Wild Renegade

by Andria Large

  "And what the fuck am I supposed to do about that?" I ask him.

  He glances at me, his hazel eyes thoughtful. "Give her something else to focus on? Like another guy," he replies.

  "You volunteering?"

  His eyes go wide and he shakes his head vehemently. "Hell no!"

  I snort and turn to look at Roland and Dean, but they are both already shaking their heads.

  "No," Roland says sternly.

  "No fucking way. I don't want some psycho chick obsessed with me." Dean grunts.

  I make an aggravated noise. "Lizette, can't you just fire her and get rid of her that way?"

  "She got a warning, now she has to do something else. I can't just fire her for no reason. And I'd have to find another dancer to take her spot."

  "Dammit!" I bite out.

  "Let’s just hope that she's stupid enough to act dumb again," Beau says.

  I just grunt in agreement and hope like hell that she fucks up so Lizette can fire her ass.

  ~Nicole~

  We finally make it to the hotel at around midnight. It was an exhausting ride having to listen to Hillary spew her bullshit. There was nowhere to hide on the bus. Now, I just want to crawl into bed and go to sleep. I need a good night sleep before the concert tomorrow. I'm just about to get into bed when there is a knock on my door. I go over and check the peephole - it's Ace. I open the door to see that he's dressed and ready to go out.

  "Hey, babe," he says, giving me a kiss on the lips.

  "Hi," I answer, letting him in my room.

  "Dean and I are gonna go out for a little bit, wanna come?" he asks.

  I sigh. "No, I'm gonna go to bed."

  "You sure?" he pouts, giving me his puppy dog eyes.

  I smile softly and wrap my arms around his neck. "That's not going to work on me tonight."

  He grins. "Always worth a try."

  I lean up and press my lips against his. "You go, have fun."

  He nods. "Okay," he murmurs before kissing me softly.

  "Don't get too drunk. Remember that we have to work tomorrow," I say, giving him a pointed look.

  "I know. I promise, I'll be good," he says, giving me one more kiss before heading for the door.

  "See you in the morning," I say, following him to the door.

  He turns and smiles at me. That smile melts my heart every time he aims it at me. God, I love him so much.

  "Okay, goodnight, baby."

  "Goodnight." I smile.

  After Ace leaves, I climb into bed and turn out the lights. I fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow, dreaming about Ace and how great everything has been between the two of us, and how well we get along. I never expected to come into this job and end up as Ace Vaughn's girlfriend. I didn't expect Ace to be the kind of guy that he is. I guess I expected him to be a pompous ass, but he's so far from it.

  The next morning, I wake up refreshed, take a shower, and get dressed. I try to call Ace, but he doesn't answer. It's only 10:30 am, so I'm guessing that he's still asleep. I decide to go to the Starbucks that is on the corner to grab us both a coffee before going to wake him up. After getting the coffee, I head to Ace's room and knock on the door.

  A minute later, the door opens to reveal Hillary holding a sheet around her, her shoulders bare as if she is naked underneath. I blink at her for a moment before looking at the number on the door. It's the number that Ace told me was his room. Hillary smiles smugly.

  "What the fuck?" is all that comes out of my mouth as I push past her to find Ace.

  I stop dead when I see him sprawled out on the bed on his stomach, completely naked. My breath catches. No! So many emotions race through me. Devastation is the biggest one. How could he? How could he with her - of all people? Even drunk I didn't think he'd be that stupid. I turn to look at her and she's watching me, her eyebrow raised in an "I told you so" fashion.

  I slam both coffee cups down on the dresser and go over to the side of the bed. I grab Ace's disheveled hair and yank his head back, pulling it off the pillow.

  "Ace!" I snap.

  Ace's groans as his eyes flutter open. "Ow," he grunts. "Why are you pulling my hair?"

  I shove his head away as I let him go. "I hope she was worth it," I hiss furiously.

  Ace gives me a confused look and rubs his head where I had a hold of his hair. "What are you talking about?"

  "Seriously? You can't fucking deny it when the tramp is still in your room, you piece of shit!" I bark.

  Ace looks around and I can see when his eyes finally find Hillary because they widen in shock. He sputters as he shoots up into a sitting position. "Hillary?" he squawks. "What the fuck are you doing in my room?"

  He seems to realize then that he's naked and pulls a pillow over his lap. I can't tell if he's honestly shocked to see her here or if he's just playing the part because he got caught.

  She chuckles. "Oh, Ace. You’re so funny. You might as well tell her."

  "Tell her what exactly?" he growls.

  "That we slept together last night. I mean, it's kinda obvious, no reason to deny it," she scoffs, brushing her hair over her naked shoulder.

  "We did not! I don't know what the fuck you're doing in my room but we did not sleep together!" Ace shouts furiously.

  Right now, I can't make heads or tails of this. I don't know if he's lying or not. We've only officially been together for a couple of weeks and I've only known him a total of about three months. He seems genuinely stunned and livid but he could just be a really good actor. It's not like I've never seen the articles about him being a player and a cheater. There were multiple stories about his apparent cheating when he was with his last girlfriend. So I don't know what to think right now. One thing I do know is that I need to get the fuck out of here.

  "You know what? You two can figure this the fuck out because I'm done listening to this shit. Tell Lizette to send out that press release about us breaking up because we're done," I snap and head for the door.

  "Nikki! She's lying!" he calls after me but I keep going. I wrench open the door and slam it behind me.

  I race down the hallway to get as far away from Ace and Hillary as I can. I can't believe it. I just never thought that he would do that to me. I never believed the rumors but I guess they were true. He's a player. My heart is shattering into a million pieces by the time I make it to the elevator. When it opens, Alex is standing there. He frowns at me as he steps out.

  "What's going on?" he asks.

  "I just walked in on Ace and that bitch Hillary, that's what's going on!" I croak, barely able to hold back the tears that are threatening to consume me.

  I will not cry over a man who has cheated on me. He's not worth it. I deserve better than that. He doesn't deserve my tears. I just can't get over the fact that it was with Hillary. That fucking bitch!

  "What? No, he wouldn't do that to you," Alex says in confusion.

  "Yeah, that's what I thought, but she's there, in his room, both of them naked," I say brokenly. I step into the elevator and hit the button for my floor, which is only up one. "I gotta go," I choke.

  Alex frowns hard at me but lets me go. The elevator doors close and I have to bite my lip to keep from sobbing. My heart is aching and I can't believe I let myself fall for him. How could I have been so stupid? Did I really think someone of Ace's status would really want an exclusive relationship with me? Did I really expect one of the biggest pop stars, who has a notorious reputation for being a player and cheater, to be faithful to me? Stupid, stupid, stupid.

  ~Ace~

  "I want her gone, Lizette! GONE!" I bellow as I pace furiously back and forth by the window in her and Beau's room.

  I can't even comprehend what the fuck happened this morning. Alex watches me from his seat on the couch, and he is livid about the whole thing, too. As soon as Nicole stormed out, I flipped out on Hillary and demanded to know how she got into my room. Apparently, she snuck into my room while the maid was cleaning it and stole the extra key card off my dresser
. What a fucking psycho!

  She was at the bar last night and tried coming onto me and tried to kiss me, but I shoved her away and tried to avoid her for the rest of the night. I was pretty drunk by the time I got back to my room. I stripped out of my clothes and passed out on my bed, so I didn't hear her come in. But I know that I didn't sleep with her and I was as shocked to see her when I woke up as Nicole was. But Nicole fell for Hillary's little set up. She saw us both naked and believed what the cunt said. I really thought she knew me better than that. Although, I can see how seeing your boyfriend naked with another woman in his room can blind you from the truth. I would be furious, too, if it were the other way around. Needless to say, Alex showed up a minute later and I made him march her ass, still wrapped in the sheet, back to her room.

  "Alright, Ace, calm down," Lizette soothes.

  "Calm down? That fucking bitch just ended my relationship and you want me to calm down? Fuck that! I'm beyond being calm right now! How the hell am I supposed to make this right with Nicole? You should have seen her face, she was devastated!" I snap, shoving my hands roughly into my hair and lacing my fingers together. I close my eyes. God dammit! Nicole's face broke my heart. She looked so hurt and betrayed. Nothing I said this morning got through to her.

  "Listen, Ace, I need to find a replacement before I fire her. Give me a day or two to fly someone out here to take her place," Lizette replies.

  I'm about to respond with a "hell fucking no" but Lizette's phone beeps. She looks at it and frowns.

  "Nicole wants me to send out that press release saying that you two are no longer a couple." She sighs.

  "Don't do shit, I'm going to fix this," I say adamantly and point at her.

  "Lizzie, we can't keep Hillary around after this, she needs to be fired immediately. We can do the show without her," Beau chimes in.

  Lizette and Beau stare at each other for a moment before she nods. "Alright, fine," she agrees.

  I send Beau a grateful glance. He didn't have to say anything, but he did because he knows how much Lizette takes what he says into account. Beau gives me a tight nod in return. I have no doubt that he's feeling my pain right now.

  Lizette's phone beeps again. She looks at it and bites out a nasty curse.

  "What?" I ask warily.

  "Got a text from the publicist, apparently TMZ just ran a story on their website about you and the girl you kissed at the club last night that was not your girlfriend." She sighs again.

  "WHAT?" I squawk.

  She holds out her phone for me to see the picture. I snatch the phone and look at the perfectly timed picture of Hillary trying to kiss me. Our faces are only a hair's length away from each other and I have a grip on her upper arms. It actually looks like I'm pulling her in instead of pushing her away. Oh, fuck me! This just keeps getting worse. How am I ever going to explain this to Nicole? She will never believe me after seeing this. Dean and Alex are my only witnesses and she probably won't believe them either because she'll think they are just covering for me.

  "What am I gonna do?" I whisper dejectedly and hand Lizette her phone back.

  I drop down onto the couch next to Alex and hang my head.

  "Tell me the truth, Ace. Did you cheat on Nicole? Because this honestly looks like you did." Lizette frowns.

  I lift my head and stare her in the eyes. "I swear on my life that I did not cheat on Nicole. I was pushing Hillary away when that picture was taken. She was trying to get me to kiss her but I refused. I would never cheat on Nicole, especially with Hillary," I say sincerely.

  "How drunk were you? I mean, you could have just made a bad decision..." Lizette continued but I cut her off.

  "I would never cheat on Nicole no matter how drunk I was! I fucking love her for Christ's sake! I LOVE HER!" I snap angrily as I shove to my feet.

  Beau's head whips around to look at me, his eyes wide and surprised. Holy shit! Did I really just say that out loud? I mean I know that I love her, but I haven't told her or anyone else yet and here I go blurting it out in anger. I glance at Alex to see that he's looking at me also, eyebrows raised.

  Lizette nods, her eyes sparkling with amusement. "Okay, Ace," she replies, not asking any more questions. "I'll do everything I can to get this taken down."

  "Thank you," I murmur as she taps the screen of her phone and puts it to her ear.

  She stalks away as she starts talking rapidly on the phone to whomever she called. I'm not really listening to anything she's saying because I'm too caught up in my own thoughts. I drop my head into my hands and roughly rub my face. I can't believe that this is happening to me. I've finally found the one woman whom I want to spend the rest of my life with and she's ripped away from me by some crazy ass jealous bitch who's playing mind games.

  "I gotta go talk to her," I grumble and start for the door.

  Alex shoots up from his seat to follow me. Out in the hallway, I start for the elevator with Alex in tow.

  "Maybe I could try and talk to her?" Alex says.

  "I don't know, man. I don't know what to do." I sigh heavily and rake my hand through my hair.

  At the elevator, I jab the up button. When the doors open, Alex and I step in and I hit the number for Nicole's floor. I lean back against the wall and close my eyes. I'm starting to feel sick to my stomach. I don't know what I'm going to do if I can't get her back. I have never felt more lost. The elevator lurches to a stop and the doors slide open. I step off and Alex follows. I'm thankful for his support. He knows the truth and so does Dean. It's just about getting Nicole to believe it now.

  I stop in front of her door, take a deep breath and knock. I can hear movement from inside but she doesn't answer. I knock again.

  "Nikki, baby, I know you’re in there," I call through the door.

  She still doesn't answer or open the door. I brace my hands on the doorframe and drop my forehead to the door.

  ~Nicole~

  I hear a light thunk on my hotel room door. I know Ace is out there wanting to talk, but I'm feeling too raw, too exposed, and as soon as I see him I might fling myself into his arms and tell him that I don't care what he did and that I still want to be with him. I won't do it. I won't be that girl. I peek out of the peephole but I can't see anything, it's all dark. He must be leaning against the door or something.

  "Nicole, please talk to me. You have to know that I would never do that to you," Ace says from the other side of the door. "Hillary snuck into my room while the maid was cleaning it and stole the extra key card. I swear to you that I did not sleep with her," his tone emphatic.

  A new rush of tears hit me and I have to cover my mouth to keep from crying out loud. I turn my back to the door and lean against it, letting myself slide down to the floor. It even hurts to hear his voice. I've never been cheated on before, so I had no idea how badly it actually hurt, until now. The feeling of betrayal is like a nasty sore that keeps festering.

  "I saw the picture, Ace." I choke through my tears.

  Sebastian sent it to me with the subject title, "Vaughn is a dead man."

  "Dammit, Nicole! I was pushing her away! She tried to kiss me but I was shoving her away when the picture was taken!"

  I drop my head into my hands. I don't know what to believe - what my eyes are seeing or what my heart is telling me. I know what I saw and I know what it looks like. From what I've seen, he's a fucking liar and totally cheated on me. But my heart...my heart is telling me that he's telling me the truth and that he didn't cheat on me. Ace is silent for a moment. I almost think that he's left before I hear his tortured voice on the other side of the door. His voice is closer to my head this time, so he's probably either squatting or sitting against the door like I am.

  "Baby, I don't know what to do or say to make you believe me. I promise you that I have not and will never cheat on you. I am not a cheater; I have never cheated on a girlfriend, ever. Those stories you've heard are all lies that the paparazzi made up for headlines. I want you in my life. I need you in my life. You mean ev
erything to me. Why would I want to fuck up what we have to sleep with some psycho chick? You have to know deep down that I would never do that to you. You have to know that,” he begs, his strained voice trailing off at the end.

  I don't even know how long I sit there crying, but by the time I pull myself together and look out the peephole, Ace is gone. Dammit! I don't know what to do. I grab my phone and call Raelynn. I curl up in my bed as I wait for her to pick up. After four rings, she answers.