Hollywood Undercover

by Bella Love-Wins

  Rita looked amused. “That was a cute speech. Now, back to what we were discussing.”

  Angry now, Alexandra walked back to her seat and picked up her oversized bag. Fishing out her purse, she glared at Rita. The woman crossed her arms, and her eyebrows quirked as the call Alexandra made connected to the other end over her speakerphone.

  “Hirsch Mason and Associates,” the person on the other end answered.

  “Hi. Alexandra here. Is Hirsch around?”

  “One moment please.”

  The receptionist put her on hold for less than ten seconds. Hirsch had always told her she was an important client, and today it showed. When he answered, she told him, “Hirsch. I want to go ahead and make a move on acquiring Blaze Records.”

  Hirsch had no idea what she was talking about, but he was a professional. He replied with, “It’s a publicly traded company, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’ll get the ball rolling and report back in three hours.”

  “Thanks. The faster the better, Hirsch,” she said in closing.

  Stunned silence filled the room. After Alexandra hung up, she studied Rita, who looked like the rug was pulled out from right under her.

  Not so self-assured now, huh?

  Rita gathered herself in a quick beat, and made a silly stammered suggestion that Lexxi Rock couldn’t possibly afford to buy Blaze Records. If she was blind enough to wonder if Alexandra could do it, she was setting herself up for a bigger surprise when Hirsch moved on it. The man and his team of over seventy-five Mergers and Acquisition practitioners made things happen—fast. He even had a small group who understood how to work within the Williams Act and dealt with the SEC with ease. She could rely on him to navigate everything from making the public offer, to negotiating with major shareholders, to targeting brokers who would buy up any available shares if it came down to making a dawn raid to pick up the majority stake. Alexandra had the collateral to make it happen.

  She chuckled, but not in humor.

  Rita has no idea.

  Her head will spin when this deal happens in days, not weeks or months.

  Leaning over the conference table, she looked each person in the eye one by one, pausing for an extra beat on Wilkes. “There are about to be some changes around here. We can do it the easy way or the hard way. I’d hate to make this seem like a hostile takeover, but I have no problem making it exactly that, if it has to be.”

  Rita grabbed her tablet. “This meeting is over. Everyone out!”

  The room cleared in what seemed like a blink, leaving the two of them to square off. Rita’s heels clicked against the marble floor as she sauntered from her end of the table to where Alexandra stood. “What on earth are you doing, Lexxi?” she purred softly, smiling uncertainly.

  “What does it look like? I’m taking control of my career. My life! My answer to your proposed takeover of my life is no. No, I’m not going to fake a relationship with someone on your whim. No, I’m not going to let others control how I look, how I sound, what I put out and who I am. Not anymore.”

  “You have no experience handling a company of this size. You only see one side of the business and let me tell you, it’s multi-faceted. Besides, the major shareholders will never sell. You’re delusional.”

  Alexandra grinned. “Rita Sage, when you’re in my position, hiring someone to get the job done isn’t a problem.”

  “What position is that? Running to Daddy to buy you the pony you want? You’re a spoiled celebrity, Lexxi Rock.”

  “You’ll see spoiled when you’re out on the bread line. And you better believe money talks, even if I have to make an offer of double the share price to get controlling interest, even if I have to secure fifty-one percent of this label. Don’t even think I won’t start my own label in direct opposition to Blaze if I can’t acquire it. Bottom line is, you just lost your top artist…and your job.”

  Alexandra heard the catty, downright tyrannical tone in her own voice, but she had been pushed up against a wall for far too long.

  Rita lost her shit just then. “Oh, yeah?” she screamed. “You won’t last a year at the helm of Blaze. I’ve been here four years, and even with degrees in business, I’ve had a hard time with the music industry, with what it is. What makes you so special? You’re just a girl with a guitar who started off singing in coffee shops.”

  “Started in coffee shops and now I’m here, the top artist at your label. You may want to do yourself a favor and stop getting your artist history from Wikipedia. You see, Rita, I have degrees in business and finance, too.” Rita’s eyes bulged. “Oh, you didn’t know that? Hmm, learn something new every day. Also, I do actually have the money to make this acquisition happen. I don’t need to run to anyone for it, and there’s not a damn thing you can do about that. So, I guess I’d like to thank you, boss. You took away enough of my time, enough of my choices and enough of my life for me to finally get fed up enough to take it all back!”

  Rita trembled with rage. She couldn’t call Alexandra’s bluff, and it put her in the awkward position of having to bite her tongue. Alexandra turned away and walked to the door, phone in hand. She put it to her ear with a half-smile as behind her, Rita Sage became a blurred speck in her past.

  “Hello, Rick?” she said when he answered.

  “Hi doll. What’s up?”

  “I love you, dear. I do. You’ll always be family to me. But, as my manager, you’re fired.”

  “What?” he shouted in disbelief.

  She had bigger plans for Rick. With his savvy and contacts, he could get a call in to all the board members and get Rita out—if needed—by the end of the week. Rick would be happy when she told him the big picture and how he fit into her long-term plans for Blaze Records.

  “You heard me, Rick, but, don’t get too worried. I still have some things for you to do. Can you meet in person now? I’ll tell you all about it when I see you.”

  Chapter 55

  SEBASTIAN flipped through the TV channels and landed, completely by accident, on the music channel. Wouldn’t you know it, a music video by Lexxi Rock happened to be playing. He hadn’t been able to get her on the phone today. She had sent him a few texts, though. Now it seemed he had to settle for getting a small dose of her, the one she shared with her television audience of millions.

  He thought back to when Clint had tried to get him to listen to her albums. He hadn’t then. He just didn’t have the desire at the time. Now that they were closer—despite the distance—listening to her voice felt right.

  The doorbell rang. Sebastian quickly grabbed the remote and muted the volume. “Just a minute!”

  He was floored when he opened the door, but maybe he should have expected this. Aileen stood there, dressed as she usually did, and beside her was a man that held on to her arm like she was his.

  This is a first.

  “Good evening. Aileen, what are you doing here?”

  The man answered for her. “I’m Mitch. Aileen’s husband.”

  Sebastian looked at him, curious about why they would be at his door. They were the last people he expected to show up—and he had never seen Aileen’s husband before. It caught him so off guard that all he could do was stare. He wasn’t inviting them in, that was for sure.

  Aileen seemed extremely nervous, twisting her hands and looking down at her feet.

  “Can I help you two with something?”

  Aileen answered this time. “I…ummm…Mitch has something to say.”

  For a moment, Sebastian just looked back and forth between the two of them. Taking in the sight of them standing at his door. Wondering if it was some kind of sick joke Aileen was up to.

  “Look. We know about you and Lexxi Rock. Aileen saw her here in your house with her own eyes.”

  “That’s none of your concern.”

  “It is, if you don’t want us going to the media to set them straight about who Lexxi is really dating.”

  Sebastian scoffed. “This is crazy. What are y
ou doing? Extorting me? Aileen, whatever you think you saw, you need to think long and hard about what you say and do with the media…” His eyes narrowed when he looked over at her, and he thought of something. “Wait a minute. Hold on, Aileen. Mitch, how exactly did Aileen say she knew me?”

  Aileen put both her hands on Mitch’s forearm to get his attention. “Mitch, I really think this was a bad idea. Can we just go? Maybe I didn’t see what I thought I did.”

  “Not so fast, woman,” Mitch answered, holding form at the front door. “The man asked me a question and I’m going to answer it.” He turned back to Sebastian and said, “Aileen here told me she met you when she dropped off a contractor quote a few days ago.”

  This was too crazy. Sebastian smiled, satisfied. “Really?”

  “Yes. That’s what she said and I believe her.”

  “Before I ask you two to leave, what exactly did you want?”

  “Well,” Mitch started. “We figure one of the top celebrity news sites would pay thousands, maybe ten grand even, to get the scoop on Lexxi Rock and her new man in Tucson. So…I don’t know. Ten thousand dollars?”

  Sebastian almost broke down laughing. “You and your wife want ten thousand dollars from me so you can keep quiet about something your wife may or may not have seen? Listen folks, I think you’re at the wrong house…and Aileen, you be careful about throwing rocks with that glass house of yours.”

  Mitch looked at her and back at Sebastian. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “I think I’ll let your wonderful wife enlighten you. Now get the hell off my porch.” Sebastian swung his door shut without another thought and went back to watching TV.

  When there was another knock on the door a half-hour later, Sebastian was ready to punch in a wall. He had spent some time stewing over Aileen and her husband’s visit. These people had some nerve to think they could extort him that way.

  It had better not be them again.

  He pushed off the sofa and stomped to the front door again, limping as he went. He didn’t even wait to open the door before he started shouting.

  “Who the hell do you people think I—” He paused mid-shouting when he realized it was Alexandra. “Alexandra? Hi. Sorry, I thought it was someone else. What are you doing here?” He remembered his manners the next second. “Come in.”

  She looked up at him. “Don’t tell me the paparazzi found you?”

  He shut the door and took a breath to calm himself. “No. Worse, but let’s not talk about that now.” Pulling her into his arms he told her, “I’m so glad you’re here.”

  “Me too,” she answered, sinking into his embrace. “A lot’s going on at the record label, and I had to be in town to help expedite it. I thought I’d surprise you. I hope you don’t mind?”

  “Mind? Are you kidding? I want you here. All the time if I could swing it,” he admitted, smiling.

  Alexandra lifted up on her toes and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Good. Now kiss me and show me you mean it.”

  Bash’s lips crashed against hers for a hungry, eager kiss. His hands reached into her hair, pulling her lips in tighter. He needed her closer. Much closer. She sank into his chest and wrapped her arms around his neck, seeming to mold to every contour of his body. With his other arm, he pulled her in more tightly. Standing here at the door was suddenly not enough.

  “Sofa bed. Now,” he groaned into the kiss, pulling away.

  She took his offered hand as he moved off with one crutch tucked under the other armpit. “Need some help there?”

  “Maybe later,” he admitted. Arriving in the living room, he leaned the crutch against the nearby wall, sat on the opened pull-out sofa bed, and slapped the space beside him. “Get in here.”

  Alexandra straddled his hips and hovered over him without sitting. “Yes Sir.”

  Now above him, she held both sides of his face and leaned down to kiss him again. Her lips were so warm, so welcoming. Parting her lips, he merged his tongue with hers, and pretty soon she was rocking against his engorged member, driving him to where all he could think about was being deep inside her again. He reached his arms down to the lower part of her blouse, ending the kiss to drag it over her head.

  “Clothes. Off,” he ordered in a deep growl.

  Smiling, she climbed off the edge of the sofa bed, shimmying her pants and underwear down her legs. She crawled back onto the bed, and kneeled near the foot of the bed between his legs.

  “You too,” she said, and gripped the waistband of his sweatpants. She tugged it down his legs with his boxers, groaning and biting down on her bottom lip when his stiff manhood was finally free. She backed off the bed and pulled the clothes down and off his feet, then returned to the bed, her eyes fixed on his arousal.

  Her head lowered to his hardness. She was about to take him in her mouth when he stopped her. “You’re so gorgeous, Alexandra,” he said, pausing for a long moment to slowly rake his eyes down her body. “You’re mine.”

  She nodded, and he pulled her forward by the upper arm, positioning her so she would straddle him.

  “Ride,” he told her, resting his head back down on the pillow.

  “Oh God, Bash,” she groaned through an exhale, palming his throbbing staff as she lowered onto it.

  Alexandra took his hands and placed them on her hips, which he gripped tightly and pulled her the rest of the way. She arched her neck and sank down deeper still, then raised her hips, and lowered it again, taking him in deeper each time. She rocked forward and back. Up and down. Pressing down on his chest as she ground down on him.

  His hips lifted to meet her movements. His eyes didn’t leave her wanton, pleasure-filled face. She was so close. Moving one hand from her hip, he slid it over her mound. His thumb dipped under the hood, making circles around her hot, wet, swollen nub. Alexandra’s body bucked in response, rocking harder and faster as she approached her climax. Her breathing was ragged now, and her soft moans became louder.

  “Come for me,” he told her.

  Alexandra gasped a sharp breath. She whimpered as he picked up the pace and teased her, gripping one hip firmly with the other hand, rocking her harder against his shaft. Sebastian’s gaze was fixed on her face, admiring the expression of pure pleasure that seemed to expand until she arched her back, cried out his name, and came. Her channel tightened around his shaft, clutching him like a vice as it pulsed and flexed. Soon, it drove him to his own peak. Alexandra collapsed on his chest, breathless, covered in sweat and her sweet scent.

  Sebastian ran his hand down her back. He kissed the top of her head while she caught her breath and regained her strength. “Rest,” he told her, and heard her breathing change before she fell asleep.

  Chapter 56

  ALEXANDRA had done it. Blaze Entertainment would never be the same. She sat at the head of the conference table of the record label that used to handle Lexxi Rock—the label that was now handled by Lexxi Rock.

  “He shouldn’t be much longer now.” Next to her, Rick played the overqualified, but well-paid personal assistant, strategist, problem solver and any title he felt like taking on that day. Rita Sage and her crew of Yes Personnel were history. Alexandra had offered all of Rita’s people the option of lucrative severance packages, or they could stay and work with her to reinvent the organization. Money won out, and in this case the severance packages were all signed off.

  It was better this way. She looked out over her hand-picked staff, as their fresh young faces stared back at her. Under Rick’s guidance, they would flourish. They were ready to be innovative and take this company—now called Purple Blaze Entertainment—into the future. The only thorn in her side was her ghost of a cowboy past.

  By that, she was thinking of none other than Wilkes Barracks.

  “He’s toying with me,” she grumbled to Rick.

  Rick motioned for her to follow him to the other boardroom so she could speak more freely. “What’s he up to?” he asked when they were both inside and the boardroom door was
shut.

  “I don’t know. He’s late. Of all my detractors, I never expected Wilkes to be one of them. Shit!” She had tried not to let it get to her, but it did. She looked up at Rick. “I didn’t intend to cause tension with some of the other Blaze artists. He knows I offered anyone who didn’t want to work with me an easy, penalty-free way out of their contracts. If he wanted out, he could have bailed.” She exhaled to calm herself. “We may have to start without him.”

  “If it comes down to it, just end his contract. You and I both know he’s in this for the greenbacks. Offer him a generous lump sum and be done with it. Heck, I can even refer him over to Wild Shade Records. They’re all about country music. He’ll do fine there.”

  “I guess you’re right, Rick. Let’s give it today and if he’s still running interference, we’ll send him packing. It’s better for my peace of mind.”

  She gave Rick a look only he would recognize as frustration, and he pressed a hand on her shoulder. “Consider it done. Let’s get back in there.”

  They re-entered the room. It made no sense in troubling the ranks for this. It was their first full meeting. There were artists and executives and staff all waiting to hear what her vision was. The ad team members had assembled in their own meeting earlier in the week. They were going to propose some new marketing strategies today. Some new sound engineers would also be added to the mix. This was going to work out just fine.

  The moment Alexandra gave up on her recalcitrant ex, the doors to the conference room opened and he strolled in.

  “Sorry I’m late,” Wilkes said with a smile meant to charm. “It’s just terribly hard to get all this upstairs.” He gestured behind him at the men entering with him. By the time they were all inside there were ten of them, each dressed similarly in white shirts boasting the brand of a popular local florist. They brought in magnificent bouquets of white, pink, and red roses.