Hard As Rock Read Online Free PDF Page A

tickets.”
    I put my hand on his arm to stop him. “Before you do that… there’s one more piece of business I need to take care of first.”

9
    By 10AM, I found myself sitting across from Glen at Rolling Stone’s offices. Ryan sat by my side.
    I hadn’t wanted to take him with me – it was something I felt I should do on my own – but Ryan won me over with logic.
    “Is this guy going to treat you with respect?”
    “Ha,” I snorted. “Probably not.”
    “Is he going to threaten you?”
    “Not physically.”
    “But with lawsuits or something.”
    “…yeah, probably.”
    “And you owe him money?”
    “…yeah…”
    “And you’re late on the assignment?”
    “ Oh yeah.”
    “So he’s probably going to go full nuclear on you.”
    “Probably.”
    “In cases like this, I’ve found it’s always good to have a powerful ally. And a witness.”
    “Yeah, but…”
    I was going to say, He wants Derek, not you. But I knew how rude and hurtful that was going to sound.
    Ryan knew exactly what I was thinking – again. I could tell by the slightly amused upturn in the corner of his mouth. It was a little eerie how well he could read me. But he didn’t show that he was bothered by my thoughts in the slightest. “Of course he wants Derek. But since you want out, I’m his next best option. He’s not going to get Derek except through me. If he has half a brain, he’ll realize that.”
    “But you can’t get Derek to do anything, either.”
    “Yeah, but this Rolling Stone guy doesn’t know that.”
    I sighed and eventually gave in.
    I’m so glad I did.

10
    When we walked in, Glen was frosty to me, but immediately started doing his “I’m your biggest fan” dance with Ryan.
    Ryan was far friendlier than Derek had been. I mean, come on, it’s hard to get much worse than, ‘Take your tongue out of my ass, buddy.’ So in the end, we all settled into our chairs with a fair amount of goodwill and civility.
    The editor watched me closely, but his eyes kept glancing furtively over to Ryan.
    “So… you have the story?” he asked.
    “…no,” I said, my stomach feeling like there was a lead block inside it.
    I saw Glen’s hands clench together on the desk. “I see. And when do you think you’ll be able to get it to me?”
    I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. I cleared my throat and tried again. “…it might be a long time. It might be… a really, really long time.”
    Glen’s face started to turn pink with anger. “I hired you specifically to – ”
    “I know, Glen, I know, and I feel awful about it,” I said, and I did feel awful. In fact, I felt like shit. “But… we… broke up.”
    He looked at me for a long moment… and then shook his head and flung out his hands like, SO?
    “I fail to see how that impacts your ability to finish the job I hired you to do,” he snapped.
    “It’s… really hard.”
    “That’s what being a professional is all about,” he said condescendingly. “You do the work even when it is hard.”
    I wanted to jump across the desk and strangle the arrogant bastard.
    But he had a really good point.
    That’s what made him so infuriating.
    But then Ryan jumped in with an even better one.
    “How long have you covered musicians, Glen?” Ryan asked.
    Immediately Glen dropped the whole pissed-off editor routine and became a huge sycophant. “Oh, almost twenty years, give or take.”
    “For Rolling Stone?”
    Glen hesitated. “No… smaller magazines. I’ve only been here for the last year.”
    Huh. This was the first I’d heard of it.
    “Well, I’m sure you know from covering musicians that usually they don’t get the work done when thing are hard. When there are rifts in the band, when there are outside stresses, when things are falling apart… they don’t record. They cancel tours. They don’t get the work done.”
    Glen didn’t like being contradicted, and his voice got a little smug, while still managing to stay halfway unctuous. “Well, Ryan