Blackmailed by the Hero

by Julie Particka

  “We wouldn’t be having a conversation at all because I wouldn’t have talked to you that night, either.”

  “Maybe that would have been better!” he snapped.

  She stepped back as if he’d slapped her. Dante shook his head, reaching a hand toward her. “I’m sorry, Vicks, I didn’t mean it.”

  “No. You’re right. Maybe that would have been better.” She backed away from him—one step after another, the gulf between them widening until it seemed uncrossable. “I’ll take a cab. I think it’s best if I sleep at my apartment tonight.”

  Then she was gone, disappearing into the nighttime crowd like a phantom.

  Somehow he’d gone from hero to zero in the space of five minutes, and he had no idea how to come back from it.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Vicky slept like crap. The tossing and turning would have been bad enough, but the only breaks had been via dreams of all the ways things could have gone worse. If she had gone to Reed’s room that night and wound up taking part in his little orgy just to earn her post-divorce sex badge from Jade, she would have lost her job and possibly worse.

  And if she’d shown up and said no? She spent the rest of her night thinking of all the horrible, violent ways that might have ended.

  She woke up in the morning tired, cranky, and feeling tormented. Dante had probably already imagined all those things and worse. His reaction to Reed cornering her might not have been necessary, but in hindsight, she did understand it. But when she left, he hadn’t tried to stop her. He hadn’t followed her when she’d gone to get a cab. He hadn’t even called or texted to make sure she got home okay, so now she didn’t know what to do.

  And she’d left the damn party binder at his place. Luckily she had digital copies of everything on her laptop, but she couldn’t help but wonder if she’d left it on purpose—knowing in her heart something like this would happen. Leaving it so she had a reason to go back.

  Who was she kidding? She didn’t need to wonder. Of course she had.

  The fight was stupid. That was the reason she hadn’t slept. She felt guilty for lashing out at him like she had, and her dreams had just been reminders of all the reasons she’d been in the wrong. She was already on her way to Brentwood to talk to him when she realized he wasn’t home. The cast had a read-through today or something. He’d be at the studio, likely with his phone turned off.

  She couldn’t apologize, but at least she could get some work done on the party, make sure staff was lined up and everything. She pulled off the next exit and headed toward Elegant Entertainment. If nothing else, at least she hadn’t screwed this up. Even with her weird hours, she’d managed to come in under budget, and she knew the party would be a hit with Dante, Evan, and their guests. She couldn’t wait to see Mathew’s face.

  The door had barely closed behind her when Mathew’s secretary said, “Oh, I guess I don’t need to call you.” She hung up the phone. “Mr. Collins wanted to see you in his office as soon as you arrived.”

  Weird. She hadn’t been in the office in weeks. Why did he need her now? Had someone found out she was doing the party and bitched about it? Did he need to know exactly when she was resuming her normal schedule as a waitress? Or had the fight been a bigger deal than she thought, and Dante had called to cancel?

  She almost laughed at the last. He wouldn’t have done that. That was blackmail-Dante not race-to-the-rescue-Dante. She was still giggling at the thought when she pushed open Mathew’s door. “You wanted to see me?”

  He tipped his head up, his face tight enough that he looked like he’d just Botoxed everything the night before.

  “I did, and you can wipe that smile off your face. I don’t know what the hell you thought you were pulling, but it ends now. Clear out your stuff immediately.”

  “What?”

  “I know all about your extracurricular activities, and quite frankly, I’m embarrassed for you. I had this crazy idea in my head when I hired you that, as the sister of a movie star, you understood the Hollywood game better than most of the women who work here, but obviously I was wrong. If you want to sleep your way to the top, you can do it on your own time.”

  Vicky couldn’t move. She couldn’t breathe. Dante hadn’t called to cancel the party. He’d called to make good on his threat, only now he didn’t just have her slipup at Saul’s to hold over her head—he had all their dates, all their nights together. He could even provide a paper trail with their visit to his doctor. How could she have been so stupid? “Mathew, let me explain…”

  “There’s nothing you can say, Vicky. You’re fired. Get the hell out of my building. Your last check will be in the mail, assuming Palladino doesn’t call off the entire thing.” When she didn’t move fast enough, Mathew straightened his tie, focusing on it instead of her, and said, “If you do not walk out of here voluntarily and quietly in the next thirty seconds, I will call security to throw you out.”

  Vicky’s lip quivered, her entire body following suit. She trembled the entire way to his office door. Outside, she sagged against the wall, barely able to breathe.

  He’d done it. He’d said he would, and he had. Dante had gotten her fired. With no income, possibly not even a last check for all the work she’d been doing, she’d be lucky to cover next month’s rent without having to ask for help. All this time trying to make it on her own, to create a solid future, and one stupid decision to let herself fall for Dante Palladino was forcing her to be the one thing she’d promised herself she’d never be again. He’d turned her into a damsel in distress.

  It was all she could do to hold the tears in until she made it back to her Acura with the box of personal items from her locker. She’d thought she’d been building something new, something better, but now she had nothing left, not even the walls around her heart. She leaned against the steering wheel and sobbed.

  How could she have been so stupid? She’d warned herself time and again that she shouldn’t get involved with Dante, or anyone. And in regard to him specifically, even her brother had warned her away. Bad news was bad news, no matter how much time had passed.

  She’d done this all to herself. There wasn’t even anyone else she could blame. Dante had told her he would report her to her boss. It was the only reason she’d gone out with him in the first place. She’d known, and still she kept questioning the dichotomy of the guy who’d blackmailed her and the one who seemed so sweet. She should have been smarter than to trust a devil in angel’s clothing.

  And now she had nothing. No guy. No job. And soon enough, she’d lose her apartment.

  There was nothing left. If she couldn’t find a job in the next week, she’d have no choice but to call Evan and beg for help. Or Jade. Or Mom. Or someone.

  She’d thought she’d hit rock bottom when Brandon had left. But that was nothing compared to this. At least she’d crawled away from the divorce with her car and enough to pay it off, put down first and last on the apartment, and buy some clothes to interview in.

  There was no crawling away from Dante with anything, because even the job he’d promised her…she knew in her heart he’d cancel the party or let Mathew hand it over to someone else. She’d be lucky if he didn’t claim her hours were a lie. No. Dante Palladino had taken everything from her, and she didn’t even have the self-respect left to try to claw her way out of the emotional gutter where he’d left her.

  …

  Dante was done. The read-through had taken far longer than he’d hoped, and the whole time he’d been thinking of nothing except getting to Vicky and apologizing. She was right. He’d overstepped with Reed and made them both look bad in the process. For years, he’d thought he had control over his anger, but the only thing it took was seeing someone he cared about in a dangerous position and all of it came right back out again.

  As soon as they were dismissed, he raced to his car. There was no way he was risking another minute spent at the studio answering a question that could be as easily dealt with through text or email. Vicky needed
to be in person, and she needed to be now.

  He tried calling on the way to her apartment, but she never answered. In fact, with how quickly the calls went to voicemail, he was pretty sure she was rejecting them immediately. He didn’t leave a message. Nothing he could say over the phone would come out right. One slip and it’d be all over with no chance of recovery.

  The block around her complex was filled with cars at this time of day. He didn’t know why, and he didn’t care. There was one spot. It said no parking, but the window on that closed in fifteen minutes. Surely there wouldn’t be a cop around waiting to ticket someone. He pulled in and threw the car into park. If she wasn’t home, he’d be back in under a minute. If she was, he’d just have to take his chances. It’d be worth the ticket as long as he had her back.

  Racing up the stairs to her door, Dante almost tripped as her neighbor stepped outside. The man had probably been about five-nine, but now with the way he stooped, leaning on his cane, he looked more like five-six. “I wouldn’t knock on that door if I were you.”

  “Which door would that be?” Dante asked, a little amused, but mostly worried.

  “Vicky’s. We all saw you here with her a couple weeks back. Then she’s gone like she doesn’t even live here, and when she does finally show up it’s all slamming doors and cursing. Seems like someone sprayed water at a wildcat, and I’m betting that someone’s you.” The man hobbled toward the stairs.

  “How do you know she’s mad at me?”

  He chuckled. “I looked you up on that internet thing my grandkids like so much. They used to call you the Inferno.”

  “That’s right.”

  “Well, Vicky’s been hollering about burning someplace down and wondering how the Inferno’d like that. So…call it a lucky guess.” He took the stairs one laborious tread at a time. “Knock at your own risk.”

  Dante waited until the old man was gone. There was no way she was that pissed over last night. Still, his knock was tentative.

  The door flew open, and Vicky stood there, her hair wild and her red face streaked with sweat and tears. Her hands clenched and unclenched as if she couldn’t decide whether to punch him, slap him, or something else entirely. “What the hell do you want? Haven’t you done enough?”

  He’d never seen her this mad, never even heard Evan talk about her like this. “Vicks, I came to apologize.”

  “Apologize? You think you can just walk up to my door, say sorry, and suddenly everything’s going to be all right again?” She stepped onto the landing, her rage and hurt making the air around her a physical thing that pushed him away until his back was pressed to the railing. “You. Got. Me. Fired! I have nothing left, Dante, and certainly nothing left for you. There isn’t a damn thing you can say that will make my world okay again.”

  “Vicky, I didn’t…” He didn’t even know how to finish the sentence. Someone must have overheard the fight with Reed last night and word got back to her boss.

  “You didn’t what? Didn’t mean to? Didn’t think? Didn’t figure it mattered because you could swoop in and save me again?”

  Shit. She thought he’d actually gone to her boss? “I didn’t get you fired, not intentionally, at least. If someone overheard yesterday and—”

  “You know what? It doesn’t even matter if you made the call or just precipitated it. We’d been so fucking careful because you knew what the rules were. You knew we were breaking them.” She shoved at his pecs, the force of her hands doing little, but the force of her pain crushing him. Tears lit her eyes, and he knew it was all she could do not to hit him like she had Reed. “I told you. I didn’t want a fucking hero. I didn’t need one. But like everyone else in my life, you thought I was weak. You thought you could be the guy to fix everything, even if you were the one who destroyed it. Well, guess what, Dante? You broke everything. You broke me, and I sure as hell don’t want you to stick around to try to pick up the pieces.”

  She turned around, strode back into her apartment, and slammed the door, leaving him there to listen as she burst into sobs inside—farther away from him than the few feet of actual distance.

  Now he wished she had slapped him. Physical violence he understood. He would have let her hit him until she collapsed, and then he would have held her until she stopped crying. They could have worked back from that. This? He didn’t have a clue what to do with this.

  Especially since she was right. His thoughts proved it. He wanted to shelter her in his arms and make her world right again. He wanted to be her hero. He wanted to save the day.

  Instead, he’d taken away everything that she’d managed to build back into her life after her divorce.

  He wasn’t the hero.

  For the first time in his life, he realized he was the villain.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The call from Elegant Entertainment came first thing the next day. “In case you haven’t heard the news, Mr. Palladino, I regret to inform you that we had to let Vicky Stone go.”

  The little troll made it sound like he was actually upset. Dante wanted to reach through the phone and throttle him. “Can I ask what exactly prompted this decision?”

  “I’m sorry, but we can’t discuss matters like that with clients.”

  “That’s not so much of a problem since I’m no longer a client.”

  “Mr. Palladino, I assure you, we have any number of planners who can finish—”

  Dante squeezed his cell phone so hard he was surprised the thing didn’t crack. “I remember telling you, very explicitly, that Vicky Stone, and only Vicky Stone, was to handle this party. I expect every dime I’ve paid you for anything beyond her time to be returned to me immediately, or I’ll be in contact with my lawyers regarding your breach of contract.”

  “But…but… The planning is finished. All that was left was assigning staff for the event and overseeing them. Any of my people can do that.”

  “Any of them could, but I specifically hired Vicky to. You fired her. Either hire her back or the party is off, at least as far as you’re concerned.” Dante pulled onto Venice.

  “I will not be bullied, Mr. Palladino.”

  “Good. That’s a great personality trait to have. I expect a full refund by close of business today.” He thumbed the phone off and raked a hand through his hair. What he was going to do about the party, he didn’t know, but he sure as hell wasn’t rewarding that little troll for firing Vicky.

  Juan was sitting on his front stoop when Dante pulled into the driveway. He jogged up to the car, climbed in, and said, “Drive.”

  Nothing was said until they were out of the neighborhood. “So, did you make a decision?”

  “Yes and no.” Juan looked out the window at the passing scenery, probably not taking in any of it. “The recruiter did some legwork for me. He passed Mom’s résumé around and found her a job—a good one. It will be better for my mom and brother out there. Cheaper housing, safer neighborhood—it’s everything we don’t have here.”

  “That’s great. What’s the problem?”

  “Graduation. They’re already after Tico.” He didn’t have to ask who they were, because it sure as hell wasn’t the college. “If I wait it out until graduation in the spring… I don’t know, man. Tico’s going to figure all this out, and if he tells them, it could go bad.”

  Dante scrubbed his face. This should have been simple. Juan had a chance at a real future, but it was like Lee Corbitt all over again. He didn’t want to think about the kind of damage that could happen if the local boys caught wind of Juan leaving and taking their newest recruit with him. “What do you want to do?”

  “I want you to tell me I’m not crazy.” He pulled a sheet of paper out of his pocket. “I’m going to be done with all my graduation requirements in January except one. I talked to my guidance counselor. She said I could finish the class online and still graduate. I wouldn’t get to walk across the stage, but I could get my family out of here in January. Is it stupid? Do you think I can keep it from Tico long enou
gh? Or should I just stay here? I mean, this is the only home we’ve ever had.”

  “I think…” Damn. There were a million thoughts going through his head. “I think if you pass up this opportunity, you’re going to regret it. I think maybe you could move your mom and Tico out as soon as you can. Whoever hired your mom probably won’t be ready to move them for another month or two, but every day they’re here is a risk of retaliation against you and your family. She’ll have time to quietly get Tico enrolled in a middle school out there, but not so much time that you can’t keep it a secret. Once they’re gone, you can stay at my place while you finish up the semester. It’s a hell of a haul to school, but it wouldn’t be for long, and your family would be safe. Then we move you out east as soon as the semester is over.”

  “I can’t ask you to do that.”

  “You don’t have to ask, I offered.” But he hadn’t demanded or pushed like he had with Vicky. “All you have to do is say yes.”

  Juan slapped him on the arm. “Hells yeah, man! This’ll be such a load off Mom’s mind. I can’t ever repay you for this, you know.”

  “Make the most of the chance. That’s payment enough.” He circled back to the little house and dropped Juan off. As he drove away, he couldn’t help but wonder why it was so easy to offer help to Juan, but when it came to Vicky, he’d jumped in every time, even when she’d told him not to.

  …

  “What do you mean you won’t be at the party? It’s my birthday, Vicky. I’m leaving my pregnant wife home so I can come to this thing you planned for me and Dante.” Evan sounded pissed, actually beyond pissed.

  “For starters, I don’t work for the company anymore, so it isn’t my account. Second, I’m not speaking to Dante.” Because he got me fired just so he could play hero and try to swoop in and fix things after. Even thinking it made her sick. “And third…we’ll do dinner or something before you leave.”

  She could almost hear him silently ranting on the other end of the line. It involved half sighs, exasperated grunting, and a few other noises she couldn’t identify. “Damn it. Stasia’s going to kill me—you were the whole reason she said yes to this. What the hell happened with you and Dante anyway? You said you met at that party, and the next thing you were getting a promotion—”