AllFreeNovel
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“What kind of incident?” I asked, walking over to her. “You okay?” I glanced at Grim, who gave me a brief nod.
“I called Sasha and she called Grim.” She gave him a soft smile. “Thanks. You saved the day.”
“Anytime.” He nodded.
“Does anyone have anything to drink?” Devyn asked quietly.
“There’s bottled water and beer,” Z said apologetically.
“Water is fine.” She sank into a chair, and rubbed her temples as Z brought her a bottle of water.
“You sure you’re okay?” I asked, sitting across from her.
“Yeah.” She nodded. “It just caught me off-guard. I honestly never thought the press would not only show up at the studio but come inside and basically demand they be allowed to watch me work. I was with a client, a jazz musician who plays all the instruments on his albums except bass—” She managed a wry smile. “And they just burst into the studio. He’s in his seventies, and honestly it scared the crap out of both of us.”
“Oh, shit.” Z grimaced. “He okay?”
“Yeah.” She took a long drink of water. “But I think it freaked him out enough to call the owner of the studio, who wound up coming in. Then I had to reach out to Grim, and once everything had calmed down, they called me into a meeting. After we talked, they asked me to take an official leave of absence until after the European tour.”
“Oh, shit, Dev, I’m sorry.” Tommy shook his head.
“Oh, man.” Kellan made a face.
“What can we do?” Z asked before I had a chance to answer.
“I’m on leave without pay,” she said quietly. “I hate to ask, but I’m going to need some kind of advance against the money from the tour.”
“Of course,” I responded automatically. “How much? I’ll call our business manager right now.”
“Our house is paid off, but I pay the property taxes, which are almost a thousand dollars a month. Plus utilities, car insurance, gas, and groceries. I guess I’ll need about twenty grand to make sure I have enough to pay my share of everything through March.”
“Let’s call it twenty-five,” I said, hitting the speed dial button for the accountant who handled the band’s finances. He always took my calls unless he was in a meeting or on with someone else.
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.
