. The moans, the sighs, the sexual whimpers, and whispered words that I couldn’t make out as I watched him touching her was making me physically ill even as my brain tried to work out some kind of reason for all of this to just be a bad dream. Tears burned my eyes and blinded me, but I scrubbed at them angrily as I continued to watch, desperately looking for some clue that would exonerate Harris.
When the last one was over and Harris was lying on his back with his arm thrown over his face, his chest heaving from exertion, I sent a reply back with shaking fingers.
What the hell is this shit?
My stomach fell through the floor when I read the answering message less than ten seconds later.
This is payback. Jenna’s breaking up with me today. It’s because of you and Harris that she doesn’t love me anymore. Hope you enjoyed the show, little girl. It’s going to be up on all the revenge sex porn sites within the hour. Sweet dreams little Lucy.
Oh shit.
This was bad. So fucking bad. If Tessa put that video up on all those sites, which I was sure there were hundreds of, Harris’s life would be over. Not only would the bad press of a sex video hurt business at First Bass, but more than that, if my dad saw it then he was going to be dead.
Ugly dead.
Pushing the pain in my heart down, I jumped out of bed, stepped into a pair of ballet slippers, and threw on my robe before rushing out the door. There was no use in being quiet. After years of having to sleep on a tour bus, it took drastic measures to get my dad out of bed unless he was ready.
My heart was pounding as I left the house, my phone already to my ear as I waited for someone to pick up on the other end.
“Yeah?” came the sleep-roughened voice of my aunt.
“Aunt Emmie!” I cried as I began running down the street to her house. “I need your help. Please. It’s important.”
“Lucy?” She sounded more awake now. “Honey, what’s wrong? Jesse?” The fear in her voice told me that she thought something was seriously wrong with my dad.
“No, Aunt Emmie. Daddy’s fine. Please. I know it’s late but this can’t wait.”
“I’ll meet you at the front door, honey.” I heard her moving around, heard her whispering something to Nik and then nothing as the phone went dead.
I was already climbing the steps of her front porch. Not wanting to wake the kids or their nanny, I didn’t ring the doorbell. Less than a minute later, Emmie opened the door dressed in her nightgown and a robe that was wide open, her face a mask of concern.
As soon as she saw me she pulled me into her arms. “Gods, Lucy. What’s going on?”
“Harris is in trouble,” I got out through the lump in my throat. “You have to help him. Please, Aunt Emmie.”
Stepping back, the small redhead raked big green eyes over me for a long moment before pulling me into the house. She didn’t speak again until we were in her office at the back of the house. Pushing me down into one of the two chairs facing her desk, she moved to the little fridge behind her desk and pulled out a bottle of water. Uncapping it, she forced me to take a few swallows before leaning back against her desk.
“Okay, lets start at the beginning. What’s happened that Harris needs my help? That boy is pretty self-sufficient if you ask me. Everything he’s done with First Bass has been all on him. Neither I nor Natalie have helped him get to where he is, regarding that.”
My hand was shaking so badly I nearly dropped my phone as I offered it to her. “Jenna’s girlfriend…” I paused and sucked in a deep breath. I knew that if Emmie was going to help me then I needed to be one hundred percent honest with her. I’d have to start at the very beginning because I knew she would find out on her own and then be pissed when Jenna’s drug addiction hit the fan. Pissed enough that she wouldn’t help Harris after that.
“Jenna’s girlfriend, Tessa?” Emmie nodded. “She got Jenna addicted to coke.” Emmie’s eyes widened but she didn’t so much as move and I went on. “Harris got her into a rehab in Arizona and that’s where she’s been the last few months. He convinced her that Tessa was bad for her and Jenna finally decided to break up with her. Harris told me earlier tonight that she’s supposed to do it tomorrow.”
“Okay.” Emmie crossed her arms over her chest. “We’re going to have a long talk about Jenna and her rehab later, but for now tell me what Jenna breaking up with this girl has to do with Harris.”
I pushed my hair out of my face and wiped at a few stray tears. “Look at the messages,” I whispered.
She stood there watching me for a long moment before she finally looked down at the phone I’d given her. She played the first one for less than ten seconds before backing out and scrolling through the rest of the messages. Her face was set in stone when she finally set the phone on her desk.
“You watched those? All of them?” I nodded, unable to look her in the eye. “You’re a lot stronger than I’ve ever given you credit for, then, Lu. I would have been ready to tear that bitch’s head off and shove it down Harris’s throat.”
I closed my eyes, trying to block out the images that would forever haunt me. My heart was shattered, my chest feeling like if I took too deep a breath that the rest of me might crack, too. It was starting to set in that it really was Harris in those videos and the shaking in my hands was getting worse.
“M-maybe there’s a good reason for Harris to have done this. M-may…be—”
“Yeah, Lucy. Maybe.” She clenched her hands into fists at her sides. “So what do you want me to do, honey? How can I help you? Because it will be you I’m helping, not Harris.”
“Stop her. No matter what is really going on here, that is obviously Harris in those videos. If she puts them on all those revenge sex porn sites, all his dreams for First Bass will be over. He will lose the club, and if Daddy ever finds out, his life.” I sucked my bottom lip between my teeth, sucking so hard that I knew it was going to bruise if I didn’t stop.