Platinum

by J. M. Nevins

  Kit chuckled and nodded. “Don’t I know it. She’s saved my ass so many times and yours too. We’re very lucky to have her.” He grimaced. Kit surveyed him. “Oh no. What did you do? What did this negotiation entail? I’m sensing Lex did this for us at a price.”

  He nodded. “Yep.”

  Her eyes widened. “And?”

  “And I gave her and Platinum Magazine exclusive rights to our wedding and reception.”

  Kit stared at him, rendered speechless again. “You did what?”

  He laughed loudly and pointed at her. “Gotcha!”

  She chuckled and let out a long relieved sigh. “Oh shit. You totally had me going there.” She took his hand and put it to her heart. “Can you feel my heart racing?”

  He snickered and started to let his fingers wander. “I can almost feel your boob now and I kinda like that, but we have lots of people in our suite, so I don’t know how appropriate it would be to…”

  She laughed and pushed him away. “Perv!” She regrouped and faced him, unable to wipe the grin off her face. “Seriously, what do we owe Lex for this?”

  He shrugged his shoulders. “She would like to do something around our wedding, but I didn’t promise anything. I told her we’d talk when we’re there on New Years.”

  Satisfied with his answer, Kit sat back and grinned. “Ok. We’ll have to discuss that.”

  Maxine came bolting into the room and looked at Kit and Sully. “Oh my God, I just saw MTV news. They originally thought you two got married last night?”

  Sully nodded and grinned. “Uh huh.”

  Maxine laughed. “Classic.” She noticed the coffee table covered with a half dozen Bloody Mary’s. “Oh, I need one of those.” She looked at Kit. “Are you as hung over as me this morning?”

  She nodded silently and chuckled. “And boy what a morning it’s been already. Have a seat with everyone else. You’ve missed the major fireworks, but you never know what they may show in the next hour.” She patted the seat next to her on the couch where Ginny had been sitting until she jumped into action fielding the calls that were now coming in one after the other.

  CHAPTER 22

  The snow fell quickly on a cold, January afternoon as Kit debarked from the jet and made her way to the limousine that awaited them. She hopped in and got comfortable. The tour was back on and Jimmy had returned to his lead-guitar duties. The holiday season had been too short for her liking and time seemed to be speeding up.

  She flipped through the latest edition of Platinum Magazine as the limousine slowly made its way to the arena for soundcheck. She had already read it cover to cover on the plane, but turned back to a dog-eared page and smiled at the contents. She excitedly admired and the announcement of her engagement to Sully that featured one of the photos Maxine took while they were in Hawaii. Even though she knew in her heart they would always be together, the very public declaration in print reminded the world that they were truly an item.

  Sully glanced over and noticed her content grin. He chuckled and peeked at the magazine, nodding in agreement. “Looking at is again, huh?”

  She nodded. “Lex’s editor did a great job with this. I’m pleased. Lex said Page Six is pissed they didn’t get the exclusive on this.”

  He sat back and shrugged his shoulders. “That’s because we don’t own part of The New York Post and they don’t have the best leader in the publishing biz, like Platinum does. Lex is a force to be reckoned with. Glad she’s on our side.” He winked.

  Jimmy was sitting across from them and reached out. “Let me see it.” Kit reluctantly handed it over. He quickly scanned the article and smiled. “It’s a cool write up. And Max took those pics the day before all my appendix drama started, didn’t she?”

  Sully nodded and grinned. “I know we’re only two weeks back into the tour, man, but we’re glad you’re back.”

  He smiled. “Me too. It feels good to be back, although I had quite the substitute taking care of business while I was out of commission. You were very impressive, Kit-Kat.” He nodded knowingly.

  She chuckled. “Thank you. Which show were you and Di at again?”

  “Denver. We were in town with her family, doing Thanksgiving in Aspen. We hopped over. I get why you can’t remember which show. They all blur together, don’t they?” He chuckled.

  She giggled. “That’s for sure.”

  As the limousine crept along at a snail’s pace, Kit glanced out the window and frowned. “This snow keeps coming down. I don’t have a good feeling about this. Looks like we’re on the verge of a blizzard.”

  Jimmy sat back comfortably, unfazed. “It’ll be fine. I’m sure it will clear up later in the day. January in the Midwest is what we got.” He chuckled. “Welcome to Iowa, sweetie.” He then frowned. “This kinda weather shouldn’t be any kind of surprise to you, Kit. You’ve been through hard Chicago winters like us. C’mon, don’t tell me living in Cali all these years has made you weak.”

  She couldn’t shake off her nervous energy and let out a sigh. “I’m not weak. You’re right. I’ve seen storms much worse than this when I was a kid. Just a weird feeling, I guess.” She looked up at him and forced a grin. “Oh well. Let’s enjoy our peaceful trek to the hotel in this white winter wonderland, shall we?”

  Sully chuckled as her beeper went off. “There goes peace and solitude.” Jimmy laughed as she grabbed her beeper and reached for the phone in the limousine.

  The nagging feeling that something wasn’t quite right hadn’t left Kit throughout the day and bled into the evening. During the show, her uneasy hunches were confirmed and now a different kind of chaos ensued as the show concluded.

  Sean and Jay talked to the roadies about the new details of the load out while the band entered the dressing room after a successful show. They effortlessly jumped into their normal mix of mingling, interviewing, drinking and socializing despite a lackluster turnout from the blizzard that raged outside. Sully searched for Kit and spotted her off in the corner on the phone. She looked more frantic than usual and he wondered what was up.

  After he finished his interview he approached her and sat on the arm of the sofa watching while she struggled to wrap up her call. Five minutes later, she hung up the phone and sighed. She shook her head and ran her fingers through her hair in frustration. He stroked her back. “Hey. What’s going on?”

  She groaned. “We can’t fly out tonight and our rigs can’t roll out either. We’re stuck.”

  Sully raised his eyebrows. “Why? I know we had problems with the plane being iced and the airport closed, but I thought we got a bus as a backup to drive to Minneapolis. Is something wrong with the bus now?”

  She shook her head. “No. We’re snowed in and so is Indecent Xposure. I talked to Frank a little while ago. We can probably get out tomorrow morning, but definitely not tonight. The bus is still back at the hotel, buried. We can’t do the load out tonight because the rigs can’t go anywhere. If we load ‘em and let them sit packed overnight outside the arena, the equipment will freeze. Luckily, the arena has given us a nice grace period. We’re in blizzard conditions right now that are expected to get even worse within the hour. We’re talking total white out. Danny wants us all out of here in the next fifteen minutes and back to the hotel.”

  She looked up, grateful that Sean had already wrangled the riff-raff from the dressing room. Only a few hangers-on and the band remained.

  Sully looked at her and stroked her arm. “How can I help?”

  “Get the band and Maxine into a limo. Sean, Jay, Danny and me will follow in the other one. I’ll see you back at the hotel.”

  He sighed and stared at her. “But babe, I wanna go with you. I don’t want anything to happen to you.” Deep concern emanated from his steel blue eyes.

  She shook her head and forced a grin. “I’ll be fine, honey. Just go with them, please.” She leaned forward and dismissively kissed him on the cheek.

  He looked sad and defeated. He nodded his head and walked away. He glanc
ed back to notice Sean and Jay rushing over to Kit, jumping into frantic conversation. She glanced over and noticed Sully’s stare and widened her eyes to silently emphasize her earlier point. She shooed him away with her hands.

  He knew better than to test her. As much as he wanted to stay behind and go with her, he knew it was far better to respect her wishes. He shifted his attention to Maxine and sidled up to her, easily linking his arm in hers.

  Kit sat across from Jimmy holding playing cards in her hand. She was enjoying the opportunity to play poker with them. It was an activity she sorely missed and one that her schedule rarely afforded her. She kept a straight face and spoke nonchalantly to Jimmy as she threw in Oreo cookies that acted as ten-dollar markers in place of traditional poker chips. “I’ll see you and raise you two.”

  Jimmy watched her carefully. Playing poker with Kit was never easy. They all had difficulty reading her. The only one who had some semblance of a clue she was bluffing was Sully and even then, his system wasn’t foolproof. He still had fifty-fifty odds of success.

  When Kit was playing, she was in her zone, the very same zone she used in negotiations of any sort. She was the queen of perfect poker faces, virtually unreadable, and Jimmy wanted to make sure she wasn’t playing him. She had done it several times in the past and he didn’t want to fall prey to her devices yet again. He was about to make his move when Sean knocked on the door. Sully jumped up to get it.

  As he swung the door open, Sean poked his head in. “Hey, Sull, is Kit in here?”

  He nodded and pointed to where she was happily situated at the table playing poker with the band and a few members of Indecent Xposure, including Nicky, while the worst blizzard of the year raged outside.

  Sean called out to her. “Hey, Kit-Kat, your assistants are looking for you.”

  She nodded and kept her attention trained on the cards in her hand. “Have them come here to Bryan’s room, Sean-Bon.”

  Moments later, Betsy and Ginny arrived. Ginny stared in amazement at the mound of Oreo cookies in front of Kit. Her eyes quickly darted around the table surveying the damage and noticing the lion’s share of winnings very clearly belonged to her boss. The only other person that held over a dozen cookies was Nicky.

  Ginny chuckled as she walked up next to Kit. “Wow, that’s a helluva lot of Oreos!”

  Kit giggled and put her cards down, smiling at all the other players. “Gentlemen, I fold.” She pushed her earnings into the center. “Divide this amongst yourself fairly. I’m out.”

  As Ginny and Betsy stole Kit away from the poker game, the band and Nicky breathed a huge sigh of relief. Having her out of the game made things a little easier. She was up by a thousand dollars when she opted out.

  She spoke with the girls briefly and decided it would be best to go back to her room. Reluctantly, she left with no hope of returning to the poker game she had been thoroughly relishing. When the band and the guys from Indecent Xposure finished their game, Sully headed back to join Kit.

  Upon his arrival, Betsy and Ginny collected their things and left while Kit remained on the phone, now completely engrossed. She was frantically rescheduling their next few days of appearances and interviews. Being stuck for hours in a white out wasn’t helping matters.

  Sully reclined on the bed and watched TV, trying not to doze off, occasionally watching Kit while she worked feverishly to iron everything out. She finally finished her last call and was relieved. It was now two in the morning and she wanted nothing more than to spend time with Sully.

  She smiled and spoke up. “Baby, I’m all done and all yours.” She glanced over and her smile slowly faded. She couldn’t help but chuckle. Sully had fallen asleep. She got up, tucked him in and turned off the TV. She stripped off her clothes and didn’t bother taking her makeup off. Her exhaustion had taken over. She turned out the lights and as her head hit the pillow, she felt immense gratitude for the luxury of sleep.

  The following morning, the chaos seemed to have leveled off and order was rolling forward. Feeling well rested after lining up solutions the night before, Kit strolled down the hallway of the hotel confidently, her assistants falling into step behind her while Sully led the way a few steps ahead talking to Jimmy.

  Moments later they were in the lobby being directed toward a discreet hallway that whipped around to the back of the hotel. As they approached the doors, Kit noticed it was snowing again. She shot Sean a concerned look. “Are you sure we’re ok?”

  He nodded. “Yep. The rigs are already out and so is Indecent Xposure. They said it’s clear. We’re good to roll.”

  Sully walked up to her and pulled her toward him. “Don’t go in the limo. C’mon, please. Just this one time come on the bus with us. Jimmy and me have some great ideas we’d like to bounce off of you. We’ve got a long drive today and it’s probably going to go even slower with the snow.” He stared into her eyes, gently pleading with her.

  She stared at him, grinned and stroked his cheek. “Aw, babe. When you look at me like that you know I can’t say no.”

  He smiled. “So, you’ll come on the bus with us?”

  She nodded. “Yes.” She hadn’t been on the bus with them since their last tour and she had intended to keep it that way until now. She wrote it off as an adventure. She glanced over at her assistants. One usually went on the bus.

  “Betz, Ginny is going with you in the limo. I’m going to be on the bus with the guys. Tim, the limo driver, will be in constant communication with the bus over ceebee radio in case you need me.”

  Betsy nodded and headed outside. Sully helped Kit onto the bus and as she got on, the band cheered. Jimmy smiled. “Nice to have you back on here, Kit. It’s going to be a fun few hours.”

  Kit sat cuddled up next to Sully on the small sofa inside the cramped tour bus while he strummed his guitar. She held a cup of hot tea in her hands and was sipping it while he and Jimmy would stop periodically and write notes or exchange ideas. She made some additions herself, fully enjoying the creative process. Joining them on the bus was turning out better than expected and she was pleased.

  The snow had stopped falling outside and they were making good time and progress on the road. Despite the previous evening’s challenges, it now seemed that everything was falling nicely into place.

  They kept the brainstorming session going for another hour solid before Jimmy decided to head back and take a nap in one of the bunks. Kit leaned her head on Sully’s shoulder while he continued to strum his acoustic guitar. She grinned. “Sleep sounds like a great idea. I think Jimmy’s onto something.”

  Sully looked at her and gave her a kiss on the forehead. “Want me to sing you a lullaby?”

  She giggled. “That might be nice. Yikes, look at those clouds rolling in.” She pointed out the window.

  Sully nodded in agreement. “Reminds me of home. Growing up, I remember seeing clouds like that before a major snowstorm hit.”

  She nodded in agreement and yawned. “Me too. I’m gonna close my eyes for a little bit.” She was out cold seconds later.

  Sully put his guitar down after twenty minutes and snuggled with her. Even in her sleep, she nudged closer to him. As he leaned his head on top of hers, he glanced out the window and noticed that the skies were increasingly dark and ominous. He dismissed it as he started dozing off.

  Thirty minutes later, Kit and Sully were both awoken by a violent jolt. Before they could comprehend what was happening, they were thrown in opposite directions. The ugly sound of tires desperately trying to grip the icy highway followed by metal twisting and glass breaking rang out loudly throughout the cabin. The bus was trapped in a continuous rolling cycle. The instantaneous destruction that ensued within the cabin seemed to last forever, appearing to move in a demented, fluid, slow motion to its inhabitants rather than a rapid-fire succession of mere seconds strung together.

  When the movement finally stopped, Kit sat up cautiously and completely terror stricken. She had been thrown to the floor of the bus along with
everyone else. Her body trembled and her head throbbed. Her eyes frantically darted around the bus searching for Sully as her chest heaved, desperate to catch her breath. Sean hopped up, looking around, panicked. “Is everyone ok?” He yelled loudly.

  They started stirring slowly, including Sully who finally sat up. He had been thrown toward the front of the bus where the driver was trapped between his collapsed steering wheel and his seat.

  Sully noticed Kit and leapt over to where she was. He urgently searched her eyes. “You ok, babe?”

  She nodded silently, her green eyes wide with fear, as he gently wiped her temple. She noticed the blood on his hand and her eyes immediately clouded with a deeper level of despair. “Was that from me?”

  He nodded. “Yeah. Looks like you have a gash or maybe you hit your head. Are you feeling alright?” He stroked her head gently.

  “Yeah, yeah, I feel fine.”

  He pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly, silently thanking a higher power that they were ok as the adrenaline triggered from the accident continued to course through his body. He didn’t want to let her go.

  The bus driver came to and screamed out in pain. Sully pulled back and glanced over at the driver, deep concern furrowing his brow. He looked at Kit. “Are you sure you’re ok?”

  She nodded and immediately knew what he wanted to do. “Yes, go help him. Go.”

  Sully jumped up and rushed over to see if he could help free the driver. Sean ran toward the front of the bus and started throwing his weight into the door, trying to get it to open, but it was jammed.

  Maxine stood up and scrambled to find her camera. She found it and ran toward the front of the bus where she helped Sean and they both managed to throw their weight so forcefully into the door together that it pushed it open.

  Kit stood up and looked out the window on the right side of the bus. She noticed the limousine off in the distance behind them with its orange hazard lights blinking, casting an eerie glow on the large snow bank where the car was now lodged. The driver’s door was open and Tim stood there, the cord from the ceebee dangling out as he called for help. Betsy ran over to Maxine with Ginny in tow and they all hugged each other. Maxine pulled back from them and started snapping shots immediately.