Free Unstoppable (Fierce) by Ginger Voight Page A

Jace entered the studio and joined us behind the microphones. Eddie was still there, sitting across from us in the control room with the recording engineers, but we no longer cared.
    Jace greeted us both with warm hugs before he put on his earphones. Suddenly, our performances came alive with the inclusion of his spectacular voice. It was hard to believe he had never sung a note prior to his injury. Thank God for the first therapist who suggested they listen to music to aid his recovery. He began to sing to offset the pain, and from out of nowhere this voice bubbled to the surface, far more nuanced, still, than we even knew.
    He had spent the better part of the last three months with both Imogene and Vanni to stretch his vocal ability in time for the tour. They honed his crystal-clear falsetto to where he could drop it as easily into a rock song as he could a ballad. Gone were the 1970s AM standards he initially brought into the Fierce competition, songs I later learned were the songs his dad had once dedicated to his mom during their courtship. Those had meant something to him, so he leaned heavily on them to convey emotion to the audience. Every now and then he’d sing them just for me, but he was quickly growing beyond that into more complex, thematic songs that reached the listener with the power of his voice alone.
    I was so proud of how much he’d grown that I could have burst. It inspired me to push my own limits, which were alre ady off the charts. All my life my mother had cautioned me that was just vanity and showing off.
    When I finally confided that to Jace, he simply said, “What’s wrong with that?”
    So I let it rip when we were in the studio, matching Jace note for note, unconscious of the fact that Shelby was drowned out by the both of us.
    It took a break, and Eddie, to point that out.
    He cornered me when I was refilling my water bottle. “How can you be such a cunt to someone you say is your friend?” he demanded in a low voice.
    “What are you talking about?”
    “It’s not enough that you and Bionic Boy stole her crown, now you have to steal her thunder? Is it that important to you to be better than everyone else, Jordi?”
    I glared at him as I sipped the ice cold water. “You tell me,” was all I said as I spun on my heel and returned to the studio.
    But when we went into the new verses, I did temper my performance. It wasn’t her fault that I had such a powerful voice; there was no need to overrun her in a tune that didn’t even allow for lead performances anyway.
    We were a team. And I was used to being a team player.
    I could see the gratitude on her face as she took her own vocals down a notch, no longer straining herself to keep up – or at least be heard.
    We had it near perfect by the time Vanni arrived with Graham later that afternoon, both of whom were very pleased with our performances.
    Graham gave me a big bear hug in greeting, nearly lifting me right off the floor. He hadn’t been kidding about how he wanted to take the finalists of the show under his wing. He practically adopted me after I signed onto the label. I was as welcome to his house as I was in his office, so I had shared many dinners with both him and my guardian angel, Maggie.
    They didn’t pry much into my private life; I got the feeling that they suspected I wasn’t ready to divulge that kind of information. But they made their presence in my life a welcoming one, and I knew that I could depend upon them both to guide me in making good decisions.
    “How are you doing, kiddo?” he asked as he planted a kiss on top of my head.
    “Great,” I lied through my teeth. Though technically a homecoming, I was biding my time until we hit the next stop on the tour. I was ready to put Los Angeles – and Eddie – in the rear view mirror. The ruse was much easier to pull off when he wasn’t right in front of me, demanding that I play nice or else.
    The group headed out to a trendy, late night restaurant, where Maggie