Page 8 of Revived

I wanted for him to see what happened behind the scenes when we started laying down tracks. Selfishly, I also hoped I could convince him to play on one of the tracks with me. It wasn’t something that I broached with Chevy or his mother yet. It would mean that the rest of the world would look into who he was and there wouldn’t be any hiding that the boy was mine.

The first thing I did after leaving my son in Georgia, for the first venue I had to head to, was to contact my new lawyer and send him my contract with my manager. It was up for renewal in a year’s time, but I wanted out of it immediately. He assured me that due to the gross negligence and abuse of his position I wouldn’t have an issue making that happen. He also informed me that I had the right to sue for a monetary claim on the loss of time with my son. What the fuck would a number like that even look like? I had no clue, and no desire to do such a thing as it would drag my son through the mud the press would dredge up and I wasn’t willing to go there.

What really got my goat though was not being able to go pick my own son up from the airport. There were some places where I would be readily noticed though, no matter how well I tried to hide my identity, so there was no choice. I sent a trusted bodyguard to go pick Chevy up and he understand why the precautions were being taken. We had also had a Facetime sit down with Kendra and Hex about what they might expect when people put together who Chevy was to me, which was bound to happen since he favored me so heavily.

I tried to hire security for their family, for while Chevy was with me in New York, but they declined. Hex explained that it would most likely be friends of his that I would hire anyway, so it didn’t matter. As it turned out, he wasn’t wrong. We had been working with Redemption Inc. for concert security for a few years and they were owned and operated by a female motorcycle club. They were also associated with the Aces High Motorcycle Club, which as it turned out, was the club that Hex belonged to. They weren’t bad guys. I knew a few of them, and that made me a feel a little better.

Things smoothed out quickly once Chevy arrived. He had been introduced to both the band and the production team. We had started to lay down tracks on a song we actually cowrote together, and vocals would be added later in the week.

Chevy was on cloud nine because his girl was finally able to fly up to see him. As we had done with my son, someone from the security team would be picking her up and bringing her here though. Speculation had already begun about the fact that I had a son and that he’d been seen going in and out of the studio with me. We were scheduled to do a live morning news show the next day to officially announce things.

That was tomorrow though. “Hey, I’m headed down to go bring Opal in,” Chevy called out to me as I listened to the latest mix that had been done on one of the band’s newest songs.

“Careful, Chev. Take security with you, just in case. They’ve been getting pretty wild out there on the street the past couple of days.”

“I know. I’m taking Ray and Jericho down.”

“Don’t let Jeri hear you call him by his full name,” I admonished with a laugh. The minute he heard the older man’s full name he refused to call him Jeri like the rest of us. My son explained to the old roadie-turned-security man that he had too cool of a name for it to be shortened. That was the first time I saw the old geezer blush.

I nodded my head at Ray before they took off. He knew what to do and would keep my boy safe from harm. He’d also make sure Opal got the star treatment without getting hurt. It was good that my son would have a foothold in this world that I didn’t when I first started out. It came with trusted people who would have your back no matter what. That wasn’t always they case when we were and up and coming band.

My producer, Mick Martins, and me sat there with the rest of the band going over what we had be recording or possibly re-recording tomorrow after mine and Chevy’s appearance on the morning news show. We got swept away with work for a bit before I glanced down at my watch and realized 45 minutes had gone by and Chevy had not made his way back up to the studio yet. I tried calling him. No answer. Then panic set in and I attempted to call Ray to no avail. About that time, Jeri came bounding in the room.

“We have to go, Gabe,” he shouted to me between heavy breaths.

“What the fuck is going on? Where’s my son?”

“Ambulance. We need to get you to the hospital.”

My heart stopped. “Where is my son?” I asked again.

“Come on man, I’m sure Jeri will fill us in on the way to the hospital,” John Dormier, my best friend and the band’s lead guitarist, said to me as he put an arm around my shoulder and started herding me out of the production room. “Take deep breaths, Gabe. He’s fine. Everything is going to be okay.”

“I just found him,” I whined, not even caring how it sounded. I couldn’t lose my boy now. I’d never forgive myself for inserting myself into his life if that happened. Hell, Kendra would never forgive, nor would anyone in their family. This could not be happening.

It took almost thirty minutes in traffic to get to the damn hospital. Once we were there, I had to get past hospital security and nosy nurses, which required me to call Chevy’s mother and let her know what happened too. Why? Because the staff new exactly who I was, and no one had ever heard that I had a son. One more day and the whole world would have found out through us, now it would be leaked by the end of the day amidst a tragic accident story.

“If I’m told one more fucking time that I can’t see my son or find out how he’s doing, I will fucking sue this entire hospital and…”

“Mr. North, if you could calm down and follow me, we received proof that you are indeed the patient’s father, and we’ll be more than happy to speak with you and then take you to see him. He’s being transferred into his own room as we speak.”

I followed whomever the hell had been trying to talk me down and when my entourage, but the doctor stopped. “I’m sorry, we can only have two people in to see him at a time.”

“Where is his girlfriend? He went outside to escort her into the studio. Is she with him?”

“No, I’m sorry there wasn’t a woman with him. There was a man named Ray who refused to leave him unguarded.”

“Ray is our security guy.” As we continued walking, I gave John a look. “Can you keep someone in the waiting area? I’d bet my left nut that Kendra is on a flight here as we speak.”

John grinned. “Sure thing. I’ll be here waiting.”

“John, you can’t do that,” I told him, wondering what Jade – his wife – would think if he didn’t come back to her right away. She was in New York while they tried to work things out.

He shrugged a shoulder up in response and then tipped his chin toward the doctor who was waiting. “Go check on your boy and text me if you need me to stay longer or come back with anything.”

“Thanks, man.”

“Anything for family, you know that.”

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