Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 79425 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 318(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79425 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 318(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
“Let’s hope it’s all a coincidence.”
I ran a hand through my hair.
Somehow, I already knew it wasn’t.
Kassie listened as I told her what had happened.
“Why does he hate you so much?” she asked.
“Because I fought against him and won. He is the lowest of lows. He picks and pulls at a person, finding a thread to make them unravel. He was a friend of Ed’s. Always blamed me for his downfall. Started his revenge not long after I signed with Annie. He followed me incessantly, to the point I almost had a breakdown. He invaded my private space. He’d alert all the paps to where I was, and I’d be mobbed by them or overzealous fans. He’d chase me into parking garages and alleys, cornering me with his camera while his fellow paps were behind him, snapping away as well. My name was splashed all over the rags for a while. Then Annie had enough, and we launched a suit and actually won since she had him followed and could prove it. I got a restraining order against him and his whole rag. Then I made myself boring as hell, and the rest of them got tired.”
She grasped my hands. “Olly, I’m so sorry.”
“I need you to step away for a bit.”
She blanched. “What does that mean?”
“Don’t come to the set. When I get home, I’ll head right upstairs. I won’t come here. If I see you, I’ll wave but nothing else.”
“So I can’t see you? I’m just your landlady?”
I shook my head. “You’ve never been that, and you never will be. But I can’t let him get to you, if he is here for me. He will rip your life apart. Everything will come out.” I met her eyes. “Everything. Our past. Your past. I can’t risk that for you.”
I felt her pull away emotionally. “So, strangers. I can’t look after your back or sleep beside you. Feed you.” Her lip quivered. “It’s over faster than I thought.”
“No!” I snapped. “It’s not over. We have to be careful. We’ll figure it out.” I lifted our hands to my forehead, pressing it against our clasped knuckles. “I can’t let him destroy you. And if he figures out what you mean to me, he will. I couldn’t bear that. Tearing your life apart for the second time.”
She was quiet for a moment. “Okay. I get it. I hate it, but I get it.” She glanced at the windows. “That’s why you asked me to close the blinds before you got here.”
“Yes.”
“And if nothing comes of it?”
“I’ll be relieved. Grateful.”
“And if something does?”
I huffed out a long exhale of air. “Then I will fight as dirty as he does.”
She squeezed my hands. “I’ll be right beside you.”
I pulled her into my arms, my heart aching a little at the thought of not being able to do so every day. Having to act as though she was just another nice person in Richton. Nothing else.
I wasn’t sure I was that good an actor.
The next twenty-four hours were the calm before the storm. I stayed focused and centered. Read my lines and watched as the scenes were filmed. Checked my phone constantly. Texted Kassie a lot. Spoke with Annie.
By evening, I breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe I had been wrong. Flynn never sat on a story—he jumped in guns blazing, so perhaps what Annie said was right. His visit here wasn’t about me at all.
Kassie was in my apartment when I got home, waiting. I was exhausted, having barely slept the night before. She pulled me into the bedroom, letting me drape myself over her like a blanket. She talked quietly about her day, her presence calming me. I fell asleep with her voice in my ear, lulling me into rest.
Until my phone rang at five a.m. I startled awake, reaching over Kassie to grab it from the nightstand, my stomach already clenching when I saw Annie’s name. It was two a.m. in LA.
This wasn’t good.
“Annie?”
“Stay calm, Oliver.”
“What is it?” I asked, sitting up.
“They posted a story. Full of shit, but there are pictures. I’ll send you the link.”
“Let me get my laptop.”
I sat at the table, switching on the machine, and stared at the online gossip rag and the headline.
Two-Timing Playboy Hitting It “Hart” Again.
I scanned the article quickly, my fists clenching at the lies. I cursed as I looked at the pictures.
Me falling off the horse.
Sheri cupping my face, the background manipulated to look as if it were an intimate moment.
Kassie and me in the hot tub, her face luckily not to the camera, but obviously a different woman.
There was a video of me walking out of the hospital, my gait off. It, too, had been manipulated to make me look more drunk than a man in pain.
The article was no better. I was a problem on set. Drunk. Handsy. Uncooperative and angry that I wasn’t the leading man. Screwing my costar as well as the mysterious local woman. Perhaps others. Seducing my way across the small town. An endless headache to Davis.