My mind was spinning on the drive home. Song after song played on the radio, but I didn’t hear a single word.
I’d quickly responded to Bailey’s text when I got into my truck, but we had plans tonight and I had no idea how to drop this bomb on her. I was still processing it myself.
Once I got back into town, I made a quick detour. Didn’t want to, but I needed to know for sure.
I walked up the sidewalk to the townhouse with green siding and rang the doorbell of unit twenty-two. Then I switched on my phone’s voice recorder.
Forgive me, James.
Kristen opened her front door wearing a coy smile. “Hi.” She was in a tank top so low-cut I could almost see nipple and yoga pants that were nearly painted on. Had she changed when I texted her, or did she always lounge around dressed like that? Fuck if I knew.
“I have practice soon, so I can’t stay long,” I said, stepping inside the entry. “I wanted to talk to you about last night.”
“What about it?” She looked at me suspiciously as she shut the door behind me and locked it.
I leaned against the wall, trying hard to affect calm. “Maybe I was too hasty. I was in a bad mood. But you were right. That night with you and Nikki was pretty hot.” I choked down my nausea so I didn’t dry heave in front of her.
“I know, right?” Kristen batted her lashes at me.
God, she was easy to play.
“Too bad I never got to see the video for myself,” I added.
She sniffed. “I thought you were all about your girlfriend these days.”
“Doesn’t mean I can’t reminisce about the past a little.” The words were hard to force out, bitter in my mouth.
“Guess you shouldn’t have made me delete it.”
In the background, her roommate Charlotte walked by. Did she know?
I lowered my voice in hopes that Charlotte couldn’t hear. “Come on, Kristen. I bet you could find it for me.”
“Hmm.” She shrugged, playing with a strand of her dark hair. “I might be able to dig it up if I tried.”
I knew it. I fucking knew it.
“Try?” I gave her a flirty smile while hating myself inside. “For old times’ sake?”
“Fine.” Kristen rolled her eyes. “Hang on.” She pulled out her phone and tapped at the screen.
My heart raced while I waited. After a minute, she handed her phone to me—and there it was. I watched the whole clip with the volume on low, feigning interest. I fought the instinct to smash her phone into pieces. I couldn’t show my hand. Not yet.
As I had suspected, the video was four minutes of me banging Nikki, then her blowing me while we smoked a joint. The clip stopped before the moment I’d caught Kristen and told her to stop recording, conveniently painting me as a willing participant and eliminating all references to her.
She’d cropped the video. Shit. I needed the original. Somehow. It was the only thing that might exonerate my ass.
“Is this it?” I glanced up at her, eyebrows raised, and passed the phone back. Her hand brushed mine in the process, and I fought the urge to yank it away.
Her perfectly arched brows pulled together. “What do you mean?”
Careful, Carter.
“I was hoping it would be longer.” I shrugged. “You’re not in the video.”
“Maybe next time.”
“Maybe.” Never fucking ever. “No one else knows about this, do they?”
She blinked rapidly, taking a small step back. “No…”
Lie.
“Do me a solid and keep it that way, okay? It’s hotter that way anyway, right?”
“Totally.” She smirked.
“Thanks, Kris. I have to get to practice, but I’ll text you,” I lied.
I stalked back to my truck, climbed inside, and turned the ignition. Then I slumped against the leather-wrapped steering wheel. My thoughts were a tangled mess. How would I break this to Bailey? What could I even say to her?
Part of me thought she might hear me out. But what if she didn’t? The contents of the video were damning—me with two girls, one of whom was someone else’s girlfriend. At the time, I didn’t know she had a boyfriend, but it still looked bad. Bailey had been so upset about Derek and Jillian. Would she lose respect for me over this? Decide I wasn’t who she thought I was after all?
Not to mention the catastrophic effect this could have on my life—and Bailey’s, by association. Her reputation as the girlfriend of that guy could jeopardize her scholarship, her internship, her career. Would she resent me for dragging her into the vicious gossip and the trash talk?
Good god, I hadn’t even met her parents, and now they would hate me. And so much for any headway I’d made with Derek.
A sharp rap on my window startled me. I glanced up, expecting to find Kristen.
It wasn’t.
OceanofPDF.com
CHAPTER 54
OceanofPDF.com
24 HOURS
Chase
After a split second of debate, I rolled down the window. “What do you want?”
“Let’s chat.” Luke flashed me a shit-eating grin.
Without hesitation, I unlocked the door. Why not? My day was already fucked. My life was fucked, really. Plus, he’d caught me leaving Kristen’s, so he had the upper hand.
But I had a few tricks up my sleeve too. My phone was still in my palm, so I quickly switched on the voice recording app and set it on the center console, screen down.
Luke pulled open the door and hopped into the passenger seat. The overwhelming stench of his cologne wafted over to me, further amplifying my queasiness. He gave my truck a disdainful once-over. “Very pedestrian choice of vehicle. Fitting.” Leaning over, he handed me a folded piece of white paper.
I snatched it out of his hand. “What the hell is this?”
“You tell me.”
Transcript of video recording
— RECORDING BEGINS —
[music, background noise]
CHASE: Fuck. Hang on. Where’s the lighter?
FEMALE 1: Are you seriously stopping right now? What the hell?
CHASE: Chill out, Nikki. Just let me light this.
[background noise]
[coughing]
FEMALE 1: Oh my god. (coughs) That’s strong.
CHASE: I know. My dealer is the shit.
FEMALE 2: Gonna save some for me?
FEMALE 1: The joint or Chase?
FEMALE 2: (laughs) Both.
CHASE: Don’t worry, I can go all night. Can’t say the same for this spliff.
[laughter, background noise]
— RECORDING ENDS —
Ice ran through my veins. Spelled out like that, the encounter looked even worse. The world tilted around me, and I came closer than ever to emptying the meager contents of my stomach onto the floor of the truck. I’d barely eaten all day, so at least there wouldn’t be much.
And it was still only an excerpt from the video. Even with his apparent digging, Luke hadn’t been able to uncover the whole thing, either.
Gripping the paper, I read the transcript twice more. It was like reading a story about someone else. I wasn’t the person in that video anymore, and I barely remembered that night. When I tried to play it back in my head, it was all a blur. My hangover had lasted for two days after.
“Wonder if Callingwood Daily would want to run a story. Front page, maybe.”
I glanced up, keeping my expression neutral. “Where did you get this?”
“Fell into my lap. Kind of like that skank, Nikki, huh?” He snorted. “Or Female One, I should say.”
“What do you want?” I tossed the transcript onto the console between us.
“My private investigator does good work,” he said, ignoring my question. “I have a copy of the video too, but I’m sure you’ve already seen it.”
At this point, I wondered who hadn’t.
“In case you’re curious,” he added, “I only had to pay Kristen three grand to sell you out. I bet you’re willing to cough up a lot more than that to keep it quiet, huh?”
A hundred times over.
“Get to the point.”