Say it Louder by Heidi Joy Tretheway

what’s happening and I owe him the truth.
    I owe it to them all.
    I don’t tell them that I spent a night wrapped up in Willa’s bed, or that she told me to get lost until I deal with Kristina. Even when I went back and warned her that Kristina knows her address and might try to hurt her to get back at me, Willa just crossed her arms and marched me back out the door of her tattoo shop.
    “I can take care of myself. But you have to take care of your shit. When it’s done, you know where to find me.”
    Every day that ticks by has me further paralyzed by the fear of fallout from confronting Kristina. And I know I’m a hypocrite being frozen by what-ifs, when those are exactly what I told Willa to fight.
    Jayce’s face hardens when I admit I haven’t seen Kristina yet or thrown her out of my house for good. “You promised to get rid of her. The way I see it, this is even more reason to cut her loose.”
    “I will. I just don’t know how she’ll react.” My excuse is weak and they all know it.
    “I told you it doesn’t matter. Whatever she’s going to do to lash out at you and the band, we’ll deal with that.” The fierceness in Gavin’s voice dares me to defy him. “But right now, we’ve got to deal with the other half of the problem. Chief has to go. There are no two ways about it.”
    “What about the album release?” Jayce says. “We’re close enough to dropping it that switching managers could seriously complicate things.”
    “Remember that our label likes Chief. He doesn’t just handle our PR, he handles them, and that’s worth something,” Tyler adds. “If we lose him, we could be on shaky ground.”
    Gavin says we’re already on shaky ground—between his disappearing act and the unauthorized release of the song “Wilderness,” the label execs and their legal department have already given us too many warnings.
    And then there’s the tour. Chief’s main focus over the last few weeks has been organizing a seventeen-city stadium tour that would kick off next month. Jayce reminds us that negotiations could fall apart if we cut ties with Chief.
    “It has to be a business decision,” Jayce says, but right now I’d love to make it personal. Intense physical pain-type personal.
    “He fucked Dave’s girlfriend. That makes him untrustworthy. There’s your business decision,” Gavin argues.
    “I already pulled his contract. We can dismiss him for gross negligence. I checked with our attorney to be sure.” I skip over the part where I already told him he was fired as he was backing his half-naked ass out of my house.
    I also skip the part where I asked the attorney to look over Willa’s gallery contract. After he inserted clauses to limit the gallery’s rights to reprint her work for advertising purposes, he gave Willa the green light to sign.
    And just like that, Willa’s going to have her own show.
    “What are you smiling for?” Tyler looks at me strangely. “Looking forward to another night of my amazing cooking?”
    I snap back to the present. “I just want to be done with Chief.”
    “You think you could handle some contract stuff until we get a new manager?” Tyler asks, and suddenly all eyes are on me. I was the manager before Chief, and now they’re looking to me to deal with the aftermath.
    “Yeah. It’s not Chief’s band. It’s ours. The label will deal with me.”
    Gavin spreads his hands. “Then we’re in agreement?”
    Tyler nods first, then Jayce. Good.
    Gavin turns to me. “You want to go to his office and deliver the news with me?”
    “You’re going?”
    “I’m not letting you go alone and get your ass thrown in jail for beating him to a pulp,” Gavin retorts.
    “Not that he wouldn’t deserve it,” Jayce adds. “Prick.”
    “I appreciate the support,” I say, and I mean it. Like whoa I mean it, and for the first time in too long, I feel like I do actually have their support.  

    ***

    “No matter how badly you want to make this personal, Dave,