by Cassia Leo
“Wait. What kind of threats are you getting? They’re about me? Me, specifically?”
“Uh, yeah. Blatantly. But I’ll take care of it.”
“Tell me, Danny.”
“No.”
“Tell me!” I screamed.
“It’ll only upset you and freak you out.”
“I am already well-past upset. Fucking tell me!”
“Um, okay. I should’ve said something before but I didn’t want to scare you. But … she was in your room before. Back in January. And she put, um, a camera in there, some little bear on the bookshelf. We never knew it, but that night when…”
“Oh my god! The night? I know what fucking night! Ohmygod! She saw that? What I did?”
“And our kiss on your bed. She sent it to me with a note that said, ‘If I can’t have you, no one can, especially not her. You are so disgusting, getting it on with your own SISTER’, sister in all caps.”
“Wait! Who has it now, Danny! Who? Who saw it, dammit?”
“Well, Jed. I had to show him. But, um, police have it now of course. It’s evidence.”
“Noooo!” I screamed and fell back down to my knees in a crumpled ball. “No, no, no. Oh my god! This cannot be happening. Uh, this is such a nightmare! You know that’ll get out. It will. ’Cause it’s damn juicier than getting fucked senseless in a pool of lemonade. This is horrible, horrible, Danny. Oh my god! I could die! I fingered myself, no, not just that, but with you fucking standing there and telling me to! That’s so humiliating! Oh my god. I could pass out. And I can’t believe you weren’t going to tell me this? Are you crazy! So, what … I’d just wake up one lucky morning to the fabulous sight and sounds of ME coming for your pleasure, splashed all over the goddamn web? Oh my god. Bill, he’ll see it, and he’ll look at me with disgust forever. And grandma? Ohmygod, Grandma? She just might have a heart attack or something. The ladies at bingo will never shut up about it. You know that. She’ll never live this down. And she’ll hate me.”
“It won’t get out, Lex.”
I stood, my heart racing so fast, and I started pacing as my world crashed and crumbled to pieces. “You fucking don’t know that! You can’t promise that.” Sobs gurgled out and my words smeared together. “She damn near killed your band, so she’s clearly nutzo! Ohmygod, ohmygod. This is the worst day of my life, worse than when she ditched me, and that’s saying a lot. This could destroy everything, my whole damn life. She’s out there, with copies or a ready-made file, just waiting to unload that shit and knock me out, wherever she desires.”
“I’m gonna fix this. I’ll find out who it is, and I’ll bring her down and make her pay.”
“Yeah, right. Your determination doesn’t mean squat, not with the ammo she’s got. I can’t see how you aren’t more upset about this.”
“I am. But I need to focus on finding out who she is and beating her in her vicious game. I’ll let you know what’s going on in a few days, after I’ve had time to unwind.”
“Whatever. Fuck off.” I hung up. Oh my god. The bliss and heat I felt in Danny’s arms wasn’t heaven like I assumed. All the deliciousness between us just turned into the worst nightmare imaginable. And some unhinged psycho had my well-being, my life, my sanity, my happiness in her greedy little nutcase paws. Fuck that!
* * *
CHAPTER TEN
Danny
After the police left my house, my security team ran another sweep of my place, my cars, and the studio, just to be sure there were no other spy gadgets left. The only camera and listening device had been in Alexa’s room. Her room. That had me freaked out more than anything.
This psycho stalker of mine saw something between us long before I did, which, for me, was honestly just this week. I’ve lusted for that hot piece, sure, but I’ve never actually entertained the notion of really going for gold and stripping off her panties, which I would’ve done if it hadn’t been for that crash. My last girlfriend, who I was actually fucking when I got that insane picture in the mail, never elicited such a reviling. How could that crazy chick know I’d get spiked in the heart and nuts like never before and that no one else would end up comparing to my own damn stepsister? She knew I’d crave Alexa, while I never saw it coming.
I looked around Lex’s room with a glare of fury. I fumed with my fists clenched and all my exhales firing out of my nostrils with promised threats attached.
That crazy woman had better not lay a hand on my sister or touch a hair on her head. I’ll shoot her in her goddamn face, but not until I make all her limbs bleed with deep gashes from a carving knife. You don’t mess with my loved ones. They’re my most prized treasures. You don’t mess with what’s mine.
My anger at Alexa’s prodding to fire Puck was dissipating that much faster because thinking of life without her was absolutely unbearable. Even Heather’s death had shaken me and I didn’t even know her. Alexa, brat that she is, had somehow, for some reason, become my most favorite jewel of all time. I can’t let anything happen to her.
This stalker upped her game and actually came after us? Tried to kill us? I thought I only had to work on getting more equipment and new vehicle for the band, but now, I had to catch the person responsible too before anyone else ended up six feet under. We didn’t even have a damn manager to handle all this extra shit because ours dropped us when we got dumped by Middleton Records. We needed a new guitar player too? I hated losing Puck. He struggled mentally and emotionally for a while, but he had his shit together finally. I don’t blame him for telling us to fuck off. I would’ve done the same. I hate disloyalty as much as lying.
I did know one juicy detail about this bitch. She had to be pretty rich. Fifty grand on a kill is no drop in the bucket. Most people don’t have ready access to that kind of dough. And she also must have some kick-ass BS ability, or maybe good looks, if she convinced some down-on-his-luck dude to mess with our bus, which could killed everyone and did result in one death.
What if she’s someone I’ve already fucked or made out with?
When IF first launched to fame, I was enjoying the titty ride a little too much before settling into a relationship.
I walked into my room and over to my bureau. I opened the top drawer and moved around the cigar packs, foreign money and shit around, until I found my old phone. I turned it on and looked through my pics. I often took pics of women who wanted to meet. I took it into my office and booted up my laptop to see if details had emerged about the woman who paid for the hit.
Yes, aha. The guy said she was about 5' 10" with long, light brown hair, a pretty face, and an athletic build. I didn’t know if I could go by hair because chicks change cuts and colors all the time, but I started there and looked through all the images I took at various gigs and places. There were six possibilities here, if hair can still be counted on.
I like talking dirty just to rile women up and get them all slick for me, and then I like shooting them down by making them think they misunderstood me or got me all wrong. It charges me up, watching smiles melt and confusion bloom. But what if my not-so-funny-or-cute game ticked off the wrong girl?
On my phone, I had captured so many distraught faces, right after I fired my arrow of meanness. So many selfies with me smiling and them, not so much. Glossy eyes. Cringes. Teeth biting down on bottom lips. I used to love this shit. What the hell’s wrong with me? Damn power trip. I very well could’ve brought all this hell down on myself, my bandmates, and my lovely Alexa. I am the worst douche.
I went downstairs and handed the phone off to Jed to see if anything struck a chord with him and I also gave him the extra details I read online.
He saw her running from the estate but couldn’t catch her because she was so damn fast. He was the only one in my circle who might be able to shine light on her identity. She’s definitely athletic and well-to-do, but she’s stupid and sloppy, and I’m gonna catch her. I have to.
I finally read the emailed class schedule Lex sent me on Sunday, and then called Nina to set up
a meeting for Monday. Once she confirmed and penciled me in, I told her I’d let Lex know. I texted Lex the info in my bedroom and stared at my phone waiting for some kind of response. She didn’t write or text anything back. She was mad at me now. Man, I hated this tension and weirdness. I hated all this shit.
I was nervous about seeing her, even on video, when Matty and I strode out of the elevator on the top floor at Momentum for our meeting. Hopefully, these magicians who can fix our shattered image. Even though I was currently upset, the only person I truly trusted was Alexa.
Traversing gray carpeting and glacial décor with everything stark and sharp, I smiled at the receptionist with the nameplate, Ana Hastings, but a tall woman with short, cherry-red hair stepped in between us and the high white desk with MOMENTUM embossed on it.
She bowed just a tad with her palms pasted together, like a hostess in a Japanese restaurant. “Hi, I’m Raquel. I saw you, um, at the conference, but we didn’t have time to chat.”
I shrugged, not remembering her one bit. But, I was going out of my mind with colliding emotions. I couldn’t recall much of anything except bombing in front of fifty fucking cameras. I stuck out my hand, and she took old of my fingers with her cold, limp ones. “Danny.” I also stressed, “Zane,” stupidly. She probably already knew that. Half the world knew that.
She had that gleam in her eye like she wanted me to give her some morsel of approval or some flirtatious word. I didn’t, not only because I was in no mood for it but also ’cause I was pretty sure flirting was what got me into this stalking nightmare I now found myself in.
So she cringed and turned to Matty.
Matty gave her the same reaction as me and I almost burst out laughing.
I should be nice because she was likely on my reimaging team, but I didn’t give a fuck what she thought of me. At least she was smiley and friendly and added a much-needed burst of color because this blah gray here reminded me of the chilly feel of my kitchen before I had it redone in brighter hues. I gave Matty a wide-eyed glance to say, I hope we’re doing the right thing.
He nodded and raised his thumb to point me down the hallway to follow after the cherry-topped beanstalk ahead of him, which I did.
My stomach dropped at the gorgeous live picture in front of the whole conference table. Alexa was already patched in and on a big screen in a conservative skirt suit. She looked like a goddess we were about to pay homage to. I waved with my fingers out by my hip, but then suddenly felt foolish because I didn’t even know if she could see people in the room yet. Or me. Yeah, mostly me.
We shook hands all around the table as people introduced themselves.
As Matty and I sat down with the rest, I looked around and everyone was waiting for Nina to get this ball rolling.
“Hi, gentlemen. Thank you so much for coming. We’re so glad to have you today. And, Alexa, glad you could make it as well.”
“Sure. Happy to be patched in,” Lex said.
“Yeah, no problem,” Matty said. “We’re really interested in hearing what you have to say.”
I just nodded and slouched with narrowed eyes.
She balled up her hands and leaned forward. “Well, why don’t you get us up to snuff. Tell us a little about the history of the band and where you see yourselves going from here.”
I sat up straighter and said, “Well, four and a half years ago I moved here, met Drummer Boy at a club. He was playin’ in another band. I’d written some songs and asked if he wanted to jam some time. I wanted to bang my stuff out, see if it was any good. Once we got together, we thought it sounded pretty kick-ass, so we added two dudes he went to school with, and Itchy Fringe was born. We played locally while Matty and I cranked out some more tunes together. We recorded a demo album, greatly unmixed, and sent that around, basically to just get some gigs, but people started pirating it and passing it around. College stations played songs off of it, and our little, local fan base quickly became a huge, national one. When managers and labels started begging us to come in and meet with them and it looked like we were heading into something big, Matty’s friends—two family guys—had to drop out. They didn’t have time to be in a band full-time. They were only in it for fun. So, we had auditions, added four more guys, and the world became our oyster. Everything hit like a whirlwind and happened so fast. We scored a two-album deal with Middleton Records. They cleaned up our demo, and we co-wrote two more songs for it. It released huge and wide. We became instantly famous, snagged a Grammy, and collected great reviews. We sold out everywhere during our mini tour, and when we got home, we went immediately into production on our second album. For this one, Middleton wanted way more say in our lyrics and sound. The same two collaborators worked with us. It wasn’t our style really, or what we initially envisioned because we love grit and sexiness to the max, and this junk they wanted in was a lot less of that, but hey, they’re the pros, right? They know what sells? Wrong. Our next album crashed and burned, big time. Rock ballads ala Nickelback are cool with me as a listener, but they’re so out and never really felt like our own goods. No sincerity behind it. Music lovers can see through all that bullshit. They know when you don’t buy into what you’re singing. Our original fans called us sell-outs. And our label wanted us to mostly play all this newer crap for our tour. People hated it. Tension was building to a breaking point. Puck also had some personal shit goin’ on and was drinking in excess. And, now, here we are, on our own, back to our own creative devices as an indie band, getting into fatal bus crashes and crap like that. So, why don’t you tell me? That’s why we’re here. Where do we go from here?”
Nina nodded, “Well, thanks so much for sharing all that, Daniel. Is it true, as the news reports, that alcohol did not play a part in this accident as was originally assumed?”
“Yeah,” Matty said. “I guess that’s what they’re saying. Our bus was tampered with. But still, the drinking thing is out there. We do feel like we need to shed the image of being inebriated assholes who don’t give a shit about anything. That couldn’t be further from the truth. We care very much about our music and style, and our fan base, as well as overall public perception of us. We know we’re edgy and wild, and we revel in that. That anti-establishment, reckless persona hasn’t harmed us before now. We do not like people thinking we’re douchebags or assholes because of this accident. We’re not at the core. And we want and need you to fix that. If you can.”
Nina nodded. “Yes, of course. As the team leader, Alexa … what do you think the band’s next step should be?” Taken aback by her mocking tone and the stench of doubt in her demeanor, I stiffened and glared her. She asked that as if Alexa could only possibly pitch out moss from that numbskull mind of hers. Alexa encouraged me to jump the gun on Puck, but I can see now that she was only genuinely trying to help. I was expecting gold from Alexa today. Nina was not, her smug expression smirk and crossed arms swore. Why on earth, then, did this lady make an inexperienced, not-yet graduate head of this PR team when she clearly didn’t even believe in her? That didn’t make any sense. Did she think Alexa would humiliate herself with some boneheaded comment? I could tell she was highly anticipating such a flop. Flashing my gaze to Raquel for a better sight, I ground my jaw, noticing the same shitty smugness in her too. What the hell! What was going on here? These alley cats were ready to pounce and scratch the eyes out of my precious kitten? I don’t think so. I itched to storm out of here. I don’t care how lame or stupid Alexa’s ideas are. I swear on my mother’s grave, I’d rather die than give them the satisfaction of a win over her. She’ll get my vote any fucking damn day. “Yes, Alexa,” I said. “I’m curious too. Your ideas are always amazing.”
She gulped and looked down for a moment. Shit. I think she thought I was being sarcastic. She found steel somewhere inside, because when she looked up, her eyes, good girl, were full of determination and fire. “Well, obviously public appearances, as many can be managed, would be advised. But I also think Itchy Fringe could put on a concert that inspires yo
uth to avoid drugs and alcohol. And I’m talking a huge venue, getting several other bands on board as well, kind of like Lollapalooza but with a cause. This would not only put IF back in the spotlight but improve its image and reaffirm its dedication to excellence.”
Crushed that pitch! Yes! Shot that baby right out of the park, Lex. I rubbed my hands together in excitement and beamed wide when I swung my gaze back to Nina, who was shifting uncomfortably in her seat and tugging on the hem her way-too-short skirt.
Her smile melted and she sat up straight. “Well, that certainly sounds—”
“Brilliant,” I cried, cutting her off like a machete. “I love the idea. Absolutely love it.”
“You do?” Alexa said, sounding shocked that I liked her idea. I wasn’t just feigning either. It truly was fantastic.
“Me too,” Matty said. “Love it, Alexa! It’s so kick-ass. It’s just what we need.”
Nina and Raquel both looked like they sniffed garbage and then exchanged those ugly pencil smirks with saccharine smiles and fake praise confetti for my girl.
“I think it’s great too,” Raquel said, followed by a tense gulp like she was actually trying to swallow down a crow. “But it would be a huge, huge job for you to take charge of, being that you’re so young and ripe. I just worry that—”
“Alexa’s fully capable of running it all and delegating assignments too,” I said, happy to cut her off. “She organized something like this for us when we first became a band for a summer series, and she was back in high school then.”
