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“A contact sent me it. Apparently, it’s been popping up all over the place in the last few hours.”
“Shit, if she finds out, it will break her. Hashedone this to her?”
“Looks like an inside job, so I guess yes. I always thought he was a dick.”
Tanner leaped up, pushing his fingers through his hair as he stared at the screen on my phone. “Did he turn Frankie into some fucked up porn movie? What do we do, Matt? How do I protect her if this is already out there?”
“It’s not just you. I’m here to help her, too. I want the best for Frankie. I know someone who can get rid of it, but we need to take care of Jimmy. She won’t believe he could do this to her.”
“That,Ican do. Give me a lift, but I want you to stay outside. Do me a favor, though. Whatever I do for the next month or so, know it’s not me. It’s all for her.”
“Whatever you need, Tanner.”
“Drive me and then do what you need to do to erase it all. I won’t have that sick fucker ruin my baby sister.”
I drove Tanner to Jimmy’s house, knowing he was there because Neo had dropped him there before taking Frankie back to the hotel. Tanner kicked in the front door, storming inside. I called Thomas Lanton and asked him to remove everything he could find so we could keep this under wraps.
After fifteen minutes Tanner still hadn’t come out, so I searched him out, finding him in the kitchen, covered in blood, his knuckles swollen and cut and Jimmy laid out on the floor, his face a battered mess. When we searched the house, we found twenty-eight cameras hidden around the place, all of which he’d used to film Frankie in her most intimate moments and turned into a fucked up video he was selling to anyone who wanted it. We called an ambulance anonymously before we left, dumping his unconscious body in the doorway, for them to find, like the trash he was.
“Are you going to tell her?” I asked Tanner as we drove back to the penthouse.
“No. Never. And you’re not either. She’ll find out I attacked him, but why stays between us. She can’t ever find out what he did to her. It would break her. Understand?” he stressed.
“Understood,” I replied, trying to steady my voice as I white knuckled the steering wheel, wishing Tanner would have let me get my hands on the sick, twisted fucker, so I could have shown him what I thought about him selling Frankie out like that.
Thomas promised he would remove all traces of the videos as well as upload a computer virus I’d never heard of, which would destroy the hard drives of anyone who had bought or watched it.
Three hours later, Frankie received the call to tell her that Jimmy was in a coma after being attacked.
Twelve hours later, the police found Tanner’s DNA on Jimmy and arrested him.
Eighteen hours later, Phil, Tanner’s almost-dad, had him released without charge.
Twenty-four hours later, a broken Frankie appeared, slapping Tanner hard across the face, declaring she hated him and never wanted to speak to him again.
Five days later, Jimmy woke from his coma and vanished, leaving Frankie without a word.
And I had to watch it all from a distance, letting Tanner take the fall, not able to tell her what that fucker had done to her.
Chapter 8
Frankie - 12 months later
Tannerhadgotwastedagain. I mean, it was nothing new. Tanner was drunk or high most of the time these days, but last night he made a tit of himself on stage. We were only a few weeks into a huge tour, about to head off across Europe and then America, but Tanner ended up on stage slurring his words, forgetting what song was next on our set list, and generally making us look like amateurs.
I didn’t know when it had happened, but none of this was fun anymore. Stepping on stage felt like a chore, and I was close to quitting most days. I wanted to write music. I wanted a quiet life. I wanted to get my brother’s back, but we were so fractured, and Tanner’s behavior just added fuel to the fire of my unhappiness, reducing our Cosmic God dreams to ashes.
We’d had a huge fight, and he’d stormed off armed with a bottle of Jack Daniels and two groupies he’d pulled from the crowd, along with whatever drugs he’d organized to be delivered to his suite.It really was possible to have anything delivered these days.
And now here we were, standing around his hospital bed, staring at our big brother—because that’s how we all saw him, even though he wasn’t ours by birth—attached to monitors, a drip pumping him full of who knows what. Pale, sweaty, and fragile.
“An overdose, Tan. We could have lost you.” Addi was berating him for nearly killing himself last night. He claimed it was an accident, but no matter why it happened, it did happen. He nearly died. He was an addict, and his behavior was affecting us all.
“Give me six months sober. If you don’t, I’m done. Frankie and the twins, they’re done, too. You can try to do this on your own, Tanner, but I don’t think you could hack it. You need them to help you be the front man you are. I won’t watch you ruin what we have or let you fade into obscurity because you’re off your face all the time. But most of all, I won’t watch you kill yourself.”
I hated Tanner. I’d hated him for so long, I couldn’t remember a time that I didn’t hate him. Him attacking Jimmy broke my heart. But he was my brother, and I didn’t want to lose him.
“Please, Tanner. Do this for us? Seeing you last night was scary as hell. We thought you were going to die.”
