Chapter Twenty-Seven #2
I never thought I’d say this, but right now I wish I paid more attention to all the celebrity gossip.
It would be easier to sort through the circumstances if I knew exactly what we were dealing with.
“Walk me through this, Derek. Obviously Janie told someone my name, and it doesn’t take a lot of digging to connect me to Nova Tate.
” I knew there was a reason I didn’t like Janie.
“But what would she have to gain by hinting you were struggling with the loss of your friends when she knows they’re still in your life?
” I gesture to his phone when it lights up with a call from Bonnie Aiken.
Derek shrugs half-heartedly. “What does anyone have to gain by gossiping about people’s private lives?”
“Views and ad revenue.”
His eyes jump to me, one eyebrow lifting slightly. “That was rhetorical.”
“I know.”
Thank goodness for the small smile that lifts the corners of his lips.
He takes a slow breath, then sits up so he’s less crumpled.
“Hot Scoop has been stuck on my friends for more than a year and a half,” he says as a thoughtful look enters his eyes.
“They keep claiming that I’m losing them or better off without them, but we’re closer than ever. ”
Both our gazes jump to the phone when Kasey Graham starts calling.
“That’s why you’re ignoring them?” I tease.
He rolls his eyes, running a hand through his mess of dark hair. “I just… I need to figure out what’s going on first. They’ll want answers.”
“Or they want to see if you’re okay,” I argue. “Isn’t that what friends do?” Not that I can really speak from experience, being the lone wolf that I am.
“Yeah,” he agrees, but I doubt it’s going to make him any more eager to answer his phone.
“Anyway.” He draws the word out, narrowing his eyes as if daring me to keep harping on him about his friends’ intentions.
“I’ve never been able to figure out why Hot Scoop has been so negative toward my friends while claiming to be fully on my side, no matter the alleged issues surrounding me. ”
Considering that, I slide one of my hands free so I can pull my hair over one shoulder.
I want to twist it into a braid, but I don’t want to let go of Derek entirely, so I content myself with simply twirling it and holding it in place when it gets tight.
“This might be my bias talking and an extreme theory, but what if Janie has been trying to isolate you so she can have you for herself?” Anyone who sees the woman would know she finds Derek attractive and wants to please him.
Though he wrinkles his nose, he doesn’t immediately shut the idea down. “Whoever writes Hot Scoop enjoys propositioning me,” he mutters.
Ah, so this is what jealousy feels like?
It’s been a long time since I felt the churning discomfort in my gut and the irrational desire to claim what’s mine.
It was a common emotion for me as a kid, especially when I saw older actors being taken more seriously than me, but I’ve been mostly content in my adult life.
“Gross,” I mutter, as much a commentary on the tabloid’s methods as a reaction to feeling this way again.
Derek chuckles and meets my gaze. “They got one thing right on this last one,” he says in a rumbling voice that makes me shiver.
He brushes soft fingers up my arm, drawing goosebumps along my skin as he goes.
“I’ve never wanted something casual. And before this week, I hadn’t found anyone who made me feel inadequate the way you do. ”
My words catch in my throat as I stare at him, and I have to clear it before I can ask, “That’s a good thing?”
He nods once, leaning in close until his nose brushes mine. “A very good thing. You don’t just match me, Donovan. You excel in everything you do and make me want to be better. Not because I need to be perfect but because you deserve more than what I am.”
“More than Derek Riley?” My voice is breathy now. “That sounds like reaching for the impossible.”
He grins. “I knew you liked me.”
He’s so close, and all it would take to kiss him is a miniscule shift forward.
But as much as I would love to get lost in this man without the risk of spectators, he’s still facing a massive problem.
I can’t sit idly by while his life crumbles around him.
“What are you going to do about Janie?” I ask, then wince.
Groaning, he pulls back and glances at the name lighting up his phone this time. Freya Alverra. For a second, he almost looks like he might answer, but then he shakes his head. “I don’t know what to do,” he admits.
“You must hate that.”
His smile at my lame joke lasts almost three seconds this time before it’s replaced by a frustrated frown. “She’s the best assistant I’ve ever had.”
“Aside from possibly selling sensitive information to a tabloid,” I point out.
“The thing is…” He tilts his head to the side, looking confused.
“There have been so many things she could have shared that she didn’t.
At this point, the only person who sees more behind the scenes of my life than Janie is Hunter, and she’s never leaked anything all that personal about me when she has plenty of dirt she could use. ”
“Plenty of dirt?” I ask, lifting an eyebrow. “Do tell.”
He scowls at me, the expression more playful than anything. “Either we figure out what Janie’s game is or you let me kiss you, Donovan. Airing my dirty laundry isn’t on the table.”
I pretend to think about my options for a second, releasing my hold on my hair so I can tap my lips. That was a mistake, and the way Derek’s eyes darken as he watches my hair flop loose sends a flash of warmth through me. Then he focuses on my lips, which is even worse.
I press my hand over his mouth before he gets any ideas. “So the informant working for you is terrible at informing?” When he nods, I furrow my brow. “And you’re still sure she’s actually sharing information?”
He gently grabs my wrist and pulls my hand away so he can answer.
“She hasn’t admitted it, but I could read it in Hunter’s face.
I don’t know how long he’s known, but he knows.
And he never…” Pausing, he pulls his eyebrows together as he thinks through something.
I can almost see his racing thoughts as his eyebrows sink lower and lower.
His eyes jump to his phone to see who’s calling now—Hank McAllister—and this time they stay there.
When the call ends, he slowly reaches for his phone and opens his text app, his thumb hovering over an unread thread near the top.
I lean forward to see the name. “Brenda Reid? As in…?” For some reason, I don’t want to finish my question. Derek hasn’t told me his real last name, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it matched his half-brother’s: Reid.
Derek taps on the text thread and scans the messages quickly.
There aren’t many of them, and he hasn’t responded to any of them, but he glowers at the first one for a while before he hits the back button and opens his texts with Janie.
Instead of scrolling, he opens the search function and types in the word ‘mom.’ A few different texts pull up, but it’s the one at the top that seems to catch his attention.
Janie:
Sorry to bother you, Derek, but I just got an email from your mom to confirm what time you are meeting for dinner on Thursday. I don’t see that in your schedule. Is there a calendar I don’t have access to yet, or does she have the date wrong? Let me know what you want me to tell her!
Derek curses under his breath as he taps the text to jump to that conversation, which happened not long after Brenda first texted him. He seems to realize I’m trying to read along with him to figure out what he’s looking for because he shifts closer so I can more easily read his response.
Derek:
I don’t have any meetings with my mom, and she knows this. Tell her I’m fine and she doesn’t have to worry about me.
Whatever puzzle pieces he’s putting together, Derek is starting to look nauseous as he opens his browser again and types his name into the search bar on the Hollywood Hot Scoop website.
He scrolls to the bottom and taps on the archives from last year.
There are fewer stories about him than I expected until the second half of the year, when Hot Scoop seems to have taken a special interest in the long-famous actor.
The dates match the texts he just looked at.
Ignoring a call coming from Carissa Evanson, he hovers his thumb over an article about his friend Liam Connolly, then taps on an earlier story headlined “Who is Derek Riley?: The Man Behind the Mystery.” He scrolls past the picture of his smiling face to the article beneath, skipping paragraphs until he stops on what looks like a quote from an anonymous source.
His gaze turns stormy as he reads.
I take the phone out of his hand so he doesn’t move on to whatever’s next before I can read it too, and I read the quote out loud.
“‘Derek shows the same integrity in life that he has on screen, and he always looks after the people he cares about. To him, nothing is more important than family, and he is too good of a man to let fame get between him and his loved ones. He shows up when it matters.’”
I’m confused. That’s actually a really nice thing to say about him and is more than likely true, so why is it bothering him?
“So…” I lift an eyebrow. “You’re going to have to help me with this one, Derek. Is Brenda your…” I wince as I finish with the word, “…mom? What does she have to do with Janie or this article?”
Groaning, Derek rises to his feet and starts pacing. “Too trusting,” he mutters to himself. “Hunter, you have no idea how wrong you are. I’ve never trusted anyone in my life, and now look at me.”
Either he’s losing it for real, or… Maybe there isn’t an ‘or.’ Maybe whatever this is has finally pushed Derek Riley to a mental breaking point, and he’s cracked. I can help people with a lot of things, but this might be beyond me. “Derek?” I say as gently as I can.
He stops his pacing and looks at me in a way that tells me he’s still in there.
He’s just…resigned. “I’m sorry. I know you’re confused.
And I desperately want to be wrong, but there’s too much…
” Folding his arms, he exhales heavily and looks like the weight of the world is on his shoulders.
“All of this is my fault,” he says. “Liam, Bonnie, Cole, Freya, they’re all… ”
He shakes his head and closes his eyes. “They’ve been living through hell because I’m too much of a coward to talk to my mom.”