With Vengeance Read Free

like a death knell.
    “Sorry,” she whispered, face flaming. “I
fucked up.”
    “So?” Klement snapped at her, eyes suddenly
gray and stormy with annoyance. IT Guy never sounded that sharp.
“That doesn’t mean you should stop. We can mix it out if we need
to. Now start over.”
    The music began again before she could reply.
Kat breathed a silent prayer and played her part. When she came to
the solo, she gritted her teeth until it had been
executed—flawlessly.
    Klement’s voice echoed in her ears. “Okay,
that’s enough for today.”
    Her headphones went silent as she watched the
band file out of the room. But what did it mean, “That’s
enough?” Had she blown her audition, or would she be invited
back tomorrow to work on another song?
    The band came out and unplugged the gear and
rolled up the speaker cords while Kat packed her guitar.
    She rubbed her shoulder. “Sorry I fucked up
that riff.”
    “Don’t worry about it,” Klement said. “Just
don’t stop next time.”
    She dared to raise her head to meet his gaze.
“You mean there will be a next time?”
    “Maybe. Unless…” He paused and approached
her. His great height made her tilt her head up. “Hold out your
arms.”
    Blinking with incomprehension, Kat complied,
extending her arms, palms upward as if in supplication. And as the
bassist scrutinized the pale flesh of her inner elbows, realization
struck. He was looking for track marks.
    Outrage and disgust made her stomach roil.
How could anyone think that she shot up?
    “I already told you during the first
interview that I don’t touch that shit,” she growled.
    Klement crossed his arms over his broad
chest, resembling a merciless Viking. “Sorry, it’s a precaution
that we all decided to adopt. We don’t want to hire another
guitarist only to lose them to that shit again. If you’re offended,
you can go and we’ll call the next guy on our list.”
    “No,” Kat answered quickly, chastened. Of
course they’d make double sure that their next guitarist was clean.
She must look like a petulant bitch. “I’m not offended, and I
completely understand why you want to be careful. You just caught
me off guard.”
    The tips of Klement’s fingers, long and
callused from his trade, lightly touched the palms of her
outstretched hands. An unidentifiable tremor coursed through her
body at the feather-light contact.
    “You can put your arms down now.”
    His words broke off in a chuckle. Reeling
from embarrassment, Kat dropped her arms and clutched her guitar
case. Why couldn’t she be more like Kinley? Kin was tough. She
never had stage fright and she always remained cool and
professional in front of her band even though she’d had as big a
crush on Quinn Mayne, lead singer of Viciӧus, as Kat had on
Cliff.
    At the thought of Cliff, Kat whirled around
to face him, praying he wasn’t looking at her like she was an
idiot. He wasn’t looking at her at all. He was cleaning under his
nails with a guitar pick.
    As if sensing her attention, he glanced up
and winked.
    What did that mean? Was it a good-job wink,
or a flirtatious wink? Kat tentatively smiled back.
    Klement’s voice yanked her back to business.
“How about you meet us around five at my place and we’ll let you
know how we’ve decided to proceed?” He grabbed a pen and wrote down
his address and directions.
    “Okay.” Her stomach churned with anxiety. Was
she hired? What if fucking up that note made them change their
minds? What if Roderick or Klement—or worse, Cliff—decided he
didn’t like her?
    No, she admonished herself. Aside
from one mistake, I nailed that audition. They all were impressed,
I could tell. And Klement—
    The thought broke off as Cliff smiled at her.
“See ya later, babe.”
    Her cheeks warmed, and she barely heard
Roderick’s and Klement’s farewells as she made her way out of the
studio.
    He called me babe!
    As she got into her Subaru GL Wagon, she
allowed reality to sink in.
    I might be the new