Shatter

“Baby, lay down with me,” she whined.

“No thanks.”

“Such a gentleman.” She hiccupped. “Please? I’ll make it all better.” She reached for me and moaned.

Said the snake to Eve in the garden. I laughed at my own joke. “Doubtful, and I’m not even feeling nice enough to let you try.” I slapped her greedy little hands away and got up.

“Fine.” She threw a pillow at me. “Just leave.”

“Fine!” I yelled and stormed out of the room, directly into her.

“That lasted long.” She smiled. I’d seen her before. She’d been at a few movie premieres with Jaymeson. She looked like an older version of Nat.

“She’s crazy.”

“Aren’t they all?” The pretty woman tilted her head to the side. “Wanna come in my room? I promise. No crazy here.”

“Promise?” I rubbed my eyes. Damn, I just needed to get some sleep. I’d had too much to drink and wasn’t feeling particularly like going back into that witch’s room. Besides, I wasn’t sober enough to drive home, not by a long shot, and the last thing I wanted was to leave my car overnight at the same hotel that Satan was staying at, or worse, get a room and somehow find my face next to hers on the tabloids. Which really begged the question what the hell was I doing at the same hotel?

“Absolutely. And you can tell me why such a famous rock star like yourself looks like someone just kicked your puppy.”

“It’s a long story,” I muttered catching a whiff of her rose water perfume.

“Hey, I’ve got all night.”

“Okay, sure.” I followed her into the room.

The first mistake. One I would live with the rest of my life.

“Alec!” Nat called from the other side of the door. “The food’s here. You okay?”

“Yeah.” My hoarse voice sounded anything but okay. “I’ll be right out.”

I was in some deep shit.

Chapter Eight

Demetri

“Dude, you look depressed.” Jaymeson nudged me in the shoulder. “What? Someone run over your dog or something?” He put his feet on the coffee table and checked his cell.

“Yeah, my imaginary dog. Some giant ass British man ran it over with his tiny car. Weird.” I rolled my eyes at Jaymeson and flipped to another channel.

“You do realize you and Alec are part English right?” Jayemson felt the need to point out. “Furthermore, my accent gets me laid, what’s yours do?”

I sighed and showed him a picture of Alyssa on my phone.

“Point Demetri.”

I wasn’t in the mood to joke around. I mean, I loved Jaymeson as much as anyone. He was one of my best friends. I just couldn’t shake the horrible feeling I had about Alec and everything going on.

After much coaxing and pleading with the producers, Alyssa was given the rest of the night off to spend with her family. Technically, they only needed the celebrities to appear tonight, leaving me stuck in the car with Jaymeson, Angelica, and Alec’s dark mood. I could only pray that Nat took his mind off things… hmm. Weird thought. Was I actually praying that Nat had sex with my brother? See, now he had me losing my damn mind!

I needed to back off of the taffy if I was going to have any appetite at the restaurant, but I was a nervous chewer. If I didn’t have taffy — especially now, you’d better believe I’d be drowning myself in the ocean with a bottle of Jack.

“You morons ready?” Angelica came around the corner in the shortest dress I’d ever seen on a human being.

“I didn’t know it was Halloween.” Jaymeson laughed.

I winked at Angelica. “Dressing up as a whore… nice. I’m sure that will get great press for the new family restaurant. Good thinking. Let me just take off my pants and grab my stripper pole.”

“Ah, the stripper pole!” Angelica slammed her hand against her forehead. “I knew I was forgetting something.” Her evil eyes bored into mine. “Care to oil me up before my dance?”

“Do you promise to slip and bleed to death?”

“Why? Blood turn you on?” She purred.

Holy hell this woman had to go.

“Too far.” Jaymeson stood between us. “Alright, fake girlfriend, let me go…” He tilted his head and took in her outfit again. “Find coveralls or something.”

“Coveralls?” Angelica squawked.

“Yeah.” Jaymeson nodded. “To make up for your nakedness.”

“Brilliant,” I exclaimed in a fake British accent while Angelica flipped off Jaymeson’s disappearing form.

The sound of the TV made the silence in the room worse. Um, awkward. Angelica and I hadn’t really talked about that one week we spent together a year ago.

Shit. The elephant was getting bigger by the second.

“So you hate me now?” Angelica managed to sit without flashing me her goodies. Her face fell into a pout. “I thought we got along really well when you visited me and—”

“Yeah, I’m going to stop you right there. I was high.”

“But—”

“—On drugs, Angelica. I would have slept with an ant had it looked at me cross-eyed, okay? Drop it. And if I remember correctly the one and only time you and I did hook up was so damn horrible I was traumatized for weeks. Thanks for calling me by my brother’s name by the way. That didn’t make me want to kill myself.”