Chapter 16 #2
The smile dropped from his face. Harry guessed why and reached for his hand, threading their fingers together. “But you love music, too,” he said, not so much asking but knowing in his heart. He felt the same way about music.
“I still can’t believe any of this is happening to me,” Nikky said. They were forced to let go of each other as they reached the station and passed through the barrier. “I’m nobody, you know? I’m just some kid from foster care.”
Those words broke Harry’s heart. Nikky was a generational talent.
Not once since they’d come together had he gone unnoticed when the two of them walked out together.
Even now, as they took the escalator down to the train platform, half a dozen people recognized him. Harry warned them off with a hard look.
“Nikky, you’re amazing,” Harry said as they found a place to wait for the next train. “I don’t want to hear you put yourself down like that again.”
Nikky tensed for a split second, then relaxed into a self-effacing laugh. “I don’t try,” he said, rubbing absently at the spot on his neck where Harry had left his mark. “It’s just one of those things that sticks with you when you had the childhood I had.”
Harry leaned closer to him and took his hand, glad that the platform wasn’t that busy. “You’re allowed to grow beyond your past,” he said, then daringly kissed Nikky’s cheek.
Whatever echoes of pain he might have felt for the way those words applied to him, too, was stopped as he noticed someone several yards away discreetly pulling out his phone to snap a pic of them.
He glared at the man, which put a look of apology on the stranger’s face, but he didn’t take further action.
The train arrived with a whoosh of forced air and a screech of brakes. He and Nikky got on, choosing to stand at the back of the car instead of taking some of the free seats.
“So what’s it going to be now?” Harry asked, crossing his arms and glaring at anyone who dared to look their way too long as the train lurched into motion. “Music or acting?”
“I can still have both, can’t I?” Nikky asked, leaning against Harry as the train rattled on.
“You can absolutely have both, baby.” Harry nodded. “But it sounds like acting is going to keep you busy, at least for the foreseeable future.”
Nikky went from smiling to chewing his lip with worry in a flash. “All these movie roles are filming in the US,” he said. “I have a few weeks off between jobs, and these days I have enough money to fly to England to spend time here, but I don’t know….”
His words trailed off, but Harry knew what he was saying. He bumped Nikky’s hip and stretched an arm behind his back. “We’ll figure it out,” he said. “There’s no point in borrowing trouble from the future when we’re not even there yet.”
There was no point in worrying about anything beyond Holberg’s threat, even though Nikky didn’t know that yet. Hollywood was fickle, and if the video ended up everywhere, Nikky might not have as much work ahead of him as he thought.
Which wouldn’t be so bad, would it, the selfish part of him asked. If Nikky’s career crashed, he could have his young lover all to himself. They could be has-beens together.
He shook his head as they reached their stop, angry at himself for even considering that level of selfishness. But it was hard not to want perfection when it was handed straight into his arms.
As soon as they reached the street level, Nikky’s phone buzzed with a message. As they walked toward his hotel, he pulled out his phone and stared at it with trepidation. “Charlotte tried to call me when we were underground,” he said, glancing at Harry like he needed help.
“Call her back,” he said. “Maybe it’s good news.”
Nikky nodded, then tapped his phone a few times and held it to his ear.
“Hey, Charlotte,” he said, then veered to the side, where there was a small park and a bench.
He paced instead of sitting on the bench, which Harry found adorable.
“A party?” he asked aloud, glancing at Harry.
“A music industry party, and I’m invited? Tonight?”
Harry grinned, both amused by the way Nikky was letting him in on what was happening and beyond pleased that the industry was welcoming the man in.
“Yeah, sure,” Nikky went on.
Harry wanted to know more about the conversation, which looked like it was going to be more than Charlotte issuing an invite, but his phone rang as well.
Tension hit him so fast that it almost made him sick. He snatched at his phone, but when he looked at the screen, Albion’s name popped up, not “Unlisted”, like it had for Holberg.
“Albion,” Harry answered curtly, pacing slightly away from Nikky, who was smiling away as he talked to his manager.
“Bayonne,” Albion said with as much venom as Harry felt.
“What do you want?” Harry snapped.
“I want you to march your sweet little conquest over to the studio right now and order him to record the songs I want on his album,” Albion said bluntly.
Harry snorted a humorless laugh. “Fuck off,” he snarled. “Nikky knows what he wants, and you’re going to give it to him or—”
“What, like you gave it to him in that nasty little video Stuart Holberg just offered to sell me?”
Harry froze at the edge of the grass on the other side of the bench from where Nikky was still happily on his call. His stomach dropped and he couldn’t breathe.
“That’s right,” Albion said crisply. “I’ve seen the video. Clips of it, at least. I’ve seen enough. It comes with a hefty price tag, but it would absolutely be worth it to have that little tidbit under my control.”
“There’s no point,” Harry snapped, keeping one eye on Nikky.
He’d finished his call, but some fans had approached him.
They looked harmless enough, so he was talking to them and getting ready to take selfies.
“Like I told Holberg, if you release that video, I’ll just claim it’s an AI fake. You’d be wasting your money buying it.”
“Fake or not,” Albion said, more irritated than gloating, “it’ll change things for Nikky. You can pretend it won’t all you want, but you know better. You know how quickly a promising career can go sour in this world.”
Fuck, Albion was right. Moments ago, he’d been willing to ruin his entire life to save Nikky from embarrassment. Was he willing to lead Nikky in the wrong direction with his album if it meant long-term gain?
“It’s heady, isn’t it,” Albion said.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Harry growled, keeping his voice down, even though Nikky was completely distracted with his fans now.
“Having that much power over someone else’s life,” Albion said.
“I can assume since the two of you were spotted at that club and from the way you topped the man in the video that you get off on having power over someone. How do you think it will feel knowing that you were responsible for the success of a megastar’s career? Nikky’s future is in your hands.”
“If you think you’re going to win me over by appealing to the kind of dictatorship you use to control the people who rely on you then you’re an even bigger bastard than I thought,” Harry said, seething.
“I don’t really care what gets you off,” Albion went on.
“I plan to accept Holberg’s offer for the video, and I intend to use it to get what I want.
You’re irrelevant in this whole thing. The only part you can play now is facilitating me getting my way by telling your boy toy what to do.
If you don’t, just think of how public exposure of the kind I’m planning would break him. ”
For the second time that morning, Harry wanted to reach through his phone to murder someone.
He hated the world of celebrity and everything that came with it.
Whether it was music or film, the entertainment industry treated talent like commodities instead of people.
Albion, Holberg, and probably a dozen other people would chew Nikky up and spit him out without batting an eye.
The only thing Harry could do was hover as close to Nikky as he could to stop things from being worse than they were shaping up to be.
“Keep Nikky out of this as much as possible,” he hissed into his phone. “Hurt me all you want, but don’t destroy him.”
Albion laughed, the sound so cruel it sent prickles down Harry’s spine. “Whether the man is hurt or not is up to you,” he said. “You have my terms. Meet them or the video will be released this weekend.”
The call ended. For a second, Harry thought his phone had died again. But no, Albion had hung up on him, stealing the upper hand without giving Harry a chance to fight back. It was such a dick move.
Even worse, it was proof Albion, and Holberg, had the upper hand. Harry glanced across at Nikky smiling away with his fans. At least they seemed nice.
How quickly would those smiles turn to looks of disgust if the video hit social media?
It was too late to wish they’d never made the video. That ship had sailed. Worse than that was the sickening feeling in the pit of Harry’s stomach that said it was too late to save Nikky from the fickle lusts of the industry that should have embraced and protected him.