Chapter Twenty-Three

Trey

“Son of a bitch, Trey.”

I groaned at the sound of Mason’s irritated voice. No, irritated wasn’t strong enough. Irate. And his face was a matching shade of purple. “I didn’t—”

He threw up a hand and stopped me. “Nope! Not here.”

I pushed up from the cold metal bench in the holding cell and waited for the officer at Mason’s side to step forward and unlock the door. He held it open and jerked his chin at me. Don’t need to tell me twice, buddy, I thought, glaring at him as I passed him.

Mason locked his hand around my arm and tugged me toward the closest exit. His grip was tight and constricting but I didn’t dare to complain. I’d never seen him this pissed off before. It was unnerving. Mason was my one last friend in this whole damned world. If he turned on me…

I’d be good and royally fucked.

I waited, forcing my jaw to remain clenched, until we were in Mason’s car. He turned it over, ignoring my presence entirely, and only spoke once we were out on the highway. “All right…I think I’m ready…tell me what the fuck you were thinking.”

“Mase, this wasn’t my—”

“Nope! Facts only, Delgado. I don’t want bullshit excuses or lies right now. I can’t take it.”

I sighed as much as my tight chest would allow. “Mason…”

He never called me Delgado. This was bad.

Mason glanced over at me and then rolled his fingers in an impatient circle. “Come on. I have so many fuckin’ phone calls to handle when we get you back to the hotel. I need the whole story so I can come up with a statement.”

I nodded and stuffed down my objections. “Kimberly called me the other day, desperate for money, actually, no, she wanted a car. Some SUV. Anyways, I told her I’d buy her the damned thing if she would take the test and prove he’s my kid. Apparently she blew all the money from selling her sad little lies all over Hollywood.” I paused, working my jaw for a minute, clenching and unclenching like a pissed off shark. “Whatever, she agreed to take the damn test. So, I showed up at the clinic. She insisted on picking it. She thought I would pay off the tech if I were the one picking it. Fuckin’ delusional bitch…”

“Trey…” Mason’s tone was sharp. A warning.

I nodded, getting myself back in check again. “She wasn’t even supposed to be there, Mase! I told her I didn’t want to see her. But there she was, as soon as I got done, and she didn’t even have the kid with her. The test doesn’t work without him.”

“Where was he?”

“No fuckin’ clue.” I fisted my hands, the wash of tense memories threatening to overtake me again. The walls of Mason’s rental were closing in on me. He’d flown out as soon as the story broke and must have grabbed the car at the airport as soon as he landed. I ended up being at the police station for over six hours, being questioned over and over again, until they finally had to cut me loose. Although I still wasn’t sure why. Was I on bail or some shit like that? It wasn’t my first rodeo, but there was a heaviness to these charges that went way beyond any of the dumb shit I’d gotten myself into in the past.

Mason turned his blinker on and we cruised around a corner, onto a street I’d never been on before. “All right, so she’s there, kid’s not. What happened next?”

“I asked her where the kid was and she started making excuses. Like always. I just…I couldn’t take it. I want this nightmare over with! And yet again, she fuckin’ played me and no one gives a shit.”

Mason flexed his jaw and then looked over at me. “Witnesses came forward and said she threw the first punch. It wasn’t caught on the security cameras, but someone got a different angle on a phone camera.”

I exhaled a huge sigh of relief but it quickly channeled into irritation. I twisted in my seat to glare at Mason. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me that sooner! You’ve had me over here losing my shit for ten minutes!”

Mason stared at me for a beat. “I wanted your side, unfiltered.”

I groaned and raked both of my hands through my hair. “I didn’t hit her. How could you even think that I was capable of that?”

Mason pulled into a parking garage and didn’t answer me until we’d come to a stop. “I didn’t think you hit her, Trey. But I wasn’t sure what happened. The video shows you two screaming at each other, then you take a step closer, you’re towering over her, and then the next thing you know, you two are going for each other like alley cats. Your bodyguard, or whoever that was, jumped in and there’s a whole bunch of people running around and blocking the view of the camera. It’s a clusterfuck.”

“But witnesses said I didn’t hit her?”

A deep wrinkle was etched between Mason’s brows as he stared at me. He was about my age, but looked twenty years older. I figured that was mostly my fault. “A witness caught it on camera. That video has a better angle and shows you restraining Ms. Holmes.”

“Devil woman…”

Mason ground his palms against his eyes. “Listen, Trey, we’re gonna lay low here for a few days.”

“What about practice?”

Mason dropped his hands and stared at me. “There is no practice. You’ve been suspended from the team.”

“What?” My heart shot up into my throat.

“I’m sorry. They don’t want to make it look like they’re giving you a pass on this just because of your star power and what you’ve been able to do for the team so far.”

“So, what then? One week off? Two? What am I looking at here?”

“I’m still working with the management. But, as of right now, there isn’t a time table on it.”

I stared, open mouthed and stunned. Thoughts whizzed around my head, crashing into one another like fireworks blowing to shit in the sky. “What the fuck am I supposed to do?”

Mason shook his head. It was obvious the turn of events was just as shocking to him. “I booked you here,” he said, glancing at the roof. “It’s a little…quieter… Your belongings will be here within the hour. I need you to lay low until the lawyers can sort this out.”

“I want those test results,” I growled, my fists balling into tight knots.

“I know you do. I’m working on it. The lawyers are speaking to the clinic to see if her son was even present. No one knows the whole story right now. Things are moving quick, but it’s a puzzle. That’s why you need to sit tight.”

“Fuck.” I punched the dash of the car. How long was Kimberly going to get away with this shit? What good was it being a superstar if some spoiled, little bitch with an agenda could come along and fuck up my entire life?

* * * *

By the time Mason got me checked in, I was just a notch down from homicidal. He dumped me at the door, told me not to break anything or drink myself into a stupor, and then left to go to his own room a few doors away—something that probably wasn’t a coincidence—to do whatever agents do. Probably make phone calls and get updates on shit. I spent twenty minutes pacing the room, resisting the urge to go full on rockstar and smash the place to pieces.

I grabbed something alcoholic from the mini bar. The hotel was nice enough, but their selection wasn’t exactly top shelf. Whatever. It would take the edge off. That’s all I needed. Bottle in hand, I crossed to the living room, threw myself down and grabbed the remote. The back of my jeans buzzed and I set my drink down, ready to tell whoever was on the other line to ‘fuck off’.

“What the hell do you want?” I growled into the phone. I secretly hoped it was a reporter so I could tear them a new asshole. It’d feel good.

“Trey?”

The soft voice froze my anger, trapping it in a ball, and I immediately felt like the world’s biggest asshole. “Josie?” I asked, dropping my voice.

“Yeah, it’s me. I hope it’s okay that I called…”

I shook my head, stunned by her words. “Of course it is. Where are you?”

“Home.”

I pushed up from the couch and started pacing again, my mini-drink abandoned on the end table beside the couch. “I’m sure you saw the whole fuckin’ mess on TV.”

She hesitated. “Well, at work, actually.”

I winced. “Even better. Damn it. Josie, I—”

“Hey, Trey, I didn’t call to get news or anything. I just wanted to see if you’re okay.”

I stopped walking. Who was this woman? She just witnessed a very nasty scene of me and another woman and yet, instead of asking me a million questions, she just wanted to know how I was holding up?

“Trey? Are you still there?”

“Uhm…yeah…” I paused and rubbed at the back of my neck, unsure of how to answer her question. It was in my nature to want to gloss over it, like every other so-called scandal I’d been messed up in. But there was something nagging at me. Something telling me that she could handle the truth. She could handle the real me.

“Oh, okay. Good. Sometimes my phone is sketchy.”

I chuckled. “Nah, I’m here. I’m all right… I mean… as well as I can be, I guess.”

“You wanna talk? Or do you need some time?”

“You know what I actually need?”

“What?”

“I need to get the hell out of town. You remember when we first met, that day on the tarmac?”

“Sure…”

“I kinda gave you a hard time and asked if you’d give me riding lessons,” I added, not mentioning that I’d been more interested in her riding me.

Josie laughed. “Yeah. I remember. I thought you were a super-douche!”

I laughed, dropping my head down. “To be fair, you were right.”

Josie’s giggle petered off. “It turns out you’re not so bad.”

My heart went still in my chest. Damn, I’d never wanted a woman so bad in my life. And this time, it wasn’t just any damn woman. It was her. Josie. Everything about her. I needed her in my arms. In my bed. I wanted her voice to drown out the ones screaming inside my head. “Any chance you’d be willing to give me those lessons after all? A little country air might be just what I need.”

Josie paused, long enough that I thought she’d hung up. That I’d scared her off. She had every right to turn and run. Hell, most people did after long enough with me. I was a lot to handle.

“I was actually thinking of going to my daddy’s ranch…I’m working on a story and need a few days away from the noise myself.”

My heart kicked back to life and I released a pent up breath I didn’t even realize I was holding. “That sounds fuckin’ amazing.”

She laughed again and I pictured that sweet smile on her beautiful face. Every muscle went taunt. “All right, but don’t be surprised if my daddy comes out to meet you with a damn shotgun.”

“Bring it on, baby.”