I don’t think it escaped any of our notices that he hadn’t directly answered Brenda’s question. “No. You heard right,” Brenda said shortly, still staring her husband down. “Fans have been obsessing over all the dirty laundry, so to speak, and from that obsession at least two people are dead. And Jace’s sister is in the hospital after being stabbed. All theinside informationthat blog site has been sharing seems to have worked the hardcore-obsessed fans into a frenzy unlike ever before. We’re working on how to get that damn site shut down permanently.”
The leaf blower dropped to the floor, landing with a clang, but neither Brenda nor her husband even glanced at it. Their gazes were locked.
“It was me,” he whispered, tendrils of what sounded like regret and panic in those three words.
Everything went very still and silent. Jace was so tense at my side that I wondered if he was about to lose his shit.
“What the fuck did you just say?” Brenda rage-whispered.
Humphrey swallowed hard, his throat moving as held both hands up in front of him, like that would ward off the raging bull. “I’m sorry. I’ve just been so bored stuck at home that I decided to start a little gossip blog. You’re always chatting loudly on the phone, and I hear tidbits before they’re released to the public. And then, um, you left your email logged on when you used my laptop… I figured it wouldn’t hurt to make a little side money, and maybe even help with some publicity. Isn’t all publicity good publicity? Isn’t that what you’re always saying?”
Jace was on his feet in the next second, and I followed, throwing myself at Jace in an attempt to stop him from killing the much smaller and far more pathetic man, who was literally shaking as he shifted his gaze from his furious wife to the furious rock star in the room.
“How fucking dare you,” Jace snarled. “You almost got my sister killed. Now I’m going to kill you!”
He started to move, half dragging me across the room, and only stopped when I winced. He hadn’t hurt me at all, but I figured that was my best option to slow the rage. “Baby, you okay?” Jace grit out, as he paused and eyed me closely.
In that time, Brenda was across the room and in front of her husband. “Humphrey, you are the dumbest fucking moron I’ve ever known in my life. I’d let Jace murder you, if it didn’t mean I had to clean up the mess afterward to keep my biggest star out of jail.”
Jace let out a rumble, but he didn’t try to move again, since I was still wrapped around him and feigning an injury.
“I’m so sorry,” Brenda’s husband wailed. “I honestly never meant any harm. It was just a stupid gossip site.”
This fucking idiot clearly had no idea how powerful the media could be to people who worshipped the famous. It was where they got all their information and formed all their opinions. Brenda pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes, taking a few deep breaths. “Here’s what we are going to do,” she finally said.
I kept one hand on Jace’s chest, just in case this wasn’t the news he wanted to hear.
“We will useDirty Truthsto our advantage,” she started. “I’ve got everything in the works to dissolve Bellerose’s contract with Big Noise, which we were supposed to discuss today, but I don’t see a point since it’s actually moving through quite well. Giovanni is not fighting us, for a change, and I should have everything finalized by the end of the week.”
“What does that have to do withDirty Truths?” Jace bit out.
“When we dissolve this contract,” Brenda continued, “you will be looking to rebuild as an independent band, correct?”
“Yes.” Jace confirmed what all the band had decided the other day. “No one to control us. No one to dictate anything about our music any longer.”
Brenda nodded. “Great. Well,Dirty Truthsis one of the leading fucking sites for Bellerose gossip at the moment. A lot of your fans are on there, and that means we can take control of the narrative and feed them the stories that we want them to know, including the when, how, and why of your new indie status.”
Jace was silent as his chest heaved once and then again, before he finally relaxed. “Yeah, okay. I can see the benefit there. But seriously, get your fucking husband under control, or you’ll soon be a widow.”
Brenda flashed him a smile over her shoulder before she returned her glare to Humphrey. “Oh, don’t worry. He’s about to learn what happens when you piss off your exhausted wife. He’ll suffer.”
The poor man was so pale now I was worried that he might have had a stroke. Or maybe he was hoping for a stroke, since I got the sense that Brenda’s wrath might be worse than Jace’s.
A quick death versus a long, slow, drawn-out punishment.
Yeah, Humphrey Daniels was going to suffer more than enough.
twenty-three
BILLIE
Returning home after that eye-opening visit with Brenda was a relief. The mood instantly lightened when we told the rest of the band that the information leak forDirty Truthswas none other than their manager’s bored house-husband. Rhett laughed so hard he cried, then apologized profusely to Jace for laughing when Tess had nearly died from the whole thing.
Grayson was somewhat more sedate about the information.
“Just because we’ve gotten to the bottom ofthatblog site doesn’t mean that crazy fans aren’t still going to exist,” he warned us with a deep frown. “Brenda’s dead-shit husband didn’t make them obsess so hard they were literally willing to kill over us. He just fanned the flames, but the fire was already alight.”
“Gray’s right.” Angelo nodded. “This isn’t reason to let our guard down. Nor is that man solely responsible for all the shit going on right now. Even if it would feel good to blame him.” He arched a brow at Jace, who sneered back and extended his middle finger.
