Chart Toppers (Star Maker Book 3) (37 page)

A dose
of MTV was what she craved.
 
She
easily zoned out, avoiding the truth of the situation she had witnessed at
soundcheck.
 
It wasn’t long, though,
before the thoughts rushed in, providing unpleasant reminders.
 

She had
been there less than twenty-four hours, and it had seemed like a week.
 
She had never felt more pressure to find
a solution.
 
She had to figure out how
to put the band back on track before they completely derailed.

CHAPTER 20

“Do you
need me to come over there and work with you in your suite?”

Kit rubbed
her eyes.
 
“No.
 
Work out of your room, G.
 
If anything urgent comes up, call me or
come over here.
 
I’ve got enough to
keep me busy for hours.”

“Is Sully
up yet?”

“No.
 
It’s way too early for him.
 
Why?”

“I
wanted to tell him he kicked ass last night.
 
It was a great show.
 
His performance was off the charts!”

Kit
nodded.
 
“Thanks, G.
 
I’ll let him know.
 
I’ll touch base with you in a bit.”

She
hung up the phone and replayed Giselle’s words in her mind.
 
Sully’s performance the night before had
been exceptional, but what no one knew except for Sully and a select few was
that it was a steroid induced performance.
 
She shuddered at the thought.

Dr.
Franklin mentioned that the injection should hold up two to four weeks.
 
He would fly back out to give Sully
another at that time.
 
Much to Kit’s
dismay, Sully took full advantage of the situation and refused to back
down.
 
He pushed himself to provide
an amazing performance for his fans, easily able to reach notes that were
strained only days before, making him feel invincible and worrying her to no
end.
 
She hoped he wasn’t making his
condition worse.
 

She
glanced at the clock and grabbed the phone, dialing a number frantically.
 
She was five minutes late for a
conference call with Diamond Records.
 
She hopped on the call and apologized profusely.
 
Jonathan and Pete didn’t seem to be
bothered by her tardiness.

They
covered mostly everything they needed to.
 
Things were going great for Diamond.
 
Gypsy Tango’s album, ‘Triple Tango,’ was
sitting at nine times platinum on Kit’s new label, Flat 5 Records.
 
Jade Riff was inching closer to platinum
every day.
 
Their sales were doing
extremely well and because of it, Diamond had released Kit from her moratorium,
making her ecstatic.
 

Jonathan
jumped in.
 
“Since we’re giving you
the green light on Flat 5, you’ll have full access to an A&R team.”

Kit
smiled.
 
She had been waiting for
this moment.
 
“How many reps do I
get?”

“We can
give you four.
 
We’re going to keep
you local in North America right now.
 
Once Flat 5 gets bigger, we can give you some players for
international.
 
Do you have cities
in mind where you want them?”

She
didn’t hesitate.
 
“L.A., New York,
Nashville and Austin.”

“Austin,
Texas?” Jonathan and Pete questioned in a surprised tone.

Pete
interjected.
 
“What about Seattle,
Kit?
 
Don’t you want to have someone
there?”

“Nope.
 
Seattle has been mined and
harvested.
 
Grunge is already
hitting mainstream, and they’re tapped out.
 
I’ve gotten all the artists I wanted out
of there, and I’ve got my eye on one or two in Orange County and San
Diego.
 
Austin is a college town,
and there’s some cool alternative stuff with a punk feel coming out of there
that’s good.
 
I predict that
alternative is going to be the next big leap.
 
R.E.M. came out of a college town—Athens,
Georgia.
 
I want to watch Austin and
a few other college towns.
 
Make
sure the A&R rep for Austin is a floater that can hit a few college
campuses.”

“Do you
have campuses in mind?”

“Yep.
 
I’ll have a list to you before the end
of the week.
 
And yes, guys, use
this to your advantage for Diamond as well.
 
I want the Nashville A&R rep to be
dedicated to developing country.
 
Let’s be clear here. I’m not talking old school, Loretta Lynn ‘Coalminer’s
Daughter’ country.
 
I’m talking new
country that has the flavor of mainstream rock and pop.”

Jonathan
laughed.
 
“How you have time to
figure all this out and predict trends still astounds me.
 
Brilliant, Kit, really.”

She
chuckled.
 
“Thanks.
 
Anything else, guys?
 
I have to tie up.
 
I’m already late for my next call with
Spence for KMK.”

Jonathan
interjected.
 
“Kit, we need you to
turn in your Benz.
 
It’s time.”

“I can
do it when I get back in town.
 
I’ve
still got a few weeks out here on the road.”

“No
problem.
 
Have fun out there.”

“Thanks,
guys.”
 
She hung up the phone and
frowned at the thought of her turning in her car.
 
She could have sworn there was another
year left on the corporate lease.
 
She dismissed the thought and dialed Spencer over at KMK.

He was
happy to hear her voice on the line.
 
“How are things on the road?”

She
couldn’t deny that the stress of it all was getting to her.
 
“No comment, Spence.
 
What’s up?
 
Why did you need to talk to me?”

“That
good out there, huh?
 
Ok, next
subject.
 
We’ve got a problem with
one of our artists.
 
We’re getting
heat from Fisher A&R that there’s no single, and it’s not marketable.”

“Who’s
the band?”

“Sealed
Fate.”

“Metal,
right?”

“Yeah.
 
They’re right up there along the lines
of Megadeth, except not as commercial.”

“And
A&R has been at their recording sessions?”

“Yep.”

Kit
shook her head and closed her eyes.
 
She instinctively reached for a cigarette but dropped it, feeling
nauseated.
 
She felt hands massaging
her shoulders seconds later.
 
She
opened her eyes and looked up to see Sully, who looked like a sleepy mess.
 
He grinned at her.
 
She smiled at him and then focused back
on her call.
 
“Spence, there isn’t
much I can do from the road.”

“Yes
there is.
 
I Fed-ex’d a tape to you
two days ago.
 
You should have it
already.
 
It arrived
yesterday.”
 

“Then
Giselle has it.
 
I’ll have to get it
from her.
 
Let me guess, you want me
to listen to it and see if I can find the single.”

“I’m
still learning how to do that, Kit.
 
I’m not as adept as you are.
 
You’re an A&R genius and a fantastic producer.
 
Help me out here.
 
Throw me a bone, sis.”

She
shook her head.
 
“What is Fisher
threatening you with?”

“They
want to pull the contract unless we can come up with something or let Fisher
come in with a writer.”

She
grimaced.
 
“Let me take a
listen.
 
Can’t promise anything,
though.
 
If it’s shit, it’s shit,
Spence.”

“I was
afraid you’d say that.”

“Not
everyone is Gypsy Tango, little bro.”
 
She winked at Sully, and he grinned.

“I
know, I know.
 
Call me once you’ve
heard it.”

“Yep.
 
Probably won’t be until tomorrow at the
earliest.”

“Shit…
ok.”

“Later
skater.”
 
Kit hung up the phone and
stood up to hug Sully.
 
She gave him
a kiss.
 
“Good morning, handsome.
 
How did you sleep?”

“Good.
 
My throat feels good this morning.
 
Not as thrashed.”

She gazed
at him and grinned as she played with his hair.
 
“Good, but remember to keep resting your
voice.”

“But I
feel good.”

She
shook her head.
 
“No, Sull.
 
You’re not doing soundcheck today.
 
You’re working with your vocal coach,
then rest and then the show.
 
That’s
how it’s got to be.”

“But…”

She
held her hand up.
 
“No arguing with
me.
 
It’s bad for your voice.”

He gave
her a frustrated look and then shook his head.
 
“That isn’t fair.”

She
gave him a playful swat on the butt.
 
“Life isn’t fair, babe.
 
I’ve
got some stuff for you to take a look at.”

He
raised his eyebrows.
 
“You do?”

“Yeah.
 
Didn’t have time to bring it up
yesterday, so let’s pow-wow right now.
 
Let me get room service going for you.
 
You need to be drinking your licorice
tea.”

Kit got
situated with Sully on the sofa a half hour later while he drank his tea, and
she wrapped up two more quick phone calls.
 
She handed him a manila envelope.

He frowned.
 
“What is this?”

She
grinned.
 
“Scripts.”

He
smiled, and his steel-blue eyes lit up.
 
“Really?
 
What kind?
 
Are they roles you think I’ll like?”

“Yep.
 
And even better, two are productions are
with Doug Tyson.
 
And one is being
produced by Simon’s legendary studio, East End Pictures.
 
Supposedly Mike Willis is slated to be
the director.”

He was
as excited as a young child on Christmas morning when he tore into the
envelope.
 
“He’s great!
 
Wow, how did you score these?”

She
giggled.
 
“They were hand picked for
you by Doug
and
Simon.
 
See, I told you Simon meant
business.
 
He sees your talent.
 
Anyway, I met Doug through Ria.
 
So, while you’ve got extra time resting
your voice, you can read through them.
 
The parts are marked.
 
If you
like them, let me know.
 
When you’re
done with the tour and have recovered from surgery, you can do a screen test.
And, once again, I suggest we attend Simon’s wedding.
 
He told me to expect an invitation in
April.
 
June wedding, sweetie.”

He snickered,
hugged her then gave her a long kiss. “You’re the best.
 
And yes, we’ll go to that wedding,
absolutely!”

She
laughed and glanced at the clock.
 
“Ooh, shit.
 
I have to go,
babe.
 
I have a meeting.”

He
frowned.
 
“A meeting with who?”

She
didn’t feel like explaining.
 
She
grabbed her handbag, gave him a quick kiss and sprinted for the door.
 
“Lunch with Sean.
 
See ya, babe.”
 

She
practically jumped into the hallway, letting the door close behind her.
 
She didn’t feeling like answering twenty
questions about the content of the upcoming meeting.
 
It was easier to escape.

Sean waited
patiently in the lobby.
 
As he
noticed her quickly approaching, he started heading out of the lobby to their
limo.
 

She glanced
at him.
 
“Where are we going?”

He
helped her into the limousine and then climbed in after her.
 
“There’s a great pub down the
street.
 
They’ve got decent food too.
 
Figured we could hang out there, grab
something to eat and knock back a few pints.”

She
nodded.
 
“Sounds good to me.”