“Fuck, what do I do?”
“We’ve got Chase covered, and Devin left yesterday for a week-long road trip, but we’ll let him and the team know just to be safe.” He goes to the desk and starts picking up my things. “I’m sending your mom and sister to a safe house. You are getting on an earlier flight and Chase will meet you in New York as planned. They won’t be able to follow you through all that security and donotleave the airports without Chase or an escort. I’ll get Cynthia to rebook all your hotels while you’re in the air. Don’t go home, go straight to the airport. Okay?”
“The school’s new secretary knows something, Mr. Mills. She looks familiar. She stole the drive with my evidence against Miley. No one knew about that but me.”
“I’ll check her out. For now, we need to get you out of here. Luis poses a serious threat, and if he’s set this in motion, it may draw out the stalker as well and force her hand.”
“My bags… my passport… We weren’t supposed to leave until tomorrow.”
“Breathe, Ren. I’ll have someone pick up your things and it will be at the airport before your flight takes off.” He stares at me, and I swear there’s pity in his eyes. “The press already has the pictures Miley tried to blackmail you with. Cynthia caught some of them, but sent me here to get you the hell out of here before it all blows up.”
Mills walks me out to my car, the vultures already circling across the street. As I climb into the car, a numbness takes over. I put the key in the ignition and whisper, “If you don’t start, I swear to the baby Jesus, I will light you on fire right here in this godforsaken parking lot, you piece of shit.” It turns over on the first try. It hasn’t done that in weeks.
“Renate, be careful. I’ll text you once I have your mother and sister. I’ll keep them safe and we’ll figure this out.” He slips me a card and I tuck it into my purse without looking at it.
He doesn’t promise me everything will work out, which I appreciate. They make promises like that on Dani’s crime shows—they promise they’ll find the guy who did it, and the case goes cold. They promise to keep someone safe, but the bad guys get to them, anyway.
“Be careful, Mills,” I say as I back out of my spot and head for the gate. Some reporters have to jump out of the way as I pull out of the lot and onto the street a little too fast. A few of them run for their cars to follow me, but I don’t need a map for these streets, and in a few blocks, I duck into a public parking garage. I watch, but no one follows me, so I find a spot and pull my phone back out, dialing Dani.
“Rene, where the fuck are you? What the fuck happened?!”
I can hear my mother yelling in Spanish in the background about her language and the men on our lawn. I hope Dani has kept this from her. Everything I said couldn’t happen has happened. Luis, Lawson, Miley, there’s just too many of them.
“I’ll tell you later, Dani. Get some things packed for you and mom.”
“Fuck, are we going to Chase’s? I’m supposed to move into my new place this weekend.”
“No. Mills has somewhere else he’s taking you for a few days.”
“What about you? What about Chase?”
Her words sound like they’re a million miles away. Luis. Miley. These are all my problems, not Chase’s. I even blame myself for Lawson. The card from Mills falls out of my purse. I pick it up and see writing on the back.
“I’ll call you back, Dani. Just do what I said.” I say flatly before hanging up.
I send a text, and I drive away. Away from the city. Away from my family. Away from the man I love.
* * *
I’ve stopped twice, each time to buy a phone from a gas station and switch out my SIM card. Being a tech girl has its advantages when you’re running away from someone. When I get to the house, I dig the key out from under a rock, where it’s always been. I toss my things on the couch, not that I have much, then take my latest burner phone and go into the bathroom. I sit in the dry tub with the lights off. It’s cold and silent, but it’s not dark because the light from the screen blinds me as I read everything Luis leaked to the press. Every lie, every truth, all muddled together to paint me into some kind of sick monster, feeding the students lies to recruit for the local gangs. Selling drugs on campus. Parents are at the school being interviewed by the press, saying they’re shocked that the school board would hire agroomerand anaddictlike me. Every word twists the knife in my stomach.
I’m not sure who I’m more mad at for ruining my life. My abuser. My boss. The movie producer. Or myself. I wanted to move on, to be loved. Instead, I’ve ruined not only my life, but the life of the man who loved me.
I turn off the phone, pull out the sim card, and crush it. I cry myself to sleep in the tub, apologizing to Chase over and over again as I do.
CHAPTER36
SOMETHING
JIM STURGESS
I’m beamingwhen I unhook the harness after the take. We fucking nailed that stunt. Johnny, my stunt guy, grabs me and lifts me into the air in a hug. Without his help, I wouldn’t have been able to pull that shit off and I’m sure Cyn will appreciate that I survived.
“Coop, come over here and see how that came out,” one of the PA’s calls out and Johnny and I walk over to him, Johnny’s arm still over my shoulder. We’re watching the monitor, pointing out things they’ll add in post and laughing about how everything looks. It’s going to look incredible, and I can’t wait for people to watch this in theaters.
More specifically, I can’t wait for Ren to see this. I wish I could thank her for giving me back the confidence I needed. As I watch the clip, my thumb slides over the small sunflower tattoo on my wrist.
The stab in my gut from thinking about her just about has me doubled over and I have to play it off around my colleagues since none of them knows what’s going on. To the public eye, we broke up months ago, right after Luis’s photos went viral. The press were brutal as hell to her, and so were some of my fans. I left the internet behind, and Cyn staged photos of me with another woman. A few days later, they found someone more interesting to follow.
