Chapter 31
I could only take so much.
“Aires, please stop.”
“No! I’m not going to stop it! Not until you at least understand that Robert is a fucking snake.”
I could feel my resolve crumbling.
“I can’t breathe,” I admitted. “I feel like I can’t breathe.”
With his face on the side of my face, he glided his cheek along the crevice of my jaw and then along the side of my neck. Moving his lips to my quivering pout.
He kissed my lips, murmuring, “Then I’ll breathe for you.”
My mind couldn’t process all this fast enough, and I don’t know how long I lost myself in thought for. Minutes felt like hours.
I needed to go with my instincts. “Aires, I can’t?—”
“You can,” a familiar voice chimed in, yanking our attention to Aires’s agent, Thomas.
What the hell?
This was like an episode of The Twilight Zone.
I didn’t have time to give it much thought when Thomas suddenly appeared beside us. This only added to my afflicting thoughts of where this was going,fueling my emotions all over again.My head pounded, spinning with every sentiment known to man, mixing in with all my unraveling thoughts and questions.
Aires asked him, “What are you doing here?”
“I’m here for you. It’s what I’ve been trying to tell you, but you’ve been blowing me off.”
Aires eyed him skeptically as he grabbed the iPad from his suitcase.
“What’s going on?” Bailey questioned.
“I need to show you both something.” He quickly pressed play on the screen for the video.
“What the fuc?—”
Robert didn’t finish his words, hearing his voice on the recording like we all were.
“Bailey was on drugs, hooking up with Aires the night he got arrested.”
I gasped, bringing my hand up to my mouth.
“This is the footage from that night. I was able to buy it off the owner of the house. Cost me about a hundred grand, so how much is it worth to you?”
The host of TMI laughed, throwing his head back. “You’re a rat bastard, but I love you for it. I’ll pay whatever you want for that evidence.”
“I have more.”
In less than a minute, Robert confessed to all the information leaked about Aires and me last month. If I thought my head was spinning before, this was a whole other level. I felt as if the space was closing in on me, which was crazy since we were on an open beach without walls.
I just remembered to breathe.
In and out.
Taking a deep breath, I had to try and remain calm while the floor was being ripped out from under me by the man I least expected to ever do this to me.
Oh my God. How could I be so blind?
Robert immediately countered, “Bailey, I’m being framed. That’s AI.”
I closed my eyes; I had to. Hearing him try to lie and manipulate me again made me feel like I was on the brink of insanity. The balls on this man. I thought back to everything he had said to me over the years, how much he had always had my back when he was the one who threw me under the bus.
I’m a fool.
Robert didn’t waver. Coming right at me, he spewed, “This is bullshit!”
Unable to control my emotions any longer, I roared, “You piece of shit! I trusted you! How many things have you leaked to the press over the years?!”
“Robert.” Capri shook her head. “Wait until I tell the team what you’ve done. You’ll never work in this town again.”
He jolted back, stunned and blown away.
I instantly felt as if this would end badly, so I didn’t falter. So many bad memories came rushing back to me.
My heart racing.
My blood boiling.
My mind playing tricks on me.
Taking ahold of all my senses.
With wide eyes, he cocked his head to the side. “Bailey, I did it to protect you.”
“Then you admit it?”
He shook his head. “I’m not proud of it, but I thought this was the only way to get him out of your life.”
Aires fisted his hands. I caught it from the corner of my eyes. I was more surprised he hadn’t reacted yet, but a huge part of me knew he was holding back because my family was there.
However, a man could only take so much. I never contemplated this moment.
The expression on his face…
What he would say…
How he would react…
I yelled, “You sold me out to the highest bidder!”
Nothing could have prepared me for what happened next.
“I didn’t expect the public”s reaction to your relationship. I did it for your own good.”
“You’re nothing but a traitor,” I added, shifting my glare from him to Thomas. “How did you?—”
Aires finally stated, “I told him to.”
Our eyes locked.
“Everybody has a price, Bailey. I knew if we started digging, we’d find something on Robert.”
Thomas remarked, “Yeah, and it cost you a pretty penny, Aires.”
“She’s worth it.”
“It didn’t take long to get people to talk like a canary when you’re throwing money in their faces, and that’s exactly what Aires did.” Thomas nodded to him. “He loves you, Bailey, and he wouldn’t stop until we got to the bottom of it.”
“This is just perfect,” Robert snidely bit. “You’re going to believe him over me? After everything I’ve done for you. This is how you repay me?”
“You’d be nothing without her, and don’t you ever forget that,” Aires threatened.
“You need to go now. I want nothing to do with you.”
Robert expressed, “Bailey, don’t do this…”
“You did it, not me. You couldn’t just be happy for me? You always made me fear that the other shoe would eventually drop. I could never enjoy my success because you loved to remind me that it was futile and fleeting.”
“Bailey, please… see reason.”
“This is me seeing reason!”
“I’m sorry. I’ll never intervene again.”
“Like I could ever trust you? Are you for real?”
“Robert, you need to go,” Capri ordered.
“I’ve made you a very wealthy man through the years, and you still rode me like a horse. Never giving me time off.”
His stare dilated as he snapped, “If I would have known you’d been riding his cock during The Kids Club, I would have let producers ride you too!”
The words, “Aires, no!” flew out of my mouth right when he sprang into action with fury coursing through my veins.
Aires’s fist was in Robert’s face, practically knocking him out from one hell of a right hook that would make my uncle Luke proud. In two strides, Aires bent down and picked him up off the ground by the lapels of his suit jacket.
“Aires, stop!”
He didn’t let up.
His chest heaved.
His nostrils flared.
He was too far gone.
With a murderous Rage, Aires kneed him in the stomach, then punched him in the face.
“Aires!” Thomas hollered. “That’s enough!”
With wide eyes, I waited for my family to make their presence known.
“That’s for using her!”
Hit to the jaw.
“That’s for lying to her!”
Hit to the nose.
“That’s for leaking our personal information that you had no right to!”
I didn’t know what was worse—seeing Aires kick Robert’s ass or hearing what he spewed at him.
“And that’s for betraying her trust!”
He only stopped his vicious assault, living up to his name of Vicious Tycoon when my grandpa and uncle Luke came barreling down the beach, hearing the commotion. My heart pounded in my chest, and I swear I stopped breathing.
Uncle Luke got right up in between them without giving it a second thought. He took one look at Aires and then back at Robert, and it was instant for him. It was when I realized that Uncle Luke could read people like the back of his hand, immediately making me question how he had that ability.
He got in Robert’s face. “You back the fuck up if you know what’s good for you.” Uncle Luke eyed him up and down with a threatening regard.
Grandpa scoffed, matching their intense stares. “This isn’t the time or the place.”
Uncle Luke barked, “Since when do you give a shit about time and place?” Tearing his attention back to Robert, he warned, “Me and you don’t have any problems. If you want to keep it that way, I highly suggest you make yourself scarce before I…” He nodded to Aires. “Let this man do it for you.”
Robert spit up blood, weakly trying to stand upright until he did. Barely standing on his own two feet.
Once he was, I spoke with conviction…
“You’re fucking fired.”