The Complete Groupie Trilogy

by Ginger Voight

  She knew he was no saint, but she had always believed he was smarter than that. Up until 2010, he had been.

  The only wrinkle in the plan was that Holly had invited Graham and Andy. Much to Vanni’s chagrin they both agreed to come. His heart thundered at the thought of seeing her there in the chapel as he married another woman.

  In any rare dream he had had about that scenario, she was not the one sitting in the pews.

  But he couldn’t think about that anymore. He still loved her but he loved his child more. It wasn’t even a person yet but the pull he had towards the idea of a son or daughter was powerfully motivating.

  He’d already written lyrics, sappy stuff that Julian and Yael would laugh him right out of the studio if he presented it to them. It was crazy to think in all the years he had run in fear of becoming a father nothing seemed to fulfill him more.

  Julian was cautiously pleased about their impending union. He did warn Vanni that he had better never hurt his sister, and it was a threat Vanni immediately understood legitimate and justified. He never had a sister but he could see himself issuing the same kind of warning had she married.

  He reassured Julian that there was no need for him to worry. He’d made his decision. He wasn’t going to back out now. Of all the women he had dated over the years, he had only proposed to one. He intended to do whatever it took to make the marriage last. That was how sacred he considered the covenant to be.

  Holly was just as committed to doing it right. She moved out of the apartment and back in with Julian for the remaining days before the wedding. Vanni missed having her around. There was an emptiness in his life that he knew Holly filled.

  It made him even surer that he was making the right decision.

  He probably would have never questioned it at all if he hadn’t gotten a text from Andy to meet her before the wedding.

  He wanted to meet her at Central Park but they feared that would be too open. Instead they decided to meet at the church where he was due to be married in three days.

  He didn’t know what he was expecting as he entered the dark, Gothic church in the heart of Manhattan, but it wasn’t the pale, gaunt Andy standing by the altar. She looked ill, probably heartsick, and her eyes were sad as she watched him approach.

  “You look great,” she said softly as her eyes traveled over his frame. Thanks to Holly he had been well taken care of and it showed.

  “Thanks,” he said in response. He wanted to tell her she looked great too but the fact was she looked like hell. He hadn’t seen her look so bad since February of 2009. “Rough flight?” he asked.

  “Something like that,” she dismissed. She pulled a small box from her jacket. “Happy birthday,” she said as she handed it to him. He smiled as he unwrapped it and found a hand knit scarf inside. “It’s from Grandma,” she clarified unnecessarily.

  He put it in his coat pocket. “Thank her for me.”

  She nodded. Her body wavered a bit, which immediately drew his concern. “Are you okay? Do you need to sit?” She nodded again and he guided her over to the first wooden pew. “Why’d you call me, Andy?” he finally asked.

  “I needed to see…” she hesitated briefly. “I needed to know if you were happy.”

  It broke his heart to look at her face. Deep inside he had always believed there would never be an end for them, but now he was willing to close the door on her forever. Only his child was worth that kind of sacrifice. It was his turn to nod. “I never thought I’d ever want this,” he confessed, but she already knew that. “But now that it’s real I can’t remember what was so scary before.” Her eyes fell as he kept going. “I can’t wait to meet him or her. To hold my baby in my arms. To be the family I never got to be. I’ve run from this my whole life and now I can’t think of anything I want more.”

  She closed her eyes. It was exactly what she had feared. When she looked at him there were tears in her eyes she refused to shed. “I’m happy for you, Vanni,” she choked out. “Really.”

  He took her hand in his. “Are you happy, Andy?”

  She smiled bravely. “Oh yes,” she lied right through her teeth. “Graham is a wonderful, loving man. And we’re going to get him back on his feet in no time.”

  “And you love him,” Vanni prodded.

  “Much like you love her,” Andy mused in response. She glanced up at the altar. “Otherwise I guess you probably wouldn’t be here.”

  He glanced over to the altar himself. He would stand there in just a few days and promise his life to someone other than the woman sitting next to him. It felt almost sinful, but they had both made their choices. There was nothing to do but live out the lives they promised to other people.

  The door to their ever being together again was closing and there was nothing they could do but look on. “I should go,” she whispered as she struggled to her feet.

  He pulled her hand towards him until she sank back onto the pew beside him. “I still love you,” he whispered, as if in confession.

  She gasped back the sob she never wanted to release. “I’ll always love you, Vanni,” she whispered in return.

  His hand snaked behind her neck and pulled her close, resting his forehead on hers. His throat constricted as he placed a soft, long kiss on her nose which released one lone tear to chase down her face. “Vanni,” she whispered and he was unable to resist her call. He tasted her lips tenderly. It was their last kiss, their last chance, their final goodbye. She submitted to him for one long, passionate moment, then pulled away and stumbled out of the aisle and out of the church.

  It wasn’t until he got back to the apartment that evening that he realized what a mistake he had made. The computer had been left open to late breaking gossip, where a fuzzy, dark photo of Vanni kissing Andy in the church had been published by PING.

  “He can’t even make it to the altar without screwing around!” the snarky copy read. “Run for your life, Holly!”

  He immediately ran to Julian’s apartment, but no one answered the door. He had no idea whether they were there and pissed off or had left the building entirely. He assumed it was the latter, because Julian didn’t come after him with a baseball bat like Vanni feared.

  He went back to his penthouse and into the closet, only to find everything she’d moved into his house now gone.

  She’d done it.

  She’d left.

  And she took his child with her.

  He raced to the studio where he found Leo in a rage. “You stupid son of a bitch!” he bellowed as he advanced onto the younger man. “How could you risk what you had with Holly on that fat cow?”

  It was more than Vanni could take, especially in the desperate mood he was in. He shoved Leo back against the soundboard. “You say one more thing against Andy and I swear to God I’ll rip your fucking throat out,” he threatened through clenched teeth. “And you better not be hiding Holly somewhere.”

  “Why not?” Leo spat back. “She needs someone to protect her from your sleazy ass. Just like a fucking Italian, man. Do you got a little cock, man? I mean I really want to know why you need to fuck any piece of pussy that moves.”

  Vanni reared back and punched Leo right across the jaw, bringing the older man to the floor. He jumped back up in a rage as he flung himself against Vanni. In return Vanni promptly decided to take out all his fear and his desperation of not knowing where Holly was on this pompous asshole, the same guy who had facilitated every bad decision he had made this past year.

  They broke expensive equipment as they tumbled around the studio, where Yael and Davy and some sound techs barely dodged the brouhaha. Yael had already called for back up the minute Leo got the call from Holly and promptly lost his shit, so he wasn’t surprised that within minutes Graham wheeled onto the scene with two burly security guards to break up the fight. Andy trailed slightly behind.

  “What the fuck are you doing here?” Leo continued to rage. He motioned behind Graham to Andy. “You should be keeping your dog on a leash.”

&n
bsp; Though he was held back by a security guard, Vanni lunged at him spewing profanities. He couldn’t believe he ever trusted that worthless piece of shit.

  Graham didn’t even raise his voice. “You have two ways you can play this, Leo. You can leave here quietly and respectfully and maybe, just maybe, you’ll be able to work in this business again. Or you can keep talking and wind up in jail for assault, trespassing, vandalism and sabotage. Personally I’m really hoping for the latter.”

  “I want to know where Holly is,” Vanni yelled.

  “Fuck you, man,” Leo goaded. “She’s going to own your ass. She’s going to own all of your asses,” he declared with bloody grin. “I personally can’t wait to see her take you all down.”

  Graham nodded at the guard holding Leo to have him removed from the premises. Vanni struggled to follow. “I need to know where she is,” he begged Graham, who just shook his head.

  “He won’t tell you anything, Vanni,” Graham informed him. “But I’m sure she hasn’t gone far. She’s just making you pay for humiliating her.”

  The guard released Vanni, who slumped down in a chair. “You don’t understand. She made me promise I would never hurt her.”’

  “That’s a promise you should never make to anyone,” Graham said. “You hurt everyone you touch. Especially women. Personally I think she’s smarter to stay away, but we already know that isn’t possible with the great Giovanni Carnevale. They all come to you like a moth to a flame, ready to burn up in an instant rather than live a safe, boring existence without you.”

  Everyone in the room knew he referred to Andy when he spoke. She closed her eyes and shook her head and tried to pretend she was anywhere else.

  Vanni saw her distress. “So sanctimonious,” he sneered at Graham. “You think you haven’t hurt her just as much? Haven’t pulled her in five directions just as much? Why did she come back this time? Pneumonia, was it? I have to say I don’t quite go to the lengths you do but I am in awe of your finesse.”

  Graham’s jaw clenched as he stared at Vanni. “And how long did it take you to get over her?” he wanted to know. “Was Holly in your bed that weekend? Or that night?”

  “Stop it!”

  All the men turned to where Andy cried out, holding her hands to her ears. Tears flowed down her face as she openly wept from how they were tearing her apart. Their triangle had become a noose around her neck. Graham was right. She was a moth dying to get too close to the flame.

  In that instant she hoped she’d burn up and not have to deal with one more minute of this impossible situation.

  She took one step toward the door before she fell in a dead faint right in the middle of the wrecked studio.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  December 22, 2010. New York.

  Holly

  Holly paced back and forth in the expensive hotel in the heart of Manhattan. She couldn’t yet afford this on her own but Leo was glad to pull some strings for her the minute that she called him.

  That was right after she got the text from her contact at PING to let her know he had trailed Andy just like she had requested, and the lead was hot. Vanni was caught canoodling with his ex on the eve of his wedding right in the church he was due to be married. It was Hollywood Gossip Gold. She begged him not to post the photos but she learned too late her partners in crime were only loyal to a point.

  When it came to making money off of the carcass of Giovanni Carnevale, she had only been another link in the chain. There was much more money to be made from the scandal, something she had foolishly believed he’d be smart enough to avoid when he knew PING tailed him relentlessly all over the city.

  She hurled a glass across the room and against the other wall, where it shattered. How had everything gone so wrong? She almost had it perfect this time. She thought she had played it so smart. When she heard about everything that had happened in Philadelphia she had been quick to get in touch with her good pal Leo Newman, someone she already knew was on the DIB crew. She wanted to find out what she needed to do to get close to a lonely, vulnerable star with a lot of money and no real sense with what to do with it.

  Obviously he let groupies close. He was the perfect target.

  The more she researched him the more she knew just how to bend him to her will. She dyed her hair, bought some bright contacts and rehearsed the story she’d tell him that would endear her to him as more than just a little gopher in a studio. He wanted someone wholesome, so she played the Midwest card. He didn’t want a groupie, so she turned him down flat the minute he tried to make a move. She played the victim to the hilt, knowing how it tugged at his heartstrings with guilt and regret for all the mistakes he was making.

  Leo gleefully gave her all the information she needed. He knew if she could get in there it would finally break Vanni away from Graham and he would start his own label – with Leo at the helm of course.

  It was the big break for everyone. All she had to do was play it cool and slip in under the radar when no one was looking. They’d push the drama, keeping things antagonistic between Graham and Vanni, and provide Vanni with enough distraction that he’d never even know he’d let some weasels right into the chicken coop.

  The last five years had prepared her for this moment. She had played this game before with others before him, all in various stages of success and vulnerability. Eventually she realized that the old tricks work best. All she had to do was get pregnant and they would all live on easy street while he toiled overtime to take care of the baby mama. She didn’t care about Vanni… he was a weak piece of shit. But she cared very much about becoming Holly Carnevale, the sainted wife and mother of his children.

  She’d grace every magazine, walk every red carpet, tape every interview looking fabulous and wealthy, while she kept her ne’er do well husband in line. If he fucked up anyway? Then she’d take him for every penny he had.

  But the fucker couldn’t even wait until they were married to cheat.

  And with someone like Andy Foster. Holly’s face screwed up into a snarl just to think about her. She was dull, drab, fat and ugly… yet she had two of the most powerful men in rock music battling over her like she was Helen of Troy. Holly never understood it.

  She thought about that just the night before when she and Vanni had made love. He twirled her around like a doll, surely grateful that he no longer had to do the heavy lifting with a size sixteen cow. They were athletic in their pursuits and he never made her feel like he was missing out on anything, in fact he acted more like they were the perfect fit.

  Then, hours later, he was kissing that cunt right in the church he was supposed to swear before God he was her man till death do they part.

  If either of them thought she was going to fade quietly into the background and let them be together they were mistaken.

  The only reason she left was he needed a scare. He needed to know she could leave at any moment and take the thing he wanted most with her when she went. She had already zoned in on his weakness: abandonment.

  She’d give him a few days to mull it over. Then she’d show up again and make him pay dearly for humiliating her while he ran in guilty circles trying to make it up to her.

  Julian came out of the bathroom dressed in a towel. “So. Any word from Leo?”

  She shook her head and checked her phone again. There were dozens of missed calls and texts from Vanni, but Leo hadn’t contacted them yet.

  He was supposed to let them know when she could go back, when Vanni had reached the very limits of desperation and was willing to agree to anything – including marriage without a prenup.

  Julian walked over to where she sat, stood behind her and rubbed her shoulders. “It’ll be okay, Hol,” he said. “We’re too close to give up now.”

  She grabbed his hand. He was right. They were.

  “In the meantime,” he said with a lascivious grin as he dropped his towel, “let me take your mind off your troubles. ‘Sis,’” he added sarcastically as he pulled her to the bed. />
  “Stop it,” she said, but allowed him to pull her down towards him. “You know we can’t do anything until after I get pregnant.”

  “Come on,” he whispered as he nuzzled her neck. “Like that idiot would know to get a paternity test anyway. He hasn’t bothered to find out you’ve been married before, and he never even asked to see the pregnancy test like the last guy. This douche is, in a word, clueless,” he added as he grabbed her breast in one hand.

  “Julian,” she said as she tried to scoot away. “I said no.”

  She left him on the bed and walked over to the window. “I wish Leo would hurry up and call. I need to go back. The more time we give him the more he could panic and find out everything. About us. About our past.”

  Julian covered with the towel. “Trust Leo. He knows what he’s doing.”

  “Then why isn’t he calling?” she snapped.

  The question was answered by a knock at the door. Holly ran to check out the peephole, grateful to see the other member of their little gang on the other side. When she swung open the door she caught sight of the bruises and cuts on his face. “What the hell happened?”

  Leo brushed passed her. “What does it look like? I got into it with Vanni. He’s out of his mind looking for you,” he said.

  She smiled as she sashayed over to one of the chairs opposite the bed. “Good.”

  “Don’t get too cocky,” he warned. “Graham showed up and kicked me out of the studio.” He delivered the news like it was the worst possible thing that could have happened. And really, it kind of was. It was one thing to pull something over on a recovering alcoholic with a shit self-esteem and penchant for self-destruction. Graham wasn’t the president of a multi-billion dollar company by some accident. If anyone could blow their carefully plotted scam all to hell, it’d be him. “What the hell is wrong with you? Why did you invite them?”

  “Because she needed to see Vanni was out of reach,” Holly responded. “And he needed to see her with Graham. It was the only way to break the bond for good. When he’s torn up over Andy I can get him to do anything I want him to.”