“Why don’t you fuck entirely off?”
He stopped. “Why do you insist on being like that?”
She glared sourly at him. “Why do you insist on following me? I thought the plan was to avoid each other, Pip! That was a
great idea you had; let’s stick to it.”
It was a completely legitimate point. While he searched for
a response, she turned away and continued toward the water.
“You pick the weirdest times to decide to ‘be there’ for
me.” It was a faint mumble, but he heard her anyhow.
“Whoa!” He shouted and she jumped and spun around. “I
was there for you, sweetheart! I seem to recall you sending me
away!”
She nearly tripped over a rock as she grew closer to the tide.
She stopped and struggled with her shoes, nearly flashing him in her nonexistent dress. “And you never came back. You didn’t
even try. You didn’t answer my calls. I called you and called
you. You were just fucking gone.”
112
RAGE
“So you turn around and shag Clive Richards a month later?
It’s a good fucking thing you said no to my proposal, Stephanie.
That picture of his would have been worth a lot more to the tab-
loids if we’d been engaged, and I’m sure he would have sold it!”
“Clive Richards!” With an angry screech, Steph threw her
shoes at him, seemingly with all her strength. Fortunately, she
telegraphed her actions so dramatically he deflected them with
the sweep of one arm. “What picture?”
“Of you and Clive. He showed it to me on his cell phone.
I’m surprised it never went viral. It was pretty pornographic.”
“Clive Richards! You have got to be kidding me! That ass-
hole! I wouldn’t touch him with my assistant’s vag.”
The shock and outrage on her face gave him pause. “You
weren’t with Clive backstage in London?”
“Hell yeah, I was with him. I took his picture, Phillip. In case you didn’t notice, it’s what I do. But then he started acting like one of your fucking roadies. I punched him so hard in the
crotch. I think I popped a nut!”
Phillip felt like she’d kicked him in the chest. He was
speechless for what seemed like minutes. “You two didn’t
shag?”
Her features twisted indignantly, Steph had backed up all
the way to the surf. The tide rolled in, and the water slammed
into her legs, causing her to cry out in surprise.
“Do I look like a fucking groupie to you?” Steph shouted.
Then she stopped and glanced down at her skimpy wet dress. “I
mean… usually.”
Just then, Cheyenne appeared on the scene, closely fol-
lowed by Cedric.
“Come on, Steph. You’re soaked. Scot and I are going back
to the hotel. Come with us.” Cheyenne’s tone was calm and
soothing as she took Steph by the arm and led her away. Steph
was spouting off at the top of her lungs all the way back up to
the stairs about how Phillip thought she was a “groupie whore.”
113
TAMMY COONS & MICHELLE PACE
He ran his hands through his hair and looked up at the stars. She hadn’t slept with Clive. In fact, she’d caused him bodily harm. A smile crept onto his face. Then he thought about all the unnecessary time he’d missed with Steph due to Clive’s atrocious lie.
The next time they crossed paths, Clive was going to need recon-
structive surgery.
He heard Steph screech and looked up to see the chauffer
he’d attacked holding the door of the Land Rover for Scot,
who’d picked Steph up and was forcing her into the back seat.
As Scot slammed the door, Steph stuck her head out of the win-
dow long enough to shout “Fuck you, Phillip, you fucking fuck!”
He exhaled loudly. As he headed back toward the bar, he
realized Cedric was still on the beach near the stairs. As Phillip headed in his direction, he realized that the priest was glaring at him.
“Something you’d like to say to me, Cedric?” he snapped,
tired of the judgmental scowls he’d been giving him since the
boat ride.
“I really thought you two would be good together. But it’s
very plain that I was mistaken.” He replied. Phillip felt his blood boil all over again.
“I thought we were great together. But she didn’t. She’s the
one who said no.”
Cedric stepped forward, and Phillip braced himself for some
sort of physical blow. Cedric grasped Phillip’s shoulder firmly, his eyes grim. Phillip’s eyes flicked down to Cedric’s hand in
surprise, then back up at the priest.
“She was afraid. Please try to dig a bit deeper for patience.
Losing the baby nearly killed Stephanie. I’ve never seen her that fragile. I hope to God I never do again.”
It took a long moment for those words to sink in. Once he
finally found a context to decipher them, Phillip felt his face contort from a mask of confusion to one of shock. He had no armor
to protect himself from it. An enormous boulder had been lifted
114
RAGE
from on top of him, and the cavern it held up had collapsed. He
felt like he was suffocating. He sucked in air as his knees buckled, and he stumbled back, sitting down hard on the bottom step.
As he blinked slowly, searching his surroundings, his eyes
once again rested on Cedric. The priest looked as horrified as
Phillip felt.
“Dear Lord, Phillip. You mean you didn’t know?”
115
CHAPTER NINE
Cheyenne leaned her head against Scot’s shoulder as the
Land Rover bounced from side to side making her slightly sea-
sick. Once she was back on the solid streets of London, she’d
never complain about road construction again. Steph sat to her
left, glaring out the window.
“Clive?” She spat, her teeth chattering in her cold wet dress.
“Yep.” Scot responded, his dark eyes ominous by the dash-
board lights. “He told Phillip he’d ‘had you’ right before he got there. He said, ‘Sorry, didn’t know you were coming. Next time
I’ll wait and we can share.’ Phillip went mental and nearly got
himself arrested.”
“And it never occurred to you to mention any of this to
me?” Cheyenne snapped. Scot slowly turned to her. His eyes
shot to Steph, who didn’t even look in their direction.
“And say what? Trash talk Steph? I also didn’t want to be-
tray Phillip. He was completely devastated. Cheyenne, I figured
since you were
