Unleashed #4 (19 page)

Because, what if? What
if there was a guy out there who made my blood rush and my heart
beat, a guy who could make me laugh and feel wild and reckless and
alive. A man who gave me the kind of thrill I felt when listening to
my favorite music, that sense that the future was limitless, that I
could do anything I wanted and more.

I’d always been a
good girl, but I’d always had a thing for bad boys. There’d been
a guy at my high school with a motorcycle and a black leather jacket.
He’d been a year ahead of me. I’d watched him, shy and quiet, and
he’d never noticed me. Until one day after school, he’d caught me
looking, stepping through the autumn leaves holding my books. He’d
given me a sexy wink and a beckoning smile, then invited me over with
a tilt of his head. He’d patted the seat behind him on his bike as
if to say, “It’s yours if you want it. Let me take you on a
ride.”

My eyes wide, I’d
looked down and scurried away. I didn’t even know him. I wasn’t
about to hop up on a motorcycle with him. Besides, my mother had told
me a million times I was never allowed to ride one because they were
so dangerous, death traps she called them, shaking her head when we
saw one on the road.

But that moment had
stayed with me. It wasn’t so much that one guy. It was the idea of
him, of that moment. The path not taken. The opportunity missed.

I’d played it safe
for a good, long time, but I’d been slowly spreading my wings.
Finishing my degree at a four-year SUNY a little further from home,
pursuing a degree in library science, finding a job in the city and
moving to Brooklyn. Step by step, I was building my own life. Nothing
wild and crazy. Yet.

But I had a feeling
inside. It wasn’t something I could name, nothing I could put my
finger on. But I tingled with possibility. I was young and the city
expanded before me, the driving beat and sexy voice of Ash Black in
my ear. Anything could happen. I didn’t know what would happen
next. But I did know that the next time a hot guy patted the
motorcycle seat behind him and invited me to hop on, I wasn’t going
to say no. I was going to run over, jump up, wrap my arms and legs
around him and say “Hell, yeah! Let’s go for a ride!”

Chapter
3

Ash

I’d grown up in New
York, but it was a funny thing. Once you’d lived in California for
a couple of years, all that biting wind and slush? You realized there
was another way. Sure, you could brave it all, charge through the
fiercest storms as tough as nails. But once you’d lived in
California you realized that you didn’t have to. There was a land,
a golden land, with beaches and palm trees and sunshine. OK, where I
lived in San Francisco it was mostly fog but at least it never did
this shit, with the driving sleet coming at you from an angle that
just seemed deliberately vicious.

I ducked into a coffee shop. My
buddy Vance lived around here in SoHo, or at least he had when we’d
last partied, which now I realized had been a year or so ago. Things
got hectic in the Ash carnival. I texted him again:

You around?

Two o’clock on a
Friday afternoon, I guessed Vance would be into hanging out. Vance
was the kind of cavalier rich kid I’d grown up with, the type who
drank Krystal for breakfast and ate pussy for lunch. Right now he was
probably flanked by hot chicks, one to the right, one to the left and
one right between his legs. He was always up for a party.

I’d flown in from
S.F. last night and checked myself into a hotel because I’d be
damned if I’d see my family any more than I had to. I’d headed
out, figuring I could meet up with Vance, and now I guessed I might
as well grab a coffee. Baseball cap down low over my face, I got in
line like the rest of the poor schmucks in New York, standing around
and waiting to order.

Day four of Mandygate
as my agent, Joel, had started calling it, and this thing wasn’t
going away. It wasn’t getting any better. If I were honest, it was
getting worse. I’d lost a sponsor, our biggest one for the New
Year’s show.

Before the video, I’d
been all set to headline the Super Bowl halftime show. The
t’
s
were crossed,
i
’s
dotted, the big news was going to be announced in a couple of weeks.
But now they were having second thoughts. Was I family friendly
enough? As if before I’d broken up with Mandy Monroe I’d been a
cuddly teddy bear, but now the world saw me as a grizzly.

Yesterday Mandy had
leaked 30 seconds of a new song, all about her heart twisting and
aching and breaking. Over-the-top bullshit, all of it, but people
were eating it up. And sending me hate mail. With death threats on
Facebook, “#DieAsh” was gaining alarming popularity on Twitter. I
didn’t spend a lot of time with my fan base on social media—make
that any time—I had people to handle that. I was too busy out
living life and actually doing the shit that made me fans. But the
last couple nights I’d stayed up late, alone and sober, watching
the waves of hate roll in. Because something about it, all that trash
talk, a strange, small part of me had to agree. I was an asshole. How
had it taken the world so long to realize it? I’d known it all
along.

Shit, someone
recognized me. The worst kind, a girl, maybe around 17. They didn’t
hold back, the young ones, like wild tigresses after a meal. I popped
the collar on my jacket and tucked my chin into it. Brim pulled down
low, hands in my pockets, everything about me gave off the “stay
the fuck away” vibe.

She started whispering with her
friend. I took my phone out of my pocket. Nothing back from Vance.
Something from my agent Joel, of course.

Find her yet?

I rolled my eyes. He’d
cooked up some half-baked rescue plan last night, something about
getting back at Mandy with her own medicine. I hadn’t followed all
of it, told him he’d lost his mind. This had to blow over soon. Not
yet, though.

By the time I got up to
the counter, I could feel a rumble behind me. Like the start of a
small earthquake, a tremor building up. Whispering and phones
clicking, the girls were snapping photos of me and spreading the
word.

“Double tall latte.”
I leaned in close to the girl behind the counter so I didn’t have
to speak loudly. That was the problem with having one of the most
recognizable voices in the world. My deep, gravelly snarl had made me
famous, working my way into bedrooms and hearts all over. Now it made
the barista scowl.

Giving me the
stink-eye, she punched in my order. Then she turned her back and
whispered to her co-worker by the coffee machines. The other one
looked over her shoulder at me like I’d committed war crimes. They
must be raging Mandy Monroe fans. God knew what they’d do to my
coffee.

My phone rang. Joel
again. I’d already ducked three of his calls.

“Hey, man.” I
tucked myself into a corner, trying for inconspicuous. A couple more
people walked into the coffee shop, joining the girls in line,
staring over at me.

“I almost got you on
Good Morning America
.”

“Cool.” I didn’t
really mean it. I hated morning shows and all the smarminess that
went along with them. But I knew if I needed to hang onto all this,
keep the Ash Black brand on top of the world, I needed to do it. I
needed to hang my head and show America I wasn’t such a bad guy
after all. But the strange thing about all this crisis was the part
of me—a growing part of me—asking why exactly should I give a
shit about any of this? Why did it matter so much for me to stay so
famous? Why did I have to care if I did
Good
Morning America
or not? What was the point?

“I said almost, Ash.
They booked Mandy instead.”

“Huh.” Out of the
corner of my eye I saw the crowd gathering, the line becoming more of
a swirl, the doors of the coffee shop now forced open due to incoming
gawkers. Someone had tagged me, released my location, and now the
hounds were on the hunt.

“Have you found her
yet?”

“Listen, man, this
isn’t really a good time.” I knew he was trying to reference our
conversation from last night, keep after me about some idea he’d
had, but right now the crowd gathering behind me was starting to feel
like an angry mob.

“Don’t you tell me
it’s not a good time to talk, Ash. You need serious image rehab.
America likes bad boys, but not like this. You need to clean this
up.”

A giant, hulking slab
of beef lumbered over to me, baseball cap on backwards. “What, do
you think you’re cool, bro?” he asked me, his face round and pale
like a rising full moon on a cold, clear winter’s night. “You
think you’re a big shot?”

A few girls flanked
him, angry heat in their eyes. A growing, vengeful army started to
form behind them. The linebacker was clearly trying to score some
points by sticking it to the guy who’d dumped America’s
sweetheart. Not that he cared a flying fuck about Mandy Monroe, I
could guarantee that, but he definitely cared about impressing the
girls behind him.

Side entrance. I ducked
out quick, pushing my way through a throng forming on the sidewalk. I
could imagine the barista tweeting right now, letting everyone know
how I’d skipped out without paying for my coffee. Add it to the
list of my sins. Brim down, I hustled along the sidewalk, but then it
happened. The blinding flash of a professional camera. They’d found
me, the paparazzi. Never far away, like a biblical plague of locusts
raining down on my head from above. This guy seemed to be perched up
on the rooftop of a storefront across the street. You wouldn’t
believe what those guys would do for a shot. One time a guy had
lowered himself down in a harness wearing full-on climbing gear to
get some shots into my hotel room in London. Sexy pics he got, too. I
bet they made him a bundle.

“WHAT THE FUCK IS
GOING ON!” Joel’s voice blasted through the phone I was still
clutching. I forgot I was still on the call.

“Right, just heading
out of a coffee shop.”

“Listen, I’m
serious about what we talked about yesterday.”

“Yup.” With a
slight turn of my head, I checked out the scene behind me. At least
ten people heading out of the coffee shop on my tail. Quickly, I
ducked into an alleyway which, thank God, wasn’t a dead end. Who
knew celebrity stardom would involve such cloak-and-dagger shit?

“Have you thought
about it?”

“What?” Tucking
around the side of a large dumpster, I hunched down in its shadow.
Such glamour in my rock-n-roll lifestyle.

“The kindergarten
teacher. The nurse.”

“Right, right.”
He’d pitched me something yesterday, an idea he and Lola had come
up with. Probably Lola, my main point-person from the PR firm
representing me. She was a schemer, that one.

“We’re working on a
few leads, but it’s better if it’s someone you know. From your
circles.”

“My circles?” I
peeked my head around the corner. No sign of the angry mob, but you
never knew with these types of things. One minute, nothing. The next
minute pitchforks, torches and your head’s on a spike.

“You must know some
wholesome girl, some goody-two-shoes who’d play along for a month.
Then dump you in public.”

That was what they’d
come up with, taking Mandy’s idea right out from under her. I
needed to get my heart stomped, publically, by some young sweet
thing. Because what could humanize a demon? Seeing him get his
come-uppance.

It was the holiday
season, the time when everyone wanted to cozy up fireside with a
loved one. What better time for me to launch a highly publicized
romance? They wanted me to pull out all the stops with staged visits
to a tree-lighting, ice skating at Rockefeller Center, a snowball
fight in Central Park. They even wanted me to declare my love and
propose to this lucky girl at my New Year’s Eve concert. It would
play out like every woman’s dream of a whirlwind romance. And then
she’d dump me even more heartlessly than Ash Black. On camera.

It was a good idea, I’d
give them that. The problem was the woman. She had to be legit, no
actress pretending. Celebrity hounds would be on that in a second and
it would all turn on me, the asshole who’d hired someone to make
him look better than he really was. No, we had to find someone real.
She had to be pretty in that wholesome, classic Ivory soap girl kind
of a way. She had to be sweet and kind and giving and adorable with
not a single black mark to her name. And she had to be willing to be
my fake girlfriend for a month, then dump me heartlessly and
preferably on live TV.

“A nurse would be
good.” Joel was still talking, brainstorming.

Hmm. I’d played
naughty nurse with some girl a few weeks ago. But I think she’d
been a stripper.

“Naughty nurse won’t
cut it.” Shit, it was like Joel read my mind. He knew me too well.

“I could adopt a
puppy?” And hire someone to actually raise it. “That could be
good for a few photo ops, right?” Maybe a golden retriever puppy,
and we could put a big, fat red bow on it.

“You’d need to
adopt every puppy in the country. And you’d still fuck that up. Did
you know Mandy’s writing a song about you now?”

I pressed the palm of
my hand into my eye socket. Yes, I did know.

“She’s posting
about it. It’s called ‘Ride.’”

I nodded. “As in, you
took me for a—”

“Ride, yeah,” Joel
confirmed.

Just then a couple of
celebrity rats came swarming around the corner, cameras in hand. On
the hunt, somehow they could smell my blood.

“Gotta go,” I
whispered into the phone and took off down the alleyway. I needed
better cover, somewhere they wouldn’t think to look for me.

“Find her,” Joel
demanded. I ended the call and shoved the phone into my pocket. Where
the hell was a guy like me going to find a nice girl, sweet and
pretty with nothing sketchy in her past, yet still willing to enter
into this circus for a whole month? It wasn’t going to happen.