Relentless (Relentless #1)

by Alyson Reynolds

  Just in time.

  “Hey, love. What are you doing?”

  “Nothing, I just came in here to make a call. Did you have fun at the beach?”

  “Yeah, I did. I caught some massive waves, but Stephen wiped out pretty bad. Maybe you should check on him in a little bit. I’m afraid he might have a slight concussion. The medic on set checked him out, but he still seemed out of it on the drive back.”

  Concern etched his handsome face as he told me. It made my heart flip in my chest that he showed such compassion. He would make a good father.

  Did I really just think that?

  “I’ll check on him as soon as I get back. I’ve got to go, I’m supposed to meet Laura for coffee and I’m already running late,” I lied easily.

  My lips brushed his and I whispered, “We need to talk tonight. I’ll text you as soon as I can meet up. It shouldn’t be too late. Sound good?”

  “Okay,” he said slowly. “Is everything alright?”

  I paused before answering, “Yeah, it’s fine. I just need to talk to you about something. Don’t worry about it.”

  I’m worrying enough for the both of us.

  I kissed the little v that formed between his brows. “Stop it. Everything is fine, Jaxon. I’ll see you later.”

  My phone pressed to my ear as soon as I walked out the door. It was time to get things settled and it seemed more important than ever to get it done now.

  “We need to set a production schedule as soon as possible. Several actors are threatening to walk if they don’t get things ironed out. I’m one of them.”

  “No pleasantries, Violet? The schedule is fine, so you don’t need to worry about it. I need you in top shape for the movie. We’ll figure out something soon enough.”

  “Zac quit blowing me off every time you hear something you don’t like. Everyone hates working like this and we need to get it taken care of immediately. I’m coming to the office now. Your team needs a true schedule and I’m done waiting for you to realize it. You’ve had it easy so far, but guess what? I’m having a diva moment and that’s about to change. Unless you fix it right now, I will come down there and scream my head off. I’m not being unreasonable and you know it.”

  “Okay, you need to stop right there—“

  “Zac, I’ll be at your office in fifteen minutes. And unless you want to have this argument in front of your entire staff, I suggest you make sure you can meet me as soon as I get there.”

  My fingers fumbled as I reached back to zip up the skirt. I paused to examine the fit of the dress in the mirror. The black crop top wrapped around me like a bandeau top and showed a hint of my tan stomach. Thank goodness we had filmed at the beach so much lately.

  The skirt of the dress was a gorgeous sapphire blue satin and the fluffy tulle underneath kept it from laying flat against my body and not having any shape. I paired the dress with a pair of black strappy Louboutins. I loved the way everything looked on me. It was sexy without being slutty. My hair had been pulled up into a low messy bun offset to the right side of my head. If I was caught by the paparazzi tonight, it would look like I had spent hours getting ready, not the thirty minutes I’d actually had time for.

  Part of the agreement I made with Zac was that I would attend this stupid charity gala with him if he approved the schedule. Filming wasn’t nearly as bad as I claimed, but I needed to ensure certain scenes were shot soon and this was my best bet.

  My phone rang and Jaxon’s name flashed across the screen. Oh hell. I forgot I was supposed to be meeting up with him soon. My head had been spinning since this morning.

  I had to figure out how to tell him about the pregnancy, but I had no idea how he would react. Would he be excited or pissed off? Ignoring the call, I promised myself I would text him as soon as I got into the limo. It would give me an excuse to ignore Zac. I could tell him it was business and probably get away with it.

  Zac had a horrible reputation. Dread filled me as I thought about the car ride ahead. I made it perfectly clear I wasn’t interested in him or ‘furthering my career’ by sleeping with him.

  My phone started ringing again. Sighing, I answered, “Hi Jax. I was just about to call you. I didn’t make it to my phone in time just a second ago.”

  “What the hell, Violet? You disappeared today after saying we needed to talk and you haven’t called me since you left. I’m freaking out over here.”

  “I’m sorry, babe. I’ll tell you about everything in a few hours. Can I stop by later?”

  “A few hours? Love, you acted like you would be back here already.”

  “I know, Jaxon. I’m sorry, something came up and I have to go to a charity thing tonight. It was spur of the moment, but it will make everything on the set a lot better. Oh damn it! How is Stephen? I haven’t called him yet.”

  “He’s fine; No swelling and no signs of a concussion. Violet, I don’t give a shit about things on set. I think we need to talk about whatever you wanted to bring up earlier. You seemed really upset,” he tried again. The doorbell chimed signaling that the limo was outside waiting.

  “Look Jax, I’ll be there as soon as I can and we can talk, but I have to go.”

  “Vi—“

  I disconnected the call. All I could do was deal with one emergency at a time and right now, my priority was Zac. Hiding the pregnancy was important, because if the news broke, it would change not only my life, but Jaxon’s too. The paparazzi would be relentless in their chase. Even before I ‘retired’ I was secretive about my life. One thing I admired most about Jax is that he felt the same way I did about the media. Sure there were a few rumors going around about us, nothing had been proven and we didn’t encourage them.

  Zac barely looked up from his phone as I climbed in the seat across from him. My thoughts were distracted after talking to Jaxon; thank goodness I didn’t have to keep up conversation. I wanted to be going to Jax, not to a formal event I had no interest in.

  How am I going to tell him about this?

  No grand ideas came as I thought it over, but he needed to be the first person I told. I pulled my phone out of my clutch, and sent a text to Jax.

  I’m sorry. Trust me, this is important otherwise I would already be there.

  He immediately sent a text back, but when I opened the text it was a picture, not words. The screen showed a picture of the pregnancy test. The second chime went off.

  I think we need to fucking talk.

  My breath caught in my throat. Jaxon knew about the baby and I hadn’t told him. I should have taken the test with me, but I panicked and shoved it into the closet when I heard him outside in the hallway. Why did I leave instead of talking to him first?

  I fucked up and he would never forgive me. Sure, the schedule needed to be addressed, but this could have waited. I knew that; it was just my excuse to push him further away and not accept what was happening. I should have pulled Jax away for a few hours and told him. I should have waited for him to take the test at all.

  I’m a fucking idiot.

  Five minutes later we pulled up to the theater and Zac looked at me.

  “Are you ready to go look pretty?”

  I winced. “Hell, Zac. What am I, a piece of fucking meat?”

  “I wouldn’t have brought you if I didn’t want a hot date.”

  “Fuck this. I’ll have the driver take me home. I’m not doing this. I’ve done my part.”

  “If you do that I won’t approve the production schedule. I’m not sure why you’re so set on it, but I’ll make sure it’s never pushed through if you don’t get out of this car on my arm. So get out of the fucking car, Violet.”

  I nodded once and he opened the door. He extended his hand to help me out of the car, and he whispered menacingly, “Smile.”

  Plastering a fake smile on my face, I climbed out of the car. He tucked my arm into his and walked down the line of cameras. I tried walking through quickly, but he kept pulling me back to speak to reporter after reporter. Zac pulled me into his
side to pose for pictures. It took everything I had not to throw up on his shoes. By the time we made it into the entryway of the ballroom I wanted to scream.

  As soon as we made it out of the sight of the press, I shrugged his arm off mine. “You are such a pig.”

  “I don’t care what you think of me, I just want to sell tickets to my movies and right now you are the way to do that.”

  He pulled me down a side hallway, further away from somewhere someone might stumble upon us, “Your pretty little face will sell tickets, and I don’t really care how I have to get it out there.” He gripped my face in his hands tightly.

  “Get your hands off me!” I screeched knocking his hands back.

  “You’re going into that ballroom and you will play nice, or I’ll make your life a living hell, Violet. The production schedule will be the least of your concerns,” he hissed.

  I turned away and started towards the ballroom. Pausing, I looked over my shoulder at him, “Let’s get this over with. I don’t know what you think you have on me other than the fact that I want to finish this movie sometime this year, but I’ll play nice for now. If you ever try to blackmail me again, I’ll call your daddy. Remember Zac, I know who’s actually in charge and I work for him, not you. You won’t push me around like you do everyone else, Holt. I’ll cut you at the knees if you fuck with me and mine. You’ve got thirty minutes to show me off, and then I’m out the fucking door.”

  Zac blanched. He understood I would talk to his father with no hesitation if he stepped one more toe out of line. We both knew the only reason he had this job was because his dad owned the company. His father and I worked together early on in my career, something that Zac had probably forgotten. I wasn’t about to let this jackass push me around, and I certainly wouldn’t let him parade me around in front of the cameras. Exploiting my hatred of the media was shameless and despicable. If his mission tonight was to talk me into more exposure, he would be disappointed.

  I tried calling Jaxon as soon as I sat down in the car, but it went straight to voicemail. It had been two and a half hours since he had texted me. As hard as I tried, I hadn’t been able to get out of there any faster. Every time I turned around someone else was trying to talk to me. Zac signed the paperwork confirming the production schedule and emailed the contract to his dad so it would be set in stone. I didn’t trust him not to change it later.

  Two minutes later I called Jaxon again. I wanted to send him a text to see where he was, but I didn’t know if it was a good idea or not. He probably wouldn’t answer and if he thought I was coming he might try to avoid me. It terrified me to say the words out loud, but he should have heard about the pregnancy from me. Admitting how bad I screwed up to myself was one thing, but explaining to Jaxon was another thing altogether. His anger was palpable from the text message he sent me.

  I shot a text to Stephen to see if he was okay and apologize for not checking in sooner. He didn’t text me back either, so he was probably pissed off at me too. This night was going to be fucking awesome. I needed my best friend right now; all I wanted was to go hide under the covers and pretend this day hadn’t happened.

  What if he had told Stephen?

  As the car pulled up to the driveway, I braced myself for the worst. My hands trembled as I opened the door, not willing to wait the extra thirty seconds for the driver to get it for me.

  I ducked into several rooms searching for Jax, but he wasn’t anywhere I checked. The guys sat sprawled out on the couches in the living room watching TV, and I glanced in to see if he was with them.

  “Have any of you guys seen Jax? I need to talk to him.”

  Brad answered without looking up from the television. “He’s in the backyard. I wouldn’t go out there though; he’s in a pissy mood.”

  As he finished he glanced up at me. He did a double take and his wolf whistle caught the attention of the other guys, “You look hot, Montgomery. Did we miss something exciting?”

  “Just taking care of something and had to get dressed up to do it,” I said through clenched teeth.

  I ran off towards the backyard before they could say anything else. It took me a minute to find him in the dark, but as I walked closer, he sat in the spot where we’d had our first onscreen fight. It was kind of fitting that we would have our first real fight there too. As I walked closer, the smell of vodka hit me before I saw the bottle clutched in his hand.

  “Are you too drunk to answer a phone, Jaxon? I tried calling you as soon as I could.”

  His head snapped up at my voice, apparently he hadn’t heard the door slam shut behind me. His eyes were cold and empty. To see him so unhinged sent a chill up my spine; Jax had never looked at me like that before. For one split second I was scared of him.

  “That’s nice of you to call me.”

  The venom and accusation in his voice was piercing, but his attitude and need to get drunk made me mad too. I didn’t plan on sitting back and letting him make me feel even worse than I already did. There was plenty of blame to go round if he wanted to fight this out.

  “I took the test and freaked the fuck out, okay? I’m sorry I didn’t handle it like an adult. I spent the evening with a jackass trying to make this easier on everyone.” He stared past me with no reaction. “What the fuck, Jax? Can you even look at me or are you too drunk?”

  “I’m sorry, I’m a little pissed off that my ‘girlfriend’ is knocked up and wasn’t planning on telling me about it. Just wondering when, how, or fuck, even when this happened. I was enjoying my youth, and if the baby is mine then I can fucking kiss it goodbye.

  My mouth dropped open, and I stood there speechless. Getting knocked up wasn’t exactly my fault; it takes two people for it to happen. Jaxon had never even raised his voice to me, so to hear him basically call me a whore hurt more than I expected.

  “You’re almost thirty Jax. Grow the fuck up.”

  My chest ached as I realized I never expected it to be this bad. I should have kept him at arm’s length. He was hurting me like every other man in my life had before him; getting attached and opening up was a huge mistake. Jaxon Garrett was just another mistake in the long line of men that wanted to hurt me any way possible.

  I took a step back and tried to figure out what to do next. He didn’t answer and his gaze never moved from the ground in front of him.

  “You know what, Jax? We need to take a step back. This happened too fast. We happened too fast. Don’t worry about anything; you can enjoy your youth. Just pretend you didn’t find the test and I’ll pretend I never fucked you.”

  His eyes met mine and I sucked in a breath. The beautiful, expressive green eyes I loved so much were gone. Jaxon had never been so cold and distant. This wasn’t the man I had spent the last few months getting to know.

  “Were you even going to tell me about the baby? You ran off the first chance that you got without saying a damn word. Fuck! You’re still running. I’m watching you back away from me right now.”

  His hands tightened on the arms of the chair until I thought they might snap under the pressure of his grasp. Fear spiked in my throat again as I watched his knuckles turn white. I blanched and stumbled back a few steps. Did he really think I would keep the baby from him? It was another punch in the gut as I listened to him describe the person he thought I was.

  “I was trying to take care of our careers before our mistake tanked them. I did damage control to keep everyone from finding out our business. My business. I tried to protect you. If you don’t understand that, then whatever, that’s on you. Conveniently, you seem to have forgotten that I told you we needed to talk about something important before I left this morning. And I never said when I would be back. Is it the alcohol screwing with your head or were you always this mean and manipulative and I never realized it because I was too blinded by the façade you put up?”

  “You fucking left, Violet!” he yelled. “You knew and you left! And you lied about seeing Laura. She showed up on set less than an hour after you lef
t looking for you. That’s how I found out there was something wrong. Don’t you get it? I know you better than you think. I don’t understand how you’re protecting me, but stop.”

  His hands raked though his hair. “How in the hell did it happen anyway? We always used a condom. Are you sure it’s even mine?”

  I had been upset before, but I also knew I had made mistakes and I wanted to own up to them. He acted like he had no part in the situation, and this was the second time he’d asked if he was the father. That man was not an innocent bystander, and I wanted to make sure he knew it.

  “Yes, the baby is yours, you fucking asshole. I didn’t slip and fall on your penis, Jaxon. This shit takes two people. You know I don’t sleep around. How dare you call me a fucking whore.”

  “I just needed to make sure you weren’t lying to me again. You seem to be making it a habit.”

  The sound of my hand striking his face echoed throughout the backyard. I turned away quickly so he couldn’t see the tears streaming down my face. He wouldn’t get the satisfaction of seeing me cry. He called out from behind me, but I kept running.

  “Violet!” he called out again, sounding panicked. “I’m so sorry. Stop please, let’s talk about this and I’ll stop being an asshole.”

  He tried to get up to follow me, but the vodka made him slow and clumsy. I slammed the glass doors as I stormed into the house. How stupid could I be to believe I could trust him to be there for me or the baby? I called out to the living room as I passed by.

  “Let everyone know we have an early call time at the beach tomorrow.”

  Groans went up behind me. Sick as it was, I felt just a little better by their misery.