Chart Toppers (Star Maker Book 3) (22 page)

As she
looked up at him, her eyes narrowed.
 
“Do your fucking job, Sully Foxx.
 
Get in the live room with the guys now and give me the best vocals you
have, like your life depended on it.
 
No bullshit!
 
I have no
tolerance for it.
 
Not today.”

Once
Sully had found his way back into the live room and was safe behind the glass,
Fred glanced over at Kit, who was chain-smoking and nursing her glass of
scotch.
 
He knew something was
terribly wrong.
 
She was off in a
way he had never seen.
 
“Hey,
Kit.
 
You ok?”

She
looked at him and tried to force a grin, completely unsuccessful in her
attempt.
 
“I’ll be ok, Fred.
 
Thanks for asking.
 
Let’s make the best out of this session,
shall we?
 
Remind me, what song are
we finishing up today?”

“’Made
to Love You.’
 
Lead vocals and backing
vocals primarily.
 
We’re going to
need you in the booth with the guys today on backing.
 
We got Ria and Debra two days ago, but
you had a meeting.
 
Bryan needs to
clean up his keyboards a bit.
 
We
got the rhythm section and Jimmy yesterday.”

Kit
shut her eyes for a moment to keep herself in check.
 
She was feeling those emotions coming up
again.
 
The song ‘Made to Love You’
was a song that Sully had written recently.
 
It was about their relationship and how
much he adored her.
 
This was not
the time she wanted to be working on this song, especially the vocals.
 

She
would have to watch him sing it to her for the next hour at the least.
 
She took a long drag on her cigarette
and stared at him.
 
He stared back
at her through the glass and gave her a nod and sweet grin.
 
She remained stoic.
 

Her
voice was flat when she spoke to Fred.
 
“I want a run through first. Start the playback.”
 
And they were off and running.

After
the playback had finished, she glanced over at Fred.
 
“Let’s do another take of Bryan’s
keyboards.
 
I think he’ll only need
one more, and he should nail it.
 
Once we get that, then we’ll work with Sully on lead vocals.
 
We’ll save backing vocals until the
end.”

“Got
it, Kit.”

She
leaned forward and got on the mic.
 
“Bryan, you’re up.
 
Guys,
take five.”
 
She watched as they headed
out of the live room and spread out into the control room, the lounge or headed
outside.
 

She
kept her eyes trained on Bryan and once he was set; they started.
 
She struggled not to think about the
bomb that had gone off in her personal life before this session.
 
She wanted it to go away.
 
She knew the only way she would be ok
would be to throw herself into the process in front of her, making this album
the best it could be.
 

She was
so intently focused on Bryan as he played that she didn’t notice Sully standing
behind her.
 
He started massaging
her shoulders silently.
 
He knew her
ears were trained on Bryan’s playing, and this was not the time to try to find
out what had made her so upset.
 

He
waited patiently for the song to end and gain her acknowledgment.
 
He was disappointed when it didn’t come,
and she jumped on the mic, giving Bryan instructions on what needed to be
tweaked.
 
He sighed, turned around,
grabbed an acoustic guitar that was lying on the couch and took a seat.
 
He sat and strummed quietly as he
watched her.

After
Bryan’s second take, Kit got on the mic and gave him a proud grin.
 
“We got it, Bry.
 
You’re good.”

Fred
turned around and looked at Sully.
 
“You’re up, man.”

He frowned.
 
“Aren’t we doing more background vocals
today with Kit?”

Fred
nodded.
 
“Yep, later, but doing your
lead vocals first.”

He
nodded and shrugged his shoulders.
 
“I’ll do my best.”

Kit
stared at him while Fred cued-up playback.
 
He stared back at her, not knowing if he should smile or frown.
 
Playback started seconds later, and he
was relieved when it broke the tension.

Sully
was only a few measures into the song when Kit let out a frustrated sigh.
 
“Stop tracking, Fred, he’s flat.”
 
She got on the mic.
 
“Sully, I need you to get on top of the
note.
 
You’re flat.
 
Again, please, from the top.”
 

She
stared at him, listening intently for the gold she wanted to hear.
 
Once again in the same troubled section,
she asked Fred to stop and got on the mic.
 
She was starting to lose her patience, but didn’t want it to show.
 
She did her best to keep her voice
calm.
 
“Sully, please, push to hit
that note.
 
You can do better than
that.
 
Show me what you got.”

He
wondered why she was pushing him so hard, but dismissed it, figuring she was probably
heard something he wasn’t.
 
Luckily,
for his sake, he hit the note in the way she was looking for, and she left him
alone.
 
From that point forward, the
session seemed to go more smoothly.

She
couldn’t deny it even though she wanted to.
 
By the end of the last take, she was
grinning from ear to ear.
 
She had
temporarily put the awful personal explosion behind her and found herself
sucked into the music and Sully’s performance.
 
His compelling words hit her right in
the heart.
 
He sang them with such
feeling, triggering a flood of precious moments they had shared over the
years.
 
She felt so completely loved
by him, she quickly forgot about the past.
 
Deep in her spirit, she realized they could triumph over this
setback.
 
They were rock solid.
 
Nothing could tear them apart.
 

The
song ended, and she leaned forward to speak into the mic.
 
“Ok, Sull, we got it.
 
You’re good, babe.
 
Nice job!”

He
smiled and practically leaped out of the live room and back into the control
room, making a beeline for her.
 
She
stood up about and was about to wrangle the band to get into the live room todo
background vocals, when he pounced on her and enveloped her in his embrace so
quickly; she couldn’t escape.
 
She
felt herself give in to it and give back to it, getting lost for a wistful
moment.
 

He then
pulled away slightly to gaze into her eyes.
 
“You ok?”

She
stared at him and paused.
 
“I don’t
know, Sull.
 
I can’t answer that
right now.
 
Let’s get our work done,
ok?”

He
sighed.
 
“Alright, alright, but I
wanna talk to you after this.
 
I
wanna know what’s going on.”

She
pulled away completely and stared at him.
 
“Oh, trust me, you will.”
 
He
raised his eyebrows, not liking her response.

She
headed into the lounge to fetch the rest of the band.
 
They all headed for the live room with
her, putting on their headphones.
 
They got into place standing around one microphone.
 
This was the effect she wanted for the
song.
 
They had done it on the album
in other songs, and it turned out well.
 
She grinned, standing there with them.
 
She looked over at Fred and gave him the
high sign.
 
Seconds later the song
started.

The
process hadn’t been as smooth as she had envisioned.
 
They were on their fourth take.
 
Kit hadn’t liked the vocals blends on
the three previous takes.
 
This one
seemed to be fairing better.
 
She
was pleased and had temporarily forgotten what had happened earlier in the day,
until she saw Fred reach for the phone in the studio toward the end of the
song.
 
It threw her off
slightly.
 

She
looked at him.
 
“That sounded good
from out here, Fred.
 
How’s it
sounding in there?”

He stared
at her.
 
“Kit, G called.
 
She said it was urgent, some information
you were expecting.”

Kit
sighed and took her headphones off.
 
She looked at the band.
 
“Hey
guys, hang out for a few, ok?”

She
walked into the control room and looked at Fred.
 
“Thanks for the message.
 
I’ll go up there in a minute.
 
Are we close with the song?”

He
nodded.
 
“Sounds like it to me, but
it’s ultimately your call.
 
You
sometimes hear things that I don’t, and they’re always right on point.”

“Ok.
 
Give me five and I’ll come back and
listen.
 
You’re taking vocal track
eighteen that we just recorded and layering it with seventeen, right?”

“Yep.”

She
nodded.
 
“Perfect.
 
I’ll be back in a few.”

She
walked into her office out of breath from sprinting across the backyard.
 
She surveyed Giselle trying to get a
read.
 
“Do I need to sit or stand?”

“Whichever
you want.”

Kit
approached her desk.
 
“Is this going
to take long?”

Giselle
looked up.
 
“It shouldn’t.
 
Here’s what I found out.
 
This girl is the one that has tipped off
the tabloids, but they’re unable to find any validity in her story.”

Kit
grinned, feeling slightly relieved as she flopped into the chair in front of
Giselle’s desk.
 
“Oh, nice.
 
Good job on that one, G.
 
They never give up their sources.
 
How did you get so crafty and get all
that info?”

She
smiled.
 
“Your dear friend, Alexa,
the media goddess.
 
She set me up
with some contacts.”

Kit
chuckled.
 
“Oh, Lex.
 
I can always depend on her.
 
Ok, what else.”

“I talked
to the attorney.
 
They won’t back
down.
 
They want two million dollars
plus monthly child support payments of ten thousand dollars.”

Kit
shook her head in disgust and chuckled.
 
“Unbelievable.
 
And this girl
swears her kid is his?”

“According
to her attorney, yes.”

“What’s
this adorable girl’s name and where’s she from?
 
How old is this baby?”

Giselle
looked at her notes and then up at her.
 
“Phoebe Petersen from Gary, Indiana.
 
She has a baby boy, born on June 3 of
this year.”

All of
the color drained from Kit’s face in an instant.
 
She sat before Giselle looking pale as a
ghost.
 
She suddenly felt
nauseated.
 
She got up from the
chair and bolted to the bathroom right outside her office where she threw
up.
 
She took a deep breath
afterward and sat on the cold bathroom floor running her fingers through her
hair in disbelief.
 
This was all
turning into a very bad nightmare. She heard a knock on the door and Giselle’s
voice moments later. “Kit?
 
Are you
ok?”

“Yeah,
G.
 
Just gimme a minute.
 
I’ll be right out.”
 
She stood up, splashed cold water on her
face and stared at her reflection.
 
She had known Phoebe was trouble from the start.
 
She had thought Sully would have been
smarter than he apparently was.
 
She
wiped her face on the towel, taking another minute and sobbing.