My heart ached to think ofQuinn in that much pain.
I couldn’t stay angry athim. Whatever it took, I had to make this right. He was too precious to let goof, especially over the impossible decision he’d had to make today. It’d hurthim to do it, I’d heard that in his voice.
Quinn really did needsomeone to ride in and rescue him now, and I wanted it to be me.
“But if he’s their topperformer, isn’t he worth more to them if he sticks around?”
Dave shook his head. “You know, there’sjust not that much money in the music industry. Not unless you’re, like, Beyoncé.Quinn’s never gonna be Beyoncé. She’s awesome, but he’s different.”
Different sounded apt.
“One of the singles on hislast album went gold,” Dave said. “Harmony kept the plaque. That should beQuinn’s.”
“It should be,” I agreed,cogs turning in my head. The bone-deep sense that the answer was right in frontof me made me itch.
“But that only happenedbecause of the leak,” Dave continued. “That song was licensed for…”
“For TV, I know,” I said,repeating what Miles had told me.
I even remember reading athinkpiece about how it never would have happened if his album hadn’t leaked.
Was Vincent that smart?
The moment I’d had thethought, Quinn’s voice came back to me as though he was standing a foot away.
He started out in TV, actually.
So he had the connections,after all. Not good enough to sell the song directly, but good enough to makesure the right person heard it.
“What were his sales likebefore that?” I asked.
Dave shrugged. “Not great. Iremember him worrying about how the first album onlyjustcrossed thesales threshold he needed. Quinn’s got talent, but he doesn’t love doing this. Itshows. It’s heartbreaking, because… you heard that song he wrote. You get it,right? He’s…”
“He has a gift,” I agreed.
That was one thing Quinn’s parentswereright. He wasgifted.
But that didn’t mean it shouldhave been a burden.
“Yeah,” Dave said. “Yeah,you get it.”
So Quinn had been close tolosing his contract.
And then his second albumhad leaked.
Which had led to at leastmoderate success for him and secured his place as one of Harmony’s top earners,making it very hard to justify getting rid of him for low sales.
I was piecing this togethernow.
Vincent was expecting apayoff that was more money than I could even fathom. I supposed half a milliondollars wouldn’tget you very far in LA, but I could’ve retired on that kind of money. So couldQuinn. He could have done anything he wanted, just like Dave had said lastweek.
But he hadn’t mentioned it.Not once. And his sneakers had holes in them, and I didn’t think that was forshow, either.
So he didn’t know.
Vincent knew.
You’re not gonnalose me everything after all the risks I’ve taken for this, are you?
