AllFreeNovel
Share Us
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.
