Eva blanched but I was too worked up to care. This wasn’t some game, it was my life.
My fucking disaster of a life.
“Yeah, I didn’t think so,” I added when she didn’t reply. “We can all pretend, go back to normal again, but we all know, everyone will just be waiting for me to screw up again.”
“You’re wrong.” Eva gave me a sad smile. “So wrong,” she said.
“Nah, Angel. It’s you who’s got it all wrong. I’m not some project to be fixed, some charity case to be saved. Everything I touch turns to ash. You’re better off without me.”
“Levi, that’s not—”
I flopped back on the couch, feeling myself begin to crash. Here, away from the fast-paced life of touring, it was harder to stave off the exhausting lows.
“Just go, Eva,” I said through gritted teeth, refusing to meet her sympathetic gaze. “Just go and don’t come back.”
The air shifted as she got up. “You think you’re unredeemable, that you don’t deserve to be happy or loved, but you’re wrong, Levi. And I hope that one day, you realize that.”
A few weeks ago, her words would have touched something inside me. But not anymore. The video of me and Riley wasn’t just a betrayal, it was a reminder.
Just as my mother used to tell me, I was and always would be, a worthless fuck-up.
Phoebe
When my dad got me the job working at Razorsharp Records, I’d expected to be making coffees for music execs and filing paperwork in some back room office. I hadn’t expected to find myself interning with Letty Panem, PA to one of the hottest rock bands of the moment—Black Hearts Still Beat.
But where Black Hearts went, scandal and chaos usually followed.
Thrown into a world of sex, drugs, and rock and roll when they were just teenagers, Levi and Rafe Hunter, Hudson Ryker, and Damon Donnelley had whipped up their fair share of media frenzies. Crazed crowds of teenage girls, out of control parties, and rumors of a revolving door of women were but a few of the band’s escapades.
But no member attracted media interest more than Levi Hunter.
He was the band’s enigma. The brooding and arrogant bad boy with the voice of a rock god. Levi gave zero fucks and the fans lapped it up.
Before joining the label, I’d heard their music, seen the odd performance on the television, but nothing could have prepared me for experiencing it firsthand. Levi didn’t just perform their songs, he bled them out on the stage. His lyrics were ammunition, his voice the weapon, and the crowd his battleground … and he slayed it every damn time.
But the Black Hearts front man was damaged. Tortured in the way that most rock stars were. A string of drug induced misdemeanors had landed him in rehab last year. By the time I joined the band, he’d been doing better...
Until the story hit.
It had been ten days of madness while the label tried to get the fallout under control. Letty and Alistair, the band’s manager, were working around the clock to get the video pulled from social media, but it was no easy task once something had gone viral the way it had.
“Phoebe,” she called. “We’re ready.”
I followed her into the conference room of the hotel we were staying at. Alistair joined us and after pressing a couple of buttons, the PR team at Razorsharp Records appeared on the screen.
“Ali,” Dusty Higston said, “tell me something good.”
“She won’t budge.” Alistair grimaced. “She wants one mil to disappear.”
“The label will never agree to it. Legal will nail her ass to the wall.”
“But it’ll be too late by then. If she gives the exclusive, the story will be out.”
“Fucking traitorous little...” he stopped himself, yanking his collar from his thick neck. “Options people, give me options.”
“We negotiate—” someone around his table started.
“Not an option.”
“We offer her five-hundred grand,” Alistair piped up, “and hope she takes it. The band will take the hit.”
“Too fucking right, they will. We wouldn’t be in this mess if Levi had managed to keep his nose clean and dick out of the staff.”
“Dusty,” Alistair warned.
“Ali’s right,” Letty added. “Riley is just looking for her meal ticket. Offer her the money and I’ll arrange an exclusive with The Rock Report to spin this in a better light.”
“There’s a better angle here?”
“There’s always a better angle, Dusty, you should know that. Levi had some bad news and fell off the wagon, and his manipulative assistant saw an opportunity to make a quick buck. The Die Hearts are already backing Levi and the band.”
“Yeah, but the ratings with the younger demographic are falling through the floor.”
“You need to use Eva. She’s the key.” Letty sat back, completely calm and composed. “You wanted to get her into the studio, now’s your chance. But I think it should be a collaboration with the band.”
Silence filled the room as Dusty steepled his fingers. “A collab, you say?”
She nodded. “The fans love it when Levi brings Eva out on stage. Their hashtag #HunterWalkerMagic trended for two weeks straight. We can harness that.”
“Alistair?”
“It’s the best option we have right now. Levi has a history of bad behavior, it’s nothing new. But the video forces people to acknowledge it. If we can bury Riley…” He hesitated, running a hand down his face. I’d heard rumors he and Riley had history, so I couldn’t imagine how he must be feeling. “And flood the channels with a collab and The Rock Report exclusive, we might be able to turn it around.”
Dusty considered Alistair’s words for a minute, conferring quietly with his team. “Make it happen. I want them in the studio pronto. But you’d better tell your boy he’s walking a fine line, Portman. He needs to get his shit locked down or the band could lose the Masterpiece endorsement and they might as well kiss the international leg of the tour goodbye.”
Letty sucked in a sharp breath, as if Dusty’s threat was worse than she expected. I didn’t know what to expect because I’d never been an assistant to a band before, let alone sat in a meeting such as this one.
But I didn’t doubt that if they knew how well I knew Levi, there was every chance I wouldn’t be sitting here right now.
I forced down those thoughts. Levi was a mistake. One I didn’t intend on making again. The second I saw the video, I knew I couldn’t do it again. I couldn’t be second string to a substance addiction. I’d walked that road before, and it had gotten me nothing but a broken heart and scars so deep I wasn’t sure they would ever fade.
From now on, my relationship with Levi and the band would remain strictly professional.
Because that’s all we could ever be.
He was an addict, and I was an addict’s ex-girlfriend. We were like fire and ice—a disastrous combination.
“Phoebe?” Letty’s voice made me blink.
“Sorry, what?”
“Alistair wants us to go and see Levi, prep him on everything.” She gave me a tight smile. It was then I realized Alistair had already left and the screen was off.