His eyes narrowed. “Are you kidding me right now? Kendalle, I can quit anytime I want. I’m under a ton of stress right now. You have no idea what it’s like. Please, get off my ass!”
She glared and shook her head. “Oh, I won’t. I think that’s where you’re wrong. I do know what it’s like. And I also know how fleeting it all is. You snort too much blow one night and you could fall off that stage or even worse, you could O.D. Clean up your act, Patrick. I’m telling you this because I love you.”
He shook his head, annoyed and frustrated. “I love you too, Keni, but I can’t believe I’m getting a fucking lecture from you of all people. I gotta go. I’ll talk to you later.”
He turned on his heel and headed down the steps to his Ferrari. He got in, gunned the engine and crept out of the courtyard past the privacy gate.
Kendalle let out a concerned sigh as she watched him speed out onto the private road that lead to Pacific Coast Highway. She said a silent prayer that he would get home safely. She swallowed hard and rubbed her abdomen, feeling a wave of nausea hit her again.
They stood side by side in the elevator, embracing the silence. Sully glanced over at Janine, Jonathan Diamond’s new assistant, who had come down to the lobby to retrieve him and take him up to the executive floor. It had been nearly two years since he had been in the building.
Once the doors opened, Sully followed Janine to Jonathan’s palatial corner office where she opened the door and led him in. Jonathan stood up and forced a grin extending his hand. “Sully, take a seat.” He looked at Janine. “Hold my calls, please.”
She nodded. “I’ll send Spencer McKenna in when he arrives. He called to say he got stuck in a meeting and is running a few minutes behind.”
Jonathan took his seat and gave Janine a nod. “Thank you.” He shifted his attention to Sully as she shut the door behind her. He knew why Sully was there—to talk about the tour and he wasn’t pleased about it, but decided to keep his personal loyalties out of it.
Kit was still recovering and he strongly felt that Sully should be with her during the entire process rather than headed back out. He couldn’t help feeling that way. Kit was like a sister to him and he felt protective. Regardless, he was wise enough to know that resisting Sully’s ideas wouldn’t bode well.
Jonathan leaned back in his chair and folded his hands over his center. He grinned. “I can guess why you’re here.”
Sully moved to the edge of his seat, jittery and wired from too many lines done in the bathroom before heading up to the Jonathan’s office.
He nodded. “I think it’s pretty obvious. It’s time to get the tour re-established. Kit is fine. She came home from the hospital a week ago. She told me she’s on the mend and feeling good. It isn’t just me that wants this. The whole band is unanimous. We want to finish out what’s remaining for the tour and make up the dates on the back end. From what I figure, that will take us into early November to finish it out completely.”
Spencer entered the office hearing the end of Sully’s sentence. He knew better than to jump to conclusions. He exchanged looks between both of them. “Hey. So, Sull, you were saying.” He took a seat.
Sully bobbed his head. “I… I mean we want to resume as soon as possible. All we need is buy off from Diamond.”
Spencer stared at him. “And your management company.”
Sully sighed. He could see the disapproval in Spencer’s eyes. He shifted his gaze to Jonathan who stared back with complete neutrality. Sully then realized that Jonathan had his poker face on and he was way too high to try to decode it.
He nodded. “Yes.” He looked at Jonathan and went in for the sale. “This makes Diamond revenue. We both know touring is lucrative. And then let’s not forget the fans. The fans have paid money to see us, to get that once in lifetime experience. Let us finish this out.”
He then shifted his attention to Spencer. “And Spence, let me take it over as manager. I can do it. I can get Sean and Giselle to help me through. We’ve got roughly three months of shows left on the schedule and we have two more weeks on top of that to make up. I think it’s best we get back out there and finish this up. If we bail out now, we’ll really piss off our fans and everyone will lose a lot of money. I get that we have insurance, but since Kit isn’t technically part of the band, we may run into some issues with it—I talked to Sean about it earlier and also ran it by our attorney. Bottom line, we can be wheels up… as soon as today.”
Spencer sat back and folded his arms across his chest. His voice drawled of disapproval. “As soon as today, huh? That’s quick.” He glanced over at Jonathan. “What do you think of all this?”
Jonathan sighed. He didn’t approve, but knew it was a personal, not professional motivation. If it was any other band, he would be pushing them back out. Being true to his position as CEO of the label, he opted to approve it.
From a business and profitability perspective, Sully was right. It would be a big revenue generator and would help them exceed their quarterly numbers. He swallowed hard and hoped Kit would forgive him for it.
The house buzzed with activity. Ariana, the housekeeper, watched in awe as a steady stream of traffic came through the front door. She recognized many of them and was surprised
