Chart Toppers (Star Maker Book 3) (15 page)

He
immediately felt his body relax after hearing Spencer’s explanation that pulled
him into complete alignment with his value system.
 
He nodded and grinned.
 
“Ok.
 
I trust you and Kit on this.
 
I’ll just need a little coaching as we
go along.”
 
He took a gulp of his
scotch.

Spencer
nodded.
 
“Absolutely.
 
Since Edward is completely overloaded
now because of GT, I’ll give Wes a call and see if he wants to step into the
role of our personal finance director.”
 

Sully chuckled
and felt his spirit relax.
 
“Oh,
shit.
 
I totally forgot that one of
my best buddies is a financial wizard that deals with this level of money
daily.
 
He’s done amazing things
with my personal account already. Yes, get on the horn and get that booked.”

“I’ll do
that.
 
How quickly can you fly to
New York?”

Sully shrugged
his shoulders and looked at Kit.
 
“What do we have on our plate, babe?”

She
sighed.
 
They were due to go into
the studio in five days to start recording the new album.
 
“Well, we have deliveries coming
tomorrow, so we can’t leave.
 
We can
fly out Friday morning.
 
We need to
be back by Sunday at the latest.
 
I’m
pretty sure Wes will take a Saturday meeting ‘cuz we’re like family.”

Spencer
nodded his head.
 
“I’ll call
him.
 
Give me a minute.”

Sully
pulled Kit toward him and held her in his arms silently.
 
She could tell he was trying to process
all of this and didn’t say a word.
 
She held him, hoping to make him feel more secure.
 
Moments later, Spencer returned.

“Saturday
morning.
 
We’ll meet at their place
at 10:00am in his personal office.
 
Then
we’ll go to brunch afterward.
 
Oh,
and by the way, Lex is pregnant again.”
 
He didn’t miss a beat and continued.
 
“Will that work for your mom, Sull?
 
We can have the jet stop at Midway on
the way out on Friday…”

Kit
interjected.
 
“Wait a minute.
 
Hold the phone. Back up.
 
Lex is pregnant
again
?”
 
Sully watched
her gauge how she really felt.
 
He
was pleased to see she wasn’t broken up about it and relaxed.

Spencer
chuckled.
 
“They just found out, but
they’re not telling anyone.
 
He said
she’s only a few weeks along.
 
Wanted me to pass the info along to you.
 
Looks like this time around you and Sull
are being targeted for the godparents.”

Kit
grinned and raised her eyebrows.
 
“Really?”
 
She smiled at
Sully.
 
“That would be nice.
 
Lex chose her older sister and Wes’s
brother when Kelsey was born.
 
Her
sister was so pissed that I was chosen as the maid of honor when they married
that she made a deal to make her the godmother of her firstborn.
 
Makes sense now.”
 
She giggled and rubbed her hands
together.
 
“Another Matthews
baby.
 
Yay!”

Spencer
looked at Sully.
 
“Ok, let’s get
back on track. Will your mom be available?”

He
nodded.
 
“Let me find out.
 
I’m sure it will be fine.”

Kit sat
in her office the following day staring at the sealed letter in front of
her.
 
She could feel the tears
welling up in her eyes.
 
She
fingered her name in her grandmother’s handwriting on the top of the envelope
for a moment before ripping it open.
 
She made sure to have her tissues in arms length knowing this was the
last letter she would ever receive from her grandmother.
 

After
reading it and having a good cry, she felt a peace come over her that she
hadn’t felt since she learned of her grandmother’s passing.
 
She let out a long sigh and decided to
get on with her day.

She
picked up the phone and dialed a number from memory.
 
Moments later, Jonathan answered.
 
They chatted for a while, and he
informed her that they were close to getting Templeton Records to sign on the
dotted line.
 
She was pleased with the
news—a
 
full acquisition of
Templeton was exactly what she had wanted.
 
With that acquisition, Blake Templeton would be reporting directly to
Kit and Jonathan gave her full reign to do what she wanted with him.
 
She wasn’t sure of her strategy
yet.
 
She knew when the day came to
relieve him of his duties, and she realized it would come, he would run into
big trouble.

Since
Blake’s reputation in the music industry was anything but good, he would be
hard pressed to find a soft landing anywhere.
 
She knew no one would touch him with a
ten-foot pole, so she decided to make him squirm like a worm on a hook.
 
Content there was now proper justice in
the world, she hung up and heard a commotion coming from the front room.
 

She
headed out and noticed the moving men carefully carrying in her grandmother’s
Steinway with Sully directing them.
 
They had decided to put it in the front room and showcase it for her,
electing to put their baby grand in Kit’s office.
 
She stood silently and watched as they
placed the beautiful piano in the front room and carefully took off the pads
that kept it safe during transport.

Sully
exchanged a look with Kit and took the manila envelope from one of the men who
had extended it to him.
 
He reached
in and found a letter addressed to him.
 
He took a seat on the piano bench and opened the fall of the piano while
the movers changed their focus to transporting the other piano into Kit’s
office.
 
She followed them and began
directing them, giving Sully a moment alone with his letter and her grandmother’s
most prized possession.

Once
the movers had the baby grand in place, she thanked them and started leading
them out.
 
As she walked into the
front room, she noticed Sully sitting at the piano.
 
He started to play one of her
grandmother’s favorites—an old standard he had performed for her in the
parlor of her home on their last visit.
 
She felt her eyes welling up with tears, easily recalling the memory and
immediately shifted her focus back to seeing the moving men out.

She
returned to the front room moments later, not wanting to disturb him.
 
He played the song beautifully but
avoided singing it.
 
That alone
proved to be an indicator to Kit that he had a hard time with her grandmother’s
death.
 
She walked up and sat down
next to him.

He
glanced over at her and forced a grin through his misty steel blue eyes as he
continued to play.
 
She put her arm
around him and stroked his back, feeling warm tears running down her
cheeks.
 

He
looked over at her when he was finished and leaned in.
 
She did the same until their foreheads
met.
 
His voice was barely an
audible whisper when he spoke.
 
“I’m
sorry, babe.
 
I just couldn’t sing
it for her today.”

She
looked at him and wiped a tear from his cheek as she forced a grin.
 
“She wanted you to play it?
 
Did she write that in her letter?”
 
He nodded silently.
 
“And you played it, baby.
 
That’s enough.
 
You know she’s smiling down on you right
now.
 
She’s the one that’s probably
singing it this time.”

He
hugged Kit tightly.
 
“I wasn’t very
close to my grandmother, and when she passed, I felt bad about it, but it
wasn’t that hard.
 
This stings.
 
It’s just so odd to me.
 
I was closer to your grandmother than to
my own.
 
And I thought I was crazy
until I read the letter, and she told me that she thought of me as one of her
grandchildren too.
 
She was an
amazing woman, Kit.
 
I’m glad I had
to opportunity to know her.”

Kit
smiled.
 
“Me too.”
 
She gently patted the piano.
 
“I’m sure her dying wish was to have you
playing this thing regularly and let it inspire your writing.”

He
chuckled.
 
“Yep.
 
She told me to win a Grammy for her.”

Kit
giggled and kissed him.
 
“We’ll have
to do that.”

CHAPTER 8

The
Templeton acquisition was proceeding smoothly, much to the chagrin of Blake
Templeton.
 
The moment he learned that
he was reporting to Kit, he immediately wanted out, but Jonathan and the board
wouldn’t let him.
 
He had signed a
contract during the acquisition for a certain term of service that could only
be terminated at Diamond’s discretion.

The
road got rockier for Blake as each day passed since the acquisition had been
finally inked.
 
He had learned Kit
was his boss on his first meeting at corporate—one with her.
 
She was calm, cool and collected while
he looked like a ghost of a man, shriveled and horrified in his chair, his face
ten shades of white.
 
From that
meeting forward, he had been taking hits from others in the company including
Jonathan, Pete, Jason, and Daniel.
 
They were subtle in their approach but highly effective.
 
Each day he showed up in the office, he
felt like a pariah.
 
His presence in
the music industry as a whole reflected the same sentiment.
 
He was washed up.

Kit’s
plan to take him down was working out nicely with the help of her friends at
corporate.
 
They were days away from
officially tossing him out on his ear.
 
They watched his every move.
 
When he incorrectly submitted an expense report and violated company
guidelines for an exorbitant spend on a night out with an artist that wasn’t
well documented, they raised the red flag and threatened him with
embezzlement.
 

His
backpedaling didn’t work with unsympathetic executives and an intolerant
board.
 
He quickly found himself in
hot water.
 
The die had been cast
after meeting with the artist.
 
They
learned that Blake had bought copious amounts of cocaine, multiple bottles of
Cristal champagne and two hookers on that evening out, and he didn’t share any
of it with the artist in question.
 
An additional twenty-five thousand dollars that could not be accounted
for, only added fuel to his sealed fate.
 
Kit had put in the order for his head to be put on the chopping block in
an emergency board meeting.
 
She
wanted to ensure he was held accountable for the fifty thousand dollar spending
spree.
 

They
would give him thirty days to repay the entire spend, less a thousand dollars
for a legitimate dinner expense, and if he didn’t come through, they would
press full embezzlement charges. Kit knew he didn’t have the money.
 
The Templeton acquisition had only dug
him out of debt.
 
It didn’t leave
him with a dime personally.

The
vote to terminate him was unanimous, and he would be let go without severance
the following week.
 
She returned
home from the meeting at Diamond, basking in the glow of victory as she pulled
up into the driveway.
 
She chuckled
to herself at the site before her.

It immediately
became obvious that the band had arrived for day one of tracking in the
recording studio.
 
They were due to
start on the new album.
 
A dramatically
different sight presented itself, a massive departure from when they cut their
three song EP back in 1985.
 
So much
had changed.
 

In the
courtyard, she carefully navigated her Mercedes-Benz around two Ferraris, two
Corvettes, and a brand new Porsche 911 Turbo.
 
She barely had enough space to pull her
car into the garage next to Sully’s new red Ferrari 328 GTS.
 
He had purchased it months ago when they
returned home after a successful tour.
 
It now took up the garage that once housed the Ferrari he inherited from
Joe, which he still owned.
 

The
rest of the band took Sully’s lead acquiring expensive sports cars as their new
toys.
 
So did Fred, who had been
generously compensated for engineering and mixing an album that now had jumped
into quadruple platinum status almost overnight.
 
It was steadily inching into platinum
five times over.
 

Kit
walked into the house and giggled.
 
She could hear them carrying on, their voices echoing in the front room
while someone played the piano.
 
She
stood there, waiting for them to sense her presence.
 
Bryan was playing the vintage Steinway,
off in his little musical world, grinning and fully relishing every moment with
such an amazing instrument.

She
smiled and raised her voice over the mayhem.
 
“Gentlemen, welcome back to The Mint.”

They
all turned to look at her and happily approached her, taking turns hugging and
kissing her.
 
They were fired up and
ready to start.
 
Kit was pleased to
no end.
 
She was slightly
apprehensive about pushing them into the studio too quickly, but they seemed so
excited to get started she instantly felt the pressure building to make this
succeed.
 
She felt her nerves
running in high gear.
 

Her new
role as sole producer of their new album had increased her stress levels
substantially.
 
Time in the studio
that was once fun and carefree in the past felt more constricted and calculated
on her part.
 
She was desperate for
a win and wanted to ensure everything went smoothly from day one. Coming off a
quadruple platinum album certainly didn’t decrease her anxiety, it upped the
ante and she prayed she’d position them for that same success again.

Remo
looked her up and down and chuckled.
 
He teased.
 
“Going a little
formal with us this time around, Kit?”

She
chuckled.
 
Her elegant, short-sleeved,
black silk blouse paired with a green, leather, pencil skirt and black leather
stilettos weren’t exactly what most producers would wear for a recording
session.
 
She grinned.
 
“I just came from a meeting at
Diamond.
 
Why don’t you guys head
out to the studio and get situated?
 
Start rehearsing.
 
I’m going
to go change.
 
I’ll see you guys out
there.”

Kit was
happy to see Sully so enthusiastic and full of life.
 
He was pumped up, ready to start
tracking and sing his butt off.
 
She
changed clothes quickly into black jeans and an old Gypsy Tango T-shirt that
she had taken to styling on her own with scissors, making it look more like a
sleeveless sexy blouse than a men’s T-shirt.
 

She
headed out moments later and as she was making her way across the all too
familiar expanse of green grass that led up to the backyard studio; she noticed
Giselle coming toward her smiling.
 

“They’re
all stocked, Kit.
 
They’ve got
booze, mixers, soft drinks, nuts, chips, fruit and bottled water.
 
Caterers will be here at seven with
dinner.
 
Anything else you think
they might need?”

Kit
shook her head, relieved that Giselle was happy to be a studio assistant for
them during the duration of recording.
 
“Sounds you got it all covered, G.
 
Call me if you need me.
 
I’m
going in.”
 
She chuckled.

Giselle
nodded.
 
“Got it.
 
If you need anything let me know.”

Kit
thanked Giselle and confidently walked into the studio.
 
The guys were spread out throughout the
studio, with the majority of them hanging out in the lounge where the bar and
TV were located.
 

Tony
looked up when she walked in.
 
“Do
we get breaks tonight to watch football?
 
My Vikings are playing.”

She
chuckled.
 
“What the hell?
 
It’s preseason.
 
Preseason doesn’t matter.
 
Tony, you can do whatever you want, but
whatever time you take for that game you’re going to make up on the backend
tonight.
 
And I don’t think Fred is going
to want to be here late recording your sorry ass at three in the a.m.
 
We’ll break for dinner at seven.
 
You can check the score then.”

Tony
nodded.
 
“Ok.
 
I can handle that.
 
I don’t want to fuck with anyone’s
mojo.
 
Especially your mojo, Ms.
Producer.”
 
He snickered.

Kit
smiled.
 
She had anticipated a
little teasing from them in the beginning.
 
“Ok, guys.
 
Let’s get
started.”
 

She
watched quietly and waited patiently for them to huddle together and say some
unifying cheer before the start of the session.
 
It was a custom they had done since she
had met them and one they still did right before stepping on stage before a
show.
 

She
usually wasn’t included in the huddle—it was an unspoken rule.
 
The only time they waived it was when she
was subbing for Jimmy on tour.
 
They
weren’t huddling together this time, though, and she was baffled.
 
They stood there staring at her.

She
frowned.
 
“Why are you all staring
at me like that?
 
C’mon, do your
thing and let’s get a move on.”

Sully
smiled.
 
He waved her over.
 
“Get over here.
 
You’re the producer.
 
You’re supposed to be in the huddle this
time.
 
We’re
all
making an album, and you’re our leader this time around.”

She
walked over to them reluctantly, feeling awkward, and sandwiched herself between
Remo and Jimmy.
 
They all huddled
for a few moments and then disbanded quickly, all laughing.
 
Remo and Tony headed toward the live
room where they would start tracking the first song, ‘Pretty Poison.’

Laying
down the rhythm section had been surprisingly smooth and seamless.
 
Kit was pleased that Remo had brought
his A game.
 
He was always a loose
cannon, sometimes hard to control, but not today.
 
He was a professional, and his tracks
were finished quickly.

She
stood in the control room with her arms folded across her chest while Tony and
Remo returned to the lounge to relax.
 
When the rest of the band was in place, Sully gave her a thumbs up.
 

She
looked at Fred.
 
“Start tracking.”
 
She pointed at Sully, and they started
playing the song, instruments only.
 
She took a seat next to Fred and changed a few levels.
 
She looked over at him.
 

He
nodded. “That was a good adjustment, Kit.
 
Do whatever you want.
 
Don’t
be shy.
 
Even if you fuck it up, we
can fix it all in the end when I mix it.
 
Pro Tools is very forgiving.”

She
nodded.
 
“Ok, thanks.
 
They sound good, but I want another
take.
 
Something’s missing.”
 
They finished, and Kit grabbed the
microphone that fed into the headphones the guys were wearing in the live
room.
 
“Do it again, from the top.”

They
started playing again, and Kit looked at Fred.
 
“We need to punch Jimmy’s guitar.
 
Punch it and then isolate it so I can
hear the difference.”

Fred
made an adjustment and looked at her.
 
“Was that what you were hoping to hear?”

She
nodded.
 
“Yep.
 
That’s it.”
 
She leaned forward and silenced the tracks
of the other instruments on the boards so that only the guitars were isolated
and audible.
 
She shook her
head.
 
“You fixed the problem, Fred,
but it’s not what I want.” They had already come to the end of the song, so she
waited until they were finished.
 

“Bry, you’re
good.
 
You can take five.
 
Jimmy and Sull, I need you to give it a
go again from the top.
 
Jimmy, I
need you to get more aggressive with your solo.
 
Make it spicy.”