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“Time for the cattle call,” Roshio said with a sneer.

“Don't call it that,” Violet snapped.

The younger man cast me a private look that saidYou agree with me, right?But I didn't reward him with a response. I just pushed my fingertips together over my lap and jerked my chin at Farrah where she was waiting by the door. “Let the first one in.”

Violet passed a booklet to me, then over to Roshio. She flipped through her own as she talked. “This will be Vienna Short. She's from Orange County, did backup vocals for the Starships' Burst Tour.”

“The Starships?” Roshio mused. “They're pretty well known.”

The girl swayed into the room on six-inch red heels. Her twin braids swung on her shoulders as she flashed me a wink. “Oh my gosh, can I just say I’msoexcited to be here?”

I bet she wouldn’t have said that a few days ago.Her whole demeanor came off plastic. I disliked her instantly. “Vienna?” I asked.

“That’s me!” she giggled.

I flipped through her file. “Go ahead and sing something for us.”

“My pleasure, doll.” Her voice dripped with too-sweet honey. Yet, when she cleared her throat and began her song, it was like her lyrics were plain, dry white bread. Boring and flavorless. Before she’d finished the tune, I held up my hand. She startled, mouth popping open as she stared at me incredulously.

“That’s enough.”

“Oh, then you...” She was waiting for me to compliment her. Violet stared at me so intently I felt her eyeballs burning a hole in my skull.

“We’re done,” I said. I flipped to a new page. “Farrah,” I called loudly. “Next, please.”

Vienna was stunned. The color in her cheeks increased, like she was about to curse at me. Amazingly, she managed a tiny nod, a brief finger-wave, then she strutted past my secretary and out the door.

I hoped the next singer would be better.

She wasn’t.

Girl after girl entered, all of them some caricature that screamedmy agent is trying to brand me.Wild hair colors, random accessories, false piercings; it was painfully inauthentic. But I could have tolerated that. Those are things that can be changed. But their voices... their talent... that was where they missed the mark. That was unfixable.

“Bach, you're going too far,” Violet growled at me. I’d just waved away another countless failure. I’d already forgotten her name.

“Stop pressuring me. Wait until we hear them all.”

“Thatwasall of them, Bach. You just said no to the last girl.”

Sobering ice jolted up my spine.I said no to all of them?

“What's your problem, man?” Roshio asked. “You seriously don't want to sign anyone? And I thought I'd be the picky one in this room.”

“Can you give us a moment?” Violet asked him. Roshio spun his chair in a circle, then walked out the door without looking back. I was jealous that he could exit so smoothly. There was no pressure on him to salvage an empire. “Bach. What's going on?”

Shaking my head, I said, “They weren’t good enough. Did you vet them, all of them?”

Her forehead split into rows of tight, angry lines. “I spent the last three days listening to track after track from these girls. I was picky when I chose this lineup. Iknowthese girls have talent and some, if not all of them, would be a perfect fit for this company!”

“Try again,” I snapped.

“I'm sorry,try again?”

“You heard me.” Fuck, my head was splitting; I gripped my temples and frowned. “Find new people to audition. Maybe the guys will be better, I don't know, but this isn't working.”

“We agree on something, at least.” Gathering up the booklets, she avoided looking me in the eye. “You're the boss. I'll go through the submissions again. Maybe some of the girls I didn't pick for this audition are worth giving a second look.”

“That sounds fine.” It didn't, and the air crackled between us from our shared black mood. We’d been starving to get musicians interested in the company for months. Now we had them! Auditions was supposed to be the easy part!