AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Back off, Zach,” Billy said. “This isn’t personal. And Faith had nothing to do with it.”
“Not personal?” Zach said, incredulous. “You’ve watched me all this time, seen what I’m trying to do. You knew how I wanted to launch this album and now you’re going to tell me it’s not fucking personal when you fucking bury it all?” He stepped closer to Billy, anger driving him forward. “Tell you what, Billy. It feels pretty damn fucking personal. And there’s no earthly reason for you to do this. You have more money than you know what to do with. You’re one of the most famous drummers on the planet. You don’t need this. I do.” His voice cracked and he curled his hands into fists.
“I don’t have to give you an explanation,” Billy growled, standing his ground.
“No, but I think you owe me one,” Zach said, gritting his teeth. He was focused on Billy but he could see Faith out of the corner of his eye. She looked pale. And miserable. He should try and calm down for her sake but he was too damn angry.
“Owe you? What the fuck do I owe you?” Billy said. “Shit. You really are like your old man. Think the Harpers are the center of the universe. Sorry, kid, but the rest of us have things we want too. And you don’t always get to have your way.”
Zach stared at him. “What the hell does that mean?”
“Just that you lost your Dad. I lost my best friend. And my career.”
“You have a new band,” Zach said. “Your career is just fine.”
Billy shook his head. “Erroneous isn’t Blacklight. And no, I don’t mean the money. It’s not the money. You’re right, I don’t need that. And neither do you. It’s the music. Erroneous. We’re doing okay. We can do better. Get to more people. And if I can kick that along by getting us a nice splash of publicity at CloudFest, then that’s what I’m going to do.”
“And you don’t care that you’re being an utter prick and ruining my shot in the process?”
Billy lifted his chin. “You know what, Zach? Maybe I am a prick. But so are you. You know what this business takes. And you’ve done what you thought you had to to get to where you are so far. Just look at Faith here and the career she doesn’t have because you left her behind. So don’t bust my balls for doing exactly what you’d do. It’s not going to change my mind.”
“Fuck you, Billy,” Zach said and then yanked the door open stalking away before he did something he might regret.
When Leah knocked on the door of the guesthouse there was no answer. But she could hear Zach’s voice somewhere inside. She hesitated, not entirely sure if she should just go in even though the door was ajar. It had only been about half an hour since Zach had stormed out of the studio, with Billy stalking out only a couple of minutes later.
Leah had gone in to see what on earth was going on and found Faith looking kind of shaky behind the desk in Leah’s office. Once Faith had explained to her what Billy had just done, Leah had felt pretty shaky herself. Billy had taken Zach’s slot at CloudFest. She had no idea what that meant other than it screwed Zach’s plans to launch his songs. Their songs.
What the hell was Billy thinking? Faith’s retelling of the reason he’d given made no sense. All she knew was she needed to know if Zach was okay. But now that she was here, she wasn’t so sure of her welcome.
She wanted to talk this out with him. What it meant for the songs they’d worked so hard on. What it meant for Zach. He was the one she wanted to turn to, to figure this out. To come up with the plan. Because that was what you did when you had a problem. You went to the person you loved and figured it out. The trouble was Zach didn’t love her.
But he needed someone right now. So she was going to be it.
She pushed open the door. “Zach?”
No answer. The rumble of his voice seemed to be coming from the kitchen so she headed in that direction. Zach was standing by the counter, facing the window, phone to his ear. She couldn’t see his face but his posture was tense.
“Just get him to call me, Katie,” he growled and then ended the call, shoving his phone into his pocket. For a moment he just stood there, staring out the window. Then his shoulders slumped and he muttered, “Fuck.”
“Zach,” she said again.
He whirled, staring at her like she was the last person on earth he expected to see. “What are you doing here?”
The tone of his words stung a little. Did he think she wouldn’t come? Or just didn’t care if she came or not? “I came to see if you’re okay,” she said.
“Just perfect,” he said grimly. “I assume Faith told you what happened?”
“Yes,” Leah said. “Though it wasn’t exactly hard to figure out that something was wrong. You kind of slammed out of there.”
“Nice of her to share my business.”
Okay, he was upset. But she wasn’t going to let him take it out on her. “Well, firstly, I happen to work for Harper Inc. and I have been doing a lot of the scheduling work, so I needed to know, and secondly, seeing as Faith knows that you and I are seeing each other, it’s not exactly unreasonable for her to tell me. She’s worried about you.”
“If that’s true, she should be the one here checking on me, shouldn’t she?”
Leah frowned at him. “She didn’t tell me exactly what happened, other than Billy pulling the king of all dick moves, but I got the impression she thinks you’re mad at her.”
“So she sent you?”
