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I have to do this.
I’ll never have the future I want if the past continues to drag me down.
“Okay, I’m listening. What are you proposing?” I test the words out loud.
It sounds doable. It sounds necessary.
My phone buzzes, and I pull it out to see a text from Nash. Shit. I don’t have time for this right now. I’m about to shove it back in my pocket when I see the words:
I figured it out!
Crap.
I force myself to read the whole text.
Nash: Jarvis used your samples because he and Lakebend want to bury you for breach of contract! The random photoshoot in his dressing room seals the deal. They can say you were working together on tour. Once that gets out, you won’t only get kicked off Larinda’s team, no one will work with you. Your career as a producer is done.
My career is done? Might be extreme, but it’s certainly not going to help my reputation to be the guy who betrayed his first artist.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Now what?
It’s not like I can defend myself and tell the world I didn’t consent to a sample no one knows he used on a track no one knows exists. And even if I did, it’s my word against his. You don’t have to know a single thing about words to know who’s winning that debate. Not to mention, he has a mountain of evidence supporting his version of the story, and I have… the fact that he’s a dick.
Yeah. No lawyer is taking those odds.
But none of it matters when Paige grabs my arm the second I exit the restroom.
“Ow!” I say, trying to pull away.
By the pinch on my bicep and furious expression on her face, she’s had a very different internal dialogue about the state of affairs over these last few minutes.
“We’re leaving,” she hisses.
“What? But?—”
“No! We’re not going back to the table.”
She yanks me down the hall, and I tug my arm from her grip.
“Look, I get that they don’t deserve it, but maybe we should?—”
“I said, no! We’re leaving!”
I lock myself in place and narrow my gaze. “How do you get to make that call? I’m the one in the crosshairs.”
“Just… can you please trust me? Not here. We need to go.”
“No. I think we should hear them out.”
“There’s nothing to hear! Let’s. Go!”
She grabs me again, and I tear my arm away with a hard look.
“I’m not a little kid anymore. I can take care of myself.”
I move down the hall, forcing her to follow.
