Yeah. But I shouldn’t fucking have to.
“You want me to pay to keep it quiet? Even though I wasn’t in the wrong here? You said what she did was a crime.”
“Speaking as both a lawyer and your friend, in situations like this, I recommend you do what you need to do.” He raised his eyebrows. “Think about how much it could cost you if you don’t.”
I shook my head, gaze fixed on the glossy black tile flooring. “This is brutal.”
Christ. Not exactly what my dad expected when he set me up financially, I’m sure. That I’d have to use the money for something like this. Fucking awesome. He would be so proud.
If he were still here, I could talk to him. Get his advice. I wanted him back more than anything. The ever-present ache of missing him was almost intolerable right now. I was lost. I needed him. Needed someone in my corner more than anything—someone to tell me what the fuck to do, because I sure as hell didn’t know.
“I know, son.” Stewart planted his elbows on the desk, fixing me with a fatherly look—stern but somehow gentle. “Do you want to be right, or do you want to make this go away?”
“Guessing I can’t have both.”
“No.” He shook his head. “You can’t.”
My mind was spinning on the drive home. Song after song played on the radio, but I didn’t hear a single word.
I’d quickly responded to Bailey’s text when I got into my truck, but we had plans tonight and I had no idea how to drop this bomb on her. I was still processing it myself.
Once I got back into town, I made a quick detour. Didn’t want to, but I needed to know for sure.
I walked up the sidewalk to the townhouse with green siding and rang the doorbell of unit twenty-two. Then I switched on my phone’s voice recorder.
Forgive me, James.
Kristen opened her front door wearing a coy smile. “Hi.” She was in a tank top so low-cut I could almost see nipple and yoga pants that were nearly painted on. Had she changed when I texted her, or did she always lounge around dressed like that? Fuck if I knew.
“I have practice soon, so I can’t stay long,” I said, stepping inside the entry. “I wanted to talk to you about last night.”
“What about it?” She looked at me suspiciously as she shut the door behind me and locked it.
I leaned against the wall, trying hard to affect calm. “Maybe I was too hasty. I was in a bad mood. But you were right. That night with you and Nikki was pretty hot.” I choked down my nausea so I didn’t dry heave in front of her.
“I know, right?” Kristen batted her lashes at me.
God, she was easy to play.
“Too bad I never got to see the video for myself,” I added.
She sniffed. “I thought you were all about your girlfriend these days.”
“Doesn’t mean I can’t reminisce about the past a little.” The words were hard to force out, bitter in my mouth.
“Guess you shouldn’t have made me delete it.”
In the background, her roommate Charlotte walked by. Did she know?
I lowered my voice in hopes that Charlotte couldn’t hear. “Come on, Kristen. I bet you could find it for me.”
“Hmm.” She shrugged, playing with a strand of her dark hair. “I might be able to dig it up if I tried.”
I knew it. I fucking knew it.
“Try?” I gave her a flirty smile while hating myself inside. “For old times’ sake?”
“Fine.” Kristen rolled her eyes. “Hang on.” She pulled out her phone and tapped at the screen.
My heart raced while I waited. After a minute, she handed her phone to me—and there it was. I watched the whole clip with the volume on low, feigning interest. I fought the instinct to smash her phone into pieces. I couldn’t show my hand. Not yet.
As I had suspected, the video was four minutes of me banging Nikki, then her blowing me while we smoked a joint. The clip stopped before the moment I’d caught Kristen and told her to stop recording, conveniently painting me as a willing participant and eliminating all references to her.
She’d cropped the video. Shit. I needed the original. Somehow. It was the only thing that might exonerate my ass.
“Is this it?” I glanced up at her, eyebrows raised, and passed the phone back. Her hand brushed mine in the process, and I fought the urge to yank it away.
Her perfectly arched brows pulled together. “What do you mean?”
Careful, Carter.
“I was hoping it would be longer.” I shrugged. “You’re not in the video.”
“Maybe next time.”
“Maybe.” Never fucking ever. “No one else knows about this, do they?”
She blinked rapidly, taking a small step back. “No…”
Lie.
“Do me a solid and keep it that way, okay? It’s hotter that way anyway, right?”
“Totally.” She smirked.
“Thanks, Kris. I have to get to practice, but I’ll text you,” I lied.
I stalked back to my truck, climbed inside, and turned the ignition. Then I slumped against the leather-wrapped steering wheel. My thoughts were a tangled mess. How would I break this to Bailey? What could I even say to her?
Part of me thought she might hear me out. But what if she didn’t? The contents of the video were damning—me with two girls, one of whom was someone else’s girlfriend. At the time, I didn’t know she had a boyfriend, but it still looked bad. Bailey had been so upset about Derek and Jillian. Would she lose respect for me over this? Decide I wasn’t who she thought I was after all?
Not to mention the catastrophic effect this could have on my life—and Bailey’s, by association. Her reputation as the girlfriend of that guy could jeopardize her scholarship, her internship, her career. Would she resent me for dragging her into the vicious gossip and the trash talk?
Good god, I hadn’t even met her parents, and now they would hate me. And so much for any headway I’d made with Derek.
A sharp rap on my window startled me. I glanced up, expecting to find Kristen.
It wasn’t.
OceanofPDF.com
CHAPTER 54
OceanofPDF.com
24 HOURS
Chase
After a split second of debate, I rolled down the window. “What do you want?”
“Let’s chat.” Luke flashed me a shit-eating grin.
Without hesitation, I unlocked the door. Why not? My day was already fucked. My life was fucked, really. Plus, he’d caught me leaving Kristen’s, so he had the upper hand.
But I had a few tricks up my sleeve too. My phone was still in my palm, so I quickly switched on the voice recording app and set it on the center console, screen down.
Luke pulled open the door and hopped into the passenger seat. The overwhelming stench of his cologne wafted over to me, further amplifying my queasiness. He gave my truck a disdainful once-over. “Very pedestrian choice of vehicle. Fitting.” Leaning over, he handed me a folded piece of white paper.
I snatched it out of his hand. “What the hell is this?”
“You tell me.”
Transcript of video recording
— RECORDING BEGINS —
[music, background noise]
CHASE: Fuck. Hang on. Where’s the lighter?
FEMALE 1: Are you seriously stopping right now? What the hell?