Page 39 of Rock God

“I’m sorry. I thought you knew. He left a letter to the band, talking about the future of Onyx Knight. At the end, he said when we were ready to move on and replace him, we should check out Devyn Cates.”

“Oh.” I couldn’t help but smile. “He was a good guy. I wish I’d known him for longer than I did.”

Z looked at me curiously, but he didn’t ask the inevitable question and I wasn’t going to volunteer that information. Who I slept with was truly none of anyone’s business but mine.

“He was a great guy,” Z said after a moment. “One of my favorite people in the world. He was broken as fuck, but had a heart of gold and I loved him like a brother. I am a firm believer that if he told us you were the right person for this job, then you are. We’re having some growing pains at the moment because we don’t know each other, but that takes time. I hope you’ll be patient because this is new for us too.”

“You guys have been great,” I said quickly. “Kingston has been so helpful with security at the house, because I wouldn’t be able to focus if I was worried about Greatty, and Sasha and Dorian have made the legal and business side issues seamless.”

“I think it’s going to get much easier once we’re on tour and we’re essentially up each other’s asses twenty-four-seven. That’s when we bond. That’s when we find our footing as a band. Right now, we’re all walking on eggshells.”

I chuckled. “I was just thinking that. And how much I hate it.”

“It won’t be like this forever. Just keep doing what you’re doing.”

“Did I fuck up at the interview? Lara was on my last nerve.”

He shook his head. “Nah. You were fine. She was digging for something extra, that little something that would give her an edge if she could publish quick enough. You always have to be prepared for that. I’ve known her a long time and she’s usually not that bad. She tried to get sneaky with me when I first found out I had a son—that’s a long story that’s not relevant today—and I had to make sure she understood that Presley and Jeremy were not pawns for her to use to further her career.

“If she wanted to talk about the changes in my life now that I’m married with a kid, we could do that. But there would be no speculation or manipulation of the facts just so she could get a story. My wife can take care of herself, but the baby is a hundred percent off-limits. I don’t give a fuck who you are.”

“Right.” I nodded. “Makes perfect sense.”

“You’ll find your pressure points, whether it’s talking about your grandmother or your relationship with Carter or whatever it turns out to be. Once you figure it out, you’ll draw a line in the sand and the press will have to live with it. That’s what we’ve always done.”

“Good to know. It feels like you guys are an open book, but now that I’m on the inside, I see it’s not like that.”

“That’s why Dorian is so good at her job. She makes it look that way. And you’ll find your footing, Devyn. It’s just going to take time.”

“I appreciate the pep talk,” I said. “I’ve felt a little lost the last few days.”

“Anytime.” He reached out to gently squeeze my shoulder. “And in the future, I’ll try not to ambush you in the bathroom.”

“Good idea.”

He turned to go back down the hall and I let the door close behind him.

He’d given me a lot to think about.

13

Kingston

Lara Simpson was a pain in my ass and I’d sent Dorian a message about her the day after that interview. She wasn’t going to have one-on-one access to us anymore because she’d been purposely bitchy, and it pissed me off. I didn’t give a shit what the press said about me—I didn’t have anything to hide beyond demanding some respectful boundaries—but Devyn was brand fucking new. I didn’t like the idea that they immediately set out to find a way to make her look bad before she’d played a single note or made her first appearance with us. The general public had no idea how good she was yet, and her incredible talent was why she was here. All that other bullshit was supposed to be background noise.

Unfortunately, the bullshit was part of the deal.

You couldn’t be involved with Onyx Knight without becoming part of the rock and roll circus that followed us around. That was a big part of the reason we’d made the decision not to include the song we’d done with Kirsten Aiken on the album. She got a share of the money for the single, but we’d left it just that—a single. She was only seventeen and if we’d put her song on Carter’s last album, which was selling like crazy, my gut told me it would have taken her to a level I didn’t think a teenager was ready for.

Of course, now we were thinking of bringing her out on tour with us, which made us epic hypocrites, but at the same time, she was turning eighteen in March. She was growing up whether we tried to protect her or not, leaving me with something of a moral dilemma.

On the other hand, I had no excuse for wanting to protect Devyn since she was a grown woman who could take care of herself. Other than the fact that I still had a raging hard on for her. It had taken a fuck-ton of restraint not to jump to her defense every time Lara had asked her an uncomfortable question, but Devyn was going to have to learn to deal with that because this was only the beginning.

If she’d slept with Carter and there was proof somewhere—pictures, video, whatever the case may be—it would get out no matter how hard we tried to keep it under wraps. And once again, we were put in the position of asking her potentially embarrassing questions to protect her, whether she thought she needed it or not. The only way to keep control was to have all the pertinent information, and she didn’t seem keen on giving it to us.

“If the wheels were turning any faster, you’d fucking lift off and take flight.” Kellan came to stand next to me.

I’d gotten to the studio early for our final rehearsal before the show. The others weren’t here yet, giving me a chance to ease into what I figured would be an intense day of rehearsal.

---