Luke tilted his head and stroked his chin with an arrogant look on his face. “Isn’t Bailey up for a big scholarship package right now? I thought I heard something about an important internship too. Sounds like the kind of thing that could really set her up after graduation.”
My stomach did a nosedive. Bailey was one of five finalists who’d been selected to meet with the scholarship adjudication panel. Penalty Box Online had contacted her references and invited her for another interview on Friday, too. She’d been over the moon about both things all week.
If Luke had managed to track down the video, I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised he knew other intimate details about not only my life, but Bailey’s.
“What does that have to do with anything?”
He paused and adjusted the collar of his pale yellow polo beneath his jacket. Oppressive silence filled the vehicle while he intentionally delayed, relishing in my fear. I looked at him blankly, refusing to give him the satisfaction of asking again.
“That video is interesting, you know. Female Two is off-camera the whole time. It would be a shame if people thought that voice belonged to Bailey.” Luke gave me a pitying look. “Making sex tapes with her boyfriend could really hurt her chances of landing those opportunities. Would hurt her future career prospects too.”
Panic gripped me by the throat, putting me in a chokehold. It took every ounce of strength I had to keep my voice level. “You know damn well that voice doesn’t belong to Bailey. I didn’t even know her then. And she was still dating you.”
Luke shrugged. “Good luck proving that. There’s no time stamp shown on that video. She’s with you now, and she’ll be guilty by association. And once the rumor gets out, they’ll always believe it on some level.”
Regret churned in my stomach. All this time, I’d worried about shielding her from Luke, but I was the one she needed protection from. Guilty by association because of me and my choices. About to pay the price for something I did before I even knew her. Something done to me.
“Again, what the fuck do you want? I know it isn’t cash.”
“End it.”
The words stabbed me in the gut like a rusty blade.
“What?” I should have been expecting it, but a small, desperate part of me hoped for something else. Anything else.
His blue eyes held mine, cold with malice. “Did I stutter?”
“She’ll never get back together with you.” My pulse roared in my ears. “This is about control. You don’t even love her. If you did, you wouldn’t do this.”
He waved me off. “We could play armchair psychologist all day. It doesn’t matter. Question is, are you willing to blow up her life?”
The knife in my gut twisted and tore me apart from the inside, disemboweling me all over the inside of my truck. It killed me to think of Bailey losing out on something she clearly deserved. But it devastated me to think of losing her.
Luke held her future in his hands and he knew it.
I needed the other half of the video, the part where I’d gotten mad and called Kristen by her name. If nothing else, it would exonerate Bailey. Stewart’s PI would start digging, but who knew how long it would take to find it—if he found it at all? But then what? Leak it myself to prove it wasn’t Bailey? Even if I did locate it, the solutions were all shitty.
“Why would you do that to Bailey?” I asked, desperately searching for a shred of humanity hidden deep within him. “And Nikki?”
I could deal with the fallout in my own life, but the collateral damage in this scenario was criminal. The guilt I was feeling was off the fucking charts.
Luke scoffed. “Who gives a fuck about Nikki? As far as Bailey goes, if you make the right call, I won’t.”
“If I say no?” I asked hoarsely.
“I’ll make sure that a search for her name will imply she directs amateur porn. Potential employers, prospective boyfriends—because let’s face it, we know you two won’t last—even the teachers of her future children.” He leaned back, leisurely placing an ankle over his knee like we were old pals shooting the breeze.
Denial seized hold of my brain. “That can be scrubbed.”
“Not fully.” Luke smirked, his tone even more condescending than usual. “The internet never forgets, Carter.”
Neither did I. Somehow, I’d get even for this. But first I had to stop my life from imploding. Or minimize the damage, at least.
Morrison was nothing if not a coward, so I changed tactics. “You realize blackmail is a crime, right? A felony, in fact.”
“Eh. I’m not concerned about that.”
Holy fuck, he’d lost his mind.
“Why not?” I snapped. “You think your lawyer parents will bail you out?” I ran the risk of provoking him, but I was filled with so much rage, I could barely contain myself.
Luke remained eerily calm like the psychopath he was. “Speaking of parents, have you met Bailey’s? Lovely people.” He frowned, studying me with disapproval. “Not sure they’ll say the same about you if this video makes its way into their hands.”
“Are you willing to risk jail to take me down?” I spat out. “I could call the cops right now.”
“You can’t be stupid enough to think I have the only copy. If you do that, it blows up immediately. Putting me in jail won’t fix her reputation. Are you willing to gamble with her future?”
The answer was no—and he knew it. At least I now had his threats on tape. Problem was that wouldn’t stop him from going nuclear on Bailey’s entire life first.
“If you drag Bailey into this, jail will be the least of your concerns. I won’t have anything left to lose.”
Despite my violent fantasies about Morrison, I’d never seriously contemplated killing him. Until now.
“Oh, I don’t know about that. You have lots of other things on the line. Deluca and I have been chatting lately. Maybe he would be interested in seeing your film debut.”
“Go ahead,” I ground out. Tom Deluca was part of Los Angeles’s management team, and I spoke to him regularly too. “Do that and leave Bailey out of this.”
“Nah.”
I gripped the steering wheel, my knuckles turning white. “Why not? It’s me you want to punish.”
“You ruined my life.” He sneered.
Presumably, he was referring to the backlash against him after the last game. He’d never owned up to a thing in his entire miserable existence; that sure as hell wouldn’t change now. “It’s only fair I return the favor.”
“You ruined your own life.”
Luke barked a caustic laugh. “I could say the same for you.”
He wasn’t wrong, though I never consented to that fucking video in the first place.
“Anyway.” Luke feigned a yawn, shifting his weight. “I’ve drafted a detailed email to everyone Bailey knows, complete with video attached. Break it off, or I’m hitting send.”
Heartache rocked through me like never before, mingled with pure, unmitigated rage. My brain went into lizard mode, rendering me speechless.
“Other people have copies, so don’t try anything cute. And don’t even think about trying to fake a breakup and pull one over on me. I have eyes everywhere,” he said. “That’s how I found you here.”
My heart wrenched as I forced out the words. “If I agree, will you leave her alone?”
“I will.” He opened the door and slid out but lingered. “You have twenty-four hours to do it.”
OceanofPDF.com
BAILEY
I glanced away from the article I was working on, checking the time in the bottom corner of the laptop screen. Chase was over half an hour late. It was out of character for him not to text to let me know, but he’d been acting strange for the past two days. Distant and despondent, not like his usual self. No flirty or sexy texts, either, which we usually exchanged multiple times a day.
When I’d texted to ask him what was wrong, he’d shut me down completely. I could only assume he was stewing over his three-game suspension. He seemed to take it in stride at the time, but I could tell being benched really bothered him. Especially when they’d lost their last game in a brutal defeat.