He left West with the original host and called a cab to go across town to knock out the other interview before they got a reputation for being flakes.Remi might have only barely graduated high school, but he’d been studying how the music industry worked since he convinced West to start a band with him in the ninth grade.Tilted Haze wasn’t going to be a one- or two- or three-hit wonder.If they wanted to last in this business, they needed to have a good reputation.
It wasn’t the 1980s—doing blow off strippers’ tits and shirking his responsibilities wouldn’t cut it.
The tits and the blow cameafterhe finished his band management duties.
Because, oh, right—that was the other thing—Remi was now managing every aspect of the band since last week they found out their new manager had been stealing from them.
Already.
The full signing bonus hadn’t even hit their bank accounts yet!
A couple of technical hiccups here and there, getting their wires crossed on scheduling, accidents happening—his bandmates chalked it all up to bad luck.But Remi knew the truth.
He’d sold his soul and got scammed.
Tilted Haze had a record deal, three singles streaming in the millions, and they were embarking on their cross-country stadium tour in a week.But Remi was barely hanging on.
Hope success turns out exactly as you imagined it to be,Skye had said to him before the metaphorical ink had even dried on his deal.
Remi had gotten everything he asked for, but he was probably going to keel over from a heart attack if he had to deal with one more disaster.
He should have known better, but he’d just been so desperate to save his band.
Bullshit.You wanted to be rich and famous so you could prove to everyone you aren’t the worthless piece of shit we all know you are.Remi took a deep breath and tried to shake his twin brother’s voice out of his head.
He would not crack.He would not admit defeat.He was going to finish situating the stage, and then he’d sneak out for a smoke break—even though he really shouldn’t smoke before a show—and when he came back, he’d step onto the stage and do the only thing that he was meant to do in this world: sing and perform, and everything would be right with the world again.
“Remi!”
“What?”he asked, throwing his hands up in frustration as he turned to Ollie, who strode up the stairs to the stage.
“We have a problem with the sound guy,” Ollie said.
“What are you talking about?Sound check went fine?”
“He somehow deleted the settings.He told me he could wing it, but then asked if we had settings from a prior show that he could use as a guide.”
There was only a fabric curtain separating him from the crowd on the other side, but Remi couldn’t help himself—he yelled his irritation to the ceiling.
With hands clenched into fists, he stomped past Ollie and down the stairs—only to smack right intoher.
The woman who infiltrated his dreams.The demoness who got him into this mess.His beautiful nightmare.
“Remi,” she purred with a flirty smirk and a tilt of her head.“How are you?”
“How am I?”he seethed, walking up to her until they were toe-to-toe.“How am I?”
He backed her against a wall.“I’m not so good, Skye.But I think you know that.I think you’ve been watching the disaster streak that has been my life and laughing your pretty little ass off at my misfortune, haven’t you?What is this?Are you here to rub it in my face?Or are you here to make another deal?A two-for-one maybe, ask my bandmates to sell their souls to fix the fucked-up deal that I made?”
Skye narrowed her eyes.She stepped a high-heeled boot between his legs and somehow glared down her nose at him, despite being shorter.“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but if I were you, I’d be real fucking careful with how you talked to me because I can make your life a living hell.”
“Too late,” Remi said with his arms outstretched.“It already is!”
Her glare turned into confusion, but Remi didn’t buy anything this conniving little vixen did or said.
His anger overflowed into panting breaths, his chest heaving.From her leg’s position planted between his feet, their hips pressed together, and his body got its wires crossed as the heat of his anger shifted into a zing of lust.
He clenched his jaw to fight against it.She was doing this.She had to be.There was no way Remi would be getting turned on by her presence if she wasn’t using her mystical, magical demoness powers to do it.He hated that his eyes fell to her plump lips.Hated that—
