Chapter Fourteen
Chapter
Fourteen
Brooke stood in the shadows of the catwalk of the
theater, watching as the actors moved with ease through the set. Shane had
worked on that set. The set designer hadn’t stuck around to make changes or
adjustments. He was already back in LA working on another project, so Cleo had
to deal with everything on her own. Except Cleo had started to treat Shane like
a stage manager, which was good since the stage manager they had was barely
eighteen and way more interested in picking up women than doing his job.
But his grandma was on the board, so Shane was taking one
for the team.
The team. Were they a team? It felt like it, and then it
felt like they were assholes who thought women were possessions.
What would she have done if she’d walked in on a woman
basically trying to molest one of her men? Bay would tell the woman no and mean
it and deal with it if she didn’t give up. Shane would struggle to not offend
her.
How would she have handled it?
She took a long breath and tried to focus on the costumes.
The actors were moving well. Cleo had reset the play in Colorado, with the
three sisters having moved from Denver and missing their old cosmopolitan
lifestyle. They were stuck in a tiny mountain town.
They couldn’t seem to find the beauty, and that was the part
of the tragedy of the play.
Was she making the same mistakes?
The actress who played the youngest of the sisters settled
on her spot. “I’ve never been in love before. I’ve dreamt of it, day and night,
but my heart is like a fine piano no one can play because a key is lost.”
Longing. The whole play was about longing for something they
no longer had. About feeling as though they don’t fit in. The whole play was
about how dreams didn’t often mesh properly with reality.
Was she making the same mistakes? Not being willing to
accept the reality in front of her? Would she always long for something that
hadn’t been great in the first place? Time and distance might paint a patina
over that time in New York, and she might always wonder.
Her cell rang and she sighed as she looked down at it.
Mark. Asshole. Still, she picked up. She was in the top part
of the theater where they accessed the lights. She was far enough away she
shouldn’t disturb the rehearsal, but she kept her voice low anyway. “Mark, are
you doing okay?”
“No thanks to those overly muscled meatheads. Also, the
doctor here is terrible. He wouldn’t even prescribe me some valium to get
through the day. I’m going to go back to the lodge and hopefully they have
someone better,” Mark complained.
Nope. They had Ty Davis, who handled small emergencies as an
EMT, and if they needed more they called in Doc Burke. “I wanted to talk to you
about what happened in the café.”
“What happened in that café was I got brutalized.”
“Mark, you were sexually harassing me,” Brooke said in no
uncertain terms. She’d thought about it on her way over and decided this was
how she would handle it. No matter what he’d done, she couldn’t leave Bay to
face Mark’s wrath. She knew her ex-boss, knew how he loved to sue. Anyone. For
anything. It was like a game to him, which was one of the reasons she knew he
would absolutely use her brothers’ family against her. She was bluffing, but
she had to do something.
“I was being affectionate,” he countered. “I’m an
affectionate guy. Hey, I don’t think I need… What the fuck, man. I didn’t get
bitten. Brooke, that asshole doctor shoved a needle in my arm without even
asking.”
“It’s an antibiotic.” She could hear Caleb in the distance.
“I would let my nurse give it to you but she’s currently taking care of a
billionaire dumbass who got in a car accident and stole my best employee.”
“Naomi is his only employee,” Brooke corrected. “Well, at
least she was. I’ve seen the billionaire in question, and he’s hot. He’s a
friend’s brother. Really, it’s better when Naomi is around.”
“Which friend?” She could hear him moving. “Are you talking
about Georgia Stark?”
It wasn’t surprising he knew who she was. Georgia was a
force of nature. She wasn’t the shy, retiring type, though she absolutely was
kind and empathetic to everyone she met. But Georgia was unapologetically
Georgia, and that included being upfront and brazen about her nontraditional
marriage. “Georgia Stark-Warner. Yes, she’s a friend of mine.”
“No one gives a fuck about the other guy,” Mark dismissed.
“Stark is one of the biggest tech giants in the world. Georgia is rapidly
becoming an icon.” He paused, and she could hear him thinking. Manipulating.
Coming up with the best way to get what he wanted. “I heard you’re working on a
project for her.”
Well, that had gotten out fast. And now she knew why he’d
had a change of heart. He’d seen the pictures in the society pages. The one
where she was getting on the plane with the Stark-Warner family. She would bet
Georgia had been talking to friends about their new project. The news would be
all over town now. “This was never about how good I am at my job.”
“Of course it is. If you’re designing the Met Gala gown for
one of New York’s most interesting residents, you’re good.” He sighed. “But you
lack experience. You wouldn’t want to send your friend out in a dress that’s
guaranteed to be mocked by the press, would you?”
Fucker. “Let me guess. All I have to do to get my job back
is let you take credit for designing the gown.”
“It’s about more than credit. I would need to take a guiding
hand, and I’ll definitely want to sit in on your next session with Georgia. I’m
here for however long it takes, and when we’re done, we can head back to New
York together, but first we’ll stop in Milan.”
“Hey, Brooke. This guy is trying to manipulate you.” Caleb
must have been practically shouting because she could hear him loud and clear.
“You will hear from my attorney, sir,” Mark announced, and
she heard the jingle of the bell that announced someone was coming into the
clinic. “Now I need my Uber. Shouldn’t they be here already?”
“I think your Fuber driver is
probably finishing up math tutoring,” Brooke admitted. “He’ll get there.
Eventually. So all I have to do is give you access to my wealthy friends.”
A low chuckle came over the line. “Well, not the doctor,
though I’ll be happy to sue him.”
“I’m sure his brother will be thrilled.” Georgia could
handle him. She handled assholes all the time. It was a wave through her head,
the idea that if she couldn’t trust Bay and Shane to behave like normal humans,
that she should go back to New York. After the Met, she could likely find
another job and tell them all to fuck off.
Georgia had to deal with so many people wanting everything
from her. She couldn’t be another person who used Georgia’s sweet nature for
her own betterment.
“Here’s how it’s going to go, Mark. I’m not coming back. I’m
going to be making Georgia’s gown, and it will be my name on it. I’ll rise or
fall being Brooke Harper, but the honest truth is I don’t want to do fashion.
It bores me. I stayed because my family spent so much money on it and I hated
the idea that I could fail.” The truth of the matter was the worst had
happened. Rye was absolutely ashamed of her. Max would never say it, but then
his standards weren’t as high as Rye’s. For all his obnoxiousness, Max had
always been the softer touch of her brothers. Rye was the one who had to deal
with the day-to-day stuff.
A bit like Shane.
She was sure he would show up and try to cover for his
brother. He would accuse her of overreacting.
Had she? Again, what the hell would she have done if she’d
walked in and found some woman all over Bay? Or Shane? Would she have stood
there and watched, or would she have gotten down and dirty and saved her man?
“Listen to me, you little bitch, I have a plan and I’m not
going to let you fuck it up,” Mark snarled over the line.
Oh, she was not done. “And if you do decide to press charges
against my boyfriend, I’ll press charges against you for assault. I said no. I
said it loud enough for people to hear it.”
“No, you didn’t. You didn’t say a damn thing,” Mark replied.
“It’s going to be he said/she said, and we all know how that goes. Now that I
think about it, you might have tricked me. I think you set it up so your
boyfriend would hurt me. Now why would you do that, Brooke?”
She sighed. “I’m certain this would work in New York, but
buddy, we’re in my hometown, and I assure you Dr. Burke heard me say no. So did
Stella. Hell, I’m pretty sure Stef Talbot happened to be walking by, and he
heard me, too. Also, I’ll talk to our local judge. He’s like ninety, and he and
his wife used to babysit me. That’s what happens when you’re one of four kids
in the whole town. They become a village. You’re not going to get my village to
turn against me.”
“You small-town folks sure don’t mind using corruption when
it serves you,” Mark said bitterly.
“Not at all. I’ve learned that there’s no fighting fair with
a person like you. You put me in a corner. You should expect me to fight my way
out and not to give you a whole bunch of consideration about how I do it. Call
the Sheriff’s Department. Tell him you made a mistake or this is going to go
poorly for you. I can probably get Georgia to talk about how the House of
Bianchi seems to be in a downward spiral.”
He paused for a moment as though trying to find any kind of
way out. “But she would be talking about your line. It’s the next one out. It’s
the one everyone is going to be talking about. You would be hurting yourself.”
“Oh, that line? It doesn’t have my name on it, asshole,” she
shot back. “No one outside of Bianchi knows it’s mine, and if you try to say it
is, I’ll explain to the press that I have no knowledge of that line. Do not
assume that I work off the same principles that you do. Right now the only
thing I care about is fucking you over as thoroughly as possible.”
“Fine. I think the deputy’s here.” There was a deep