Page 15 of A Daddy for Christmas 3: Matty

Jinx sighed. “We didn’t hire you to be an opening act. Wesignedyou to be stars. But you have to listen. You have to understand that we know what we’re doing. We can take you to the next level—”

“We haven’t been to the first level.” Finn pushed his chair back from the table.

“We have a following building. I mean, granted it’s mostly in Vegas, but…”

“That’s not enough to not consider this.” Jinx stood and took a moment to look at each of us. “I get it. Star Fly has been your baby, but it’s not a good name for a metal band. It doesn’t fit your brand. At all.”

Not wanting to be looked down on, I stood, too. “What exactly is our brand?”

Miami put his hands behind his head, elbows out, and leaned back in his chair. “You’re badass rockers. Taking no shit from no one. Hell, you look more like a motorcycle club than musicians, but you still play like you have demons to fucking kill. Of course.”

Jinx popped him upside the back of the head. “Not that he’s wrong. But yeah. You need a name that we can make a kick ass logo out of.”

Wolf pulled up one of his sleeves, showing off his Midnight Hunt logo inked into his upper arm. “Something stupid kids will want tattooed on them.”

As usual, Tank was tuned in exactly where he needed to be. He put his water bottle on the table and looked directly at Jinx. “Like what? What kind of name?”

Jinx started pacing across the room. “I don’t know Radical Dissonance?”

I scowled. I wasn’t going to be radical anything. “If we’re changing the name. If.” I added a glare for good measure. There was nothing in our contract that said we had to go along with this. But… “It has to be better thanthat.”

“Okay…what else? Let’s brainstorm.” Jinx put his hands on the table and leaned forward. “Wolf? Kai?”

Wolf grunted. “Fatal Break.”

Gonzo threw out, “Fatal Attraction.”

“Isn’t that a movie?” Finn scrunched up his face. “How about something with Soul. Like Fatal Soul? I mean, music hits the soul, right?”

Everyone was nodding. But that wasn’t quite it. After a moment or two, Cat said, “What about Soul Shred. Music hits the soul, and you shred.” She played an air guitar.

Everyone looked at her, the room silent for a long heartbeat. Then the marketing dude made some weird noise. “Hang on…” He opened a sketchbook and drew something. “Check it out.” He turned the paper around to show a rough sketch of a grim reaper with a guitar instead of a sickle. Or rather, a guitar that kind of resembled a sickle. “That would make a killer tattoo, huh, Wolf?”

Wolf tilted his head back and forth.

Finn tapped on the image. “And maybe a star-thing behind it?”

“Star thing?” Wolf asked.

“Yeah, you know.” He turned the notebook around and grabbed a pencil, drawing out what he meant.

“Oh, pentagram, yeah, that’ll look badass.” The market guy took the book and sketched the star pattern behind his reaper. “Yeah? Soul Shred.” He etched the name in script. “Maybe more like with blood dripping or something. I can polish it up on the computer.”

“Guys?” I looked around at my band, Finn, Gonzo, who had been quieter than normal, and Tank. I didn’t want to make the decision alone. “What do you think?”

“Fucking cool.” Finn gave a chin nod.

Tank elbowed Finn. “I like it.”

“That’s what I said,” Finn huffed.

“Gonz? What do you think?” I needed him to weigh in as well.

His face was unreadable until he smiled broadly. “I like it. I’m stoked, man.”

“Guess we’re in with Soul Shred.” I turned to Jinx and watched him cross the room.

He slapped my back while giving me a big hug. “This is going to be killer.”