by Zoey Derrick
“Will do. Thanks, Trinity.”
“Anytime.” The call is disconnected and I sit down at my computer. I go for one of the Google alerts. ‘Who’s the mystery woman on stage with hot 69 Bottles lead singer Talon Carver and when will we see her again?’ That headline is followed immediately by a still image of Talon and I face to face on stage. I want to cry.
The next email says, ’69 Bottles drummer Dex Harrison gives into the rocker mentality. Sex, drugs and rock n’ roll.’ The headline is followed up with several images of Dex with women draped all over him. With countless bottles of alcohol on the table, and a mirror with several white lines.
The door to the suite opens. “You could have at least let me get some clothes on,” Dex protests with whichever bodyguard had the pleasure of waking his ass up. When he rounds the corner he is naked as the day he was born. “Well hello, sweetheart, call for a little action did ya? Your boys not enough, you need more?” He provocatively swizzles his hips causing his semi to bounce wildly. I charge toward him, ready to smack him stupid when Kyle’s hands come around my waist. Fine! I growl in my head.
“I’m surprised you could get it up after last night.”
Dex looks around the room at the entourage gathering. The door swings open again and in come Mouse and Peacock, both fully clothed with Beck and Rusty hot on their heels. “Where’s Leroy?” I ask.
Beck looks at me. “He’s playing bodyguard outside Dex’s room. There are more than a couple passed out in there.”
“Are they all alive and breathing?”
Beck gives me a smile. “Yes, and we’ve managed to find their phones. We’re extracting what we can from the unlocked ones, and we will do what we can to get anything off of the locked ones.”
“Good. Thanks. Now someone, anyone, get him a fucking towel or a blanket. I don’t need to see his shit.”
“What the fuck is your problem?” Dex asks me.
I step a few steps closer to him. “You’re my fucking problem, in fact, right now you’re about to become everyone’s problem.” I pick up my iPad off of the coffee table and open my email. I pull up the same article that I saw and open the picture and shove it in his face. “Care to explain this?”
“I was just having a good time. Besides, the coke wasn’t for me, they were doing it.”
“You need to get a better fucking poker face, Dex, because you suck at it. Oh and next time, wipe your fucking nose.” His hand goes to his nose and he wipes, his hand comes away with white powder still attached to it. “Now, care to try that again?”
Dex slumps onto the couch and Beck throws a blanket over him. I nod my thanks and Beck steps back. “Not four days ago I sat on that bus and explained the rules. Did I not?” Dex and the rest of the guys nod. “What was my biggest rule?”
“No cameras,” Mouse says.
“No god damn cameras or phones.” I look to the three bodyguards. “Care to explain to me how you’re just now extracting cell phones from these chicks?”
Mills steps forward. “Confiscating cell phones is not our job, Addison. As much as we should make it ours, it’s not. The guys are responsible for keeping their heads and they’ve done a damn good job of it so far.”
“Until now,” I say as Talon comes storming into the room, looking around he sees Dex plopped on the couch. Mills, Beck and Rusty stand with their legs spread and hands clasped in front. Mouse and Peacock are sitting stoic in chairs opposite Dex and Kyle is leaning against the wall.
“What the hell happened?” Talon asks. I hand him my iPad with the picture. He looks at it, looks at Dex then back to the picture. He calmly hands the iPad back to me and walks right up to Dex and punches him in the jaw. “You fucking idiot, what the hell were you thinking?”
“Fuck, Tal, that shit hurts. I wasn’t thinking, obviously.”
“How long you been back on coke?” Talon asks him.
“I haven’t, that was the first time last night. I got really drunk, then came back to the hotel and got drunker with a couple chicks. Nothing more than normal. One of them pulled out a bag and, fuck!” Dex says as he lets his head fall back on the couch.
“Do you need to go to treatment?” Talon asks him seriously.
“No,” Dex moans. “It was a weak moment. I was drunk, horny, too drunk to get it up, so... Fuck, they pulled out the coke. I did a couple lines and then the next thing I remember is waking up to Mills pulling my ass from the bed.”
“You’re restricted,” Talon says to him then looks at Mills. “Twenty-four seven while we’re here.” Mills nods and Talon turns back to Dex. “This isn’t middle of nowhere PA, brother. You’ve got no choice but to watch your six, you get me?”
“Yeah. Fuck, I’m sorry.”
“I’m not the one you owe an apology to.” I watch as Dex looks at Talon, confused. “You owe an apology to her.” Talon jerks his head in my direction. “She’s the one that has to clean up this mess. I’d start kissing her ass if I were you.”
Dex doesn’t apologize to me and I hate to admit it but I agree with Talon. This is my job and this is why I get paid the big bucks and while it is a challenge, it’s not something I can’t handle.
“I need you guys to go get the women up, get cell phones, pass codes, the whole nine yards. If there are more pictures, videos or anything else, I need it all. Also, do we know if the chick who put these out is still here?” I look at Rusty because he was on door duty when I called them in.
“No one’s left his suite since I took over around six this morning. Beck was there first.” Rusty turns to Beck.
Mouse and Peacock look a little ashamed when Beck answers. “Mouse and Peacock’s girls left from their respective suites, but that’s it.”
So something really did happen between Peacock and Jess, because he’d been a good boy until last night. I just might have to talk to him about that, another time.
“Alright. Let’s get to finding out who sold the pictures and the story and get them in here, now.” The bodyguards go to work with their task, quickly leaving the suite and I turn to Mouse and Peacock. “I’m not trying to be a bitch, but do you guys now understand why this was so important on the bus? It is important because one member of the band, or the crew, can ruin the reputation for everyone else. This is something I can and will overcome and with the scheduling and tickets going on sale for the added shows today, we really could have ruined that for everyone.” I take a deep breath. “You all already have a natural preconceived idea of what and who you are. The whole sex, drugs and rock ’n roll thing has been around since rock ’n roll began. Let’s not play into it. Please?”
Mouse, Dex and Peacock all nod their understanding and agreement to what I’ve just said and to see Dex rather dejected is a bit heartwarming. My phone rings.
Sam… FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!!! “I fucking knew this would happen.” I send her to voicemail and she immediately calls back. I silence her call and my phone. “Mouse and Peacock, you can go. If you decide to go anywhere today, you do it with two guards, and you speak to no one, do you understand me?”
“Yes,” they both say in unison.
“If it isn’t urgent, please stay in?” I ask them both and they huff. “I’m not you’re mother and you’re not five, but this story is hot right now and if you’re seen, you will be bombarded. Just be forewarned and let the bodyguards do their jobs.”
“Guys, I’m sorry,” Dex says. “I lost my head, it won’t happen again.” The apology is for Mouse and Peacock.
“Seriously? Because this isn’t the first time,” Mouse says to Dex and then turns to me. “From now on, I’ll keep a closer eye on him.”
I frown at him. “It’s not your responsibility, Mouse. It’s Dex’s. Look, I’m not telling you guys you can’t have women and booze or even drugs for that matter. I am simply telling you that your celebrity status makes people crazy, case in point is what’s happening today. It’s not fair to keep you locked up and stop you from having a good time, and I won’t do it. I refuse. Bu
t keeping a clear head is important and necessary so that stuff like this doesn’t happen.”
“Understood and maybe it took something like this for us to see that,” Peacock says.
“Sometimes it takes a two by four. The band’s reputation will not be ruined by this, in fact, it just might make you guys that much higher in the hierarchy of celebrities. But gaining a reputation for being a man-whore or a drug addict or an alcoholic can have lasting effects for future relationships. Don’t let one night completely ruin you, but keep it in the back of your mind. Imagine how Dex is feeling right now and decide whether or not it’s worth feeling like this.” I smile. “Now get out of here.” They both laugh and leave.
I turn to Dex who is still looking pretty dejected, severely hung over and ready to pass out. “I am going to fix this any way I can. But, Dex?”
His eyes open and he looks at me. “Yeah, love?” he says with a half smile.
“Do it again and I’ll have your balls for breakfast.”
He smirks. “I lost my head, too much chewing on me at once and I caved. I won’t let it happen again. Thank you for doing what you do best and I’m sorry,” he says sincerely.
I give him half a smile. “Kyle, can you take him to Mouse or Peacock’s room, let him get some sleep, sleep it off. I have work to do and he needs to sober up.” Kyle nods, smiles and goes to help Dex up. After some adjustment Dex gets the blanket wrapped around his naked ass and Kyle escorts him out the door.
When I turn around to my computer I see Talon standing in the doorway to the bedroom we shared last night. He’s leaning into it with his shoulder, arms crossed over his naked chest and his legs crossed at the ankles. “You’re one seriously amazing woman, you know that?”
I snort. “Hardly, Talon, I’m just doing my job.”
He smiles. “And you’re amazingly good at it. Dex doesn’t deserve your help, not after the way he treats you.”
I smile. “He may not deserve it, but it is my job to protect his reputation, along with yours and everyone else’s. In all honesty, not commenting on what happened last night, or this morning, is probably our best course of action. The media are vultures and today is a slow news day. They will find something else in about an hour and Dex’s escapade will slide to a tiny blip in the entertainment section of the newspaper and nobody will care.” I laugh, “And those that do are the ones that envy him far too much. Like Sam.”
He cocks his head. “Sam, why her?”
I frown. “Dex slept with her in San Diego, even after Dex and I both told her not to. She did it anyway. I told her that if she went through with it that I didn’t want to hear about it, ever.”
“Why would you not want to know?” he asks, honest curiosity in his voice.
I shrug. “A few reasons. One, he’s Dex. I knew from the moment he first saw me, hit on me, and made an ass out of himself that he was a man-whore. A different woman in his bed every night and never the same woman twice. And two, well, anyone who sticks their dick in Sam is destined to be ‘the one’ and she ‘falls in love’ and becomes obsessed about it. Whether or not Dex handed her his phone number or not, I have no clue, but I do know that she’s kept her distance from me, until today.” I look at my phone. “She’s called eight times in the last ten minutes. She’s seen the news and no doubt wants to know if it’s true. She’s hitting ‘obsession’ mode now.”
He raises an eyebrow. “Did you warn Dex?”
I roll my eyes. “I tried, he agreed with everything I told Sam in the back of that club. But I doubt he took the warning to heart. He’s Dex. He doesn’t care.”
“What about your other friend? What’s her name, Jessie, Jessica?”
I smile. “Jess?” He nods. “I got the impression from Kyle that she slept with Peacock that night, which wasn’t anything that was normal in Jess’s MO so I didn’t think to say anything to her. Though Eric kept to himself afterward, at least until tonight. Kyle, again, was under the impression that there may have been something more between the two.”
“Eric’s a pretty faithful kind of guy. If he slept with her and had any feelings for her, he wouldn’t have slept with someone else. My guess is maybe something happened between him and your friend, which is why he had someone else.”
I smile. “You’re pretty insightful when you first wake up.”
He smiles. “Join me for a shower?”
I giggle. “I’ve already had one, thank you, and I need to deal with the picture wielding bimbo and I’ve got to eat something. You go, be quick and join us.”
He winks, shoves off from the door frame and stalks toward me before wrapping me up in his arms. “You’re amazing.” He kisses me once, twice and then slips his tongue in on the third and my knees give out and his arms tighten around me.
I can barely breathe as he assaults my mouth. Then he pulls back. “You sure about that shower?”
I smile, “I’m sure, for now.” I wink at him and then he kisses me chastely three more times and ducks into the bedroom, closing the French doors. I fall into my chair at the desk, completely distracted as I start clicking through emails.
Guilt washes over me when I realize that only about twenty percent of the emails pertain to Dex’s escapade. Apparently his little headline is small potatoes compared to mine. I am the real hot topic of conversation today and my headlines are burying Dex.
I put my head in my hands. I fucking knew this would happen, especially after Cami approached me so quickly before the concert was even over. She didn’t even give it a second thought. She just made the offer and tried to get me to run away with it. Then again, I think she knew deep down that it wasn’t necessarily the life for me.
“What’s that?” I hear Kyle behind me and I scramble to close it.
“It’s nothing.”
“You certainly don’t look like it’s nothing. Come on, panda girl.” He pulls on the ear of my hoodie, “Talk to me?”
“It’s nothing, really.”
He cocks his head at me. “You realize that the only way this is going to work between the three of us is if we communicate. We’ve got to be open and honest with each other.”
I stare at him. Such a profound statement that is ridiculously true on so many levels. “I know, it’s, damn. I just jumped the gun on Dex a little too hard and far too quickly than I should have.”
“No, you did exactly what needed to be done. But regardless of that, what’s making headlines that has you so upset?”
“It’s…” The suite door slams shut and Beck comes in with an either still drunk or extremely hungover blonde. “Talon’s in the shower,” I whisper to Kyle. “Go, keep him in there. I don’t need more drama.” Kyle looks from me to the chick standing next to Beck and then to the bedroom door and nods before he ducks into the room.
“So, you’re the one responsible for this mess?” I ask her.
“What mess? Who the hell are you?” she snaps and I can see Beck’s jaw tighten.
“Where’s your phone?” Beck holds it up. “Did we get what we needed off of there?” He nods. “Good. Now, how much money did you get for the pictures?”
“Excuse me?” Her lip twitches.
“Who did you sell the pictures to?”
“What pictures?” She has a shit eating grin on her face and I want to slap it off of her.
“What pictures? Oh, let’s see the ones we found on your phone that are all over the internet this morning. Tell me, Blondie, who paid you for those pictures?”
“Nobody paid me for the pictures. I got paid to sleep with him and send proof.”
I close my eyes and count to ten. By the time I get around to opening them, I’m no calmer. “So, you’re a prostitute?”
“What?” She scowls, looks from me to Beck and back again. “No, I’m not a prostitute.”
“Well, obviously you are because someone paid you to sleep with Dex and provide them with proof. How much did they pay you?”
“Five hundred dollars.”
I laug
h. “Was it worth it?” I ask, curious more than anything.
She visibly melts. “Oh yeah, totally worth it.”
“Good, because you got screwed, in more ways than one. Whoever you sent those pictures to sold them to every news outlet in North America and more than likely walked away with about fifty-grand for the hottest story on 69 Bottles.” I tell her and I watch as her face turns red.
“What are you talking about?”
Oh my god, is she really this fucking dumb? “Whoever it was that asked you to sleep with Dex Harrison and send him proof, turned around and sold that proof to the media. Given the number of outlets running the big ‘Dex is a man-whore, coke head’ story, I would wager to guess that the person on the receiving end of those pictures paid you a lousy five hundred dollars while they got at least fifty thousand dollars for the story. So you, my dear, got scammed while getting laid.”
“You’re kidding me, right?” she says.
“Oh my god, no chickie pooh, I’m not. Who was it that wanted the pictures?”
“Some short awkward chick who I met at the bar last night. She said that she’d pay me five hundred dollars to sleep with Dex and to send her proof. She also provided me with the coke.”
“What did she look like?” I ask.
“She was short, like five five, brown hair, very awkward and completely uncomfortable. When she was talking to me she was really jumpy, I didn’t take her serious at first but then she handed me three hundred and said I’d get the rest once the pictures were delivered to her.”
I look at Beck. “Get the phone number or email address she sent them to off of that phone.”
“Can I go now?” Blondie asks.
I smile. “Absolutely.”
“I have the number,” Beck says and he rattles it off to me. “Text messages.”
“Thanks. Oh, Blondie, one more thing. Where are you supposed to meet this chick for the rest of your money?”
“Like right now, in the bar downstairs,” she says.
I look at Beck who nods in understanding. “Bring her up here after the exchange. Make sure Blondie gets her money.” Beck nods and ushers her out the door.
