“We’ll do it small,” she continued. “We’ll do it cheap. It’ll be ugly at first but it won’t matter. The content is what matters. Once it’s strong again we’ll give it another shot. Meredith can be done with it all she wants for now but if it’s a money maker she won’t be able to walk away. That woman loves money.”
“That she does,” John agreed slowly.
“Then we’ll do it,” Anna insisted. She wasn’t asking. “We’ll revive it.”
John grinned faintly, the idea forming in his mind and breathing life into his blood. It could be possible. It would be ugly, yes, but only at first. Only to start, but once it was back on its feet it could be beautiful. It could be perfect.
“People do love revivals,” he mused.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The next morning Cameron was at Greer’s door before she’d even eaten her breakfast.
“You were right,” he informed her, stepping past her into the apartment. “Dude is intense. He didn’t say a single word while I was there.”
“Seriously?” She shut the door and followed him into the kitchen where he was grabbing a water from the fridge. “He said nothing? The entire time?”
“Nothing. His assistant talked to me, the piano player was a nice guy, the agent was a bitch, but J—“ he paused, looking around the room. “Is anyone else here?”
“No, we’re good. The girls are at a class.”
“Yeah, so Jace said nothing. Didn’t even introduce himself. His phone kept vibrating and he silenced it every time, but it was distracting as hell.”
“How did your audition go, though? What’d they ask you to do?”
“Not much. They said they’d seen my performance last night and pretty much already knew they wanted me. There are only going to be two men in the show and I’m one of them if I want it.”
“Oh my God, that’s amazing!” She jumped into his arms, hugging him tightly. “Aren’t you excited?”
“Yeah, it’s good. It’s work.”
Greer pulled back, frowning. “So why aren’t you shitting yourself right now?”
“Because it’s only one night.”
“What?”
“It’s a one time performance. Some super-secret concert he’s putting on soon. I had to verify that I’m free for the next three weeks. They’ll pay during rehearsals and for the show, but then I’m jobless again. I might be better off searching for something more permanent than wasting my time on a gig I know won’t last.”
“But this is huge! This is Jace Ryker. He’s a rock star. The performance could be televised and who knows who might see it.”
“I know, but he’s in trouble. This might be some kind of Hail Mary he’s throwing and I don’t know how smart it is to be part of it. It could backfire on him and on me. Everyone involved might end up being a joke. I can’t put a failure on my audition tape and then I burned almost a month on nothing.”
“So you’re not going to do it?” she asked, her heart deflating. She’d had such high hopes for this. She hadn’t been able to sleep all night thinking about it. Thinking about Jace and his eyes and his smirk, but most of all she thought about his almost smile. The close call that had almost made his face look happy for just a split second. But then he was gone.
“I don’t know. I haven’t decided yet. I’m gonna wait and see how your audition goes. If you decide to do it, I’ll go with you.”
“You can’t make this decision based on me.”
Cameron snorted. “Watch me.”
“Cam,” she protested.
He shook his head, swallowing a gulp of water. “It’s us or nothing, Greer. I’ll go if you go. Done deal.”
“If they offer it to me, I’m taking it,” she warned.
“Looks like we’re performing with Jace Ryker, then.”
***
Two hours later, after Cameron had left the apartment because her nervous energy was ‘giving him ulcers’, Greer headed to her audition. The small studio it was taking place in was dark and deserted, a sure sign that Jace’s people had rented the entire thing out for the day to keep their little secret.
“Greer Weston?” a tall, well-dressed man asked her as she entered. He had warm, dark eyes to match his dark skin, but when he smiled she saw two rows of perfect gleaming white teeth. His haircut was precision with tight lines and an even buzz. Everything about him spoke to Greer and what it was saying was money. She was surrounded by it, she knew that, and even though she couldn’t see it, she could see its affects everywhere. In the emptied out building, in the manicured man in front of her, in the heavy smell of different colognes in the hallway.
“Yes, I’m Greer,” she answered, quickly shaking his offered hand. “Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too, hon. I’m Grant, Jace’s assistant. Come on inside.”
She followed him to the end of the hall and found a small room with a piano in the corner and a table set up in front of the window. Pretty standard for an audition and a part of her started to relax into the familiarity. Then she scanned the table and realized Jace wasn’t there. He’d been at Cameron’s audition. Did that mean something? Had they already made their decisions and they were having her audition anyway to be kind?
“We’ve got David on the piano over there,” Grant told her, pointing to a freckle faced guy waving at with a grin. “And Sarah, Ryker’s agent.” A raven haired woman in a silk scarf over a stark white shirt and pencil skirt waved to her with disinterest. Grant took his seat beside her, leaving one conspicuously empty at the end. He noticed her glance at the seat and smiled apologetically. “Jace is on an important phone call. He assured me he had seen enough of your performance last night to make his decision. This is for myself and Sarah.”
“Oh, alright.”
“Have you prepared a song for us?”
“Yes.”
“Can you give the music to David, please?”
“Of course.”
Greer brought the sheet music to David and grinned nervously at him. He took the sheets without looking at her, immediately placing his fingers on the keys and waiting for his signal to begin. She swallowed her nerves and took the center of the room, reminding herself to breathe. She could do this. She’d already done it. She’d auditioned for Rendezvous and gotten the part. Jace had already heard her sing and she assumed that because she was here at all that he liked what he heard. Did his agent and assistant have that much say over what he wanted? She had no idea.
She nodded to David and he began to play her selection. It was Chandelier by Sia. It showcased her ability to sing deeply while also reaching high heights. She closed her eyes and put her heart and soul into the song, letting the lyrics settle into her the way she always did. Letting them resonate in her body and express the feelings she never said out loud. That feeling of falling away from herself. Of shame. Of desperation and a rudderless wandering that came of never having a true home.
When she was finished, when David had played the final note, she opened her eyes and breathed heavily from the exertion. She scanned the faces in the room and found nothing at all from Sarah, but David and Grant were smiling broadly.
“Powerful,” David told Grant.
“No shit,” he agreed, not taking his eyes off Greer. “Did you audition for the lead with Rendezvous?”
“Yeah,” she confirmed, shrugging. “I didn’t fit the part.”
Grant laughed. “Who does? It’s compiled of about six women, isn’t it? Different women throughout history?”
“Seven.”
“Voice like yours, you should have been a lock.”
“I was up against Eve Sanders. I didn’t have a prayer.”
“And when she left the show? You didn’t take her place? I saw the girl who was Eve’s understudy – Anna – and she doesn’t have your presence. How did she get that slot and not you?”
Greer shifted, glancing at the empty chair again. “The lead and I… he and I are friends. It was awkward when we did the love scenes. It never
clicked.”
“We saw him earlier today, didn’t we?” Grant asked, lifting the papers off his clipboard to find Cameron’s information. “He was good. Wasn’t he Sarah?”
“He was hot,” she replied, sounding bored.
“Any opinions on Greer?”
Sarah looked her up and down before picking up her phone. “She’s pretty. She’ll look good on camera.”
“She can dance too,” he told her, sounding a little annoyed. “And sing, in case you missed it.”
“Cool.”
Grant shook his head before turning back to Greer with a grin. “Thanks for coming, hon. We’ve got a couple more auditions today and we’ll be calling people tonight.” He rose from his chair, coming around to shake her hand. “I’ll walk you out.”
“Oh, that’s okay. I can find my way.” She smiled and waved to David and Sarah. “Bye. Thank you so much for the opportunity.”
They waved back and Grant showed her to the door. When he closed it behind her she walked quickly to the end of the hall and stopped to take several deep breaths and calm her racing heart, resting her head against the cold window. She was looking down into the street below. Into an ally, probably somebody’s home.
She’d lived in worse.
“How’d it go?”
Greer’s head snapped up, her eyes falling on Jace Ryker standing just three feet away. Her heart resumed its race in her chest from surprise, then from something else entirely. Her gears shifted instantly and her body responded to the sight of him. To the elicit memory she had no right possessing. The intimate moment they’d shared that he could never know about. One she felt shame over when looking into his eyes in real life, as though she’d taken something from him. Something he’d never meant to give her.
“Hi,” she mumbled, her lips feeling oddly numb and foolish.
That smirk. It changed his face entirely. He wasn’t as brooding and dark as he’d been last night. In the light of the sun pouring in from the window he looked light. Almost happy. “Hi,” he replied, his voice deep and raspy, hinting at the way he sang and making her stomach fly with butterflies. “How’d your audition go?” he repeated.
She shrugged, sighing to hide the cleansing breath she needed to take. The one that drug his scent into her mouth and made it water. “I don’t know really. Good, I think.”
“Let me guess – Sarah was a bitch?”
“I wouldn’t call her a bitch.”
“Because you don’t want to offend me?”
“Maybe.”
“Don’t sweat it. She is and she knows it. Was Grant nice to you?”
“Absolutely.”
“Then you’re good. If you sucked he would have been dismissive. He doesn’t waste his time or mine. If he said more than four words to you, you’re golden.”
“Those four words being ‘Thanks for coming in’?”
“Those are the ones.” He leaned against the wall, settling in and looking comfortable. It was a sharp contrast to how she felt. Her heart was still hammering in her chest and every time the thought crossed her mind that she was looking at Jace Ryker, it sent her pulse wild. She was legitimately afraid she’d faint like an idiot. “You’ve done a lot of auditions?”
“A few. Not a lot. But I know what a brush off sounds like.”
“Well you won’t be getting one today. This was completely for their sake. I already know I want you in the show.”
“Really?”
“I liked what I saw last night.” That ghost of a grin crossed his lips. “And heard.”
“Well, I think my song selection was more impactful today than last night.”
“What’d you choose?”
“Chandelier.”
“Ballsy. I like it. Can I ask you a question, though?”
“Of course.”
“Why didn’t you choose one of my songs to sing? Everyone else so far has.”
She grinned. “You’re not in my wheelhouse.”
The ghost gained strength. “Is that the only reason?”
“I don’t know. I thought about it, but it seemed tacky. I guess I assumed everyone else would do exactly the same thing and I wanted to stand out.”
His eyes grazed her body from her hair to her shoes. She was dressed to dance, assuming they’d want to see her moves at some point during the audition but it’d been surprisingly short. Her tight yoga capris and high heeled dance shoes had been a waste up until now. Up until Jace Ryker gave her a once over that left her feeling stripped and bare. “You certainly do that. I’m sorry I missed your performance.”
“Maybe I’ll get the chance to give you an encore,” she replied, the words feeling far more suggestive than she intended.
“Believe me,” he said, lifting himself off the wall and stepping closer to her. “I would like nothing more.” He offered her his hand and she took it, reveling in the fact that it was the second time in twenty four hours that she’d touched him. “Grant has your number?”
“It’s on my headshot.”
Jace watched her for a weird moment. His eyes were slightly unfocused and his gaze shifted over her shoulder instead of on her face. Suddenly he snapped back to focus, the intensity of his stare almost making her startle. He pulled a flat black phone from his pocket and swiped his finger across the screen. “Why don’t you give it to me? Just in case. I can text you with any questions we might run into.”
Greer began to sweat with embarrassment. “Uh, I don’t have a cell phone. I can give you my home phone number, though. I’ll be sure to be at home and available today.”
“You don’t have a cell phone?” he repeated, looking at her in confusion as though she’d told him she didn’t have a toilet in her house.
“No. I never have.”
“Religious reasons?”
She chuckled nervously. “More like financial,” she admitted, figuring why lie?
“Okay,” he replied evenly, looking back to his phone. “Give me the house number.”
She rattled it off and watched his long fingers deftly type it into his phone. He named her contact as simply ‘Greer’, her name falling in line directly beneath Grant. And just like that, she was in Jace Ryker’s contact list. It blew her fucking mind.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“You ran the background checks?” Ryker asked Grant, pouring himself another whiskey.
“Yep, on all of them. They all came back clean. Couple of them have some serious credit card debt, but that’s pretty standard for just about anyone these days. Two of them don’t have any credit history at all, which was weird.”
“Greer?”
“Yeah, her and Cameron Dillard.” Grant frowned at him. “How’d you know she was one of them?”
“She doesn’t have a cell phone.”
“How is that possible? My cat has a cell phone.”
He shrugged. “Sounded like she couldn’t afford one.”
“Not surprising. She doesn’t have any addresses listed before the one she’s at now and she’s only been there ten months.”
Ryker fell into the chair across from Grant. “Then where was she before that?”
“No idea.”
“Somewhere outside the city? Maybe living with family?”
“If she was, she wasn’t getting mail. She’s never reported another address. Not since she was thirteen and a New York address was registered at her school. A school that she dropped out of.”
“At thirteen?”
“Yup. You know what that means, right?”
“Young kid leaving home and school behind at an inappropriate age?” Ryker surmised with a smirk. “She’s a child star too?”
“No, she’s a runaway.”
He lowered his glass. “What?”
“There are a lot of them in New York. It’s not that surprising.”
“Shit. How the hell did she learn to dance like that?”
“Probably on the streets. There’s a lot of talent in the gutters. It sounds horrible but it’s true.
It’s true in L.A. too. Lot of dance crews, lot of singers, lot of musicians – all of them scraping by performing on the streets and dodging the cops. If I’m right, Greer is one of the lucky ones to use her talent to get off the streets.”
“Dillard too?”
“I think so. His record has a couple odd jobs on it now and then after he turned eighteen, he was in the foster system for a while as a kid, but other than that he’s a ghost too. Came into the show at the same time she did. Got a roof over his head the same month.”
“They were together.”
“I think so.”
“Are they involved? I mean romantically.”
Grant grinned. “Not in the file, man. Sorry.”
Ryker bristled at his own question, taking a long sip of his whiskey to hide his frown. He stood up and paced the room briefly, unable to shake the image of Greer on the streets. Cold. Hungry. It made him angry.
“You sure about this?” Grant asked him, gesturing to the table between them.
Ryker sipped his whiskey as he stared down at the headshots spread out over the coffee table. The girls were hot, the two guys in the mix were good looking but with a totally different look from himself. They wouldn’t pull focus during the concert. All of them would blur together in the background as they danced and sang his backup and they’d do it with professionalism. With a fucking modicum of class, which was more than he could say for his previous dancers.
The phone call he’d taken during Greer’s audition was from Lexy. She’d been hounding him so hard he’d considered changing his phone number, but he wasn’t sure even that would stop her. She was angry and annoyed, petulant and despondent. She told him he was overreacting and being childish, and when that didn’t get a rise out of him she started crying and talking crazy saying she couldn’t sleep without him and she didn’t know what would happen to her if he didn’t forgive her. If he didn’t see her and let her make it up to him.
Not happening.
He’d ended up hanging up on her and heading back inside, hoping he could catch the end of Greer’s audition. He’d been surprised to find her in the hallway and he instantly worried when he saw her with her head pressed against the window. She looked beaten. Sad. It’d angered him immediately. He’d told Grant she was a lock. That in no way was she to be turned down. She was the only one he demanded be in the show, no question. He couldn’t even explain why he wanted her there. Why he needed her in the show. There was something in her eyes, in her tone, that called to him. They’d barely talked but looking at her made him feel a little bit less alone, a feat no one had been able to manage in a year. Not since his mother had died and he’d been left with no one but his piece of shit father and cokehead girlfriend.
Razing Ryker (Dissonance Book 1) Page 5