Chapter Sixteen
Clay put his phone down and came forward, and every muscle in Jax's body tensed.
"I was just texting you to see where you were," Clay said.
"What are you doing here?" he asked tightly.
"Looking for you, of course." Clay turned to Kaia and offered his hand. "Clay Henning. And you are?"
"Kaia Mercer." She shook his hand, giving him an unabashedly curious look. "How do you know Jax?"
Clay cleared his throat, then said, "We're old friends."
"Really?" Her questioning gaze turned to him.
He couldn’t begin to explain his relationship with Clay. "I'll tell you later," he said.
"I'm going to hold you to that."
As she moved away, he led Clay around the pool and into his apartment. As soon as he stepped through the door, he turned on him in anger. "What the hell, Clay? I told you never to come here."
"It's time we talked face-to-face," Clay said.
"I told you I'd get back to you next week."
"Well, I decided I couldn't wait that long. That stunning redhead is the woman in the photos, isn't she? She lives here?"
"She does."
"What's going on there?"
"Nothing you need to be concerned about."
"Wren saw the photos."
"So what?" he asked, daring Clay to tell him he should care what Wren thought, but Clay was smart enough not to go there.
"Does Kaia know who you really are?"
"Yes. But she doesn't know the whole story, just parts of it."
"Well, she can find a lot of different versions of the story online."
"You didn't come here to talk about Kaia, so let's cut to the chase."
"All right." Clay folded his arms across his chest. "I want you and Wren to bring Blackbird back to life. I want you to sign a new contract with Silverstone," he said, referring to one of Nashville's rising labels.
"Silverstone?" he echoed in surprise. "Why would they want anything to do with us after we were dropped by the Carrolton Group?"
"Because Mac Silverstone loves your music. He thinks that if Wren does a teary mea culpa and talks about her recent rehab and the mistakes she has made, the fans will come racing back, and you'll be bigger than ever."
"It's not going to be that easy."
"It might be. Mac also likes the song she wrote, the one I sent you, but it still needs an ending, only one you can provide."
Suddenly feeling weighed down by his old life, he pulled out a chair at the kitchen table and sat down. Clay took the seat across from him.
"You can get your life back, Jason," Clay said.
