Sean sighed. It was the first time he had seen Sully sober in months and knew helping him garnered a better chance of him maintaining that sobriety.
He met his eyes. “Sull, we can give you time in New York, that’s not the problem. We’re headed to the Meadowlands in the morning. We can helicopter you into Manhattan. Honestly, I just don’t know that Kit will want to see you. I can put a call in, but I can’t make any promises. I don’t know where she’s staying.”
Sully shifted his eyes down. “I do. She’s probably staying at Lex’s place. That’s usually where we stay when we’re in New York. Lex hates me now.”
He shook his head and continued. “Can’t say I blame her at this point.” He lifted his head and met Sean’s eyes in silent desperation. “I’ve really fucked up my life, haven’t I?”
The last thing Sean wanted to do was have this conversation with Sully in the back of a limousine. He felt increasingly uncomfortable. “One thing at a time. Sully, you’ve got a show in one hour. Focus on that. Your fans are depending on you.”
As he finished his sentence, the chauffeur opened the door and Sean stepped out. He glared at the driver, frustrated, and huffed. “Took you long enough to open the bloody door!”
Sean stormed off in the direction of the production offices as Sully got out. He slowly made his way back to the dressing room, relieved the band hadn’t yet arrived. He tucked away where no one could find him to numb himself from his crumbling world.
CHAPTER 14
The housekeeper led Kit and Alexa into the front sitting room in Lew’s enormous Upper East Side brownstone. They exchanged a look with each other, impressed with the beauty of it. Kit had been there many times before, but it was Alexa’s first time and she was thoroughly charmed with the experience.
Jonathan stood up and greeted them with a smile while Lew remained fixed on the sofa. “Welcome, Ladies. Glad you could be here.”
Kit exchanged a quick embrace with Jonathan and then headed over to Lew while he and Alexa engaged in small talk.
She sat down next to Lew and threw her arm around him. “What’s up with you sitting here? Am I not good enough to get up for anymore?”
He chuckled and welcomed her into an embrace and then kissed her on the cheek. “Just a little winded. Jonathan threatened to kick my ass if I didn’t sit down and stay down. He’s a chip off the old block so I didn’t doubt his words. He mighta clocked me.” He winked at Kit and they shared a laugh.
She then gazed into his docile brown eyes. “What the fuck is going on, Lew?”
He patted her knee. “What’s going on is that you have a hot single that’s in demand and its official release is on Tuesday. People want to buy it at record stores. They’ve been asking for it. We have a long waiting list from retailers. Gotta tell ya, I knew what you’d put together would be great, I didn’t expect it to be phenomenal. But then again, I shouldn’t be all that surprised with your track record.”
She chuckled and shook her head. “Ok. Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer. What I meant is why did you lead me down this road in the first place? Obviously I took the bait and now here we are and I have no idea of your intention behind this massive snowball that’s continuing to get larger.”
She met his eyes and stared intently. “You always have a very calculated, deliberate reason. I highly doubt you pushed this out just to prove your point that I’m an artist. This has to go deeper. There’s an angle here.”
He chuckled. “You do know me well. There is an angle. That’s what Jon and I are going to discuss with you and Alexa over dinner. Your brother should be here any minute. He’s going to be briefed too. He’s a good manager for you so far, Kit. You two have similar styles.”
She grinned. “Spence is great, but he’s also my CEO for KMK. He can’t stay my manager. I’d prefer to have him as CEO. He’s done amazing things with my company and I want to see him continue to lead the charge. He has to find a suitable team for me.”
Lew nodded. “Indeed he does. Tall order. The guy has his work cut out for him.” He shifted his attention to Alexa and Jonathan. “Cocktails? Who wants cocktails?”
Jonathan wagged his finger at Lew and retorted flatly, “Not you.”
Kit surveyed Lew, Jonathan and Alexa as they mingled and drinks arrived. Lew was drinking sparkling water again and Kit joined him, favoring being coherent and fully focused while they discussed her career later that evening.
She could tell that something was off with Lew. He looked a bit tired and not as dynamic as he normally was. She wondered if his health was in greater decline than Jonathan had disclosed to her. The thought sent shivers up her spine. She couldn’t bear it and immediately went to join in the conversation.
As the dessert course concluded and they all returned to Lew’s large study for coffee and discussion, Kit said goodnight to Sherri and got comfortable on one of the sofas. She knew that social hour was over and now they would be getting down to business.
Jonathan stood in the middle of the room and commanded attention. “As you had already suspected, we do have an angle behind pushing this single of Kit’s out so urgently. We’re changing the positioning of Diamond Records. For years, we’ve produced some of the best artists in the world. And we did pretty well up until Kit came on
