Chapter 10
Evie
The Improvisor
“I think we’ve cast our Final Girl,” Dante told me over the phone that night.
“Really?” I could barely contain my squeal.
“Oh yeah. That last scene? It looked so real, we’d be stupid not to cast you two opposite each other. I just got back from my meeting with the producers. Some of them weren’t happy, but I told them our decision was made.”
“What’s next, then?”
“Well, we scheduled one more day for chemistry tests, but we don’t need them anymore.
Take the day off, come back, and then we can discuss the final script for you and Sebastian.
I’m going to sit down with the writers and confirm everything.
” He went on about the schedule, but I found my mind wandering, disappearing elsewhere.
Returning to that set from this afternoon.
We had two more weeks of preparing before filming. We’d be doing more stunt training, intimacy training, script runs, rehearsals, more hair, makeup, and wardrobe days, along with whatever marketing they came up with.
After I hung up, I found a text from Glenn asking about my day. I told him I got the lead and noticed he didn’t admit to being the one who was pushing for me not to. He didn’t like Sebastian—which was fair. Sebastian didn’t like him either.
Especially after today, but I wasn’t going to be telling anyone about that. After we’d cut for the day, I’d showered and reflected on what had happened. Something about it was exhilarating, yet…coming down, post orgasm, I knew that I shouldn’t have done that with him.
He was distracting me.
Eventually, I told Glenn that I’d be spending my day off moving back into my mom’s house.
I’d gotten word that it was finally ready.
He invited himself to help, and in turn, I agreed to order dinner for us.
He made a casual remark about being more man than any actor could be, but I ignored the dig at Sebastian.
I decided I’d pick a side after the heavy boxes were brought in.
I still had reservations about Glenn. He was the son of one of my enemies, but that particular one had just died.
Heart attack in his hotel room, Glenn had said.
Could I get publicly involved with someone so close to the people I planned on making suffer?
I kept waffling between it being a stellar alibi and it being the thing that gets me caught.
As I lay in bed that night, I stared at the ceiling, trying to decide how I felt about being with Glenn. He was nice, handsome, and charming. But he wasn’t...Sebastian.
Not that any of it mattered in the end. Being with either of them long term meant either giving up my quest for revenge or having finished off the six men on my list and survived. Both scenarios seemed unlikely.
But it was nice to pretend…
I clenched my thighs together, thinking about this afternoon. It was the hottest thing I’d ever experienced—people in the room, them not knowing it was real...
I should have stopped him, and I think if it had been anyone else, I would have. I fell asleep with the question still on my mind. Who was I leading on—Glenn or Sebastian?
Myself.
SKYE CAUGHT ME the next morning leaning against the moving van in the studio lot.
“Hey! Isn’t today moving day? Why are you here?” She gave me a half-smile, half-pout. We’d grown close after she admitted to wanting the lead so badly that she ignored the signs that those flowers and the date she went on with Sebastian had been meant for me.
“Society wants to pit women against women, and I started to fall for the trap. I’m sorry.”
Her apology had made me see her in a different light, and I’d started to find her quite fun to be around.
“Yeah, Glenn is on his way. He’s gonna help. We’re just meeting here.”
“Glenn?” She raised an eyebrow and poured herself some juice. “A little birdie told me your chemistry test with Sebastian went phenomenally.”
“A little birdie?”
Her shoulders fell. “Dante called me last night and told me they’re going with you as the lead.” She perked up an instant later. “But I’m so happy for you. He said that your scenes were crazy hot. I can’t wait to see it. And I can’t wait for our epic fight scene at the end.”
“Same. I might even let you get in a real hit or two.”
We hugged.
“Oh, and Sebastian texted me this morning to tell me too. I think he felt bad that he couldn’t…perform with me, you know. Ugh, I hate you. You’ve got both of the hottest men on set vying for you!” she gushed.
I rolled my eyes. “I wouldn’t say that.”
“Oh, really? That same little birdie told me Sebastian was hard as a rock the entire day of your chemistry test. He was a limp marshmallow with me.” She gave a pout.
“Not that I’m entirely interested, but it would have been a nice compliment.
Oh well.” She winked just as Glenn pulled into the parking lot, sliding into the spot right beside us.
He got out and flashed a mega-watt smile, causing Skye to giggle.
I got into the van and Glenn joined me in the passenger’s seat.
I rolled the window down as I backed out of the spot and waved to Skye.
“See you on set,” I said before taking off to move back into my childhood home.
“IT LOOKS JUST like I remember,” I sighed as I stepped inside a few hours later.
“It’s…a lot of pink,” he said.
I nodded. “It was her favorite color. She used to joke that her heart was stuck in the seventies.” I took my shoes off and curled my toes into the shag carpet.
It indeed was a lot of pink. The walls had a rosy-pink shade of wallpaper, and she’d gotten the carpet to match.
On the walls, scattered in between photos of the two of us, were kitschy items, like vintage clocks, art prints, and plastic peacocks.
The furniture was old too—velvet couches and TVs that still had antennas.
Old, but not worn down. It was all in pristine condition.
Everywhere that guests were welcome, she’d maintained the aesthetic.
She’d allowed me to decorate my bedroom, and our home theater had been semi-modernized.
“Are you going to update it?”
“Nope. Well, just a few things. I had them add security cameras, and the TV in my room is new.” Shrugging, I directed him to take my box of clothes upstairs.
The home was modest in comparison to many celebrity homes. There were no giant wings or elevators. She and I had rooms on the same floor—down the same hall, even. But now, I couldn’t bear the idea of leaving her room empty, so I was taking it as mine and making my childhood bedroom a guest room.
Moving in went fast, so I opted to unpack as well. Glenn stayed with me, as I had to take him back to his car, and helped where he could. We began in my bedroom, starting with my books. We plopped down on the carpet and opened the boxes to fill the lower shelves first.
“I didn’t know your mom, but my dad always spoke highly of her. I think he may have had a thing for her, if I’m being honest,” he admitted.
I froze, turning to look at him. Did he know something? Or was this his way of checking to see if I knew anything? This was such a bad idea. I decided right then that I’d take tonight, grill him on details about his dad and my mom, and then politely break it off tomorrow.
As the plan was forming, a text came through from Sebastian.
Psycho Killer: Dinner plans, Final Girl?
He’d mentioned that I was saved as Final Girl in his phone, so I’d changed his name in mine.
Me: Can’t. Move-in day. Sorry.
I stuffed my phone into my pocket and returned to unpacking books with Glenn.
“You really like horror,” he said, glancing at the titles as he shelved them. He held up Christine, by Stephen King.
“It’s in my blood.”
“Was your dad an actor too?” he asked.
“I don’t know. She never told me who he was.” I shrugged. I’d never thought to look into it either. A memory of her popped into my mind, and I smiled, hearing her voice.
“What is he like?”
“Who?”
“My dad. Do I look like him? Or act like him?”
“You act and look like yourself, Evie Reyes. The man who helped create you is irrelevant. There’s a reason he isn’t in our lives.
Men aren’t important. Let me take a page out of you and Sebastian’s playbook and speak to you in movie quotes.
From the wise words of Jennifer Check, ‘Boys are just placeholders—they come and they go.’”
“But what if he comes looking for me?”
She laughed. “Then I’ll toss him into Falls Lake with all the others.”
I smiled at the memory. She’d been equal parts wise and snarky. I’d always admired her for being so boldly independent. She was who I strived to emulate every single day.
And she wasn’t wrong about men.
It was always my preference that men came and went, and most of them were fine with that. Every one of them, in fact, had been more than happy to bounce and forget my name after we’d slept together.
“Interesting. I bet it’s someone big in the industry, then. I wonder if you’re the love child of some high exec,” Glenn laughed, pulling me from my thoughts.
I doubted I was the product of a love affair. My mother was too smart and practical to have gotten pregnant solely because of her emotions.
“Tell me more about your dad,” I said, switching the conversation. “You know, other than the heart attack.”
Glenn flashed a brief grimace and nodded. “That was just what we told the public. What actually happened was kind of embarrassing.”
“Oh?” I paused my unpacking.
“They found him completely naked, with his cock stiff as a metal rod. The autopsy report said he’d taken too many little blue pills, and that’s what caused the heart attack.
My mom was mortified, so we said he’d died in his sleep.
We couldn’t let their image be tarnished.
They always pretended to have a storybook marriage. It was far from it.”
“Oh?” I asked, pressing for more.
He sighed. “I know he wasn’t the best husband, but he was a good man.”
I held back a snicker. If he was such a good man, then why was he going to dinner with my mother that night? And why did he kill her? None of the men on my list were “good.”
Glenn sensed my coldness and shrugged. There was silence for a beat before he spoke again.
“Thankfully, we’d already been discussing me taking over his roles in various projects, Simon Says Six being one of them.
It was an easy transition, and it allowed me to make the calls I wanted without any real fight amongst my family. ”
“Six Six,” I whispered under my breath.
“What?”
“Were you guys close?” I pressed, moving on from my joke.
I needed to know if he knew anything about my mom. Was he aware his dad had been one of her killers? Did he know she’d been murdered at all, or did he believe the suicide story they’d given?
He paused, setting the books in his hand down by his ankles.
“Somewhat. He brought me to meetings sometimes. If you’re asking about his affairs—yes, I knew about them. All of them.”
“All of them?” I raised an eyebrow. I licked my lips as my breathing hitched in excitement. I was so close…
He snickered and returned to the stack of books, filling the rest of the bottom row.
“Yes, even the one with your mother. It nearly destroyed our family.” He stood and brushed off his pants.
“He and my mother never had an affair,” I sneered, my mood dropping in an instant. Standing to join him, I huffed and glanced down at the hardcover still in my hand.
IT by Stephen King. It was one of the many first editions of his I’d collected sometime during my career. This book was thick.
“Evie.” He gave me a pointed look. “You don’t have to lie now. They’re both gone. I don’t hold it against her. She didn’t know my mom. She was just a career-driven woman doing what she needed to get to the top. That’s pretty common in this town. Ask your co-star.”
“Excuse me?” My mouth fell open. “My mother did not sleep her way to the top. And why are you bringing up Sebastian right now?”
He gave me a weird look and pursed his lips, as if trying to consider if he should tell me something or not.
“Let’s not get into it. That’s his business. I shouldn’t have said anything.” He bent down to open another box, but I wasn’t interested in unpacking anymore.
“My mother was not having an affair with your father,” I repeated.
“Well, you tell me, then, why my dad confessed to fucking her the night she killed herself? My mom told me everything, Evie. Sorry yours didn’t.”
“Your father raped her.” The words spilled from my mouth. I had no evidence of this, but in my heart, I knew there was no way my mother would have willingly slept with Thornton. She was smart, career-driven, and kind. She was not a home-wrecker.
My anger had gotten the best of me and was spilling out. He froze for a beat, then stood up straight.
“Rape is a strong word to throw around. You say it too loudly, and you won’t last very long here.”
“Is that a threat?” I tightened my grip on the book.
He put his hands up and started toward the door, his back now facing me. “I think we’re done here. My mom warned me dating you was a bad idea, but I ignored her because you’re really hot. We can have different opinions on things, Evie, but fact is fact. Your mother wasn’t raped. She was a slu—”
Before he could finish his sentence, I hurled the book at him. It spun in the air twice before the corner hit the back of his head with a loud thump. The eleven-hundred-page hardcover fell to the ground, and a moment later, so did he.
I stared at the limp body in disbelief before creeping toward him.
What had I done?
I went around to examine his head. His eyes were closed, but he seemed to be breathing.
Fuck.
This wasn’t part of the plan. I lifted his hand, but it fell limp. Shit, shit, shit. I looked around my bedroom. How did I get him downstairs? He was heavy. Rolling him onto his back, I grabbed him by the ankles and began to drag him. Where to, I wasn’t sure. Then, the doorbell rang.
I swore and grabbed my phone to pull up the doorbell camera. My stomach sank. I stared at the screen, then back at the unconscious body I was dragging through my house, then back at the screen.
Sebastian was here with pizza.