CHAPTER 19
Andrew
Me: Help.
That was all I texted in the group text, all I could get out as I drove around in circles and finally found myself back at the beach, staring at the waves.
It was as if I was back to where we’d started—having to prove myself to someone I shouldn’t have to prove myself to.
My phone started ringing.
I nearly dropped it trying to answer and didn’t even look at the screen. “Bronte?”
“No. It’s Skye.”
I wanted to crunch the phone with my bare hands. “I already told you—”
“Did you like the pictures?”
“What?” I hissed. “What the hell did you do?”
“It’s time for you to stop ignoring me. Come back to LA, and we’ll talk. Promise. We were good together. You know it.”
I cringed. “Even if I did have any feelings for you — which I don’t — I can’t be around you, Skye, not when you’re using. I’ve done everything I can. I even helped get you into rehab again. I’ve been your friend, your sober buddy. I’d even been your everything a very long time ago. But I can’t, not anymore. I need someone who’s rooting for me to win, not someone trying to justify one little pill and then another and another.”
“So basically, you can’t handle the temptation both my body and beliefs offer you?”
“Are you hearing yourself right now?” I shrieked. “You need help, Skye! Real help.”
She snorted out a laugh. “Fine, see what happens if you reject me again. I’m just going to keep leaking pictures.”
“Old pictures.”
“Doesn’t matter. Still makes you look bad, and I’m a very reliable source. After all, I’m the poor young impressionable girl in some of those pictures. I think the next headline’s going to be, Drew Amhurst’s Dark Past and the Woman He Nearly Killed with his Addictions.” Her laugh was pure evil, hatred.
“Please,” I rasped, almost unable to find the strength to keep talking. “I’m begging you not to do that. Don’t push me this far, Skye. I’m not sure if I’m strong enough to survive it.”
“Then you know exactly how I feel,” she spat, and then hung up.
“You should have told me,” came Will’s voice from behind me, and then his hands were on my shoulders.
I couldn’t find my voice, so I stared at the waves.
I couldn’t find my center, because she was back at the beach house.
I couldn’t find my heart, because I’d left it with her.
So, the darkness closed in.
Will was talking again, pulling me back from the deep, dark waves. “Yeah, this is Will. I need a cop to do a wellness check on Skye Amhurst. Drew just received a very concerning phone call. She may be overdosing or on the verge of it. I’m going to send her publicist and agent over as well to help.” He sighed. “Yeah, I know. Thanks, man.”
I listened in numb silence.
Skye was the reason I didn’t do one-night stands.
Because the last time I did one, I’d somehow ended up married in Vegas to a girl who woke me up with a line of coke on a mirror on my naked stomach.
I’d relapsed that day.
I hated myself for it.
She was poison.
And I’d hired an in-home therapist to do rehab, divorced her ass as fast as I could, and had my team keep it quiet.
She’d been given a million dollars to keep our past relationship a secret, and then she’d been required to sign an NDA stating she could never speak out against me because of the divorce.
So apparently, this was how she was getting around it, for revenge.
She was just like the demons— Hell, she was one of them.
Will sat down next to me and got on his phone again. “Yeah, I need you to send out a press release about the leaked pictures. They’re from at least three years ago from the looks of them.” He paused. “Because I know everything about him. It’s my job. And because he wasn’t wearing his red bracelet, which means he didn’t have his tattoos that show the dates of his last overdose and one and only relapse three years ago. Check out the photos again. We want a full apology put out immediately, or the team will take legal action…Yup, I’m on my cell…Yeah, I have him…Okay. Bye.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Thank you. For believing me.”
Will sighed and wrapped an arm around me. “You’re a pain in my ass, a dick half the time, and too talented for your own good. I know you’ve been clean, man. We all do. I knew when I saw the pictures that it was from forever ago, and most were blurry enough so you couldn’t see any lines on your face.”
“The hell are you saying? Lines? I don’t have wrinkles! I Botox this shit.”
“See? I offend you, and you stop being sad. How well do I know you? I mean seriously?” Will pulled his arm back and elbowed me.
I scowled. “At least someone believes me.”
“Bronte?”
I nodded.
“I take it you didn’t give her her presents yet?”
“Ah…” The lump was back in my throat. “…the pictures popped up on the news the minute I was trying to.”
Will winced. “Well, that’s incredibly bad timing.”
“Amelia was there.” I sighed. “If you find my bloating body tomorrow morning floating around by the jellyfish side of the cliff, know that Braden got to me before I could tell him the truth.”
Will shook his head. “Not gonna happen. Braden loves you like a brother, even though you’re in love with his mom.”
I made a face. “Maybe say that sentence differently in the future?”
“Yeah.” He laughed. “All I’m saying is that he gets how this industry is now, how cutthroat. Bronte hasn’t even seen part of how bad it gets, how people lie, and manipulate to get what they want. So, you can’t expect her to understand everything. You have to take the time to tell her just like she needs to take the time to listen.” He slapped me on the shoulder. “Welcome to a real relationship.”
I stood.
