Rowan’s fruit showed up, and the server said mine would be right out. “Have some.” Rowan scooted the plate toward me a bit.
“No thanks. Mine’s coming. So…Black Tide?”
“Learned more than I contributed. But I was getting the hang of it when Pierce called me for this.”
“So you weren’t like close, like bosom buddies and all that?”
“No. And I didn’t fuck him either.” Rowan snickered, since that was the exact moment my food came. The server smiled wanly and left fast.
I laughed, but Rowan glared at me. “Aww…come on, that was funny.”
He broke into a little smile. “A little.”
“I figured there was something else going on here. You two aren’t connected all the time like Donny and me. So…”
“We’re not in any kind of relationship like that, no. He wanted me to work with him. Someone he trusted, but honestly, someone from the Midnight Hunt camp called Black Tide and got a recommendation before they agreed.”
I nodded. “That sounds more like the professionalism I expect from Midnight Hunt.”
“They’re managing Bramble Punk now, right?”
“Yep.” I dug into my food. I liked eating while the food was hot. Cold eggs sucked dick, and not in a good way.
Before I finished, Harper showed up at the table. “There you are. We got a last-minute interview scheduled, and we need you there.” She turned to Rowan with a sweet smile. “Hi, Rowan.”
“Harper.” He nodded. Harper probably knew more about his reference check than anyone. Might have been the one to make the call. She was handling a lot more of the business stuff. Technically, she worked for Harrison, but she’d been leaning more and more into the whole project for MH Management. I hoped that meant she’d be nice to Rowan.
“Where at?”
“One of the meeting rooms. Come on, I’ll show you.”
I finished eating and put my room number on the ticket for both our food. “It’s on me.” I gave Rowan the finger gun and followed Harper.
In the room, tables were set up side-by-side with a microphone at each seat. Six of them. And the guys of the band were mingling off to the side, where I joined them. Everyone except Pierce.
Harper came over and held up the piece sign. “Two minutes.”
“Where’s Pierce?” I asked anyone who knew.
Matty shook his head. “He’s not coming. He took off, not sure where he went, but he said he wasn’t doing thisdog and pony show.”
“Is that a direct quote?” Donny asked, coming up behind me.
“Yeah. Think so.”
“As long as he didn’t ditch security.” I huffed but sat in the center where I was directed. Probably where Pierce was supposed to sit. And then the interview began, and I had to field the majority of the questions. I did not appreciate being shoved in front of the mic at this thing, but thanks to Pierce pulling this little disappearing act, that’s exactly what happened. Fucker.
We really needed to have a talk. It wasn’t the fact that he wasn’t here, but that he didn’t tell anyone ahead of time. And this thing was so last-minute, I had no time to prepare. I also needed to talk to Jinx about this.
Thankfully, none of the questions were too difficult, and we wrapped up quickly, but I was shaking a bit by the end of it. Donny rushed me up to our room. “Breathe, Kay. You’ve got this.”
“It was sprung on me. Pierce is supposed to be the buffer.”
“This was probably revenge for the platinum record thing.”
“Fucker. I think we’re going to have it out.”
“Probably, but not right now.” He handed me a bottle of water. “Did you take your pills this morning?”
