Page 154 of Call Me Baby 2: Side B

“Alright, Allison, I’ll leave y’all to it.”

He leans in, mouth near my ear in passing. “You’re right. They’re fuckin’ good. Text me soon as you leave this room.”

After the door shuts behind him,

the band’s shock shifts to me.

Noah wipes his palms down the front of his jeans. “You’re tellin’ me… you’re gonna be CEO of Soundwave?”

I ease back on the arm of the couch.

“Yeah, next year,” I say.

“But until then? I’m here. For you.”

Noah shakes his head, a laugh slipping out. “C’mon. Look at you—you’re what, twenty-somethin’?”

“Twenty-four,” I say.

One of them whistles low.

“Okay,” Noah nods, “twenty-four. Sayin’ you’ll be CEO of a whole-ass record label. Sayin’ you dropped stacks for four fuckups from Ashland to land on this stage. And then flew cross-country just to see us? Bringin’ Eli Stone.” He runs a hand through damp hair, still trying to process, looking around at his guys. “That’s—I don’t… I don’t get it. I mean… thank you, seriously. But c’mon. Why us? Why you? Why now? That shit don’t add up.”

His eyes cut back to me, and his chin tips up. “What’re you gettin’ outta this?”

I picture Raymond in my spot. The smirk, the smoke and mirrors, talking contracts, dollar signs, percentages, the illusion of family. He’d bleed them out before they even touched the stage.

I lift my shoulders.

“I want you,” I tell him.

“All of you—Sunset Decay.”

My eyes fall back on Noah.

He’s carrying a world of insecurity and suspicion in his green eyes.

My nails dig into the cushion behind me, nerves chewing me alive, and I don’t even know why.

All I have is honesty.

“Your heart—that’s what’s pulling me. Watching you up there? You showed me the map I’ve been looking for. The direction I want for Soundwave when it’s in my hands.” Noah’s a breathing statue as I hold his stare. “It’s simple. Your music is honest and fresh. It makes me feel so many things, and I want the whole world feeling all that with me.”

And right now, it’s their hearts I feel pounding in this room, half-thinking I’m bullshitting, half-thinking this is the first time anyone’s called them good.

“Truth is, I wanna sign you right now.

“‘Cause I could.

“I have the power to do it.”

The blond one mutters “Holy shit.”

“But I won’t,” I tell them, scanning their unpoisoned faces. Not while the wrong hands are still on the label. I need a year. ‘Cause I’d rather fuck myself over than fuck you over.”

It’s not a lie.

This could backhand me any second.