by Lexxi Chase
This won’t end so benignly he thought, and squirmed and fidgeted as he waited for Jake to break his silence. But things only got worse when he did.
“So, you didn’t fuck her only ‘cause ya couldn’t stop panicking long enough to keep it up, ya gutless, pathetic, ungrateful, backstabbing piece of ignorant shit!”
“No!” Zack screamed but knew Jake was right.
He leapt from his chair and, frantically wiping sweat from his face, began to pace.
“OK, OK,” he admitted, “I know you’re right. There’s nooooo, nooooo, nooooo fuckin’ excuse for what I’ve done. Ya have no idea how bad I feel or how fuckin’ sorry I am. But pleaaaaase listen,” he gasped for air. “I fuckin’ lost it, OK, and I can’t even explain, but ya just can’t go to L.A. and get tangled up in even more of Amanda’s shit with that scumbag Wade.” He paused for a moment, then blurted, “It could end waaaaay, waaaaay worse for ya this time.”
Nothing. Not a peep from Jake. Zack couldn’t even hear him breathing on the other end. Trembling, still clutching his cell in his sweating hand, he crumbled back down on his chair to wait.
“Don’t waste your time worryin’ ‘bout my ass,” Jake finally hissed, his voice low and intense and venomous. “If I were you, I’d seriously start worryin’ ‘bout my own.”
And with that sage piece of advice, finally hung up the phone.
***
Sitting at the kitchen table with her legs curled comfortably underneath her, Katelyn casually browsed Ago’s lunch menu, remembering what Amanda had said. Order light fresh meals and nothing too fancy. Rachel and Wade aren’t used to exotic food. Yeah right, she snickered, and pictured handing them a plate full of hotdogs. They’ll be so happy to be out of Conroy and so impressed with this friggin’ place, she mused, they’ll be grateful to eat up just about anything Amanda serves. Pretty much like I am these days, she realized, startled, wondering if she’d be invited to eat with them at all.
No great loss, she consoled herself, and texted Alvirez to tell him he could head to West Hollywood shortly to pick up the food. At least that mundane task wasn’t hers today. She’d have to busy herself with finishing all the other things Amanda had asked for. Fresh cut flowers in the two best guestrooms. Fluffy yellow towels for Rachel in her room, fluffy forest green for Wade in his. And, oh Christ, she suddenly remembered, she’d forgotten to lay Rachel and Wade’s new swimsuits on their beds.
Can’t get them cheap shit, Amanda had told her, browsing Beach Bunny Swimwear and Parke & Ronen’s websites to pick out what she wanted to give them as welcome gifts. Of course, she didn’t drive to get them herself but gave Katelyn the money to pick them up instead. Two suits for Rachel and another two for Wade because she wasn’t sure which ones they’d like.
No shit, Rachel thought as she laid Amanda’s gifts out on the beds. She’s not used to seeing Wade clothed, she snickered, and it’ll take more than an insanely expensive bathing suit to make Rachel look any better. Not like Amanda even had the generosity to buy one for me too, Katelyn stewed as she walked away.
“This look all right?” Amanda asked her as they ran into each other in the hall.
“Fantastic,” Katelyn assured her, not only because it was what she wanted to hear, but because it was true.
Damn, she brooded, can Amanda ever look bad? Even hung over and as sick as she was, she’d managed to emerge from her bedroom a stunning goddess and she’d only been in there half an hour.
“Don’t think this dress is too fancy? I wanna appear casual today.”
“No Amanda, it’s just perfect.”
As usual, she thought.
And Katelyn glumly admitted to herself it really was. Amanda was one of those rare women that looked breathtaking in absolutely anything she wore, with today’s careful choice being no exception. The bright white sundress speckled generously with huge yellow sunflowers gave her an air of innocence even as it embellished her startling blue eyes and flawless figure. Cut a few inches above the knee, it made her look sexy without hitting her victims over the head.
“You put Wade’s gift card on his pillow?” she yelled after Katelyn and stopped her dead on the stairs.
“Shit!” she grumbled and ran back up. “On it now,” she flinched, but smiled happily.
“With the rose over the envelope,” Amanda ordered as she sauntered away.
We can’t forget Wade’s precious gift card, Katelyn grimaced as she ran to get it from the small teak desk in the hallway. God knows he can’t go on as Heartbreaker’s lead guitarist playing B circuit bars without a brand new shiny Gibson Les Paul. As she delicately laid the rose over the envelope on his pillow, she noted that Amanda wasn’t being nearly as generous with her own sister. And as she smoothed out the sheets she wondered slyly just which bed Amanda would be sleeping in tonight.
***
Popping open another beer, waiting for Tank’s call the limo to the airport was downstairs, Jake wondered the same thing. His cell lay on the bed where he’d tossed it beside him, the screen still displaying Wade’s latest post. How fuckin’ appropriate I hear about it from Zack, he fumed. Bet the overzealous, desperate bastard can barely keep his dick out of his own hands while he’s stalking latest events and Amanda’s every pointed move.
Fuckin’ cocksucker, he seethed. Maybe Zack should be scrambling to Amanda’s for her requested showdown. Him and God knows how many others, Jake cringed and took another long swallow of his beer. Wouldn’t that just surprise the shit out of the revving paparazzi and insatiable fans and parasitic onlookers thirsting for blood. Wouldn’t that, he sneered, just suck the wind out of Amanda and crush the belligerence out of Wade. Fuckin’ delusional gullible idiot, Jake raged. They all were if they actually thought Amanda was worth fighting for.
“Cunt!” he screamed, slamming his fist down hard onto his thigh. “Cheap sleazy whoring douchebag cunt!” he yelled as he crossed the room, picked up an arm chair by the oak table and heaved it against the wall at the other end of the room.
And then he lost it. Smashing lamps, coffee and side tables and every piece of furniture in his veering path because he really wanted to be beating Amanda, hammering Wade, and kicking the living daylights out of Zack. Zack, he fumed, raking his bloodied hands through his now tousled hair. I have special plans for you motherfucker. A huge, badass cocksuckin’ surprise.
Although Zack had been steadily texting him since their phone call, he’d barely even glanced at the first few of the twenty or so messages. Cocksucker’s groveling like a wounded deer, Jake gloated, licking my boots and kissing my ass. Begging like a dispensable slave and wondering if he’s even going to the airport with us, petrified and hysterical that he’s really cut from tonight’s show and also blown from the band.
Backstabbing chickenshit, Jake fumed. He’s lucky he’s not already fucking dead. When the new text arrived Jake bolted to the bed, booting smashed and dented debris out of his way to grasp the phone with his bloody hand.
“Sorry ass motherfucker,” he sneered but reeled from the kick in the gut when the message displayed. From Amanda, not Zack.
Nice post-show performance last night Jake. Seemed to be missing something though. Was it any feeling or emotion for the rancid piece of meat u had between ur legs? U can fool ur groupies & ur audience about sincerity but u can’t fool me.
“Ignorant slut!” he screamed, before whipping his cell across the room and maniacally punching a hole in the wall beside the bathroom door.
Weakened by the pain in his now probably broken hand, Jake fell awkwardly against the wall before crumbling defeatedly to the floor. Why the fuck is any of this shit happening to me, he fumed. But knew the answer even before his question had fully formed.
Amanda. It was always fuckin’ Amanda and the toxic enticing slimy web of her depravity and deceit that he was always lured and sucked into. Not escaping its grasp, even when he blackballed and avoided her. Even when he succumbed to her wretched pleas and remonstrances and thought he had her fi
rmly and securely in his grasp and complete control.
His phone rang feebly across the room, his Wizard of Oz ringtone muffled by the weight of the broken chair it had slid under. Let me guess, he snickered, Amanda or that useless dickwad Zack, but suddenly realized it might be Tank telling him it was time to go. So he stood up weakly, shakily, and crossed the room to retrieve it.
“Yeah Tank,” he answered, abated by the call display.
“Car’s waitin’. Meet ya at the elevator.”
“Gimme ten,” he rasped and swiped off his phone.
Swiped it again to text messages and jabbed in his reply.
Sincerity?? Seriously Amanda??? How fuckin sincere were u, u fuckin whore, when u opened ur legs for Wade in Conroy? Has the parasitic prick arrived yet to get more? Ur bed’s gettin a little crowded isn’t it now that u gotta finish it off with Zack.
Amanda jolted at the unexpected revelation. It crippled her like a cannonball ramming her chest. Fuck, what the hell has that idiot Zack done now? She read and re-read Jake’s text, his last sentence, as if by some insane miracle it would change or just evaporate away.
Brushing strands of hair from her face with trembling fingers, she slumped back, suffocating in the descending cloud of treachery and betrayal, and tried desperately to come up with an answer, and a plan. What the hell has that idiot Zack done now, she wondered again. God only knows what that moron’s actually said. Finally, with her ears literally buzzing and the room spinning perilously around her, she typed her reply.
Surprised by the outcome of my little test on Zack? BREAKING NEWS He’s not loyal to Steel Demon and he’s not ur friend.
Instantly after she sent it, she thought of more to say.
Get fuckin real. I wasn’t really gonna sleep with him! Was plannin to throw it in ur face cuz I was so pissed at the road hole goin into ur room right after I left.
But nothing. Not another single solitary word from Jake. Amanda stood, her breath hitching and gasping for air. What the hell can I say, she struggled. What the fuck can I do? How am I ever going to fix this, she agonized, and viciously, vividly, pictured smashing Zack’s head in with a baseball bat.
That gutless, groveling, ass-kissing moron! And I stupidly thought Zack actually cared about me, she groaned. What the hell was he thinking? And how much worse did this make her already decaying situation with Jake?
I wasn’t goin to actually sleep with him!, she texted again. How can u think I’d ever, ever sleep with that?! U have to believe me. Just tell me what u want me to do to prove it.
After an eternity of no response, she added, I’ll do ANYTHING, and hit send again.
She curled up on her bed, crying. Oh my God, please, please Jake, say something. Anything. Don’t fuckin’ do this to me now, she whispered and begged. Then, like a reluctant gift from heaven, her phone vibrated with his stoic reply. Not heaven sent, but acknowledgement nonetheless.
Don’t have to do nothin, he wrote.
Amanda sat up, confused, not knowing whether his answer afforded her even a shred of hope. Until his next and final text stormed in, making everything excruciatingly clear.
Don’t have to do nothin cuz we got nothin, he said.
Chapter 16
It was like Jake to be late, racing to the elevator and into the limo at the last minute, but not Zack. Shayne and Billy looked at each other questioningly after Tank glanced at his watch yet another time.
“Sure ya woke Zack?” Shayne asked, irritated. “Maybe he fell back asleep.”
“Wasn’t sleepin’,” Tank said. “He was wide awake.”
Shayne and Billy leaned back against the wall beside the elevator and began chatting about tonight’s show and how they planned to keep Jake from boarding a plane afterwards.
“After all, we’ll be in Vegas,” Shayne smirked. “More than enough to do. Way more than enough girls.”
But it was Amanda that Jake wanted and they all knew it. Whether he wanted to continue their toxic relationship or just wanted to severely kick her ass didn’t much matter. At the moment only Amanda held Jake’s attention and it would take everything they all had, and maybe more, to lure him away. And that scuzzbag Wade’s visit to her place was only making things worse.
“Fuck, there’s gonna be Beast Mistress billboards everywhere,” Billy moaned.
It was only two days before the debut of Amanda’s new show at the Luxor and promo would be rampant throughout the city. Not great timing for a Steel Demon concert there, under the circumstances.
“Like I said,” Tank interjected, “we can’t make ‘im stop thinkin’ about Amanda but we can make ‘im wanna stay away.”
And the familiar argument reignited. How Wade’s new post would catapult Jake into a fit of murderous rage and no matter what he was thinking, they had to convince him it was in his best interests to stay away. Whether he believed them or agreed with them or not.
“What’s keepin’ Zack?” Billy asked, checking the time on his cell. “Maybe ya better give ‘im another call,” he told Tank.
And it was reaching the point that Jake was later than usual too. But then, thankfully, they heard movement down the hallway and Zack rounded the corner pulling his suitcases with flight bag in hand.
“Jesus! About time man. You’re almost as late as Jake,” Billy laughed.
But Zack wasn’t finding it funny. By the look of things he wasn’t finding anything funny at all. He was pale and disheveled and looked like he’d just completed an eleven mile trek on Survivor and come out the last contestant to finish on the losing team. And he didn’t look happy about surviving at all.
“What the hell’s wrong with ya buddy?” Shayne asked even as Zack glanced behind his shoulder, looking anxiously for Jake.
“Uh...not sure I’m comin’ with ya guys. I had a...a...” he paused a long time, “disagreement with Jake. He threw me outa the band.”
“What the fuck ya talkin’ about?!” Shayne blurted as the others crowded closer.
“Disagreement? About what for fucksakes?” Tank asked.
“About Amanda,” Zack said, his face flushing red as he said her name.
“Amanda? What about her?” they asked pretty well in unison and Zack had no choice but to spill the beans.
“You’re gonna hear about it anyway,” Zack groaned, his voice crackling and legs weak from pent up anxiety, stress and fear of retribution at the hands of Jake.
He filled them in about what happened in Portland after Amanda went with him to his room and told them all about his early morning conversation with Jake.
“What the fuck...” Billy murmured even as Tank leaned back stunned against the wall.
“Ya fuckin’ retard!” Shayne screamed and lost it.
He lunged forward, grabbing Zack by the throat and smashed him against the wall. Chaos erupted and it became a free for all. Tank dove on Shayne who now had Zack pinned on the ground. He refused to let go, no matter how hard Tank yanked on his shoulders or pulled at his waist. Billy got a sucker shot in the head, accidentally falling in the way of Shayne’s punches as he tried to rescue Zack. In the midst of the madness, no one heard Jake arrive.
“Problems?” he asked loudly as his band and road manager wrestled on the ground.
Everyone stopped dead for a moment. Shayne released Zack and Tank released Shayne as Billy wiped his temple searching for blood. But anarchy reigned once again when Shayne screamed and Zack scrambled to break free.
“I’m gonna fuckin’ kill him!” Shayne bellowed and the tussle resumed once again. “Rule one, motherfucker, we don’t touch each other’s bitches!”
Jake stepped in, grabbing Shayne’s wrist mid-punch.
“No!” he yelled. “Now’s not the time.”
His voice was so cold and biting, shattering the frigid air like a pick smashing ice, everyone froze.
“I’ll handle this later,” he spat. “We got Vegas. I might be the fuckin’ lunatic everyone says but I don’t disappoint my fans. Not over this groveli
ng dipshit. Not over some fuckin’ douchebag like Amanda.”
He dropped Shayne’s wrist and casually stepped over Zack, jabbing the elevator down button and stood back to wait. The others slowly composed themselves, Shayne eyeing Zack menacingly even as he was helped to his feet by Tank. Billy said nothing but his angry stare said it all.
Jake entered the elevator, pushing the lobby button, and everyone but Zack scrambled inside.
“Coming?” Jake goaded him.
And with everyone on pins and needles, Zack shuffled in.
***
“They’re buzzing at the gate,” Katelyn yelled upstairs before letting Rachel and Wade’s cab inside.
It’s going to be a very long, irritating week, she told herself but was unnerved by her next thought. If Jake doesn’t arrive. Then a monotonous week will be the least of my worries. Jake’s visit could be D-Day for all of us. She took a deep breath, pasted a smile on her face and headed to the front door.
Amanda leaped from her bed where she’d been curled up crying and rushed into her ensuite bathroom to fix her makeup and straighten her crumpled dress.
“Fuck you Zack,” she murmured as she dabbed at her puffy eyes and moist cheeks before fluffing her hair. “No way is it ending like this Jake,” she whispered, and knew she’d have to come up with a plan.
But what, she brainstormed, struggling to put on her shoes. And vacillated about texting him even as she heard Rachel’s piercing laughter ascend the stairs. Amidst Katelyn’s contentions about calling Alvirez for help and Wade’s vehement assertions he could easily handle all the luggage himself. Forever the knight in shining armor, Amanda sighed. But do I really need more than one hero?
She threw open her bedroom door, stepped out to face the music, and instantly ran into Wade in the hall. The gift card and rose were in his hand and he looked happier than she’d ever seen him. Except for room 14.
“I don’t know what to say Amanda,” he gushed.
She laughed innocently.
“I have more than one way of makin’ you happy, I see,” she said.
