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    The Jagged Heart
     
    (Book 1 of the Phoenix Murphy Story)
     
    by Trinity
Lee
     
    SMASHWORDS
EDITION
     
    Copyright © by
Trinity Lee 2012
     
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    This is a work
of fiction. Names, places, businesses, characters and incidents are
either the product of the author's imagination or are used in a
fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons living or
dead, actual events or locales is purely coincidental. Contains
graphic sexual content. Not recommended for those under 18.
     
    All characters
depicted are over 18 years of age. This is a work of sexual fantasy
and does not recommend or endorse unsafe sex.
     
    *****
     
     
    He paced and up
and down relentlessly. He was miserable, he was alone, but more
than anything, he was hungry. He opened the fridge door again, as
though food might have miraculously appeared while he wasn't
looking. Nothing. A can of soda and a small block of cheese growing
blue mold.
     
    He glanced out
of the window. They were all down there still: photographers with
long-range lenses and reporters with laptops and some with
old-fashioned pen-and-paper notebooks. There was no way he could
risk a walk to the shops with the press pack there, and he'd burned
so many bridges in his home town that there was no one he could
call and ask to go to the shops for him.
     
    He couldn't
believe how quickly he'd become institutionalized, used to having
someone do everything for him. Leaving a band as big as Mudride was
like being discharged from prison, or from a psychiatric ward, he
reflected. For two years, he hadn't had to book a plane ticket, a
hotel room, buy groceries or pay a bill. Fay was always there to
handle stuff like that for him, and if Fay wasn't around, someone
from the record company would do it.
     
    Phoenix
distractedly ran a hand through his mop of brown hair, narrowed the
dark eyes that had broken thousands of fans' hearts and sat down on
the bed with his guitar, soundlessly strumming. No point in
plugging it in. The walls were paper-thin, and the neighbors here
hadn't been impressed with him even when he was the guitarist in
one of the world's biggest touring bands, let alone now he was a
washed-up twenty-one-year-old with scandal trailing in his
wake.
     
    He had enough
money in the bank to last a few months, and the rent was paid up
for six, but his problems went deeper than just cash. He'd left a
trail of destruction behind him. After all, he wasn't the only one
who was sitting in a room kicking his heels and wondering what to
do next. When he'd walked out, finally did it after months of
threats, the band were mid-tour and halfway through promoting their
new album, and now they'd had to cancel tour dates all over the
world, leaving fans furious and promoters demanding their money
back.
     
    He knew that
they wouldn't be able to recruit a new guitarist in time to carry
on the tour, and he'd chosen the time of his departure to cause as
much chaos as he could. He felt sorry for Dylan and Zed - they were
his friends and none of this was their fault - but more than
anything, he wanted to destroy Taylor, Mudride's too-hot-to-handle
lead singer. All Taylor cared about was Mudride, and Phoenix knew
that wrecking the band was the best way to get at him.
     
    He sighed. He
couldn't remember when getting revenge had become such a big part
of his life. Was it only two years since he'd sat in the same
studio apartment, breathless with the excitement of being asked to
audition to join his favorite band? He'd been so innocent