Page 8 of Down Beat
“Why was your shit here, anyway?” I ask again.
Tabitha hesitates halfway to the side of the stage and levels me with a cool glare that could fucking freeze the balls off an Eskimo. “I was playing here.” Her gaze drifts over my head, her focus scary as she eyes what I can only assume to be Rick. I half expect her to drop the road case and whip a semi-automatic out of it. “You don’t look like one of the band.”
Rick steps forward, hand wringing his phone. “I’m their manager.”
“You set this concert up for them?”
“I might have,” he murmurs.
All eyes switch to me when I bark a laugh. “You lost your balls there, Rick?”
“What’s your cut of it then?” Tabitha asks, unfazed by my remark.
“Oh, I don’t get a share of profit,” Rick splutters. “My fee is fixed.”
“No bonus then?” she presses. “No incentive to add more shows into the tour?”
He shakes his head while I rest my ass against the edge of the chair behind me.
“Interesting.” Her lips curl down at the corners.
“Wh-why do you ask?” Rick frowns a little at her.
Kris motions for the smokes. I pull the pack out and toss it to him. Tabitha watches the interaction before answering.
“Just wondered what it took to buy out your conscience is all.”
Kris drops off the edge of the stage as she makes her way down the steps on the other side, and then hands me the pack while he watches her leave.
I shove it in my pocket and follow the fiery little thing as she heads out of the auditorium. “What do you mean by that?”
“Ask Rick.” She spits his name, refusing to look at me as I catch up.
“Rick?” I holler back to where he still stands by the stage. “Why is she pissed at you?”
“Because I doubled what she paid to take the venue.”
That’s cold. Even I wouldn’t be that much of a cunt. At least, I don’t think I would. “Fuck, man.”
I turn to go after Tabitha and dig a little deeper, find out a bit more about this ballsy fucking woman, but as quickly as she appeared, she’s vanished.
“Sucks to be her,” Kris mumbles.
I shunt the fucker in the back of the shoulder with a flat palm. “No shit. Now come on. I need something to go with this smoke.”