Chapter 29 Sutton
Sutton
I frown, looking at my laptop screen. The timelines on my build are efficient, but I want it completed faster.
“What are you doing?” Annabelle and Sawyer step into the kitchen, where I’m perched at the counter. The kids are settled for the night, and I grab my whiskey, the new Shadow Gentleman, taking a sip.
“Working.”
Sawyer huffs a laugh.
“What are you really doing?” He grabs a glass and joins me with the whiskey as Annabelle makes a hot drink.
“Offering Griffin more money to work faster.”
Sawyer pauses, his glass touching his lips before he lowers it to ask, “Faster? Are you in a rush to move out of here?”
“Just want my own place.” I’ve been living here with Sawyer and Annabelle for a few months now, and I want my own space, my own things. It’s time to get my own life started here in Whispers. I still feel like a visitor, and I want permanent lodgings.
“Doesn’t have anything to do with Nikki?” Annabelle raises an eyebrow at me.
“It has everything to do with it.” I’m honest, because if I can’t be honest with my siblings, then I’m fucked.
“I can’t believe that it’s finally happened.” Sawyer looks dumbfounded, sounds like it too.
I narrow my eyes. “What?”
“That you have fallen so hard and fast for a woman? Was it love at first sight or something?”
“It’s not love.” The words taste bitter on my tongue. It can’t be love, can it? “We’re having a good time,” I tell him, more for my own benefit than his.
“Sure. I know. That’s all you do. A good time.
Probably time you started to rein it in a bit, isn’t it?
I mean, Nikki is nice, and the town has accepted her and James as their own.
But you’re going to, what? Go back to LA?
Back to your movies and your ladies and forget all about her?
” His gaze homes in on me, and he couldn’t be more wrong.
There’s no way I would forget about her.
Just the thought of leaving her to go back to LA makes me feel hollow inside.
“I don’t know her well, but James sure seems like a bright kid,” Annabelle comments, and I smile, thinking of the kid who, like his sister, has embedded himself into my heart.
“He’s smart. Just like Nikki. She knows all these facts and stats, and I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone smarter than her.” Or more beautiful, genuine, easy to talk with.
“Must run in the family…” Annabelle huffs before sipping her tea.
“What?” I frown, wondering what she thinks.
“Hero savior complex.”
“Hero what?” Sawyer and I both ask in unison, confusion pinching our brows.
“Your brother tried to rescue me, and you might be doing the same.”
“We both know you didn’t need rescuing,” Sawyer says, and she grins softly.
“Yeah, but you kinda tried. It was cute.”
I smile, seeing her wink at my brother.
“Cute?” Sawyer gives her a look that says seriously?
“All I’m saying is that the two of you grew up with nothing, made something of yourselves, and now you both want to help others. Sawyer found me. Maybe you feel that way about Nikki too?”
I understand what she’s saying. I do like to help others. But that’s not what draws me to Nikki. The way I feel about her, the way I want to see her, spend time with her, be around her… I feel like she’s the one who’s rescuing me.
“You sure have been spending a lot of time at the diner. Maybe you need to cool it a bit, you know, so you don’t get caught out by the media,” Sawyer offers, and my shoulders tense. This might be the twentieth time he’s brought this up to me.
“I’m fine at the diner,” I say through a clenched jaw.
“People will find you. There’s been an increase in media attention. I know you live with your head in the sand about it, but they’re going to find you, and when they do, it’s going to be bedlam.”
He’s right. I go there every day. It doesn’t take a smart man to figure out where to find me if they want to. I take a long sip of whiskey, feeling the burn.
“Maybe you should go back to LA… just for a week or so. Show your face around, help to cool down the media attention.”
My answer is immediate. “No.” Leaving Whispers at this point in time feels like the worst decision I can make.
“You live in LA, remember? You’re going to have to go back there at some point.” Sawyer watches me carefully as Annabelle squeezes his arm and walks out to check on the boys.
“LA isn’t where I want to be anymore.”
I wait for him to say something as he exhales slowly.
“We’re not only talking about where you live and your lifestyle, but we’re talking about your career here, Sutton.
I know you can work from anywhere, but you know as well as I do that the minute you leave LA and the gossip dies off, your name won’t be front and center for the studios anymore. ”
I swallow. He’s right. I may still get a few parts, but not like I used to.
“It was bound to happen someday. There’s always a young kid about to rise the stardom ranks and take over as the new Hollywood it guy.
Maybe this way, I go out on top. On my terms. Not spending my years as a washed-up actor in the Hollywood Hills, still hanging out with women who only want me for my money. ”
He nods, but he’s no less concerned. “That’s a big decision to make. Especially over a girl.”
“It’s not just Nikki, although she’s fast becoming a big part of it. If I’m honest, it’s a decision that I’ve toyed with ever since I arrived here. Shit, even before, really.” Taking a deep breath, I shake my head. This conversation is getting heavier and more honest than I was anticipating.
“It did get a little crazy for a while,” my brother huffs out with a bit of a wince. “The girl in your bed after Cabo, the guy who you hit with your car… We’re missing something; we have to be.” Turning to face me fully, he asks, “Who knew you were in Cabo?”
Sawyer’s my brother, and I love him. But he’s also a kick-ass lawyer, so I know he’s latched on to a train of thought.
“Everyone. The paps had it on the front page of every magazine that week.”
“Who knew what time you would be home?” he pushes, and I have to think about this, because while I get followed all the time, there are only a handful of people who know the exact days and times of my whereabouts.
“Security team, led by Jackson, Bobby, you. The model I took with me and her people.” The list is longer than I thought.
“What about the guy who you hit with your car?” He’s trying to connect dots that are still too far apart to connect just yet.
“Again, security, Jackson, Bobby… Jackson was driving, and I had another security guy in the back with me. Bobby was at the restaurant, standing on the sidewalk when it happened, waiting for the valet to get his car.”
“So Jackson and Bobby are the consistent people, then?”
“Uh-huh… Why? What are you thinking?” I can see it in his face, he has something he wants to say.
“I’m thinking that you have a mole on your team. Someone who’s setting up these events, hoping to tarnish your name, or at least get you negative media attention.”
“Why, though? There’s no benefit.” I’m confused as to why someone on my team would want to see me fail.
“Money. It’s always about money.”
That doesn’t make sense. “They get paid extremely well.”
“Yeah, but someone might want to bring you down so they could leverage that to either earn more, or maybe they have another client they want to rise up over you, then negative media is what they would use to do that. You know what Bobby says, any publicity is good publicity. What about Jackson? Maybe the media is paying him to catch you out? Get some photos of you in a compromised position?”
I shake my head. There’s no way. Jackson is former special ops. He’s genuine, loyal, and he’s been with me for years now.
“Alright. Then Bobby?” Sawyer looks at me pointedly.
“Bobby is an asshole, but he isn’t one to do something like that.”
He sighs heavily, like he’s annoyed I won’t get on the same page. “We both know he’s in it for himself. Money talks with him.”
“Maybe…” I’m not sure what to think. But one thing’s for certain; I don’t trust Bobby anymore, and once trust is gone, you can never regain it.
I look at her contraption in awe. While I pretended to help James with his homework, Nikki was outside, connecting an old car battery she picked up for her turbine.
Seeing it working brought a smile to all our faces. The simple act of creating something with your own hands is one I admire.
“Wish I could do something like that.” I watch the breeze push the turbine and all the cables and wires connected to the battery.
Her frown is cute as she takes in her masterpiece. “We need to test it…”
“How do we do that?” James asks exactly what I was thinking.
“I need a power inverter.”
“Where do we get one of those?” I question, and she looks at me with a sad smile.
“We don’t.” Her shoulders slump. “They cost a lot, and I don’t think I will find one of those on the noticeboard here in Whispers.” She starts packing up her tools, the experiment now apparently over.
“Bummer.” James looks as disappointed as I feel.
“So that’s it? You built this and are just going to stop now?” It’s like finishing a movie at the climax and not getting the end scenes that bring it all together.
“That’s it.” She throws her tools into her small toolbox and cleans up the area.
“But that can’t be it.” I have no idea how she can be so calm.
She shrugs. “Unless you know anyone who has an inverter.”
“I’m going inside.” Her brother is clearly not interested, now that the final piece of the puzzle isn’t here.
“You’re a tease…” I look at her with a sigh.
“How so?” She’s disappointed I can see it, even if it’s not at the surface. But there’s also humor in her eyes; she doesn’t take these things too seriously.