The Prince of Punk Rock (63 page)

The sound
of the stinging slaps of leather on bare skin reverberated in Jessi’s
ears.
 
Tommy’s pathetic, woeful cries
echoed in her heart – a heart that was now broken by brutality.

“How
could you?” she spat at Angel. “How could you hurt Tommy like that?”

Angel was
confused and cocked his head.

“I saw
the DVD.
 
How could you do that to
Tommy?”
 
Hot angry tears streamed down
her face.
 
“You’re a fuckin’ animal!”

“He
didn’t hurt me, hon.”

“I saw
it, Tommy.
 
I saw the marks.
 
The red welts.
 
The pain on your face.
 
In your eyes.
 
Now I know why you didn’t want me to see it.
 
I didn’t know you could be so cruel, Angel.”

“Sweetheart,
I’m so sorry.
 
I only did what Tommy told
me to do.”

She
couldn’t stand the sight of him right now.
 
“Don’t blame Tommy.
 
He was tied
up, with a gag in his mouth.
 
You’re the
one who abused his body.
 
You’re the one
who–”

“Stop
it,” Tommy interrupted.
 
“Angel’s telling
the truth.
 
I orchestrated everything in
the video.
 
It was my idea.”

He tried
to put his hand on her shoulder, but she brushed it off.
 
“Don’t touch me!
 
My heart is broken because you cut me out and
because you took part in something so heinous.
 
I don’t fit in with that lifestyle.
 
I don’t know who either of you are anymore.
 
Do you know how betrayed I feel?
 
You and Angel have a life that doesn’t
include me.
 
And it’s disgusting! Is our
marriage a pretense?”

“No!
 
Why would you think that?”

“Because I didn’t’ know anything
about this side of you.”
 
She paced the
room.
 
Her mind was jumbled.
 
Her heart was reeling.
 
Her stomach lurched.
 
She took a deep breath.
 
She needed to get it together.
  
She still had to finish negotiating with
Kendall
.
 
“I can’t
deal with this right now.
 
We have to go
through with the plan.
 
Kendall
’s
expecting us in a few hours.”

Chapter Fifty-One

“She hates me, now.”

“Jessi doesn’t hate you, Angel.”

“Didn’t you see it in her
eyes?
 
She blames
me
.
 
She thinks I hurt you, mi amor. Did I?”

Tommy placed a soothing hand on
Angel’s chest and tried to relieve some of his concern.
 
“You didn’t hurt me.
 
Not once. Jessi’s sensitive, that’s all.
 
She doesn’t understand that we were having
fun.”

Angel tried to explain it to
her.
 
Even Tommy tried to explain, but
Jessi wouldn’t listen to either one of them and the loathing in her eyes made
Angel feel abysmal.
 
He questioned if she
could forgive him and what would happen if she didn’t.
 
Too many thoughts were reeling inside his
head and they still had to see
Kendall
.
 
First, he needed to enlighten Damien and
Jimmy about the DVD, just in case things backfired.

As soon as Angel saw the hardened
look in Damien’s eyes, he wished he never said anything about the DVD.

“You two again?
 
How many times do you think Ableman’s gonna
deal with your shit?
 
You’re gonna get us
thrown off the label.
 
And I don’t care
how many other labels want to pick us up.
 
Anywhere besides Falcon is a step down.
 
Get your fuckin’ lives together.
 
Stop tryin’ to ruin it for everybody else.”

Damien was telling
him
to
get
his
life together?
  
When did
their lives take a 360 degree turn?

Tommy was seething, staring at
Jimmy like a wolf ready to devour its prey. “This is your fault.
 
You brought
Kendall
to our house.
 
Do you have any idea how
pissed off Jessi is about the DVD?”

“I told you, man.
 
I didn’t know they didn’t like each other.”

“Everybody fuckin’ knows they hate
each other!
 
If you weren’t so busy
getting your dick sucked in the bathroom or getting laid in the back room every
ten minutes, maybe you would’ve noticed and my wife wouldn’t be crying in the
bathroom right now.”

“That’s not my fault. You’re the
one who made that fuckin’ DVD.”

Tommy puffed out his chest and
eradicated the space between him and Jimmy with one quick stride, so they were
ribcage to ribcage. “Pay more attention to what’s going on around us.
 
Since we got the record deal, all you’re
interested in is bangin’ every piece of ass that crosses your path.”

“That’s my business.
 
And get outta my face.” Jimmy shoved Tommy,
but he didn’t budge.
 
He had the rigid
stance of a football player.

Palms facing outward, Tommy’s hands
landed on Jimmy’s chest and sent him reeling backwards.
 
Jimmy charged at him and the two grappled,
pushing each other against the wall.

“Stop it!” Angel yelled.

Damien forced his way between them
and grabbed each of them by the front of their shirts and pulled them
apart.
 
“Knock it
the fuck
off!
 
We got enough problems.”

Angel was rattled.
 
Everything was a mess. His personal life and
his band were falling apart right in front of him.
 
He pulled at his hair.
 
“I can’t take this. Everything’s a fuckin’
disaster.”

Tommy’s arm was across his back, in
the comforting embrace that always brought his anxiety under control.

“What’s done is done.
 
Let’s just hope Jessi’s plan works.”
 
Tommy shot Jimmy a menacing stare.
 
“Otherwise me and you are gonna finish this
shit.”

“Take it easy,” Damien said.
 
“We’re gonna settle this shit with
Kendall
.
 
Today.
 
I’m coming with you.
 
So’s Jimmy.
 
We’re in this together.
  
We rise
to the top together.
 
We take the fall
together.
 
Shit happens.
 
We deal with it.
 
Together.”

Jessi stopped in front of the door to
Kendall
’s
hotel room.
 
“Do you want to do the
honors?”

Angel nodded.
 
“But you do the talking.”

Kendall
answered right away.
 
She was probably
waiting at the door.
 
“You didn’t have to
bring the whole band.
 
Come in.”

“We wanted to be here,” Damien
said, harshly brandishing his ice cold eyes at her.

It made Angel uneasy.
 
He didn’t want any trouble.
 
He wanted things to go as smoothly as
possible.

“Is that my money?”
Kendall
eyed the duffle bag in Tommy’s hand and stepped
toward him.

Jessi blocked her path and scowled
at her.
 
“I told you once to stay the
fuck away from my husband.
 
Don’t let me
have to repeat myself, because I won’t be so nice this time.”

Angel held his breath.
 
It wasn’t Damien who was going to be a
problem.
 
It was Jessi.

Kendall
took two DVDs off the end table and handed them to Angel.
 
As soon as they were in his hands, a sense of
relief washed over him.
 
His erratic
heartbeat settled, and it resumed a normal, steady rhythm.
 
He put the DVDs inside the pocket of his
jacket, and pressed them close to his chest.
 
He guarded them with his hand.
 
Someone would have to kill him to get them away from him.

“That’s it?” Jessi asked.
 
“You only made two copies?”

“Yeah.
 
These two and the one I gave you this
morning.”

Jessi walked over to the desk
against the wall.
 
“Why is your laptop
here?”

“I can’t bring my laptop on
vacation with me?”

“Is that what this is?
Vacation?”
 
She pointed to the
laptop.
 
“Open it.”

Even if Angel noticed the laptop in
the room, he wouldn’t have thought to check the hard drive.
 
He closed his eyes and let out a deep
breath.
 
Thank God Jessi was handling the
situation.

While Jessi was engrossed in the
computer, hunched over, nose poised inches from the computer screen, fingers
tapping away on the keys like mad,
Kendall
strolled up to Angel and broke out into a smile. He didn’t want to have a
conversation with her.
 
He wanted to
leave as quickly as possible.
 
He wished
Jessi was there to shoo
Kendall
away, but she
was frantically searching the computer.