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It was hard to explain how hot it was.
Not just because she was attractive or because she was extremely talented or any of the things that were essentially a given. No, this was something else. This was something you had to be born with. While she absolutely had the look and vibe of a rock star, she also had the soul of one. There was no other rationalization for how good of a fit she was. The five of us who’d started Onyx Knight had it in spades. It was one of the many reasons we’d gone as far as we had in a relatively short amount of time. The fact that it was so hard to find had been one of the reasons I’d been dreading the search for someone to replace Carter.
And just like that, we’d found her.
After four songs, I wanted to stop everything and start hammering out the details of the contract we needed her to sign so we could finalize the tour. There was no reason to draw this out and pretend we needed time to think or audition anyone else. This was it.
Devyn was it.
And freakin’ Carter had found his own replacement.
Son of a bitch.
“Let’s take a break and talk,” I said after we’d finished “Judgement Call.”
Z gave me a barely perceptible nod, and Kellan and Tommy were already heading for the lounge area, so I knew they were thinking what I was thinking.
“What did you think?” I asked Devyn once we were seated.
“It felt natural,” she said in a cautious tone. “I enjoyed playing with you. It didn’t feel like it was the first time.”
The one thing that made me uneasy was how guarded she was, as if she didn’t trust us. And there had to be a lot of trust if we were going to tour together. Trust would obviously take time, so we had to get through these initial conversations before we could work on that.
“Enough to come on tour with us starting December thirty-first?” I asked pointedly.
Once again, she hesitated.
“I want to,” she said slowly. “But there are details that have to be ironed out.”
“Such as?”
“Money. I have a job making six figures that supports not just me, but my eighty-one-year-old great-grandmother. I can’t just take off for six or eight weeks for a thirty-dollar-a-day per diem, and then come home to potentially no job. I need to know specifics before I can commit to anything. Money, the timetable, what my expenses will be for equipment and such, and most importantly, the future. Is this a job or just another extended audition?”
I hadn’t expected anything this blunt, but I appreciated where she was coming from. We weren’t the kind of band who used people, though, so if she was going to join Onyx Knight, even for just eight weeks, she would be well-compensated.
“Some of those questions will have to go through management and both our attorneys and yours. However, I can address the important stuff. First, this is both a job and another tryout. There’s an element of hardship on tour that you can’t truly understand until you’re immersed in it. So, saying you’re okay with a grinding schedule is different from actually doing it. There are also four very distinct personalities in this band, with egos to go with them, which you may not like after a month or two of being on top of each other day and night. And to be fair, that goes both ways.”
“We like to party,” Tommy said when I was done. “None of us do drugs anymore. After what happened to Carter, we’re all a little gun shy, and honestly, at this stage of both our lives and our careers, no one is interested in doing something that could potentially get us arrested.”
“We should talk about sex,” Kellan muttered.
I was shocked when she threw back her head and laughed. “My grandmother had the talk with me about fifteen years ago, so I think I’m good.”
“There’s going to be a lot of sex going on,” I said gently.
“Like, all the time,” Kellan added. “On the bus, backstage, at the hotel. None of us is a monk and that’s not going to change anytime soon. You’re going to see blow jobs and titties and who knows what else backstage every single night.”
“You don’t have to indulge,” I said quickly. “And don’t get me wrong. There will always be respectful boundaries, especially with you. We’re all about consent and making sure anyone who parties with us is of age, but this is fair warning that we love to push boundaries. You’re going to stumble onto one of us getting sucked off, hear us going at it on the bus, and if you’re shy, easily embarrassed, or worried about sexual harassment, this may not be the gig for you.”
She hadn’t tried to interrupt as we talked, merely listening, her blue eyes somewhat shrouded, and I gave her time to think before responding.
“I’m not shy, prude, or easily embarrassed,” she said finally. “I happen to enjoy sex too, so I’ll most likely be indulging in some myself, depending on the situation. However, I want it to be crystal clear that I’m not interested in fucking any of you. This is an incredible opportunity for me, and I’m looking forward to getting to know you, playing live with you, potentially working on an album together. But I don’t ever want it to look like I got this gig on my back. And we all know what this industry can be like.”
I grimaced. “Absolutely, but you don’t have to worry about that. This is a multi-million-dollar business. We fuck around when it comes to partying, but professionally? We are a hundred percent serious. No one talks shit about Onyx Knight. I don’t care who it is. We have an entire crisis control publicity firm on retainer. The second any bullshit like that starts, we nip it in the bud.”
“Yes, but there were probably hundreds of people interested in this job. I don’t know how many of them were women, but people are going to wonder why you chose me.”
“Because your skill and talent overshadowed every other person we auditioned,” I said without hesitation. “Because the minute we started to jam, everything clicked. We honestly didn’t know what it would take to find the right person to fill Carter’s shoes until you started to play the other day. We knew instantly we wanted to hear more, which was why we invited you back, but we didn’t know what we were looking for until we found it.”
