He arched a brow in challenge. “Well?”
I shifted in my high-heeled boots. As if anyone who’d ever spent any time on a ranch would ever wear an outfit like this.
Was this everything I wanted? To be alone in a town where the only people who were nice to me only wanted to be near my newfound fame. Where the only people who actually knew me thought I was the devil incarnate. Where I’d finally gotten a taste of power, only to discover that there was yet another disgusting old man hoping to pull my strings and make me his puppet.
I swallowed a wave of revulsion at the memory of my last run-in with Grayson Devereaux. Men like him? They were the worst kind of bullies. They deserved to die, in my humble opinion. Or, at the very least, they deserved to have their power stripped away.
Anger had my hands shaking, and Brandon’s gaze on me filled with confusion.
I forced a smile. “I’m a star, Brandon. Or I will be once our show airs. What more could I want?”
Power, I could have told him. Control over my life. That was what I wanted. What I’d always wanted. It was what I’d thought I was getting by coming to this town and taking on this role.
My stomach turned at the memory of Grayson Devereaux’s smirk.
I was right back where I started. Only this time I had more to lose, and Grayson Devereaux knew it.
Brandon huffed as he rolled his eyes, but then his gaze fixed on me with a new curiosity. “When did you change so much, Amber? What happened to the sweet girl I knew when we were kids?”
Everything in me recoiled at that question. A lifetime of memories warred for attention as I thought of all the ways I could answer that. But Brandon didn’t need to hear my sob story. He didn’t deserve to hear it. “She grew up,” I said.
His eyes filled with sadness. Disappointment. I had to fight a surge of guilt that only a guy like Brandon could make me feel. “Too bad,” he said. “I really liked that Amber.”
I did too. I clenched my jaw shut. “Enough with the guilt trip,” I said. “What’s done is done, and I don’t regret a thing.”
Mostly that was true.
Brandon looked away. He gave a little shake of his head, and I knew that any second now, he was going to walk away. But my head was still spinning with all I’d overheard. The part about Brandon and Lila being secret siblings was interesting, and I made a mental note to keep it tucked away for a rainy day.
After all, one never knew when one might need to blackmail the Princess of Hollywood again.
She still hadn’t realized that I had a soft spot for my old childhood pal.
Hell, even Brandon didn’t seem to realize that I still had a heart. Sort of. These days, I just had to be careful who I cared about, and the list was small. And no one on that list mattered more than me.
After all, if I’d learned one lesson these past few years, it was that there was no one in the world who would look after me. I had to take care of myself.
Brandon started to turn away, about to walk off to the set where we wouldn’t be able to talk. I stopped him with a hand on his arm.
That stuff about him and Lila—I’d save that for a rainy day. But for now… well, for now I had bigger fish to fry.
“The thing about Lila’s dad,” I said, choosing my words wisely so he’d know whose side I was on—for now, at least. “Devereaux—”
Brandon’s jaw clenched. “I swear, Amber, if you even think about hurting Lila—”
“That’s not where I was going with this.” I held my hands up in defense. “Honest.”
He took a step closer, and an anger I’d never seen before lit his eyes. “Let’s get one thing straight here, Amber. Before I left Pinedale, I might have been weak. I’d been vulnerable.” He arched his brows. “But not anymore.”
I blinked and stumbled back a step at the uncharacteristic anger there. “I never thought you were weak—”
“Yes, you did,” he said. “That’s why you blackmailed me—”
“I blackmailed Lila—”
“No,” he interrupted. “You threatened me, knowing that Lila would come to my defense. Even before she knew that we were—that I was—” He glared. He still didn’t want to admit the truth to me, even knowing that I already knew. “Even back then, you knew that she would have my back. Because, for all her faults, Lila is loyal. She cares about people.”
I kept my expression bland, but I had to fight hard to swallow. Unlike me. That was what he meant. Unlike Amber the evil villain, his precious Lila had somehow come out looking like a saint.
Please. The girl was no better than me. She’d just been spoiled rotten her whole life and had never had to fight for what she wanted.
She’d never had to get her hands dirty to take control of her life.
“Look, Brandon,” I started.
“No, it’s time for you to understand.” He jabbed a finger in my direction, his eyes blazing with fury. “I’m not that kid anymore. And I refuse to be a coward. If you so much as think about hurting Lila, I will take you down.”
I blinked in surprise because… he meant it. I wasn’t sure if this ache was because my oldest friend was threatening me or because my oldest friend and the sweetest guy I’d ever known seemed to be hardening right in front of my eyes.
I didn’t want that to happen. I might have resented the lot I’d been given, but I didn’t want to see Brandon lose his innocence. I didn’t want him to turn into someone like…
Well, someone like me.
“I’m done letting her take care of me all the time,” he continued. “I’m done letting her fight my battles. From here on out, I’ll do whatever it takes to protect her. From you, from Devereaux… from anyone.”
I widened my eyes at his intensity, but I recovered quickly. He might’ve been looking out for Saint Lila, but I decided right then and there that I would look out for him.
I wet my lips as a plan formed. It didn’t hurt that saving Brandon would help me in turn.
In fact, I think I knew a way that we could all get what we wanted.
I crossed my arms as I faced Brandon. “If you’re done with your big brother routine, I was going to say—was all that stuff about Devereaux’s prenup true? Will he lose his throne if he’s caught messing around?”
“Yeah.” Brandon’s eyes narrowed. “Why?”
I smirked, but only some of my arrogant confidence was faked. “I love that you’ve gone all Hulk smash on me here, Brandon, but when it comes to blackmail…” I reached out and patted his cheek. “Leave it to me.”
Seventeen
Lila
We hadn’t even taken off yet, but my stomach was twisting and turning like I was on a roller coaster.
Jack reached for my hand and held it tight. If he noticed that it was clammy, he didn’t say a word. He squeezed my fingers as he leaned over. “You know, I never would have guessed you were scared of flying.”
“I’m not scared,” I said. “Just…” Terrified.
He chuckled as he moved our hands into his lap. We were on my father’s private plane, about to fly off to Pinedale for Thanksgiving. We’d be back in a week, and by then… well, everything would be different.
Hopefully.
Maybe.
“You have nothing to be afraid of,” Jack said softly. So tenderly it made my chest ache. “I’d never let anything bad happen to you. Not if I can help it.”
I nodded. I believed him. I knew he’d do anything to keep me safe, to make me happy. But that didn’t help the nerves that were wreaking havoc on my belly.
When I glanced at the chairs facing us in this little sitting-room setup in the back of the plane, I saw Brandon watching me with a worried frown.
I suspected he knew that my fear wasn’t just about flying—I mean, that was a part of it. I really did hate to fly. But as we spoke, my sister was putting herself on the line, and I should have been there.
I glanced at the door to the plane just as the flight attendant locked it shut.
Too late n
ow.
I let my head fall back against the seat. Maybe it was for the best that I wasn’t there. Tess had told me she didn’t need me there for this, and when I’d pushed, she’d said my being there might only make it harder.
Daddy had a tendency to lose his temper around me, and when Tess confronted him with the blackmail tape that Amber had made… well, she didn’t need me there adding fuel to his fire.
But that meant she was going to be facing him alone.
And all I could do was sit here and wait.
“She’ll be okay,” Brandon said, his tone more solemn than I’d ever heard it. “Jack’s right. You have nothing to be afraid of anymore.”
I eyed Brandon as he glanced down at his phone for the millionth time.
Like me, he’d been on edge all morning as we’d packed our bags and headed to the airport. Maybe he was just as worried as I was. After all, he might not love Amber, but they went way back and she was putting herself on the line too.
My grip on Jack’s hand tightened. I still couldn’t believe that we owed our win against Daddy to Amber, of all people.
Not that she didn’t have something to gain. She’d come to me and Tess with a deal. She’d help us take him down by getting him to make a move on her and making sure it was caught on tape. In return, she was on our team. If Daddy’s power was gone, Tess would be in charge of the production company, my secrets would be safely buried, and Amber wanted to be on the winning side, with the power to decide her own fate—on the show and in the public eye.
She wanted to be on the winning team, which meant she was now officially a part of our team.
Ugh. I know. I hated the thought too. But from her point of view, I guess I got it. She wanted power; she wanted freedom from overbearing men. And while Tess and I definitely weren’t her favorite people, we all wanted the same thing when it came to Daddy.
Namely, we needed him out of the picture.
I wasn’t going to lie. I still shuddered at the thought of Amber and Daddy together, but Amber had rolled her eyes and informed me that she wasn’t really going to sleep with him, just get him to make a move on her and give him enough rope to hang himself.
I hadn’t been able to bring myself to watch or listen to the video file she’d sent two days ago, but Tess had, and she thought it was enough.
Maybe he’d be able to fight it in court against Vivien’s claims, but that would mean exposing a tape that showed him as the predatory piece of crap he was. Add in the fact that Amber wouldn’t turn eighteen for another couple weeks, and it meant more than embarrassment and harassment suits. Amber could claim that they slept together after the tape ended, and he’d be facing statutory rape charges.
I closed my eyes as my stomach churned. It was all too disgusting to think about. And no matter how much I hated Amber… I couldn’t deny that we owed her. I opened my eyes and glanced around. We all owed her.
With him out of the picture, we could all breathe again. He couldn’t force Brandon to stay in the closet, he couldn’t torture me or reveal the secret of my parentage, and he couldn’t mess with Jack or his father’s livelihood.
Brandon glanced at his phone again, and I felt a twinge of fear. I knew we were all on edge waiting for Tess to call and tell us how it went this morning when she confronted Daddy, but she was supposed to call me, not Brandon, and his quiet seriousness this morning seemed at odds with all the reassurances he’d been throwing my way.
“Hey, you doing okay?” I asked.
Brandon nodded. “Yeah, it’s just…” He looked to Jack. “Your dad.”
“Jack’s dad?” I asked. “What about him?”
Brandon shook his head and took a deep breath. “He’s been keeping an eye on my mom for me since Jack decided to stay.”
“And?” Jack prompted.
“When he went to visit her yesterday, she wasn’t there.”
Jack and I exchanged a frown. “Maybe she went to visit some friends or…”
He trailed off because I was pretty sure we all knew that Brandon’s mom didn’t have friends. And as far as I knew, she didn’t have much family either.
“It’s too soon to declare her missing,” Brandon said. “But your dad and some other townsfolk said they’d look for her. They’ll keep me updated.” He glanced down at his phone. So that was what had him on edge this morning.
“We’ll all look for her when we get there,” I promised.
Jack leaned forward as the plane began to taxi. “I’m sure there’s some explanation, man. We’ll find her.”
Brandon nodded, but we all jumped at the sound of my phone’s ringtone before he could reply.
Tess. The sight of her name on my phone brought with it a wave of relief. I mean, at least he hadn’t killed her, right?
My hands were still shaking though as I swiped the button to answer. “Tess,” I breathed with relief. “How did it go? How did he take the news?”
Did he agree to our terms? Was it over? Was I finally free?
I had a million questions, but I frowned as Tess’s voice cut in and out. There was some sort of static or…
Sniffling.
No… sobs.
“Tess?” I raised my voice as fear turned my blood to ice. I was distantly aware of Jack moving toward me, his arms holding me tight, of Brandon leaning forward with concern.
“Tess? What is it?”
“It’s Daddy,” she said, but her voice sounded different. It didn’t sound like her at all. “He’s dead, Lila.” The phone cut in and out as my heart lunged toward the ground.
Dead.
Dead?
The word was still ringing in my ear, refusing to register. My head was spinning, and words didn’t make sense anymore.
“Daddy’s dead,” she said again, shock and pain and fear… so many emotions in her voice that it brought me back to reality with a jolt.
Daddy was dead.
My stomach heaved. I was going to be sick. I clapped a hand over my mouth as Brandon shouted for a flight attendant to bring a barf bag.
Yup, I was totally going to hurl.
“Daddy?” I repeated, my voice little more than a whisper.
I couldn’t tell if Tess heard me because she was still talking, her voice broken and stilted. “Daddy’s dead and… I think… they think…” Her voice rose on a sob. “Lila, they think I killed him.”
Thank you for reading! Want to find out what happens next for Tess? Find out in the next installment, Heiress in Chains.
Looking for more YA romance? Check out Maggie Dallen’s free series starter, Striking Out with the Star Pitcher!
Grab a FREE novella and get sneak peeks and freebie news when you sign up for Maggie’s newsletter here: http://eepurl.com/bFEVsL
About the Author
MAGGIE DALLEN writes romantic comedies in a range of genres including young adult, historical, contemporary, and fantasy. An unapologetic addict of all things romance, she loves to connect with fellow avid readers. Subscribe to her contemporary newsletter at http://eepurl.com/bFEVsL
LINKS & OTHER WORKS
Facebook: facebook.com/MaggieDallenAuthor
Twitter: twitter.com/Mag_Dallen
Website: maggiedallen.com
Princess of Hollywood (The Glitterati Files Book 2) Page 15
