Revenge of the Broken Hearts is the eight book in my Skye Wright Rise and Fall series, and is coming out this late June/early July.

Chance

     Skye thought about how her friends had warned her that the singer for Deaf Lark Sensors was smitten with her, and his status as temporary boy toy to help her let off some steam now and then was a precarious one since he was getting ideas that they were a serious couple.
     She was initially attracted to him because of his lyrics. As the main song writer for his band, he put a lot more thought into what he was writing than most musicians she knew. She decided to associate with such a musical scribe even though his band was in a more eclectic genre than the usual barbed-wire-in-a-meat-grinder kind of music her previous partners were usually associated with.
     He did have that one irritating habit.
     “The new offices are going to have a storefront…”
     “Oh! You know what you should do with the store? Def sell lots of accessories, not just music.”
     Skye sat back and sipped her coffee, not having been able to finish her sentence before Huffer interrupted her.
     She wanted to get back to the subject of the new storefront, but after Huffer offered his learned suggestions on how to make the Butt Fork store more effective, he steered the subject to his band and their plans for their new album.
     “More coffee?” asked Skye as she held up her empty coffee cup.
     Huffer paused, as if he was surprised by the abrupt intrusion of his monologue. “Yeah, sure.”
     Skye busied herself with her coffeemaker as she mulled Huffer’s conversational excitability. She didn’t feel they knew each other well enough at the time for her to let him know that she would like to get a word in edgewise now and then, though she knew she would eventually have to bring it up if their association lasted much longer.
     Skye usually had a difficult time with jabberjaws, people who would hold other people or even groups of people hostage with their verbal diarrhea, but Huffer always had something interesting to say, and she silently reacted with nods and subtle hand gestures whenever he made an interesting point about whatever subject he was lecturing about at the time.
     His cute and cerebral factors were his saving grace. Even though she rarely ever went after guys inflicted with the cute curse, there was something refreshing about his bright eyes and young face along with his neatly trimmed beard, as well as his intellectual pursuits, a diversion from the usual kind of men she found herself jumping.
     But she knew in her heart that their coupling was only temporary. Their casual relationship was on a path to doom. She knew it only too well. And she only felt slightly guilty about it.
     “So when can my band score some studio time?” asked Huffer as she came back to the kitchen table with fresh coffee.
     “You’d have to ask Larry,” said Skye as she picked up Dee Dee from her chair and sat down.
     Huffer looked stunned, his bright eyes getting wider. “But you’re the owner of Butt Fork.”
     “Yeah? So?”
     “You can jam us in, right?”
     “Hell no. Larry does alla’ the studio scheduling now.”
     Huffer sat still in his chair, looking indignant.
     “Hey, I got enough on my plate,” said Skye. “I gotta delegate.”
     “But…”
     Skye waved a hand. “Larry knows you’re down with me. He’ll put you guys in a good spot.”
     Huffer decided at that point to launch into the finer details of how he intended to set up his band’s recording sessions.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

     Skye slumped in her office chair as she felt her shoulders and eyes become heavy as she engaged in a daily morbid task.
     She reflected on how Tandasil was always hailed as the real boss of the Butt Fork label and studio, and never did she feel that concept more acutely than when she opened the daily sales, financial, and inventory reports that the Vulcan, the unofficial nickname for Tandasil, insisted Skye look over every morning, even if she only did so perfunctorily.
     Skye was not sure why the spreadsheeted burden brought her mood down. With the addition of The Powder Snouts, the sudden and inexplicable viral success of The Jolly Sturms, and the alt-music sensation Gail Burp defecting to their label, they were raking in sales and cash at an alarming rate for a business that was supposed to be a semi-stable underground industry dweller.
     That The Dynamite Chicks were becoming even more popular with their last tour was also making waves.
     Even with all of the eclectic looking punks wandering around the place, Skye could easily spot the multi-colored dreadlocks of her old gutter punk friend Trilly.
     Trilly was waving a stack of papers at Skye. “I gotta touch base with you about the new storefront.”
     “You do?”
     “Tandasil recruited me to help with the new space.”
     “No shit?” blurted Skye in genuine surprise.
     “If Colleen were working on the store instead a’ fuckin’ around with office stuff she’d be doin’ all this… whatever the fuck it is I have to do,” exasperated Trilly as she looked over the papers in her hand.
     “Eh, you’ll be fine,” said Skye.
     “Fuck me,” said Trilly as she continued to stare at the pages. “I keep thinkin’ I’m gonna fuck somethin’ up.”
     Skye stood up and stretched her arms. “At least you’re not acting like some self-righteous douche who thinks she’s got it all under control. Those are the assholes that make the real mistakes.” Skye looked at her laptop. “You goin’ over there? To the new spot?”
     “Should I?’ asked Trilly, looking worried as she looked up from her pages.
     “Let’s go wander to the new headache after I look over all this junk. We can grab a cuppa coffee on the way over.”
     Trilly leaned on the desk. “Hey, you still bangin’ DF Huffer?”
     Skye rolled her eyes in slight surprise. “Now an’ then, yeah. What’s it to you?”
     “Eh. People are jus’ gettin’ worried.”
     “Worried about what?”
     “Y’know, he’s a tweaky type.”
     Skye had to roll her eyes again. “Like I’m ever gonna get together with someone who’s not a whack job.”
     “There’s something about him that bugs me.”
     “I know, he can be kinda twitchy.” Skye leaned on her desk. “Don’t worry. I won’t be with him much longer.”
     Trilly checked her phone. “Okay, Tandasil just texted me with more storefront details.”
     “Are you totes in charge of the store now?”
     Trilly pocketed her phone. “Damn Skye, don’t you even know what’s happening with your own company?”
     “Fuck no. There’s too many goddam details to fuck with.”
     Skye promised to make her way to the new storefront in a few minutes as Trilly ran off. Skye decided to cruise her social media pages before turning to her emails, trying to see how much time she could realistically waste before she had to deal with actual business once again.
     She checked out a few bands on Instagram and then perused the official Butt Fork BlueSky account to see what the social media manager Francine had been up to before making a gratuitous pass on Facebook.
     She was scrolling through her feed when Skye’s eyes suddenly became wide as her heart skipped a beat.
     “Holy fuck!” she said under her breath.
     “Holy fuck?”
     The short spikey black hair and thick rimmed glasses known as Molly had snuck up behind her.
     Skye pointed at her laptop. “My old friend Jules came up on my Facebook suggestions.”
     “Jules?”
     “I knew him from high school. He was the one who shot me up with junk that one time, back in the day when I was a total wastoid.”
     “Holy crap! I didn’t know you did heroin.”
     “I smoked it a couple a’ times before Jules, but I only slammed it once, that one time with him.”
     “Damn! No shit?” asked a still wide-eyed Molly.
     “Why you so surprised? You knew I was an all out speed freak, right? Is it such a leap to think I at least tried heroin?”
     Molly’s face relaxed. “Yeah. I shouldn’t talk. I done plenty a’ drugs myself.”
     “You ever get mixed up with junk?”
     “Fuck no. I mean, I was offered plenty a’ times, but I never touched the stuff.”
     Skye turned back to her laptop. “I wouldna’ blame you if you did.”
     Molly pulled up a chair and sat down. “You ever grind about that?”
     “About him shooting me up?”
     “Yeah. Like, he got you to try some stuff you weren’t into at the time. Coulda been dangerous.”
     “Hell no. I’m glad he did it.”
     “Really?”
     Skye sat back in her chair. “I never got into junk, but a lot a’ my friends did, especially my friends in the program who are tryin’ to stay clean. Even though it wasn’t my gig, I know what the stuff tastes like. I know what my friends are up against.”
     “Makes sense.” Molly looked at Jules’ Facebook profile. “I remember him from his band, that splash they made.”
     “They made that splash because he was in the band.”
     “What? Ladies man?”
     “God, everybody wanted a’ piece a’ him.”
     Molly raised an eyebrow. “I bet more than a few boys wanted to grab that too.”
     “No doubt.”
     Molly leaned in and took a closer look at Jules’ profile. “Wait, I really remember this guy now. He went out with my gal Shay.”
     “Shay, the bass player for Chum Hummer?”
     “She was totally smitten. He ended up cheating on her.”
     Skye crossed her arms. “Lemme guess. With another junky?”
     “Yeah. She was really pissed.”
     “He ticked off a lotta lovers back then.”
     Molly was silent for a moment as she rolled her eyes in thought. “Didn’t he have a gym? Like, he was a fitness instructor?”
     “Boxing gym. He was a boxer.”
     Molly’s eyes brightened. “Yeah! He got like, super clean and sober and started a boxing gym.”
     “I was there.”
     “At the gym?”
     “He taught me a few moves. I learned a few things.”
     “I didn’t know you were a boxer.”
     “I’m not. Not really. My fighting style is still more barroom brawling.”
     Molly got a dour look on her face. “He relapsed though.”
     “Hard. He went straight back to junk.”
     Molly seemed to sink in her chair. “No light beer relapse? I remember a lot of people were really bummed about it.”
     Skye leaned on her desk and gazed at Jules’ Facebook profile. “It was a big deal. It was like, shock waves, everywhere. The punk scene, the drug scene, the recovery scene… He broke a lotta hearts when he went back out.”
     “You gonna hit him up?”
     “Fuck yeah I am. I wanna find out what he’s up to.”
     Molly’s expression became serious. “I mean, some peoples were kinda worried about you hanging out with Huffer. That Jules guy…”
     “What about Jules?”
     “You know, the junk.”
     “Jesus Molly, how many people we know who’ve relapsed? How many junkies do we know? We don’t just write them off when they trip up.”
     “Yeah, sure. But…”
     Molly fumbled with her hands.
     Skye held up a hand. “Don’t worry Mol. I know what I’m doing.”
     “Sure. No big.”
     Molly turned and made her way into the studio as Skye puzzled over Molly’s reaction.
     She decided to chalk the conversation up to random weirdness as she wrote a message to Jules, asking how he was doing.

You can find the entire Skye Wright series below.
Just click on the pic for the series!

https://needlepictures.com/tbd/book-series/skye-wright-series/