“Whatever.” Her dark red lips folded into a pouty frown. “Nikki was cool with it.”
This conversation struck me as off. Why was she bringing this up now? And then it clicked.
Holy fuck.
Did Kristen plan that?
More importantly, did she delete the video?
My heart rate skyrocketed. Suddenly, my lungs couldn’t take in oxygen fast enough.
I took Kristen by the elbow and pulled her farther away from the group, ducking my head to catch her gaze. “You did erase that, right?”
Kristen batted her long, dark eyelashes at me. “You saw me delete it.”
I thought I did, but I was tanked. I couldn’t see straight, let alone verify whether she had deleted a file in her phone correctly.
“You sure you didn’t text it to someone first?” I asked, raising my eyebrows. “Email yourself a copy?”
“I’m sure. Since when are you so uptight?”
“Since the start of the school year when Coach gave me the gears about pictures he’d heard rumors about. Said they were taken at my end-of-school party last spring. Kind of fucking fits, don’t you think?”
Kristen waved me off with her pointy red fingernails. “He said pictures, not a video. He was probably trying to scare you.”
In hindsight, his lecture was too specific to be a scare tactic. I’d written it off as a rumor and forgotten about it. Ignorance was bliss. It hadn’t come back to haunt me—yet. But the way Kristen was acting now sent a wave unease rolling through me. I might have a serious problem.
Not to mention that when Coach brought that up, I barely knew Bailey. It didn’t faze me because, at that point, I didn’t give a shit about, well, anything. Now, though, this was a catastrophic problem.
This was a wrecking ball about to demolish my life—a life that looked nothing like it did last spring. I had so much more to lose now than I did back then.
If I could go back to last April and punch myself in the face, I would.
“Then why are there rumors about a sex tape flying around both schools?”
“Why are you so paranoid?” She scoffed. “That could be anyone.”
Could be, but all signs pointed to me, her, and Nikki.
“None of us need that shit getting out. Ever think about how that might look on your med school applications?” I raised my eyebrows. “Or about how Nikki’s boyfriend might react?”
I hadn’t known Nikki was dating one of the guys from the Bulldogs at the time. Didn’t need that, among other things, coming back around on me. Plus, Nikki went to Callingwood, so the odds of this getting back to Bailey were that much higher.
“Relax.” Kristen glanced down, adjusting her cleavage. “There’s nothing to get out.”
“There better not be.”
She gave me a bored look. “You wanna frisk me, officer?”
Like this was some kind of game? I’d never been so mad at a chick.
“That doesn’t prove dick. It could be in the fucking cloud somewhere.”
“It’s not.” Kristen rolled her eyes. “Calm down. You don’t have anything to worry about.”
I stole a glance at my friends again, but they were laughing about something Ty said. Penner was nowhere to be found, either, which, in this case, was a good thing.
“How can I know that for sure?” I stepped closer, pinning her with a searing glare. She stared back at me, dark blue eyes wide in feigned innocence. I didn’t buy it.
“Guess you’ll just have to trust me.”
Right. Trusting her was what got me into this mess in the first place. Then she’d pulled out a phone and recorded without my permission.
I shook my head, my teeth set on edge. “You’d better be telling the truth.”
“If you’re so worried,” Kristen said, “maybe you should be nicer to me.”
“Don’t threaten me.”
Spinning on my heel, I stormed over to my friends. I was so fucked. If this got out, it would be like throwing napalm on my life. No contract, no girlfriend, nothing.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Shiv turned to face me with a frown. Her hands were pulled into the sleeves of her oversized white Falcons hoodie.
Fear and anger mingled, turning into rocket fuel via chemical reaction. The arena lobby was frigid, as always, but I was literally sweating where I stood.
“Everything okay?” She looked up, blue-green eyes studying me.
“Yep. Just fine,” I gritted out. The rage was impossible to hide.
Her voice turned hushed. “Are you sure?”
“Kristen wasn’t taking no for an answer, that’s all.” I tugged at my tie. Its hold on me felt like a noose.
Shiv huffed a sigh of disgust. “Ah. She’s a persistent one.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I’ll tell the guys she’s not allowed to come by our house. This has gotten way out of hand.”
Though I risked poking the bear if I did that. Did Kristen really have a copy? If so, I didn’t want to piss her off. I needed to get a hold of it somehow and destroy it.
“Fine by me.” She nodded. “Never liked her. Do you want to come with us to O’Connor’s for a drink?”
Not a chance. My head was spinning too much to make small talk. Would Bailey dump my ass if this got out? Who’d want to date a guy who had a sex tape circulating everywhere? Especially one like that. A threesome while I was getting high? Good look, Carter.
“Thanks, but I think I’ll take it easy tonight.”
“Okay.” Her brow furrowed and she lingered, still studying my face with concern. “Let me know if you need anything, all right?”
Like a time machine?
“I will. Thanks, Shiv.”
OceanofPDF.com
CHAPTER 53
OceanofPDF.com
CAN’T HAVE BOTH
Chase
At the ass crack of dawn the next day, I drove nearly three hours to meet with Stewart, Dallas’s litigator father. He not only fit me in last minute, but he refused to charge me for his time. Hell, I’d gladly pay his insane thousand dollars-an-hour rate or whatever he charged if he had a legal magic wand to make this all go away.
I needed to talk to Bailey. Would talk to Bailey eventually. But first I needed to get a handle on the situation and what the possible fallout could be. At least then I’d have more information when I did tell her.
After barely squeezing my truck into the heated underground parking garage, I took the elevator up to the thirty-first floor. A stainless-steel sign mounted on the wall that read Ward, Myers, and Trenton LLP greeted me.
I hadn’t been to a lawyer’s office since we had to handle all the legal matters relating to my dad’s death. It had been a media shitstorm back then. Paparazzi camped outside our house, my school, even my friends’ houses.
The constant, low-level nausea I’d had since last night surged. I didn’t want to relive that again, but I might if this got out.
Fuck. Maybe I should talk to my mom, but that conversation had the possibility of being even worse than the one I needed to have with Bailey.
Stewart’s assistant led me into his massive corner office. Floor-to-ceiling windows displayed a panoramic view of the city and beyond. Clad in a suit, Stewart’s imposing figure was seated behind his glass desk. He waved me in without glancing up from the paperwork fanned out in front of him.