Ready For Flynn
Part 2
K.L. Shandwick
©2016
First published in 2016 by K.L.Shandwick
1st edition
Copyright © The author as named on the book cover.
Cover design: Russell Cleary
Editing: Amy Donnelly
Beta Readers: Sarah Linlott, Elmarie Piertse and Emma Moorhead.
Cover Picture: kiuikson Adobe stock
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, copied, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the copyright holder, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
Disclaimer: This ebook has explicit reference to sexual situations and is intended for adult readers aged 18+.
This ebook is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, band names and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, or celebrity names are used within the fictitious setting. Any resemblance to actual person’s, living or dead, band names or locales are entirely coincidental.
Dedication
This book is dedicated to Elmarie Pieterse and Angela Wallace-Kawauchi.
About the Author
Thank you to my loyal readers and hello to my new readers if this is the first series you’ve read. Ready For Flynn, part 2 is only possible because of your support. When I started writing just over three years ago I never dreamed I’d be able to write a book. This book is my tenth. Thank you for your faith and support for what I do. To my loyal readers who have read everything I’ve written, I’m truly in awe of your support. Ready For Flynn, Part 3 is coming Autumn 2016.
Thank you as always to my most dedicated supporters and avid book pimpers, KL’s promo ladies, Ashley Heather, Samantha Harrington, Nancy Pracht, Donna Trippi Salzano, Debra Hiltz, Janet Boyd, Lacey Smith, Michelle Luv Enger, Isabel Adams, Ann Meemken, Jacqueline Dennison, Emily Lazar, Tammy Ann Dove and Ellie Aspill.
Table of Contents
Dedication
Chapter 1 ~ Flynn
Chapter 2 ~ Flynn
Chapter 3 ~ Valerie
Chapter 4 ~ Valerie
Chapter 5 ~ Valerie
Chapter 6 ~ Flynn
Chapter 7 ~ Valerie
Chapter 8 ~ Flynn
Chapter 9 ~ Valerie
Chapter 10 ~ Valerie
Chapter 11 ~ Valerie
Chapter 12 ~ Flynn
Chapter 13 ~ Valerie
Chapter 14 ~ Valerie
Chapter 15 ~ Flynn
Chapter 16 ~ Valerie
Chapter 17 ~ Flynn
Chapter 18 ~ Flynn
Chapter 19 ~ Valerie
Chapter 20 ~ Flynn
Chapter 21 ~ Flynn
Chapter 22 ~ Flynn
Chapter 23 ~ Valerie
Chapter 24 ~ Valerie
Chapter 25 ~ Valerie
Chapter 26 ~ Valerie
Chapter 27 ~ Valerie
Chapter 28 ~ Flynn
Chapter 29 ~ Flynn
Chapter 30 ~ Flynn
Chapter 31 ~ Flynn
Chapter 32 ~ Flynn
Chapter 33 ~ Valerie
Chapter 34 ~ Valerie
Chapter 35 ~ Valerie
Chapter 36 ~ Valerie
Chapter 37 ~ Flynn
Chapter 38 ~ Flynn
Chapter 39 ~ Flynn
Other Titles by K.L. Shandwick
About K.L. Shandwick
Chapter 1 ~ Flynn
Astute
“Are you out of your fucking mind, Flynn Docherty? Did that stunt Bernie pulled render you stupid? You’ve just gone out there and committed financial and professional suicide for the both of us in front of the world’s press. And, no offense to you Valerie—you’re a lovely girl—but Flynn you’re gonna chance our future to a fucking eighteen-year-old kid?”
Craig’s eyes darted between me, his girlfriend Simone, and Flynn as he threw his hands up in Valerie’s direction, “Look at her! What in God’s name does she know about running a fucking rock band? Who’s gonna take her seriously…us seriously? We’ll be a laughing stock in the music industry.”
Giving me a murderous look he stuttered, “D...do you know how cutthroat it is out there? We’ll spend more time defending our decision for hiring her than we’ll talk about our music. And what do we say when they pick holes in her? ‘Oh don’t offend our manager she’s a sulky teenager?’” he sneered, his eyes glaring at me like I’d fucked up big time.
My ex-bandmate, Craig, spun on his heel and began pacing the floor in front of me while he pulled at a clump of his blonde-streaked hair. Naturally, I expected him to be nervous because I had made a pretty ridiculous decision. Hell, I couldn’t have faulted his reaction. To a certain extent he was right, but I’d never seen the guy so animated, and if that was his reaction, I thought only God knew how the media would react.
Craig didn’t know Valerie like I did, and how astute she’d become. In the few days I’d been around her again, I’d been in awe of what I’d learned about her. What she knew about running her photographic business was way more than I could have imagined.
Poor Craig wouldn’t have been normal if he’d had any other kind of response. The week before Valerie hadn’t even been on the scene. However, despite my limited knowledge about her capabilities as a manager, the practicalities of the matter were, we had had no other option, but to use Valerie.
I’d probably have thought twice about her managing me otherwise. Handing an eighteen-year-old girl the reins to our future career certainly gave us no credibility at all, and could have been a recipe for disaster. The waters were infested with sharks in the music industry, and I knew they’d be waiting to pounce.
If I’d been honest, I hadn’t even given Craig a thought when I’d agreed to Valerie being my manager. My first thoughts were that I’d make a joke of her offer later. My second thought was if I’d done that I’d have ruined my one chance of keeping her trust. I felt sick. I’d wondered at the time if I’d agreed in shock because of my situation or if my dick had been in the driver’s seat when I made that decision. One thing I had learned about Valerie from watching her, she was shit-hot and focused when it came to running her own business.
From my perspective we were fucked anyway, the almighty shit heap that Bernie Dunn, my old manager, had left in his wake had royally screwed us.
The dust hadn’t settled on the announcement that our band, Major ScAlz was defunct, and I’d doubted whether Valerie would ever be ready for the corrupt behavior I’d experienced once I’d hit the music scene. I wasn’t being negative because the girl I’d known two and a half years ago was far removed from the shrewd, sassy young woman she’d become. It was just that she’d been through so much since I’d known her, and I hadn’t wanted anything else to hurt her.
The shy fifteen-year-old girl I’d met back then was fiercely protected by her three brothers, and I know it’s cliché to say, but she was as pure as the driven snow. It was a very rare find with girls nowadays. Living the life she had then, it had been pretty easy for her brothers to keep her out of harm’s way, but as Valerie had learned the most devastating of things affect you even in the safety of your own home.
Funny how one day can change your life, Valerie and I knew that better than anyone. Both of us had our internal make-up shaken to its core. Surviving was one thing, becoming the people we are now had taken a lot of resilience. At one point with Valerie, I hadn�
��t been sure she’d ever recover.
I’ll never forget what happened that day. It was a major turning point in my life. Valerie had consumed my thoughts on the last day of our first major tour. We were traveling back up to Chicago on the tour bus, and I’d been watching the news on TV. I remember feeling breathless when I’d watched the horrible footage of a river rafting accident on the screen. My ex-girlfriend, Iria, rang about an hour later to tell me that her best friend Jess had been on the boat in question.
My world ground to a halt as dread crushed my chest. If Jess was there, chances were her boyfriend Martin Darsin, who was also Valerie’s brother, was there, too. Martin had meant a lot to me. Immediately, I asked her to find out if Valerie had been in the boat. Iria said as far as she knew Jess had been the only female on board.
I called the PR guy on our tour and asked him to use his contacts to find out what he could, and waited impatiently for a couple of hours until he called me back. He’d learned that Martin and his brothers had been on the boat, and confirmed there were no other females involved apart from Jess. My body was riddled with panic and my heart beat erratically at the thought something had happened to Martin and his brothers.
I sat as my brain tried to deal with the array of chaotic thoughts running through my mind until I had an overwhelming compulsion to go to Valerie. She’d loved Martin, and their relationship was pretty fucking awesome. They were close friends as well as being brother and sister.
When the PR guy came back to say that Martin had died in the accident, I was devastated. In a split second, a horrific event took the young life of one of the kindest and most switched-on guys I’d ever known. Martin had picked me up and pulled me alongside him at a time when I was pretty lost. Both of my foster parents had died within a short time of each other, and I’d moved to St. Cloud for a new start. He took me home with him for Thanksgiving break when he’d found out I was staying at college over the holiday.
I’d felt pretty awkward about gate-crashing someone else’s Thanksgiving dinner, but the alternative of staying on campus by myself had made me push my self-consciousness to the side.
Fate must have been looking out for me at that time because as soon as I’d laid eyes on his little sister, Valerie, I was completely done for. She was forbidden fruit, and I’d been a little cautious because she wasn’t quite sixteen to my nearly twenty years old, but I’d struggled with feelings for her that were fresh. I did the right thing by her and Martin back then—I’d walked away, but those feelings had nevertheless, stuck with me.
That was another reason the urge had been so strong to go to her. I knew her loss would be compounded because she hadn’t lost one brother, she’d lost two. Adam, the second brother, was only a year and a bit older than her at the time. Valerie’s boyfriend, Ziggy Ally, had also died in the same tragic event.
I’d lost people I cared about in the past, so the impact of losing Martin had a profound effect on me. My first empathetic thoughts were for Valerie, and how devastated I knew she’d be. Even though I hardly knew her, instinct told me she needed someone—anyone—and I thought that someone should be me. Martin said I had a ‘thing’ for Valerie. He wasn’t wrong, but my instinct to be with her at that time had nothing to do with that. My only objective before I saw her again was to ease the grief she must have felt in some small way, if I could.
Fast forward a couple of years and that innocent, untouched little school girl I’d tried to rescue from her dark place had vanished. Her innocence had been buried under the very capable businesswoman she’d become. Learning from her father, and from his higher profile contacts, she had built her own business that had minimum overhead and maximum profits.
Paying sessional people and with the use of minimum freelance labor, Valerie had found the ideal solutions to perfect her little enterprise, and had developed a medium-size business in terms of turnover and profit, she’d said. Apart from her set-up costs and upgrading her equipment, the photography business she’d built had been a license to print money. She definitely had a sound business ethic.
Another thing I’d noticed was that Valerie had an eye for opportunities and despite her age she had a great skill set. Networking on social media, she’d increased her contacts steadily to the point where she kept herself ahead of the game. Everything I saw that she’d achieved was pretty incredible considering she was so young. During the previous few days, I’d gathered she was self-taught, and knew her well enough to know that what she didn’t know, she’d figure out or learn.
What had impressed me most of all was the new, sassy version of Valerie could take care of herself. No matter how young she was. After she dealt with the latest two-timing douche bag she’d settled for, I had little doubt in my mind that she’d learn pretty quickly who she was going to confide in, and who she’d give a wide berth to.
Her underdeveloped judgment of men had been her only flaw as far as I could tell, but after a steep learning curve with her latest ex-boyfriend, Daryl, there was little doubt in my mind that no guy would ever fool her again. As far as I’d been concerned her days with other men were done.
“She’ll be all right,” was all I replied, trying to convince myself as much as I was him.
“Yeah, you think?” Craig’s eyes widened in disbelief and darted over to Valerie, who’d sat quietly with one eyebrow raised while she listened to him ranting his objections. He shuffled over to the chair and slumped into it like a huffy little kid. Heaving in a deep breath, he shook his head and appeared disappointed.
I empathized with the guy. He’d lost everything and was even living in my home in Chicago because although he was famous he hadn’t earned enough money from the band to maintain his own security. Having fame and being wealthy didn’t necessarily go hand in hand, and the money he had, was still tied up in legal proceedings because of what Bernie had done to us. It was a little different for me because I’d written the songs the band performed, so the royalties supported my lifestyle better.
Once he’d aired his feelings, Valerie reached over and opened the notepad she’d been scribbling in. Clearing her throat, she picked up her pen and tapped it against her mouth for a few seconds as she waited to see if he’d say anything else. When she was confident he was finished, she straightened in her chair.
“Wow. For a rock star, you’re very judgemental.”
Craig appeared irate, and her comment definitely hadn’t done anything to smooth things over. “You’ve got balls I’ll give you that. For someone clean out of options I think you’re a tad hasty in your rejection.”
He cast his eyes the length of her, and it appeared he had nothing else to say.
“Do you want to hear my plan, Craig? If you’re interested in considering it, I’ll begin. When I’m done, you can share your thoughts, suggestions, and your own plan… if you have one. I’m all for teamwork, and there’s no ‘I’ in team. Also, when I’ve finished, if I’m missing anything or you think what I have to offer so far is wanting, then I’d love to hear your solutions. When you give your feedback, I’d also like to know your plan to implement them to get your career back on track. If at the end of my pitch you have none, and you think I’m talking sense, we’ll move forward.”
Staring open mouthed, Craig said nothing so she continued.
“If when I’m finished you’d still like me to represent you, don’t ever call me a kid again. If you ignore that, I’ll give you the option to walk away. As you said before, Flynn was the talented band member in Major ScAlz. I trust his gift to take him back to the top. You’ve been loyal to him, and he naturally wants to take care of you. The rest is up to you. However, once we start on this journey, I’ll warn you, if you doubt me, then I don’t want to manage you, and that will be a problem for all of us.”
Craig’s mouth continued to hang slack in shock, and my cock was so fucking hard. She’d dealt with him like the snarky pro she would have to portray in order to deal with the smart-asses in the music industry. Valerie uncrossed her legs, too
k her pen and poised it over her list. Stealing a glance at me, she quickly smirked and began to read off everything she’d thought of so far.
“Okay, so the way I see it, our first and biggest issue is Bernie. Bringing him and Tyler to justice for what they did hits quite a few of our issues. We need to address the crime he committed by drugging you both. We’ll sue for defamation of character, and criminal injury damages and we’ll ask the court to offset Bernie and Tyler’s assets against the debts incurred by the band to the industries involved. We gain the rights to the tracks you wrote, Flynn, so that he can’t benefit from them and lastly, we find out the shortfall between the insurance pay outs to the venues booked and ensure neither of you have any liability for that. We have your assets unfrozen so that you can get back to normal living.”
Craig and I sat up straight in our chairs and listened intently to her seemingly effortless account of what we’d needed, and marveled at the clarity she demonstrated.
“This achieves four things, Bernie and Tyler would be brought to justice. They would be responsible for any erroneous debt against the band for breaching the contracts. You’d both be protected against any future lawsuits for copyright use, and in the process, we gain maximum positive publicity and public sympathy for what happened to you guys.”
I was mesmerized and sat shaking my head in wonder. Valerie stopped and misread my body language, “You don’t agree, Flynn?”
“Fuck yeah. Of course, I do. I’m just realizing how talented you are. You’re fucking hot when you’re being all business-like. Carry on, don’t mind me, I’m fanboying,” I said, winking.
Flashing me a confident smile, she stared Craig straight in the eye, “So obviously all of that is going to take some time to achieve, but we’ll work on your new public images while the legal processes continue.”
Glancing down at her pad she asked, “What’s next? Ah, the press—we’ll need a spokesperson other than your lawyers. We boost your public profile to continue to demonstrate your professionalism in the music industry. It is imperative we drip feed the public with positive news stories. The coming days and weeks are crucial. Professionally speaking, you’re both at your most vulnerable therefore we have to show them, that despite Bernie’s best attempt to discredit you, you’re both unfazed by what he tried to do.”
Ready For Flynn, Part 2 : A Rockstar Romance (The Ready For Flynn) Page 1