Chapter 11 #2
“As if I’m enjoying any part of this day.” I huff out my annoyance. “Fuck, I haven’t enjoyed anything for over a week.”
“All right, Jaxon.” His shoulders tense. “I walked in on you having sex with her on your desk one night.”
“When was this?” I ask, but already know.
I remember thinking I saw something move out of the corner of my eye but ignored it. She was about to come and I wasn’t going to stop for the life of me.
Andrew relaxes his stance. “At the New Year’s Eve party. I went looking for you because I thought you were in your office working and were going to miss the clock striking midnight.”
I half roll my eyes and subtly nod, acknowledging him. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“You obviously don’t want people to know, so I figured it was none of my business.” He pauses for a moment. “Sorry I didn’t knock.”
“Forgiven, but don’t make that mistake again.”
“Already made a note of it.”
As I plan how to approach this, I run my palm over my nicely trimmed beard. “Our relationship is…”
“A secret, but why? Nobody would care.”
“Her dad would.” My throat nearly closes.
Greg Hemmings knows too much about my past and the danger that comes with it. He wouldn’t approve of Livianna being with me when there’s so much risk involved.
Thankfully, my enemies haven’t been able to trace me, so Livianna has stayed safe. That doesn’t mean there won’t come a time when she’ll be in their reach. I shudder just thinking about it.
The server comes over and refills Andrew’s coffee cup. I order one for myself and sink back into my chair. Just knowing I can talk to someone about this has my muscles loosening.
Andrew stirs cream into his drink. “Why would her dad care?”
“He’s a friend and business ally. I’ve known him for years.” I puff out a fake laugh. “Livianna was sixteen the first time I saw her, and she’s been screwing with my head ever since.”
Andrew’s eyes round. “You got involved with his daughter when she was a minor?”
“Fuck no.” I scowl. “I saw her in their driveway and thought she was in her mid-twenties. She was dressed to kill, and I was a thirty-one-year-old man who had only focused on my career. Let’s just say it had been a while since I had been with a woman.”
“That paints a much better and clearer picture. But I’m still confused about why it would bother him now. She’s a consenting adult.”
“That first day I saw her, I asked her dad who the hot older chick was leaving with his eighteen-year-old son. I thought he was going to kill me right then and there. All I did was suggest I thought she was attractive. Can you imagine what he’d do if he knew I was sleeping with her?”
Andrew gives me a knowing look. “Yeah, it doesn’t sound like he’d be too keen on the idea.”
“How would you feel if your daughter was in a relationship with someone fifteen years older than her?”
“I see your point, but age isn’t that big of a deal to people anymore. At least if they’re an adult and consenting.” He takes a drink, then places it down. “Why don’t you tell me what happened with her this morning?”
“I called to say hi and tell her I miss her. She was at Coachella to see her brother’s concert.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“While we were talking, some guy named Callum interrupted. He called her vixen and Lily. He told her to hang up so they could go somewhere where they could have some privacy.”
“No way!” Andrew leans in with much more interest. “They haven’t been seen together in years. Damn. I wonder—”
“Wait. Who haven’t been seen together in years?”
With big eyes and a sharp movement, he pulls back. “How much do you know about Livianna?”
“More than most.”
“I’m not sure you do.”
My stomach rolls into a tight ball. “Why do you say that?”
“She was a child star at sixteen, but you didn’t recognize her when you saw her in front of her own home. She’s at her brother’s concert and some guy named Callum calls her Lily and vixen while you’re talking to her, and you can’t work out the connection.”
I shake my head. “I didn’t watch TV then, so I didn’t know who she was. And who is this Callum you think I should know?”
“You should know him. You’ve been a financial backer for two of his bands.”
“I’ve never worked with anyone named Callum.”
“That’s because he does business under his stage name.” Andrew raises his eyebrows and waits for it to hit me.
“Which is?”
“Cash Mayze.”
Electrical shock waves reverberate inside me. “Callum is Cash, the lead singer of Mayhem?”
“I’m afraid so. But to give some credit, nobody knows him as Callum. He goes by Cash, and legal documents use his LLC. That’s why you’ve never seen his birth name, Callum. It’s been reported the only person allowed to call him Callum is Livianna.”
I swallow hard, afraid to ask my next question. “Did they date?”
“I’d say.” Andrew pulls out his phone and does something on it. “You’re the smartest guy I know when it comes to business. I can’t say the same when it comes to the woman you’re dating.”
“How do you know all this?”
“I’m a huge fan of Mayhem and have followed them for years.”
With this information, my mind goes blank and my body goes numb. I had no idea, and it’s been right in front of me the entire time.
How did I miss it?
Andrew holds his phone out to me. “Mayhem just took home six Grammys in February for this album. There’s not a critic, tabloid, or person out there that knows the story of Livianna and Cash who doesn’t believe every song is based on their relationship.”
I take his cell phone and stare down at the screen. On it is a picture of the cover of their last record album, “Forget Paris.”
My jaw twitches and I roll my eyes. Very apropos given the moment.
The image on the album is of a big red heart with one black lily next to a white lily. In the interweaving stems is the money symbol $.
In the bottom corner, written in script, are the words, For My Vixen. Other than that part, the fucking cover is a replica of the tattoo on her chest.
My hands shake and my vision blurs. She lied to me about what it meant.
How many other lies has she told me?
I thought we had a solid foundation built on trust. It’s now I realize I know little about Livianna Hemings. At least not the real Livianna.
The woman I know is someone I connected with in Paris. Back in the States, I’m her secret—someone she wants no one to know about. With that realization, my illusion of her shatters.