Platinum
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She couldn’t suppress her emotions anymore. She broke down sobbing and tried to regain her composure but failed miserably. She finally calmed down enough to speak. “He pretty much cleaned out the bank account, Spence. There’s only a few grand left in the account. Six months ago there was fourteen million. He totally fucked me.”
“I’m so sorry, Kit. Anything I can do to help?”
She sniffled and wiped her tears. “I’m not sure yet. Thanks for looking into everything. I gotta go. I’ll call you soon.”
She hung up and was about to take a moment to work through her emotions, when her phone rang again. She answered frantically and felt relief wash over her when she heard Bud asking for her.
“Hey, Bud. Thanks for calling me back so quickly. Thought I had missed you for the day.”
“Where you at? London?”
“No, Manchester. Just wrapped London last night.”
“I’m actually glad you reached out. Saved me the initial awkward call. How do you want to handle this?”
She frowned. “Handle what? I heard Scorcher signed with a new management company. They’re in breach of contract as far as I’m concerned. What’s going on?”
He snorted. “Kit, I think you’re mistaken. My client is not in breach of contract, KMK is and, well…” His voice trailed off for a moment. He sighed. “Have you looked at your documents today?”
Before she could respond, she noticed Betsy walking into her room looking somber. She reluctantly handed over a document. Kit covered the mouthpiece. “What is this?”
Betsy was wide eyed and swallowed hard. “I think you’re being sued. It’s from a law firm in L.A.”
Kit sighed and nodded to Betsy, mouthing thank you silently. She put the document in front of her on the desk. “Bud, did you fax something over to me earlier today?”
“I did. Do you have it there?”
“Yeah, my assistant just dropped it off, but I haven’t had a chance to review it. Looks like you’re threatening to sue KMK and me personally.”
“Do you have time to talk through it?”
She sighed, lit up another cigarette and shook her head in disbelief as she sat back in her chair. “All the time in the world, Bud. Let’s hash it out.”
When the call concluded thirty minutes later, she hung up the phone and buried her head in her arms on the desk, sobbing. More things had gone wrong in the course of an hour than she was emotionally prepared for. She felt like her foundation was slowly crumbling below her feet.
KMK Management had been her other baby aside from Gypsy Tango. A baby she had very severely neglected and handed off to someone who appeared to be trustworthy and clearly wasn’t. To add insult to injury, Scorcher had now moved onto Dante’s new venture, DBBT Management, and was suing her for backed wages and damages.
Bud had informed her that Scorcher claimed the KMK Management contract had been breached, making it easy for them to sign on with a new management company. They also claimed she personally violated the California Talent Act when she started managing them upon her arrival in California. Sadly, she realized they might have a case.
Since she was on the road, she didn’t have access to her records and prayed that when she returned to L.A. she would find the evidence needed to exonerate her. If Scorcher was unwilling to settle, she would owe them over four million dollars.
The invisible knife in her back felt heavy and painful. Between the obvious betrayal of Dante and the first band she brought out to L.A., her head was spinning. Big problems with large price tags in the multi-millions of dollars overshadowed her previous celebration of platinum success from the night before.
She shook her head slowly, disappointed with her own naïveté that she had dodged the pitfalls of notoriety. Her glamorous life at the top with dreams come true now had expensive, ugly nightmares. She got up, poured herself a glass full of scotch and headed into the bathroom to draw a warm bubble bath.
Sully walked into their suite an hour later, laughing and finishing a sentence with Jimmy who was standing in the hallway. Kit was still trapped in her own world of doom, sitting on the side of the bed in her fluffy white robe, holding a newly poured glass of scotch in one hand and a cigarette in the other, staring straight ahead.
“Hey, babe!” Sully called out enthusiastically. She didn’t turn to look at him. She appeared almost catatonic. He frowned and approached her. He sat down next to her and stared. “Hey.” She refused to engage with him and remained staring straight ahead. “Kit-Kat, what’s wrong, baby? Talk to me.”
He gently wrapped his arm around her. The moment she felt his touch, she started sobbing again. He took the drink out of her hand, placed it onto the bedside table and took her into his arms. He held her while she cried, stroking her back and wondering what had happened while he was away at the show. He hadn’t seen her this upset in a very long time.
After a few minutes, she finally calmed down and looked up at him with tear-drenched cheeks. Her voice trembled. “It’s over, Sull.”
He stared into her eyes that reflected a mixture of overwhelm and grief. He suddenly became more concerned. “What’s over, babe?”
She gulped as tears started rolling down her cheeks again. Her voice trembled again. “KMK Management. I’m finished.” She hung her head and closed her eyes.
Sully’s steel blue eyes widened as he stared at Kit, taking in the gravity of her words. In his mind, it didn’t add up. Something didn’t seem right. He was desperate to find out what had happened, but didn’t want to upset her further. His mind started to reel knowing Gypsy Tango was the cornerstone of KMK Management. He prayed they weren’t bankrupt. He swallowed hard, gently stroked her back and inquired. “What’s going on, Kit? Talk to me, sweetheart.”
She sighed and blew out the smoke from her cigarette. She felt defeated. Her head still hung low while shame hijacked her thoughts. She couldn’t face him. “Looks like I’m getting sued by Scorcher for a very stupid and embarrassing mistake on my part if their claim is really true, but the worst thing of the day…”
Her voice trembled again as tears welled up in her eyes. “Dante cleaned out the bank account, leaving an insulting three grand and change for me, down from fourteen million. From what I hear, he opened his own management company, taking all of my original artists with him, including Scorcher.
“As if that isn’t bad enough, there’s the trash talking he’s doing about me to everyone in this industry. In this fucking boys’ club, also know as the music biz, some of those industry players, who shall remain nameless, are eating it up.” She shook her head in disbelief and let out a long sigh.
“They’ve wanted to see me fall from grace for a some time now. The more successful and credible I’ve gotten, the more they want to smear me and take me down. And right now, they’re winning.” She finally faced him and stared into his eyes. “My company’s done, Sull, and so is my reputation.” Ashamed, she buried her head in her hands and shook her head slowly.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
J.M. Nevins has lived and breathed music and fiction writing from a very young age. Working in the music industry as a teen, she gained rich experiences in several capacities from creative development and performance to business and promotions that ultimately contributed to a lucrative career. She lives in the greater Los Angeles area.
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