He shook his head. “I can’t see you get hurt.”
“Stop trying to protect me like I’m fragile. My dad did that when he didn’t tell me the truth about my mother or when I left the show. I won’t have that now. I need you to be strong enough to let me handle myself. Can you do that?”
Hyde started to answer when he saw something out of the corner of his eye that got his attention. At first, he thought it was a seagull because of its white appearance and breadth of size. Then he figured out quickly what he spotted hovering at his bedroom window.
“Shit!” He tossed Tassia to the side away from the window and grabbed his remote that dimmed his windows in an instant.
“What’s going on?” She held the comforter under her chin.
“Drone. Goddamn drone.” Hyde stepped into some shorts lying on the floor and pulled them up. “Take a shower and get dressed. We need to get out of here.”
“No.” Tassia crossed her arms and looked like a defiant child.
“If the paps are onto us, they won’t leave us alone. We need to leave and—”
“And what? Go where? You have to protect your home.”
Hyde went into his closet to the back and unlocked a safe. He pulled out the shotgun his grandfather had given him the first time he had gone hunting. When he reappeared in the room, Tassia gasped when she saw him.
“I am protecting my home. We’re leaving right after I do something.” He stormed over to the French doors leading to the balcony that sat off to the side of the window. The idiot running this drone wouldn’t see him coming.
“Hyde, wait!”
He didn’t. He opened the door, took aim at the flying intruder, and shot once at his target, hitting his mark before it came crashing down to the concrete patio below.
When he returned to the bedroom, he found Tassia breathing heavily. “I did-did-didn’t know you had a gun here.”
Hyde had to calm himself down when talking to her. She now got to see his true country side, the part of him willing to defend himself and the ones he loved. “I live out in the country and I hunt.” He watched her hands trembling. He started to comfort her when he heard something he never thought he would have heard in his home: the doorbell.
“What the hell?” He stomped down the stairs.
“Oh, God. Hyde, don’t. Just call the police. You still have the gun in your hand.” Tassia followed him with the comforter wrapped around her body.
Hyde knew what he carried to the door. He suspected whoever got through his security gate and made it to his door had no idea what he could and would do.
Without bothering to look through the peephole, Hyde unlocked the door and whipped it open. He had to blink when he saw Pepper standing on the other side.
“Pep, you have a key. Why didn’t you use it?” He watched her look sheepish and silent, two things that never describe Pepper.
“I called you. I tried to tell you.” Her voice came out in almost a whisper.
“What are you talking about?” Then Hyde heard the door slam and saw what Pepper must have meant.
The last man Hyde wanted to see strolled around a fully loaded Audi. The golden color of it matched the man’s tan as he sauntered to the door and stood next to Hyde’s cousin.
After draping his arm around her shoulders, Clever Love said, “Hey, son.” In his free hand that dangled by his side, he held a remote control.
* * * *
Tassia had too many thoughts going through her head right now to think clearly. Hyde had shocked her by wanting to produce her first solo album, but in the same breath said he didn’t think they should date after admitting he loved her. He didn’t even give her a chance to say anything before shocking her more by pulling out a gun to shoot down the offending drone that caught their afternoon delight.
Not content to remain standing behind her man—and she still considered Hyde to be her man no matter what he had worked out in his head—she rushed to his side with her comforter dress wrapped around her body. What she would have done if the person on the other side of the door had turned out to be some robbers, she didn’t know. She knew she couldn’t leave Hyde’s side.
When she saw C. Love at the door with Pepper, a range of emotions went through her. She knew that as Hyde’s father and manager, he wouldn’t be there to harm him. From talking to Hyde, she also knew that his father wanted him to work non-stop. This trip wouldn’t be a good one judging by the way Hyde’s jaw flinched.
“Aren’t you going to invite us in?” Clever said as he drew Pepper in closer to him like a lure for Hyde.
Hyde would probably say no to Clever, but not to Pepper. Instead of verbally answering, he took a step aside while holding the door open.
“Thank you.” When Clever walked by Hyde, he held up the remote. “I suddenly lost the image after I heard a loud bang.” He glanced down at the gun Hyde held. “Am I to assume that—”
“What are you doing here?” Hyde’s fuse must have been short.
“Looking for you.” Clever strolled into the living room, tossed the remote on the coffee table, and made himself at home on the couch. “After your slick trick with your body double a few weeks ago, I have had people out trying to find you.” He wagged his finger at Hyde before he turned to Tassia. “And you. I knew it couldn’t be coincidence that both of you disappeared at the same time. Your dad didn’t know where you were.” He volleyed his attention back to Hyde. “And your grandparents didn’t know where you were…at first.”
Hyde marched into the living room, but kept standing. “How did you find me?”
“Luckily, your Love Birds,” Clever turned to Tassia, “that’s what his fans are called. One of them posted that they thought they may have seen you at some local drive-in movie theater. And I thought, there’s no way my son, who’s worth almost a billion dollars, would be caught dead in some rinky-dink drive-in. And then I had another piece of luck. I’ve had detectives keep an eye out for debit and credit card activity as well as cell phone activity.”
“Oh my God.” Tassia didn’t mean for her thoughts to materialize as audible comments. Now she understood Hyde’s need for space and privacy.
“As soon as this one’s phone pinged off a tower close to my parents’ house, well, I hightailed it down here.” He crossed his legs and stretched his arms out across the back of the couch. “When I saw my dear, old dad, he shared with me that your new lady friend really wanted you and me to talk. She seems to think we don’t get along.”
Hyde turned to Tassia, who now felt her face burning with embarrassed heat. Clever had none of the true parental concern that Burt had for her. She pushed her father to the side. Maybe she needed to reexamine her familial relationships.
“Is that true? Did you want him to come over here?” Hyde faced Tassia.
“Not really. I asked your grandfather to call if he heard from him. I thought maybe you could go to your grandfather’s house to all talk, man to man.” She approached Hyde but he moved away from her.
“I said everything I need to say to my manager. The last time I told him that I desperately needed to take some time off, he wanted to only carve out a week for me.” Hyde snickered. “A week. He doesn’t care that I’m exhausted and worn out and just beaten to death. There’s always something else.”
“Yeah, and that something else was the interviews you missed. You also missed a televised performance. And did you know that Oprah’s been trying to reach you?” Clever planted both feet on the floor and rested his elbows on his knees. “Your little disappearing act had fans worried about you. That’s really bad for your business.”
“Too bad it was wonderful for my personal life and health.” Hyde glared at his father.
Clever scanned Hyde from head to toe. “I don’t know. You’re looking a little soft in the middle. I need to get you back into the gym.”
“Stop it.
” Tassia could only take so much from this man. “You’re talking to your son. Did you forget that along with his birthday?”
Clever jumped to his feet. “You want to tell me who I’m talking to? I’m talking to the commodity that I have groomed from a chubby kid on a TV show to the hottest artist out there in the world, not just in country or in music. The world. He has the ability to influence people to buy a brand or not.” He pounded his chest. “I did that. That was me.”
Hyde shook his head. “No. That was all me. I put in the work.”
“Work?” C. Love snickered. “What work have you been doing here?” This time he scanned Tassia up and down. “I’m guessing by your attire, you two have been—”
“Don’t you go there.” Hyde held up his hand to his father to halt whatever disgusting thing he wanted to say.
“Let me take a guess here. It was her idea to come out here, right?” Clever pointed to Tassia.
“Wrong. All me.” Hyde pounded on his chest this time.
“Oh. Okay. I bet you she convinced you to stay. Maybe offered you something. She’s not as popular or rich as you. I’m sure she used other, um, currency to persuade you to—”
“Get the fuck out of my house.” Hyde pointed to the door. “You are not going to come in here and disrespect me and my guest.”
Clever got in Hyde’s face. “Listen here, boy, I am still your manager. What I say goes. What I’m telling you and what I tried to tell you from the beginning is that this project is a bad deal. She is using you.”
“What? No.” Tassia shook her head. “I didn’t even want to do this at first. I was ready to walk, remember?”
“She also came with baggage. She doesn’t write her own songs.” Clever shrugged.
“Bullshit. I’ve been with her. We’ve written songs together. I know she’s talented.”
“Did you also know that her father pulled her from that rat show when he found out that they were going to pair you up with her?”
Tassia shook her head. “That’s a lie. My father told me that they were going to cut my part down to make Hyde the star.”
Clever cackled. “And you believed him? Sweetie, your father told the writing team and the producers that he didn’t want his kid having to carry dead weight. You want proof? Contact Christina, that’s if she’ll take your calls. She was there listening to the whole conversation.” He looked at Hyde. “Are you sure she told you the entire truth?”
Tassia watched the kernel of doubt that Clever planted in Hyde’s head staring to grow. His expression changed from anger to contemplative like he didn’t know who to believe.
“Hyde, if that truly happened, I’m sorry. I would never say anything like that about you, ever.” She held his free hand. “I love you.”
Clever laughed out loud and clapped his hands. “And there it is. You are willing to pull out all the tricks, unless this is not the first time you said that to him. Is it?”
Shit. It wouldn’t have been if Hyde had let her talk.
“Hyde, I am one step ahead of the paparazzi. Trust me. It won’t take them long to find you two if I found you.” Clever turned to Tassia. “If things don’t go the way I want, I will post that video I have recorded of you acting out that line in your song on Hyde. Did you ride him the last three weeks?”
Hyde took the hand he used to hold his shotgun to shove his father back. “Lay off her. Your problem is with me, not her. Don’t post anything.”
“I won’t as long as you cut this little vacation short and come back to work. You’ve already wasted millions of dollars. Even Shelby Lynne was asking about you. I think she was concerned about your wellbeing.” Clever put his hand on Hyde’s shoulder. “Bottom line. You have some important decisions to make. One is whether you go into this project with an embarrassing story to start it off or a feel-good story of you helping children in Ethiopia.”
“You are not going to spin my working time away with a lie.” Hyde shook his head. “And if this duets album is the last thing I do in my career, I’ll still be fine.”
“You might. Think about your friend here. I think she has a little more, and you’ll pardon my phrasing, riding on this than you do.” Clever laughed. “It’s a no-brainer. Let me do what I do best, and forget about everything else.”
Hyde remained quiet for an uncomfortable period of time.
“Come on, son. You’ve played around enough. Time to pull out of this project like you said you would.”
Tassia blinked. “What?”
“Oh, Hyde didn’t tell you?” His father put his hand to his chest. “Yeah, the day the contracts were signed, he told me that his plan was to back out of the deal. He does not want to keep associating with his Ratty Rat’s Fun Crew castmates. But I’m sure he told you all this already, right?”
“Wow.” Tassia felt hollow inside. “So your plan wasn’t just to relax. You were going to ditch me.”
Hyde faced her. “It’s not exactly like that.”
“Then tell me what it’s like. While you do that, tell me how your definition of love includes hiding information from the person you said you love.” She backed away from him.
Clever continued. “Remember what I always tell you. You have to remember who the star is here.” He pointed to Tassia. “If you do this project with her, she will shine more than you just like back on the show. You don’t want that, right?” He moved in closer to his son. “And you don’t want to be associated with that Ratty Rat time, do you?”
Tassia watched Hyde as he processed his father’s toxic words while not explaining his actions. C. Love managed to worm his way into Hyde’s head and poison him again. Hyde still hid his true feelings. Tassia lost Hyde. She had no place there with him.
“I’m going to shower and change.” Tassia looked at Pepper. “Did you drive here on your own?”
Pepper nodded.
“Good. Would you mind taking me to the airport? I need to get home.”
Pepper looked at Hyde and Clever. “Um, sure. But you don’t have to go. You can—”
“No. I need to go, and I think Hyde needs his space. He needs to figure out what’s true and what’s a lie.” She glared at Clever before she made her way back up to Hyde’s room.
Once there, she slammed his bedroom door and then slammed the door to the bathroom. She couldn’t believe she would end this great experience with Clever blackmailing her and his son. She had hoped Hyde would have been on her side. From his expression, it looked as if he believed his father.
Tassia took the fastest shower she could, packed her belongings again, and came clunking down the stairs with her bags. When she saw Hyde standing up from the breakfast bar like he wanted to approach her, she darted out the door ahead of Pepper.
Tassia had hoped that a bear would appear again to maul her to death. It would have been a kinder expression than Hyde not believing her and siding with his father.
Pepper met up with Tassia by her car and helped her with her bags. “Are you sure you want to go to the airport right now? You could spend the night—”
“No.” Tassia shook her head. “I need to get with people who truly love me.”
“You’re leaving one right—”
“I’m ready.”
Pepper didn’t say anything else as she helped Tassia load her suitcases in the trunk. Tassia had had enough of not being believed. Just like with Dorian, she would chalk this up as an experience. Unlike with Dorian, her heart truly broke from walking away from Hyde.
What the hell would she do now, especially since they had a project together to finish?
Chapter 20
Shortly after Tassia left his home without a word or a good-bye to him, Hyde showered and packed his belongings as well. Pepper never returned after taking Tassia to the airport.
He shouldn’t have let her go. Hyde had so many things to process in a short a
mount of time. He piled his luggage by the door.
“Now that the distraction is gone, and you’ve cleared your head, we can get back down to business.” Clever complemented the statement by rubbing his hands together.
His father had actually called Tassia a distraction. How could Hyde let her go? Why could he not see clearly how his manager had manipulated him until now?
“There’s one thing I need to do before I leave here.” Hyde took his things out to his SUV that he now had parked in front of his home.
“What’s that?” Clever, wearing a white button-down shirt under a cream-colored suit, put his hands to his hips.
“Follow me.” Hyde took his father on a high-speed chase through winding backroads to get to his grandparents’ house.
When he got out of his vehicle, he noticed his father remained behind the wheel of his SUV. Hyde wouldn’t wait or even try to coerce him to join him in the house. If nothing else, he would use the time to properly say good-bye to them. He would have to catch Pepper another time. He would need her to properly close up his house.
Hyde walked up to the door and knocked like he had always done for as far back as he knew. Unless he played in the backyard, his grandparents never allowed anyone to run back and forth in their house through the front door. They could through the back door.
Efrem answered the door and smiled. The smile melted when he spotted the other vehicle and its driver. “What is he doing here again?”
“I asked him to follow me here.” Hyde walked into the house. “Since he sees me as his meal ticket, it won’t take him long to come in.”
Mabel walked in the living room from the closed-off kitchen area. “Baby, what are you doing here? Where’s Tassia?”
The second question would be harder to answer than the first. How the hell did he make this mistake again? He had to be crazy or stupid…or both.
“I’m going back to work, Grammy.” Hyde gave her a kiss on the cheek. When he heard the front door squeaking open and saw Clever coming through, Hyde felt compelled to answer the second question his grandmother had asked him. “Tassia left when I failed to react.” He turned away from his grandparents to face his father. “My manager has some embarrassing video and pictures of me and Tassia, and he threatened to use them against her if I didn’t do what he wanted.”
Crazy on You Page 26
