But then Carolina George had begun its rise.
“Have to say, your performance blew my mind. Not a whole lot of people can drum like you. Lyrik said he knew you, so we were able to track you down to bring you here. Truth is, drummers tend to take a backseat, blend in and just become a part of the background, and you might as well have been set up at the front of the stage.”
Unease churned through my being. Dude thought he was complimenting me when he wasn’t being anything but the bearer of bad news.
“Thanks,” I forced out.
Because what the fuck?
Sure, I knew most of the guys from way back when.
But we’d been little more than acquaintances.
Running the same circles.
The same backstage parties.
Bodies riddled with the garbage we pumped in our veins and snorted up our noses.
Then Sunder had hit it big. Their backstage parties no longer hosted in the dank, disgusting holes I’d been assigned.
When I’d fled Los Angeles three years ago, I’d never thought I’d see any of them again. Had nearly shit myself when I’d caught Lyrik’s eye in that small bar that night six months ago, and I’d been gone before he had the chance to track me down.
Like I could just pretend that he was hallucinating.
Making that shit up. Guessed Zee had noticed me at the same time.
I never should have gone to that audition. Never should have answered that fucking ad for a drummer. Thinking it would be cool. A cover. An outlet. One place to exorcise my demons. Or maybe where I could just let them come out to play.
Richard, the lead of Carolina George, had been all over the fact that I had a heavy metal background.
Loved my style.
Loved the vicious way I attacked the drums. Said he was searching for a drummer who could bring a different element to his band, and he thought that guy was me.
He had a vision of meshing country and rock in a way that had never been done before.
I should have known better.
But if I didn’t have music, I didn’t have anything, so what the fuck did I have to lose when I’d already lost it all?
A disturbance rumbled through the middle of me.
Truth of what I did have to lose.
What was on the line.
“So why am I here?” I finally asked, cutting a glance around at each of them, calculating just how quickly I could bolt.
Zee gave me a slight nod. “We’re slated to hit the studio next week.”
I edged back, defenses coming up. “And what’s that got to do with me?”
“Would like you to stand in for me,” Zee said.
Disbelief had my brow shooting to the sky. “You want me to step in for you? Got my own band, man. Things are moving for us. Not about to do something that will threaten that.”
And the last thing I needed was something that would expose me.
Put me in the limelight.
Was already balancing a quickly fraying tightrope.
Zee tossed a glance at Lyrik, but it was Ash who was piping in. “Now don’t go and worry yourself about that. My boy Lyrik here gets all kinds of raw and bitter when broaching the subject of poaching, don’t you, dude?” he asked, sidling up to Lyrik’s side and slinging a casual arm around his neck. Ash squeezed him. “You remember it, Lyrik? Those hacks who thought they could actually lure you away from us? Could you imagine? Like you’d ever step away from all this greatness.”
Ash held his arms out at the sides. “We make magic, baby. Nothing can touch us. Nothing ever will.”
Lyrik scoffed with the tug of a smile, and he crossed his tattooed arms over his chest. “If you can’t be loyal to your crew, who the hell are you going to be loyal to?”
My head shook, agitation eating me alive. “Then why am I sitting here?”
“Wearing jeans and a tee in the middle of the damn fanciest party I’ve ever been to, mind you? How is this fair?” Ash tugged at the bowtie of his tux, tossing the razzing out, nothing but a joke. Like he could feel the tension radiating from me and he was doing everything to rid the room of it. “Asshole gets to wear what he wants and you made me put on this shit?”
He gestured at me.
If I possessed the ability, I would have laughed.
Dude had always been a nut.
Anxiously, I drummed my fingers on my thigh, feeling naked without the drumsticks that I took everywhere I went.
“Sorry. Last minute, like you said. Didn’t have time to rent something more appropriate,” I told him.
Not that I would have, anyway. Not exactly my style.
Lyrik pushed out a heavy sigh. “Listen, man. This is coming out wrong. It’s really not a big deal. Zee here has no intention of leaving the band. His son Liam is some kind of soccer prodigy and has the chance to play this summer for this big-ass kids’ league, and he wants to be there for the games, which means there’s a scheduling conflict. You’re the only one we know who is good enough to take his place on the tracks. Simple as that. And you’ll still have the time to meet all your obligations with your own band. Know you don’t have any shows for a handful of weeks, and we were hoping you’d be willing to spend those weeks in the studio with us.”