by Marie Powell
“But nothing happened!” Ash blurted. “I barely touched her, I didn’t —”
“You didn’t?” Iza demanded. “But I thought —”
“He’s messing about with us, Iza. He always has been. You never slept with him. Or anyone else,” Lucy assured her.
“Really?” Iza looked so relieved that Lucy felt her heart break a little bit for her friend.
“Really. Just like Ash is really going to delete his little video and leave us alone. Right, Ash?” Lucy shot him a hard look.
He looked like he wanted to punch her in the face, but instead he reached down and tapped at his phone, bringing up a prompt that read Are you sure you want to delete this video?
He slammed his finger down on YES.
“Satisfied?” he snarled. “Let’s just forget this ever happened, shall we?”
“Maybe,” Lucy replied. “We’ll see.”
“You’ll be sorry, Lucy Gosling,” he said, his voice suddenly icy calm. “You could have just been nice to me, and things would have been so different. But now … now you’ll be sorry.”
With that he was gone.
“Lucy, what if he —” Iza began, her sudden burst of aggression fading into anxiety.
“He won’t,” Lucy said, quite sure of herself for some reason. “He’s the one with something to hide, not us. And he may not have actually done anything we can get him arrested for, but we can still get him fired. That’ll be highly satisfying, don’t you think?”
But Iza looked as though she was on the verge of bursting into tears.
Lucy started back toward the volleyball courts, tugging Iza along. “Cheer up,” Lucy told her. “Your virtue is reserved for a certain sweet violinist at a much, much later date.”
“I don’t think he’s going to be interested in that,” Iza said, sighing.
“Well, if that’s true, it’ll be his loss,” Lucy said, slinging her arm through Iza’s as they walked. “Because you, my friend, are both gorgeous and an amazing Hollywood-jerk-slayer of the first order.”
“I was pretty fierce with Ash there, wasn’t I?” Iza said, almost managing a real smile.
“Without a doubt,” Lucy agreed.
That’s when they heard the screams.
15. Terrifying Things
Lucy was at a full sprint with Iza just on her heels when they crested a dune to find Harper and Toni crouched over Robyn, who was lying crumpled in the sand.
She was so still. Was she dead?
“Clear out,” Skye urged Harper and Toni. “I learned CPR last summer.”
“Come on,” Lucy said, hurrying over to drag Toni and Harper away. “Let her in.”
Skye reached down and felt Robyn’s neck for a pulse.
“Her heart’s beating. But she’s barely breathing. Her pupils are fixed … Lucy —”
“I’m already dialing 999.”
“It’s 911,” Harper said. “911! We’re in America, remember?”
Lucy stopped dialing and started again, fingers shaking.
“Hello? Yes, I have an emergency. My friend has collapsed. Venice Beach. At the volleyball courts.”
It felt like hours before the blare of sirens burst through the chatter of the beachgoers who had clustered around them, offering advice and talking nervously among themselves.
“What did she take?” the taller of the two medics demanded.
“Take?” Rafe said, shooting Skye a warning look. “She hasn’t taken anything.”
He was lying, of course. Bastard. Lucy shook her head. “She’s taken something.”
“Lucy,” Rafe cut in.
“Shut up, Rafe,” Lucy snapped. Then she turned back to the paramedic. “We’re not sure what it is exactly, but she’s been taking something to lose weight. But she may not have taken it for the last day or two. The person who was giving her the pills was arrested recently.”
“Thank you for being honest,” said the shorter paramedic. “We can’t treat her if we don’t know what we’re facing.”
“Withdrawal,” the taller one said, slipping an oxygen mask over Robyn’s face. “Her pulse is racing.”
“I don’t think she’s eaten much either,” Iza said. “We’ve been trying to get her to eat but …”
“Anorexic?” the shorter medic asked.
“Bulimic,” Skye said.
“The perfect storm,” the taller one grumbled.
Robyn moaned on the stretcher.
“There she is,” the shorter one said. “Can you hear me, honey? I need you to nod if you can hear me.”
Robyn nodded blearily, squinting her eyes against the sun. Lucy sagged in relief.
“Okay,” the taller paramedic said. “We’re okay. We’re going to get her to UCLA Medical Center. Do you know how to get there?”
“I do,” Skye said.
“Good,” the medic said. “Go straight to the ER and ask for your friend. They’ll help you find her.”
Then they bundled Robyn away and were gone, sirens roaring up the beach road and out of sight.
The girls just stood there for a moment, stunned.
“I’ll drive,” Skye said. “It’ll be a squeeze but we can take the SUV and leave my car here.”
“I’ll take yours,” Rafe said. “That way there’ll be no need to come get it later.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Toni said. “You’ve been drinking, Rafe.”
“I’m fine,” Rafe insisted. “Skye, you take Iza, Toni and Lucy in the SUV. Harper, you come with me.”
“Whatever, Rafe,” Skye said. “We don’t have time to argue. We’ll see you there.”
Lucy’s eyes darted to Harper’s face. Please, Lucy prayed silently. Not now, Harper. Please tell him to stop being such an unbelievable ass and get in the SUV with the rest of us.
But the look of stunned joy on Harper’s face told Lucy all she needed to know. Harper wasn’t seeing Rafe as he was — belligerent and bleary with drink — she was seeing Rafe as she wanted him to be: the tall, handsome athlete who’d swept her off her feet two years before.
Lucy opened her mouth to protest when Skye tossed Rafe her keys and turned to Lucy. “Come on. Robyn needs us.”
Lucy watched Skye walk toward the SUV, completely abandoning her designer beach bag and the bundle of towels Lucy swore had Hermès logos on them. Just as she was abandoning her boyfriend. This was not the girl she thought Skye Owen was, Lucy considered, but perhaps she had been altogether wrong about Skye.
“Come on, Harp,” Rafe said, pulling Harper in the other direction.
“No,” Lucy replied, reaching out to grab Harper’s hand and holding on. “Harper should come with us.”
“It’s not your choice, is it?” Rafe shot back. “I need to talk to Harper about something privately. So you just run along and we’ll see you at the hospital.”
“Harper,” Lucy said, turning to her friend. “Come with us. Please. He’s had too much to drink.”
“It’ll be fine, Luce,” Harper said, squeezing Lucy’s hand without even bothering to turn away from Rafe and look at her. “I’ll see you at the hospital.”
“Harper —” Lucy began, but Rafe cut her off.
“She said she’d see you at the hospital, right? So leave her alone.”
“Harper,” Lucy insisted, ignoring him. “Please don’t go with him. Not now. I can’t handle this without you. Together we can do anything, remember? But we have to stay together.”
“You’re right, Luce,” Harper said. “And we’ll be together at the hospital in, like, thirty minutes. I’m just getting a lift with Rafe, that’s all.”
Then she let go of Lucy’s hand.
16. I Bad Choices
Harper tried not to be too obvious about hanging on to the door handle as Rafe wove through traffic on the Pacific
Coast Highway. He was going so fast. Too fast. Maybe the others had been right about Rafe driving.
“Babe,” she said, as he shot through a yellow light. “Do you want me to drive? I’m totally fine. I haven’t had anything but that mojito at Skye’s …”
“Don’t worry so much, sexy,” Rafe said, shooting her a quick grin. “I’m cool. But if I’m making you nervous, I’ll slow down.”
He did, too. Harper smiled, relaxing against the seat. The others didn’t see it, but she knew him. She knew the real Rafe.
“Harper,” he began as they slowed to the inevitable crawling speed of the coastal highway traffic, “this whole thing today with Robyn … It’s made me think.”
“Think about what?” Harper said, twisting in her seat to face him.
“It made me think that life’s too short to worry about what my father thinks,” Rafe said, reaching out to squeeze her knee. “I was planning to tell you something completely different before. I was going to tell you that Skye was a better fit for me. That I love her and we have the same goals and all that noise. But that would have been a lie, Harper. She isn’t what I want. She’s what Sir Peter the Great wants. He thinks she’ll be the making of me, but the person she’s going to make me …”
“Is not who you want to be?” Harper breathed, her heart thudding in her ears.
“Exactly,” Rafe said, inching the car along with the traffic. “I don’t want to be just my dad’s heir apparent. I want to be me. And you … you’re the only girl who’s ever made me feel like me. Like Rafe. You know?”
“I know,” Harper said. She felt light-headed. She’d always thought being dizzy with happiness was just a saying, but now she knew it wasn’t.
“So I’ve decided. I don’t care what he wants. I want to be with you.”
“That’s all I’ve ever wanted, Rafe,” Harper said.
“I should never have broken up with you,” he said. “I love you, Harper. You know that, right?”
“I do now,” Harper said. It was really happening. Finally. She’d done it. She’d made Rafe love her again. “I love you, too.”
“Of course, now I have to deal with Skye,” Rafe said.
“I guess you do,” Harper said. “I doubt she’ll mind much; she does nothing but network and talk about business anyway.”
“She’s been cheating on me with someone, too,” Rafe said. “I know that. Maybe it’s Ash. Actually, you know what?” he said. “I’m not going to deal with Skye. If Dad wants her in our lives so much, he can play all nicey with her. I’m going to get my car from Skye’s place and we’re going to Santa Barbara for a few days. We’ll just hide out until the dust settles.”
“Rafe, I don’t know. I need to go check on Robyn,” Harper said, forcing herself not to shriek when he swerved across two lanes of traffic and screeched into a U-turn with only seconds to spare before oncoming traffic caught up with them.
“That’s what cell phones are for,” Rafe said, pulling into traffic going in the other direction. “Please, Harper. I need to get away and I want to get away with you.”
Harper didn’t want to go. She knew Lucy needed her, maybe Robyn, too. But she’d waited so long to have Rafe back … Could she really say no to him now?
“Come on, Harp,” he pleaded again. “I need you.”
She couldn’t say no.
“Okay,” she said, letting an enormous smile burst through. “Let’s do it!”
“Wicked!” Rafe grinned back at her.
Then he gunned the engine and swerved through the traffic ahead of them.
Cesar was in a hurry. Once he’d finished the pruning and mowed the lawn, he’d be done with the garden and he’d have the whole afternoon to write. He was almost finished with his new screenplay. He hadn’t wanted to write the exuberant gore fest, but reading it over last night he’d known that Skye had been right to push him on it. It was one of the best things he’d ever written.
They’d release it on Halloween, he thought, letting himself daydream a bit as he clipped back the bougainvillea around the driveway. Skye would be with him at the premiere, of course. She’d wear a slinky silver dress, her hair all free and loose down her back and maybe the funny little plastic spider earrings he’d found in a charity shop for her last year that she’d worn at least once a week until Christmas.
The future was so close he could taste it.
A smile spread across his face when he heard the roar of a familiar engine. Skye’s car. She was back. Had she actually had the guts to blow Rafe off at the beach and leave him to his blonde so that she could come home to him?
Cesar stepped into the driveway, looking up at the private road.
Maybe it would have been different if he hadn’t been imagining her coming around the curve, her face brightening the way it always did when she first saw him, like a flower blooming at dawn. Maybe then he would have realized that whoever was driving Skye’s car was coming in the wrong way around the driveway, and moving too fast to stop. Maybe then he could have moved out of the way.
Maybe.
Harper wasn’t sure she could breathe. Rafe took the twisting road like a roller coaster. Hurtling downward as though, if he drove fast enough, he could spin the earth backward, reverse time and change what had happened in Skye’s driveway.
She hadn’t even seen it, the moment the car connected with the gardener’s body. But she’d heard it. Harper couldn’t stop hearing it, in fact. That awful, dull squishy sound of car meeting flesh. She thought she’d never stop hearing it.
She fumbled in her bag for her phone, yanked it free and swiped the screen to life. Then she started to dial 911. Or at least, she tried to. Her hands were almost shaking too hard to hit the buttons.
Rafe reached out blindly and knocked the phone from her hand.
“No, Harper,” he cried. “We can’t.”
“We have to!” Harper sobbed, finally finding her voice. “We have to call someone and we have to go back. He was hurt, Rafe. Oh God, he was so hurt.”
“He’s not hurt.”
“Yes, he was!” Harper cried. “He was lying on the ground. He wasn’t moving. Please, Rafe, we have to go back.”
“He wasn’t hurt,” Rafe said grimly. “He was dead. There’s nothing we can do for him now.”
“We have to try, Rafe,” she said.
There were tears running down Rafe’s face. “If we go back, Harp, this will ruin my life. They’ll send me to jail. For a long, long time. I’m Sir Peter Hanswell’s son. They love to make an example of celebrities’ kids.”
“We might be able to save him,” Harper cried. “Then it wouldn’t be so terrible. It was just an accident, Rafe.”
“They won’t see it that way,” he said. “Please, Harper, please. You have to help me. If you love me, you’ll help me.”
She thought she was going to throw up. She couldn’t do this. She’d loved Rafe Jackson so long, but she couldn’t do this for him. She couldn’t let that boy die for Rafe.
But she couldn’t destroy Rafe either.
“Let’s stop at the gas station on the corner. They have a phone, I think. I’ll call 911 from there. That way, if he’s alive, they’ll help him, but they won’t have to know it was you.”
Rafe took a deep breath and nodded, swinging around the last corner and coasting down the hill.
The flashing cameras and clashing voices of the paparazzi blinded and deafened Lucy. Skye’s hand, dragging her through the crowd, was her only guide.
“No comment!” Skye said firmly. “Please, just let us through. Catch-22 will release an official statement when there’s something to say.”
“GET OUT OF OUR WAY!” Toni bellowed, finally clearing a path through the writhing mass of reporters.
Someone at the beach must have recognized Crush. That was the only way this crowd of vultures could have been waitin
g when they’d arrived.
“I’ll go track down the admin nurse and find out where Robyn is,” Skye said, yanking her phone from her purse. “Lucy, call Jason and Alexander. We need them here, like, yesterday.”
“Ladies, are you here for Robyn Miller?” The doctor was no taller than Lucy, and didn’t look much older, but there was something about her simple black ponytail and rolled-up scrubs that made Lucy feel certain she had everything well in hand.
“Yes, we’re her bandmates,” Lucy said, stepping forward. “I’m Lucy Gosling.”
“I know, I’m a big fan of Project Next. My name is Dr. Rashid,” the young woman said, holding out her hand to shake. “And your friend is going to be just fine.”
“Thank goodness,” Iza cried. “What happened to her? What made her collapse that way?”
“She’s very lucky that you ladies got her here so fast, and that whoever did CPR and took care of her before the ambulance arrived clearly knew what they were doing,” the doctor continued. “She’s dehydrated and malnourished, and suffering from severe withdrawal syptoms. She isn’t sure what she’s been taking, but we’re running tests now.”
“I hope they lock Tomas up and throw away the key,” Toni muttered.
“Thank you so much, Dr. Rashid,” Lucy said. “We had no idea she was in such a bad way.”
The young doctor studied them for a moment, and then nodded. “I believe you. It’s at our discretion whether this becomes a police matter. I’m going to hold off for now. I will, however, need someone who isn’t a minor to sign some paperwork. I’m also going to need to speak to her parents to be sure that they’ll continue a treatment plan. This is going to be a long, hard road.”
“Skye is calling our manager,” said Lucy.
“Good,” Dr. Rashid said. “Robyn needs to rest for a while, but I’ll get you girls in to see her as soon as I can.”
“Thank you so much,” Iza said, wiping away the tears of relief that had gathered in her eyes.
Harper tumbled into the waiting area just as the doctor turned and walked back into the emergency room.