Shatter (Seaside 3)

“April, I’m not doing this here. I will, however, go to the press first thing and explain your situation. Go to rehab or go to hell. Your choice. But I’m not allowing you to hurt anymore people.”

“I’ll tell them you drugged me!” April shouted. “I’ll tell everyone you drugged me and Alec that night!”

“Really?”

“I’ll say something too…” a third voice interrupted. “I’ll tell them you bribed me. I’ll tell them everything.”

“Angelica…” The man sighed.

Okay, I was seriously going to have a stroke. How twisted could everything get? How many lies had been told?

“Angelica,” he repeated. “It isn’t Alec’s fault you weren’t able to make it to the set on time, and it was the final straw for us. The very fact that you’re trying to blackmail me, just pisses me off all the more.”

“If you would just take me back and see—”

The man laughed. “Right, I’ll just hire you again after you and my ex-wife create a story so messed up that innocent people get hurt and I end up the bad guy? Sure, why not. I’ll give you a movie role and a few million, is that what you want? Oh wait, each of you already got a million. I have Ruben to thank for that.”

One of the woman started crying. “He said it would help ratings and get us our money. He said if we went to the press, he would do an exclusive in a few national magazines and—”

“Yeah, I’ve heard enough.” The man cursed. Footsteps neared the door, but I was basically frozen in place along with everyone else.

So when the man turned the corner and found not only us but an entire camera crew, Ruben included, standing with their mouths open, he didn’t know what to do either. So he stared.

We stared.

It was awkward to say the least.

I nudged Jaymeson.

He cursed and shook his head. Great. No words.

I looked to Alec for help, but he looked about five seconds away from beating the shit out of something.

“So…” I chuckled nervously. “I’m Demetri.”

“Ah, David Cartwright.” He smirked. “Am I to understand you’re the one that told me to go to hell?”

“Um.” Shit. “Yeah, sorry about that.”

“He also called you the anti-Christ.” This from Jaymeson. Seriously?

David chuckled. “To be fair, I deserved it.”

“And more.” Jaymeson looked down at his feet.

A throat cleared. “If I could just say one thing. Clearly April’s deranged. I would never pay for a media story for information or—”

David’s fist hit Ruben’s jaw so hard that I could have sworn my body shook a bit.

Alec laughed. “Nice.”

“Am I the only one who hasn’t hit him yet?” I asked as Ruben staggered back to his feet.

“I haven’t had the pleasure,” Jaymeson said as he landed another blow to Ruben’s jaw. “You’re a sick son of a bitch. You know that, right?”

Ruben hit the ground and stayed there. “You have no proof! All you have is the ramblings of a drug-addicted whore.” Blood trickled from the side of his mouth. “Make that two drug-addicted whores.” His eyes fell to the doorway.

I turned to see Angelica standing there. Dude, not the girl to piss off. Ruben should know better.

“I love social media.” She scowled at Ruben and with shaking hands pulled out her cell phone and pressed a few buttons. “I’m assuming your number’s the same, David. I just sent you the video I recorded the day Ruben and I talked about our plan for putting everything on you and Alec. I recorded it just in case he turned out to be an ass**le.”

“High five!” I held out my hand and Angelica slapped it with a small grin.

“Doesn’t mean we’re friends,” she said after she tucked her phone back into her pocket.

I backed up. “Noted.”

With tear-filled eyes she looked to Alec. “I know it’s not much… but I’m sorry. Things got so… messed up, and I didn’t have any projects lined up after the show, and I needed money. I need money. And April promised we could make more off the lies and stories. She said David would pay us to keep our mouths shut, and then when he didn’t, I went to Ruben.”

“Safe to say that was a bad choice,” I muttered under my breath. Jaymeson nudged me.

Angelica rolled her eyes. “No shit. At any rate, even if I didn’t have everything on camera, these guys did.” She nodded to the camera crew. It was then that I realized they had literally been recording the entire time. The camera guy put the camera down and shook Angelica’s hand.

Holy crap, what did she do? Sleep with the entire crew in order to win their loyalty? Clearly it wasn’t her stunning personality.

I scratched my head and searched for some taffy in my pockets. I needed something to distract me from this insanity.

“Rehab and work. I can promise you both,” Alec suddenly said. I looked up at him with horror. Was he serious? Was he really going to help the devil? After everything she did?

“W-what?” Angelica shook her head. “Why the hell would you help me?”

“Yeah, I’m with her,” I joined in.

Alec ignored me. “What will it be, Angelica. It’s your choice. I’ll pay for rehab, and when you’re done, I’ll put you in contact with someone so you can start working again—”