Instead of shaking his hand, her dainty fingers slid along his palm and gripped his wrist.She yanked him forward, tugging him off balance, and his palm wrapped around her right wrist on instinct.He stumbled and barely caught himself as she said, “Congratulations, rock star.Hope success turns out exactly as you imagined it to be.”
The middle of his hand heated up so fast he couldn’t jerk away.His palm burned where he was touching her wrist, and then flames engulfed him entirely.He wanted to scream but couldn’t as excruciating pain ripped through his body.His legs gave out, vision blackening as he collapsed to the floor, but it wasn’t the fall that had his stomach swooping with dread.
It was Skye’s wicked little laugh and her victorious blood-red irises glittering with mischief that gave him the premonition he wouldn’t need to look into a crystal ball to know: For better or worse, his life would never be the same.
“Is this Remington Golding?”
“Yeah,” Remi mumbled into his phone.He’d been too sleepy to check the caller ID before answering.The dick on the other end of the line sounded like another bill collector from the small fortune he’d spent on Emerson’s funeral.Five years later and he was still trying to pay it off.
Remi’s head pounded.He sat up on the couch.He didn’t remember what happened last night, but the empty liquor bottles all over the coffee table and his bandmates passed out on the recliner and couch beside him told him all he needed to know.
“This is Densen Javil from Sprites Records.”
The thumping in his temples almost made him see double as Remi pulled the phone screen from his face to check the number, which had a Los Angeles area code.
“Is this a joke?”he asked.
Densen laughed.“No, but I get that a lot.Are you sitting down?”
Liam was snoring on the recliner, and Ollie was sleeping sitting up at the end of the couch.
Remi kicked Ollie’s shoulder.He startled awake.
“Yeah?”Remi said.
“Good,” Densen said.“I saw Tilted Haze a few nights ago.Liked what I heard.I’d like to offer you guys a record deal.How soon can you get out to LA?”
Remi scooped the remote off the coffee table and whipped it across the living room, hitting Liam in the chest.He woke up with a shout.“Jesus.What the fuck?”
Ollie was rubbing his eyes, and West walked in from the kitchen, coffee cup in hand.The only one of them that didn’t look like trash.Probably because he was the only one who stopped drinking after two shots.
“You want Tilted Haze to come to LA and sign a record deal with Sprites Records?”Remi repeated, his eyes darting around to his bandmates.
Their eyes widened, and jaws dropped.No one made a move as if they were all too scared to hope, to even breathe.
“That’s right,” Densen said.“There’s a flight at three from New Orleans that my secretary can book you all on.That enough time for you to pack?”
“Yeah, uh, yes, sir,” Remi said.“Three o’clock.”
“Great,” he said.“We’ll take you and the band out tonight and get acquainted, then I’ll see you in my office tomorrow at eleven.”
“That sounds great, sir.”
“Cut the sir shit.”
“Right, sorry, uhm, Densen.”
He laughed and said goodbye.Remi hung up and stared at his phone.
“What the fuck was that?”Liam said, jumping up and down.“Was that seriously a guy from Sprites Records?”
“Yeah,” Remi said.The shock had him nodding robotically.“Our flight leaves at three.”
“Flight to LA?”West asked, his smile wider than Remi had seen it in years.Since before—
Remi rubbed his eyes and shook his head, but then nodded again.“Uh, yeah.”He stood up and started laughing, hysteria overtaking him.“Sprites Records wants to sign us!”
The four men proceeded to make noises that men do not typically make and dance around the living room.
