I was on the beach within a minute of Kaiti leaving, stalking across the sand in search of Bryce. He’d acted sketchy earlier when I’d told him Kaiti was too sick to come back to the set, and I hadn’t called him on it, being too worried about her at the time to engage.

I hadn’t wanted to react to anything until I knew she was okay—mostly because I didn’t want to get thrown off the set before I could get back to her. It had been all I could do to get through the scene, but I knew I had to keep my shit together and wait it out, give it some time before I went off the rails.

Now I had all the time in the world, it seemed—a lifetime without her because I’d kept the truth from her. And not just one. I’d kept Bryce’s secret, too.

I wasn’t sorry that I’d never told her I knew about the video, but I deeply regretted not telling her about Bryce’s investigation. Now, because I found too many excuses to put it off, she thought I had helped him deceive and exploit her.

She couldn’t have been more wrong, but I needed proof before I approached her again. I needed more than an earnest expression and the words ‘trust me’ to win her over. I needed to fix this shit, and that was exactly what I intended to do.

Even if it cost me my career.

When Bryce turned and spotted me coming, his eyes went wide and he started backing up. It was clear from my approach that I was about to shred him.

“Gavin, hold on. I just heard, and I swear it wasn’t me.”

“Bull. Shit.” I practically growled the words as I closed in on him, my jaw clenched so tight it ached. “You planned all of this, didn’t you? You let this leak so people would be talking about the show, so they’d tune in to see the girl from the video all grown up and filled-out. You did it for the fucking ratings, didn’t you, you soulless prick?” I stepped into his space and snared him by the collar. “You destroyed her for a fucking ratings boost!”

He was fighting for air, turning a pleasant shade of blue as he struggled. “I didn’t, I swear.”

I shook him hard, his feet barely touching the ground. “Who else could have done it, huh? Only you and I knew, and I sure as hell didn’t tell anyone.”

“I don’t know. I swear. Maybe it was Gus.”

I narrowed my eyes. “After all the dirt he’s dug up for you over the years, on all of us, you think he chose now to betray you? To what end? What possible motive could he have?”

Bryce coughed and glanced over my shoulder.

I didn’t turn, telling whoever was there to fuck off.

Michael’s voice was low and even, like a crisis negotiator trying to talk a jumper off a ledge. “Man, I’d love to see you two beat the shit out of each other, but if this is what I think it is, you might be barking up the wrong tree, Lane.”

I tilted my head at Bryce, watching as he tried to nod in agreement as I spoke to Michael. “Why should I listen to you? You intentionally hurt Kaiti on set. If anything, I should have choked you first. Just in case. Not that I think this was your doing, it’s above your IQ level to think this three-dimensionally.”

“Fuck you,” he huffed at my back, but I didn’t hear him walk away.

I let Bryce go, turning my back on him.

He gasped and coughed and bent at the waist like he may puke. Michael was a few paces away, his expression unreadable as he watched Bryce gagging behind me. “Ever notice that when guys have beef with each other, they usually duke it out and get it over with?”

“Get hit a lot over the years, did ya?” I smirked, remembering the satisfying crack of his jaw when I’d decked him.

He chuckled under his breath. “A fair amount. And I’m betting you did too, but that’s kind of my point. When I pissed you off, you tried to take my head off. When you thought Bryce outed that video of Kaiti”—he didn’t even flinch when my hands fisted at my sides—“you went to beat his ass. Guys do that. We’re direct, for the most part. But you know who loves a good sneak attack? Women. Or at least most of the women I know.” He leveled his gaze my way, stoic. “Women we both know.”

I narrowed my eyes, his meaning clicking into place. “So, what would make you think one of these women would do such a thing?”

He shrugged. “All I’m saying is that if a woman will blackmail one of her exes into being too rough with the new girl—trying to scare her away—there’s not a lot else she wouldn’t do. A thing like this isn’t career-killing by any means, but it might embarrass and upset a newbie enough to make her quit just to get away from the gossip.”

“Blackmail? She blackmailed you into doing that? With what?”

He just looked at me, not elaborating, but there was a hint of an apology in his eyes.

“And why would this new girl need to be scared away?”

“If this other woman thought there was a chance she was about to lose her job and the new girl was poised to be the new lead actress, she might get a little territorial. After all, the new girl already bagged this chick’s ex, who she still pines over for some inexplicable reason. Now she would be taking her spot as the leading lady. With all eyes on the new talent, who would be left to look at her? Sounds like plenty of motive to want the new girl out of the script, so to speak.”

Bryce had finally recovered and moved to stand beside me, though not too close. “He’s right. The producers have been toying with the idea of taking Tia off the show for a while now—revealing that she was behind the death of the founding four—but they needed a new leading female to take her place. Jenna is an amazing actress, but Layla isn’t a strong enough character to fill the spot.”

“So, they came up with Meadow as an alternative,” I said, head spinning. Had I really pulled so far away from everything that I hadn’t seen any of this coming?

“Exactly.” Bryce nodded as he turned and met my eye. “Skylar could have heard all this, I suppose, if she talked to the right people.”

“You mean if she’s still giving head to get ahead?” Michael smirked.

Bryce shot him a bland look. “Says the guy most likely to have some extra’s lipstick on his cock as we speak.”

“Touché.”

“Focus please, you dicks,” I cut in, losing what little patience I had left. “She might have heard about the possibility of being written out of the show, but how would she know about the video?”

Michael gave a half-hearted shrug.

I turned to Bryce. “Could she have found out you were expecting that report on Monday?”

He was silent, but the look on his face wasn’t one of deceit, at least not as far as I could tell. But then again, what the hell did I know? “Anything is possible with her. She’s sneaky as fuck. You both know that from experience. And I know you don’t believe me, but I didn’t tell a soul about the file or the video. I just got around to reading the damn report two days ago.”

“But Gus was supposed to get it to you on Monday,” I countered, trying to catch him in a lie.

“Yes, but I didn’t have time to read it or scan it into the computer until a couple days later.”

“Wait, he gave you a paper file?” I raised my brows and noted that even Michael looked surprised.

“Well, yeah. I mean, I don’t allow him to put anything online, even to email it over. That computer—the one I keep the reports on—never connects to the internet, ever. I scan everything in through a wired printer and shred the original files.”

“You’re a creepy motherfucker, you know that?” Michael said as he shot me a look that said, ‘Do you believe this shit?’

“No, I’m a businessman who likes to protect his interests.” Bryce gave me an apologetic look. “And my friends, even the ones who don’t think of me as one in return.”

I ignored his bullshit excuses and asked, “Was Kaiti’s file out of your hands at any time before you disposed of it?”

Bryce shook his head but didn’t look nearly as sure as I would have liked. “I don’t think so. I mean, Gus dropped it on my desk himself, back at the main set. The guard called to verify that he was expected and I told him to go on and leave it in my office. I went by there on the way here on Monday and locked it in the safe until I had time to read it—couldn’t have been more than half an hour later. Everyone else was on their way here that morning, so no one would have had reason to go by the other location.”

I somehow doubted that.

Looking between the two of them, I nodded. “I guess I need to find out who else was at the main location on Monday, check the log at the guard shack, though they probably wouldn’t have made one of the cast sign in. But someone somewhere must know if Skylar was there.”

“You go talk to Kaiti. I’ll check with security,” Bryce offered, actually looking like he might reach out to touch my arm before thinking better of it and clearing his throat.

“I’m not trusting you with shit, friend. We’re in this mess because of you.” I glared at him until he flinched and looked away with shame on his face.

“I’ll do it,” Michael offered, and I nearly laughed in his face.

“Why the fuck would you help me?”

He cut his eyes at me and blew out a breath. “I’m not helping you, jackass. I’m helping Kaiti. I owe her that much for the stunt I pulled.”

“The one where you scared the shit out of her and assaulted her on fucking camera? That stunt?”

He glared at me, speaking through gritted teeth. “Yes, goddamn it, that stunt.”

“You’ve never cared about clearing your conscience before. I’m not sure you even have one. So, what’s in it for you?”

His face morphed into something so devious I felt like I was talking to Warren instead of the actor who played him. Even the scar down his face was more pronounced with his smirk. It was chilling. “I’ve been waiting for years to watch everything that scheming bitch ever built burn to the ground around her. And the time has finally come. I can feel it. So yeah, I want to help Kaiti bring her down for this shit, even if it means making nice with your ignorant, golden boy ass.”

“Golden boy is a stretch, but I can see where an ass like you might think that. But tell me, how am I ignorant?”

He shook his head like I was only underscoring his point by asking. “You’ve been working with her for years, Lane. Years. And all you saw was a vapid, attention seeker. You wrote her off as a diva, totally underestimating how far she was willing to go to stay center stage, and now look where you are.”

I snorted at his nerve. “And you knew she was unbalanced but said nothing. I may have underestimated her but at least I didn’t enable her, so don’t fucking talk down to me, you dick. You’re just a disgruntled minion looking for revenge, so don’t pretend you’re doing any of this for anyone but yourself.”

“Maybe.” He nodded, running a hand along his jaw. “Or maybe I’m looking to redeem myself, at least a little. The truth is, we’ve all got stuff in our past we don’t want to come to light.” He shot a dark look at Bryce. “The shit he has in my file—and yours, I’m sure—is shit we did ourselves, choices we made that were the wrong ones, fuck ups from an over-financed youth with too much opportunity and not enough guidance. But what Kaiti went through wasn’t a mistake she made—it was something that was done to her, without her knowledge or consent. And she doesn’t deserve to be dragged through it again because Sky is a vicious cunt. Period.” He looked truly appalled that this was happening to her. “I’m no saint, and I own the fact that I’m an asshole—it keeps the riffraff away—but I’m not the monster everyone thinks I am.”

“Then prove it,” I challenged. “Help me get proof Sky did this so she can finally get all the attention she can fucking handle…and then some.”

He stepped forward and offered his hand. “We can go back to hating each other after all this, right? I don’t want you thinking there’s a fucking bromance on the horizon.”

I gave his hand an extra firm shake and nodded as I dropped it. “Hatred is a good niche for us. Because, to be honest, I’d rather dip my dick in battery acid than call you a friend.”

“The feeling is mutual, asshat. Now go talk to your woman and I’ll start gathering the torches for the witch burning.”

Bryce looked on quietly as Michael and I went our separate ways, setting off toward a common goal without him.

I almost felt bad for the guy.

Almost.

"Will you please tell me what the hell happened back there?" Evie was going far slower than I would have liked as we wove our way back to her apartment. I couldn't go back to mine, not with his stuff everywhere and the smell of his cologne all over everything, something I'd grown to love.

I’d even stopped using my butterscotch wax melts because his smell was so much better.

Shit.

Tap, tap, tap.

I needed to get as far away from all things Gavin Lane as I possibly could.

I needed to think but I was afraid to, afraid I'd look back and realize I'd been stupid to let him in, to think he was ever mine to begin with, to believe he meant it when he said he loved me.

Suddenly, all I wanted was to go back to that first night and never open that door when he’d come back spouting his idiotic demands for an apology. It had been so endearing, funny even, and when I’d opened the door to let him in, the apology in his eyes had been so sincere.

The same expression that he drew to the surface so easily on-set because he was such an amazing actor.

And I was an abominable idiot for not seeing it sooner.

I'd told one new person about that video.

One.

And look what happened.

Even if Bryce’s investigation was where the leak came from, Gavin had known about that too and didn’t tell me. He’d lied to me, but what was worse was that he knew the risk and he didn’t protect me, he’d covered his own ass—and Bryce’s.

My stupid, gullible heart was protesting but I ignored it, fully intending to drown it in alcohol at the first opportunity. I didn't need it lying to me too. I'd had enough.

"I don't want to talk about it, Evie. Just let it go.”

She huffed, flipping on her blinker as she slowed for a right turn. We were still a few minutes away from her place and I wished she'd hurry the hell up. I needed to move, to pace or clean or throw something. Anything that didn't involve being strapped into this goddamn seatbelt.

“I’m sorry, are you new to this friendship? When have I ever sat back and let you have a fucking meltdown just because you thought you needed space? You’ll stew in this shit for days unless I stop you right now and drag it out of you. So talk or I’m locking my liquor cabinet as soon as we walk in the door.”

“Bitch,” I grunted, not meaning it.

“You betcha, just like my bestie.” She had the audacity to smile sweetly like she wasn’t aware that she was pissing me off. “Now what did Gavin say that sent you sprinting out of there like that?”

I blew out a breath and stared through the windshield, giving a sideways glance to a happy couple sitting on a bench at the bus stop as we passed. Fuckers. All happy and stuff while my heart was shredded. “He already knew about the video. I told him one night while I was too drunk to stop myself and I didn’t remember until I was talking to him just now. And Bryce was having me investigated, which Gavin also knew and didn’t bother to tell me.”

She was silent as she processed the scope of his betrayal.

Tired of waiting for her to respond, I said, “It can’t be a coincidence that it came out now.” I bit down hard on my trembling lip, hoping I drew blood. “He played me, Evie. This whole thing, from the moment he showed up at my door, was a lie. All of it.” I felt sick. The coppery taste on my lips made my stomach protest even harder.

“You don’t really think he would do something like this—” She stomped the brakes and we both lurched forward. She honked at a jerk in a chromed-out SUV who’d darted in front of us. “Asshole!”

“Coming across a lot of those today,” I commented wryly.

She looked my way for a moment and scrunched her brow in doubt. “You can’t know that for sure, not yet. He and Bryce might not have done this. I mean, people are nosy. Maybe after that teaser trailer, they started looking you up.”

“It’s not like my name is on the damn video, Evie.” I was annoyed that she was defending him. “This isn’t a Google search kind of thing, not as deep as that shit was buried. Whoever this was knew exactly what to look for. Either Gavin told Bryce about it or he sat back while Bryce’s investigator dug it up. Either way, he was involved to some degree. And like you said before, no press is bad press. Think of all the attention the show will get because of this.”

She thought for a minute before nodding. “Okay, maybe you’re right and it was leaked on purpose to either hurt you or boost ratings. But does that really mean Gavin had to be in on it?”

“He knew the truth and he knew Bryce was digging…tell me how it’s possible for him not to be part of it. Shit, Evie, he could have been playing me the whole time.”

She scowled through the windshield, not commenting further.

I narrowed my eyes at her as she drove. “Why are you so ready to believe he’s not involved?”

She didn’t hesitate. “Because you can’t fake love like that. Not the looks he gave you that he never knew I saw or the way he couldn’t stop touching you, even if it was to brush your hand while we were sitting at the table eating. He loves you, Kaiti. I’d bet my entire meager bank account on it.” She looked my way, one brow raising. “Why are you so ready to believe he betrayed you?”

She swung into an open parking space less than a block from her apartment, and I shot out of my seat before she’d even shifted into park.

“Real mature, Kaiti-bear!” she called as she hurried to catch up with me. “You’re avoiding me because you know I’m right about him.”

“That he allegedly loves me or that he didn’t stab me in the back?” I quickened my pace as she drew up next to me.

“Both,” she said, breathing hard as she tried to keep up.

I gave her a sideways look, my hair whipping across my face as I snorted. “Bullshit.”

“Which part?”

“Both.”

She threw her head back and growled in frustration. “Would you slow the fuck down so I can smack you like you so desperately need?”

I stopped so abruptly she shot past me and had to turn around. When we were barely a step apart, glaring at each other in mutual frustration, I felt it. That shift from pissed to broken and the weight of what had happened, all of it, came crashing down on me so hard and fast I thought my knees would buckle. “Evie…” I began, blackness creeping into the edges of my vision as I swayed.

“Shit!” She caught me under the arms just as I started to topple forward and managed to drag me to the nearby bench, less than ten paces from the front door of her building.

I’d almost made it.

I’d almost beaten the anxiety.

I’d almost believed I could be happy.

But there was no almost about what was happening now.

It was done.

As I sank into Evie’s shoulder—the blackness threatening to overtake me completely—the hat I’d forgotten I was wearing tilted forward until I snagged it from my head. Holding it in my hands, I felt my fool heart wishing for something I should have never wanted—something I’d never really had in the first place.

My stupid, sadistic heart was calling out for Gavin.