Free Rock Star Romance: Dan (Contemporary New Adult Rockstar Bad Boy Romance) (Hard Rock Star Series Book 4) by Jade Allen Page B

Ron’s niece was off-limits. In
fact, we’d decided as soon as Ron had started managing us that none of us were
going to have anything to do with any of the female staff he had working for him;
it’d be too much like dating one of our band mates’ sisters, and on top of that
it’d open up all kinds of petty jealousy if anyone thought someone in the group
was getting a better deal, or more press attention, or something like that. It
wasn’t worth getting into, or even trying to work around. Better by far to just
avoid it altogether by declaring all of the women working for Ron out of
bounds.
    “You haven’t heard from Mark, have you?” Julie
shook her head. Sometimes--since she kept the big man’s contacts for him, and
managed his social calendar--someone in the band would talk to her, get her to
pass something along to Ron if we couldn’t get the manager directly.
    “I can tell you that Uncle’s pretty stressed out
about the whole deal,” Julie said confidentially. “He’s hoping you guys can
figure it out on your own--but if not, he’s going to bring the pain.”
    “I’d expect nothing less,” I told her. “Buzz me
in, will you?” There was a door that separated the reception area from the
office proper, and only three people controlled it: Julie, Ron himself, and one
of his daughters, who was also working her way up in the industry, following in
Dad’s footsteps. Julie nodded and hit the buzzer on her desk, and I heard the
lock turn over in the door. I hurried over to it, making sure I at least turned
the knob and pulled it a little bit before the timer would automatically
re-lock the door. “I’ll catch ya later,” I told Julie, and she turned back to
whatever it was she did when she wasn’t answering phones or greeting people who
came in.
    I walked through the little office space, noticing
the fact that Ron had apparently given up on the idea of the open office plan;
instead of one big conglomeration of desks, it was a sea--or at least a
lake--of cubicles, each one half-hiding one of Ron’s employees. He had about a
dozen people working for him, and I thought to myself that if it weren’t for
Molly Riot, he’d still have maybe five employees total; between Alex’s antics,
Nick’s high-profile girlfriend and Jules dating another up-and-coming band’s
lead singer, Molly Riot was hot shit, and everyone in South Florida wanted to
be signed with the guy who’d ushered us into our fame.
    I walked past the desks, headed towards the big
office where Ron normally held court, pizza in one hand and the other holding
my keys still. I nodded to the few people who looked up from their work,
wondering what they were thinking; were they stressed out about the fact that
Molly Riot seemed to be in crisis mode? Or was it just another day in their office
job life?
    The door to Ron’s office was open, and I spotted
Alex seated in the chair closest to the big man’s desk, taking the unofficial
official leadership role. Nobody was seated in Ron’s chair, which made the
whole situation feel weird to me--but then I thought to myself that I’d feel
even weirder if someone had sat down behind the desk; it would be like
they were claiming a higher authority. Alex saw me coming and waved me into the
room, saying something I couldn’t hear to the other two guys.
    “Close the door behind you,” Jules said as I came
in.
    “I was going to anyway; I don’t want those gophers
hearing whatever it is we end up discussing,” I told him, pulling the door
behind me and listening for the click of the automatic lock. I took a second to
look around the room, trying to figure out which way the wind was blowing. Nick
I was pretty sure was on “my” side--that is, if there could be a side in the
whole stupid mess our band had become. He’d been behind me on the issue with
Mark, and I was pretty sure he didn’t blame me for what our drummer was
choosing to do. Alex and Jules were harder to read; they were sort of