Free Pure Wicked: A Wicked Lovers Novella (1001 Dark Nights) by Shayla Black Page B

drugs ever became too much to resist. Not for one minute did he forget that virtually everyone around him was making a buck off his vocal cords. If he lost his voice or died tomorrow, his fans would care. But would any of the people he saw day in and day out give two shits?
    Not so much. Candia was the closest thing he had to a friend now, and she was a career woman first and always. If she didn’t have him, she’d mourn for thirty seconds, then pick up the phone and schmooze multiple job offers before choosing one and moving on.
    No wonder he’d really enjoyed his time with Bristol. She didn’t expect him to be sexy or perfect or charming or anything except nice. And while he suspected she was a tad gun-shy after Hayden, she had opened up to him and shared parts of herself, like the fact that she was named after her dad’s Connecticut hometown and that she watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer reruns whenever she caught one on TV.
    “Ryan made his choices,” she murmured, her voice heavy.
    Jesse gritted his teeth. “When he was so high, he barely knew his own damn name.”
    “Sorry. I know he’d been a part of your band for years and you used to be tight.” She hesitated.
    Tight? They’d shared both women and parties for years. Nothing more intimate than drinking out of the same bottle while both balls deep in the same chick. He and Ryan had grown apart after Jesse had stuck with his decision to stay sober, but that didn’t mean he’d cared about the guy less.
    “Thanks,” he muttered.
    “Maddy’s funeral is that afternoon in Round Rock.”
    He winced. What a tragic waste. Sixteen was way too young to die.
    “Did you get a hold of her parents?”
    “I did. They don’t want anything to do with you, your apologies, or your money. And they definitely don’t want you showing up to their daughter’s funeral and turning it into a media circus. They want to grieve in peace. They don’t blame you for what happened. Apparently, Maddy had been through some trouble with drugs in the past. But they don’t want you or any token of yours around as a reminder of all they’ve lost. If you really want to make a gesture of some sort, I think your best option is to start a scholarship fund in her name or shoot an anti-drug PSA.”
    That would cost him almost nothing. Jesse wished the girl’s parents had been more demanding…but forcing them to take from him would only serve to make himself feel better. “Done. Set it all up.”
    “Will do. Beyond that, I’m still thinking about your image and how to rehab it. Give me time.” She sighed. “So where did you go after you dropped me off at the airport?”
    Jesse described his road trip to see Kimber. “But I couldn’t intrude on their domestic scene any longer, so I split. They won’t tell anyone. Kimber understands the pressure, and Deke just wants me gone.” He shifted in his seat. “After that, I went back to the hotel and grabbed my bike off the equipment truck, then took off. I pulled over to sleep at a park off the road. Then I rolled into Texarkana and found an old-school barbershop. No one in there was under seventy, so I doubt they had any idea who I am. I’d already rented a craptastic motel room and shaved. I’d taken out my earrings and slid into the jeans and a comfortable tank I keep in the saddlebag. They cut my hair without blinking. Now I’m a new man.”
    “So you’re in Texarkana?” Candia didn’t sound thrilled, and he heard her tapping on her keyboard. “Because someone there will recognize you. According to the most recent census, the city has a population of over thirty-six thousand people. Even if you’ve changed your appearance—”
    “I was only there a few hours. I went to a nearby barbeque restaurant the barbers raved about to grab some dinner and…” Saying he’d met someone was going to launch Candia into a righteous fit. On the other hand, she seemed to have spidey senses. His publicist would figure it out, and when she