Burning Rivalry (Trevor's Harem #2) (15 page)

What’s the future here? I’ve always lived by my wits, but I’ve also always seen the big picture. I’m wired to consider the long term. Logan and even Trevor have both hinted that the intensity ramps up big-time after the first elimination, and I get the impression that what I’ve thus far dodged won’t be avoidable later. I’ve always known that’s as far as I’d go.
 

But is it right? I could make so much more money. I could keep being with Daniel, recording my filthy little videos, waiting for another opportunity to be with him. I’d swear there’s something between us, beyond the physical. He thinks we have history, though we’ve barely met. Maybe, in a twisted way, that’s worth sticking around.
 

I look at Daniel, across the room, talking to Ivy. She touches his arm, and I feel a flare of …
jealousy?
But who the hell is Daniel, really, to me? Other than a temporary good time, what does it matter?
 

Daniel’s warnings come rushing back.
 

I’m in over my head.
 

I wasn’t meant for this. It’s a mistake to be here.
 

His words on the cliff are the worst of all: ominous like rolling fog. I don’t know what any of it means, but it didn’t leave me warm and fuzzy. Hot and bothered, sure. But I’m smarter than that.
 

I can make it another week. Things back home, with Jenny, Linda, and even Brandon, seem to be handled for at least that long. My other attachments are casual, and if they’re emailing me, I’m sure Daniel is answering them as well. Maybe he’s slipping out of my character and into his. Telling my friends that he’ll return me when he’s good and ready, because he owns me.
 

But I can’t postpone my life forever. I can’t keep lying to everyone, simply to hold onto something hot and torrid, but something that will, no matter the outcome, end badly.

Kylie is all over Trevor. Leaning into him. Putting her hand on his chest. Smiling. And he’s smiling back. For some reason, I want to save him from her, as nice as he seems beneath it all. I just hope that’s what it is, and that I’m not somehow falling for Trevor Stone, too.

A hand touches my shoulder. I look up. It’s Logan, with his sexy blue eyes and sinister smile.
 

“Come with me.”
 

I give him a pressed-lip smile. “No thanks, Logan.”
 

He shakes his head. “It’s not like that. This is about you and Daniel.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

“I know,” Logan says.
 

He’s dragged me all the way through the house. Into the kitchen. To the southwest corner of the otherwise empty kitchen, which I remember is one of the surveillance blind spots. I’ve been stumbling behind him, his last words dancing through my head.
 

This is about you and Daniel.
 

Who else knows? My heart is thudding in my ears and making me dizzy. My circumstances aren’t as dire as they were when I learned about Linda’s latest
accident
, but I’ve grown used to the idea that I’ve earned enough for a down payment for my new studio. I have enough industry connections to make a serious go of a producing company, and once I make that work, money becomes easier to make across the board. A year or two from now, it’s possible I’d be able to entertain the Linda solution Jenny once offered, as ridiculous and beyond possibility as it seemed at the time.
 

But if Logan knows? Then it’s only a matter of time before it’s all over.
 

“What do you know?” I say, trying to appear oblivious.
 

“I know that you’re hooking up with Daniel.”
 

“That’s ridiculous!”
 

“On that first group date, you had sex with him, and we all know that’s forbidden. Up on the cliff.”
 

“Did Kylie tell you that? She’s such a fucking bi — ”

“You told me. In a video.”
 

I freeze in place. I can’t feel my lips.
 

“I’m not a bad guy, Bridget. I promise I’m not, even though everyone knows I’m the one you go to when you want your hair pulled, your throat choked. You’ve kept to yourself, and I can’t help but respect you for it. Some of the people here, they act like this is a place of freedom from inhibition, where you can do whatever you want. But you’re doing the one thing that’s
hardest
to do. To stay out of it all. So I don’t mean to disrespect you. You want your privacy. You’ve never, so far as I’ve seen, taken off a stitch of clothing in public. But I need you to believe that I know, so yes, I saw the video. I can recite a few of your lines to the camera. To Daniel.” He sighs. “I’m sorry.”
 

I’ve forgotten how to speak. I’m beyond mortified. Beyond humiliated. Not only has Logan and God knows who else seen the private confessionals I’ve recorded for Daniel, but I’m also about to be busted. If it’s not bad enough to know there’s unauthorized sex videos of me out there, I’m also about to lose my dream studio. My dream
life
, given time.
 

“Who showed you?”
 

“It’s not important.”
 

“Who,
Logan? Was it Daniel?" I hear the hysteria entering my voice. Then cold logic eclipses it as I realize the truth.
 

The hairbrush with gum in it.
 

The hands that rifled through my backpack when I was out of my room.
 

“Kylie,” I say. “It was Kylie.”
 

“I’m not looking to bust you, Bridget. I like you, really. And I don’t judge you, either. It’s clear you’re not like the others, and honestly it’s obvious that you could never level up, certainly could never win. It doesn’t matter that Daniel is supposed to be objective about you, given that. So what’s between him and you, normally, would be your business and nobody else’s. But this isn’t business as usual. There are things you don’t know.”
 

Logan looks hard at me as if checking to see if I’m still here or if I’ve drifted off into la-la land. In groups, Logan is always the wiseass. When on duty, I’ve heard he can be sweet and slow or a frightening beast. Mischief is always under his skin. That’s why seeing his seriousness now is unnerving. This, for whatever reason, is a big deal.
 

“I … it just happened,” I stammer.
 

Because I slipped in the limo and ended up with his dick in my mouth. Because there was a horrible rock climbing accident that ended with matching orgasms.
 

I want to own it, no matter how embarrassed I am. To do otherwise is tantamount to apology, and I’ve always done my best to live without regrets.
 

“It doesn’t matter,” Logan tells me, looking around for cameras or people passing through the kitchen. “It’s done. But look. I’ve taken care of what exists. I have all the originals and for reasons that are irrelevant, I know there aren’t any copies. I erased them. But the fact that they all vanished will, in itself, raise eyebrows behind the scenes.”
 

“With who?”
 

“That doesn’t matter either.”
 

My teeth grate. My head swims.
 

“You have to break it off, Bridget. Now. Immediately.”

“O-okay.”
 

“I mean it. No more videos. No — ”

“Jesus. Obviously.”
 

“And no more … contact. Nothing that raises suspicion. Do you understand me?”
 

I pause. Then: “Sure.”
 

Logan watches me for a solid fifteen seconds, searching my eyes with his. Then he puts a hand on each shoulder, and I feel the weight of this moment explode.
 

“Okay,” he says. “I need to tell you something. To make you understand.”
 

“You don’t need to tell me anything.”
 

“I do. Because I’ve seen your profile. What there is of it, anyway. You’re like me, in a way. And I know what I’d do if our positions were reversed. I’d listen and nod, and then I’d decide to do whatever the hell I want.”

“It’s fine. I know it’s a big deal.” But my heart must disagree, because I feel it drop. Intellectually, I get it. But my body craves Daniel. It can’t breathe without him.
 

Logan rushes on, ignoring my protests.
 

“I’ve known Daniel for a long time. He’s a hardass, but deep down he’s one of the most solid motherfuckers you could know. He’s always had my back,
always
. And when shit went down, I always wanted Daniel on my side.”
 

If Logan’s purpose is to make me want Daniel less, it isn’t working.
 

“The Eros board doesn’t like him. They want him removed. Cut out entirely. And they could do it, too, in an instant. He’s in by a thread, mainly because there’s old loyalty on the board. But it only stretches so far, and Daniel hasn’t made it easy to support him.” He looks around. “Do you know GameStorming?”
 

“Of course,” I say. It’s only the hottest thing in social networking since LiveLyfe, increasingly connected to everything.
 

“I can’t say too much, but there’s tension there, between them and Eros. And as it turns out, Daniel fucked up. He let someone into this competition that he shouldn’t have.”
 

“Me.”
 

“Someone else. An agent.”

“An
agent?”
 

“Someone sent by GameStorming’s CEO, Caspian White.”
 

“Who?”
 

“It was an honest mistake. Look, I’m just a grunt. I don’t know it all, and I shouldn’t. But I know Daniel, and I know he needed different types of women for this. ‘The whole spectrum,’ he said. Because this isn’t just a search for a billionaire’s wife. It’s something else, too.”
 

I give my head a little shake. Logan must realize he’s saying too much. He pulls back.
 

“He needed someone like this one. Someone who has a … a devious mind, say, though I don’t even mean that pejoratively. It’s just that … well … people are all a little different. And for this contest, the company needed some of everything.”
 

 
I think of Roxy. Technically a sociopath. And all the other little things I’ve seen, as if some of these girls have superpowers. Abbie did a spelling demonstration for us the other day. It was already nuts, but then it got nuttier. Abbie explained that she spells well because she sees letters in color. Spelling even the most complex words, for Abbie, is as easy as describing a picture.
 

“One candidate stood out. But she’d engineered her selection. She knew what Daniel or whoever was in his position would be looking for, and made sure she matched it. He had no idea she was one of White’s girlfriends. He only knew what he needed to know: that she was a strategist. A manipulator.”
 

A manipulator.
 

“Kylie,” I say. I know it even better than I know she was the one who broke into my room. Leaked my private recordings. And
put
gum in my motherfucking hairbrush
.

“The board found out. They were livid. They can’t get rid of her, or White will know Eros knows. So believe me: Daniel’s an inch away already. Not just from losing his position, but from losing
everything.”
 

I swallow. Logan nods then waits until it’s clear, from my vacant expression, that I understand what’s at stake.
 

“I know you like him, Bridget. I can tell. And it’s sweet. I
do
know sweet, believe it or not, as hard an adjective as that is to use about Daniel. But you have to stay away from him. For his sake. I know how he is, and he won’t give up easily. So
you
have to be strong. Don’t let him down, Bridget. Don’t do this to him.”
 

Slowly, I return Logan’s nod.
 

But deep in the depths of my mind, I’m wrapping my hands around Kylie’s throat, and squeezing until her final breath is gone.
 

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

I’ve got thirty pounds on Trevor, but he hasn’t forgotten how to fight. He’s faster than I am, and as much as I know and normally appreciate his schoolboy bullshit, I have to admit that it gets me every time. He’ll bob across from me, just beyond the round, red moons of my sparring gloves, and I’ll fall into the trap of believing that a kid a nice as Trevor looks could never move fast enough to get out of my way or hit hard enough to hurt.
 

It’s a mistake I constantly make. I’m bigger. He’s faster. And whenever we fight, we meet somewhere in between.

Neurologists say that habitual impressions carve actual, physical pathways in the brain. Changing an opinion or perception of someone isn’t just about deciding to change your mind. It’s hard to see people in new ways because doing so requires
changing your mind
… literally, in this case. I know it better than most. And still, to me, Trevor is the little scrapper he always was, and I remain his burly protector. Maybe that’s why we both like Parker, who came from such humble roots.