Step Wilde: A Stepbrother Romance (33 page)

I glanced over at Olivia and saw her stand up and shuffle across the row. I felt a wild urge to chase after her and got out of my seat, physically peeling Hailey’s hand off of my body. She sent me a look that said ‘If you fucking leave now, I’ll kill you.’

“Bathroom,” I whispered.

She rolled her eyes.

I excused myself past the half row of producers and even the head of the studio. A bored looking usher leaned against the wall in the hallway.

“There was a woman who just came out here, red dress – “

He hooked his thumb toward the right without a word.

I ran, ducking into the woman’s bathroom. “Olivia?” I said tentatively. She didn’t respond. I realized there was nobody in there.

Had she paid the usher to lie to me?
It was a ridiculous thought. And also entirely plausible when I stopped to think about it. I ran out into the hallway and toward the side entrance of the theater. I burst through the double doors and into a full-on New York City rainstorm.

The water was
freezing
. It poured down my back and seeped through the fabric of my tuxedo like it was made of tissue paper.

I saw Olivia’s red dress disappear around the corner and took off after her.

“Olivia!” I yelled, just as a crack of thunder erupted over my head, a near-simultaneous flash of lightning reflecting off of the buildings. She was about to climb into a waiting limo.

“Wait!” I yelled.

She turned around. Makeup was running down her face, her fur coat that she’d tossed around her shoulders soaking wet. I could see her hard nipples poking through her dress and tried not to think about that. I rushed over to her.

“Please,” I said to her. “I love you.” Cars were already starting to honk. The limo was blocking traffic.

Olivia bit her lip. She looked like she might cry. “Wilder, please. I need to move on. Do you not understand that?”

I grabbed her hands. She didn’t stop me from touching her. “You don’t understand. I
had
to leave you. I didn’t have a choice.”

Olivia stared at me with her round, gorgeous eyes. “I want to believe that. But I just don’t, Wilder. I just don’t.”

“FUCKING MOVE, LADY!” came the angry voice of a Brooklynite from the window of a cab.

“FUCKING GIVE US A SECOND!” I yelled back. I felt exasperated. I just wanted her, more than I’d ever wanted anything in my life. “I can explain everything. You just have to give me some time.”

Olivia looked for a second like she wanted to believe me. Then she shook her head, letting go of my hands. “I can’t.”

She stepped into the limo and pulled the door shut. It pulled away immediately into traffic. I was left standing there in my five thousand dollar Italian leather shoes. They were filled with water.

I watched her drive away, feeling like my happiness was tucked in that limousine with her.

***

I took the longest, hottest shower of my life back at the hotel.

I felt soaked through to my bones with the cold. I’d begged off dinner with Hailey. She claimed she wasn’t that hungry anyway. She’d said nothing about my leaving during the sex scene or even the scene itself. She also didn’t seem like she was planning something. It was almost like the pregnancy was sucking out some of her evil.

I didn’t question it. I just stayed in the bathroom until I was sure she was passed out asleep.

It worked; she was snoring lightly when I walked out of the bathroom. I crept into the living room, closing the door behind me, and walked in the complimentary robe and slippers into the kitchen. There were tiny boxes of cereal and a crystal pitcher full of milk in the fridge.

I poured five different boxes into what was probably supposed to be a salad bowl and covered the multicolored contents with milk. I grabbed a spoon and stood there, crunching. Tomorrow was the wedding. I’d have to see Olivia again and be reminded that there was nothing I could do to get her back.

I was trapped with Hailey forever.

I heard a door open to my right. It was Robert. He looked around nervously.

“Are we alone?” he mouthed.

I looked at him with skeptical confusion. “Yeah. Why the fuck does that- “

He rushed over to me with a finger on his lips. Then he waved toward the hallway door. I was clearly meant to follow him. I set down the bowl of cereal, my curiosity growing.

He quietly opened the front door and let me walk out first, carefully shutting it so it didn’t make a sound.

“What-“ I started in a normal voice.

He hushed me. “Not here,” he said, walking away from me again, briskly. He pushed the elevator button and the door opened immediately. He stepped into it and I followed him. The doors closed and the elevator started moving.

A few floors down, he hit the emergency stop.

The signal blared, and I reached up to cover my ears. Robert moved his body in front of the tinny little speaker to muffle it.

“I’ll make this quick,” he said.

I started to laugh and looked around the elevator. “The fuck is going on?” I asked him. “Is this some kind of prank?”

He held up a hand. “We don’t have long.” He pulled out a black thumb drive. “This is your leverage.”

I palmed it, gaping at him. “What the- “

“I recorded Hailey talking about blackmailing you. It’s all there. She was bragging about it a few weeks ago to one of her friends. She never notices when I’m around. I just thought – well. I thought it might come in handy.”

“Why are you doing this?” I asked him.

“Because you’re the first person around here to actually acknowledge that I’m not just portable furniture,” he said. A dark look crossed his face. “And I found out how much she paid Harrison to keep quiet. That’s more than I will make in forty-five years of working for her.”

Robert cleared his throat and smoothed his t-shirt. “There’s also something else on there that will probably interest you.”

I still couldn’t believe this was actually happening. “Thank you,” I replied.

Robert pushed the emergency button again and the alarm stopped. The elevator reanimated almost instantly. He hit the button for the conference floor.

“You should use one of the business center computers to play it. Just make sure no one’s around and use a low volume, okay?”

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?”