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My knee throbbed and my chest felt tight. This was a whole other level of stress. If I didn’t win…
I can kiss my future goodbye.
“I’ll win,” I said firmly. “I will.”
Julia took her hand back, her eyes cast down to the floor. “Excuse me,” she mumbled, making a hasty escape to the bedroom. I watched her go, fighting the urge to follow.
Red was as still as a statue, his jaw clenched and his eyes dark. “If I find out who leaked those pictures…”
“You’ll do absolutely nothing,” Patrick said. “Don’t give me more of a mess to clean up.”
Anger boiled inside me, my heart pounding hard and loud. This was all kinds of fucked up. So what if we were together with Julia? It was nobody’s business but our own. Chewing on the inside of my cheek, I searched my memories. Whoever took those pictures and video got close.Tooclose. I thought if I racked my brain hard enough, I might be able to remember seeing someone suspicious, to recall any hint of a clue to help make sense of all this. None of this was random.
Someone was out to get us.
The only question waswho?
A threatened rival? Gossip magazines hoping to earn a pretty penny from all the salacious gossip? Maybe Leo Holistic’s m anagement was looking for a reason to pull their contract and decided to take things into their own hands?
“My head hurts,” I muttered.
Patrick ran a hand through his salt and pepper hair. “I have to go. Lay low, let this whole thing blow over. Concentrate on what’s important. I’m going to see what I can do to fix this. Don’t talk to the press, don’t go wandering off to have a night out on the town. We have no sweet clue who’s watching.” He stomped off, muttering under his breath, “I don’t get paid enough for this.”
I sat there, too stunned to speak. How had everything gone downhill so quickly? Red and Dylan were both speechless as well, but their concern was clear.
When I heard Julia’s soft sniffling, I got up and made my way to her. As I got closer to the closed bedroom door, I heard her speaking to someone exasperatedly.
“Leonna, I can explain… No, I didn’t—”
I stepped into the room and cleared my throat. “Julia?”
“I have to go, Leonna,” she said, wiping her eyes. “I’ll call you back.” She promptly hung up and started stuffing her bag, doing her best to avoid eye contact. “There’s a motel on the other end of the Strip. I’m going to go check in and stay the night.”
“Don’t go.”
“But Patrick said—”
“I don’t care. I want you to stay. We’ll figure this out.”
She shook her head, her bottom lip trembling. “I should have told you about LHL.”
“That’s not important.”
“Ofcourseit’s important. Your main sponsor dropped you two because of me.”
“Fuck ‘em,” I hissed. “We’ll figure something out. It’s not the end of the world. Hell, I’ll take out a loan if I have to.” I stepped forward and grasped her hands. “Julia, look at me. Take a deep breath and calm down.”
“Calm down?” she cried, incredulous. “Have you seen what they’re saying about you guys online? Aboutme?”
I winced. “It doesn’t matter what they think. We know the truth. What we have is—”
“What?” she challenged. “What do we have, Cash?”
“We have each other. All four of us.”
“I’m not letting you tank your career because of me. Patrick’s right. We need some space.”
Something cold and bitter washed over me, my guts twisting up into impossible knots. “What are you saying, Julia?”
