Total pages in book: 37
Estimated words: 33965 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 170(@200wpm)___ 136(@250wpm)___ 113(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33965 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 170(@200wpm)___ 136(@250wpm)___ 113(@300wpm)
"Alright, alright. I'll admit the fans could be...intense. But the point is, we had some crazy times together back in the day. It wasn't all bad," I say, still trying to turn the ship around. I feel like a goddamn fraud because they're right. Our lives were a disaster back then. We had no privacy, no rest, and very little say in anything. It was a helluva way to live, and we did it for years.
"Says you!" Jax growls, getting heated. "You weren't the one getting blasted by the press for every late night out or questionable girlfriend. "'Soul Obsession's Bad Boy Caught in New Scandal'. They ate that shit up."
"Only because you kept feeding it to them!" I remind him. "If you didn't sneak out to a party or hook up with a new girl every night, they'd have had nothing to write about. Or maybe if you didn’t get stoned and tumble out of clubs?"
Jax's jaw clenches and I know he's pissed. But he knows I'm right. We were all over the news all the fucking time, but he got the worst of it because he gave them so goddamn much material to work with.
"I was nineteen, man! What was I supposed to be doing, knitting sweaters and baking cookies?" he snaps.
"Cookies sound good right now," Asher mutters.
"You do knit a mean scarf, Jax." Mason's lip twitches.
"Shut up," Jax sighs.
"Yeah, leave the guy alone. We were kids, we all did stupid shit. Isn't that why we're here? For the fat paychecks so we can finally get the record label off our backs?" Jameson cuts in.
"I’m ready to be done with all this shit," Asher says, earning a grunt from Jax.
That makes five of us. But…
"This reunion is about more than money. It's about giving the fans the closure they deserve. We owe it to them—and ourselves—to do this right," I remind everyone. As much as it sucks, I'm right. I don't want to spend the rest of my life regretting the way we left shit ten years ago, and I don't want them to regret it either. Right now, every single one of us does…and for the exact same reason. We had no control over any of it.
"Just say you miss the limelight, man," Jax says, rolling his eyes.
"Maybe I do miss parts of it. Sue me for loving the music that made us famous in the first place. But don't pretend you all don't miss it too. The music brought us together. Through all the messy stuff, that was the one thing we always had."
"I miss some things more than others," Asher admits with a shrug.
"Crue is right," Jameson agrees. "The music was always there for us, even when things got tough. I know I complained about the fans but seeing their smiling faces in the crowd…there was no better feeling."
"How poetic, Jameson. Did you rehearse that, or are you just naturally this sentimental?" Mason asks, giving him hell.
"Naturally. Comes with the crooner territory."
"Can you guys focus?" I growl. "This is about more than closure. It's our shot at finally controlling our narrative. We're not those kids anymore. For once, we get to decide how we're remembered."
That's the important thing as far as I'm concerned. We get to introduce the world to the real Soul Obsession, the band they never got to meet back then. We get to decide how this ends for us. Not the label, not the tabloids, but the five of us. That's worth all the bullshit.
"Just so you know," Asher says, "it kills me to admit you're right."
"I’ll admit it. We did kick ass together," Jax mumbles, shocking the hell out of me. I figured we'd have to drag him kicking and screaming the whole way.
"So are we good? We gonna bring the fire one last time for our fans?" I ask.
"Let’s light this shit up!" Jameson grins.
I glance at the other guys and see them nodding their agreement, matching grins on their faces.
Fuck. We're actually going to give this a real shot.
Chapter One
Crue
"There's another one," Mason says, his eyes directed at the dressing room across from ours.
"Another what?" I play dumb, pretending I don't know exactly what he's talking about. As if anyone around here has been able to forget the small cadre of wild women who have infiltrated our tour.
When our tour manager, Shelby Fitzgerald, mentioned bringing along a few friends to some of the shows, we didn't think it'd be a big deal. We scratch her back, she scratches ours, right? We should have read the fine print. Shelby's friends quickly turned the tour upside down.
Every time a new girl joins the group, another one of my friends bites the dust.
Jax was the first to fall. He landed on his knees for Dani right before the tour started. Our head of security, Xander, was the next to fall. Beckett fell shortly thereafter…which turned out to be a good thing since the sneaky fucker was planning to write a tell-all about us. Falling for Resa changed his plans to some degree. He's still writing the book, but we have veto power now.