Chapter 10
Xander
“Welcome back to Talk Radio Ulster . We have the biggest band in the world in the studio today—the Tin Gods. Welcome, lads.” Declan Barrett gave us a toothy grin.
“Thanks, Declan,” Chase replied.
“Stoked to be here,” Noah crowed.
Jesse and I exchange looks before waving.
“So, I hear tomorrow night you lads will be taking over Boucher Road.” Declan tipped his head. “What can you tell us about the show?”
We always anointed a spokesperson at these things. Unless it was a direct question, Chase had drawn the short straw for this media stop, so I tuned out their banter.
Instead, my thoughts turned to Harper. The way she’d called me Zee last night. Her inexplicable crush on Tyler. And that weird wet dream I’d woken up from where I’d been holding her supple body in my hands, feeling her lush, round tits. Right before someone slammed a door and woke me up.
“Xander,” Declan turned to me with that damned, weird-ass grin. “I hear you lot have a special opening act this round. Someone from your past?”
I barely suppressed a groan. This was the third time today I had to literally grin and bear it. “Yeah. We’re really excited to have Kelly Evers with us on this tour. She helped us out in Vegas when our opening act went AWOL. And I don’t think I have to tell you what a class act she is.”
Every word felt like nails scraping my soul.
“I guess Kelly thinks she’s immune to the curse of the Gods’ opening act?” Declan asked.
I tipped my head in acknowledgement. “Apparently.”
“The only way to know for sure is to come out and see her tomorrow night,” Noah added helpfully.
“Sounds like you think she might be cursed after all, Noah.” Declan traded a smirk with Noah.
“Let’s put it this way: she wasn’t lucky enough to hang onto our man here.” Noah slapped my shoulder, pushing me forward slightly.
“About that.” Declan leaned forward into his mic. “How is it to be on the road with your ex? Awkward? Is there bad blood still?”
“No, we work amicably together. We’re both professionals who want to get the job done. No drama here.”
“That’s surprising, considering the headlines that dominated the paper when the two of you split up the last time. With all those pictures of the two of you fighting in the lobby of a Hollywood hotel. Heartbreak Hotel, I think they called it?”
I was going to kill Tyler. He was supposed to be here and put the kibosh on this kinda bullshit. Public dives into my private life were never fun. Especially if they ever found out about—
“Xander?” Declan’s voice interrupted my mental spiral. “Any comment?”
“Nope. I’m just here for the music. And a good time. I don’t worry too much about the stuff I can’t control.”
But we sure as hell should’ve been able to control these bullshit questions.
Chase leaned into his mic and tried to direct the host’s attention away from me. I appreciated the effort, but it was three hours too late, in my opinion. Or whenever Kelly fucking Evers signed her contract.
I silently steamed the rest of the interview, offering grunts and terse answers to any other questions directed my way.
And then we were finally done.
We stood up and made our way to the door to sign some merch for the station when Declan cornered me.
“Hey, mate, I hope you understand, it’s just part of the job. Nothing personal.” He tried that toothy grin on me again, and it took everything inside me not to knock it off his face.
“Weird. It felt pretty damn personal.” I shouldered past him and joined the guys standing around a table signing shirts and banners.
“This is when it’d be handy having Tyler around,” Chase muttered as he passed me a white t-shirt.
“Yeah,” I grunted. “Where the fuck is he?”
All of us were studiously avoiding eye contact with Declan, who hovered around the edge of our circle like a plane circling the airport waiting to land. He better not try to land near me. Asshole.
“Said something about problems at the venue,” Jesse murmured back. “He was looking for Harper when we left.”
Everything inside me froze with that statement. Tyler wanted Harper?
I tried to ignore the weird little niggly feeling the rest of the afternoon. After one more media spot, we headed for the venue. We had soundcheck in an hour, so there was no point in going to the hotel.
When we rolled into our private greenroom, Harper was waiting for us.
Or me, as it turned out.
She stood up from the makeup chair she’d been waiting in and walked up to me with a conflicted expression. “Can we talk?”
Damn. I didn’t think Tyler would move this fast. Or at all, really. He was more of a status relationship kinda guy. Which explained why he’d never seen the wonderful woman standing in front of me. “Sure. You have a place in mind, or do you want me to kick the guys out?”
“Aww, don’t be mean,” Noah whined. “Just because you’re in a bad mood because of all the Kelly questions today, it isn’t a reason to take it out on us. Or her.”
Harper winced.
And I felt bad. Even though he was a douche, Noah was right.
“Where do you want to—”
“I, uh,” Harper cut me off. “It’s probably better if the guys are here too. Maybe. God, I don’t know how to do this.”
“Well it’s a good thing you’re with Xander,” Jesse cut in with a grin. “Xander knows all about doing things publicly. Don’t you, Xan?”
“Not the time, asshole,” I gritted out. “And don’t think I’m going to forget this.”
Harper’s ice blue eyes bounced between me and Jesse and back. “Uh…”
I tried to smile at her. “Just ignore him, angel. He’s an asshole. Just say whatever you have to say.”
I could take it. I was an adult. Mostly.
“So, apparently Kelly slipped a line into her contract with Black Hat Productions that specified you and she would do a duet at every concert.”
“Fuck that.” The words tumbled out of my mouth before I even had a chance to think them. And I felt a weird mix of relief and anger.
Harper lifted her palms. “I know. It’s bullshit. But it was an honest mistake on our part that we didn’t catch it.”
“It’s fucking negligence is what it is,” I growled, jabbing a finger at her.
Harper winced again.
“It’s not in our contract,” Chase tossed in. “There’s no way you can enforce it.”
“And I understand that.” Harper nodded diplomatically. “What I’m concerned with is how Kelly will take your refusal. She and I are not on the best of terms—”
“Because of me,” I cut in.
Harper gave me a slight smile. “We’ve had a few run-ins when you weren’t around, and I think it’s safe to say that Kelly is not a fan of mine.”
“Makes it mutual at least.” Noah grinned at her. “What did you call her in Vegas? An overhyped, autotuned hack?”
“That was a conversation I thought I was having with my friend.” Harper glared at him.
“Oh, baby, we were never friends,” Noah drawled. “Don’t you know guys and girls can’t be friends? At least not when one of the two wants to sleep with the other.”
“But I never—” Harper’s eyes widened, and she cut herself off. After a second, she shook her head. “Getting back to the main issue here—Kelly’s contract. I know you have absolutely no obligation to help us out here, and actually every reason to be pissed off at Black Hat. But Wes has some personal issues going on. I didn’t realize how deep or far back they went, but apparently, he didn’t pass the contract through our attorneys after the last revision. He just gave it a cursory glance and signed off. I think she’s asking for the duet because she believes it’ll up the hype around her. She never got as much attention as she did when she was with you.”
“But she’s not with him.” Jesse frowned. “She’s engaged to what’s his face, right?”
“Like the media hasn’t ever reported something as fact when it wasn’t?” Harper raised her eyebrows. “At the very least it’ll bring good headlines: Will they/won’t they, Love triangle—or rectangle, I guess. I think—”
“That’s why he gave you the promotion; Wes thought you could smooth over this bullshit with us and get me on board. Or leave you as the fall guy if you couldn’t make it happen.”
Harper grimaced. “Believe me, Wes and I will be talking about this—once he returns my calls.” She paused and shook her head. “I don’t think the company would withstand the lawsuits. Wes would lose everything. His marriage is already hanging by a thread. This would eviscerate him.”
“And you’d lose your job.” I raised my eyebrows. “The scandal would follow you too. You’d lose your standing in the industry. You’d be lucky to land on your feet with another production company.”
Harper gulped. “I’m aware.”
My mind whirled while I stared at her. I didn’t want to do this. I never thought I’d have to stand on a stage with that viper ever again.
This was a fucking nightmare.
The light in Harper’s eyes dimmed, and she sighed as she took a step backward. “I’ll call Wes again.”
“I’ll do it.”
Everyone stared wide-eyed at me. My gut churned, and I felt like a million fire ants were dancing under my skin. I didn’t want any part of this, but I also didn’t want to see Harper ruined because of Wes’ incompetence and Kelly’s ego trip.
“Really?” Harper whispered.
“Xander, are you sure?” Noah asked, wide-eyed.
Jesse frowned. “I think you’re being too quick to agree.”
“We should talk this through as a band first.” Chase sent me a searching look.
I shook my head. “Sounds like this is a Xander Lang issue and not a Tin Gods problem.”
“Since when do we make that distinction?” Chase cocked his head and tried to stare me down. “This is crazy. You don’t have to do this, Xan.”
I raised my eyebrows. “I’m surprised to hear that coming from a guy who’s done so much crazy shit for the girl he loves. And Harper is only asking for three minutes of my time. I can do that. Easy.”
Chase gave me an incredulous look. “This isn’t remotely the same thing. Shay and I are married. And nothing I did for her ever compromised my dignity. This is bullshit.”
“Noted. Any other objections?”
Jesse crossed his arms over his chest. “I mean, I don’t like it, but ultimately it’s your decision.”
“To be fair, you’re the one who brought her into our realm.” Noah blinked innocently. “So, when you think about it, it’s almost like a karmic revenge.”
Chase nodded. “Truth.” He turned to Jesse. “I forget—who broke up with who the last time?”
Jesse tipped his head. “I think it was Xander. Remember? She kept leaving weird presents for him at his house? The packages of uncooked bacon, that weird cactus thing, and all those cans of shaving cream?”
“Oh right.” Chase snapped and pointed at Jesse. “And those notes she left with each item. Telling him why the thing reminded her of him and how much she loved him. And those ridiculous attempts at lyrics.”
Jesse nodded. “Didn’t she give you a fish too?”
I sighed. “A beta fighting fish.”
“And that movie poster.” Noah hooted. “We never heard the story about that loving memory.”
“And you never will.” I glared at him. I really wasn’t appreciating this jaunt down memory lane.
“Sounds to me like you were dating a cat.”
Everyone stopped then turned to stare at Harper.
“What?” She raised her palms. “Isn’t that what cats do? Bring their kills to their owner?”
Holy hell. Just when I thought I’d figured her out, she surprised me.
“Kelly Evers, Catwoman.” I laughed. “It sounds about right.”
Noah snorted. “It also explains why you stayed with her for so long. Crazy, latex bodysuit. It’s starting to make sense.”
“Fuck off.” I flipped Noah the bird and laughed.
“So you’ll do it?” Harper asked before taking a deep breath.
I sighed. “I will. But I have my own demands.”
Harper nodded tightly then pulled out her tablet. “Let’s have it.”
“Wes is not to handle any of our contracts going forward. You will be our point of contact with Black Hat from now on. I want you present for every rehearsal and run through that requires me to be onstage or even near Kelly Evers.”
Harper’s fingers moved over her tablet screen.
I continued, “We want final approval over acts that open for us or that we’re expected to share a stage with as long as we work with Black Hat.”
The guys around us grunted their approval.
“And lastly, I want Wes to give you the official tour manager title now and make your raise retroactive to the beginning of the Corruption Tour.”
Harper’s fingers froze, and she jerked her head up to stare incredulously at me. “What?”
“You deserve it, angel. You do the work of four people. You get shit done. And if Wes thinks he’s going to try to leverage our relationship to cover his fuckup, then I’m going to make sure that you get everything you’re due.”
“Zee,” she whispered, shaking her head.
“Those are my terms.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “Print it out, and I’ll sign it. The whole band will sign it.”
Harper turned her head to take in the other guys.
Chase raised his eyebrows. “What happened to this being a Xander Lang problem and not a Tin Gods one?”
“You were right.” I jerked my chin at him. “If it affects even one member of the band, it’s a band issue, and we should all agree.”
Chase grinned. “All in agreement?”
“Hail!” all four of us shouted.
Harper was fighting back a grin of her own as she typed away at her screen.
“Anyone else have anything they want to add before I print this up?” Harper asked, looking around the room.
“Well actually.” Noah raised a finger. “I’d love to have a basket of puppies in our greenroom.”
Harper smiled back at him. “So would I, but the logistics—”
“We’re trying to get her a raise here, brother.” Jesse patted Noah’s shoulder. “Not make Harper’s job harder.”
Noah sighed. “Fine.”
“I could get a list of shelters in all the tour locations for you though.” Harper said as she tapped at her tablet again. “We could visit some on our downtime.”
“Uh, I don’t think so.” I put my arm around Harper and pulled her to my side. Ducking my head, I whispered, “Do you not remember what he admitted a few minutes ago? Like hell am I letting my girlfriend go on cute puppy dates with my bandmate.”
“But we’re not—” She cut herself and took a gulp as she remembered our audience, most of who were not aware of our little deal. “Right. Sorry. Well, I guess that means you need to come with us. Oh! We could make it a band thing. Raise awareness of stray animals worldwide. I bet Ella would love to include it in your social media posts. I should…”
I lost the rest of what she mumbled as she typed away at her screen again.
“So, we’re good here?” Chase asked as he pushed away from the wall he’d been leaning against.
“Actually there is one more thing.” Harper gulped. “But maybe it’s a Xander thing? Only, it kinda involves Tyler so maybe you should all be here for this?”
Tyler? What the fuck? Was she…I couldn’t even finish the thought. She couldn’t be breaking up with me now, not when I needed her the most. “What is it?”
She shifted her weight. “He, uh, wants me to apologize to Kelly.”
“Like hell.” I scowled. “You’re not fucking doing that.”
“For sure.” Noah nodded. “We’re Team Harper all the way.”
“Agreed. No need to apologize to the bitch for defending yourself.” Jesse frowned.
“That’s not all.” Harper’s eyes flicked to me then away. “He wanted me to manipulate you into going along with the duet. He said it’s best if it feels like it’s your idea. That you really don’t like to be told what to do.”
That asshole.
“Fuck that,” Jesse breathed.
We didn’t need to take a vote.
As soon as we could figure out the details, Tyler Worthington was out.