Chapter 34
Sebastian
The Lawyer
Bryce stopped by my trailer after we wrapped for the day. “What are you doing tonight? Skye wants us all to hang out.”
I looked up from my phone.
“Actually, I was invited,” I said, using air quotes, “to my neighbor’s place.”
“Invited?”
“Yeah, I can’t say no. You know how it goes.”
I’d just gotten a reminder text from Frederick Castle, in fact. He’d made it clear that my attendance wasn’t an option.
“Who’s your neighbor? A new director?” Bryce raised an eyebrow.
While he didn’t know exact details, he knew some about how I’d made my way in this town.
I shook my head. “Nothing like that. I think those days are behind me now.”
Evie, smiling and laughing on my couch, flashed through my mind briefly, warming my chest.
“He’s a lawyer for the studio. He just wants to push his foot on my neck a little. Make sure I know my place.”
Bryce leaned on the counter in my mini-kitchen and crossed his arms. “That’s what they all say, ain’t it? Know your place?”
“You’re not wrong,” I admitted. “But I can’t miss this.”
“Fine, Skye and I will go with you. Bring Evie too.”
“I don’t think this is a good idea,” I warned.
He rolled his eyes, so I clarified. “This is a man on Evie’s list. I’m going to take care of it.”
He took in my words, nodding and pursing his lips. “Even more reason to have company. Let me cancel on Skye.” Pulling out his phone, he shot off a text to her. However, whatever he sent her must not have been clear enough, because when I pulled up to Evie’s to pick her up, Skye was there.
“What are you doing here?” I said, sharper than I’d meant to.
“Bryce canceled on me, so I drove over to see what Evie was doing.” She shrugged.
I turned to Evie, but she was looking away guiltily.
She always had a hard time telling Skye no.
Sighing heavily, I tried to work out everything in my head as we drove back to my place, but there really was no good way to do this.
It was looking like the lawyer would live to fight another day.
By evening, the four of us were walking to Fred’s, swimsuits on and towels slung over our arms. I held Evie’s hand firmly, making sure she knew I would not allow a repeat of last time we’d come here.
All week, our chemistry had been off. We hardly spoke, until our emotions exploded on set at the end of the week, and we talked about what had happened at the poker game.
Our conversation continued after work and well into the night.
We talked about body betrayal, both hers and mine.
I explained how everything transpired that night and how it led to me pushing her to her knees.
While I wasn’t entirely sure what was going on in her head, she seemed to welcome me back into her orbit, but at a distance.
Fred’s French maid welcomed us in, confusion on her face as she saw my party. She took us around back, and Fred gave us all the same look as he eyed us in a line. “Evie, Bryce…”
“Skye,” I said when he didn’t recognize the last person in our little group. “You said in your text you wanted to see the star of the movie. Well, it’s a collective effort. All of us, I’d say, are the stars.”
“Your paychecks would say otherwise,” Fred muttered but invited us farther into his backyard.
“I’d only planned for you and me, but luckily I always keep my bar stocked.
Welcome to my home. Gwen, drinks!” he shouted at his housemaid.
Stripping off his robe, he dropped it where he stood and strode to the pool, where he dove into the water and popped back up.
He climbed out and went straight to the hot tub. “Come on, join me!” He smiled.
I raked my gaze across his yard, comparing it to my own. It was pretty average for this neighborhood. A large pool with a hot tub nearby, very little grass, with concrete covering most of the property. To the right was a large outdoor bar decorated like a cheesy tiki shack.
I squeezed Evie’s hand and dropped it so that I could set our towels down and slide my shoes off.
I wore loose black shorts that went to my knees.
Bryce kept the cowboy hat and had chosen navy shorts that were so tight, I saw his frank and both beans.
Skye had on a pink-and-green bikini that could be undone with one tug of a string, apparently she kept one in her car just in case.
Evie had unintentionally matched me, with a black two-piece.
Her swimsuit had bikini bottoms, but the top was a skin-tight long-sleeved crop top that I found ten times sexier than the bikini Skye wore.
We joined Fred, and a moment later, music began playing from speakers around the yard.
“So, how is everyone? Did you work hard this week making the biggest movie of next year?” Fred asked warmly, but his eye twitched as he forced the small talk. He’d been thrown off by all of us, and it showed.
We chatted, and Bryce, ever the entertainer, took charge of the conversation. If I didn’t know exactly why I’d been brought here, I would think Fred was a decent guy.
An hour into our evening, Fred climbed out of the hot tub and called for me to join him at the bar. He went around the counter and prepared us all fresh cocktails.
“I think your plan backfired, Shaw,” he said with a smile.
“What plan?” I glanced back at my friends. They’d climbed out of the hot tub too, and the girls were lounging on the beach chairs. Bryce popped up behind me, dropping his hand on my shoulder and leaning over the bar.
“Where’s your can, Castle?”
“My bathroom? It’s inside, right past the kitchen. My maid went home for the night, but just turn on the lights. You’ll find it,” Fred told him, then he turned back to me after Bryce had disappeared into the house.
“Your plan to surround yourself with witnesses. Did you think I’d kill you tonight?”
I hadn’t ruled it out. Why else would he have wanted to get me and Evie here alone? I’d confessed that I knew what he and his friends had done to Lita. He couldn’t just let that information get out.
My thoughts must have shown on my face, because he snickered and slid my drink to me.
“I did consider it, but this movie is costing a lot, and your death would make many of my friends, and myself, lose quite a bit of money. So, for now, you live another day.” He lifted his drink, expecting me to toast.
I did so, bitterly.
He laughed after taking a sip. “Consider this a probation period. You have until the movie wraps. After that, we’ll decide what we want to do with you.”
He took the rest of the drinks, put them on a tray, and carried them to the girls. Leaving his drink by the hot tub, he dove into the pool. I joined him this time, and soon Evie and Skye left their chairs and stepped into the cooler water.
Just as night started to fall, Bryce returned and cannonballed.
“’Bout fucking time,” Fred muttered when Bryce’s head popped out of the water. “You clog my toilet or something?”
Bryce snickered. “Got a little lost is all. I like the farmhouse look you’ve got going in your kitchen.”
“I actually need to redecorate. That kitchen was my second wife’s doing. She was all about that live, laugh, love bullshit.”
As the night went on, I noticed Bryce was really schmoozing him, and I wondered if he had an ulterior motive for coming tonight. He was feeding Fred drink after drink and matching him sip for sip. Only, something was off. I knew Bryce almost as well as I knew myself, and he could hold his liquor.
He was faking being drunk.
Unsure and uneasy, I drifted to the pool chairs, and Skye and Evie joined me. We drank and enjoyed the music, while Bryce and Fred hung out loudly in the hot tub.
“Why don’t you join us, Evie, Sebastian?” Bryce called out.
Fred, completely shit-faced, huffed.
“She’s not coming anywhere near me. She’s mad at me for fucking her mother.” Fred reached for his drink and laughed. “And if that’s the case, she’s got to be mad at half this fucking town.”
Evie sat up, and I reached for her hand, squeezing it tight.
“Beep beep, Ritchie,” I muttered.
She inhaled deeply and sat back, forcing herself not to engage.
“Sorry, it’s just a fact. Lita Reyes was Hollywood’s mattress. She kept kneepads in her purse.”
“Evie, Skye!” Bryce snapped his fingers and looked directly at me. All pretense of drunkenness was gone from his eyes.
I sat up, curious.
“Go make us a couple of drinks, will ya?”
“Fuck you, Bryce,” Skye said, settling back in her seat.
“Fine, fine.” Bryce climbed out of the hot tub, puffed his chest, and strode over to the bar. He ducked down and came back up. “You got an extension cord, Castle?”
“Yeah, here!” Fred popped out of the hot tub just long enough to grab an extension cord and toss it to Bryce.
Bryce came back over, took it, and tugged it all the way to the bar, plugging in a blender.
“Oh, shit, I gotta go piss,” Bryce said suddenly, then ran inside.
Fred turned his attention to us again. “I think you’re just a little out of your depth, sweetie. Sure, you got Mike and Jason. They were easy to pick off. Jason was a dumb fuck, and Mike—well, you knew Mike, didn’t you, Shaw?” He snickered.
I remained silent, but I couldn’t control my expression. My nostrils flared as I shot daggers with my eyes. Fred glanced from me to Evie. And when I did as well, I saw a look of confusion on Evie’s face.
“I guess Lita wasn’t the only one keeping secrets from you, then,” he said to Evie.
He kept talking, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Bryce slip back outside, something in his hands.
“What do you mean, secrets? I know one of you might be my father.” Evie sat up.
“Is that what she told you? She was always so full of it. She knew who’d knocked her up.
It sure as hell wasn’t me. I got snipped two weeks after moving to this godforsaken town.
She knew that. Let me guess, was she raped, too?
That bitch was a willing participant every single time, of which there were many.
Many, many times.” He sat back against the wall of the hot tub.
“Lita had a magic pussy—kind of like your boyfriend, Evie. They call it something different in that community…”
A shadow caught my eye, and I flicked my gaze behind Fred, who was still rambling. I tried not to react as Bryce slowly walked toward the hot tub, a toaster in his hands.
It was plugged into the extension cord.
“Pick up your feet.” I kept my voice calm but firm.
Skye and Evie looked at me, confused, but quickly pulled their knees up to their chests.
“What was that saying all over your kitchen again?” Bryce asked.
Fred spun around, startled. “Live, laugh—”
Bryce lifted the appliance over his head and threw it into the tub, cutting him off.
There was a loud pop, a bright flash of electricity, and Fred stiffened as the shock ran through his body.
He cried out, but it was cut off in an instant.
His eyes rolled into the back of his head, and then slowly, he fell face-first into the water.
I leaned over to get a better look. It had only been moments, but his body was already ashen.
The bubbles from the hot tub continued to roll around him, the electricity flickering under the water.
Silence fell over the yard as we stared in horror at Bryce—who was beaming proudly.
“Toaster bath.”