Beneath the Stars (Falling Stars #4) - A.L. Jackson Page 0,69

had been drumming at became slower and harder.

A dusky throb.

Something sexy and unforgettable.

I think we all knew it right then. That we were creatin’ magic. That as we knitted each intrinsic piece, we were weaving something spectacular.

We knew it in the way a power took over the room. A connection strung between each of us that bound and tightened and grew.

Becoming something big and profound.

Our music was just that way. Different in all the right ways. Country at its roots, but compelling enough that it crossed genres.

Without a doubt, it’s what had gotten us to this place and what was gonna set us apart as we hit the airwaves in a big, big way with this album.

Even if I didn’t get my song on the album?

Didn’t matter.

I was a part of this.

This moment in time.

Felt the eyes on me, and I opened mine to catch Richard looking at me like he was feeling the exact same way. Like what he’d said yesterday had been pure truth—it was like we just got it. Like we’d all perfectly meshed.

We trailed off when the clapping went up from the other side of the room.

Sebastian Stone pushed off the wall. “Now that is nothin’ but brilliance.” He pointed at each of us. “Brilliant. Don’t stop. Keep it flowing.”

Grinning, Richard jutted his chin. “Plan to.”

“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