Chapter 34
Finally, a little progress.
My wrist twisted painfully as I worked at the knots. But I felt the tiniest movement, sparking a twinge of hope in my heart.
It was just the motivation I needed. Not that I needed additional motivation to escape this crazy bitch.
Fear loomed over my head like a black cloud. I was well aware of the danger I was in but I couldn’t focus on that too much. Instead, I focused on my rage, letting it fuel the adrenaline flooding my veins. And right now, my rage was entirely directed at this bitch daring to cut my hair off.
I’d spent years growing it to the perfect length, spent thousands upon thousands on the best stylists in fucking Hollywood and I felt completely violated.
Not to mention, it was in the contract of the film I’m supposed to be filming right now that I don’t change my looks during production.
That fucking bitch!
It took all I had not to puke at the thought of what she’d done to me.
Who the fuck was she?While I fiddled with the knots, I searched the deepest corners of my mind. I even went over the years I’d spent in Texas that I’d tried so desperately to forget. I’d yet to place her.
Nothing about her was familiar, but Texas is a big place with a lot of people.
How did she know so much about me?
I tried to think clearly, to slow the panicked thoughts ricocheting through my brain. She knew about Avett. That much she’d made clear. Which meant she’d been at the party that night, right? I spun images of the party in my head, trying to remember who was there in attendance that night. This woman wasn’t ringing any bells. She did have a trace of a familiar twang, but again, it was Texas we were talking about.
Face after face from the past paraded across my mind. This woman was shorter than Kim Cook. She wasn’t stocky enough to be Jennifer Mayo. She was taller than Jane Bennett.
Nothing was familiar about her.
My stomach churned with fear. What the fuck did she plan to do with me? Her comment about selling parts of me on the internet wasn’t fucking funny at all. None of this was funny.
I moaned with glee as one of the knots on my wrists finally came loose. I was still restrained but I could move a little now. And if I kept going, I might be able to slide my wrist out.
Breathing through my nose, I tried to calm myself.
That was the only way I was going to get out of this. I had to keep calm.
Steady and sure, I kept working. The knot loosened more and more until my wrist turned, sliding painfully through the small opening I’d managed. Slipping out of the knots completely, I pulled my arm forward. My shoulder throbbed painfully from being in such an uncomfortable position for so long.
When I heard the sound of her soft footsteps coming down the stairs again, I shoved my hands behind me so she couldn’t see them. My head raced as I tried to figure out how to get past her now that my hands were free.
The calm had left her eyes now. Wild and angry, she waved the scissors around in the air.
“I guess Theo doesn’t care about you as much as you thought he did. He didn’t even answer my text! What the fuck kind of man ignores someone like that? He never changed, did he?”
My thoughts spun. What did that mean? I knew without a doubt if Theo knew I was in danger, he would try to find me.
How did she know him? Was she telling the truth?
She came towards me with the scissors, evil gleaming in her dark eyes.
“I did some research. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this sooner. I was just cutting your hair to bring you down a few notches, but did you know that I can also get at least five thousand dollars for just one lock of your hair? Did you know that someone already sold three of them? Said they were your hairdresser on a film, or video shoot, or something, and swiped some of your hair when they gave you a trim. Wild, isn’t it?” She paced around, waving the scissors in the air and laughing to herself, her voice growing wild and frantic. “How does that make you feel, Everleigh? To know that your body is worth money like that? It’s always been, though, hasn’t it?”
She stopped. The scissors were frozen in the air between us. My eyes focused on them. If I could wrestle them out of her hand, I might be able to get away.
“I mean, your mom was making money off of that body of yours way before you made a dime yourself, wasn’t she?”
The mention of my mother’s actions made me cringe.
Countless interviews had been done about me over the years. Some that I contributed to, but most that I did not. People dug up every story that they could find about my past. None of the things she was saying was a secret.
No, I wasn’t proud of the details, but I didn’t have a lot of secrets these days.
Just that one, really. Avett.
And my membership at the temple, I guess.
Oh, and my feelings for Theo….
Fine. There were a few. But nothing that this crazy woman was ranting about at the moment was a real secret. But somehow, she knew the only secret I was trying to keep. And she did send that newspaper cover, right?
“I always felt for you, Everleigh. At least at first. I heard all the rumors about your family. Saw how shy you were around certain people. Hell, I watched you bloom in those last few years at Westlake.”
So, she was there. I still had no fucking clue who she was. She was certainly not a friend of mine; I would have remembered.
“But with that blossoming, came your over inflated ego, didn’t it?” She laughed. “God, I remember it so well. Everyone in school just slowly started worshiping you. Like you just became this trend that everyone followed, like a haircut or something. We all wanted to be around you. We all wanted to be like you. And all the boys, well, we know what they wanted from you, don’t we?”
I shook my head. I couldn’t argue my point because my mouth was full of what? A cotton scarf, maybe a poly blend. Either way, she didn’t seem interested in hearing a word I had to say, despite her endless questions. She seemed to just want to ramble. And flail those fucking scissors around.
“I tried to be your friend. I tried with Theo and West, too. And Donna and Frenchie, who never seemed to leave your side. Why did you like them so much? They were such bitches. You were too, though. Maybe that’s why. You all acted like I was a piece of gum you’d stepped in.”
I was never an actual bitch to anyone in high school. I wracked my brain to think of anyone who may have felt like I treated them like that and came up empty. Whatever I’d done, it certainly didn’t warrant being tied up and tortured like this. And if she thought this was how she was going to get an apology from me, she’d ruined any chance of it now.
Where in the fuck was Theo or West? The question raged in my head. How much more of this would I have to endure?
I’d been here for hours now and she was becoming increasingly unhinged.
“And now, isn’t it funny, Everleigh? I could sell a piece of gum that you chewed for thousands to freaks on the internet! What has the world come to?” She stopped, laughing again. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and kept my hands hidden.
“But, hey, us peasants have to do whatever it takes to make a buck, right? Hustle, hustle, hustle and it’s never enough. Everybody wants the easy way out, don’t they?”
God, if this was just about money, I hoped it ended soon. I’d give her whatever she wanted. If she’d take this gag out of my mouth long enough, I could tell her that.
“They’ll sell their panties to horny old men, open up their homes to thousands of strangers while they dance around naked in front of a webcam, and what else? Stalk celebrities for a taste of their daily life, maybe snap a photo, maybe capture a momentary breakdown in their perfectly manufactured image and show them being actual humans? Maybe they catch them smoking a cigarette or kissing someone they weren’t supposed to be kissing? Maybe they dared to go out of their house without a full face of makeup? And people will pay thousands for proof that celebrities are just like us peasants, as if they wouldn’t have known if they didn’t have a photo of it to prove it.”
God, she wouldn’t shut the fuck up. I had no idea what any of that had to do with me. Her rambling speech grew louder and louder with each word, until she was shouting like a lunatic in the darkness. But suddenly, her voice dropped to a menacing whisper.
“You’re not so special, Everleigh. I know. I saw. I saw you in your vulnerable moment. I see you now — scared and shaking and alone. Where are your bodyguards now? You’re nothing without all the bells and whistles of fame. Just like you were nothing back in Austin, before the world started worshiping you. I saw you. I saw Theo, I saw what you did to Avett. I saw everything!”
My blood ran cold. I needed to stop her before she ruined my entire life.
My fingers balled up into fists behind my back, and I took a deep breath through my nose. Mustering up every ounce of power and strength I possessed, I lunged straight for the scissors in her hands.