Razing Ryker (Dissonance Book 1) Read Free

him as he ran his hands through his perpetually disheveled dark hair and yanked on the lapels of his expensive sport coat. He looked angry – not unusual for him – and anyone who didn’t rise when Meredith came in took to their feet now.
    “From the top!” he shouted, not looking to see if everyone was there. Not even bothering to check if anyone was at the piano. “We’ve got some timing issues after the intermission. We’re going to solve them immediately. Anna!”
    The short girl with the flaxen hair stepped forward. “Yes, Mr. Willis?”
    “I don’t want to do a full dress today, but watch your wardrobe change between acts three and four.” He sat down hard, looking her over blandly. “While I don’t mind catching sight of your nipples, some members of our audience might. Take the stage fully dressed or don’t take it at all. Got it?”
    “Yes,” she agreed eagerly, her face flushing red with either anger or embarrassment. Probably both.
    John stared at them all expectantly. “Did I not say from the top?! Move!”
    The entire company sprang into action, taking their places frantically as the piano kicked into the start of the first number.

CHAPTER THREE
    “It wasn’t a flask in my back pocket, it was my cell phone,” Ryker insisted for the millionth time, tossing the magazine article across the coffee table. “And even if it was a flask, who cares? I’m over twenty-one, I wasn’t driving, and I wasn’t drinking it in public.”
    Grant, his assistant, raised a manicured eyebrow. “Was it a flask?”
    “I just said it wasn’t.”
    “Yeah, but you also have a lot of excuses locked and loaded for if it was.”
    Ryker shook his head irritably, falling back against the sofa. “It’s not like it was a crack pipe or something.”
    “God, please don’t say that in front of the press.”
    “I’m not stupid.”
    “No, you’re not, but you are in a bind right now.”
    “Fucking Lexy,” he growled. Ryker rubbed his hands over his face and into his hair, pulling on the strands until it hurt. That girl was more trouble than she’d ever been worth. “I can’t believe she did that to me on stage!”
    “Bitch is crazy,” Grant mumbled, scanning through his phone. His dark eyes went suddenly wide.
    Ryker flinched. “What is it? More photos?”
    “No.”
    “You’re a terrible liar. How are they different?”
    “They aren’t,” Grant insisted, stowing his phone quickly. “Same shit, different day.”
    “You mean different angle?”
    “Maybe.”
    “Where was this one shot from?”
    “Looks like it was shot from Lexy’s right earring. It has that kind of zoom.”
    Ryker threw his hands up in the air. “Fuck!”
    “On the bright side—“
    “Don’t say it,” he snapped. “It’s the same thing everyone is saying and it doesn’t help.”
    “Alright, alright.” Grant stood silently watching Ryker scowl and stew in his anger until he couldn’t take it anymore. “All I’m saying is, are you sure your dad is your dad? Are you sure he wasn’t a brother because—“
    “You suck.”
    Grant laughed. “You got nothing to be ashamed of, man.”
    “Camera adds ten pounds, remember. And about two inches, it looks like.”
    “Eh, either way – mazel tov.”
    “What? You’re Jewish now?” Ryker asked sarcastically.
    “Keeping my options open.”
    “You wanna be a black gay Jew? Do you just love swimming upstream?”
    Grant grinned. “Adversity only makes me stronger.”
    “What about dick pics? What’s your plan for those? How do we overcome that?”
    “Same way we overcome all of the drug and alcohol rumors.”
    “Rehab?” he asked almost hopefully. He could handle a week in Palm Springs at a resort rehab center, painting watercolors and hiding from the paparazzi. Anything to get out of the holding pattern he was stuck in.
    “Nope. A return to your roots.”
    “As in Disney?” Ryker laughed. “I really doubt they want anything to do with me right now.”
    “Nah,