Hitman's Hookup: A Bad Boy Romance (55 page)

I nodded, still feeling surreal. The doors opened and I stepped out of them. “I can’t repay you enough,” I said.

Robert shook his head. “Don’t thank me until you’ve seen the whole tape, okay?”

A half hour later I had all the information I needed.

This was going to end.

Now.

CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

OLIVIA

I did the only practical thing that could be done when arriving back at my five-star hotel room, soaking wet and freezing in a fur coat and dress that cost more than six months of rent: I stripped naked, pulled on a bath robe, and pressed the “Spa Level” button in the elevator.

It was closed when I got there. That was when I foolishly realized it was nearly midnight. I was heading back to the elevator when a security guard passed me. Her name tag read: “Susan.”

“Can I help you, ma’am?” she asked me politely.

I instinctively wrapped my arms across my chest, feeling foolish. I wondered for an instant if she thought I was drunk.

“Sorry, I got caught in the rain and was hoping to hit up the sauna,” I shrugged sheepishly.

Susan smiled and reached into her pocket. “I have the keys,” she said, jangling them at me. “Sometimes I come in here when my shift ends at three in the morning.”

She unlocked the door. “It stays pretty hot in there for a while. They boil the last buckets around 8PM and just leave them in there overnight to cool down.”

“Thank you so much,” I said. “I owe you!”

Susan shook her head. “All that steam is just going to waste otherwise. Don’t worry about it.”

She was right. It was actually the perfect temperature; it had cooled down enough that I could stay in there longer than twenty minutes. I felt the heat warming me through to my bones. I replayed in my head, over and over again, what Wilder had said to me.

I didn’t have a choice
.

What did that mean?

I’d had six long months to consider all of the scenarios. But until he’d said that, it hadn’t occurred to me that Hailey might have blackmailed him again. I’d just convinced myself that he didn’t want me. That it had all been an act. That for the millionth time, he was Roman Wilder; he was paid to lie to people’s faces.

That’s what acting
meant
. I tried to push down what had happened in the rainstorm.

But I couldn’t. His face kept floating up.

I’d never seen him that vulnerable.

The rain poured in streams down his face, across his perfect cheekbones, down his full lips…and his eyes. His eyes were sincere.

I didn’t have a choice.

I sat upright, feeling too warm. I made it into the elevator and onto my hallway. I was so deep in thought that I nearly fell headfirst over a short, squat man who was sitting in front of my doorway.

“Jesus, who the fuck are you?” I exclaimed, catching myself on the wall at the last second.

The man looked up.

“I’m Robert,” he said. He put his hand out. “Can you help me up?”

I looked at him skeptically, ignoring his reach. “Sorry,
who
are you?”

He sighed and shook his head, pushing himself up off the floor. He looked exhausted.

“Sorry, I’m a little out of it. It’s been a long night. I’m Hailey’s assistant. Well. Former assistant, I’m guessing at this point in the evening.” He laughed to himself.

“Are you drunk?” I asked him.

He looked stricken. “Oh God, no. Not at all. I think I just dozed off waiting for you. I’m really sorry to come to you like this in the middle of the night. I can only imagine how this looks.” He looked at me sheepishly.

I grimaced and crossed my arms. “I’m still not clear why you’re here.”

He looked around. “Can we talk in your room?”

I guffawed. “Absolutely not,” I said sternly. I clutched my room key card with a hard grip. I didn’t trust random men, and I certainly didn’t trust random men who were in Hailey’s inner circle.

He smiled apologetically. “Of course. I’m sorry. Um…” he patted his pants’ pockets and his blazer jacket as if he were looking for something. Little puffs of grey dust bloomed in mid-air off of his clothes.

I coughed and sneezed; the dust smelled faintly of lemon.

“Cat litter dust,” he said. “Really sorry about that. I certainly won’t miss it,” he mumbled cryptically.

I took a few steps back. “I’m allergic to cats,” I said, my eyes starting to itch.

Robert looked like a broken man. I started to feel badly for him. This clearly wasn’t going the way he had expected it to.

“I am ruining your night. I am so sorry.” He finally stopped fishing in his pockets and pulled something tiny, shiny, and black out of it. “Do you have a computer?” he asked.

I nodded.

“Thank God,” he said, clutching at his chest in relief. “I didn’t want to have to walk someone else to the computer lab. Watch this. It pretty much explains everything.”

I grabbed it from him, intensely curious to know what could possibly be on here.

Robert nodded awkwardly and turned to walk toward the elevator. As I slid my keycard into the door handle, Robert called out to me.

“Olivia,” he said.

“Yeah?”

“Hailey wouldn’t have done any of this unless Wilder was completely in love with you. She knew this was the only way. That’s why she went to such great lengths. Give him a chance.”

Then he stepped into the open elevator doors and left me standing there alone.

CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

WILDER

I banged on the extra bedroom doors where the supermodels were sleeping. I wasn’t wasting any time.

“Get out here, all of you,” I yelled. I saw that Robert hadn’t returned to his own room. That was for the best.

Several of them stumbled into the living room, short, silk nightgowns barely skimming the bottom of their perfect asses. They all had some kind of sleep mask that was holding up their mussed, bedhead-hair.

“Sit,” I said. “I need you all here for witnesses in case she pulls anything.” They all groaned and looked confused.

I felt like I had a little ball of eternally glowing energy beneath my sternum. I was happier right now than I had been in months, maybe even years. I marched over to the master bedroom and flung open the door.

“Rise and shine, Princess,” I yelled.

Hailey barely moved. I tapped her on the shoulder. “Up and
fucking
at ‘em!” I called out to her. She opened her still-mascara-covered eyes.

“What time is it?” she grumbled. There was a pillow imprint on her cheek. She’d actually been sleeping hard and deep, even if it was only for a short time.

“It’s morning for all you are concerned,” I said quickly, walking away and opening Hailey’s bedside table. I reached in and pulled out her custom-painted, glossy cherry-red Macbook Air.

That made her sit upright. “Don’t touch my shit,” she said, swinging her legs over the bed and standing upright, trying to snatch it out of my hand.

I ignored her and walked into the living room where her entourage was assembled glumly on the couch. I opened the laptop and typed in Hailey’s password that she assumed I didn’t know (‘fuckwilder’ in all caps; it was a remnant from before we’d gotten back together) and stuck the thumb drive into a port.

I double-clicked on the first video file and hit the full screen button. I pressed play before Hailey made it over. Robert had actually edited the footage so it started right at the pertinent parts. Every minute that passed the amount of money I felt I owed him went up by an additional zero.

Hailey’s voice came through the tiny speakers. “…and I knew basically immediately that I was going to be fired from the set. I had a backup plan.”

There were giggles in the background of the tape. One of Hailey’s friends was off-screen; I was almost certain she was one of the ones who was here now. “What backup plan?”

“I paid Harrison a million dollars to videotape Wilde with his slutty new co-star.”

Hailey-in-the-flesh in front of me had gone scarlet red. “Where did you get that?” she hissed.

I shrugged. “I guess we each have more interaction with one another’s assistants than I ever thought possible.” Hailey opened her mouth to say something else but I held up a finger to shush her. “You’re going to miss the best part, Hailey.”

I made sure my eyes were on her face for the grand finale. On the video, one of her friends was shrieking and then whispering in a harsh voice. “
Harrison
? Wait…isn’t he the one who knocked you up?”

Hailey’s voice came through the laptop loud and clear. “God, I wish I hadn’t told you that. You’re the
worst
at keeping secrets.”

I snapped the laptop shut with a single finger, then turned to face her stunned-looking friends sitting on the couch.

“How’d you enjoy the entertainment, ladies?” I asked with a grand smile.

Two of them were clearly trying not to laugh.

The third one looked guilty. “That was me,” she whispered. “On the video.” Her eyes darted, panicked, to Hailey. “Oops.”

I started laughing loudly, then turned to Hailey. I said nothing. I wanted this moment to be as uncomfortable as possible for her. I wanted to see her squirming, panicking, clawing at the walls to try to escape this devious prison of her own making.

I’d never actually seen her speechless. But of course, she eventually found her words again.

“That couldn’t have been taped legally. I’m firing Robert, and suing both of you,” she spat.

I shrugged. “Go ahead. Robert obviously isn’t too worried. And as for the suing, do you really think that’s going to go well?”

Hailey’s mouth had formed a grim, straight line. I could tell she was running her mind as fast as it would go, trying to out-guess me.

“If you release that, I release the sex tape,” she snapped.

I nodded with a smile. “I’m not releasing this video.”

Hailey furrowed her eyebrows. “What?”

I shrugged. “I don’t need to. Just having it is enough. I know you’ll keep quiet.”

She looked like a woman trapped. I knew that she knew that I had her.

“What if I release the sex tape anyway? Who’s to say I won’t?” she asked quickly.

Full-on laughter broke through the dam of my walled-off emotions. “If you release your video. Then I will release mine. But I know you won’t.”

Hailey glared at me. “And how do you- “

“You’re always the victim, Hailey. That’s what makes your brand sell. This doesn’t look good for you. And you know I’ll release it out of retaliation. You
know
that I will. Your story with your fans is that
you
are always put-upon; the one cheated upon, the one who has her man stolen by other women. Your fans won’t take well to the shattering of your perfect, edgy-angel image when they find out you engaged in blackmail. Add onto that the fact that your baby’s father isn’t me – and he’s not even another famous person. He’s a lowly assistant. That’s not glamorous. You’d be
finished.”

Hailey opened her mouth and shut it several times. She looked like a frog trying to catch flies. Then she stopped. “I fucking hate you, Wilde,” she whispered.

I smiled at her. “I know.”

CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT

WILDER

“She’s not going to come, is she?” I whispered nervously to Josh.

We were standing in suits at the front of the courtroom chapel. My dad was talking to the Justice of the Peace who would be overseeing the simple ceremony.

“Can you blame her?” he responded quietly. “I could barely get Amy to come here after the shit you pulled the other night. Although your musical apology that she requested went a long way toward harmony.”

I laughed. I’d gone over first thing this morning to say how sorry I was for ruining dinner and just generally being a dick. Amy told me that if I really meant it, I would sing and dance to a scene from her favorite musical. I’d ended up doing the full Gene Kelley routine complete with umbrella stolen from their front hallway.

“Your wife is weird,” I replied.

Josh shrugged and smiled. “That’s why I love her.”

He turned over his shoulder and waved at Amy, who was sitting in the back row of wooden pews. She blew him a kiss, then looked at me and raised her middle finger. I returned the gesture. She laughed. The unknown-to-me old women sitting in the front row of the chapel looked scandalized.

“I still can’t believe that Robert saved the day. I mean, the
cat
guy?” Josh said. He had been as stunned as I was at the twisting turn of events.

“Just shows that you never know how shit’s going to fucking end up,” I replied with a smile.

“So do you think that Harrison knows about the baby being his?” Josh asked me in a low voice.

“I really don’t know. There’s a small chance she might have paid him to keep quiet about that too. We’ll never know for –“ I stopped mid-sentence.

Olivia and her mom walked into the chapel. I felt my stomach flip over six times. She was wearing a royal blue dress that wrapped and crisscrossed over her breasts and around her stomach, the bottom fabric flowing freely until it was interrupted by the floor. It was strapless, and her gorgeous, sexy shoulders were bare. Her blonde hair was pulled up into a twisted knot.

And she was actually smiling.

At me.

“You going to finish your sentence, man?” Josh asked before turning around and seeing where I was staring. “Oh.” He said quietly.

Amy was waving her hand excitedly, pointing at Olivia as if I couldn’t see her walking toward me.

I felt frozen on the spot. Olivia started biting her lip as if she were holding back a smile that was growing by the second.

Suddenly I put two and two together. Robert hadn’t come back to the room last night. Olivia was probably staying in the same hotel that Hailey and I were. Had he gone to see Olivia? Would he do that?

I didn’t want to get my hopes up. It turned out I didn’t have a moment to. The Justice of the Peace was calling everyone to order as my dad nearly skipped over to Penelope, meeting her halfway down the aisle and kissing her fully.