Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 76647 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76647 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
“What do you propose we do?” Tristan asked.
“What we do best,” Drew said. “Research. Reaching out to people. Making contacts. Find people who know what they’re talking about. We have to at least try.”
“We did try—and that’s what made her leave,” I pointed out. Watching that fake video of her was one of the biggest mistakes of my life.”
“Let’s try harder. We’re not getting anything done anyway.” Drew swung his head around to Tristan. “Think it’s going to help to doodle fifty new designs for our logo?”
“No,” Tristan said. “But we’ve got a business to run.”
“And we had something more important than that.”
“There’s no guarantee we can help.” I told Drew, not for the first time.
“We have to try.”
Then we both looked at Tristan, who had his fingers steepled together. Finally, he sighed. “What’s the name of her friend the stunt double?”
28
CARTER
It felt strange, sitting in the backseat of a limousine next to a hot-as-hell man in a Tuxedo. In the dark, it was tempting to pretend that it was Carter, Tristan, or Drew sitting next to me.
But it wasn’t—it was Aiden Hunt.
Aiden and I hadn’t had much contact on the press tour. He needed to be everywhere at once, the face of the movie, and I was rarely given any official tasks, which was fine with me. More time to sit in my hotel room and brood—something I’d become an expert at.
In spite of the fact that barely acknowledged me, the studio had decided to stick to the original plan of having me and Aiden walk the red carpet together at the premiere tonight. I didn’t quite understand the logic of it, but I knew my part was to look good hanging off of Aiden’s arm—and to direct all the attention back to him.
Maybe the studio had done it at Aiden’s insistence? He couldn’t walk into the theater with the woman he loved, so maybe he decided it was best to come with a costar? After all, I wasn’t someone Ronnie could possibly be jealous of. No, pretty much all of my friends considered me a sad, pathetic individual these days.
But I’d make an effort tonight, and I could even admit that I was looking forward to seeing them. The studio could’ve canceled Kylie and Alyssa’s invitation, but they didn’t. Maybe Aiden had had something to do with that. Of course, each of my friends had only been allowed to bring one date. I hated the fact that they’d had to choose just one of their men to invite, but that’s how it worked in the real world. Ronnie would be here tonight too, of course, along with her other guys. Though the studio officially turned a blind eye to their unconventional relationship, they had to know the gist. Plus, Aiden had a lot of pull.
“Drink?” Aiden opened the mini bar built into the side of the limo and listed off the options.
“I’m fine, thanks.”
He opened a beer bottle and took a long swig. “Then how about some in-flight entertainment?”
I frowned, trying to work that out. Aiden and I would arrive last, so we were out here waiting while all the other guests, the ones not usually shown on TV, filed in.
Aiden pulled out his phone. “I thought we could watch the proceedings. Ronnie’s got a killer dress.”
I patted his arm. “I’m sorry she can’t be your date tonight.”
“Me too.”
He fiddled with his phone and then a live feed came up on the screen. As we watched, the director and his wife stepped out of a limo and walked past a row of paparazzi to enter the theater.
It was definitely more interesting than just sitting here. I saw a few faces I recognized from the crew members I’d befriended, but most of them didn’t rank high enough to get an invite to something like this. The only reason Ronnie and a few of her stuntman friends were coming was because of their connection to Aiden.
The next person to climb out of a limo made me shudder. It was Walter Henderson, the creep of an assistant director I’d met on the set. He was next to a tall woman who must’ve been his wife. I felt sorry for her. There’s no way her husband was faithful to her, not with the way he tried to pressure actresses into having sex with him.
I felt better once he was out of sight, but I wished he weren’t going to be there tonight at all.
“I think Ronnies in the car after this one.”
“Who’s she with? Tanner?” Tanner was Aiden’s identical twin and stunt double.
“No,” he said bitterly. “Because then the press can claim she’s with me and it’ll defeat the whole purpose.”
“Who’s that?” I asked as a familiar looking woman walked past the reporter. “The casting director.”
“Oh yeah.” It was a little hard to make out people’s feature on the small screen of Aiden’s phone, but it sure beat sitting here doing nothing except being miserable.