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Annoyance flashed in Zack’s eyes. “Fine.”
“Okay everyone. Here’s the deal. We were talking to Carter and he told us that we’re in a very delicate situation right now. He’s starting to have difficulties finding us solid, quality managers. Apparently our group is starting to get a reputation in the business and that’s not a good thing.”
“That’s bullshit man.” Flinn shook his head in disgust, taking a long swig from his beer.
Of course Flinn would be pissed off over the news. He was the second biggest whore of the group, right behind Zack. If it wasn’t Zack causing issues, then it would be him. Zack and I grew up together and we were the ones that formed the band to begin with. On a number of occasions we’d considered dropping Flinn. We didn’t really need a second guitarist. It was just nice having him for when Zack or I wanted to sing and not have to worry about playing our instruments. Some songs just worked better when we could focus on just the vocals and mingling with the crowd.
“Bullshit or not, it’s what it is. Which means Violet is off-limits.” I looked from one face to the other until I’d looked deep into the eyes of each band member, ending with Zack.
“If I want to fuck her, I will,” Zack growled. “Who do you think you are, my father?”
“No. I’m your friend and I’m sick of this rotating door of managers. It ends now.”
“Or what Dylan? What are you seriously going to do?”
“One thing I will tell you is that I won’t go down with the ship. I’ll leave the group before hanging around as our name gets tarnished to the point where I couldn’t have a solo career if I wanted it.”
“You’ve actually considered going solo, man?” The bravado was beginning to disappear from Zack’s eyes. “You wouldn’t do that.”
“I would before I get such a bad reputation that no manager will take me on. Do you want to go back to wondering where your next paycheck is coming from? It’s happened time and time again in this business. A person or group gets a crazy amount of success, they party too hard for too long, before they know it they’re washed up, broke, and obsolete. This life we’re living isn’t going to last forever so we need to make the most of it while we can. We need to start thinking of our future and I think Violet can help us secure the future that’ll set us up for life.”
Zack tapped the edge of the table in front of us. “I wouldn’t even consider leaving you and going off on my own.”
I groaned inwardly. He wasn’t getting my point. “I never said I wanted to, but I would if I was backed into a corner. I’m saying that we need to clean up our act. We need to treat this like a business instead of just getting paid to party.”
Zack nodded. “Okay, so what do you want?”
“I want for us to try to make this work with Violet. I think she’s smart and I think she can do a lot for our careers.”
“Okay.... Fine. Whatever. I wasn’t all that into her anyhow.”
Bullshit you weren’t.
“That means I don’t want this fucked up. And if you go on hot pursuit of her I’m afraid one of two things will happen. Either she’ll get fed up with having to constantly turn down your advances or she’ll give in, you’ll get bored of her like you always do and then she’ll be a royal mess and not able to properly manage the group. That means we’d have to fire yet another manger and we may not be able to get another one as good as I suspect she is.”
“All right. Fine.”
I struck Zack with a heated look. “I’m serious. If you pursue her, I’m going to be done with this band. Done.”
Anger overtook his expression. “Fine. I said fine. Do you need it in writing?”
With a sigh, I slumped back into the chair and looked at the other three band members. “That goes for everyone. I’m not messing around and playing games with our futures any longer. She’s completely off-limits to us all.”
They reluctantly agreed, though I really wasn’t as concerned about the others. As much as we were brothers, the truth was the other three were replaceable. Zack and I were the front men for the group and if either of us left, Hypnotic just wouldn’t be the same.
