Platinum (All That Glitters #3) (35 page)

Trihn pulled into Posse’s parking lot and searched for their names, as related to the scandal. About a hundred different sites appeared at once.

She clicked on the first one.

CHLOE AVANA NUDE!

Anonymous hacker group strikes at celebrities once more. This time, Chloe Avana, former Disney star and platinum-recording artist, is revealed in a series of naked photographs. These photographs were allegedly extracted from her phone as well as from the phone of her current fling, DJ Damon Stone, whom she recently recorded with on her latest number one hit, “We Never Met.”

These photographs come on the wave of another breach of security for celebrities and bring up a call for increased…

Trihn stopped reading as she tried to process what the article was saying. It was obvious, of course. She knew what they were saying. But…she couldn’t comprehend the other part.

Why would Damon have those photographs on his phone?

She knew he had immediately texted her to let her know that it wasn’t true. So…it must not be true. That didn’t seem like Damon at all. It didn’t make sense.

She leaned her head against the steering wheel and tried to make all of the puzzle pieces fit together. The hacking group had no reason to lie about where the images had come from—or at least she didn’t think so. She really knew nothing about them.

But if Damon didn’t even ask for nude pictures from me, why would he want them from Chloe?

The only way it could be possible, in her mind, was if Chloe had sent them to Damon, unprompted.

Or Damon was a liar.

Trihn squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head at the ludicrous thoughts. It was a mistake. It wasn’t true. The press was manipulating her, and she needed to wait to hear from Damon before freaking out about this. She needed to trust him and believe in him, as he had done for her all those times. They were a team. That was all that mattered.

Taking a calming deep breath, she exited her car and entered Posse.

Her friends were hanging out at the bar. Maya was pouring drinks and laughing with Drayton and Pace. Eric planted a kiss on Bryna’s forehead while Stacia was dancing around in a too-short skirt. When they saw her, their faces fell, and they all looked stricken.

Great
.

“Hey,” Trihn said. “We have to quit meeting like this.”

“Have you not heard?” Bryna asked.

“I saw. But it’s not true. Damon said it wasn’t true.”

Trihn realized how ridiculous she’d sounded when a bunch of them winced.
Have I become that girl again? Am I making excuses for Damon when he could be doing whatever he wants behind my back?

God, insecurities on red alert.

She needed to pull herself back together. Damon was not cheating on her. He would never have flown her to Atlanta or texted her reassurances or totally fallen in love with her if he wanted someone else. She would not let this stress her out. There was an explanation for it all.

“Can I talk to you?” Bryna asked.

She looked nervous. That was not a good sign.

“Sure,” Trihn said hesitantly.

Trihn glanced over at Eric, and he looked worried. She didn’t know if it was about the stuff that had come out in the press or if it was about what Bryna was going to say. Either way, it was not good.

The girls walked across Posse and then went outside to the patio. They sank down onto a bench next to the empty pool. For the summer, the university had emptied out, aside from the football players. During the day, it would be busier out here, but right now, they basically had the place to themselves.

Bryna looked directly in Trihn’s eyes. “I’ve never told
anyone
this story before. I swore that I wouldn’t let it get out to the press, so I’ve held my tongue. And it’s been hard. I’ve wanted to say something for a long time, but it didn’t feel like my place or the right time.”

“You’re freaking me out.”

“I just need you to promise that you won’t say anything about this to anyone…even to Damon.”

Trihn chewed on her lip. “Does this have to do with Damon?”

“Not directly.”

“Okay…I won’t say anything.”

“When I was dating Gates our senior year, he was on the set of
Broken Road
with Chloe in Atlanta. I met Jude one night at a club and decided I wanted to sleep with him. So, I called Gates in the middle of the night and broke up with him.”

Trihn laughed. “You’re serious?”

“Yeah. Gates laughed at me and said we’d talk about it later, but to me, we were over. When he got back to LA, he acted as if we weren’t over. Jude was a one-night stand that Gates knew about, and I decided he was kind of right. You can’t break up with a guy like Gates on the phone.”

“Okay…”

“Well, the reason Gates was okay with Jude was because he told me that, on the same night, he’d slept with someone else, too. And since we’d both done it with nobodies who we’d never talk to again, it didn’t matter,” Bryna said.

Trihn’s stomach knotted. She had a horrible feeling that she knew where this was going. “But it did matter?”

“Yeah, I found out later that the girl had been interested in him the whole time, and that night was just a culmination of all their flirtations. And that girl was Chloe Avana.”

Trihn sat very still, processing Bryna’s story. “So,
that’s
why you hate her.”

“Yes.”

“So, what you’re saying is, she’s biding her time until Damon and I are on the rocks to…what? Swoop in?”

“I’m not saying that history will repeat itself,” Bryna amended. “We were younger and dumber. I think that’s why Chloe was acting like a jealous maniac that night at the club after your fashion show. She and Gates have had a rocky relationship since then. I don’t really know what’s up with them. My guess is, she’s still pining for her first love in some way, despite her cool, confident girl exterior that she portrays to the press. But that’s neither here nor there with Damon.”

“This explains…a lot,” Trihn admitted. It made her feel a little better and a little worse.

She hadn’t thought she had anything to worry about because Chloe wasn’t the type of girl to do something like that, but now, Bryna was saying that Chloe was absolutely that girl.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. But with these photos coming out…I didn’t want you to go in completely blind.”

“You don’t think that they were on Damon’s phone, do you?”

Bryna cringed. “I want to say no because Damon seems like a good guy. But I’ve seen good guys corrupted before, so just be cautious.”

“Thank you for telling me, but I don’t think this changes much. Either he did or didn’t have these pictures. Either there’s an explanation for it or not. But Damon loves me, and I love him. He’s not into Chloe.”

Bryna looked at her with pitying eyes, and Trihn just wanted to scream. She wasn’t crazy for thinking like this. She would show everyone the truth.

“His LA show is tomorrow,” Trihn told her. “Let’s drive to the show and surprise him. You’ll see it for yourself.”

They all would.

CONVINCING HER FRIENDS
to go to Chloe and Damon’s show in LA wasn’t as hard as Trihn had thought it would be. Eric and Maya both had to work, which also ruled out Drayton, but Bryna and Stacia were all in. And though Bryna had tried to argue for Pace not to join them, he was seated in the driver’s seat with Stacia in the passenger seat and Trihn and Bryna in the back of Stacia’s SUV as they headed south on I-15 toward Los Angeles.

Somehow, Bryna had managed to work her magic and get them killer seats in the second row. She had complained that it wasn’t first row or center, but Trihn thought second row on the left side of the stage was a lucky grab on the night before the show. But that was Bryna.

Trihn was excited to see Damon perform again. The girls had no idea what they were in for. It was nothing like him deejaying at Posse, and they hadn’t been to a show of him performing with Chloe yet. Trihn really thought that videos didn’t do it justice either.

“So, did you talk to Damon about this?” Stacia swiveled around in the passenger seat to look at Trihn and Bryna.

“About the show? No, it’s a surprise,” Trihn said. “I thought we were all in on that.”

“I mean, the pictures…of Chloe.”

“They weren’t from his phone.”

“You said that already,” Pace chimed in.

“I talked to him last night once he’d gotten into LA.”

Damon had called as soon as he could, but he hadn’t had that much free time before this show.

“Is there any reason those pictures could have been on his phone?” Stacia asked.

Pace chuckled. “Oh, there’s a reason.”

Stacia smacked his arm. “Not helping.”

“Damon isn’t like that. He’s in love with me. Why would he have suddenly changed his tune?”

“Because Chloe is hot?” Pace asked.

“She’s gorgeous,” Trihn said. “But Damon doesn’t see her like that. And if he did, then he wouldn’t be fighting for us to work out. I’m pretty sure he could have already had her if he wanted.” Trihn glanced over at Bryna. “You’re being awfully quiet about this.”

“I don’t like to be wrong, so I’m not chiming in.”

“Comforting.”

“If you believe him, then I’m sure it’s nothing,” Bryna said after a moment.

“Look, when I talked to him, he said that those photos were real. They weren’t Photoshopped.”

“Sweet,” Pace said.

Trihn shook her head. “Chloe agreed that they had been on her phone at some point, but she never sent them to Damon. Damon said that he’d never seen them before. They both think it’s spin from the press, saying it’s from his phone, since they’re in the public eye right now.”

“Okay, but why would an anonymous hacker group lie about where the photos came from?” Stacia asked intuitively.

“I asked the same thing. That was the part that worried me,” Trihn admitted with a frown.

She hated doubting Damon at all, but the evidence was damning. When she had picked up the magazine in New York, she had known how Damon and Chloe met, so it was laughable. When the press had started saying that Trihn was a homewrecker breaking Damon and Chloe up, she had been there to see what was going on. But these pictures…they’d just come out of nowhere.

“And what did he say?” Pace asked. “This should be good.”

“If you’re not going to be supportive, you can shut the fuck up,” Stacia warned him.

He smirked at her before facing forward and remaining silent.

“Damon didn’t know why the hacker had lied about that, but since this anonymous group could be anyone. We don’t know their motives.”

“Convenient,” Pace snapped.

Stacia glared at him. “That’s it. You’re not getting fucked tonight.”

His eyes widened. “Like hell I’m not.”

“You’re being a dick.”

“Last I checked, you liked that.”

“Will both of you shut up before I vomit in Stacia’s car?” Bryna spat.

“Anyway,” Trihn said, “I just…choose to believe him. If I didn’t, where would I be? Back in the same black hole of,
Woe is me! My boyfriend is cheating on me
. I just can’t think that’s Damon. So, unless I see something to the contrary, I’m not believing it.”

With that declaration, the rest of the car fell silent. Stacia flipped the stereo on, and “We Never Met” blasted through the speakers. Trihn couldn’t even be surprised at this point. The song was
still
at number one, and it seemed that all the press, negative or otherwise, was only helping their fame. Guess it was true. There was no such thing as bad press.

By the time they reached the venue, the opener for the show had already gone on, and everyone was milling around, anxiously waiting for Chloe to perform. Trihn noticed a group of girls wearing Avanaddicts shirts and holding up signs, and she quickly veered away from them. No need for a repeat run-in with some crazy fans. She just hoped that she wouldn’t be recognized.

Trihn took the seat at the end of the aisle next to Bryna and tried to relax.

Bryna was on her phone, likely annoyed that she had to sit through another one of Chloe’s concerts. Trihn thought she liked Chloe’s music, but the stuff with Gates must have really hit home. Bryna held a grudge like no other. Even though she was happy with Eric and Gates was ancient history, Bryna still didn’t trust Chloe. Trihn really wanted to prove her wrong.

She grabbed her phone out of her bag so that she could text Damon. But when she looked at the screen, there was already a message from Damon waiting for her.

Chloe is in one of her moods tonight.

Are you pulling your hair out?

I’m going to rip hers out if she doesn’t chill. Panic attacks on top of panic attacks.

Then, another message dinged immediately after that.

Shit! Maybe I shouldn’t have put that in a text message. What if our phones get hacked again?

Both Chloe and Damon had gotten new phones after the hacking incident. And Trihn knew that he probably didn’t want anyone to read his personal information or get that personal information about Chloe, but the word
again
made her cringe. It was as if the last time had revealed something from his phone.

Sorry, love. I have to go onstage in a minute. Wish you were here.