MORGAN NICHOLS couldn't get the dream out of his mind. He could almost see the neon rainbow sign with the burned out W, and hear the band playing all those old songs. And he could still see the strange look in the eyes and the wild, go-to-hell grin on the face of the man who called himself Luke Carter. Making a Real Deal with Luke was a dangerous game but that wasn't what bothered him. It was the other side of the coin that put him on the tight wire and held him there night after night. It was the promise of writing great songs and singing them before huge audiences of screaming fans. It was the glitter of the stage lights and the glamour of the nightlife that seduced him, and the seduction was much too potent for him to withstand. Like it or not, underneath it all Morgan Nichols was just an ordinary man, lured by the Lorelei call of Nashville every bit as much as the thousands of others that came each year.

It hadn't been a good year for Morgan. First, the album hadn't sold as well as everyone had predicted,  and the last single had died without breaking the top twenty. Ticket sales to his concerts dropped off early in the summer, and then not one but two of the tour busses had broken down and the repairs cost every penny he made for two concerts. Worst of all, his bookings had begun to drop soon after the tickets sales did. Now here it was almost Christmas with only two more shows to play this year, and he knew both shows together wouldn't even come close to meeting the next payroll. He'd have to make up the difference out of his pocket again. Doing that would just about take all the money he had left. What's next? Thought the weary singer, as he listened to the whine of the big engine and the wheels steady roar on the asphalt. What the hell is next?