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I had no idea if Chad knew about the tape or if he was just shooting in the dark, but anger fired in me and then turned to ice inside my veins. "Take it out on me," I hissed at him. "Don't drag her into this." She had enough trouble from her shitbag ex. The last thing I wanted was to add to her problems.
"Yeah, that's charming. Very noble. But the fact is, she's got the money. And I'm sure she could part with a bit to save her precious reputation. Look at all the fucking trouble she's gone to just to make it seem like she and that slick loser McDonnell are together. All while he's banging her sister." This last part came out on a laugh and I had to fist my hands into the sides of my pants to keep them from pummeling Chad.
"So I don't know," Chad said, turning forward again and walking along the perimeter we'd marked out. "Would it be more satisfying to see you get what's coming, or take a nice chunk of money and cast off?" He was silent a moment, strolling along like he hadn't a care in the world. "Course," he said, "no reason at all I can't do both, eh?"
He pulled his phone from his pocket and dashed off a text as I watched, my stomach churning.
Icy rage filled me.
"There we go." Chad shoved his phone back into his pocket. "I'm sure one of us will be hearing from Austin pretty soon." He smiled at me and then clapped me on the back. "Hope it was a good fuck, dude. You're screwed." He looked around. "Guess I'll go find Juliet and see what she's willing to offer to keep this all quiet. I'd hate to let something slip to those magazine people today." Chad strode off across the lawn as the sun edged just over the horizon, leaving me to stare after him, my world in pieces around me.
I waited. For what felt like a few eternities stacked end to end, I waited while Chad's poison worked itself into the capillaries of my life. And a little while later, as I watched Jack sit on the steps of the porch, holding Chessy the chicken in his arms as she stared longingly up at him, my phone dinged. Here we go.
Austin: Call me. We need to talk.
Shit. The beginning of the end.
I looked around. Jack had been on the early morning shift, and while he wasn't sleeping, he also wasn't on. It wouldn't be fair to ask him to cover me, so the implosion of my life would just have to wait until I wasn't standing a shift. The last thing I needed was some kind of security issue in the midst of everything else.
Me: Roger that. I'm on shift. Off at noon. Talk then.
Austin: OK.
A wash of anxiety went through me, raising a cool sweat on my skin. Losing my job would not be helpful at this point. I’d taken my last exam just before heading to Maryland, and didn’t know yet if I’d get my degree, but I didn’t like my odds, and having a back up plan had always been my MO. I took a deep breath, realizing it was out of my hands. Like so much in my life at the moment.
My phone dinged again as we crept toward noon.
Juliet: Chad just threatened me.
My blood turned to fire and I had to force myself not to barrel through the house to find Juliet. Or to rip Chad apart.
Jace: He knows. He's trying to get me fired too. I'm so sorry.
Juliet: Not your fault. I'm handling it.
Maybe that should have been a relief, but Juliet had handled so many things for me lately. And here was one more.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Juliet
Jace had been outside most of the morning, and I hadn't really seen him—not up close, at least—since leaving his room early in the morning. In some ways, I didn't want to. Part of me wanted to live in the sweet memory of waking in his arms, hearing the morning rising around us through the open window of his room and feeling the warmth of his long body next to me.
Of course, Chad had burst my morning bubble of happiness almost immediately when I’d crashed into him. And then it didn’t seem to have taken him long to finish figuring out how to destroy the little bit of happy warmth I'd held onto. He found me again, mid-morning. I'd been wandering the house somewhat aimlessly. It was too early to get dressed for the party, and I was too distracted to do anything productive. I had a pile of scripts to read and calls to return, but my mind was floating, unfocused.
Despite the complications between us, I wanted to get back to LA and see if Jace and I could make this thing work. Things had been sweet before we'd come to Maryland, before the complications of family and house chickens. I wanted to return to that, remove the extraneous crap and focus on us. My skin warmed at the thought of having him to myself again.
And then Chad had stepped close and his sharp low voice made me cold. "Need to talk to you."
I spun from the window where I'd been peering outside, watching Jace walk a path in front of the house. "No thanks."
“Shall we sit?” Chad asked, ignoring my reply.
“No,” I said, glancing back out to see Jace turn the corner. Chad looked around, like maybe he was uncomfortable in the formal parlor where we stood, or more likely because he was about to deliver ugly words.
"You know I saw you this morning," he began. "And I've suspected for a while there was something going on with you and Jace. Him sleeping in the house and all. You being ... well, you." His mouth lifted in an unattractive half smile and I wondered if being me was an insult or a compliment in his mind. It didn't matter.
"Your point?"
