Not Another Player

32.Underhanded

Look At Us Now // Daisy Jones & The Six

After the trial concluded for today, most of us convened back at Ryan's top floor hotel suite. It's a civil suit, not a criminal trial. But the more I heard today the more I wished Curt would be cuffed and booked tomorrow when the judge issues his ruling.

Clinton's testimony was damning.

He spent more than three hours on the stand reviewing audio and video footage he'd kept, pointing out the inconsistencies in Curt's story. Not even a day after he'd married Char, Clinton's team caught him with other women. Many other women. I could barely contain myself in my seat hearing there'd been verifiable proof that he was treating Char like shit so early on and Clinton hadn't said anything. I'm still pissed about it, hours later.

The second we isolated in the hotel room, Ryan started threatening to file his own lawsuit against Curt, in addition to the countersuit the band has filed against him for defamation and slander.

"That absolute motherfucker. I can't believe how massively underhanded he's been this entire time. You think you know a guy..." Ryan paces the room, grunting with every other step. The rest of C1 silently stew as they spread out around the suite. Seth leans against the wall in the corner, forehead scrunched as he alternates between watching Ryan pace and checking his phone. Alex sits in the armchair across from me, his feet up on the coffee table like a casual fucker without a care in the world. Ryan's the only one who seems remotely pissed off. Except for Jace who looks like he might toss his cookies as I glance at him over by the window. That guy can barely keep up with his bandmates. How's he going to survive much longer with them?

"We knew he was bad news from day one." Seth counters. "It's on us for turning a blind eye to the rest of it."

"Nah." Alex shakes his head. "Look around. This is the collateral damage left in Curt's wake. He's a tsunami." Alex stands up. "No, no. He's an earthquake. No forewarning. No time to avoid the wreckage."

"He's a fucking disaster, that's for sure." Ryan finally sits down at the table, tapping his fingers against the wood. His foot joins the rhythm against the leg of the chair. "We have to fight back. He bankrolled himself with our money. Band money. That's why he didn't throw as big of a fit as he should have when we kicked him out. He still had a direct line to band funds."

"He threw a pretty big fit," Seth says, side eyeing Jace who hops up and bolts out of the room.

Char looks down the hallway after him. Seconds of silent tension pass. "Is he okay?" She's been curled up next to me since we got here. Clinton showed up ten minutes after we did, once he'd secured Brianna and Zack in their penthouse suite. He knew we'd have questions. But I'm not sure he realized we'd also have grievances.

Seth follows Jace down the hall, to his credit, but Ryan waves them both off. "Curt put him through it, but he's fine."

I have no idea what that means but for now I'll leave it alone. We have bigger issues to figure out.

Another major bombshell Clinton disclosed after stating Curt pilfered money from his own band was that he'd also turned most of the road crew against them with trash talk. Clinton even caught him making a dirty deal with Randy to film Char, Brianna, Zack and his former bandmates every chance he had. Curt payed for Randy's plane ticket, following Char who flew out to see me in Hollywood. Because of all that, Curt turns out to be the source of most of the "pap" or random fan posts smearing all of us, me included. He was trying to smear my name before anyone even knew who I was.

I shake my head. "All of this intel because Clinton planted a guy as a roadie and wired him. Tapped Curt's phone." I look over to where Clinton is sitting. "Isn't wire-tapping some kind of federal crime?"