46

Carly

 

I tell Ally all about last night on the way to work and she looks so relieved. She’s a good friend. I catch Ash giving me kind eyes in the rearview mirror, too.

I’m so, so relieved that Aiden didn’t have that girl beat up, that he’s not going to have the same thing done to Sienna.

I replayed the conversation with her in my mind. I assumed he beat her up. She smiled devilishly when I voiced it, like maybe she hadn’t thought of that angle, but saw that was causing damage so went with it.

Of course I’m not thrilled by what was on that audio recording, but it doesn’t surprise me. I haven’t suddenly forgotten who Aiden was when I got here, how much of a dick he was to me. How conceited and cocksure he was.

He’s not that Aiden now.

He’s going through a lot right now with his mother, too.

I’m just going to try to be supportive to him through these times.

I get to the office and he’s sitting behind his desk with a devious look in his eyes. He’s got two laptops in front of him.

“Hi,” I say in his doorway.

“Get in here and kiss me, peaches.” He orders.

I shut the door and wander in.

“Blinds,” he demands.

I shake my head. “Keep it professional, Mr. Carmichael. We don’t need any more salacious gossip or tabloid fodder just yet.”

He narrows his eyes. “You’re right. You still better come kiss me.”

I round his desk and lean over. He grabs my hair and uses it to deepen the kiss.

“We should go away this weekend.”

“Where?” I ask.

“Anywhere. Anywhere without internet or Wi-Fi.” He pulls me into his lap sideways.

My eyes dart toward the window. Stacy passes us, sees us, averts her gaze, and keeps walking. Helder in accounting then walks by from the other direction, doing the same.

“That doesn’t sound terrible. Except that I have to keep an eye on our social media accounts.” I have alerts on my phone to watch our reputation. “We’ve got lots of traffic outside those windows, best let me up,” I say, trying to get out of his lap. He’s got a firm hold on me.

“Get Kieran or an intern to do it. If shit with my mother gets linked to the company, or rather when it does, it’ll be a shit show all week.” He starts tonguing my earlobe. “Have a feeling sparks are gonna be flyin’ all week long, in fact. A getaway might be good. Maybe we’ll take off tomorrow night and have a long weekend.”

I make a sour face. “Yeah. Well, it’s one of the things I’m paid to do so I should be doing it, not taking off to some sex lair with no cell signal.”

He shrugs. “We’ll talk closer to the weekend, see where things are at. Now get off my lap, peaches. You’re making me hard. I haven’t fucked you in two days. I’m about to throw the blinds down and take you against your will.”

I raise my eyebrows in challenge. “Against my what?”

“Okay, with a safeword.” He snickers.

He’s edgy today. He’s defiant today. I’m not sure if it’s sexy or a little bit scary.

“I gotta get into my day,” I say, heading for the door. He follows. He then smirks deviously and grabs my ass and then kisses my collar bone and heads out of his office before I do.

I look back at his desk at the two laptops sitting there side by side.

I don’t know why, maybe because of the way he was just acting, but I walk behind his desk and take a look.

His non-Carmichael laptop is bigger. Sleeker. It’s on a video channel home page with user ‘h8fux’ as the icon. There’s a video on-screen with a message that says “Your video has been uploaded.” There’s a Lingo email tab beside this video site tab.

Oh my God.

He didn’t.

He didn’t upload those videos of Bella like he threatened.

I tap the touchpad and open the email tab. There’s an email right there.

From:

To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] & 18 more…

Bella starred in a h8fux video recently. See attached.

Sincerely,

H8fux

H8Fux --- Want to be a star on our channel? PM us.

***

There’s a video attached, and the icon thumbnail is her face with a dick in her mouth, the image taken from above, obviously taken by whoever she’s giving head to. She’s choking on it. She has mascara-tinted tears running down her face. The background of the photo? It’s not super-clear, but I recognize it. It’s the wall of black and white photos in Aiden’s living room.

I sit there a minute, processing, until he’s back. He has a Starbucks in his hand and his eyes land on me.

“Grabbed you one, too. It’s on your desk.”

I straighten up and fold my arms across my chest. How I didn’t notice this from his lap, I don’t know. I guess I was focused on him.

He shuts the door. He has his lips pursed.

“Had to be done, Carly.”

“I can’t believe you.”

His eyes go big and he shrugs. “She deserved it. She knew the consequences of her actions. Figured she’d gotten the videos off my phone when she cloned it. She figured wrong. I already had them aside.”

“Are you insane?” I yell. I can’t contain my anger.

He frowns at me and starts shutting the blinds one by one.

“Are you?” I demand.

“Hang on, peaches. Chill out.”

“That’s your cock on the video!”

“Yeah. But my face isn’t in it.”

I choke on my astonishment. “There are pictures of Braeden on the wall in the background, Aiden. Are you fucking kidding me?”

He startles and moves to the screen.

“Do you really think I wanted to see your cock in her mouth, besides?” I snap.

“You can’t make out the pictures of Braeden. Even if it’s blown up. And you shouldn’t have looked, peaches. Didn’t give you permission to click into any of that.”

“Oh. My. God!” My head is going to explode. “This is unbelievable. Last night, when you saw how utterly broken I was at the idea that you’d hurt someone like that… you seemed like you gave a shit.”

“I haven’t laid a finger on her, haven’t ordered anyone to lay a finger on her, Carly.”

“No. You’ve destroyed her in a way that won’t heal like a black eye or bruises, Aiden.”

“She’s trying to destroy me! She tried to take you away from me, make it so you’d leave me. She sold my mother’s shit to the press. Carly, if you think I’m just gonna let something like that go---” He shakes his head. “You and me are new but you can’t be shocked I’d retaliate.”

“Retaliate with a sex video? Retaliate with your own dick in that video and send it to who? Who were those people?”

“Her parents. Other people close to her parents. A big client of her father’s. Some of her friends.” He shrugs.

I’m shaking my head; I’m blown away.

“How many people have you done something like this to?” I ask.

“Just her.”

“Oh. You just happened to have video of her in case you needed it. How many more videos do you have of other girls?”

“A few,” he says with a dead cold expression.

And that dead expression in his eyes hurts me. It actually causes physical pain. I feel the tears welling up.

He frowns at me. “This isn’t about you and me. Don’t make this shit about you and me. This is about that cunt fucking me over and about her having to pay for it.”

“Oh. Right. And what happens if another ex crosses you? More videos of your dick go out there?”

He shakes his head and laughs with a sneer on his face. “This isn’t about us, Carly. Go think on it. Think on the shit that cunt pulled. I don’t fight back, people fuck me over. I don’t fight back, people continually do their worst to blackmail, extort money, fuck my life up. Fuck that. Fuck that!”

“Got any sex videos of me in case I piss you off, Aiden?”

“No,” He snaps looking into my eyes. “I’d never do that to you.”

“Right,” I scoff.

He backs me up against the door. “Don’t be stupid. Of course I don’t.” He has my chin in his hand. His hold is gentle but his eyes? They’re furious.

“Let me go.”

“This isn’t about you and me,” he grinds out, eyes flaring with fury.

“No. It’s about you. It’s about you being a cold-hearted prick. What if one day I upset you. What are you gonna do? Even if you don’t have a video of me. What kind of wrath will I face? I can’t believe you’d do this. I can’t believe I was wrong about you. You’re still the same guy who said that about me on that recording. The guy who tried to fuck me over by screwing with the family business to make me look bad when you thought I was … whatever you thought I was. I was kidding myself thinking you weren’t that same guy. You might not think you could hurt me like you’re hurting her, but Aiden… what if you do? I can’t be in love with someone who could be this callous, this cold-hearted. Do Bella’s mother and father deserve to see their daughter like this? Even if Bella is a BFC? You’re not just hurting her with this, Aiden.”

He stares at me, grinding his jaw.

I shake my head. “I gotta go. I’m going home. I don’t feel well. I’ll ask Stacy and Blake to take care of my stuff.”

He slaps the wall beside me. “Carly, don’t.”

“Let go of me.” I dash tears away and see black wetness on the back of my hand. Tears are making mascara tracks down my face now.

He steps back, glaring at me.

I stomp out of there, go right to my desk, snap my laptop shut and grab my purse and jacket. I walk straight out without speaking to anyone.

Once outside, I send an email to Stacy asking her to please cover for me as I have an emergency and need to leave.

I text Ally, too.

“I have to go. I’ll call you when I’m finished processing. You’ve become an amazing BFF in a very short time. I’m going to miss you.”

A text comes through fast.

“Where the f are you going? This sounds like goodbye? We heard the windows practically rattling with you two arguing. What happened?”

I can’t answer her. I’m crying too hard. I hail a cab outside and take it back to the condo and pack up my stuff.

Ally: “I’m calling BFF rules right now. No processing. Talk to me now. Tell me where you went and I’ll come to you.”

 

I don’t have the energy to answer Ally when my heart is crumbling in my chest.

This is horrible.  He might want to be someone who isn’t so cold and heartless, but I can’t be with someone who could so callously destroy lives like that, even if he swears it won’t happen to me.

I can’t wage war and fight back. I can’t pretend it’s in me. It’s not me. I’m not Carly 2.0. I’m just not built that way.

I broke almost all of my Carly 2.0 rules, except the F-word one. I’m not Carly 2.0; I’m just Carly.