A Taste of Pink (Shades Book 4)

by Stephanie Hoffman McManus

  I pulled the phone away from my face and whispered to a confused James. “It’s Warren, can you like track the call or something?”

  He jumped into action and I put the phone back to my face intent on keeping Warren talking, but before I could say another word, James ripped the phone out of my hand and ended the call.

  “What the hell?” I hissed. “I was trying to keep him on the line so you could trace it.”

  “You’ve seen too many movies. You don’t have to keep him on the line for us to track the call. If it’s traceable, it doesn’t even matter if you answer it. Talking to the creep will only encourage him.”

  “Oh,” I said lamely, and James turned his back to me to make a call of his own. He spoke to whoever was the on the other end for less than thirty seconds before hanging up.

  “There. Garcia will text me if he gets a location from the call.” He held my phone out to me, and I stared at it warily. James retracted the phone. “I can hang on to it tonight in case he calls back.”

  “Okay,” I agreed, relieved that I wouldn’t have to lie awake, listening, waiting for it to buzz again.

  We stood there awkwardly, and I could see the unspoken words in his eyes, the remnants of our fight heating them with anger and frustration and maybe a touch of desperation. He even started to speak but swallowed the words back down. Me, I didn’t know what to say, but maybe it was better that we didn’t say anything.

  I retreated to my room and fell into a fitful sleep. Nightmares and confusing dreams plagued me. What I wouldn’t have given to be a little girl again, able to sneak into my parents’ room and find comfort between them, where the bad dreams couldn’t get me. When the worst dreams were only of imaginary monsters pulled from the pages of a book or the television screen.

  Seventeen

  Riley

  I wasn’t ready for it to be morning.

  The first rays of dawn crept through the breaks in the curtains and stabbed my eyes. I groaned and yanked the covers over my head. Hadn’t I just gone to sleep like an hour ago? How could it be morning already?

  Hangovers suck, I thought when I finally threw the covers back and dragged my butt to the shower to clean off last night’s yuck.

  James’ door was wide open, and he was absent from his room.

  When I ventured downstairs, the smell of coffee lured me into the kitchen. Someone was up. Dad was already gone, but I found James seated at the breakfast counter pouring over the screen of a tablet. He barely glanced up at me as I retrieved a mug and reluctantly walked over to the pot. It was an emergency. I needed it. I cringed at the first inhale as I raised the cup to my lips. I was doing this strictly for the caffeine.

  With my face still pinched in distaste from the bitter brew, I walked over to where James was seated and leaned against the counter opposite of him. His eyes briefly flicked to me and back down before doing a double take and zeroing in on the mug in my hand.

  “You drink coffee now?”

  I shrugged. “This morning called for it. I hardly slept last night.” I took another swig and my disgust must have showed on my face because James smirked.

  “You could add cream and sugar.”

  “Why bother? It’s still going to be gross and I don’t need the extra calories.”

  At that he glanced back down at his tablet, swiping across the screen. “If it makes you feel any better, Warren is still in California. The guys couldn’t get an exact location, but we know he’s in L.A.”

  The information only made me feel slightly better. “So, we just keep waiting for him to pop up again?”

  Sympathetic eyes rose to meet mine. “I’m sorry. We’ll get him, I promise.”

  I sighed, “Don’t make a promise you can’t keep.”

  His eyes narrowed. “I can and will keep that promise. I know you’re mad, but you know you can trust me. Even if you don’t want to admit it right now.”

  I slammed my mug down on the counter a little too hard. “You’re not even supposed to be here. I fired you. How many times do I have to remind you of that?”

  He rose and leaned over the counter, putting his face right in mine. “You can keep saying it all you want, but I’m not going anywhere. You fired me because I hurt you, not because I can’t do my job. You can be pissed at me all you want. You can even choose not to pay, and I’ll sort it out with Spencer. Makes no difference. I’m not leaving.”

  “Why the hell not? You said yourself, you’re not the only competent security expert at your firm.”

  “But I’m the only one I’ll trust with you.”

  If I were willing to put my personal, hurt feelings and wounded pride aside, I’d be able to admit he was the only one I trusted as well, but I wasn’t willing. I grabbed my mug and stomped out of the kitchen.

  I hid out the rest of the morning in my room, flipping through old year books and photo albums, reading the journal entries from pre-teen and teenage me. God, if I could talk to that girl, there were so many things I would tell her.

  I set the worn book aside when noise of a vehicle coming up the drive drew me to the window. It was a black luxury SUV and I knew before the doors opened who would step out. Luis’ expensive Italian loafers appeared first, followed by the rest of him, and then someone I wasn’t expecting climbed from the passenger seat.

  What the hell was Hunter Foxx doing here? Shit, maybe I should have answered his call.

  I raced down the stairs and took a second to collect my calm at the bottom before opening the door to greet them on the porch. I folded my arms cross my chest and cocked my head. “What a pleasant surprise,” I drawled sarcastically. “What brings the two of you to Montana?”

  I was sure Luis’ eyes rolled behind his shades. Hunter at least had the decency to look a bit unsure.

  “Enough Riley, it’s time to be an adult.” Luis brushed past me into the house and nearly ran into James who had appeared in the entryway.

  I turned a narrow gaze on Hunter, who simply held up his hands in surrender and said, “I tried to call you. Just tell me how mad you are at me.”

  “I’m not mad at you,” I huffed. “Just a little confused what you’re doing here.”

  A puzzled frown creased his forehead. “You’re not mad?”

  “Should I be?” I asked suspiciously.

  “You haven’t been online, have you?”

  “No,” I snorted. “I’ve been avoiding all media the last couple days.”

  “Right then, I guess we should go inside.”

  He hurriedly slipped past me to join Luis in the house before I could stop him with more questions. I had no choice but to follow them all into the living room. James gave me a questioning look.

  “I didn’t know they were coming,” I whispered as I brushed past him into the living room where Hunter was now perusing everything curiously. Luis, on the other hand, got straight to business. “I don’t appreciate you making me come all the way up here.”

  “I didn’t make you do anything,” I mumbled, earning an even more irritated look from Luis as he removed his sunglasses and slid them into his jacket pocket.

  “You’ve refused most of my calls, and the few times that you have picked up, you hang up on me, so I don’t see how you left me any other choice but to fly up here and sort this mess out. So now you’re going to sit and you’re going to listen.”

  I bristled against being treated like a child. “No.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “In case you forgot, I don’t work for you Luis. You don’t get to order me around like a naughty child.”

  “Well you’ve certainly been behaving like one, and I’m quite aware that you don’t work for me. I was under the impression that we were partners, Riley, and family. Clearly, I was wrong, as you’ve shown me zero respect or regard lately.”

  “You haven’t left me with many choices either,” I shot back at him. “You won’t listen to anything I say.”

  “I guess that makes us a pair, because what I was trying to tell y
ou on the phone last night before you hung up on me, and the reason Hunter has been trying to reach you, is we’ve come up with a solution to most of your problems, thanks in large part to Hunter.”

  “How is Hunter going to solve all of my problems?”

  “Well, it will hardly rectify all of them, but we can discuss the deeper issues later. Hunter has already come to your rescue as far as our biggest concern which was the media circus and the rumors. He’s also been very agreeable to the idea that Angela and I came up with.”

  I turned to Hunter. “What did you do?”

  He wore a sheepish expression and cast a glance at Luis before answering. “Nothing really, I only told the truth.”

  “And what truth is that?” I narrowed my gaze on him skeptically.

  “Mila was the one responsible for the picture. She staged it to get back at me. She also cheated on me with Derrick to get at both of us. The rumors, all of it, was them.”

  What did Mila have against me? “Why would she do it to get back at you?”

  “Mila got it in her head that we hooked up on the set of Red Red Rose. Obviously, I denied it. I thought she believed me, but I guess she was still convinced I had a thing for you. She’s an incredibly jealous person.”

  “Why would she think that?”

  Hunter scrubbed a hand through his perfect hair and shifted uncomfortably. “Last year, when you were named People’s Most Beautiful Woman, Mila had the issue and, without thinking, I said something along the lines of they made a good choice, and then I admitted to her that I’d crushed on you the first time we met at the Kid’s Choice Awards, not realizing how Mila was going to react. She was pissed, and took it personally, as if I’d made the decision and not the magazine.”

  Hold up. Rewind.

  Hunter Foxx had a crush on me?

  “She’s been jealous and irrational towards you ever since. It didn’t help when she found out Magnum offered you the cover and spread for this year’s Hottest one-hundred, and only gave it to her when you turned it down.” Because Magnum Magazine was one step away from porn.

  “I think the two of us together on the press tour pushed her over the edge,” Hunter continued. “I admitted all of this in an interview, and well, you should probably just read it.”

  Hunter brought out his phone and played with it a minute before nervously handing it to me. It was opened to a website with the heading, When True Love Jumps off the Big Screen and Into Real Life.

  Under the heading was a picture of the two of us. I quickly skimmed my eyes over the article below, scrolling as I read until I came to the part where Hunter told the interviewer exactly what he’d just told me, coming to my defense and insisting the rumors of my addiction were false. Which I appreciated. I was tempted to hug him right there. Only he hadn’t told me everything, because in the article he went on to disclose that he had in fact developed feelings for me while filming . . .

  I looked up from the phone at Hunter. “What the hell is this?”

  “Like I said, it’s the truth.”

  Let’s just forget for a moment that Hunter had feelings for me. “Why would you say any of this in an interview?” Glancing at the comment section below the article, it looked like all he’d done was stir up more drama.

  “You weren’t doing anything to stop the rumors. You crashed your car and then disappeared. If anything, you just further convinced the world that you were going off the deep end. I couldn’t sit back and let Mila ruin you. Especially not since it was my fault.”

  I softened toward him slightly; his intentions were honest and good. I just wasn’t prepared to deal with this on top of everything else. I had no idea how to respond. Unconsciously, my eyes flicked to James who stood stoic in the doorway, his face blank. Our eyes met for a micro-second, but I quickly looked away. I knew in my heart he was the reason I couldn’t muster up anything for Hunter besides flattered. There was no quickened heartbeat, no giddiness, no rush, nada.

  Sixteen-year-old me, hell even twenty-one-year-old me, would have slapped me for this apathetic response. “Thank you, I guess, but this still doesn’t explain the two of you showing up here.”

  “Don’t you see how we can spin this? A relationship between the two of you is exactly what we need to repair your reputation and image. Hollywood’s golden boy and girl? We give them that, and it’s all they’ll want to talk about. The media will be happy to run with this story, and the rivalry between you and Mila. Not even Angela could spin a better tale, where Mila comes out the villain.”

  “Are you kidding me?” I sputtered. “That’s what you want? Another fake relationship? Have you forgotten I’ve already got one fake boyfriend?” I flung my hand toward James.

  Luis scoffed. “That’s dealt with easily enough. It was always going to end, anyway.”

  So it was. The reminder left a bitter taste in my mouth and a heaviness in my chest. “So, what? I’m just supposed to break off one fake relationship to jump into another? Why does a relationship always have to be the solution to every problem?”

  “Because, the world loves a love story. Even more than they want to tear people down, they want something to believe in. They want the fantasy. They want to root for someone. They want to root for you. You have loyal fans, Riley, who will stick with you. Give them that, and they’ll believe anything we tell them about the other rumors and indiscretions.”

  “Why can’t the truth just be enough? Mila set me up for the reasons Hunter said, and I didn’t wreck my car, I was run off the road. We have the drug tests from the hospital.”

  “Test results can be bought, Riley. Besides, that’s not the story they want, and if we don’t give them a better one, they’ll make it up themselves, and who knows how you’ll be painted. Disney has already put their offer on hold and are considering going in another direction. This way, I can still salvage that contract and we can control the narrative in the media.”

  “Can we just time out with spinning stories and the press and contracts. What about what’s best for me?”

  Luis looked at me as if I truly were on drugs. “This is what’s best for you. Don’t you see that?”

  “No, I don’t. It may be what’s best for my career, but I’m not sure it’s what’s best for me. I already told you I don’t want the Disney deal.”

  Luis threw his hands up. “Then what do you want, Riley?”

  “I don’t know,” I shouted, “but I want to figure it out and decide for myself.”

  “Well, while you sit here, hiding out, figuring out what that is, your image and reputation are being tarnished by rumors and speculation. In this business, your image is all you have, and I can’t promise that yours will be salvageable after too long. Do you want to be the next Lohan? Or Spears? Some things you can’t recover from, and by the time you decide you want to save your career, it may be too late.”

  “But whose career are you really trying to save? Mine or yours?”

  “I can’t believe you would ask that. After everything I’ve done to make you who you are, to give you everything you wanted.”

  I shook my head. “You mean make me who you wanted me to be. It doesn’t feel like my career anymore, when none of the choices are mine.”

  “Fine,” he barked, “you want to make choices, then make one. Do you still want to be an actress or not?”

  “Yes,” I cried back unequivocally, knowing that wasn’t in question. “But I don’t think I want to be the actress you want me to be. I don’t want to do the movies you think I should. I want to branch out and grow and take risks. I want to choose my own parts, not have them chosen for me.”

  Luis’ shoulders sagged slightly, and he lowered his voice. “I understand that, and maybe I have been a little difficult and over-bearing, but only because you’re much more than a client to me. I care about you Riley, like my own daughter. I only want what’s best for you. Maybe we disagree on what that looks like, but we can work that out. We can figure out what you want together, without destroying y
our career in the process, but you have to trust me on this.”

  I felt my resolve waver and the fight leave me as some of my anger deflated at his words. He wasn’t wrong, and maybe we could work everything out. I just needed him to have some faith in me.

  “You really think this is the best way to handle it?” I couldn’t help that my eyes briefly darted to James again, wondering what he thought of all this. He was stiff and he wouldn’t look at me.

  I turned back to Luis as he answered. “Yes, I really do. Think of it like any publicity stunt. You and Mr. Rayne’s have performed wonderfully the past several weeks. This is the same thing, but if you prefer, you don’t even have to label it a relationship. You don’t have to do anything but spend time with a close friend. After Hunter’s admission of feelings, the rest will take care of itself. The world will see what they want, which is the workings of love.”

  I turned once more to Hunter. “You’re okay with this?”

  He simply nodded, but that wasn’t good enough for me.

  “Can I talk to you alone for a minute?”

  He followed me to the kitchen where I rounded on him. “Why would you go along with this? With him?” I gestured toward the living room where we’d left Luis.

  “Riley, it was my idea. I reached out to Luis after I did the interview.”

  “Your idea?”

  “Yes.”

  “I still don’t understand why. I get why Luis would push this. I know how he works, how he justifies these ridiculous ideas and stunts. It’s all about the attention and spotlight and using the media and whoever he has to do his job, but you . . . you thought it was a stupid idea, me and James, and this is the same thing. And guess what, you were right. It was a stupid idea. I knew it then, but went along with it anyway because—”

  “Because you love the guy. And that’s what made it a stupid idea, Riley. Faking a relationship with a guy you have real feelings for.” He shook his head. “If the tension rolling off you two is indication, it’s going exactly how I expected, and that’s why you should agree to this. Use me, instead.”