Chapter 24
Sebastian
The Set Tour
“I did it. Holy shit, Sebastian—I did it.” Her face was a mixture of shock and excitement. She was smiling, but her eyes kept drifting off. I didn’t blame her. Dourif had dropped some major information.
“You did. Good job, Final Girl.” I reached for her hand across the bar. “You’re a natural. You ready to get out of here?”
“What? Shouldn’t we take care of his body or something?” Her brows knitted together.
“Look around the room. He’s got a table full of coke and the reputation as a slimeball fuck of a manager.
No one’s going to give a shit about him.
They’re going to assume he got into some trouble.
It’s fine. We just gotta wash the blood off ourselves.
” I grabbed the can I’d discarded and came around the bar, stepping carefully to not stomp in the blood.
I went to the coffee table, where the cocaine was scattered all over.
Bending down, I grabbed the tray with Evie’s prints and took my shirt to it, wiping it clean.
I set it back down carefully without touching it with my own hands.
“Where do we do that? We can’t go back the way we came.” Evie’s eyes grew wide as panic began to take over.
“There’s a back door. Look, he’s got a pool. Let’s go out that way and jump in real quick. We’ll be fine.” I grabbed our wigs and headed to the back door.
Exiting, we walked over and stood by the pool.
“Will this work? With DNA and stuff?” Evie asked, squeezing my hand. I dropped the wigs and sighed.
“I think it will do well enough. Dourif is so low on the totem pole, no one’s going to look that hard for who did it.”
“Sometimes dead is better,” she muttered.
“Exactly. Let’s do this, quick.” With my free hand I plugged my nose. Bending my knees, I counted down. “One, two, three!”
Together, we jumped into the pool, fully clothed. The water stung momentarily, but I popped back up a moment later and blinked away the chlorine. Evie followed a second later, wiping her face.
All around us, Dourif’s blood mixed with the water. I wagged my hands under the surface, and soon, the red was gone. Paddling to the ladder, we pulled ourselves up, now significantly water-logged.
Picking our wigs back up, I glanced back at the house. The party was still in full swing, thankfully. He wouldn’t be found until morning at the earliest. I called for our driver, and as we waited, we wrung our clothes out.
“You think he’ll notice?” Evie asked nervously as she squeezed her hair out into a bush.
“Yeah, but let’s play it off.” A few moments later, he pulled up, and we got in, leaving the scene.
“Are you wet on my seat?” The driver asked, scowling. I snickered.
“Yeah, things were crazy over there. We fell into the pool. Sorry, bill me for the damage.”
He huffed and rolled the window up, then clicked on the intercom to ask where we needed to go.
I looked over at Evie. She yawned and slumped in her seat. Between her coming down from the coke, the fight with Dourif, and the jump in the pool, she looked like hell.
“What time is it?” Evie asked. “We have to be at the studio at six.”
I looked at my watch. It was just past midnight. She needed rest, but I’d just slammed a Red Bull and was wide awake.
“Take us back to my place,” I told Anton and then turned to her. “You can sleep in a guest room.”
“I’m tired, but I’m not at the same time,” she sighed.
I knew the feeling.
She closed her eyes as I got out my phone and started to text Anderson, asking for a later call time, but I hesitated then deleted the message.
It would look bad if we didn’t show up to work on time and had been seen at the party.
We’d just have to power through tomorrow and take naps in our trailers when we could.
Evie fell onto my shoulder, and I looked down, taking her in.
She looked even more beautiful covered in blood.
I sighed. She didn’t realize it, and I wasn’t sure I’d ever tell her, but her enemies were my enemies.
She’d just killed a man and was sleeping like a baby.
I imagined I’d sleep well, too, once this was all over.
When we reached my house, I woke her up.
Her eyes fluttered open, and she sat up. “Where are we?”
“My house. I have dogs. Just a heads-up.”
She rubbed her eyes. “Dogs?”
“You good?” I asked with a chuckle as I helped her out of the car.
“I’m great. That little nap was actually really refreshing.”
“Good, because it’s going to be a late night.” I unlocked the door and pushed it open.
“Late? But our call time is early.”
“Yes, but we need an alibi.”
I let her go in first and flicked the hallway light on as I shut the door. A second later, there was a scratching sound, followed by panting. My tiny white Bichon Frise ran into the hall, followed by my Saint Bernard.
“Is that...” Evie stared down the hall as they paused then bounded our way.
“Precious and Cujo?” I squatted for my babies to greet me. “Yes, ma’am. Although you wouldn’t guess who’s who.” I lifted the smaller dog and waved his little paws. “Meet Cujo.”
“And that’s Precious?” Evie laughed, dropping down to pet the giant Saint Bernard.
“I got Precious first. Cujo seemed like the low-hanging fruit, but I wanted another name from horror.” I explained how the big one got the name of the dog from Silence of the Lambs. “But then I was gifted this little guy, and I thought it was funny to give them reversed names.”
“It’s cute. I love it. I would have never guessed you’d own a poodle dog.”
“Bichon Frise,” I corrected and stood, taking Cujo with us. “And he was a gift.”
“That’s wild. Who gifts people pets?” she asked.
I bit back the truth of who exactly had given me Cujo and instead made a joke. “That’s Hollywood.”
She didn’t need to know that Cujo came from a producer I’d spent the night with to get a gig I’d wanted.
The producer felt guilty about the bruising she’d left me with and thought Cujo would make up for it, even though I’d told her a role in her movie was enough.
But she’d insisted, and in a way, it did help.
I’d always wanted a dog growing up, and I also got the part in her movie.
Taking our wet socks and shoes off at the door, I took Evie into the living room. She’d never been inside. Suddenly, I felt a little exposed, which was ironic, considering my career. I looked around, hoping the furniture and decor weren’t too cringe.
“So, what were you saying about needing an alibi?” she asked.
Right, the alibi.
“Yeah, well, if people were to investigate, which again, I don’t think they will, they might remember we were at the premiere. We need to make it look like we’ve been here all night.”
“How do we do that?”
“The internet.”
She cocked her head.
Cujo squirmed in my arms. I let him down gently and followed him to the kitchen, where both dogs demanded snacks. I offered them treats and then looked up at Evie. “We should do a livestream, where we casually drop that we’ve been hanging out at my place all night.”
Her lips formed an O, and then she looked down at herself, drenched still, and shivered.
“I...need to change.”
“You can have one of my shirts,” I offered, taking her upstairs. I went to my closet, and as I stripped out of my own wet clothes, I tossed her a band tee. “Take everything off. I’ll wash them.”
“Everything?”
I walked out of my closet in nothing but a clean pair of boxers. “Everything.”
She blushed as she turned away.
I stood and watched as she pulled off her jacket and pants then put on my shirt. It was so large on her, it covered her ass, but just barely. My cock pulsed as she unhooked her bra and slid her panties down her shapely legs. She turned and gave me the clothes.
“Can I borrow some boxers?” she asked.
“These were my last pair,” I lied, smirking.
The giant eye roll and twitch of her lips told me she knew I was lying, but didn’t call me on it. I wondered if she was remembering the dressing room, where I fucked her dressed as a clown. I was.
“Well, how am I supposed to go live almost naked?” she asked as I took her back downstairs, tossing our clothes into the wash. My laundry room faced the backyard. I gazed out the window.
“Let’s get in the hot tub.” I flicked on the outside lights, revealing my backyard. “Our hair is already wet, so it’ll look like we’ve been in the pool all night. Oh, you’ll love this.” I went to the control box and pushed the button to retract the tarp.
“Whoa. Why is it red?” She stepped toward the pool, her wide eyes and even wider smile giving me joy.
I grinned. “Neat, ain’t it? Cost me a fucking fortune. It’s the liner. The water is normal.” I took her down to the pool. Due to the reflection of the liner, the water resembled blood, which was the point.
“I’m obsessed,” she muttered.
I moved behind her, sliding my arms around her and cradling my chin on her neck. “Me too.”
Silence fell between us as we took in my confession. She gently stepped out of my arms and turned.
“Okay, I’d like a few hours of sleep at least, so let’s get this livestream over.”
“Right, yeah.”
I went inside and grabbed my phone and a stand.
On my way back, I turned the hot tub on.
I looked around but didn’t see Evie anywhere.
A shred of panic settled around me, and I called her name.
Her head popped up from inside the pool, and I jumped.
She laughed as she swam over to the ledge and climbed out.
My shirt clung to her curves, sending my mind to depraved places.
“I had to see for myself.”
“How’s the burn?” I asked, reaching for her arm. He’d landed the cherry on one of her tattoos.
“It stings, but I’ll be fine.” She winced.
I held up my phone and nodded toward the bubbling hot tub.
“Get in. I’ll set this up.”
I watched as she climbed into the hot tub, dressed in just my shirt. My cock wept, but the idea of fucking her in a place that wasn’t entirely special for me felt...wrong. I wasn’t going to waste one of my times in the fucking hot tub.
She was worth more than that. Evie wasn’t some cheap lay.
I set the stand at the edge and climbed in with her. The hot water felt great on my sore muscles. I sank low and then popped back up.
“Okay, so we’ll get on camera for a bit, do some flirty Q&A stuff, and we need to mention that we’re so tired because after the premiere, we came here and have been hanging out all night. Got it?” I turned back to her.
She gave me a thumbs-up, and I pushed the timer to go live. I leaned back to rest on the seat next to her.
“Okay, Final Girl, convince them you love me.”