“Why would someone be blackmailing Cat? She hasn’t done anything blackmail worthy!” Cameron sounded confused—and he was also gasping for air.
“She slept with me,” Jason threw at him as he shoved aside the businessman. “That’s what she did.”
The businessman stumbled back. He was still whispering about, “Security!”
Jason barely spared him another glance. Cat, where are you? The lobby was pretty deserted at this hour, so Cat should have been easy to spot, but she wasn’t there. That ache was back in his chest, only it was worse now. Much worse.
Because he remembered the snarl of a motorcycle. That motorcycle had come far too close to Cat.
He hurried toward the revolving doors at the front of the lobby. He burst outside, right into a misting rain and then he saw her.
Cat stood at the edge of the sidewalk. Her head was tilted down. A newspaper—one of those tabloid rags—was in her hands.
“Cat!” He ran to her.
She didn’t look up.
“Cat, dammit, we need to talk. We have to make plans, to figure out how to deal with the blackmailer.”
Her fingers fisted around the paper. “There is no blackmailer. Not anymore.”
Hell.
She looked up at him. Tears gleamed in her eyes. “When I was going down in the elevator…this…this was inside. Just tossed on the floor.” Her gaze darted over his shoulder, to Cameron. “Did you leave this in there?”
“What? No,” Cameron denied hotly. “Why would I leave some tabloid trash for you?”
The twist in Jason’s gut told him why. He pulled the paper from her tight grip. Jason swore when he saw the pictures splashed there. Pictures that had been strategically blacked out in certain spots. A big, bold headline across the top read…THE BAD BOY OF BRITAIN CAUGHT IN A SEX TAPE SCANDAL…
“They identify me by name,” her voice quivered. “That’s my body, my face—everyone can see.”
And suddenly, Cameron was swearing, too—because he’d just seen the headline and the photos.
No, fuck, no. Jason yanked out his phone. Contacted his manager. “Ronald, call the owner of the Crimson Star. Tell the bastard he’s done—his whole business is finished—if he doesn’t get every copy of his current issue off the streets and get this story pulled from the Crimson Star’s online site, now.”
Cat looked shell-shocked. Too pale.
Teeth grinding together, Jason continued, “Tell the bastard I’m on my way to his office, and he’s going to pay for what he just did to my wife.” He shoved the phone into his pocket. Crushed the paper into a ball with his hands. “It’s all right, Cat.”
She shook her head. “I’ll lose my job.”
Her job. Right. Cat was a school teacher. Hell, hell. This kind of scandal wouldn’t fly for her back in the little town in Maine that she called home. But…
She’s not in Maine anymore. She’s with me. I can fix this. “I can fix this,” Jason heard himself promise.
“No, you can’t.”
“Bullshit. Enough money and power can fix anything.”
Cameron was silent behind them. Jason knew the guy was figuring out plenty as he watched them.
Jason threw the gossip rag into the trash. Then he carefully took Cat’s chin between his thumb and forefinger. “I can fix this,” he said again, and, this time, the words were a promise to her.
Jason didn’t intend to ever break a promise to Cat. He had much to prove to her, and the time to start proving that he wasn’t just the big, bad monster in the room—that time was now.
***
Catherine wasn’t running away from August. She’d seen the paper. She’d stood right there on the street, with tears on her cheeks as she stared at the photographs that filled those pages.
And August had come running after her. The man was still with her then. Touching her. Pulling her into his arms.
While Cameron Donnelly just watched them.
What. The. Hell?
They were all standing there. Not fighting. Not tearing each other apart. Cat—her hands were rising. Wrapping around August’s shoulders. The man had used her, treated her like trash, and she was holding him in the street?
Cameron backed away from Cat and her lover. He couldn’t believe Cameron wasn’t tearing into August.
What is going on? What’s happening here? He’d worked so hard, done so much…it couldn’t get screwed like this.
Even before he’d arranged for Cat to meet him at the Playhouse, he’d already leaked those pictures and the footage. He’d planned to toss her to the media-wolves all along. The bit about the Playhouse…that had been another piece of his set-up. Costumes and disguises were all part of the game at the Playhouse. He’d intended to debase her, to humiliate her…and she’d never have known his identity.
Then I was still going to laugh when your past was exposed, Cat. Laugh and enjoy her pain.
Because she deserved her punishment. They all did.
He’d ditched the motorcycle. There was no way it would be traced to him. And now…now wasn’t the time for another direct attack. Not with all the players so close together. He had to be more careful, had to wait for a better moment.
Even though he desperately wanted to take out his gun and shoot Jason August in the back of the head.
He could see it happening. Could feel the rush as the bullet exploded and went straight for his target. Cat would scream. Cry. Blood would get on her as her lover fell.
It would be so perfect…
But that wasn’t part of his plan. He’d worked too long to let rage take over.
So he stepped back. He left them there.
Soon enough, your world will be ripped apart. He’d already started that destruction. He was taking them all down. Piece by precious piece.
***
“I want the name.” Jason’s voice thundered out, so fierce that Cat winced. She was glad she wasn’t on the receiving end of his fury.
They were inside Sam Young’s office at the Crimson Star. Sam, editorial chief of the Crimson Star, was currently sweating. A whole lot.
“I-I thought you’d like the article. I mean, hey, what guy doesn’t like to see a pic of himself with a hot, naked chick?”
Jason grabbed the man, his hands fisting in Sam’s shirt-front. “That ‘naked chick’ is my wife.
”
“I-I didn’t know that! But, hey, isn’t that even more bonus? You can sell the video, get big bucks—”
Cat decided she hated Sam Young. “The video was taken without our permission. We’re not selling it!”
“And you’re not posting any additional pictures.” Jason glared down at the smaller man. “Do it, and you’ll be out of business before you can blink.”
“Y-you can’t do that!”
“Watch me.”
Jason could just be…scary.
But Sam hadn’t backed down, not completely. “If I don’t run ‘em, someone else will. You know that. It’s the nature of the beast. Sex sells.”
Cat had just never expected pictures of herself having sex to sell.
“Let me worry about anyone else,” Jason told him.
Sam backed away from him and swiped a hand over his sweaty brow. “Shit, man, are your guys trying to silence everyone?”
Jason smiled at him. Yep, that smile was definitely scary. “I want to know who sent the photos.”
Sam cut a quick glance to Cat. “Aren’t you going to say something?”
“I hate you,” she said instantly.
Surprise flickered over his face. Surprise, why? Did the guy have any idea how she’d felt when she saw those pictures of herself splashed there? For the whole world to see? And the images had been on the tabloid’s website, too—right before Jason had managed to shut down the site.
“Donnelly,” Sam muttered. “Donnelly Dining…you want to blame someone, then look back to them, sweetheart. Cause the person who sent that email to me? It’s someone you know.” Sam marched to his desk. He flipped his laptop around to face them. “Sorry, but that sure as hell looks like an email that came from your family’s business two days ago.”
Two days ago? But…but that would have been before her scheduled meeting at the Playhouse. The blackmailer had first contacted her a few days ago, but he’d set up the meeting date at the Playhouse so that she’d have time to fly into Vegas.
He was planning to leak the images all along. No matter what happened at the Playhouse.
She craned to see the email address and felt her heart lurch in her chest. That wasn’t just from a general Donnelly business account. “That’s my brother’s email address.” Her brother, who’d been at Jason’s place even as the light of dawn streaked across the sky. He’d been there…and he’d seemed so furious.