Groupie/Rock Star Bundle (56 page)

“You still love him.” It was a statement, not a
question.

Andy sighed. She couldn’t believe she was
having this conversation again in the same day. Frankly, she was
over it. “If I were the kind of person who would leave someone in
the shape Vanni’s in, after loving him for years, then I wouldn’t
be the woman you say you love,” she said. It echoed exactly what
she had told Vanni in Philadelphia. “He needs to get clean, you
need to get mobile. I’m going to help you both. So you’re both just
going to have to get used to it because the very next person who
tries to make me choose is going to get my foot up his ass. I’m
here because I want to be, Graham. If you really want me to stay
away from Vanni then put someone else in charge of taking care of
the band. Otherwise you’re just setting me up for failure. So stop
punishing me for it.”

He didn’t say much else as she stalked out of
his room and slammed the door. It was the first time she’d really
stood up to him in months and it felt good. She hated being this
co-dependent little mouse that scurried around on eggshells,
bouncing back and forth between the men who claimed to love her
most.

The whole predicament was a gigantic ball of
fucked up. She didn’t have the patience anymore to allow them to
make things worse. The way she figured it she had two jobs: get
Vanni sober and motivate Graham to walk.

How she was going to do either, she didn’t
know. If only she could clone herself into another Andy, things
would be so much simpler. If things kept going on at the rate they
were, Graham and Vanni were going to end up splitting her right in
two.

Chapter Nine

August 23, 2010. Los Angeles.

Vanni

Leo sat across from Vanni in the private
hospital room he now occupied. He was so mad he could have spit
nails. They were poised to take the band to a whole other level and
this asshole was hell bent to destroy it all. And over what? Some
fat bitch who was screwing around with the boss? Had he lost his
mind?

“Have you lost your fucking mind,
man?”

Vanni closed his eyes. He ached all over, he
was painfully sober and no one understood the legal mess he now
faced because of his actions more than he did. “You honestly think
you’re going to say one thing to me that I haven’t said to
myself?”

“Yeah, I do,” Leo retorted. “Why are you
getting yourself all tied up to that chick? What could she possibly
have that a million other women don’t have? You can’t swing a dead
cat in this town and not hit at least five better than her.
Certainly hotter than her.”

Vanni sent him a steely glare. “Lay off, Leo.
Beat up on me all you want but you leave Andy alone.”

Leo burst out laughing. “Man, you have been so
played and you’re too stupid to know it. Where is your precious
‘Andy’ now? I’ll tell you where. She’s in a cushy house in Malibu
thinking of ways to cut her losses and dump any
liability.”

“You don’t know her,” Vanni insisted but Leo
was undeterred.

“She’s a bitch, man. Just like any other bitch.
There’s nothing special about any of them. You have to understand
something. You’re the big time now. Girls will love you as long as
you are a star. But baby, you fucked up. You shot your own career
in the foot and guess what… she’s gone!”

Vanni closed his eyes. He didn’t want to hear
that. “You’ve said what you wanted to say, Leo. Now get
out.”

Leo instead advanced on the bed and glared down
at him. “You know why you’re getting pissed off? Because you know
down deep that it’s true. The only one who is looking out for your
career right now is me. And I’m telling you that you need to get
the fuck away from her. She’s poison. And she’s killing you.” He
stalked toward the door, pausing only to say, “Think about it,”
before he left the room.

When the door opened again Vanni prayed it
would be Andy. He needed to see her again. He needed to erase those
angry, hostile words that were now replaying in a sadistic loop in
his head.

Only it wasn’t Andy. It was Holly. She wore a
big smile for him as she advanced with a plateful of cookies, but
he could read in her eyes that she was shaken by the shape he was
in. “Hey, howya feeling?” she said as she placed the plate on the
tray. She looked so tiny next to the equipment around his hospital
bed.

He gave her a slight smile. “Been better,” he
answered honestly. He knew how disappointed she must have been in
him. He nearly, and might have, killed someone with his alcohol
abuse. The parallel with her father must have been
striking.

“I brought you cookies,” she said as she peeled
away the aluminum foil. “Chocolate chocolate chip.”

“They look great,” he said as he took one. “You
spoil me, Holly.”

She shrugged it off. “I like taking care of
people,” she said. “But you have to promise me that you will be
more careful. We just got to know each other. I’m not ready to lose
you yet.”

He nodded. It was a much more loving rebuke
than what Leo had just delivered. “Tell the guys I’m sorry,” he
said. He knew he had screwed up so much for the band, and right as
her brother had signed on.

“They just want you to get better,” she said as
she adjusted the covers around his body. She bestowed him a sunny
smile. “We’re not going anywhere.”

He liked the sound of that and told her as
much. She fussed over him and made sure that the nurses gave him
another shot for the pain. She made a cafeteria run to get him
something other than the mundane hospital food to eat and stayed
with him all morning. Before she left she planted a kiss on his
forehead at his hairline, right where one of the gashes over his
eye ended. It lingered longer than he expected. She pulled back
with slight quiver to her chin. “You’re not allowed to do this
again, Mr. Carnevale,” she said.

“Yes, ma’am,” he said with a salute and a
smile.

He was still thinking of her when Andy finally
came in after lunch. She had all the legal documents he had
requested and they spent the better part of the afternoon dealing
with the immediate matter at hand.

Gwen showed up around four o’clock so they
could discuss how they would spin the story for the press. The best
story they came up with was that he was still dealing with post
traumatic shock from the shooting in Philadelphia. A crazed fan had
taken things to a violent extreme, which ended up costing his boss
his legs and a relationship with his significant other. Andy ended
up being an official girlfriend in past tense only, confirming all
the other rumors that had been swirling around since
June.

It all explained why he had gone downhill fast
and taken up company with a prostitute that one fateful afternoon.
He was wounded and emotionally distraught, which may help them
recover his public image in the wake of these events.

He wanted to make a comment about how awful he
felt about the girl who rode in his car, a nameless girl who hadn’t
even had any form of identification on her when they were found.
Gwen walked him back from an inadvertent admission of any
wrongdoing, especially since charges had yet to be
filed.

By the time they left that evening Holly
returned, this time bringing a homemade supper that seriously
trumped his hospital slop by a wide margin. She once again fussed
over him and waited on him hand and foot until they kicked her out
at the end of visiting hours.

The next few days worked much the same way. It
was on that Friday that Andy’s and Holly’s paths eventually crossed
when Andy walked in on Holly sitting behind Vanni on his hospital
bed and rubbing his neck.

For some weird reason, though nothing had
transpired at all between him and Holly, Vanni felt as though he’d
been caught doing something he shouldn’t have. “Andy,” he said as
he moved away from Holly. “This is Holly Neal. She’s Julian’s
sister.”

“Oh,” Andy said, as if that would explain why
this girl was rubbing Vanni’s neck. “Nice to meet you,” she said
formally.

Holly scooted from the bed and rushed over to
Andy, whom she greeted by shaking her hand with a big, unashamed
smile. “Miss Foster. It’s so nice to finally meet you. I have heard
nothing but good things about you.”

Andy shook her hand and nodded, but then looked
back at Vanni. “Thank you. Julian’s sister, you say?”

She nodded and took the paperwork Andy was
carrying so she could hand it off to Vanni. “Yes. I’ve been hanging
out with the band since Julian started rehearsing with them. Vanni
and I sort of hit it off and have become friends, so naturally I
wanted to come by when I heard what happened.”

“Naturally,” Andy said.

A tense vibe filled the room. Holly, whose
perennial good nature seemed to wilt a bit under the strain, was
the first to speak. “Looks like you have a lot to discuss,” she
said as she motioned to the paperwork. She turned to Vanni. “I’ll
come back later.”

He nodded and watched as she grabbed her purse
and left the room with one last friendly wave to Andy. “Nice to
meet you!”

“You too,” Andy said. Vanni immediately
detected a unnatural tone in her voice. She turned back to Vanni.
“So. Julian’s sister a candy striper?”

He could tell she was mad. “It’s not like that,
Andy. She’s just a friend.”

“Just a friend like I’m just a friend?” she
wanted to know. “Or just a friend like Lourdes or Kat just a
friend?”

“Andy…” he started with a warning in his
voice.

“I mean, either way you can do what you want, I
guess. I just didn’t know you had made such a close friend in such
a short time. That might have been something you could have brought
up over the last few days.”

“Trust me. It’s not what you think. She’s just
a friend. Her call, by the way. She doesn’t get involved with
musicians.”

Andy took a seat. “Smart girl.”

“She’s just the kind of person who likes to
take care of other people. She does it with her brother. She does
it with the band. She’s just a nice girl. That’s all.”

“You don’t owe me any explanations, Vanni,” she
said. “I’m the ex, remember? And according to some sources you’re
better off without my ‘gold digging ass’ anyway.” He looked
confused so she handed him the first tabloid, which basically
accused her of picking Graham because of his money. The next one
accused her of carrying on an affair with Vanni behind Graham’s
back because sources had reported she’d been at the hospital every
day. It even somehow managed to uncover that she’d been made power
of attorney.

Vanni scowled as he read the headlines, which
made him seem like the sympathetic victim in the scenario. “Fucking
parasites,” he muttered as he threw them on the floor. “What does
Graham say?”

She was surprised by the question. They never
talked about Graham after that first day. It was just accepted that
she’d stay with Graham while doing everything she could to help
Vanni. And Graham was loath to discuss anything after she spouted
off to him the night of the accident. “We don’t talk about it,” she
finally confessed. “But Maggie tells me he’s throwing significant
anger into his PT these days.”

“Maggie?”

“His nurse.”

Vanni nodded. Of course he has a nurse. “I
guess I should think about a nurse when they finally spring me from
this joint. Provided I don’t go directly to jail.”

That remained the blade over everyone’s heads.
The girl was in a coma but she was hanging in there. At this point
the likely charges were the DWI and reckless endangerment, so his
lawyers were trying to get him rehab and community service rather
than jail time. Vanni was scared though he tried his best not to
show it.

But Andy knew.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,”
she said. “Hopefully by then you won’t need a nurse. If you need
anyone to look in on you maybe your little friend would be open to
it.”

“I’ve considered that,” he told her frankly.
“At least we know we can trust her.”

Given they had been tabloid fodder for the last
week she could hardly disagree. When it came to celebrities, just
because you paid for someone’s services didn’t mean you earned
their loyalty. “If you trust her I guess I will. But you can’t
blame me for being careful.”

He nodded. Each one of them had a target on
their heads; that was part of being considered public domain. All
they could do was play defense.

In the end Vanni was released from the
hospital, booked and charged with DWI and reckless endangerment. He
pled no contest. After two days in the county jail he was released
for a 30 day stint in a rehab facility, at the end of which he’d
serve six more months of probation. The judge showed mercy mostly
because it was his first offense, not because he was a big rock
star. He warned Vanni if he showed up in his courtroom again he’d
be sitting out his sentence in a prison, singing to a whole new
group of fans, for as long as was legally allowed.

It took a while but Vanni’s ego was finally
restrained. There were rules by which he had to abide, and those
who couldn’t care less how much money he had or famous he was that
would enforce them.