Chapter 38
chapter
thirty-eight
Stella
T he story wasn’t going away anytime soon. It was at the top of the gossip sites, the news stations, and even the papers in a lot of major cities: “Fan-club president dies in attempt to murder Seven Harrison’s fiancée. Olivier Griffiths is real-life action hero.” Somehow I’d been upgraded from “girlfriend” to make the drama more dramatic.
Meanwhile, we had to deal with the arduous fallout of the whole incident on our end. Police interviews. Crime scene investigators. Doctors appointments with documentation of my injuries and Ollie’s. Then came the litany of questions: How had she gotten in? Why was she there? Why was that morning the day she snapped?
Ollie and I were separated during the questioning. Seven refused to be removed even when the attorney he hired for me showed up. Peter couldn’t represent Ollie and I both. Even if he was willing, he couldn’t physically be in two places at once.
The questioning seemed to go on forever, or so it seemed. I still wasn’t sure who told them I was Seven’s fiancée. At the time, it hadn’t really seemed that important. Then Page Six announced it.
The hardest pill to swallow in all of this was the fact that the woman who attacked us and died was the president of one of Seven’s online fan clubs, a woman named Karen Tyler. She’d also been employed by the company that provided our house cleaners.
She’d had access to the house and the guys for months. The invasiveness wasn’t lost on me. Seven was furious because what else had she been doing in the house? The police were going to search her place and continue their investigation, but all three guys reluctantly admitted they’d “lost” a lot of underwear in recent months.
Since Ollie and I had basically told them the same story, they weren’t charging him. They did, however, ask him to restrict any travel for a while. It was so late when we left the station, the sun had already set. Gem, however, waited for us in the lot with coffee, food, and a warm hug that I desperately needed.
Gem had gone to see my dad at some point when we were at the police station. With the breaking news, he wanted to be the one to let him know I was okay. He also wanted to relocate him. Since the house was the epicenter of the investigation, he arranged to move Dad into a place nearby with increased security and in-home care.
As for the four of us? We were staying in another mansion that Jerry had secured for us. Increased security included a manned security gate and a patrol. I’d never imagined that would be a life I wanted to live.
The media was everywhere—the press, the paps, all of them. The only time we left was for Ollie’s red-carpet premiere, and we went together, all of us. The questions and the press of the crowd were insane.
One other piece of crazy that came out about Karen Tyler and her attack: she’d been egged on by Dillon. Apparently, he’d been feeding her all the info. While the police were still investigating him, he’d been blacklisted. Peter also got a restraining order filed against Dillon to keep him far away from us.
Two weeks after Karen Tyler died, the house was released by the cops and the death labeled self-defense. She’d died trying to attack us, and all Ollie had done was shove her back when she’d tried to charge me. Her death was an accident.
When Peter called us with the news, I did something I wouldn’t have expected in a million years: I burst into tears. Something hot and fierce broke inside of me, and everything came out in a torrent.
Ollie wrapped me up tight and held me while I cried, then he released me to Gem while Ollie went to get us drinks. Eventually, Gem surrendered me to Seven. None of them teased me about the waterworks or the fact that I was the worst crier. My eyes got all puffy and my nose ran. It was pretty damn awful.
“Hey,” Seven said when the crying slowed to hiccups. “You get that all out of your system, Stray?”
I lifted my sore and swollen eyes to glare at him. “Don’t start.”
“I never finished,” he murmured, rubbing a slow circle against my back.
“Pfft.” When I stuck my tongue out at him, he laughed.
“Slick,” Gem said, “we have a proposition for you.”
“A deal as it were.” Ollie picked up the thread.
“A negotiation,” Seven added. “But we’re not discussing terms until you’re up for it.”
“I’m up for it,” I said, sniffing, then accepting the tissue to wipe at my eyes before I blew my nose.
For some reason, the fact it actually made a honking sound had Seven flinching but then struggling to control his laughter, which made me feel better.
“Thank you,” I said to Ollie as he passed me a drink. It was a cold glass of wine, and I was more than ready for it. “Should I be drinking before we talk terms for this proposition slash deal slash negotiation?”
“It’s going to take a while,” Gem said. “Last time I checked, you enjoyed a good wager.”
I did, but what did that have to do with anything? Ollie and Gem grinned as they looked past me. Seven was curiously silent on this part.
“Okay, spill it, boys.” I had most of my equilibrium back. They were all safe and here, and we were together. My dad was fine and doing well, thanks to the guys. Then because I shouldn’t be sitting in a lap to negotiate, I got up and paced over to a second sofa, where I took a seat and eyed all three of them. “Anyone? Bueller?”
Seven snorted, a faint smile on his lips. “Excellent reference.”
I saluted him with my wine. At least I still had my sense of humor. The three looked at each other and then as if by silent consensus, they stuck their hands out.
“Oh my god, are you seriously going to rock, paper, scissors this?”
“Yep.” Ollie grinned at me. “Very democratic of us.”
The part that made me laugh was the twins. They took Ollie out in the first round. He slid past them to come sit next to me. He even stretched and dropped his arm over my shoulders. The boys kept choosing the exact same thing.
“We’re going to be here all night, and they’re both going to do scissors this time.” They stopped on scissors at the same moment I said it. Their glares amused me. After setting my wine down, I flicked open my bag and pulled out my change purse. I fished out a quarter and tossed it to Gem. “Flip the coin because now I want to know what you three are up to.”
Gem flipped the coin and let Seven call it.
“Heads,” he said.
With a smirk, Gem revealed the tails-up coin.
“You palmed it,” Seven said. “Don’t think I don’t know that trick.”
“Whatever, boys, deal with generational trauma later. What’s up?” Admittedly, the more hell they gave each other, the better I was feeling. I also liked Ollie being right here, where I could lean against his shoulder.
“You remember how we met?” Gem said, eyeing me.
“Pretty hard to forget. You were in my spot.”
He blinked. “What?”
“That corner stool. It’s my favorite, and you were sitting in it. So when I had the chance to get it, I had to take it.” Had I not mentioned this before? I could have sworn I did.
“I thought that was a joke.” The shocked look on Gem’s face was priceless. “So if I hadn’t been sitting in your spot…”
I shrugged. “I might not have talked to you.” Then, because he looked so genuinely troubled by that, I continued, “Which would have been a terrible shame. Though I still think you hitting on Flip as Seven would have been hilarious.”
Seven whipped his head up to stare at me. “Excuse me? Also, who the fuck is Flip?”
“No one,” Gem said, his grin growing. “Just a guy, and you owe me, Sev. I had to clean up at pool to make sure she didn’t win that bet.”
“Eh,” I said. “I still feel like I won.” Gem held my gaze and all the warmth unfolded in my chest. I adored that man.
“Me too,” Gem said with a sigh. “You surprised me that night. You keep surprising me. I love how you do it. I love you.”
Oh, my heart lodged in my throat.
“While our first meeting wasn’t as prosaic,” Ollie said, “I’m really fucking glad I got there in time to deal with the asshole. Just wish I’d broken his legs now.”
“Me too,” Gem and Seven said in one voice. No, that wasn’t creepy at all.
“Still, Snow—you know why I call you that, don’t you?” Ollie studied me.
“No?”
“Snow White’s hair was black as ebony.” He slid his fingers through my hair, combing it. “I’m pretty sure I fell for you that night when you stubbornly refused to go to the hospital or see a doctor, and I had to drag you back to the house.”
I bit my lip. That was so damn sappy, and it made the tears burn in my eyes all over again.
“You stole my heart, Stella Charles. You aren’t allowed to give it back. But I’m with Gem—I don’t want this to end.”
This…all of us?
I shifted my gaze to Seven. All three went quiet until Gem smacked Seven. “Not funny. Play nice.”
For his part, Seven smirked. “Stray is never going to buy me being nice.”
“Nope,” I said. “I much prefer you being you. Even when you’re an asshole.”
“Then let’s say you’ve been a thorn in my side from the beginning. Mouthy. Irreverent. Stubborn .”
I shrugged on the last.
“You’re also brutally honest with me when few people are willing to be. Even if I don’t like hearing it, I like that you’ll say it. I could wish you had better taste in movies, but then…you like me despite the fact that I’m an actor. I like that?—”
Gem elbowed him.
“Fine, I love that about you.” He shot a look at his twin. “Fuck off, Gem. I didn’t interrupt your pitch.”
“That’s because his pitch was good,” Ollie volunteered helpfully.
A laugh escaped me, and I smacked Ollie’s thigh. “Seven is doing just fine, even without a script.”
“Thank you,” he murmured.
“Don’t mention it,” I retorted. “Seriously just…continue.”
“All of us want you to stay,” Seven said. “You may have noticed that we’ve been talking. We don’t always agree on everything, but on this we agree: we want you.”
“We love you,” Gem stressed.
“We can’t get enough of you,” Ollie added.
“Guys…” I paused to gather it all together before I downed the glass of wine. Courage was courage, and if they could be this open with me, well, time to suck it up, buttercup. “I love all of you, but…can we really make it work? I mean three of you and one of me? What will the columns say? What about your careers?”
“Come on, where’s your sense of adventure?” Seven started. “We can make anything work if we want it badly enough. The three of us are living proof of that. You, Stella Charles? So are you. You wanted to take care of your dad, and you did whatever was necessary, even dealing with an ass like me.”
“As for the three of us and the one of you,” Gem said, stepping up to answer my other questions, “not sure if you’ve noticed, Slick, but it’s been working for us. Yeah, we butt heads, and some of us are greedy fucks. I don’t care that Seven is your public boyfriend. I wouldn’t care if Ollie was. Or both. Whatever. I don’t give a fuck what the columns say.”
“As for our careers,” Ollie said, “financially? We’re solid at the moment. I’ve been thinking about doing more producing, so if the parts dry up, I’ll find that perfect script and make sure it gets made. If the choice is my career or you? I choose you.”
“Carriage Pictures?” I looked at Seven.
“I had Jerry lay it out for them. He wasn’t a fan of playing hardball, but I’m not letting a deal derail our lives. I’ll still make movies whether it’s for Carriage Pictures or B64 Studios.”
I swiped at the tear that escaped and shifted my gaze to Gem. “But you hate the attention.” They’d all made that clear, even if I couldn’t see it for myself. Gem liked occasionally playing Shadow Seven, but he hated being in the spotlight as Gemini.
“True. We’ll figure that part out. Maybe I’ll shave my head and get a tattoo. I can still double for Sev when he needs it. They have CGI; they can airbrush out what they don’t like.” He blew out a breath. “The only thing that makes this all work though is if you say yes.”
I wanted to say yes.
“But,” Seven interjected, “we know exactly how stubborn you are, so here’s the deal, Stray. You and me, one-on-one, pool. I win, you give us six months to prove this works.”
“And if I win?”
“You get whatever you want,” he said. “But I’m not planning to let you win.”
Let me win?
I pursed my lips. “Whatever I want?”
“Whatever you want.”
I could always stay anyway— after I kicked his ass.
“Deal.”