Total pages in book: 41
Estimated words: 38804 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 194(@200wpm)___ 155(@250wpm)___ 129(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 38804 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 194(@200wpm)___ 155(@250wpm)___ 129(@300wpm)
She’d gone pale, but was nodding.
“I hear one word of this slipped, and I don’t care if it’s you, I’ll be blaming you and you’re out of here. Exiled from all band events. You got me?”
She gulped, her eyes darting to Maren, whose face had closed down when we went inside.
“Good. Now get the fuck out.” He stepped back, watching her coolly as she literally turned and left.
Once the door closed again, this time behind her, he cursed under his breath and swung back to face the group. His eyes went to me, narrowing, before swinging to Maren and then to the other guy, Troy. When they hit him, they softened dramatically. “Okay. Carry on. You need someone to be the asshole, I got you covered.”
“Oh, baby.” Troy was melting.
Luis rolled his eyes, but the corner of his mouth lifted up in a grin as he leaned in, kissing Troy and running a hand down his side. “I’ll be here, but not at the same time. Carry on.” He headed to a back bedroom, closing the door. We heard drumsticks tapping a moment later.
We got started after that, or more specifically, Troy got us beverages, made sure we were all comfortable, and then he spilled the tea.
Also, it was some very lovely tea.
13
MAREN
As plans went, it wasn’t the best. I had to admit, but under short notice, it was the most solid one we could come up with other than me doing something that would put me in jail. Which I was okay with, if it came down to that. But we were going to try this way first, and the first part of this plan was me approaching Kellie, one on one.
I knocked on her dorm room and then prayed.
It took a bit before she answered, opening the door an inch and staring at me with suspicion. “What are you doing here?”
I huffed, bugging my eyes out at her. “Let me in. I need to talk to you about something.”
She blackmailed me last spring. That was months ago, and it had worked. I did what she wanted and no one knew better, until recently. She wouldn’t have known that Mackenzie came to find me a day ago, or that we recently reconnected.
We were banking on that.
“Why?”
“Come on! I need your help, okay?” I mixed in the right amount of pleading and desperation while jerking my gaze away because I had some pride too.
That was the image I needed to sell, and fuck me, but I was going to win an Oscar by the end of this night.
I sniffled, balling my hand into a fist before tucking it in my pocket, and I jerked my gaze back to hers, just in time for her to note everything. Her gaze lingered on where my hand was, and it was working. It had to work. I swallowed a knot and rasped out, “Come on. Please. I need your help with something.”
“With what?” She still wasn’t budging, but the door opened another inch.
She was starting to relent. She was starting to buy the act.
“I need you to—” I looked around, shuffling closer. “What you did to me last year, I need you to tell me how to do that.”
I was expecting her to slam the door in my face, but all she did was move back, standing straight. “Why?”
I let out a growl. “Because I found my boyfriend fucking someone else. I walked in and Jude was railing a friend, someone I thought was a friend.” And now, I cast aside my acting skills and let my own disdain shine through, the one I felt for her. “I want to ruin the bitch and I want you to tell me how to do it.”
She was looking, but I let her see.
I let her see it all.
I wanted to hurt her.
I wanted to destroy her.
She was the one I wanted to ruin, and when she felt I was genuine, she pushed open the door. “Come in.”
14
MACKENZIE
We had a camera set up from Maren’s bag, with audible. When she went inside, she moved it around, showing the room, and on the counter was what we needed to see.
“Why do you want to hurt Kellie Rispins so much?” I asked Troy.
He drew in a tight breath. “Why? Because she tried to blackmail me because she wanted something from Luis and his band.”
“Shocker,” Maren griped.
He shared a look with her. “She wanted them to let her tour with them this last summer. That one month.”
Maren had gone still. “She wanted to do what?”
“As you know, I got out of that.” But he swallowed, grimacing.
Dread took root in me. My mouth dried up as I asked, “How’d you do that?”
“I have these.” He pulled out a baggie of two blue pills. “I gave these to her instead.”
“What are they?”