stage hook up’ that it wasn’t’ something you felt like discuss-
ing.” Scot sounded rational and reasonable and a bit condescend-
ing, like when he told Liam he couldn’t have fudge for breakfast.
Cheyenne felt like she was being handled, and even though it all made sense, it rubbed her the wrong way.
“Phillip was coming to talk to you that night,” Cheyenne of-
fered, unsure how Steph would take the news. Steph turned to
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RAGE
her, obviously chewing over the information. They pulled into
the driveway, and Steph was out of the Rover before the driver
put the vehicle in park.
“Steph, wait!” Cheyenne called and made for the door. Scot
held her arm.
“Just leave her alone. Give her some time to think.”
“She’s had months by herself to think, Scot,” she shot back.
She scrambled out of the Rover and darting a building over,
climbed the stairs to Steph and Kara’s room. She tapped gently
on the door. Kara answered the door looking a bit freaked out
with Liam perched on her hip. She could see Steph rifling
through her suitcase.
“Kara, can you excuse us?” Cheyenne held out her arms for
Liam, never taking her eyes off of Steph. Kara left without a
word. Steph stepped into the bathroom and turned on the shower.
As Steph pulled bobby pins from her upswept hair, Cheyenne
stepped in behind her and leaned against the door.
“Stephanie…we’ve been through a lot of shit together . A
lot. And you were there for me when I floundering. Jacking up my career and my private life, and you tried to help. Now I’m
trying to help you.”
“No one can help me.” Steph’s dark reply gave Cheyenne
the chills. She pulled Liam closer to her chest instinctively.
Steph had always had a detached air about her, but after the ba-
by, she’d been bleak and extremely depressed. Cheyenne and
Cedric had staged a private intervention, and though she’d re-
fused professional counseling (“who needs a shrink when I have
the two of you?”), she’d agreed to antidepressants.
“You need to talk to me. I’ll come back when you’re so-
ber.”
Steph scoffed. “That scene on the beach was pretty damn
sobering.”
“Then let’s talk.” Cheyenne gestured with her free hand.
Liam felt like dead weight against her, and she realized he’d fall-117
TAMMY COONS & MICHELLE PACE
en asleep.
“Alright.” Steph murmured, the steam from the hot water
already fogging up the mirror. “Can I get the sand and saltwater off of me first?”
“Sure.” Cheyenne stepped out, and Steph shut the door in
her face. Cheyenne went and lay Liam down on Steph’s bed,
curling up beside him. She stroked his soft cheek and remem-
bered how she used to stare at him for hours when he was a
newborn. It was unimaginable that she’d considered aborting
him as she had. She kissed the top of his head and wandered to
the mini-bar. The look in Steph’s eyes in the bathroom reminded
Cheyenne way too much of Italy. She didn’t even like to think
about that week, but after rushing to Steph’s aid with Cedric tonight, it was bringing it all back.
Scot had been shooting a video and came home looking ra-
ther sheepish. At first Cheyenne had thought he was just tired.
When he had finally raised his eyes to hers, he oozed regret.
“What?” Leery, she wasn’t sure she was ready for him to
answer her.
“Honey…don’t get mad. Please.” Scot started, and Chey-
enne braced herself.
“I need to show you the rough cut of the video.” He contin-
ued. Cheyenne wondered what he’d done in the video that he
was so worried about her seeing. They weren’t even half-way
through the video before she was stalking back and forth across
the room.
“How the hell could you let this happen?” She was shaking,
pissed. and her voice had dropped an octave. Scot looked at the
floor.
“I know.”
Cheyenne pulled out her phone and texted Steph.
Cheyenne: Where are you?
Stephanie: Milan.
118
RAGE
Cheyenne caught the first flight to Milan. When Stephanie
opened her front door, she gawked at Cheyenne. Cheyenne
gawked back at Steph. She hadn’t seen her since the Toxicity
concert. She looked like she hadn’t showered and was abnormal-
ly pale with dark circles under her eyes. Take-out boxes littered her stunning ultra-modern apartment, and Cheyenne nearly faint-ed when she noticed a grey tabby cat lounging on Steph’s white
couch. To Cheyenne’s surprise, a large canvas of Phillip still
hung over the mantle. Steph picked the cat up and sat down with
it on her lap. Steph had never been remotely interested in ani-
mals. Cheyenne looked over her shoulder as if looking for the
fourth horseman of the apocalypse.
“So…it’s good to see you. Where’s the baby?”
Cheyenne paused. Something was terribly wrong with
Stephanie, and for a moment, she was afraid of making things
worse.
Steph dropped the cat, which scurried away. “Is everything
okay with Liam?”
Cheyenne cleared her throat. She knew things would be
worse if Steph stumbled across the video on her own. “He’s fine.
I have something that you need to see.”
As the video played, Steph’s face turned a deeper shade of
purple. The images of Phillip and the girl who looked too much
like her on the screen seemed to mesmerize her. Her dull eyes
watered, and the hurt and betrayal on her face forced Cheyenne
to look away.
When Cheyenne turned back, Steph was wringing her hands
and shaking her head with a menacing expression. Cheyenne was
sure Steph might vomit, when instead a psychotic chuckle tum-
bled from her lips.
The tirade that followed was legendary even by Steph’s
standards. It culminated with Steph ripping the picture of Phillip off of the wall from over her mantle and flinging it off the side of her terrace on the sixth floor. Cheyenne gasped and bent over the 119
TAMMY COONS & MICHELLE PACE
rail to see if anyone was on the sidewalk below. When the can-
vas somehow landed close to the dumpster, Steph threw her arms
in the air and shouted “score!”
Steph was at her laptop, preparing to send private pictures
of Phillip to the tabloids, when Cheyenne yanked the computer
off the table. It came unplugged in the process and Cheyenne
rolled the cord around her hand.
“No. Don’t sink to his to his level. Go take a fucking show-
er, and if you can still get a brush through your hair, do so. We need
