Page 5 of Down Beat

If they want to forget what it was like to start out, to have to drench yourself in sweat, blood, and tears to earn a name for yourself, then like hell I’m going to lie back and let them walk all over me.

Fuck that. Nobody sets fire to my dreams and gets away with it. Not when I’ve sacrificed so much to get where I am, even if that’s relatively nowhere compared to the likes of them.

“Thanks for calling, John.” Guess I can hang up the corset again. “I’ll ring you tomorrow to go over what we do from here.”

“I’m sorry. If there was something I could do, you know I would.”

“It’s not your fault. I appreciate you letting me know.” I end the call and slide my phone across the counter.

“Tell me what the hell is going on,” Kendall demands. “Why do you have to cancel?”

“Because Dark Tide have taken over the venue,” I say in a daze.

She tops up my glass with what’s left of our coveted last bottle. “What do you do now?”

I take a sip, still focused on the wall behind her. “Make their life hell.”

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