Chapter 35

Tommy

“As we suspected,”Madeline said once the band meeting got underway. “We’ve already received a cease and desist, informing us that we don’t have permission to play ‘Break Your Promise’ or ‘Shiny Pieces’ on the upcoming tour. I’ve started drafting a response, but I’m not sure we have a leg to stand on.”

“Sasha, how long can we delay the tour?” Kingston asked.

“I’m not sure,” she responded. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”

“We re-record those two songs right fucking now since we own the copyright to the music and the lyrics. Does your mom have availability in her studio? If not, find us a place. Once we re-record the masters, we’ll own those, too.”

“I can get that info for you before we’re done with the meeting,” Sasha responded, typing something into her phone. She was with us via video chat, but that didn’t hold her back at all.

“I don’t know if I can,” I admitted, even though I hated it. “I think ‘Promise’ is beyond what I’m capable of short-term.”

“We’ll figure it out,” Kingston said. “I don’t know how, but I am not fucking around with this bullshit. Aurora has no idea who she’s messing with.”

“And there’s more bad news,” Madeline said. “It looks like they also own the rights to the videos for those early albums too. The only reason you can re-record the masters is because it’s been more than five years since the commercial release of the albums.”

“What the fuck did we sign?” Kellan growled. “How did we get so screwed over?”

“There was fine print and a slew of loopholes,” Madeline said. “You were young and inexperienced, so it’s not the first time I’ve seen a band get fucked over, sadly. I’ve been over the contract with a fine-tooth comb, and other than retaining your credits as the writers of the lyrics and the music, they own far more than most record companies. Did they not realize the extent of their power until now?”

“I’m sure they did,” King rumbled, “but we had a gentleman’s agreement with the higher-ups at Low Rider. We were all making a ton of money, so they had no reason to mess with us. With Aurora, money isn’t her end game, and it wasn’t until she got involved that things went sideways. But like I said, she has no idea who she’s messing with. I won’t put up with it.”

“Okay, if you’re willing to start next week, we can give you three days of studio time,” Sasha said. “Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.”

“Guys—” I started to talk but Kingston held up a hand.

“I know, man. I know. We’ll figure something out. Let me think about what to do.”

“Bash lives in Vegas,” I said reluctantly. “He’ll help if I can’t do it, and if he can’t, maybe Tate from Crimson Edge.”

“Both good ideas,” King said thoughtfully. “And maybe you can do one song and one of them can do the other. Let’s see what the doc says on Friday before we decide, but we’d have to fly Tate in from Minneapolis, so we need to talk to Bash first.”

“A strong course of steroids for a couple of days might reduce the swelling and inflammation enough for me to fake it for two songs,” I said.

“I can play drums on ‘Shiny Pieces,’” Kellan put in. “If you can learn the rhythm guitar parts by then, we can switch.”

“I already know them,” I said. “Just need a little practice.

“And,” Devyn interjected thoughtfully, “having guests on those songs adds a change that will make fans want to buy the new version.”

“As soon as we can get it done, we’ll re-release both albums,” King growled. “New cover art, new everything. Fuck Aurora and fuck Sound of Light. They think they’ve got the upper hand, but I’m not playing this game with them. Madeline, tell me what we have to do. I don’t care how much it costs as long as it doesn’t bankrupt the band. Otherwise, I will spend whatever it takes to shove those masters right up their asses.”

It was a legal quagmire and Madeline guided us through it as best she could. For the most part, I was only half-listening because I was texting Bash—the drummer from Nobody’s Fool—to ask if he could help out if I couldn’t play well enough to re-record those two songs.

He was a good guy and we’d gotten friendly when they’d been on tour with us, but he had his own responsibilities, so there was no guarantee he was available on such short notice.

“Well, Bash is available,” I said when I heard back from him. “So if I can’t do it, we can fake it with his help.”

“I like the idea of you and Kellan switching for one song,” King said.

“Me too,” Z added. “But it’ll be good to have Bash come in, maybe even as a special guest, like Devyn suggested. Whatever it takes to have a whole new version of the song.”

“We never released ‘Holding’ on an album,” Devyn said thoughtfully, referring to a single we’d released a couple of years prior featuring a then sixteen-year-old vocalist named Kirsten Aiken. She was the sister-in-law of Ford Malone, the rhythm guitarist of Nobody’s Fool, and she’d been out on tour with us for limited dates since then. “What if we added it to either ‘Shiny Pieces’ or ‘Second Level of Hell’? That would be bonus material and people would flock to buy it.”

“I think Kirsten’s ready,” I said. We’d kept our relationship to her relatively quiet, beyond the release of that one song, because we hadn’t wanted the life of a sixteen-year-old to become a circus.

“She’s in college at Julliard,” King said. “But I’m sure she’d be able to fly in for a day to re-record it.”

“I’ll call her,” Sasha said.

“All right, gang, I have to go,” Madeline said. “Let’s keep our plans quiet. We don’t want Aurora or anyone else catching wind of what’s going on. Who knows what bullshit they’ll try to pull once they realize what we’re doing. They stand to lose a fortune, so I wouldn’t put it past them to start a smear campaign.”

“You think?” Z asked quietly. “I’m still willing to reach out to Aurora and try to put some of this behind us?”

“I don’t think it’s that simple at this point,” Madeline said. “I strongly recommend you stay away from her.”

“My wife would probably agree,” he said.

“I’m sorry I put us in a position where we can’t just head into the studio and do our thing,” I said once we’d disconnected the video chat and it was just the band and Harley. “It never occurred to me something like this might happen.” I motioned to my knee.

“It’s not your fault, accidents happen,” King said.

“Yeah, but this one wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t been driving like a lunatic. I should have been more careful, more cognizant of the fact that a motorcycle accident could not just delay the tour, but totally derail my career. It won’t happen again. You have my word.”

“We’ve all done dumb shit,” Kellan said.

“Yeah, but after what we went through with Carter, we shouldn’t be dealing with it now. We all know better. I meant to apologize before, but I’m doing it now.”

“We’re all good,” Devyn said. “We’ve all brought our share of shit to the table. Let’s not dwell on the past.”

“Amen to that.” Z nodded.

“I know, but… we deserve better. All of us.”

“We appreciate the sentiment,” King said, “but let’s not go there, okay? You didn’t do it on purpose, you’re on the mend, and you took responsibility. Let’s leave it there.”

“What if I can’t play next week?”

A small silence filled the room.

“Well, we have a back-up plan,” Kellan said. “I play one song, Bash plays on the other. And we won’t record the rest of those albums until you’re better.”

“Besides, we don’t have time to record the rest of the songs right now,” Z said. “We’ve got to start rehearsals.”

“Speaking of which, let’s go over choreography,” King said. “We can do that today.”

“Give me a minute to walk Harley to her car,” I told them.

Harley had known we might have a regular meeting or small rehearsal, so she’d been planning to leave at that point anyway.

“You didn’t have to walk me out,” she said once we were outside.

“Of course, I did.” I leaned against her car and pulled her into my chest. “What are you doing the rest of the afternoon?”

“Believe it or not, I’m meeting the girls from Harmony Place for lunch. And get this—Freya is meeting us too!”

“I thought she was kind of the outlier?”

“She was, but we didn’t want to exclude her when we started our group text chat, and when we brought up lunch, she said she wanted to join us.”

“Cool.” I lightly kissed her. “Have fun. I’ll see you for dinner tonight?”

“Yup. River’s so excited. I told him you were going to grill burgers for us and he thinks that’s the coolest thing ever.”

“How come?” I asked curiously.

“Because Wynter and I never use the grill,” she said. “We usually make burgers in the air fryer. So, he thinks it’s going to be something exciting to see you lighting a fire or some shit.”

I pretended to grimace. “That feels like a lot of pressure.”

She laughed. “Nah. If you burn them, they take about twelve minutes in the air fryer. He won’t know the difference.”

I leaned in and kissed her. “Then I’ll see you tonight.”

Her lips lingered on mine and our eyes met longingly.

“Tonight,” she whispered. “River and Wynter both go to bed early.”

“I’m really looking forward to that.”

“Me too.” She started to get into her SUV and then paused. “And don’t overdo it on the knee today!”

“You’re kind of bossy, you know that?”

“That’s why you love me.”

She flashed me a smile, turned over the engine, and pulled out of Z’s driveway.

I walked back into the house whistling.