“I had to teach her a lesson for using me the way you did,” he says quietly. Sweat is starting to form at his temples. “First, you took from me, then she did. But Roman, that bastard took both of you from me, and now it’s my turn to take from him. You getting back with him was not part of my Goddamn plan. Then I thought about it and realized things couldn’t work out any better for me. Except, every time I thought about him touching you, it made me want to say fuck it all and hunt you down. Him getting arrested and you becoming his lawyer made it so easy for me to return. Combine all that with Gwen and her obsession with worrying about her reputation, and it all fell right into my lap.”
I might be weak from the blows to my head and the sweat covering every inch of my body, yet I stare at him with my eyes wide open in disbelief. He used her; she had nothing to do with this at all. I’ll bet my life, the life he wants to take from me, he’s been blackmailing her all along. God, this is a typical case of Hollywood extortion with a darkened twist.
I will not let this man overtake the strength I know I have to put an end to this. I’m too good. Worked too damn hard to get where I am. I’ll go down before I do a damn thing he asks me to.
“I’m not calling him. We can sit in this car until we bake to death before I’ll do anything you ask. Your blackmail won’t end here. You’ll demand more and more, or is your plan weakening by the second? You know I won’t do what you say, just as much as I know you don’t have the balls to kill me yourself, so you're going to let us die in here together. That’s your plan, isn’t it?”
I follow his restless glance toward the dash. The temperature in the car is a hundred and twenty degrees.
“You leave me no other choice. I may care about you. Not more than I care about the money. I need it to get out of here.”
I twist my head around when he lifts up on my neck. I can’t even cry. My body is trying to hold in every drop of water it can. I wish I knew where we are. Surely, we can’t be that far. It’s only been a few hours.
His confessions are lodged in my hazy brain. I take my time pondering my response to him. All kinds of scenes are pushing through my mind. Is Grim alright? If he is, did he notify the police and get a hold of the security cameras? Have they talked to Gwen? Is she telling them everything they need to know? And Roman, my God, he has to be going out of his mind with worry.
I’m trying to recall if I had my briefcase in my hand still when he took me, but I’m suffocating and can’t remember.
I need to push this asshole as far as I can in hopes he’ll become angry and climb off me so I can somehow open the door. He’s desperate, and so am I. Desperate times call for even more desperate measures. He may have been blackmailing her, but it’s only been a few weeks since Roman and I being back together was made public. I don’t think he’s thoroughly thought this through.
“You won’t even know you’re dying. You’ll pass out first. Not before I send these pictures to the hungry paparazzi, though, who I’m sure would love to destroy Roman’s perfect image. I will expose the naked pictures I have of Gwen. The ones with bruises all over her body. I will make him out to be an abusive husband. They will have a field day with all of this. The girl he’s loved since he was a kid dies in the car with an ex-lover. How scandalous this will all be.”
“They are coming for you. If you think for one second he’s going to give anything to you, you are a bigger asshole than I imagined. And trust me, the second you took a step toward me, I knew something was wrong. I have the power, the sources, and as you so kindly reminded me, money to find you. I’m driven, remember? I’m not going to die in here with you. They’ll find me first,” I scream. His hand flies up and cracks me across the face. My head spins, my eyes grow blurry, and my nose starts to bleed.
“I never loved you. I used you in the same way you did Gwen. I needed someone, and you happened to be there. You’ll never have me. Not even after death, Logan. You’re filth. A sick man who needs help. I can get you help, Logan. Let me, please.”
I’m gasping now. My breath is weakening. I blink to try and stay alert. I breathe in, but there’s no air. My lungs feel like they are being squeezed with a band that won’t let up. My limbs, brain, and internal organs are diminishing.
“Please, Logan. Don’t let it end this way,” I puff out as my eyes float closed. There’s no more air in the looming darkness that surrounds me. The lack of oxygen is confusing my mind. I feel myself suck in another breath, burning my lungs and coating my dry throat with a fierceness that makes me realize I’m going to die before someone finds me.
Something wet leaks from my eyes. Through the cloudy veil surrounding my brain, I can barely make sense of any of this. Why someone would want to die this way. Why a man who I thought cared would sit here and watch me die. It’s a sickening feeling I’m taking to my death the deeper I fall into it.
I’m not sure if my heart stops before I heave out one final sigh. There’s no more love, fear, worry, or guilt on my chest.
Every feeling I’ve carried around for years has faded into the blackness.
Chapter 22
Roman
The morning light edges in through the window. These past few weeks have been a struggle, to say the least. It’s not easy watching your woman suffer through the agony of partly blaming herself for all of this and not be able to do a thing to help her.
For days after bringing her home from the hospital, I’ve been watching her sleep, waiting for her to wake up, and when she did, all she would do is stare off into space. Become stuck in her head. I gave her what she needed until I could no longer allow her to beat herself up.
At the moment, I’m lying on my back, and she’s draped across my chest with half of her body spread across mine and her eyes trained on our railcar.
I bolted out of my chair when the detective rushed in to tell me they had found her behind a hotel. Lying face first on the ground with her legs and arms tied together. Skin raw and red. He left her out there to die in the scorching California sun while the coward he is took off.
At the time, I didn’t care about Logan’s whereabouts. All I cared about was getting to her when the detective said she had been taken to the hospital.
Didn’t know they had tracked them down through her phone. By the time they had found her, she was on the verge of suffering from heat stroke. Her face was blotchy, her skin dry and red, and her mind lost the ability to keep her alert.
Logan was run down trying to get on the highway. Stupid fucker has no idea how lucky he is the police held me back from going after him. He would be dead instead of sitting in a jail cell waiting for his trial if I had found him.
Thanks to Gwen and his confession to Joslyn, the man doesn’t have a chance in hell of getting off from all the charges against him.
Don’t think it will be easy for Joslyn to sit in the witness stand and relive her ordeal while he sits across from her. I told her as much when she brought it up; also reminded her that we love each other and with love comes a slew of other emotions. One of them strength.
It’s been a few weeks since Joslyn was taken. She’s healed on the outside; it’s her suffering once again on the inside that has her depressed. This time, though, she chose to work through it by talking it out with me.
She cared about the guy. Thought they were friends. And to find out he was the master manipulator behind all of this was enough to make her crack.
The day I brought her home from the hospital, she lost it on me. Bawled until she fell asleep in my arms and told me everything from the day she met him to the moment in his car when she thought she was going to die.
“You should get ready. We have to leave for the courthouse in a few hours.” I stroke her blond locks away from her face, take in her expression if only to ease my mind.
She’s giving the district attorney her deposition today. Of course, Joslyn isn’t worried about it at all. It’s me who's having a hard time with it.
“I have a few more minutes. I’m comfort
able.” She smirks.
“Ah, admitting my bed is better than yours, then. Knew you were bullshitting me.”
“No, it’s really not. Any bed with you in it is comfortable.” I couldn’t agree with her more.
I kiss the top of her head; silence lingers a few more minutes until she climbs out and sways her hips on purpose before spinning around to give me a look, asking me to join her before she flips on the light and closes the door.
I’ll give her a few minutes before I gladly accept.
Need a minute or two more to pull my shit together before I get ready. To ease my mind about all I’ve learned throughout this entire ordeal that’s plagued our lives, and to calm my shit down before we have to push our way through the media, which we all still refuse to talk to. Even Gwen has kept to herself. Not by choice, I’m sure.
* * *
I was as naïve as the next man when I moved out here. It took me a while to get used to the certain indignities that come with being in the spotlight constantly. The dark side of the media was the one I never got used to.
But there’s a darker side to being in the public eye that the world seldom sees, a flank the stars, their families, and friends never get accustomed to. Being blackmailed.
Of course, I’ve heard bits and pieces about different people being blackmailed for money for photos of their promiscuous indiscretions. Photos of their kids doing something they shouldn’t be doing. Sexual harassment. The list is endless.
Can’t say I blame them for the route some decide to take to keep their secrets hidden. Some pay them off, others turn them in to the police, and few take the chance of being exposed. It’s a dead-end street no matter what way you decide to go.
It’s a hidden corruption many don’t talk about. There’s a lot of dirty shit covered up in Hollywood. It’s a crime syndicate all on its own. Something I never thought would involve me. Hell, I never thought about it at all.
Sometimes, though, things can get downright ugly. It’s that form of greed that exists, not only here but everywhere. You get one taste, and you crave more.
That’s part of what happened in our case.
A once outstanding man who took one blow to his dream and ended up not pushing himself harder to fulfill it. What it did do is trigger the process to push him over the edge of insanity. To drive him to do things out of his normal character.
At least, that’s what I’m hearing from the few people who knew Logan Williams before he became the man out to ruin my woman.
Caroline and Travis, to name a few.
What they fail to see is, I don’t give a fuck who the man was before he did this. I don’t care about him at all. I want him to not only pay for hurting Joslyn, and not moving on with his life after she broke it off with him, but for the extortion he pulled on Gwen. The crazy fuck blackmailed her to be the one personally dealing with paying people off and doing all his dirty work to save his ass just in case it all went south.
The only part of this she didn’t have a thing to do with was the attack on us outside of Joslyn’s office. That was all Logan’s doing. Everything else he forced her to be the front person in his scheme to try to ruin reputations because he had ruined his himself by buying himself in with crooked lawyers. Don’t really know the whole story with that one. All I know for sure is, the lawyers he worked with weren’t really lawyers at all.
One of them was Gwen’s, as I learned when she came to my house and shook me to my center. This being the main reason why my prenup was never filed.
This is also how Logan first learned she was my wife, and when he was dumped by Joslyn, found out about our past and went after Gwen.
In any other given circumstances, I would have been hurt and pissed all the way to hell my wife cheated on me. I’m not; we would have divorced regardless by the way she acted toward me, plus her cheating ways.
She used me for my money, and as far as I’m concerned, once this is over, I never want to see her again.
I might not like the woman, but I feel sorry for what she’s going to have to live with for the rest of her life. Especially when she ran scared instead of coming to me when she knew I would have put an end to this.
All of this explains why Gwen did the things she did. And if her precious reputation is ruined over it, that’s all on her. My focus is on the woman who is now waiting me to join her.
I knife out of bed. My cock is hard already when I watch her for a few precious minutes before I make my way to her. Wrapping my arms around her from the back and resting them on her stomach.
“I love you. Our someday starts today.”
Our lives are finally heading in the right direction.
Epilogue
Epilogue-
Six months later
Joslyn
“I sit on the couch with tears in my eyes, staring at my finger while holding my Christmas gift from Alex. The Christmas tree is lit. My stomach is protruding even more after stuffing it full with dinner, and Roman and Alex are waiting for me to open it before they start playing Mario Brothers on the Nintendo we bought Alex for Christmas. It was the only thing he said he wanted besides spending the day with me.
Before Roman and I went to the airport to pick up Alex a few days ago, he asked me to step outside so he could show me something. I assumed he was done hanging up the pictures he wanted to put on the walls in the railcar. He had several of us together, some of me by myself, and one Alex had sent to us from his time in Australia.
To my surprise, the minute I walked out and stood a foot or so in front of him, he went down on one knee right in front of the bar, the pictures displayed behind him. I stood still. Placed my hands on what was a flat stomach four months ago. The now small bump is growing more every day, and I cried when he sang Unforgettable to me while holding a black velvet box in his hand.
He then proceeded to ask me to marry him. Of course, I said yes.
I had dreamt about the day he would ask me since I was a little girl.
Finding out I was pregnant the day I woke up in the hospital was a shock to both Roman and me. We never really talked about using any form of birth control the first few times we had sex.
I knew he wouldn’t have unprotected sex with me if he wasn’t sure he was safe. The same went for me. We were too tangled up in each other. Both of us knew deep down we would be together forever and head in the right direction as soon as our someday arrived.
After the initial shock wore off, he made the joke of reminding me he told me to get on the pill before I came to see him.
It’s been nothing but pure heaven living with him since. Unless I want to count all the times we go to the doctor, where Roman drives us all crazy with his constant questions, or the time he demanded Grim was going to be my full-time bodyguard.
I argued with him about that one until Grim stepped in and told me it was about time I realized I was part of the family like everyone else. And even though he loved being on the road, it made him happier knowing that when the time comes for them to tour, he would much rather know I was safe. Especially after I deliver the baby.
It didn’t matter to either one of them that the paparazzi don’t come close to me anymore. They simply snap my pictures, paste them on the cover of the magazine, and talk about how happy we are.
It took several months for me to truly be happy. Logan broke my heart in every way possible.
On the day I was set to give my deposition, Roman and I showed up at the courthouse only to run into Gwen. I stood in the middle of the room instantly going on high alert. Just like Roman, I felt sorry for what she had to endure, but I’ll never forgive her for what she put him through. Never mind what she did to me.
I flew into action, asking why she was here and what in the hell was going on. Only to be told a plea bargain had been laid on the table, and being that I was friends with the district attorney and several of the lawyers who worked in his office, they wanted to discuss it with me first. They felt it was only fair to include Gwen in the d
iscussion.
Against Roman’s angry attitude and advice, I agreed and then proceeded to cry all the way home. I wanted him to rot forever for what he did. Instead, I realized he must have been paying attention in law school after all. He knew there wasn’t a chance he would walk away without spending most of his adult life behind bars. He changed his mind. Pled guilty and bargained to reduced his sentencing.
Of course, I could have said no. Put all of us through a long and lengthy trial. I chose not to because I wanted my someday to begin, and it did. And every day since then has brought some kind of joy to our lives.
“This is the best Christmas I’ve ever had. I know right where I want to put this picture.” I lift up the photo, turn it to face them, and we all laugh.
“I couldn’t resist it when I saw it on the front page of the magazine yesterday,” Alex says, as both he and Roman move from their spots on the floor to sit next to me.
“Well, I can honestly say it’s the best picture the media has taken of me.”
I flip it back over, place it on my lap, and grab Roman’s hand while leaning my head on my baby brother’s shoulder.
Tears well in my eyes as I lovingly stare down at the only photo I have of my brother and me together.
I’ll always hate the paparazzi. However, I’ll thank the anonymous photographer for blasting this picture all over the world.
* * *
The end.
Watch for Dean’s story, Up in Smoke, coming early spring of 2018.
The Right Direction Page 20