Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
B lake held hands with the woman he loved and forced himself to look at the screen. It was hard. Why watch an animated princess when he had the real thing sitting next to him?
Would it be rude for them to sneak out of their own movie premiere?
When Jesse appeared on the screen, Piper giggled. “They kept that cute duck tail in your hair.”
“What duck tail?”
“Shhh,” someone said behind them.
Someone else giggled.
One of her sisters , he thought.
He caressed Piper’s hand just to remind himself that she was there.
The movie was fantastic fun. The audience laughed at his animated antics, they cheered when Piper befriended the dragon, and they roared approval when the dragon ate the evil sorcerer.
When the show ended, everyone moved outside to the first of several after-parties. The entire block in front of the theater had been closed off traffic, and bars, tables, and party games for the kids had been set up.
Dusk was beginning to creep across the buildings. Blake walked hand in hand with Piper through the forest of trees covered in twinkle lights, wishing they were alone to really enjoy it.
“I can’t believe how well it all came together. The animators did a fantastic job,” Piper said with satisfaction. “This has been such a thrill. I want to do ten more just like it.”
“You’ll get to pick and choose the projects you want now. I bet your manager calls you with five offers tomorrow.”
“Would it be wrong to say yes to all of them?” Piper’s face sparkled.
“Blake, did you see the blog post?” a voice asked from somewhere beyond the fence separating partygoers from the public.
It sounded like the gossip rags were growing desperate for crumbs.
He squeezed Piper’s hand. “Want to get out of here? I can think of a better way to celebrate than standing on asphalt.”
“Hell no.” She pulled him toward one of the bars. “I want to soak up every last minute of this day first. Then we can get naked.”
He ordered two glasses of champagne and handed one to her.
He held his own aloft. “Here’s to many more adventures, both animated and live-action.”
She smiled. “Cheers to that.”
They clinked glasses.
Della and Mattie crashed into Piper, squealing with sisterly enthusiasm.
“You were fantastic!” Della gushed. “This was the best movie I’ve ever seen. It was so much fun!”
“Thanks,” Piper said with a laugh. “It turned out pretty cool.”
“I loved that duet, Piper. You really projected the love,” Mattie said. “Blake, your voice is enough to make any woman swoon. You really should sing more.”
“Thanks, but I think I’ll stick to acting and leave the singing to you three,” Blake said.
“Where’s Marshall?” Della asked. “I need a selfie with him by the pile of dragon treasure. Still can’t believe I met Marshall freaking Weston.”
Blake pointed in Marshall’s direction, and Della gave Piper a quick kiss on the cheek before bopping away to corner her target.
As far as Blake could tell, Marshall was a willing participant in the selfie brigade. His friend gave Della a charming, you-can’t-resist-me smile and walked arm in arm with her toward the photo backdrop.
The Bellamy sisters couldn’t be more different. Mattie was the dreamy one, Della was the larger-than-life one, Lizzie was the steady presence that kept the others centered, and Piper was the drive that kept them all moving forward. Her passion inspired him. She made him want to try harder and do better and achieve more.
“Marshall!” someone shouted. The voice carried over the hundreds of other chattering voices.
Blake looked up and saw that his friend did too.
“Did you agree with casting Piper as the lead?” The question came from a man whose head barely reached above the fence. He had a small camera pointed in Marshall’s direction.
Marshall hesitated for a beat, then put his arm around Della’s shoulders and walked away without answering.
Trickles of unease made the hair on the back of Blake’s neck itch.
Why were they asking about Conned ? Today was about Scorched .
He checked to see if Piper had heard it, but she was busy talking with Mattie .
“Blake, care to comment on the video?” A blonde in teetering heels near the wall asked. She looked familiar. She was with one of the seedier gossip sites, he just couldn’t remember which one.
Piper glanced at him. “What video?”
“Not sure.” He gave the woman a dirty look and glanced away.
“Something wrong?” Mattie asked. Little frown lines etched her forehead.
“I’m sure it’s nothing,” Blake reassured her.
“Blake!” A tall man with a loud, deep voice shouted. He stood near a break in the fence. He had a pinched face and receding hairline and a serious-looking camera pointed right at them. “Why wasn’t Piper your first choice for the romantic lead? Jessica Bullock had the role first, right? Piper, how does it feel to be sloppy seconds?”
Mattie’s sucked in a breath.
Piper stilled.
“They’re just trying to stir up trouble,” Blake said. “Let’s get away from the fence. They’ll move on to an easier target.”
“Piper,” Mattie said. “Maybe we should go.”
Piper hesitated, then shook her head. “Not yet. I want y’all to enjoy the rest of the party. If we leave, the assholes win, and I’m not letting that happen. Not tonight.”
Mattie looked doubtfully at her sister. “There’s another party at the studio, right? There won’t be reporters there.”
“That’s not a bad idea. We don’t need to stay here,” Blake said. The party no longer felt like the celebration it was supposed to be, and most of the cast had already gone. He didn’t see Gina or Jeremy anywhere, and he knew Tamar and Paul had left earlier. “A lot of people have moved on already.”
Piper glanced around. “Okay, maybe you’re right. Where’s Lizzie?”
“I’ll find her,” Mattie said. “We’ll call for the car. ”
Mattie melted into the crowd.
“Let’s move,” Blake suggested.
The bulk of the paparazzi were stationed at the front because that’s where the limos were parked. It gave them a clear shot at whoever was coming or going, and from what he could tell, they’d be getting desperate for money shots by now.
They turned toward the cave of treasures to avoid attracting attention until the car arrived, and they had almost reached it when someone wedged themselves into the gap between the makeshift fence and the building. They held out a phone and shouted, “Piper, what do you say to the rumor that you’ve been screwing your way to the top?”
Blake reflexively made a fist. “Fuck off, asshole.”
Security guards moved in to block the jerk from view.
Piper fidgeted with her glass. “I expected some of this, but…”
“Hey, everybody, check out Buzz ,” someone else shouted. “They posted a video of Blake.”
Blake froze. A horrible sense of doom crept into his stomach.
BuzzHollywood was one of the worst gossip websites, filled with lies and twisted rumors that could take down even the strongest of careers depending on what dirt the magazine had managed to scrape out of the sewers.
“What video?” Piper asked through clenched teeth.
“I don’t know.”
He saw Rachel near the backdrop. She had the calculating, ruthless expression she got whenever she watched bad things happen to someone else, usually because she’d been the one to stir the pot.
The things he’d said to Rachel the last time he saw her had been a slap in the face.
It had been weeks, but Rachel knew how to play a long game.
She’d been acting funny all day. She was up to something, and he had a feeling he was about to find out what .
Piper opened the small bag she carried and pulled out her phone.
“What are you doing?” he said under his breath. He kept his head tilted down and his glass raised to cover his mouth.
“Research. Something’s going on. We need to know what.”
“Piper,” a nasally female voice close by called out, “how’s it feel to be Blake’s second choice?”
The phone shook in Piper’s hand, but she tapped a link, and an article popped up on the screen.
He caught a glimpse of the headline.
PIPER BELLAMY AND BLAKE RYAN: TRUE LOVE OR PAY TO PLAY?
He swore under his breath.
“There’s a video.” Her voice sounded shaky. “You and Rachel.”
She showed him the image.
They stood near a table in a familiar-looking room. A promo poster for Scorched was on the wall behind them. “It’s the read-through. I didn’t know they were recording that day.”
“They record everything,” Piper said so faintly he almost couldn’t hear it.
He wracked his brain trying to remember what they’d said. Rachel had been her usual catty self. He’d been irritated he had to be in the same room with her. Piper had been late, which had made him frustrated because it meant everything would take longer. The bits and pieces he could remember caused a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.
Lizzie and Mattie appeared at Piper’s side. “Piper? The car’s here.”
“Just a sec,” Piper said.
Lizzie glanced at the reporters now crowding the fence nearby like piranha or sharks or particularly vicious raccoons hunting for juicy tabloid trash. “What’s wrong? ”
“News drop.” Piper’s smile froze in place. “They have a video of Blake talking to Rachel that first day. It’s…oh.”
She walked a few feet away, then held the phone to her ear. Her plastic smile grew more brittle the longer she listened to the audio of that disastrous conversation. Anyone who didn’t know her wouldn’t notice, but he could see devastation steal the joy from her eyes.
“Piper?” Blake wanted to know what had put that stricken expression on her face. “What’s it say?”
She turned her back slightly, staring at nothing while she listened. Hot splashes of color bloomed on her cheeks, and her knuckles turned white with her death grip on the phone, but she still managed to keep that damn plastic smile.
Lizzie put a hand on her shoulder. “Piper?”
“What’s going on?” Della asked.
“It’s bad,” Mattie said.
All four sisters grouped together in a tight knot of family that pushed Blake away.
Marshall hit his arm. “You have to read this.” He handed Blake a phone.
Blake scanned the article.
In a stunning turn of events, sources tell us in this exclusive video release that Blake Ryan never wanted Piper Bellamy cast as lead in the newly released animated feature Scorched .
“Hell no. Piper Bellamy is definitely not my first choice. Like sitting in rush-hour traffic in August with no air-conditioning. Jesus Christ, this is animated purgatory.”
He growled at the phone. “I didn’t say it like that. It’s not what I meant. It’s…shit.”
From the looks of things on the red carpet tonight, Blake appears to have gotten over his reluctance to work with Piper in a big way.
They already had pictures of him helping Piper out of the limo, walking hand in hand with her down the green carpet, and posing with the little girl and her father.
It appears they are now a hot, hot, hot item. Does this mean Piper slept her way to a prime part in Ryan’s directorial debut? Did Jessica Bullock quit, or was she ousted, and who is really the father of her unborn child?
When we know, you’ll know.
His blood ran cold.
Their conversation had been carefully edited to make what he’d said sound even worse than it had to begin with, and knowing what he did about Piper, the unedited version would have been bad enough.
He knew her well enough by now to know how secretly sensitive she was underneath all that confidence.
She’d spent her childhood feeling like a runner-up.
It was something he worried about before he offered her the lead for Conned so close to the start of filming. He hadn’t wanted her to feel like she was his backup choice.
Now here it was, her secret fear coming straight out of his mouth, loud and proud and there for the world to see, forever. Nothing on the internet ever disappeared. This video would be replayed until they were old and gray. It would be pulled out every time they did anything.
During every movie premiere. Every concert tour. Every album release.
Every time they went out, either with each other or if they moved on to other people.
It was a surgical strike, delivered with precise cuts at the exact vulnerable spot for maximum damage.
He wanted to kill Rachel for baiting him that day and then go back in time and kill himself for saying those stupid things in the first place .
Rachel stood ten feet away with the pseudo-stricken look she’d used in their last film.
She’d done this. He knew she had.
“You psychotic bitch,” he said louder than he’d intended.
Marshall put a hand on his arm. “Not here, man.”
A calculated smile lifted the corners of Rachel’s pretty mouth. She raised her chin, all but daring him to say something to her.
Blake turned his back. He didn’t give a shit about Rachel. He had to get to Piper.
He pushed Marshall out of the way.
“Piper!” Blake shouted.
Lizzie stepped in front of him, her hands out in a placating gesture. “I think you should go home, Blake. You can talk to her later.”
“No. I want to talk to her now . This video is bullshit. Complete bullshit.”
“Is it?” Piper asked.
Lizzie shifted out of the way, and Piper stepped out from her cocoon of support.
“That’s you, isn’t it? You said…” She swallowed. “You said those things.”
“Piper, we should go,” Mattie said softly.
“The car’s waiting,” Lizzie said. “We can sort this out later.”
“No,” Piper said. “I want to sort it out now.”
“It was the first day of filming.” That sounded lame, even to his own ears. “That damn video’s been manipulated. Look at the cuts. I said more after that. I said you were the right choice.”
“But not the first choice.” Dangerous sparks flashed through her eyes. “Was I second, or was I further down? You didn’t even know me.”
He was hyperaware of all the phones raised to record everything.
Lizzie was right. They should find somewhere private to hash this out, but he could see by the look on her face that Piper wasn’t going anywhere.
“I wasn’t your first choice for Conned , either,” Piper said in a quiet, distant voice. “I’m never anybody’s first choice, am I? I don’t know why I’m surprised.”
“You don’t have to be the first choice, dammit, you have to be the last. These things get recast all the time. You’re the best choice. That’s what matters.”
She looked down at her phone. “Which part am I supposed to believe?”
“Blake, we should go.” Marshall put a hand on his arm. “Come on. This isn’t the time or place.”
He shook Marshall off. He wasn’t going anywhere without Piper.
Piper shoved her phone back into her bag. Her eyes glistened with unshed tears, but her voice was steady. “I’m not anyone’s sloppy seconds.”
Lizzie put her arm around Piper’s shoulder. “Come on. Let’s go home.”
Piper allowed her sister to lead her away, but after a couple of steps, she turned back. “You know, your title is perfect. Conned is perfect. That’s how this feels.”
Piper, Lizzie, and Mattie turned and walked away. The crowd parted to let them through. Everyone stared and pointed and recorded as they went.
He tried to follow, but security guards in slick black suits moved in to form an impenetrable wall that blocked his path.
“Step away, sir.” One of them, tall and thin with spiked hair held his hands up like a stop sign.
“Yeah, don’t make this worse,” another one said.
“Get out of my way.” Blake tried to step around them, but he was immediately blocked by Piper’s bodyguard, Romi.
She was dressed like a socialite, but her eyes said she could cut him into bite-size pieces without blinking. “You need to back off.”
“I can’t let her leave like this, Romi. She has to know the truth.” He’d never wanted anything so badly in his life than to run after her and tell her that he never thought of her as second to anyone or anything.
Della appeared in front of him looking like an avenging angel in stilettos.
“Della…”
She hauled her fist back and punched him square in the face.
Her fist connected with his nose, and pain exploded across his face and through his skull like a flash of lightning. His brain turned off for a few seconds, and he went down.
Stabbing, throbbing spasms of agony lanced through his ass and nose. Tears spilled out of his eyes, and his breath caught, and for an eternity he couldn’t see anything but blurred colors.
He shook his head, trying to clear the fog.
Della’s face swam into focus a few inches from his own. “My sister is nobody’s second choice. Got me?”
“She isn’t.” He couldn’t breathe, and his face felt wet. “She’s my first and only choice. Always. Can you say the same?”
He wiped at his nose, and the back of his hand came away red.
Della stared at him like he’d spoken a foreign language and she was trying to translate in her head.
Someone pushed tissues at him. Helpful hands pulled him to his feet and held him until he steadied himself.
“I might have been selfish,” Della said. “I might have been a blind idiot, but at least I never said shitty things about her on video.”
She spun on her heels and stalked off. The crowd let her go, though he heard her name, and his, on everyone’s lips .
“Mr. Ryan, do you need medical assistance?” one of the servers asked.
“She kicked his ass,” someone in the crowd said with a laugh.
“Come on.” Marshall grabbed his arm and led him toward the side exit. “We need to get you out of here.”
He didn’t want to go. He wanted to set things right. He resisted Marshall’s determined pull and scanned the crowd of faces through the haze of blood and pain.
“Where is she?”
“She’s gone, man,” Marshall said.
“Gone?” He closed his eyes and tried to get his rattled thoughts to focus.
“Yeah. She took off in a limo with her sisters.”
“Blake.” Rachel’s syrupy fake voice rose above the camera clicks and shouts from reporters. “It looks like you might need a new lead actress. Call me.”
“Screw you.” Blake strode past and into the hallway that led to the back of the building. The pain in his head pulsed with every step, and his nose continued to drip blood down his face. He swiped angrily at it. “Fucking psycho.”
“I’d still do her,” Marshall said as they moved quickly away from the jostling onlookers. “But then I’d run. I’d run like hell.”
Blake should have done that at seventeen when he’d first met Rachel, but it didn’t matter now.
What mattered was fixing things with Piper. She was his first, last, and only choice. This couldn’t be the end for them. He wouldn’t let it be.