Page 53 of Beautiful Noise
When he laughed, I realized I was fucked. “If I had known deflection was going to get me what I needed, I would have started with her first.”
“Are you really in a position to try me?”
He laughed again but got to the point. “Leijah has the opportunity of a lifetime. If we can make this work, she’ll get the traction she needs to jump start her career.”
“What’s the opportunity and what does it have to do with me?”
“She has a three-city tour set up. One night each location and…”
“I know good and damn well you’re not asking me to go on tour with her and I just touched down from an international run.”
“Yes and no.”
“Clay, what the fuck?”
I pulled away from Kori, tossed my legs over the side of the bed, and leaned over them with narrowed eyes landing on the floor. Clay had come through for me more times than I could count. I owed a huge part of why I was still in this to him for sending inStoned Heart. It would be incredibly hard to tell himno, especially when I knew this was something he really needed. If he was asking, he was desperate. Clay didn’t ask for favors of this magnitude. He understood the nature of those in this business, and how everyone always had their hands out, so he rarely asked anything of me.
“Three stops. All I need is for you to do Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston. I had someone lined up who would bring the crowd out but they bailed. She can carry an entire show, but in order to prove she can, I need to get tickets sold. Especially in San Antonio and Houston. They’re amphitheaters and if she can’t pull crowds there, it will look incredibly fucking bad. The person I lined up as a draw screwed me.”
“Who?”
“Grand.”
“Ah, fuck. You know he’s not reliable. Why would you bank on him?”
“I thought he had his shit together.”
“Yeah… well, he doesn’t.”
Grand was young… and wild. Talented as hell but with no discipline. His brother and manager was doing the best he could, but Grand was reckless.
“Just the Texas stops?”
“That’s it.”
“And how is that supposed to work? She’s not a headliner and I’m damn sure not an opening act.”
“She’s willing to do whatever. You can headline and she’ll perform wherever I put her. I need a crowd and Lei on stage. You can bring the crowd. She’s even offered to bypass getting paid to cover the expense of bringing you on.”
I grunted. “She can’t cover what it cost to get me on stage and if you’re asking me for a favor, there’s not enough money involved. Do I even want to know how much the tickets are running?”
“No you don’t,” he muttered. “I won’t break her heart to tell her you’ll be doing charity work, but she’s serious about this, Ess. She wants it and that’s proof she’s willing to pay her dues and do whatever.”
Fuck.
“We can share the headline. I’ll do a short set and we can perform the song I helped write for her together.”
“You don’t have to do all that. I was good with having you on stage for just the one song you have together.”
“I’ll give her three songs. She can do the rest but just know I’m banking this shit. You’re gonna owe me big time.”
“Name your price and I’ve got you.”
“You damn sure do but I’m holding onto this one for a minute. Hell, you might be producing my next project forfree.”
“Free?”
“Yeah, a limited edition, twenty-track joint and I want first look at the next ten tracks you make.”