friends and confidantes, Casey Hart. Even now that she was married to the king of an eastern European country and mom to a newborn, she made time for me. Especially when it was music-related. We’d played in a band together for a decade, and our bond was solid despite the change in circumstances.
“Hey, I was just thinking about you,” she said when she answered her phone.
“Good or bad?” I asked, laying back on my bed, one arm behind my head.
“Always good.”
“That’s nice to hear.”
“Why do you sound bummed? What’s going on?”
I told her what had happened at the gig the other night, except what Ariel and I had done and how Darren was pressuring us to change our sound.
“Why would they want to change something that works?” she asked in confusion.
“Because you’re not with us anymore, and apparently Bash and I don’t carry the star power you do.”
“That’s bullshit. We were a band, a unit that worked only because we were one. Individually, none of us could have done what we did as a band.”
“Tell that to Darren Randall.”
“You want me to?”
I chuckled. “Will it help?”
She was quiet for a little bit. “I don’t like this idea of a single with Ariel Fox,” she said after a moment. “She’s incredibly successful, but I don’t think she’s going to help your cause. If anything, she’s going to be the catalyst he uses to force you to go in another direction.”
“Fuck. We thought it might be a compromise, putting another Whiplash artist on a single, but we’re not lightening up shit. That’s not our style, not the brand we’re building.”
“Randall’s a tough old fuck,” she said. “I don’t know that he’ll back down. He’s used to getting what he wants, and right now, he wants Ariel Fox in his bed and Nobody’s Fool to go mainstream.”
“He’s old enough to be her grandfather!” I protested. “Really?”
“Oh, he’s had the hots for her since she was about seventeen. I’d be willing to bet my left tit he had a hand in her father getting that conservatorship over her.”
“The what? What the hell is a conservatorship?”
“It means he controls everything in her life. Her career, her money, her friends, everything. It’s kind of creepy, in my opinion. I could totally understand him overseeing her business and finances to keep her from spending too much when she’s manic or whatever you call it when a bipolar person spirals, but from what I’ve heard, he has a say in everything from what she wears to how many hours of sleep she gets to who she’s allowed to be friends with. I don’t know the details, but he’s an overbearing prick.”
“And Randall is using her father’s control over her for what? To get in her pants?”
“I don’t know anything for sure, it’s all rumor, but that’s what it sounds like. So be careful. Not because of her—everything I’ve seen and heard is that she’s a sweetheart—but her father will use, abuse, and suck dry anyone she works with. Anything he can take advantage of, he will, with Darren’s blessing.”
“Yeah, fuck that. I’ve had too much success on my own to go down that road.”
“We know people,” she reminded me. “You’ve got this. Stand your ground with Randall and tell him to go fuck himself if he won’t play ball. Frankly, you can drop my name. He knows I have more star power than he ever will, so if you casually mention that I might produce—no details, no threats, just drop it in conversation that I offered to help in any way I can—he may well back off.”
“You’re the best, you know that?”
“I am,” she agreed, laughing. “Anyway, baby’s awake, so I have to run. Call me soon and let me know how it goes?”
“Will do. Talk to you later—and thanks.”
“Any time.”
I hung up feeling a lot better and repeated what she’d said once everyone had arrived.
“So she doesn’t think we should work with Ariel?” Lexi asked.
“She thinks we need to be careful,” I replied.
“Douglas and Darren are both assholes,” Lexi said, “but I hate the idea of not working with Ariel because of them.”
“We have to think of ourselves,” Stu said in his deep, Scottish brogue. “I feel for the lass, but we have our own careers to worry about.”
“I don’t think this is about her,” Lexi said. “This is about them using her to get us to do what they want. We have to be prepared to fight back without impacting her because her life is already