Stomach tying in knots, she exhaled deeply through her nose as she looked back up at Laura, who was already wincing at her.
“Bad news is that Darcy hasn’t responded. Worse news is that you now have a meeting with Thomas and Harrison at Copper Canyon in two hours.”
She gripped the marble countertop so tightly, it bit into her palms. But she welcomed that feeling right about now.
“Could havereallyused a bout of fencing earlier,” she muttered.
“Look on the bright side: if we do it later, the inner-rage you feel will give you a leg-up in strength,” Laura said back in a voice that was half-encouraging, half-sympathetic.
Juliet scoffed in response, grinding her teeth.
She’d been in L.A. on her touring break for fewer than twenty-four hours. She was tired. She’d been wearing her sweet-as-pie smile almost constantly for weeks whenever she was in public and not in the middle of a performance.
She’d been planning to treat this break as exactly that: abreak.
But she’d learned very early on in her career that as soon as Thomas and Harrison were involved, the smartest thing to do was put all guards up.
Juliet satin one of the conference rooms, perfectly made-up, exactly two hours later.
Even though she felt dread twisting through her, she kept her chin angled up as she looked between Thomas and Harrison expectantly.
In theory, Thomas was her manager; he worked for her.
But, of course, that was intheory.
Sure, Thomas was genuinely great at his job. He managed some of the top musical talent in the business, and he hadn’t ever led her career astray. He got her into events, rubbed elbows with all of the right people. And he did work in tandem with her goals – for the most part.
Unless whatevershewanted was in opposition to what her stepfather wanted.
Because when push came to shove, Thomas preferred to answer to Harrison. Juliet had discovered how true that was only after signing his six year contract extension nearly five years ago.
She hadn’t known the extent of just how buddy-buddy Thomas and Harrison had become over golf games at Harrison’s ultra-exclusive club down in Texas. Much like she hadn’t known how Harrison had used her career as his way of extending his business ties into the entertainment industry.
Hell, he already had high stakes in real estate, agriculture, and oil. Why not entertainment?
Nearly ten years into Juliet’s career, and Harrison had several execs and their families from Copper Canyon out to his private lake house every summer.
Unfortunately for Juliet, she hadn’t realized she was on Harrison’s marionette until years after she’d already been his puppet. The only thing she could do now was keep as much distance between them as she possibly could.
“What do I owe the pleasure of this unexpected meeting?” She asked, slipping her well-practiced smile on.
Okay, so she could also do things like that – start off a meeting before Harrison could say something. She knew he hated it, and that made this plastic grin a degree more authentic.
Thomas nodded at her. “Well, first things first – congrats on the tour so far. You know I’ve been keeping up on it but given that we haven’t had a face-to-face in a while: you’re killing it.”
Juliet hummed. “Thank you.”
She intentionally kept the distance between herself and Thomas, having a lot less face time with him than she knew was typical. But it was easy to maintain their working relationship through emails, texts, and calls – and mostly through Laura –when she always kept in the back of her mind that Harrison would hear anything they discussed.
Deliberately, she didn’t let her gaze slide to Harrison; she stayed focused on Thomas.Hewas her manager, and power moves like that were the only ones she had in her arsenal.
Thomas cleared his throat and shifted forward. “I know you’re on a short break right now, so we can keep this brief. You’re aware of Shelby Linwood’s anniversary album.”
He didn’t phrase it like a question, which Juliet appreciated.
“Yes. I am,” she managed to say back without snapping at him.
Shelby Linwood was a legend in country music. No, she wasthelegend as far as Juliet was concerned. She’d released her first album with Copper Canyon fifty years ago, and the label had internally announced at the beginning of the year that they’d be making a fiftieth anniversary tribute album. Over a dozen of Shelby’s biggest hits covered by the genre’s current heavy hitters.
