“I know, but I remember the way Rhys was the night of the fight. The night you left. The guy was . . . despondent. He loves you. He wouldn’t let something like that from your past ruin your future together.”
“And you didn’t see his face when I tried to tell him everything about that night with Drex. He couldn’t hear it. He said the only reason he can get past it is because he doesn’t know the details.” I hold up the phone with the trashy still splattered over the screen. “And doesn’t ever want to.”
“Yeah, he cut me off when I tried to explain, too.”
“See! If he can’t even hear about me being with Drex, imagine him watching . . .” The image of Drex pounding into me from behind invades my mind, his grunts and gasps stinging my ears. “Oh, God. If Rhyson sees that tape, I don’t know if he can get past it. He and Drex hate each other so much.”
“Speaking of which, there’s still no sign of Drex. It’s like he’s disappeared into thin air. He’s not anywhere. He’s even sublet his apartment.” San gives me a quick apologetic glance before starting the engine again. “I’m trying. I’ve been discreet, but I’m using every resource at my disposal through Spotted. It’s hard to quietly investigate something like that when it involves two rock stars.”
“I’m not a rock star yet.” I give a little bark of a laugh. “And I’m not sure I’d classify Drex as one, either.”
“Well, he’s famous enough, and between your relationship with Rhys and the tour, now so are you. If I poke around too much, and the wrong people get a whiff of it, they’ll go digging and maybe figure things out before we do. And that you don’t want.”
No, that I can’t have.
“How does he just disappear?” I knot my hands in my lap. “He may not be an A-lister, but he is a celebrity. No sightings of him? Nothing? We have to find him, San. I need to talk to him. He has to want something else. Just Rhyson and me not being together? It doesn’t make sense.”
“And why the anonymity of the text message from some burner phone when he’s obviously involved?”
“Did your guys find out anything from the cell number?”
“It’s in the name of some corporation that, as far as we can tell,” San says, sparing me a quick glance, “doesn’t really exist. I mean, on paper it does, but nothing that has lead us to a real person once you sort through the maze of paperwork covering up the identity. No apparent link to Drex that I’ve found.”
I swallow the fear that churns in my belly, rises past my chest, and splashes into my throat when I think of the threats.
“If he wants to blackmail you, he’s not being very stealth about it. He’s the obvious person to have that video, since he made it and would presumably have access that no one else would.” San shakes his head, dark brows squeezed together in a frown. “And then he disappears right after you receive the threat.”
“I have no idea what he’s thinking.” I glance out the window, taking in the ocean bordering the winding road. “I just know he’s making my already complicated situation with Rhyson that much harder.”
“I hear ya about Rhyson not getting past it, but I think you’re wrong.” San takes one hand off the wheel to grab mine even though his eyes don’t leave the road. “You should trust him.”
“Trust?” I blow my anxiety out in a long puff of air. “That’s the one thing we don’t have a lot of right now after what he did.”
“Well, you can’t say he hasn’t been trying to make up for it. You’ve been ignoring him for two months.”
“I couldn’t deal.” Though none of it is funny, a laugh breezes past my lips. “Between the demands of the tour and the huge learning curve, and being threatened with a sex tape, I just couldn’t deal with everything. My time on tour was the best thing for us, I think, though I know he doesn’t agree. I wasn’t ready.”
“And now?” San asks.
“I miss him. You know I do.” I close my eyes tightly. “I love him. It would be a lot to work through under normal circumstances. This tape only makes it harder.”
“And you won’t even consider telling him about it?”
The question reminds me of that loose end I have to tie up before I can be with Rhyson, free and clear and out in the open. The loose end that is on my phone, coiling in my lap like a noose. If I can keep him from ever seeing that sex tape, I will. I have to try. Because what if that tape, not our fight, is the very thing that makes me lose him for good?
“Let’s keep trying this my way for now and see what we find.”
San goes quiet, still not looking convinced that my way is the right way when we pull up to the venue, formerly a private estate that now hosts weddings and other events. The cream-colored limestone house with its circular steps and wide veranda welcome us as warmly as the wedding hostesses.