Groupie/Rock Star Bundle (61 page)

Andy didn’t care much for the possessive tone
in Holly’s voice. Since when did she and Vanni become a “we”? Since
they were together earlier that morning? “That’d be entirely up to
Vanni,” she said briskly as she put all the glasses of iced tea on
the tray. “But he knows who is there for him. No one has been as
good for Vanni and the band as Graham.”

“I understand that you have divided loyalty,”
Holly said softly. “And it’s perfectly understandable. But you have
to admit this is way more complicated than it has to be. It’s
business.”

“You keep saying that like I don’t know what it
is,” Andy snapped. “You forget. I was here from the time DIB hit
the national stage. I have seen them at their best and at their
worst. Graham saved them from their previous label and gave them
opportunity to be the stars they are today.”

“Which was fine up to this point,” the younger
girl countered. “But the music is going in a different direction.
We need to know we have a label behind us that will support us and
be there for us, even when there are major
complications.”

“What’s this ‘we’ business?” Andy wanted to
know.

“My brother is now a part of this band,” Holly
replied. “You want to talk about how you’ve been there from the
start with DIB; I’ve been there from the start with Julian. And I’m
not going to let anything stop him from getting the success he’s
earned. And honestly,” she continued, “I care about Vanni. He needs
someone in his corner now more than ever.”

Andy’s spine straightened. “I care about Vanni
more than you’ll ever know.”

“Then why are you here and not there?” Holly
asked her softly. “You made your choice and it wasn’t him. The
reason there’s a problem at all, with the drinking, with the
prostitute… with the accident…that’s because you left.”

Andy couldn’t believe why she felt the need to
clarify anything to this new girl but she set the record straight
anyway. “Graham can’t walk. He took a bullet that was meant for me
and is paralyzed because of it. I told Vanni and I’m telling you,
I’m not going anywhere until he’s on his feet again, literally. If
Vanni loves me like he says he does,” she added, feeling a bit
possessive in her own right, “then he’ll wait for me.”

Holly opened her mouth to respond but then
thought better of it. Instead she offered another sunny smile.
“You’re right. It was not my place to intervene. Let’s get our guys
their drinks.”

She grabbed the tray from Andy and went off
toward the living room to help serve the men quietly and
unobtrusively, like she always did. Andy, on the other hand, was
left off center by the confrontation. She began to suspect she just
got the first glimpse of a wormhole in that shiny perfect
apple.

When she returned to the living room she could
see Vanni and Graham had turned on the TV, onto a news channel. An
entertainment reporter interviewed a larger woman with bleached
blond hair and a thick Southern accident. Vanni could easily tell
she was the older, more bloated version of the girl he picked up
that fateful afternoon.

“She’s not just some nameless Hollywood
prostitute,” the woman stated as she glared at the interviewer.
“Baylee is a beautiful young woman who got herself good grades in
school and took care of her baby brother after her daddy left. Now
she may be brain damaged if she ever wakes up at all, and all for
what? So some big shot celebrity could get his rocks off whenever
he wanted? He’s off free and loose while she’s hooked up to a
machine in that there hospital for who knows how long.” She reached
for a handkerchief as she broke down for the whole world to
see.

“This must be a very upsetting time for you and
your family,” the interviewer crooned. “For the last ten months
your daughter Baylee was missing, you thought she ran away. What
was it like to find out she was in a hospital across the country
fighting for her life?”

The older woman’s lip quivered. “We had
troubles like all families have troubles. She wanted to get
married. I thought she was too young. Next thing I knew she was
gone. The boy up and ditched her somewhere in Jacksonville and I
guess she felt too ashamed to come back home. She knew her mama was
right. She got out to Hollywood and found herself in a no-win
situation. She had to survive, but she was only
sixteen.”

“Jesus,” breathed Vanni. Was she underage on
top of everything else?

“We went crazy trying to find her,” the woman
forged on. “But we ain’t got a lot of money. We live in a trailer.
I’ve been unemployed for the last year and a half. If it wasn’t for
PING we’d never even know that was our Baylee in the
hospital.”

“What do you want to come from this horrible
situation, Mrs. Wilke?”

“Ain’t no missus,” she clarified. “I had these
kids on my own because all men are like that Giovanni Carnevale,”
she accused while mangling his name in the process. “They only want
what they can get out of you then they leave you in the dust for
something else.” Then she looked toward the camera with raccoon
eyes from her heavy eyeliner. “I want what any mama would want. I
want my daughter back. And I want the Giovanni Carnevale to pay for
what he done to her.”

The camera panned back to a young man in a
camouflage jacket, Rebel flag T-shirt and a buzz haircut. “As
Baylee’s older brother, what was your response when you first heard
the news?”

The young man’s jaw clenched. “He better hope
the law gets to him before I do.”

“Great,” Vanni said as he leaned back against
the couch. “I’ve pissed off the Hillbilly mafia.”

“The jury won’t see hillbillies or rednecks.
They’ll see poor people who need protection from a privileged
celebrity,” Graham warned him. “And if you come off as some
pompous, elite New Yorker who wants to trample them underfoot, it
could be image suicide.”

“I don’t want to trample them underfoot,” Vanni
clarified. “I have no problem paying for the hospital bills and
whatever restitution needs to be paid.”

Graham turned off the TV. “Be careful who hears
you say that,” he said. “Otherwise you’re going to be paying these
people for the rest of your life, which very well may be what they
want. Until they start making demands there’s no way to know. But I
assume they’ll be in contact with us as soon as it takes to attract
a lawyer to the case.”

“So what am I supposed to do in the
meantime?”

“I think it’s time you go visit your father in
New York.”

Vanni stared at Graham wide-eyed. Could he be
serious? “What?”

“You have a PR nightmare on your hands, Vanni.
It’s time to get some feel-good stories on the air instead of this
kind of crap. Making amends with your alcoholic father would show
how far you’re willing to go to make things right.”

Vanni’s face distorted with anger. “That son of
a bitch left me. It’s up to him to make it right.”

Graham indulged the temper tantrum. “What do
you think he’s doing with all these interviews?”

“He’s whoring off of my fame,” Vanni shot back.
“You know it as well as I do. He’s a fucking leech.”

“But he’s family,” Graham persisted. “Go. Have
your feel good moment. Make it a media splash. Then you come back
here and quietly make amends with a quick settlement, which is all
these kinds of people generally want anyway. Throw in a little
extra for the family for good measure if you are feeling especially
magnanimous. But ignoring your destitute father and then trying to
buy off these obviously poor people will only alienate those who
want to believe you’re a decent guy underneath it all.”

The way he said it made it clear to the room
that Graham was not among that particular group.

“This way you can ‘see the light’ and ride a
positive image swing all the way to the release of your next
album.”

“This is ridiculous,” Vanni said as he
collapsed back against the sofa.

“This is just desserts,” Graham clarified. “Did
you really think you could do the things you were doing and never
have to answer for any of them?”

Andy walked over to where Graham sat in his
chair and put her hand on his shoulder, but he ignored
her.

“You have been a self-absorbed asshole,” Graham
went on. “You broke apart your band, you wrecked your image and you
hurt the people that cared about you the most. And for what?
Because you didn’t get what you wanted? Grow up, Vanni. Life is a
lot bigger than you and your precious ego.”

Vanni rose to his feet and towered in the room
across from where Graham sat in his wheelchair. Holly jumped to her
feet and touched Vanni’s arm. “Let’s go,” she said
softly.

“No,” he told her without looking down at her.
“You know what, Graham? You’re absolutely, positively, one hundred
percent on the money. The world is bigger than my ego. But it’s
bigger than yours too. You sit there in that chair like the world
owes you something. Like I owe you something…when you’ve taken away
everything I ever cared about.”

Andy shot him a look and shook her head. This
was not the time for this battle. Graham, however, was undaunted.
“I didn’t take anything away from you, Vanni. You just never wanted
it until it was gone. Now it’s a convenient excuse to indulge
yourself, just like everything else in your life.”

Holly circled Vanni’s arm with one hand. “Come
on, Vanni.”

“Is this the kind of management I can expect
from you from here on out, Graham? Or are you just going to go back
to hiding behind Andy and Leo?”

Graham just smiled. “I’m not hiding. It’s time
for you to see what your bad decisions do to people.” He threw off
the blanket covering his legs, which were bared in the workout
shorts he still wore. Everyone could see the shriveled limbs that
could no longer support his weight enough to walk. Vanni gulped as
he stared at this formerly powerful man while Holly turned her
head. Graham reached up and grabbed Andy’s hand. “And I’m not
hiding behind her. She’s at my side because I’ve never been ashamed
to put her there. And that’s what’s killing you, isn’t
it?”

Andy closed her eyes. If she could have
teleported right out of that living room she would have.

She might have gone back to Philadelphia all
those years ago and walked out of the bar before Giovanni Carnevale
had the chance to say hello.

Vanni’s jaw clenched. He waited for her to take
a stand, but it wasn’t forthcoming. She just stood there, holding
Graham’s hand, and not saying one single word. She wouldn’t even
look at him. “You know, I think I’ll take your advice, Graham,” he
told him. “I’ll go to New York to see dear ol’ dad. Maybe I’ll find
another record producer while I’m there.”

He stalked from the room with Holly trailing
right behind. Everyone but Graham jumped from the loud, echoing
bang of the door slamming shut behind them.

Andy pulled her hand from his. She didn’t
remember ever being so angry with him. “How dare you do that?” she
breathed as she crossed her arms in front of her chest.

“Tell the truth?” he countered. “Shouldn’t
someone in this shithole of a situation?”

Maggie walked up to where he sat and put her
hands on the handlebars. “I think it’s time for a soak,” she
said.

“No,” he told her as he stared at Andy. “I want
to hear what Andy has to say.”

“No, you don’t,” Andy informed him. “Because I
agree with Vanni. You’ve been led by your ego just as much as he
has. And you’re hurting me just as much as he does. So well done,”
she concluded as she fought back the tears. “You’ve become what you
hate most.”

She stomped off to her bedroom before she let
him see her cry. When she emerged ten minutes later she carried a
suitcase. Maggie was the only one in the living room. “What’s going
on?”

“I have to get out of here,” Andy told her.
“You’re here. He’s in good hands. I just need to get away from both
of them for a little while.”

Maggie put aside the magazine she was reading.
“Andy, you have to put yourself in his shoes. It is very hard for a
man of Graham’s stature to come to terms with the fact he’s not the
man he was mere months ago. He’s getting used to these painful
limitations in this little cocoon where he’s safe and accepted.
Vanni’s showing up here today was to challenge him, pure and
simple. He felt as though he had to make a stand.”

“I’m not saying Vanni is blameless. I need to
get away from him too. I’ve turned into this trophy between them
when all I’ve ever done is try to help them and, God forbid, love
them. And you’re right. It’s safe here. It’ll be safer if I’m not
around, attracting this kind of conflict and these endless
complications.”

“You have to do what you have to do,” Maggie
commented. “But of the three of you, you’re the one who has to
think clearly. Because they’re not.”

That was the part that tormented her most. “I
don’t want that responsibility,” she said.

“Maybe not. But it’s yours all the same.” She
glanced off toward the hallway to Graham’s bedroom. “If you go,
then you should go face him and tell him why. It’s the right thing
to do.”

Andy heaved a big sigh. She knew Maggie was
right. She was just afraid it was one more opportunity for Graham
to emotionally manipulate her into doing what he wanted her to do,
which was obviously to prove to Vanni he was strong enough to win
at least one stupid macho battle.