The Complete Groupie Trilogy Page 43

  But even with how good Graham was to her and for her, she couldn’t totally scrape Vanni from her soul. She loved both men in completely different ways even though it was tearing her apart.

  Just seeing the disappointment in Graham’s face tonight when he had reached his greatest milestone thus far without her brought it home that she was spreading herself too thin between them.

  Yet she still had the compulsion to go where they called, to juggle them and do the best she could. There was no way she’d ever really be able to say no to either of them. She could only hope that she would be able to keep all the pins she juggled in the air for at least one more day.

  That was her prayer every day.

  She knew eventually she’d be put to the test. She just didn’t realize it would happen the next day when Vanni made a surprise appearance on her doorstep.

  She had been with Maggie and Graham since almost dawn. He woke up more determined than ever to take his first step now that he could tentatively stand. Though he could put pressure on his feet he still couldn’t will his legs to move from where they were planted on the ground. Instead he wore himself out trying to drag himself along the parallel bars as he brushed away Maggie’s assistance.

  By eleven o’clock he was almost ready to collapse from exhaustion. When the doorbell rang Andy went to tend to their visitor while Maggie got Graham back into his chair. She nearly swallowed her tongue when she saw Vanni standing tall and strong right in the threshold. He overwhelmed her so much she barely saw Holly standing right next to him.

  “What are you doing here?” she wanted to know immediately. It was Graham’s home. It wasn’t right for them to see each other there.

  Especially since her heart raced with sheer excitement just to see him again.

  “There’s an emergency,” Holly answered for him, which drew Andy’s attention to her.

  Against her better judgment she stepped back and allowed them both to enter into the living room. “What’s going on?”

  “We finally know the name for the other girl in the accident,” Holly went on. “Our good friends at PING located her next of kin. They’re about to do an exclusive interview before the noon news.”

  “Hence the emergency,” Vanni dryly remarked. “Now that they know what happened to her and why…”

  “And who Vanni is,” Holly interjected.

  “They want a payday. And they’re telling anyone who will listen that they want to fight for the girl who can’t fight for herself.”

  Andy sighed. This sink hole just kept widening. She gestured to the sofa where they could take a seat so she could go break the news to Graham.

  Only as she turned to go get him she found him in the doorway. He was in his chair and Maggie stood directly behind him. For some weird reason she felt as though she’d been caught cheating when all she had done was let visitors into the house. “Vanni and Holly are here,” Andy said unnecessarily. “There’s a problem.”

  “I see,” he said. “And I heard.”

  He rolled into the living room where Vanni and Holly sat waiting. Maggie followed just inside the room but stayed off to the side within reach but not involved in the conversation. Celebrity business didn’t concern her as much as his health.

  Graham turned to Andy. “Perhaps you’d like to get our guests something to drink,” he suggested with a warm smile that took her a bit off guard. She could tell he was upset to have Vanni in his home and witness the compromised shape he was in, but he hid it well underneath a casual demeanor that pretended there was nothing at all wrong with him.

  She turned silently to their guests. “May I get you something to drink?” she asked them. Vanni shook his head as he regarded her through narrowed eyes, but Holly jumped up to her feet. “I’ll help you get something for everyone,” she said as she ushered Andy out of the living room and into the kitchen.

  Andy was silent as she took out several crystal tumblers and then grabbed a pitcher of tea from the fridge.

  “Is there something wrong?” Holly asked as she filled each glass with ice.

  “We’re not used to unexpected guests,” Andy replied and Holly was instantly apologetic.

  “I’m sorry, Andy. I come over here all the time so I figured it would be no big deal. Plus it was pretty urgent that we all get ahead of this thing for damage control.”

  “It’s fine. It’s just…,” Andy took a deep breath. “Things are complicated with Vanni and Graham.” And me, she thought to herself.

  Holly looked up at her innocently. “I’m sorry,” she apologized again. “I was with Vanni this morning when we found out, and I just thought it was better to bring Vanni over here than involve Leo. I know you don’t get along with him, but I knew you and Vanni had been… close.”

  Andy turned to her. “That’s the complication,” she pointed out, although she felt it unnecessary. “You do know that the whole reason Graham is in that chair is because of one of Vanni’s fans, right?”

  Holly nodded. “But honestly that’s all personal. This is business. If we can’t come to you and Graham whenever there’s a problem then maybe it’s best that we find another label to protect his interests.”

  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 entertainme
nt 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.