-Hat I wasn’t interested unless it was just me and Roscoe, and you can figure out the rest.”
“Larry was hooking up with the A&R guy, so he had him on his side and they were never going to choose you.”
“Exactly. And at that point, I didn’t want to be anywhere near Larry, much less playing in a band with him. Not even for a record deal.”
“Understandable.”
Our hands were still linked between us and the warmth of our connection was comforting to me. Even this watered-down version of the story made me sick to my stomach. Secrets were never a good thing, especially in a budding relationship, but sometimes sleeping dogs needed to stay asleep. Both because I didn’t like the humiliation I felt every time I thought about everything I’d done with and for Larry, and because I didn’t want the band to think less of me when they found out. I especially didn’t want Kingston to think less of me.
“I don’t like talking about it,” I whispered. “There was more to it. Ugliness between Larry and I, threats and all kinds of shit that makes me shudder just thinking about it.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize it was so bad. But it seems like Larry is looking for his fifteen minutes, which means he’s going to use anything in his wheelhouse to potentially get some attention.”
“Yeah. I know.”
“I can’t protect you if I don’t know everything.”
“I don’t need protection,” I said. “I can handle my life. I just need to know you’ve got my back.”
“Well, that’s a given. In all of us.”
“I just want to play. Show you and the rest of the world I deserve to be here.”
“You don’t have to show me—and I include the rest of the band in this statement—anything. We already know what you can do. And that crowd at the Whiskey saw it too. That part is easy. The hard part is you learning to deal with the rest of the bullshit that comes with fame. There are going to be dozens of Larrys. People from your past are going to be crawling out of the woodwork. It’s Dorian’s job to keep that shit at bay, but there’s only so much she can do. You need to make sure you stay on top of anything that might blow up in your face.”
“I hadn’t heard from Larry in years. I hoped he’d faded into oblivion and had no idea he was in L.A. Seeing him the other night was jarring.”
“He’s been playing the local scene for a couple of years now. I knew him in high school.”
“You’re originally from Vancouver,” I said, putting it together for the first time since I knew that was where Larry had grown up.
“Right. And he was always a sniveling little punk.”
I chuckled.
“So, trust me when I say I’ll crush him if he comes after you. Okay?”
Part of me desperately wanted to unburden myself, but I knew better.
Larry had promised he would always be there for me too.
And look where trusting him had gotten me.
No matter how much I wanted to trust Kingston, there were limits. And that was another reason we had to keep things professional in public.
I gently pulled my hand from his, even though I hated having to hide what was happening between us.
“I think the food is here,” I said softly.
He looked surprised but then nodded.
“Yeah.”
I headed back toward the others but he called after me.
“Devyn?”
“Yeah?” I turned, looking over my shoulder at him.
“Thanks for trusting me with that story.”
I swallowed hard.
“You’re welcome.”
I hadn’t even told him half.
25
Kingston
The days leading up to the Thanksgiving gig were busy with rehearsals and a few interviews. Rolling Stone had been sniffing around but I’d told Dorian to tell them we didn’t have time in our schedule. I didn’t feel like we were ready for such a far-reaching story, and frankly, if we were doing Rolling Stone, I wanted to be on the cover. We’d only graced it once, during our first major tour, and that had been years ago. If they wanted to do a deep dive into the new line-up, they were going to put us on the cover. And I had enough power in the industry to play hardball with them. We could wait them out. It wasn’t like we needed to publicity; we got more than enough organically.
I’d asked Chains to find out everything he could about Larry, Lace and Venom, and that douchebag from Hi-Hat Records. An online search told me he still worked for them, and I wanted to know everything I could about him. Just in case I needed ammunition in my arsenal. My gut told me Larry was going to milk this opportunity to make a name for himself through Devyn’s connection with us, and it would most likely be at least a little problematic.
