Page 30 of Ring My Bell

Pepper patted his arm sympathetically. “Ger’s always been big-hearted, and he didn’t want to make promises he didn’t know he could keep, especially since he wasn’t sure what the business side of my life is looking like right now.”

“Gerald.” I forced myself not to snap at him like I was prone to doing when feeling back-footed. “Can you start at the top here? Tell us what the hell is going on?”

Gerald took a breath, closed his eyes, and nodded before opening his eyes to fix us with his I know what I’m doing; I’m a professional expression.

I’m pretty sure he practiced that one in the mirror.

“When Iggy told me what was going on with the Raymond situation, I encouraged him to look you up—”

“That part I know,” I muttered.

Leaning forward avidly, Pepper shushed me with one hand. “I don’t! Keep going. I only know the part where I come in.”

Gerald rolled his eyes, but a small smile tugged at his lips. I think Paige might have glared at Pepper and scooted a tiny bit closer to Gerald, but maybe Iggy’s romanticism was rubbing off on me.

So Gerald filled Pepper in on how Iggy and I met (well, the bits he knew about it, anyway—I wasn’t going to go into too much detail, thank you very much), and Paige jumped in with how they became involved. Pepper sat back in her chair, her expression morphing from interested to disgusted to horrified as Iggy picked up the thread. “So we decided to take Raymond out of the equation, so to speak,” he sounded a bit breathless, maybe a bit sad. “We’re all screwed out of possible success by his greed and lies. Therefore, we’re trying to make it happen on our own.”

Pepper raised a brow, regarding him thoughtfully. “And what if this doesn’t work? I mean, it’d be an absolute fairy tale if it did, wouldn’t it? Being pragmatic here, what if you’re one of the dozens of performers here who’s great, but doesn’t make it past that stage?”

I sighed. “Hundreds, maybe thousands, of people in the world deserve recognition for their talents. But that’s not going to happen, and it sucks. And if it turns out we’re not going to make it further, if our grasps at success before with Raymond were flukes and we’re not meant to be more than talented guys who end up teaching piano for a living—”

“Or performing community orchestra while looking amazing,” Iggy put in with a tiny smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

“Then we tried. And maybe we’ll try again next year, or sooner. We can pick up all sorts of gigs around here…”

Pepper’s held up a hand, silencing me but not unkindly. She folded her arms, regarding us each in turn, before finally settling on Gerald. “You’ve been working your ass off, calling in all the favors this week, Ger.”

He nodded, seeming very tired. More than just physically so, but on an emotional level as well. “Tim’s running the Thursday stage, so I had him finagle around to get the guys on tomorrow, and then you…”

She snorted. “Don’t consider this me doing you a favor. You’ve done one for me.” She shifted her attention to Paige. “Aren’t you part of the group? I haven’t heard you talking about singing tomorrow or playing.”

Paige shook their head. “I love playing. Love it. But I’m more into indie punk, and, gods bless ‘em, I don’t think these two could hang with that.” They shot us a smirk, and Iggy lovingly flipped them off.

Pepper narrowed her eyes at Paige, then smirked. “Send me some samples. I think I might have something you’d be interested in being part of. Now.” Pepper drummed her fingers on the table, then pulled her phone out again. “Just a sec, folks. Let me crunch some things with Guy.”

“Guy’s her business partner,” Gerald murmured.

“Gerald.” I leaned in close. “Care to tell me what the hell is happening?”

“I asked Pepper if she’d be interested in signing some new acts.”

Iggy squeaked, sitting bolt upright.

“Ah, shouldn’t you have asked us first?” I demanded softly. “Ger…”

“Nothing is set in stone,” Pepper interrupted. “And he asked if I’d be interested. He didn’t force me to come here. Just said you guys were great, sent me some blurry video of you two in some bar, from the looks of things, and said you’d both been screwed over by a previous manager. He didn’t tell me the extent of it, and that it was Raymond Montaine who messed you over.” A bit uncomfortably, she shifted and made a moue of distaste. “I’ve met him a few times at some industry events, back when I went on my own and before Guy started being PepperPot’s ‘face’ for these things.”

“I’m sorry, but PepperPot?” I asked. “That’s the name of your company?” Iggy groaned beside me, and Gerald and Paige shot me equally quelling looks. “Sorry, I’m just… really out of the loop, I guess.”

Pepper snorted. “Always good to get a reminder to be humble. PepperPot is my indie music label. It’s fairly successful—”

“Top-ranked indie music label for the past two years, consistently in the top ten previously,” Gerald murmured. “Seriously, how do you not know this?”

It was my turn to be uncomfortable. “I kind of went head down on everything to do with the industry after Raymond…”

Pepper patted the back of my hand. “It’s fine. But I expect you to remember the name after I sign you. If,” she corrected, though the gleam in her eyes said the if was provisional. “If I sign you. We don’t have contracts yet, but I’ve liked what I’ve seen so far. Should you need the pull of my name tomorrow, you can let it slip that I’ve approached you.”

I was pretty sure Iggy was about to either melt or explode. Maybe both. “What the hell kind of favor do you owe Gerald that you’re willing to do this?” I asked.

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