Chapter 74: How Could it Hurt?

Since she burst into the business, Olivia King had been a juggernaut in the entertainment industry. The petite bombshell initially made her break in her late teens in a series of nationwide commercials before becoming the face of an up-and-coming makeup line. Then she released a hit album over the internet, avoiding the usual music industry obstructions. When Hollywood discovered she could act, her future was bright.

Olivia was known for her beauty, talent, drive, and professionalism, so when it was revealed she was in a relationship with the wannabe bad boy of rap, saying the gossip rags and rumor mill tongues were wagging was an understatement.

YungBalla69, whose real name was Christian Young, began by subtly “sliding into her DM’s,” as described by youth today. At least, that is how the official background story put their initial meeting. In truth, YB69’s management team contacted someone on Olivia’s marketing team. Of course, a young lady will go through a “bad boy” phase, and Christian played the part to perfection. As he gradually convinced her of his sincerity, she was smitten, and he knew it. He had used the same routine several times with other young Hollywood ingénues.

Officially, they had dated for at least three years, but with their packed schedules, they could only see each other with gaps of weeks and often months between visits. Olivia was loyal and convinced he was as well. Yet, stories of his infidelities filled the internet and gossip news magazines.

YungBalla69 was a favorite of the gossip folks. His representatives encouraged it with access to certain reporters and information not only on his misdeeds but those by others in the industry. Stories about his charades sold magazines and drove clicks to websites. They made lots of money together. When he launched his website “bestoopid.com,” those same gossip magazines and their associated websites flowed viewers his way. A year after launch, he was soon purchasing the lower-performing sites and magazines, developing a media conglomeration, and quickly making himself one of the wealthiest men in the world.

A year before their dinner at Bohanon’s in San Antonio, Olivia King, promoting her third album, and YungBalla69, also promoting his recently-released album, announced a world tour featuring themselves as co-headliners. It proved to be a great way to promote the two artists and to make serious money.

After the tour launched, the troubles were swift to come out. The main culprits were the huge entourage YB69 preferred to have traveling with him on tour. In every city the tour visited, the nearly 100-count hangers-on racked up drunk and disorderly, assault, and destruction of private property charges. However, the tour also sold out each seat in the stadium-sized venues.

The industry was at a loss for how to describe the two diverse crowds coalescing for each show. Yet, unbelievably, no significant problems occurred during the concerts. Issues did arise either before or after the shows, and mainly due to the amount of alcohol or illegal substances the entourage, infamously known as the “tracksuit crew,” could imbibe or procure for themselves.

Before dating Olivia, Christian had a substance abuse problem. He lost a business opportunity that would have netted him his first billion much sooner had he been sober enough to take advantage of it. The lesson was learned; he stopped doing drugs and turned to improving himself physically and spiritually. The change in his personality drew Olivia to him and seemed to launch the romance into the stratosphere.

With the shared concert tour in full swing, the ever-present rumors gnawed at Olivia and her management team. Jerome Williams, Olivia’s long-time manager and a King family friend, was the one to help her keep the rumors in perspective, and that kept her from losing sight of her love for Christian. Everyone else believed all the stories and tried pointing out how bad he was for her.

Jerome became a father figure for the young girl and her younger siblings shortly after the sudden death of her father, his grade-school best friend, from a severe heart attack. Jerome was a blinking caution light to the more cynical people in their circle, but he proved himself repeatedly to be a staunch advocate for his ‘little girl.’

She and her sisters called him “Uncle Jerry.” He saved her from her mother’s new husband trying to embezzle Olivia’s money. Her mother was so selfishly upset that it cost them several years of contact when she chose the new husband over her daughter. Olivia continued giving her mother money to live comfortably, though, and her stepfather continued to lose it at frightening levels.

Jerry was the bridge between them, and he was the one to eventually convince her mother to reunite with her daughter when the stepfather was caught attempting to start a Ponzi scheme targeting his stepdaughter’s fan club. He had seduced the fan club president and, for a couple of months, was siphoning away money.

When Olivia was released from the scene of the riot in the upscale San Antonio steakhouse, she followed her assistants’ and her security’s suggestion to go straight to the secure hotel suite they had for getting ready before the concert. They rented the suite for the evening but had no intention of using it overnight. The plans were to finish the show, relax backstage, and jump on the private jet to go to Dallas for three days of relaxation before their next sold-out concert.

Walking into the suite and seeing her reflection in a side mirror, Olivia took a practiced look at herself. She checked to ensure her well-coiffed hairdo was still set in its tight ponytail, and the midriff-baring top accentuated her mini-skirt. She caught the look of disdain from the security guard as he left the room after giving it a once over. Even though she was essentially in for the night, she had to be sure she was still presentable, so she changed her mind and pulled out the ponytail, allowing her hair to fall around her neck. Then she called her Uncle Jerry.

“Hey girl, what’s happening? I’ve been fielding phone calls from the promoter, and he’s saying you aren’t at the show,” Jerry asked, obviously worried. “Are you okay?”

“Um, yeah, Uncle Jerry. I’m alright, but Christian got into a little bit more trouble than usual, and I don’t think we are going to make it to the show.”

“Okay, what happened?” Jerry sounded genuinely interested since he was not hammering her into going to do the contractually-obligated show. “Tell me from the beginning.”

Olivia presented everything she could remember about the night, from arriving at the restaurant to hiding in the kitchen with almost every other female. Uncle Jerry took a few moments to gather his thoughts before he spoke. “Yep, I think you’re right. Christian has himself in a little bit more trouble than usual.” They both took a moment to gather themselves back up after the nervous laughter subsided.

“Do you know if there was anyone really hurt? I’m talking about anyone needing serious medical care after the fight,” he asked.

“Um, no. I don’t think anyone was really hurt, but if there were, it was one of Christian’s guys. That guy seriously kicked some ass. From the little I could see out of the glass kitchen door, he was taking out track-suited assholes left and right. The security guys gave him one of those business cards their boss has them pass out to anyone they see who might be recruitable to join his security business. You know how good they thought he handled the fighting if they both wanted to recruit the guy.”

Uncle Jerry found himself nodding his agreement with Olivia over the telephone and then quickly vocalized his concern, “Are any of the security in there with you right now?”

“No. They brought me back to the suite we used to dress, and they set up security at the door. I think one of them was going to report in and then begin their paperwork. I’ll bet you get an incident report from their boss as soon as they cross their I’s and dot their T’s.”

“So you and your assistants are okay?”

“Yeah. Before they started fighting, they pushed us to join the women in the kitchen and fought off anyone that approached while guarding the door.”

“Do you know who the big guy was? I mean, have you seen him before? Is he some kind of celebrity from San Antonio or something? I know they have the Spurs, but I don’t know if they have a pro football team or anything. From how you described him, I’d say he was that, if anything.”

“Yeah, I guess,” she said, quasi-agreeing with the thoughts of her uncle. “But Jerry, I’m not sure he was like an adult.”

“What do you mean?” Jerry was getting confused.

“Well, it looked like it was a small family and friends having a meal. I might be wrong, but I think I saw him get chastised by someone who could have been his mother for paying more attention to what was happening at our table versus their conversation. She made him move from where he was sitting to where he sat with his back to us.”

“Olivia, are you sure you don’t want me to come down there? I can make it there before morning. It’s just a hop, skip, and a jump on a Netjets flight.”

Her automatic thought was to disagree with her uncle coming to help keep control of what was happening, but the thought of having her uncle come to the rescue was consoling. “If it’s not too much trouble Unca Jerry!” Her pre-pubescent name for Uncle Jerry appeared. She didn’t even notice it had done so.

“No problem. You stay right there tonight. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

Olivia had to admit that she was feeling a lot better just having to explain the situation to Uncle Jerry. At the same time, she was upset with herself, an adult, for running for “Unca Jerry” to fix her problems when the shit hit the fan. She decided to become proactive about her issues.

After getting her nerves back under control, she called the promoter of the San Antonio concert to officially tell him there would not be a concert tonight. He was upset, but he had heard most of what had happened by then. Olivia was slightly taken aback by how well he took the news, and she told him so before hanging up the phone call.

“Well, Olivia, I’m impressed that you called me yourself. Your reputation for professionalism is well deserved. I mean, it’s usually some scared underling the talent forces to do the heavy lifting. As for the concert, we will work this out — be it a refund to the ticket holders or a rescheduling of the concert, with or without your significant other,” the promoter continued.

“And truth be told still, Miss King, I’d prefer just your concert since it looked like his was not going to go down well since his segment of the concert did not sell very well. It was smart of your team to make sure you were the finale. If you had left the stage before him, he would have seen a mass exodus. Most of the concertgoers were only interested in your music, not his. An unstable personality like his might not have reacted very well. That kind of thing keeps a local concert promoter up at night.”

When the phone call ended, the fact another person not in her immediate business or personal circle pointed out her boyfriend’s shortcomings did not escape Olivia’s attention.

If Olivia had the TV turned on in the bedroom, she might not have heard the rumblings out in the hallway leading into her suite. She decided to investigate the increasingly louder argument exploding from the hallway.

“No, sir! She did not want anyone to interrupt her, sir,” someone announced with an air of authority.

“Yo! Do you know who I am?” YungBalla69 yelled, and a couple of other voices could be heard agreeing with him. “Then you know damn well that my lady is in there, and I need to see my lady. If you don’t get out of the way, well, then we are gonna have a problem!” Then there were some grunts and yells with furniture falling over or being used as cannon fodder. Olivia could not tell.

She reached into her purse and hit her panic button. She hoped the help would be on time.

The noise in the outside hall died down, and the door slammed open with only two people standing in the doorway: Christian and one of his tracksuit followers. The follower was bloodied, and it wasn’t certain whose blood it was. A roar came from the hall, the tracksuit bent backward with his knees caved in, and YB69 was pushed into the room. He fell to the floor after losing his balance.

Olivia could see a couple of her security running toward the suite and a more diminutive female guard pounding in the face of the last tracksuit pulled away from the doors. YB69 saw his guy losing and the backup protection coming, so he slammed the door shut again and locked the double doors.

He was out of breath, and when he turned to look at Olivia, she saw he had the beginnings of a lovely black eye that was starting to swell. “Fuck!” YB69 yelled when he reached up to feel why his face was hurting. “Fucking asshole punched me in the face!” He then turned and kicked at the doors as the security team pounded on them from the outside.

That was when the suite’s phone began to ring. Olivia took a step toward the phone when YungBalla howled at her, “Stay the fuck away from that phone! Why the fuck did you order your security to keep me out? You’re my woman, goddammit!”

Now inside the hotel suite, his long-time girlfriend looked different to him. He figured it was the trauma of seeing him up close and being personally manhandled by the cops. He made a mental note to ensure his lawyers sued those cops for harassment and unnecessary roughness. It took him another moment to realize she was scared of him, but that didn’t matter at the moment. He needed her reassurance that everything happening was something that should not be happening to him. It must be some fuckin’ dirty Mexican sad excuse for a police force plotting against him. It was then it finally registered to him that she was scared not of what happened to him but of him.

He moved to hold her hand and began sincerely apologizing. The suite’s telephone started ringing again, really pissing him off for having the gall to interrupt him. He exploded with a guttural roar when she moved again to answer it. He launched at her from the entryway.

Olivia could not believe he was coming at her like this, but what scared her was she was prepared. She threw herself back over the sofa and grabbed the phone off the end table. Her ankle caught the glass coffee table in the middle of the large living room, but it didn’t shatter. Her years of dance practice had enhanced her natural athleticism, so when she flipped, she landed on her wedge sandals with a little stutter.

She held the phone to her ear and recognized her security yelling on the other end, “Miss King, are you okay? Do you need us to bust down the door, or should we wait for the police? They are on their way?” Olivia seemed to slump into herself.

“Liv, baby? Are you okay? Who’s on the phone?” It was the voice of Olivia’s first real adult love, Christian Young, and not YungBalla69. He was about to be violently ripped from her life by the stem, and the prospect of it seemed to calm her down. She was sad at how easily she could deal with it. She knew the sadness would come, but she was okay with it. It was time.

“Okay, break it down.”

All hell broke loose. The twin doors shattered on the first hit, and her security and several hotel security members poured into the suite. Her protection split in half, with three going after YungBalla69 and tackling him to the ground. The other three rushed into the open living room and surrounded Olivia. The hotel security entered and began searching the rest of the suite for anyone else.

She could see the elevator doors at the end of the hall open and several San Antonio police officers running toward the suite. Right in front of them were the only people she wanted to be around — her assistants. One was held up briefly by one of the hotel security, but her security waved her through, and they all engulfed Olivia in a body-cocooning hug.

“Are you okay, Liv?”

“Honey, did he hit you?”

“Liv, did you get hurt? Do we need to get an ambulance?”

Olivia worked to calm down her friends. “I’m ... I’m okay. He didn’t touch me, but I don’t think he really knew what he was doing.”

Soon, all the voices in the suite went silent, and the only voice heard was YungBalla69’s threats to sue everyone in Texas for disrespecting a better. He was frothing at the mouth in anger while desperately attempting to wiggle free of the cuffs and three security officers holding him face down in the plush carpeting.

In between one of his thrashing fits, he made direct eye-to-eye contact with Olivia. The pure disgust she was looking at him with was the first thing to get through to Christian since he entered the elevator to come up to the room. “Ah shit, I’m gonna pay for this,” he muttered as the hotel security handed him over to the police. “Liv, can you do me a favor?”

“Depends,” she replied in revulsion and sadness at the end of her long-time relationship.

“Can you call Murray to get the lawyers for me again? I threw out their card. I didn’t think I’d need them again so soon or ever.” He choked out as the cops led him and his track-suited friend to the elevator. Before the elevator doors closed, the tears began flowing, and he started blubbering.

Olivia turned to one of her assistants and nodded for her to inform Christian’s manager to call the local lawyers again. She could bring Murray up-to-date on what happened after they got him out of jail earlier that night. Then Olivia would clean her hands of the entire affair.