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I wanted to reach back through time and wrap my hands around Jason Cain’s neck. Squeeze until his face resembled an eggplant.
“I would have kicked that fucker in the balls,” Renee declared, too loudly in the proximity of my child. I shot her a look. She started to say something else belligerent, but Quinn stopped her.
“Maybe you would have. Maybe you wouldn’t have.” Quinn’s smoky voice was deadly quiet, devoid of emotion. “I didn’t.”
Renee bit her lip, realizing her mistake. Remembering that you never really knew what you’d do until you were in the situation. “Whatdidyou do?” she asked gently.
“I tried to negotiate with him.” A corner of Quinn’s mouth lifted in a self-deprecating smile. “I told him I’d do a birthday party.”
Renee cocked her head like she thought she hadn’t heard right. What did a birthday party have to do with an artist and her manager? How did it replace the VMAs? I knew, though. I’d overseen the contracts. Billionaires paying a million or two, plus travel expenses, for their favorite artist to personally sing the carols at their Christmas party.
“It was for five hundred thousand in cash to perform a three-song set at a teenager’s birthday party. Easy money. I toldhim he could have it all if he’d release me from my contract afterward.”
“It wasn’t easy though, was it?”
Quinn lifted her eyes and stared steadily at me. “No, it wasn’t. It was on a private island. Jason thought that meant there were no rules.” She looked at Renee now. “That time Ididkick him in the balls, not that it did much good.”
The air had been leached out of the room. Renee’s face was very white, her green eyes blazing like nuclear fire. “Did he–”
“No. Almost, but I got out of the room. The dad of the teenager, he was a good guy. He sent me home on his plane that night.”
Rage was a tight knot around my neck. “A good guy would have called the police,” I said, my voice strangled with it. “This guy was just avoiding a scandal.”
“Then maybe the good guy bar has been lowered for me.” Quinn’s voice scraped with sarcasm and she looked at me likeIwas the asshole. “Anyway, Jason broke his word, no surprise. He’s hounding me to do more private performances before he’ll release me.”
“No fucking way,” Renee and I said at the same time.
Amusement knifed through Quinn’s grim expression. “That’s what I said. Then he showed up at my house. I snuck out the back, called an Uber to take me to the bus stop, and here I am.” She tried to repress the shudder that ran through her, but I saw it.
“You came to the right place.”
“You came home.” Renee reached out and wrapped her long, fingers around Quinn’s arm. “Callum will figure this out. He’s the best damn entertainment lawyer in California.”
It certainly was a day for the books. First Renee needed my help, now she was tossing around compliments. Another day, I might have said something about it, but not today. Today was about Quinn.
“I’ll figure it out,” I confirmed. “Send me your contract.” I was projecting more confidence than I felt. I didn’t disagree with Renee’s assessment of my abilities, but Jason Cain wasn’t sloppy. I just had to hope that seven years ago when he signed Quinn, his legal team hadn’t been as adept as it was now.
I could tell Quinn was exhausted. She’d been running on adrenaline, but now it was draining out of her. She leaned her head onto Renee’s shoulder and closed her eyes. Her black lashes made her skin look even paler.
I made an excuse about why I had to leave then and went into the living room to collect Noah. He stuck his red folder back in his backpack and held onto the small box of nuggets with both hands.
“I want them later for a midnight snack,” he told me.
“You go to bed at eight.”
“Then I want them at eight.”
“Okay, buddy.” I was exhausted, too. Quinn’s story had been a few punches to the gut. She lived in LA. I worked in LA. This shit had been happening under my nose, and I hadn’t bothered to check in with her. I hadn’t bothered to see it.
I walked with Noah out to the big minivan I’d bought after Emma’s accident feeling it was the safest place for my son. Noah was in a booster seat now instead of a car seat, but I stood beside him to make sure he got himself buckled in correctly. I didn’t realize that Quinn had followed us out until I turned away from Noah and came face to face with her.
“I wanted to say thank you.” She spit the words out quickly, like her mother had sent her over here under threat of grounding. She had a look on her face like gratitude was made up of ground glass instead of syllables.
I stepped out of the way of the door so it could slide to shut close. The motion brought me closer to Quinn, but she didn’t back up. I had a feeling she took it as a point of pride not to cede ground. “I haven’t done anything yet.”
Her eyes flicked up to mine. “Yeah, but you will.”
I folded the fingers of one hand into the palm of the other and cracked my knuckles. An old nervous habit. It had been a while since I’d faced a challenge like this. Entertainment law was a game of chicken and thumb screws, but there was no mystery to it. Getting Quinn out of her contract with Jason Cain would take all my wits, and the stakes were high.
