“Who do you think you are, missy!” Rex’s voice bellows.
I flinch. It’s just a recording, but I can’t help the instinctual reaction. In my mind’s eye, I can see his sallow face turning red, thin lips stretching into a grimace.
I’d never have pulled a fast one like this on anybody else. But Rex has never shown me any respect, so he doesn’t deserve mine. If I tried to talk to him first, he would’ve never let me postpone even a single show and I can’t go on stage until I fix this corpse problem.
Lord knows how long that’ll take. I reckoned it was better to call off the whole tour. What if I have to flee the country?
Rex continues shouting, “You can’t cancel the tour! And don’t deny it. I know it was you. Nobody else on theteam would step out of line and call in bullshit fake news like that! Now I gotta deal with the fallout. Do you know how much money you’re losing me? I’m not responsible for cleaning up your messes!”
“That’s exactly what I’m paying you for!” I yell at the phone.
If he was right here, I’d never talk back. I’d take his abuse and hate myself a little more for it.
Because Rex Dalton isn’t just any run-of-the-mill talent manager.
His roster includes the biggest female stars of the country scene and his contacts spread far beyond his Nashville office. He’s connected with every producer, record label, and agent across every state.
That’s exactly the problem.
When Rex took me under his wing, it felt like I struck gold. I had this crazy notion that once I got a manager and a record deal, all I had to worry about was writing good music. How naive. But the longer I worked with him, the more I learned that not all that glitters is gold.
Everything comes at a price in show business.
In my case, the price is being stuck in a predatory contract I signed before my frontal lobe had fully developed.
“Without me, you wouldn’t even have a career!” the recording of Rex continues. “If I hadn’t picked you up from that motel parking lot in Vegas where your husband dumped you, you’d be rotting in a trailer like your mother, spreading your legs for any man willing to stick it in you.”
Hollowness expands in my chest. I’m used to his insults, though they hit harder when he brings up Momma. To say we had a complicated relationship would be an understatement, but I still loved her, no matter how fucked up thatmight be.
Rex saves those jabs for special occasions when he wants to cause maximum emotional damage. I’d like nothing more than to fire his ass, but I’ve seen what happens to those who cross him.
One call from Rex Dalton is enough to sink any talent, even the biggest stars. And once you’re blacklisted in this industry, you’re finished. For good.
When I was a newcomer, another singer dared to stand up to his abuse. From one day to the next, she went from magazine interviews, talk show performances and award nominations to nothing. Zero.
Billboards with her face disappeared overnight.
Radio stations stopped playing her songs.
It was almost like she never existed. Nobody’s heard from her since. Rumor has it she now waits tables somewhere back in her hometown in rural Texas.
Rex huffs through the speakers like a raging bull. “You owe me, girl. You owe me everything and you better not forget that! Call me!”
The message cuts off and I hang up, choking down angry tears.
One day, he’ll get his comeuppance. I don’t know when and I don’t know how, but I must keep that hope alive to make it through. For now, the best I can do is to turn off my phone and ignore him until tomorrow morning.
Avoiding potholes like an obstacle course, I ease the car down Main Street—if you can call it that. When the coal mines were open, Redbird Creek was booming. Now most storefronts are boarded up.
A holler dollar has replaced the grocery store but the dairy bar is still there. When we were kids, Rust and I used to sit in that window booth on the left and share a milkshake, dreaming of the world.
The church tower on the corner leans more than Iremember. Behind the building, rows of new gravestones stick out from the earth like blackened teeth. Clearly, the cemetery is the only growth this town has seen in a while.
I’m about to step on the gas when a vehicle pulls out of a dark side street behind me. Red and blue strobes paint the interior of my car like a disco show from my worst nightmare.
The cops.
It’s the damn cops.
