He lifted his gaze to hers again. She wanted to think she could read him, that he was truly torn over what was happening. But she didn’t know anything anymore, least of all what was going on inside his head.
“It’s a long story. I’ve been trying to get ahold of you to explain what’s been going on. I didn’t want to leave you a message about something like this.”
“Right. It was so much more fun to get blindsided with a firsthand look.” She searched his face for the cheater she should have seen but hadn’t. “I’m glad this happened now and not six months from now. I should have listened to my gut. Thanks, Chase. I’ve learned a valuable lesson: all actors are the same.”
She pushed the glass door open, took a step. His hand closed on her arm again. She froze, not trusting herself. Not sure how to channel all this hurt. All this fury. “Get your hand off me.” When he didn’t release her fast enough, she knocked him away and faced him. This time with dead calm. “Touch me again, and you will regret it.”
“I want to explain, but I can’t talk about it here,” he said, his voice urgent and hushed. “Can we get together? Maybe tomorrow?”
For a split second, she considered it. Considered there might be some plausible explanation that didn’t make her want to kick him in the balls. But all she had to do was picture him kissing Lila for logic to return.
“No matter what your reason for doing whatever the hell you’re doing, it won’t change how you fucked this up. You’re making a very public show of whatever you’re doing with Lila. You and she will be the talk of the tabloids, which was by design, judging by all the photographers. Jax just handed me my future on a silver platter. The last thing I’m going to do is get messed up in whatever game you and Lila are playing and ruin that.”
“It’s not a game,” he insisted. “It’s important to me—”
“And my job is important to me.” Without anyone to fall back on, Zahara could only depend on herself. And without an education or any real skills aside from stunt work, she had to make this career work. “We talked about this, Chase. We talked about all of this. I could have taken a risk on you when we had a chance at a real relationship. But now? No way. There is no way in hell I want to be anywhere near whatever mess you and Lila created. Keep me the hell out of this.”
She pushed into the warm night and caught the valet’s attention. “Taxi, please.”
The young man hailed a taxi waiting at a distant curb. Again, the time warp kicked in. The taxi approached in slow motion. Her vision grayed around the edges. Her head went light, and she swayed.
She’d been in this mirrored funhouse called Hollywood for eight years. How could she have been so stupid? So naïve? So gullible?
The valet opened the taxi’s rear door, and Zahara slipped into the backseat with tension crawling through her body. Pain ripping at her chest. She didn’t look at the Omni to see if Chase was still at the doors. It didn’t matter.
But man, did it hurt.
You should have known better.
Sweat broke out on her forehead and chest. Her stomach squeezed. She closed her eyes, laid her head back against the seat, and gave the driver her address. “Would you mind turning on the air-conditioning?”
“Of course, of course,” the driver said.
Her stomach rolled again, and Zahara remembered she hadn’t eaten anything since seven a.m. “And could we stop at a McDonald’s drive-through on the way?”
She religiously fed her body quality food, but she didn’t have anything in her fridge, and she needed some sugar in her bloodstream, like, yesterday.
“I was just thinking about stopping for a snack myself,” the driver said.
“It’s on me,” Zahara told him.
As soon as she got food in her belly and her head on a pillow, she’d feel better. At least physically.
Now all she needed was a shortcut to get her heart over Chase Layton.
5
Sweat slid down Zahara’s cheek and dripped off her chin. She gritted her teeth and gripped the poles of the training sled tighter. Pushed into her legs harder. But the steel contraption only moved four freaking inches.
“You can do bette
r than that.” Wes Lawson, Renegades’ best stunt driver, stood on the sled. “Come on, Z. Get after it.”
She lifted her head and glared at her friend and mentor in all things stunts. “You’ve gained weight.”
He barked a laugh. “Good try.”
“You have.” She wiped her forehead with her arm and grabbed her water bottle. After a deep drink, she said, “Love’s making you soft.” She gestured to a scale in the corner. “Step on. Let’s see who’s right.”