Pulling herself from her thoughts, she grabbed a brush and began to yank it through her hair as she reached to turn on the shower. As she stepped inside, she heard her phone ring. This time it was her mother’s ringtone, but she decided to wait. The warm water beckoned her. She’d call her back in a few minutes.
~~~
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Ty actually yelled into the phone as his brain went numb. The violent drumming in his ears made hearing anything else virtually impossible. He was on set, reading over this week’s script when he’d finally stopped the entire team and picked up the phone to take Reed’s third back-to-back call. “What the fuck are you saying?”
“I’ve already got Braden on it, Bateman.” Reed’s hard voice shouted back, probably the only thing able to penetrate the shock. “But seriously, ass, what the fuck did you think was gonna happen?”
Ty shoved away from the table and out of his chair, not paying any attention to the clanking of the metal as it tipped, falling to the floor. He ignored all the worry radiating from everyone at the table. The alarm on every face made the bottomless pit of fear coil tighter in his gut. He immediately pivoted on his heels and took off running from the room. At all cost, he had to get to Kenzie before she found out.
“It’s against the law!” A lame response, but still true.
“And when does that fucking stop anything?”
Ty started to run in earnest now. His car was parked right out front. Bluetooth picked up the call that Ty had stopped paying attention to, and he tossed his phone on the passenger seat. He was zipping down the parking lot in seconds before a hard steel edge took over his thoughts and his voice.
“Get Braden on the phone. I want their fucking heads for this one and any site that publishes those photos—I want to own that company when this is said and done. Goddammit, they’re going down. I’m not fucking kidding… Get Bray. On. The. Motherfucking. Phone!"
He listened to a series of beeps as he zoomed past the security stand, barreling out into traffic. He prayed Kenzie hadn’t seen this yet.
~~~
A solid thirty minutes later, Kenzie had her hair blown dry, did a little repair job on her toenail polish, and dressed in what she was beginning to refer as her always sunny California attire. Today she wore a pair of capris and a pretty tank top with no panties or bra. Since they hadn’t gone without sex for more than a few hours since leaving Tennessee, she decided Ty might appreciate her removing any barriers when he got home.
Real life was knocking on the door, something Ty had so romantically whisked her away from. He was totally her knight in shining armor. He had utterly changed her life. The fairy tale was hers. Grinning from ear to ear, she strolled through the bedroom, grabbing her phone before heading to the kitchen for some breakfast. Then she’d need to call Lara for a scheduled conference call to begin the foundation training. Another cool thing, her sign-on bonus had been deposited into her account over the weekend. Having money to pay her very few bills was a giant weight off her shoulders.
The phone in her hand started vibrating seconds before Lara’s name appeared on the screen. Kenzie walked down the main hall toward the entryway when she swiped her finger across the screen. “Hey, I was just thinking of our call today. Thank you for coming out. Did you get home safely?”
“Why do you sound like that?”
“Like what?” she asked, coming to a stop in the middle of the entry separating the front door from the living room. The edge in Lara’s voice had an unknown anxiety tickling up her spine.
“Where’s Ty?”
“He’s at work. He started back on the show today. What’s going on?” she asked, her tone turning a little frantic, matching Lara’s.
“You haven’t seen the news, have you?”
“Oh no. What happened? Is it Ty and Julia again? That peace and calm didn’t last very long,” she said. Relieved it wasn’t something more terrible than a news story, she started walking toward the kitchen again.
“Kenzie, I don’t know how to tell you this, but it’s so much worse than that. They have pictures of you and Ty in the swimming pool,” Lara said carefully.
“What? How’d they get those?” She understood that must be bad. She wasn’t big on being seen in her bathing suit in public. She’d never gone to the beach in one of those strappy things Ty kept getting for her. A bigger question was who could have pulled off those kinds of shots? Maybe someone on staff? Ty would feel betrayed, probably fire everyone over this slip.
“In one article from the AP, it says they had to have used those long-range cameras. They’re supposedly illegal, but these pictures are bad, Kenzie. In the sites I’ve seen, they’ve blurred out the private parts, but it looks like you and Ty were having sex,” Lara said carefully.
Wait, what? Seconds later, Kenzie’s whole world stopped.
“Oh my God,” she whispered as the realization of what Lara was trying to tell her sunk in. The pictures were from last night. They were being watched.
Oh God. No!
“Oh, Kenzie, I’m so sorry.”
Kenzie collapsed to her feet, dropping her head between her parted knees, feeling like she might truly pass out. When that didn’t happen, she stayed scrunched together in that ball, ignored Lara and pulled up Google, working her phone faster than she ever thought was possible. Within a minute, she saw the lead story on TMZ. It was a picture of her, half in and half out of the pool, hanging on to the side with Ty’s hand between her shoulder blades. Her eyes were closed, her mouth open, and her breasts blurred. Her butt partially exposed, and what she assumed might be some of Ty’s cock underneath a small blurry bubble. They had no problem showing Ty’s ass.
When she clicked on the photo, a slideshow of twenty-four photos started to play. Each one damning, and she knew for a fact they were taken last night in the only place outdoors that Ty had felt truly safe. Heavy tears sprang to her eyes, madly rushing down her face as the front door slammed open, bouncing off the small entry table, sending the mirror on the wall crashing down.
“I’m sorry,” she said, still in that ball with the tears falling down her face as she looked over her shoulder, seeing him standing there.
“Goddammit! I’m so fucking sorry.” Ty rushed toward her, yanking her up in his arms.
The incriminating photos were the most embarrassing thing in her life and that said a lot for a woman who’d spent several nights in jail trying to manage her bail. But none of that mattered as she wrapped both her arms securely around Ty. The man never got a break, and now even his sanctuary had a horribly violating breach.
“Ty, I’m sorry!”
“Baby, you have nothing to be sorry for.” Ty held her so tight she couldn’t breathe.
“How did they do this?” she asked on a haggard breath against his neck.
“Illegally, Kenzie. It’s my fault. I should have known better. Things weren’t truly settling down. I should have known better.” She lifted on her tiptoes and held him tighter, wishing he never had to deal with any of this pain ever again.
“We’re naked all over the Internet. Until a few hours ago, there were three people on this whole planet who had seen me naked. I hate those pictures. I’m so sorry they do this to you,” she mumbled and gave another shuddered breath, tucking her head tighter into the crook of his neck, closing her eyes tight, wishing those words were enough to make all this go away.
Chapter 38
Hate filled his heart on a level he’d never experienced before as he listened to Braden and his team discuss a list of bullshit injunctions and very clear threats of pending prosecution to anyone who chose to publish the illegal photos. He was determined to bury them. No question he’d do what it took, spend whatever he had to in order to stand up for Kenzie, but fuck it if this violation didn’t change everything.
He’d been shortsighted and failed her. Never one time did he truly consider the far-reaching lengths the opportunists of his world would go to in order to make a buck and a
s a result destroy his love. This whole time, he’d only considered himself. His wishes, his wants. He’d pushed so hard to get her there with him, not once realizing the toll she’d face for his stupid desires.
Had he truly thought that just having him in her life was enough to overcome everything else?
Disgust ate at his soul, and Ty dropped his head in his hands as all the talking around him continued.
Of course someone like Kenzie Stanton would be eaten alive by his world. Only the hardest of the hard, creepiest of the creepy, meanest of the mean could survive. Ty understood what that said about him as a person and leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and dug two fingers against his eyelids. How could he have ever thought he deserved someone like McKenzie Stanton? He was the king of this world. He’d done better here than anyone. It spoke volumes to the character of who he was as a man.
“Bateman! You’re not paying attention,” Braden barked sternly. Ty cut his eyes to the screen were all the meeting participants stared back at him.
“No, I’m not. I can’t fucking understand why I’m even required to listen to all this bullshit. I need you to do your fucking job, and if you’re wasting precious time meeting, you aren’t completing the tasks I’m fucking paying for,” he roared, adjusting in his seat to better face the monitor.
“Buddy, I get it,” Bray started while the others remained quiet, but Ty cut him off.
“There’s no way you can possibly understand. I made this worse for her. I did it.” Ty angrily poked himself in the chest with his index finger.
“No, you didn’t,” Bray started again. Ty reached over and disconnected the call by powering off the computer. He sat there several minutes staring at the darkened screen, anger tainting every single thought he had. Frustrated beyond belief, he forced himself out of the office and went in search Kenzie. The house was darkening, no lights were lit anywhere. It took several minutes to find her even after having a moment of fear that she’d left, but that faded quickly. She had no way to leave, and now he felt like a heel about that too.
It wasn’t until he realized one of the chairs was turned the wrong direction that he found Kenzie sitting in the living room. She was facing the backyard, her seat right at the window. They’d spent every night out there, and now she was afraid to go outside. He walked around the chair, saw both legs were drawn up, her head lying back against the headrest and she was sound asleep. Her sweet face still red and swollen from crying. He had caused those tears.
Instead of waking her, he went for a blanket, carefully draping it across her. She never woke. For the next couple of hours, he paced his bedroom, going to check on her every so often. Kenzie slept, eventually stretching out in the chair, her head using the armrest as a pillow.
With everything they’d been through, the whole whirlwind of their relationship, Ty got the exhaustion she must be experiencing. He went back to the bedroom, spreading out across the bed and stared up at the ceiling until he finally nodded off. Pretty certain that life sucked shit with zero hope that might ever change.
Chapter 39
Five days later
Kenzie stood in the kitchen, warming a vegetable stir-fry she’d made earlier in the day, listening to the faint sounds of Ty’s voice coming from his office on the other side of the house. She worked quietly preparing her plate of food and decided at the last minute to make a plate for Ty. The small act of making his dinner caused a quick slice of pain to ripple across her heart. They were in day five of the catastrophe she now referred to as Nakedgate and the tension in the house had become palpable. He hadn’t sat to eat a meal with her this week.
Things had gotten so bad that she hadn’t left the house since Monday, not even to go into the garage. Ty on the other hand had gotten to where he only came home to sleep. Another aching slice raked across her heart until a violent noisy crash in the distance made her suddenly jerk in unexpected fear. She looked over her shoulder in the direction of Ty’s office. The string of curse words that followed would have made a sailor proud.
Instead of going toward the problem, Kenzie found herself recoiling. She turned from the food and stood against the cabinet, waiting for whatever was about to come down on her. Her heart slammed violently in her chest as she listened to the sounds of heavy footsteps stalking toward her. Ty appeared in the doorway of the kitchen, his angry glare trained on her.
“Why is it so dark in this damn house all the time?” Ty asked, not necessarily a shout, but she could tell he was doing everything in his power to hold the vehemence at bay. Kenzie didn’t say a word or move an inch; she just stared at him. She tried so hard to tell herself that Ty wasn’t Jason. That not all men escalated anger into abuse, but God, it was hard to rationalize and keep her fear in check. Enough time must have passed that Ty figured out she wasn’t going to answer even under his most expectant stare. “I’ve got filming. I’ll be gone all night.”
Last week when they’d spoken about nights like these, he’d begged her to go with him—spend the night in his dressing room to be close by for whenever he got a break. Now apparently all that was out the window. Technically, they’d never really been out as a couple, so it shouldn’t have hurt that he didn’t want her to go, but it did.
Ty looked at her for several long seconds. All she could decipher was an expression of disgust before he turned and left. That was when she saw the duffle bag slung over his shoulder. Tears sprang to her eyes when she heard the slamming of the front door.
Kenzie lifted a shaking hand to her face, a small hiccup escaped from the emotion she’d tried to hold back. She’d promised herself that she’d never live like that again. Heck, she had sworn off all men for the rest of her life, and look what she’d done—moved in with the first guy who looked her way.
Instead of dwelling on her own stupidity, Kenzie went to the sink and splashed cold water on her heated face. She knew what she needed to do, but that decision sucked so badly. She loved Ty on a level she’d never loved another before.
Forcing her spine to straighten, Kenzie reached for a hand towel to dry her eyes. She had money. She had her sign-on bonus and her first paycheck would come next week. The writing was on the wall for this relationship. If she stayed and prayed, all her effort would only extend the pain of the eventual breakup. The facts were clear. Ty hadn’t had a kind word to say in five days, and they hadn’t had sex since those pictures were first published. The last two nights, they hadn’t slept in the same bed. Now, he was leaving the home. The blows across her heart kept coming. How in the world did she even have a heart left?
Decision made, Kenzie went to pack. Probably the easiest way to get out of town was to rent a car. Surely she’d be spotted at the airport. So she needed to drive home, not fly. And the ridiculousness of that thought didn’t go unnoticed. Why would anyone care? She pushed that aside and went for her new laptop to book a car. Packing wouldn’t take long, she hadn’t come with much and no way was she taking everything he’d bought her. She already owed him so much. It would be impossible to ever pay him back. Maybe the debt owed would be considered paid in full with her leaving on her own, him not having to ask her, and that made her heart hurt, too.
~~~
Ty leaned back in his director’s chair watching the scene they were currently working on just a few feet away. He was in full makeup, waiting for his call. A long, tired yawn slipped free, and he reached over for his cup of coffee, downing the contents in two long swallows.
“Hey,” Julia said, taking the chair next to his. She’d agreed to a four show run this season, one of those shows began filming tonight.
“Hey,” he finally said when he decided silence was probably too rude for someone he called a friend.
“Hmm.”
He never looked up or responded to that because that one word she’d just uttered described his entire mental state.
“I’m off for the next hour. Want to eat, maybe talk some?”
“I’m not hungry.”
Julia go
t off her chair, faced him, and patted his knee. “Come with me anyway.”
At this point, he could ignore her in front of all these people who were keeping a wide berth or he could go with her. After a minute, he shoved off the chair and followed her toward the food table.
~~~
Less than two hours after Kenzie had booked a car, an Enterprise driver pulled to the front gate and buzzed their arrival. Kenzie went for the buzzer—it took a second to remember the access code to allow someone in—and was surprised when the gate didn’t open. She pressed the speaker. “Hang on. I’m sorry. The code’s not working.”
Perhaps she’d gotten it wrong. Confused, she went back to Ty’s office, rummaged through a drawer for the list of security codes at the same time the doorbell rang. She pivoted on her heels, turning back to the entryway. Maybe they’d gotten in after all. Kenzie lifted on her tiptoes, looking out the peephole to see a big bulked-up man wearing a uniform. Something that looked close to an officer, but not quite the police regardless of the weapon he wore on his hip.
“Can I help you?” she called through the door, completely uncertain what to do. What if this was some sort of paparazzi trick?
“We bypassed the entrance code per Mr. Bateman’s instruction until we can verify who’s driving the vehicle. This is not on the list of approved vehicles allowed entry,” the guy shouted through the door.
“Can I see some ID?” she finally said, having no clue what was going on. After a second, the guy lifted his wallet to show his driver’s license on one side and what looked like a professional identification on the other. After a second of indecision, she opened the door a crack, praying she wasn’t making a mistake.
They both just stared at one another cautiously until she finally spoke again. “Now, who are you?”
Acting Happy (Texas Desires #2) Page 33
