“Yeah, well if you’re this excited, just think how your dad must feel,” Cory said.
Noah smiled and nodded his head, remembering how surprised his and Otis’ dad had been when he asked him to play on Jagged Ivory’s next album. The old man had actually gotten a little emotional.
“Hey, Otis,” he called out. “How’d that bridge feel?”
Otis sighed again as he looked up at him. “Felt a little rushed actually,” he mumbled. “Needs work.”
Noah nodded his head as he studied him. He wished there was something he could say to pull his brother out of the headspace he was in. But the press coverage hadn’t been kind, calling Otis just about everything from a rapist to a child molester, and Noah knew that the scandal had thrown him for a loop.
“So, Best Man,” Noah smiled at him, trying again. “You planning something special for our boy here?”
Otis returned his smile, but Noah could see that he was preoccupied with his own thoughts. “I had some ideas,” he answered.
“What ideas?” Buzzy asked with a frown.
“Don’t worry about it,” Otis smiled.
“Too late! Listen, Otis … I don’t want a bachelor party, alright?” Buz said. “I mean it.”
“What do you mean, no bachelor party?” Cory asked.
“I mean no bachelor party,” he replied. “I don’t want some wild, drunken night that leaves me hungover and emotionally absent from my wedding.”
“Come on, man,” Benji spoke up. “Who said anything about a wild, drunken night? You are dealing with two addicts in this group, you know.”
“Yes, I know. But you know what I mean,” Buz answered.
“Relax, man,” Otis said with a quiet wave of his hand. “It won’t be anything too wild and crazy, I promise. I like Janie too much to have you fucked up on your wedding day, okay?”
“I’m sure she’ll appreciate that,” Buz smiled. “Hey, man, you know what we should do? We should combine it and make it a bachelor/birthday party! That way, we can invite the women too. What do you think?”
“Hey, now that’s not a bad idea, man,” Noah offered, pointing a finger at Buz.
“No,” Otis said sternly as he rolled his eyes at them. “Absolutely not. I don’t want a birthday party.”
“Aw, come on, O,” Buz said, frowning at him. “Man, you only turn thirty once. That’s a milestone! You’re entering a whole new decade.”
“No.”
“Yeah, Otis. Might do you some good, brother,” Cory chimed in.
“No!”
“Uh … correct me if I’m wrong, O,” Benji said, fixing Otis with a serious scowl. “But when I turned thirty, I believe you made me have a party that I didn’t want to have. Remember?”
Otis said nothing as he rolled his eyes once more. Then he looked up at the ceiling as he took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. They were trying. He knew that they were all just trying to turn his mood around. To get him to stop dwelling on the scandal and the mess he was in. They meant well. But he really wasn’t in a partying mood. In fact, he would skip the bachelor party completely if he wasn’t the one expected to throw it. And if it wasn’t for one of his brothers. But he knew that there was no way he was getting out of it. He was the Best Man, after all.
“Look, I had some specific, special plans that I was looking into for the bachelor party, alright?” he said. “I’m not interested in changing that up just to include the girls. Besides, my birthday is still two weeks away.”
He shook his head at them, feeling grateful when they finally let the matter drop. And when they called it quits for the day and packed up to head out, Otis felt a mixture of relief and dread. Relief that he didn’t have to work to keep his game face on in front of them anymore. But now he dreaded being alone with his thoughts. And it wasn’t like he could escape it by watching TV. His face was plastered on every news broadcast, both tabloid and mainstream. Sex scandals were always such a big deal.
He slid behind the wheel of his bright green, 2013 Lamborghini Aventador convertible and strapped himself in. All the while thinking back over his conversation with Mike a couple of weeks ago when the story first broke. They had been in Las Vegas at the time for the last few shows of that leg of the tour, and Mike had flown out just to talk to him…
~~~~~
“Okay, so let me get this straight,” Mike had asked, staring him in the eyes. “You had no idea that she was recording your little escapade that night?”
“No. I had no idea,” Otis repeated. “Look, Mike … you know me. I will be completely honest with you about what happened that night. It was our first night in Cleveland, and Cory and I had gone to some club Buzzy wanted to take us to. Yes, I had been drinking. Probably a little too much, but I wasn’t wasted. I remember the events of that night with pretty good accuracy, and that girl was the furthest thing from innocent that I’ve ever met. You can ask Cory and Buz about the limo ride where she offered to blow us all on the way to the club!”
“And did you all take her up on it?” he asked.
Otis hesitated, shaking his head. “No. Just me. But they can confirm my story.”
Mike said nothing as he nodded his head, studying him closely.
Otis hated the look of uncertainty and judgment he saw in his manager’s eyes. Why did that bother him? “Okay, fine! Did we have some pretty raunchy sex that night? Yes, we did. You’ve both seen the tape a million times by now, I’m sure, and you can see that she was a very willing participant. But did I know that she was only seventeen at the time? No! Again … you’ve seen the tape. Does she look seventeen to you?”
“Otis …” Noah began. But Otis pointed a finger at him to silence him.
“I’m not talking to you, hot shot! I’m asking Mike,” he said, glaring at his brother and focusing on Mike once more. “How old does she look in that tape?”
Mike took a deep breath. “I’m afraid whether she looks seventeen or twenty-seven on the video is not the issue, Otis,” he responded. “The issue is that she was seventeen at the time.”
“And she’s the one who made the fucking video,” Otis countered with an angry yell. “I am the victim here; not her! When she walked into that dressing room she had an agenda, Mike. And a target, by the way, and it wasn’t me!”
He glared at Noah again as he sat back in his chair, and Noah gave him a sad smile. He nodded his head as he turned to Mike.
“He’s right, Mike,” Noah confirmed. “I was the first one on her radar when she walked into the dressing room that night. She came on strong, right in front of Mercy. And that’s not really new, I mean … girls do that all the time, but … this was different. It was like she was on a mission. And Mercy and Buz … we all witnessed her game. If it hadn’t been Otis, it would’ve been someone else. She was determined to go to bed with a member of Jagged Ivory that night and she didn’t care which one.”
“Any one of us could have ended up on her little camera,” Otis spit out.
“Okay,” Mike sighed. “Well, fortunately, I think we’re dealing with an amateur here. If she intended to use this as some sort of leverage to extort you, she’s played her cards all wrong by selling that video to the tabloids. She might get a few thousand dollars out of them, but her fifteen minutes will be up soon, and this will all blow over. But, just in case, I’ve had a conversation with Lenny Walsh.”
“Lenny Walsh?” Noah asked.
“He’s a criminal attorney. Holland Management retains his law firm for cases such as this. Like I said, I believe Katherine ‘Kiki’ Hall is an amateur who’s just looking for a little notoriety and a quick pay off. But, her father is another story.”
“Her father?” Otis frowned.
“Yes. It seems that Katherine is not the only member of the Hall family with dollar signs in their eyes. Because she was underage at the time, her father is apparently looking into filing statutory rape charges.”
“Fuck!”
Otis couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Rape
? Seriously?
“Don’t get discouraged,” Mike told him. “It sounds much worse than it actually is. I think this is just a threat to up the dollar amount they’re eventually going to ask for.”
“You think,” Otis stated. “But you’re not completely sure of that, are you?”
Mike had hesitated for a moment longer than Otis liked. “No. Not a hundred percent.”
“Whoa, wait a minute, Mike,” Noah frowned at him. “What exactly are you saying here? Could Otis end up doing time for this?”
“Possibly,” he answered. “I’m having Lenny look into the statutory rape laws in Ohio. But at this point the answer to your question could be anywhere from six months to 5 years.”
“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” Otis said, suddenly feeling as though the walls were closing in around him.
“I’ve also had Lenny file a counter suit on your behalf, Otis.”
“What kind of counter suit?” Noah asked when it became clear that Otis was still in shock.
“Well, unfortunately, we can’t touch her for making the recording without your knowledge since in Ohio only one party needs to be aware. But we can file on defamation of character. It’s not much, but at least it lets them know that you’re not just going to roll over and take it. We’ve also named the rag that paid for the footage and broke the story in the filing as well.
~~~~~
Otis shifted the car into gear as the conversation played over in his head for the hundredth time. And he shook his head as he pulled out of the studio’s lot and onto the street. He had never professed to be a choir boy. Hell, he had done some things even he wasn’t proud of. But rape? Statutory or otherwise, it was something he would never do. He loved women way too much to ever brutalize one. And the thought that people were now watching that sex video online and thinking of him as some kind of pervert really pissed him off.
And he had never thought of himself as a ‘mama’s boy,’ but it bugged him to think that his mother had seen any part of that footage. He wasn’t sure why exactly. He knew that Kay Ivory had never been a prude. In fact, both of his parents were pretty liberal in their beliefs and in their conduct. They had met through the music and done their own version of the whole rock and roll party scene, so it wasn’t like they didn’t know what kind of lives their boys were leading. Still, it bothered him, and he found himself wondering what she must be thinking of him.
Of course, his mom and dad both reached out with a huge show of support the minute the scandal hit the airwaves, and the guys were all being super supportive. Especially Noah, which surprised him a little. But his younger brother seemed totally sincere in his assertions that “Kinky Kiki” could have come after any one of them that night and that Otis had pulled the short straw simply because he was the only one not attached or hung up on another girl at the time.
He took a deep breath as he carefully weaved the car through traffic. He needed to let this go and clear his head, but he knew there wasn’t much he could do to make that happen. Every talking head on the entertainment news programs had their opinions, and somehow Otis never seemed to come out well in their eyes. Suddenly, they were dredging up all of his past bad behavior and using it against him, like a measuring stick. They talked about how he never seemed to maintain a relationship for longer than a few weeks and how he seemed completely incapable of monogamy. Like that was somehow proof that he had coerced this seventeen-year-old girl into various sex acts that she didn’t want any part of. Like he was the one who had come on to her and had made a video of the entire thing for his private viewing pleasure. They were conveniently forgetting that she was the one who had recorded the tape for the sole purpose of selling it to the highest bidder.
Part of him was angry at their assessments of him. He could be as monogamous as the next person if he wanted to. But the key words were if he wanted to. And at this point in his life, he simply didn’t want to. If the rest of his brothers wanted to get married or shack up with their women, that was great, and Otis was genuinely happy for all four of them. But he saw nothing wrong with his lifestyle. If he wanted to live as a confirmed bachelor for the rest of his life - swearing off marriage and sleeping with however many women he wanted to - that was his business. And all those talking heads could go fuck themselves!
He accelerated as he continued on his way, heading for the 110/Harbor Freeway that would take him back to Malibu. Back to the comfort, and relative sanctuary, of his home. Maybe a walk on the beach later would help clear his mind a little. That and the drive.
Otis had always been a lover of cars of all types. Especially exotics, and his Aventador was his pride and joy. He had other cars sitting in his garage at home - like his showroom condition, bright red, 1989 Lamborghini Countach, or his collector's edition, dark gray 2009 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren 722 S Roadster. But his Lamborghini Aventador was his favorite. It was his toy. His baby. When he wasn’t on tour, he drove her nearly every day, even if he had nowhere in particular to go. He just loved to drive. It was an activity that always brought him joy. He wasn’t really into the speed thing so much, although his Aventador could go from 0 to 100 kph in just three seconds! But it wasn’t about the speed for him. It was about the drive itself, about being the master of such beautiful, powerful machines. He loved it. It was a great stress reliever for him to slide behind the wheel of his car and take off. The destination didn’t much matter to him.
He was trying desperately to push his troubled thoughts to the background and just concentrate on the pull of the engine when he felt the impact. His head snapped to the side as his brain registered the sound of metal colliding, tires squealing, and glass shattering. He fought to keep control of the wheel as the Aventador went skidding a few dozen feet. And when the car came to a stop he realized he was gripping the steering wheel tightly with both fists. After a quick mental self-assessment, he determined that he was okay. But he knew. Even before getting out of the car, he knew that it was bad. That’s just the way his luck was going these days. Pulling his cell phone out of his pocket, he shook his head as he began to dial.
He made two quick phone calls before he even thought about getting out. Then, with a disgusted grimace on his face, he took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Then he moved, reaching to open the driver’s side door. Good thing he was hit on the passenger side, otherwise he might be looking at hospital time right now.
He got out of the car and slowly walked around her, examining the damage with a sinking countenance. Both hands came up to meet the top of his head as he stood looking at her. The entire passenger side was caved in.
“No, no, no, no,” he moaned to himself as if in pain.
“Shit, shit, shit!” The voice was female, and definitely upset. And Otis looked up and glared at her as she continued to wail.
“Of all the freaking cars on the road I had to hit this one! Couldn’t be a stupid Datsun or something cheap and crapy. No! It had to be something foreign that I can’t even pronounce, let alone afford,” she growled, as if arguing with herself. And Otis got the impression her day was going about as well as his was at this point. But that didn’t stop him from being angry as hell. Or from unleashing his anger all over her.
“Do you see what you have done to my car! You have destroyed my car,” he yelled as he advanced on her.
“I know,” she said timidly. “I’m sorry!”
“Sorry? You’re sorry!” His voice was loud and full of sarcasm as he confronted her. “Do you even know what this is? This is a Lamborghini Aventador, baby. $650,000 I paid for this car!”
“You spent $650,000 on a car? Are you insane?” she asked accusingly. “Nobody does that!”
“What? Don’t talk to me about what I spend my money on, sweetheart,” he yelled. “What the hell were you doing anyway? Texting?”
“No, I was not texting,” she yelled back at him. She understood that this was all her fault and that he had every right to be upset. But he didn’t have the right to berate her like this
. Who the hell did he think he was anyway? “And I’m fine, by the way. Thanks for asking!”
“You’re fine! You’re the one who should be asking me if I’m okay, seeing as you’re the one who just nearly killed me! But I guess you were too busy texting to pay attention,” he yelled back at her.
“I was not texting,” she yelled. “I was paying attention, and the light was … yellow.”
“That light was red and you blew right through it,” he yelled, getting in her face and staring her down. “You could have killed me. You have probably totaled my car!”
She was silent as she stared back at him, nodding her head and trying not to cry as she looked over at his crumpled vehicle. Fuck! This is just what she needed. She was done for. She knew it.
Otis took another deep breath, trying to calm down. He hated it when girls cried. Why were they always doing that? “Okay, look … I apologize, alright?” he said, trying to dial it back a few notches. What was he just saying to himself about not brutalizing women? That meant verbally too, so … he needed to rein it in. “I didn’t mean to yell at you, I’m just … really, really …”
“Angry,” she stated, finishing his thought. “I know. I get it, okay? And I know that this is all my fault. And I’m really sorry,” she said, losing the battle over her emotions as the tears finally came.
“Oh, no don’t,” Otis began, looking at her as if she were doing something revolting. “Don’t cry, alright? It’s not that serious.”
“Yes, it is,” she nearly sobbed. “I don’t have any insurance.”
Instantly, his blood was boiling, and he had to actively count to ten in his head to keep from going ballistic. No insurance! Of course she had no insurance, because that’s the kind of day he was having! Deep breaths. He needed to take deep breaths.
“I know I have no right to ask this, but … could we possibly keep this just between us? Do we have to call the police into this?” she asked, looking at him imploringly.
He snorted softly as he shook his head, smiling at her. “Well I’m sorry, sweet thing, but I called the police before I even got out of the car.”
The Essential Jagged Ivory (Jagged Ivory Boxed Set) Page 77
