Free Plain Again by Sarah Price

would fight the practice but for two things: the enormous expense of the legal battle and the fact that, once a person achieved celebrity status, they became quasi-public property and different laws applied to them. Still, it didn’t make the practice any more palatable.
    Of course, Alejandro thought as he buttoned up his black shirt and stared into the bathroom mirror, the paparazzi had also helped jumpstart his career. During his early years, he had been a constant name in the Miami newspapers, both English and Spanish, just as much for his rapid rise to stardom as for the bar and street fights he had been involved in, some greatly exaggerated by the media. The stories had increased his fan base as young Latinos wanted to see what he would do next.
    Still, he didn’t want them bothering Amanda.
    Thirty minutes later, he was sitting in Mike’s office, a white mug of coffee in his hand while he waited for his manager to end a phone call. Setting the mug on the glass table by the sofa where he sat, Alejandro pulled the papers from the portfolio and glanced through them one more time.
    He tossed them aside, frustrated at the photos that graced the entertainment section of a third tabloid that he hadn’t seen earlier: Amanda at the farm, Alejandro onstage, not together; speculation that their marriage was on the rocks. But it was the actual story of the fourth paper that bothered him: the story about the hired man at the farm.
    Indeed, the latest photo, the one of the hired man helping Amanda through the small crowd of photographers at the market, infuriated him. The article gleefully reported that social media had gone viral, circulating the photos with comments about Amanda returning to her plain roots and finding a new love interest. There was a split: half of the fans were thrilled, preferring a single Viper to a married Alejandro, while the other half seemed completely smitten with Amanda. However, what was more disturbing to Alejandro was how the former group was turning against Amanda while the latter turned against him.
    Irritated by what he was reading, Alejandro brushed aside the magazine, stood up, and started to pace the floor in Mike’s office, his hands clutched behind his back. His mind reeled, wondering what she was doing that morning. Already, he had tried to call her twice to no avail. It went directly to voice mail, so he knew she must have forgotten to charge the phone, something he had been very specific about instructing her to do each night.
    “ Dios mío,” he mumbled and rubbed at his forehead. He stared at Mike, who, having hung up the phone, had moved over to sit on the sofa. “I want this stopped, Mike.” He gestured toward the papers. “Do something.”
    Mike took a moment and glanced through the small stack of papers. Alejandro noticed that he barely looked at the photos and articles, just scanning the headlines. It occurred to him that Mike might have already read the tabloids. Yet he had said nothing to his client. A wave of anger caused Alejandro to narrow his eyes and glare at Mike while he fingered through the papers. Finally, his manager looked up and shrugged his shoulders, a gesture of defeat as well as noncompliance. “And what exactly would you have me do, Alex?”
    Alejandro ran his fingers through his hair and cursed in Spanish under his breath. “I don’t know, but something,” he muttered and turned to stare at Mike. Then, raising his voice: “Anything. Just divert the attention away from her while she’s at her parents’. That’s what I pay you for!”
    If Alejandro had expected Mike to react to the unspoken threat, he was sorely disappointed. Instead of looking concerned, Mike merely leaned back into the sofa and put his hands behind his head, staring at Alejandro with no emotion in his eyes. “I can arrange interviews on the talk shows for you,” Mike offered, his voice expressing the same lack of concern as in his facial expression. “I can arrange photographers