CHAPTER 34
The last thing I expect to see when I walk into Sydney’s room is Brandon Eastlake, sitting next to her bed, chatting like they’re old friends.
That fucker is so lucky that I just punched the shit out of someone for the last hour, or he’d be dead.
“Eastlake, what are you doing here?” I breeze past him and over to Sydney, placing a kiss on her lips as I glare at him. Her eyes bug out when she sees my face, but I know she won’t say anything in front of an outsider.
Yeah, she’s still mine asshole.
I can tell that he’s embarrassed I caught him here, but has the common sense not to say anything. He knows my reputation for being somewhat volatile and he knows that I’m well aware of his reputation for being a man-whore. Plus, I’m sure I look intimidating as hell with my fucked up face.
“I felt bad about what happened to Sydney. It feels like it was my fault for having her on the show.” He shrugs, an automatic response to hide his nervousness. “I wanted to make sure she was okay.”
Wait… he thinks the attack was his fault?
“Why would it be your fault? You weren’t even there?” I ask, dumfounded by his rationale.
Sydney interrupts before Eastlake can speak. “I told Brandon he had nothing to do with it. Once my mom went back to acting in a few months, that media and that crazy man were going to find me.” She turns and looks at the shocked TV host. “Whether it was your show or some other show, an obsession like that wasn’t going to go away and I was tired of hiding.”
“What happened to you?” Eastlake asks, staring at me incredulously.
“Nothing.” I blow him off easily. “When did all of these flowers get here?” I ask Sydney, tired of Brandon Eastlake already.
Sydney’s pale cheeks flush bright crimson. God, it’s good to see her with some color in her face. “Ummmm, the nurses brought them all in a little while ago. They said they’ve got a bunch more, but these are the ones from people we know. I guess Leah went through the cards earlier.” She shifts on the bed, self-conscious with receiving so much attention.
She’s so used to being invisible that she doesn’t know how to handle having people other than her mom and Leah care about her.
“Well, I better get going,” Eastlake says awkwardly. “We film in a couple of hours.” He stands up and pats Sydney’s hand. If he had tried to kiss her cheek I would have had to take him out in the hall and punch his face in. Then we’d have matching bruises.
“See you later?” he asks me, putting out a hand for me to shake.
“Yeah, I’m sure you will,” I respond, reluctantly shaking his hand so I don’t look like a dick in front of Syd and stress her out. Plus, if I fuck up my relationship with Eastlake and his show, Quentin will have a fit. I give him Andrew Forrester’s best smile.
“Bye Sydney, get well.” He turns and leaves the suite.
It only takes two seconds for her to start.
“What happened to you?”
“I told you I was going to the gym. You wanted me to punch something, so I did.”
“I didn’t tell you to get punched back. You look like shit.” She folds her arms across her chest and scowls.
I can’t help the laugh that escapes from me, she’s almost back to herself. Leaning in, I trace her cheekbone with my finger. “What? Am I not sexy anymore?”
She grunts and waves a hand at me as if I’m ridiculous, “No, you are. Of course you are…” she pauses, biting her lip. “Actually, it makes you more sexy, if that’s even possible.”
I smile and give her a quick kiss. “You’re not mad?”
Sydney relaxes into her pillows. “No, I’m not mad. I know you needed it. I’m just glad you didn’t break any bones.”
That went better than expected.
I don’t notice the phone lying on her lap until it’s shrill ring scares the shit out of both of us.
“I thought you had it off?” She said she didn’t want to talk to anyone, not that very many people have her number. But I would guess it’s pretty easy for unscrupulous people to get their hands on it.
“I did. I only turned it on today.” She picks up the phone and answers it. “Adam?”
The peace and happiness I felt from this morning’s workout takes a sharp nosedive at the thought of that prick calling my girl on her phone. Where the fuck does he get off?
“Hold on….” Sydney covers her phone with her hand and looks at me, flicking her gaze from my face to my hands which are balled up tightly in front of me. “Drew? Are you okay?”
I can’t stand here and listen to half of a conversation with him, and I can’t take her phone and break it in half. Instead, I spin on my heel and storm into the other bedroom, slamming the door behind me. Asshole move, but I fucking can’t believe that jerkoff has the nerve to call Sydney.
I crash on the bed and check my email. I haven’t looked at it since before the premiere. My voicemail is full too. Rhys keeps pestering me for a statement. I know I have to release one, I just have no desire to think about that shit.
Knowing I can’t avoid him any longer, I dial Rhys’ number.
“Drew? How’s Sydney?” I haven’t seen him since the attack, letting Jane do all of the communicating for me so I could focus on Syd. Besides my family, Jane’s the only person I’ve spoken to.
“Better. I wanted to get the statement out of the way.” I pull my feet up onto the bed and lean against the headboard.
“Okay, what did you want to say?”
Damn! “I was kind of hoping you had something put together already,” I admit.
“Drew, I have no idea what the hell is going on except for what Jane told me, which isn’t much. The media has been relentless trying to get any bit of information from me that they can. I was briefly interviewed by the police, but since I didn’t see anything, they wouldn’t tell me a thing.”
“Shit,” I mutter, dragging my hand down my face then wincing when it runs over my bruised cheek.
“Why don’t you tell me what the doctors’ said about the wounds and her recovery? Let’s start there.” Great, Rhys is going to try and hold my hand? I don’t think so.
“Here’s what I want you to say. Just put it in better words. Sydney was attacked by a fucking psycho who stalked her as a kid.”
“What?” Rhys yells.
“Don’t fucking interrupt, Rhys. This shit isn’t easy for me,” I bark at him.
“Okay, sorry Drew. I just didn’t know,” he admits.
“So put that in there about the crazy fuck,” I continue. “He stabbed her and hit her liver, which was repaired surgically. He missed her diaphragm and lung. Ummmm, they said we could go home tomorrow if nothing goes wrong, but tell them it’ll be a few days to throw them off. And the asshole was arrested. I guess that’s it.” Sighing, I close my eyes and wait for Rhys to respond.
“Alright, I got it. I’ll polish it up and release it to the media. Are you going back to New York?”
“Yes. I already have it all set up. We’re going back with Leah in Eva’s jet.”
“Eva?” Rhys asks.
“Sydney’s mom.”
“Oh yeah. I forgot. Sorry Drew, this is just…” he stops, too choked up to continue.
“Yeah, I know. Hey, I gotta go.” I have to get off the phone before I go back to being a fucked up mess.
“Okay. Bye.”
I hang up and decide that Adam has had long enough with my girl. Walking back into the room, I see that Sydney is already off of the phone and she’s speaking to the doctor.
“What’s going on?” I ask, pissed that they would discuss her care without me.
“I was just telling Miss Tannen that she can go home. Today if you like,” he says with a giant smile on his face.
“Today?” I look down at Sydney. “You want to get out of here?” I can’t help but grin.
She smiles back, a genuine smile. She wants to leave this fucking place as much as I do. “Yes.”
“Done.”