Chart Toppers (Star Maker Book 3) (3 page)

Spencer
poured drinks for everyone as they took their seats in Wes’s office later that
night.
 
Alexa had put Kelsey to bed
and fallen asleep well before the group returned from dinner, but Wes was still
awake and willing to engage in conversation.
 
Spencer handed him a glass of scotch on
the rocks.

Wes
frowned, mentally surveying the details shared by Sully as he sat back.
 
“Ok, so wait a minute.
 
Who were the guys that stopped by
again?”

Kit
shook her head.
 
“Can’t
remember.”
 
Actually, she wanted
nothing more than to forget.

Sully
got more comfortable on the rich, leather sofa.
 
“One of the guys had the last name of
Calabrese.”

Spencer
interjected and took a seat on the wingback chair opposite Wes.
 
“And the other guy was Provenzano.”

He
grimaced and then looked at Kit.
 
“What’s the last name of your friends again?”

She
sighed.
 
“Nicky Campo and Frank
DeCampo.”

He
nodded. “I take it Nicky’s last name is a stage name?”

She
shrugged her shoulders.
 
“I don’t
know for sure, but Frank’s related to him, so I’d assume DeCampo is Nicky’s
real last name.”

Sully
took a gulp of his scotch and felt himself loosen up.
 
He exchanged a look with Wes.
 
“Doesn’t leave this room?”

He
nodded.
 
“Of course.”

Sully
sighed.
 
“I think we’re dealing with
the mob here.”

Spencer’s
blue-green eyes widened as did Kit’s.
 
Wes remained unfazed and nodded in agreement as he sipped his
scotch.
 
“I’ll confirm it tomorrow,
Sull, but I think you’re onto something.
 
Maybe not your DeCampo friends, but the last names of the other guys…
well, let’s just say that I’ve heard things, and I know people who have those
kinds of clients—wise guys.”

Kit
stared at Sully.
 
“What?
 
Are you kidding me?
 
Sull, that’s a pretty heavy observation.
 
How can you make that assumption?”

He
gulped his scotch again.
 
“I can
spot the profile miles away.”

She
frowned.
 
“Huh?
 
How?
 
You’ve lost me.”

Spencer
stared at Sully and chuckled.
 
“Let
me guess, you studied the Irish mob.”

He
shook his head and grinned.
 
“No.
 
I didn’t study it.
 
I know it well.
 
A family that lived down the street from
me growing up was in deep.
 
One of
their kids was a childhood friend, but he and I parted ways when he got deeper
into the family business, and I left for L.A.”

Wes sighed
and nodded.
 
“Kit, those names hold
quite a reputation in Brooklyn.
 
Legendary.
 
I would tell you
to tread lightly, but it seems these guys are on your side.
 
Do what the DeCampo guy said.”

Kit let
out a frustrated sigh.
 
“I still
don’t understand the connection between these mob guys, KMK, and DBBT,
though.
 
I’m so confused.”

Sully
gently patted her knee. “We’ll get to the bottom of it, babe.
 
We need to uncover more pieces of this
puzzle, that’s all.
 
And now we have
the formula to do it.”
 

Spencer
nodded.
 
“He’s right, Kit.
 
If we all pull together, you will get
out of this mess on the right side of the law and be profitable.”

The
gravity of the last month’s events combined with the evening’s discoveries had
finally hit her.
 
She buried her
head in her hands and took a moment to calm herself.
 
She felt Sully’s gentle touch as he
stroked her back.
 

The
reality of her failing management company was staring her in the face again,
and she could no longer keep her head in the sand wishing it would go away.
 
She had to face the facts.
 
She lifted her head and nodded.
 
“Ok.”
 
She looked around the room slowly,
meeting their gazes.
 
“We’ll get to
work on this starting tomorrow.”

CHAPTER 2

The
reflection of the woman staring back at her appeared composed, confident and
strong.
 
Kit felt like none of those
things as she touched up her lipstick and took a deep breath.
 

She and
Sully had returned from New York two days prior.
 
The ball was rolling on her life, and
she struggled to keep up.
 
The
private eye was hired immediately and was already at work.
 
She had spent the last two days planning
the resurrection of KMK Management with Spencer and Sully.
 
Now, the Diamond meeting was upon her,
and she was dreading it.

She had
learned from Pete that the rumor mill was churning talk of a complete rework of
Diamond Corporate, and no one was safe.
 
He shared his concern that there was a chief creative officer being
brought in to run the A&R department.
 
He wasn’t a candidate, nor did he want to be, but he questioned his job
security and wondered if he would be forced into an earlier retirement than he
had planned.
 

Kit
came to question her job security as well when she learned that Daniel Thomas
had become the golden boy of the legal department in her absence and was
believed to be taking over her position.
 

She
closed her eyes and wondered if her head was on the chopping block and her
tenure at Diamond was coming to a close.
 
Lew hadn’t taken her calls lately, and she forced herself not to jump to
conclusions.
 
This pattern had
happened before in the past.
 
It
often had nothing to do with her, but on the heels of swirling rumors, she
contemplated if this could be a different case.

She
headed downstairs in search of Spencer, who was accompanying her to the meeting.
 
She intended to introduce him to the
team as KMK’s new CEO.
 
She strolled
into her office and chuckled seeing him sitting at her desk, reviewing a
document.
 
“What are you
reading?
 
Looks interesting.
 
It certainly has your attention.”

He
looked up and grinned, offering it to her.
 
“You’ll want to see this, sis.”

She
seized the document, and looked at him again.
 
“Is this from the private eye already?”

He
shook his head.
 
“No, but I suspect
that one of our new, Mafioso, Brooklyn friends sent this to you.
 
It was sitting on the fax machine when I
walked into the office.”

She
scanned the document and her eyes widened.
 
Suddenly, she felt like she was playing a chess game and had found the
winning strategy.
 
She laughed and
looked at Spencer, her emerald eyes dancing with delight.
 
“Can you say checkmate?”

He sat
back and shook his head, remaining serious.
 
“Kit, we don’t have the kind of money to
acquire them.”

She
snorted.
 
“No, KMK doesn’t, but
Diamond sure does and big majors have no problem acquiring other labels when
the opportunity presents itself.
 
I
think lady luck just walked through the door.”
 
Her emerald eyes twinkled again.
 
“We have a meeting with Lew and the team
in twenty minutes.”
 
She folded the
document in half and winked.
 
“Let
me grab my bag and we’ll head out.”

As they
headed down the hill on their way to Diamond Records, Kit’s stomach churned
with anxiety once again, reminded of Pete’s words and her uncertain future at
Diamond Records.
 
She forced herself
to brush it off.
 
Fifteen minutes
later, they headed into the lobby where she recognized the receptionist,
Cara.
 
She strolled up to the desk
and smiled.
 
“Hey, girl!”

Cara
looked up and smiled.
 
“Kit!
 
So great to see you!”
 
She stood up and gave her a hug over the
large reception desk.
 
“Congrats on
all the success with GT.
 
I’m so
happy for you.
 
Are you back in town
for good now?”

She
nodded.
 
“We’ve been back for a few
weeks.
 
It’s nice to be back in my
bed for a change.”

Cara
smiled.
 
“No doubt.
 
I see you have your badge.
 
Anything else I can do for you?”

Kit
pulled Spencer forward.
 
“Cara, this
is my brother, Spencer.
 
Spence this
is Cara, receptionist extraordinaire.”
 

She
grinned and extended her hand to shake his.
 
“Great to meet you, Spencer.”
 
She looked up at Kit.
 
“I’ll get him a visitor badge.”

“Yes,
with escorted access to the executive floor.
 
He’ll be in the meeting with us.”

Cara
got busy making a visitor badge for Spencer while he and Kit both looked around
the lobby with its fair share of platinum and gold records lining the
walls.
 
Spencer was in awe.
 
The sight was old hat to Kit and didn’t
faze her until she noticed familiar album artwork in her peripheral vision.
 

She
walked over to the platinum record mounted on the wall and gushed with pride as
she smiled from ear to ear.
 
The
plaque showcased Gypsy Tango’s now platinum album, ‘Dangerous Curves.’
 
The first album she produced along with
Sully.

Cara
noticed her across the lobby admiring the plaque and yelled out to her.
 
“They put that up yesterday, Kit.
 
I think Pete has all the plaques
upstairs for you and the guys.
 
I’m
sure Mindy will have all the details for you in case you need to order more for
family or home studios, etcetera.”

Kit
returned to Spencer’s side, shaking her head in amazement and giggling.
 
“Wow!
 
That’s quite a sight to see.
 
Wasn’t expecting that so early in the
morning.
 
That was a nice little
surprise.
 
Gave me more of a jolt
than my coffee did.”

Cara
grinned.
 
“You’re all set. You can
go ahead and go up.
 
I called
Giselle.
 
They’re expecting you on
thirteen.”

She
nodded.
 
“Thanks again, Cara.
 
See you later.”
 
She led Spencer toward the elevators
after Cara buzzed them past the large glass security doors.
 
He watched her as they got into the
elevator, and she pressed the button marked “E.”
 
An alarm sounded loudly in the
elevator.
 
Kit had momentarily
forgotten protocol and quickly placed her badge on the magnetic pad next to the
buttons.
 
The alarm ceased and the
elevator started its climb.

Spencer
glanced at her.
 
“The executives are
on the 13
^th
floor?”

She
giggled.
 
“Yep.
 
Kind of fun.
 
We like to think of thirteen as
lucky.”
 
She winked.

He
frowned.
 
“What was up with the
alarm?”

“Only
certain people that have access to the floor.
 
It’s coded into the badges.
 
You either use your badge, or you have
an escort with an appropriate badge.
 
Not just anyone is allowed onto the executive floor.
 
Do you have any idea how many bands will
have one of their guys or gals try to pose as messengers or delivery people
just to drop off a demo?
 
It’s insane.
 
Cara spends half of her day managing
people like that.”

Spencer
laughed.
 
“Crazy!
 
A whole different world, I swear.”

Kit
giggled.
 
“Oh Spence, honey, you
have no idea.”

When
the elevator doors opened, she sauntered confidently toward the executive boardroom
with Spencer in tow trying to keep up.
 
He watched in wonder as the scene unfolded before his eyes. Giselle,
Kit’s assistant, seemed to materialize out of nowhere and hand her a cup of
coffee prepared perfectly to her specifications.
 
She then promptly took Spencer’s coffee
order without missing a beat before they could reach the entrance to the
boardroom where everyone had assembled and were just getting settled in.
 

Kit greeted
everyone warmly and was happy to see the reciprocation.
 
She tried to leverage it in her mind to
quell the anxiety about losing her job but wasn’t as successful as she had
hoped.
 
She introduced Spencer, and
the meeting commenced with the first item on the agenda, a recap of the KMK
disaster.

When
Kit’s detailed synopsis of the chain of events was complete, Lew and Jonathan
grimaced.
 
Daniel and Pete easily
empathized with Kit, shook their heads in dismay and couldn’t mask the looks of
disappointment on their faces.
 

Daniel
looked at her and spoke up.
 
“I hate
to tell you this, Kit, but the management contracts you had with Diamond are
gone.
 
There’s no way we can rework
them.”

She
stared at him in disbelief, her eyes wide.
 
“What?
 
How did that happen?”

Lew
sighed and matched the same look of disappointment that still remained on all
the faces in the room.
 
“Kit, while
I was on vacation and you were on the road, the contracts were allocated to
Drew Gandalf because they were flagged incorrectly as low priority.
 
Daniel was working on GT and several
other high priority contracts.
 
Drew
signed off on the contracts in question.
 
There were six artists that we had with KMK.
 
All six are now DBBT Entertainment.
 
I’m sorry, Kit, but from the management
side, our hands are tied at this point.”

Kit sat
back in her chair, stunned.
 
She was
rendered speechless.
 
She felt her
anger rising, and her mind reeled with questions.
 
How could Dante, whose career she made,
stab her in the back, steal her artists and start a company with Blake
Templeton?
 
She was completely
flabbergasted.

She remembered
the first time she met Blake in person at the party he had thrown in his trendy
Soho loft when she was temporarily living in New York.
 
All the unwanted advances and obnoxious bouquets
of flowers flooded her mind.
 
She
easily recalled how he forced himself onto her at the Diamond Records party,
trying to make out with her in front of a ballroom of her peers.
 

She was
livid now recalling those unpleasant memories and silently wondered if Blake
asking her out had been a thinly veiled attempt to gain access to KMK.
 
Access that would afford him the
possibility of taking it over while taking her out of power and influence in
the music industry in the process.
 
She recalled how angry Blake had been when she wouldn’t accept a
date.
 

She
assessed what triggered his motive—her complete refusal of him the year
before, especially after she threatened him with legal action for inappropriate
behavior after the Diamond Records party.
 
The scenario was starting to make more sense now.
 
Since he couldn’t get into her pants and
ruin her reputation, he may as well go for the jugular and take down the
credibility of her career.
 
With KMK
Management being a highly neglected, sitting duck with a spineless CEO like
Dante at the helm, easily lured by power, money and empty promises it was an
easy coup.
 

Blake
had always been jealous of her success, dating back to her acquisition of a
record deal with Templeton for Scorcher in 1985.
 
He consistently held true to his
disbelief that a woman couldn’t possibly achieve so much in the music business
without sleeping her way to the top.
 
Kit had always resented him for that and as she gritted her teeth, she
wanted nothing more than to publicly discredit him.

Dante
and Blake both came from a more traditional outlook on the music business.
 
In their world, the women were artists,
groupies, assistants or doting, passive wives.
 
The men were the high-powered managers,
influential executives, flippant attorneys, renegade rock stars and success
mongers at the top.