Beneath the Stars (Falling Stars 4)

“Good. I’ll be back at the end of the week to start fleshing some of this out. Thinking this song right here is going to be our lead single. It’s…” Baz shook his head like he was unable to put words to it.

“Agreed.” This from Royce who’d been standing against the wall beside him. Royce had just about as much experience in producing as he did with playing. Dude had an ear for raw talent, and it meant something that he saw it in us.

Baz’s head bobbed. “Yup. This is it. You guys work on nailing down this song by the end of the week, and we’ll run through the rest of the material you’ve been working on this Friday. Focus on what we want to keep and weed out the rest. Will give us plenty of time to work on the collab with A Riot of Roses when they arrive next week. Two weeks from now, I want you in the booth.” He pointed at the row of isolation booths at the back that faced the control room. “Sound good?”

He glanced at everyone.

“Sounds perfect to me. We’ve got a ton of material. It’s actually gonna be hard to let some of it go,” Emily said, flipping through her notes.

“That is a good problem to have.” Baz chuckled. “All right, I’ve got to roll. Let me know if anyone has any questions or issues.”

“We’ve got this. Don’t worry,” I told him.

“After that? Not worried at all.” He sent a parting smile before he turned to whip open the door just as Mel came fumbling through. Girl with her face buried in her tablet the way she always did.

Frazzled and disoriented and so organized I was pretty sure she kept a record of every time we pissed. “I know we weren’t exactly hidin’ out or anything, but our whereabouts have definitely been discovered.”

She shifted her screen around to the online gossip site that was basically responsible for my fame. Their favorite thing to talk about was my bad reputation, but I’d always used it to my benefit, to the band’s benefit, just goin’ with the flow.

But the images they had smeared on their front page had my heart plummeting to the floor.

I went scrambling for my phone.

Normally didn’t mind being photographed with a woman or two. Hell, I hadn’t even minded it all that much when they’d printed about my arrest for assault back in Dalton since I’d gladly go back and beat that motherfucker’s face into the ground all over again.

Jailtime be damned.

But I sure as hell didn’t relish in the feelin’ of this. There were a slew of pictures of Richard and me walking out of that café with Maggie. Our faces had been focused in on a couple of times. But where it got carried away with the implication was when the lens had zoomed in on my hand on Maggie when I’d helped her into the car.

They made it look like it was some kind of thing.

And shit, it was basically the first real thing I’d had in so long and looking at it through their greedy eyes soured my stomach and left dread dripping into the vat of darkness that festered deep inside.

Knew it was bullshit. They bit onto any morsel that could be chewed.

But they’d taken a moment that’d felt private and twisted it into something salacious.

Which maybe it was, but they were so off base that it made my vision turn red. Hazy with rage.

Headline read: Look who’s #gettingwetwithrhys!

I scanned the article used to incite scandal. Typical of the site but, for the first time, it made me want to throw a fist through the wall. I scanned over the crap about my upcoming trial because I didn’t give a shit about that, getting to the part I knew would be there.

The Carolina George bassist was seen yesterday afternoon cavorting in the small town of Tybee Island, Georgia with the daughter of late record mogul, Karl Fitzgerald. The country-rocker couldn’t seem to keep his hands off the young rock ‘n’ roll heiress.

Maggie Fitzgerald had been embroiled in the criminal trial against her late father as well as Cory Douglas, the former lead of A Riot of Roses, who’d stolen that head spot from none other than Maggie Fitzgerald’s older brother, Royce Reed.

Royce is currently married to Carolina George’s lead, Emily Ramsey, and it’s been rumored the band is currently recording at the Stone Industries mansion located on the small island.

Manning is no stranger to being photographed with gorgeous women, but we’ve never seen him look quite so enamored. But is it dollar signs he has in his eyes or has this young girl stolen the heart of country music’s most infamous cowboy?

I couldn’t even keep reading when it went on to imply I was robbing the cradle. That I might be using her in some way. Nothin’ but a sad, sick cliché.