She turned those hard eyes on me, her expression flat and unchanged. But with my question, she opened the veil, answering with all the cold honesty and unshakable pride I knew her to possess. “Because I’ve worked for a decade for what you’ve gotten in half as many years. I’ve worked my whole life for what is handed to you. Because you’re good enough that someday, my position will be threatened by you. And I didn’t come all this way for that.”
The plain fact and blatant threat hung between us. And in my surprise, I made the mistake of reacting, my face softening and opening.
“And that. That look right there. You, Lila, are by the book. You don’t have a knack for deceit, no skill for deception. What you don’t realize is that good guys finish last.”
I schooled my face, nudging my mask back into place. “I guess we’ll see, won’t we?”
“Oh, we will.” Her gaze shifted to the dance floor again. But the honest moment was gone, wiped away with the curl of her level lips. The expression was her equivalent to putting up her dukes. “So, you and the gardener, huh? You said you caught yourself a bigger fish, but I didn’t think you meant physically.”
I looked in the direction she’d indicated, finding Kash standing in the shadows in that glorious suit, watching me with his brow low and lips level. It changed his face, darkened it to menace, the expression foreign to me on a face I’d come to know so well.
I met her eyes again and found challenge there. Challenge and ruin.
“It’s no wonder you wanted to use Longbourne,” she continued, turning to face me fully, shoulders square and eyes black.
“Why does it matter where we get flowers?”
“It doesn’t matter to me beyond the fact that it matters to you.”
A flash of danger, a siren of warning. It was all a game to her. The Felixes. Brock. Kash.
Kash.
If she knew what he meant to me, he’d be cannon fodder. If she saw my feelings, she’d exploit them.
She’d exploit him.
“He’s pretty, I’ll give you that,” she said, still smiling that horrid smile. “I don’t know if I’d risk wedding contracts on him, but if that’s what you had to do to get him into bed, who am I to judge?”
Don’t take the bait. Don’t let her know. Bury it, hide it so she can’t find it.
Let her think she’s right.
“Well, that’s all they’re good for, right?” I lied, the words sour and thick in my mouth. “You know how it is. After Brock, I needed to blow off some steam. He’s a useful distraction.”
“You’re a shitty liar, Lila,” she said, amused. “You forget I’ve seen you together. If you think I’d believe he’s nothing more than a distraction, you don’t know me at all.”
I laughed, the sound easy and carefree, my heart sick. “And if you think I’d go from Brock to a gardener, you don’t know me either. He’s a rebound, Addison. He means nothing to me.”
“Oh, I think he might disagree,” she said, her lips twisting and cruel and triumphant.
Horror, absolute and complete horror, overtook me as she glanced behind me, still smiling that knife smile.
Kash loomed at my back, dark and fierce, his eyes blue shards of glass, glittering under the low lights. For a long, still moment, he laid the weight of the betrayal on me, the full extent of what I’d said, of what he’d heard, and I buckled under the pressure. The second I reached for him was the second he turned and walked away.
“Oh God,” I breathed, following him swiftly. “Kash, wait,” I called after him, weaving through people in a useless attempt to catch him.
He broke out of the crowd like a bullet, heading for the service exit.
“Kash, please,” I begged, trotting carefully behind him.
But he didn’t stop, didn’t slow, didn’t even acknowledge me. And I was so fixated on him, I didn’t see Brock flank us.
“What did you do to her?” Brock shot, his eyes fixed on Kash.
This was what finally brought Kash to a halt. He turned, dangerously deliberate, his face black with rage. “Excuse me?”
The words were a threat.
“Kash—”
He cut a look in my direction that stopped me cold.
“I said, what the fuck did you do to her?” Brock stepped into Kash, close enough that fury crackled between them, raising the fine hairs on my arms.
“What happens between Lila and me is none of your fucking business,” he said with quiet force. “And you leave her alone. You’ve done enough.”
“What do you know?” Brock snapped, and I realized he was drunk.
And that these two men were about to fight.
Over me.
In the biggest event of my career.
I braced myself and moved to put myself between them, to beg them to stop, for all our sake. But I never got to. Because a very drunk and shoeless Natasha Felix came teetering toward us.
A camera followed behind her, and on a glance, I discovered one behind me, not knowing how long he’d been there.
“You don’t get to dump me!” she screamed, waving her champagne glass toward Brock.
“You don’t care,” Brock fired over his shoulder at her. “You never fucking cared, Tash. This whole thing was your idea. I never should have done it.”
I froze. Every molecule stopped and turned and listened.
“You were already going to dump her,” Natasha volleyed. “Like you’re some hero. God, you’re so fucking dumb. All of you are so. Fucking. Dumb.” With every word, she pointed at us with her champagne, landing on me last. “Especially you. It was a setup, the whole thing. You’d shit your pretty white pants if you knew how much money I paid Brock to frame this up. And everybody knew except you and your little piece of ass. Even your fucking boss is in on it!” Laughter burst out of her. “My fans are going to die when they watch this season. Didn’t you know, boyjacking is my thing? I coined that,” she noted before turning to Brock, her lips twisting in disgust. “Ugh, you are so pretty, but you are literally the worst lay of my life. And you do not get to dump me. Especially not for her.”
Time slowed, stretching out like a rubber band as the knowledge washed over me. I’d been a toy, manipulated and maneuvered against my knowledge. I’d been tricked. Trapped by Brock. Addison. Goddamn Natasha Felix.
They’d done this to me. Used me. Humiliated me. And for what? Ratings? Sport? To make a fool of me?
In this entire room, there was only one person I could trust. The one person I’d betrayed with a lie meant to save him.
Kash.
I didn’t realize what he was doing until it was too late to stop him, as if I could have halted the freight train that was his massive arm as it coiled and sprang almost too fast to see. His fist hit Brock’s nose with a crunch and a spurt of blood.
Brock crumpled, clutching his face as gore dribbled down his chin and over his hands. “You broke my nose!”
“You broke her heart,” he said with conviction I felt in my marrow. “Fuck you. Fuck you for doing this to her. And fuck you too,” he spat at Natasha.
“You stupid motherfucker,” she said coolly, striding toward him. “Dumb, just like her. You just lost your job. Your business. Whatever you have, you just fucking lost, all because you were too stupid to mind your own business.”