Series: Fever Falls Series by Riley Hart
Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 96922 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 485(@200wpm)___ 388(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96922 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 485(@200wpm)___ 388(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
Hours slipped by before I passed out in a chair beside Jace’s bed.
“Hey, man,” I heard, waking to Jace standing in the boot before me. “We’re breaking out of here.”
“Did the doctors say you could go?”
“Of course they said I could leave. I’m not actually going to ditch. Come on. I wanna get home.”
He was acting slightly more like himself than before, but I could still feel his tension and uneasiness. Nance and Keegan helped me get him to the car, and Keegan seemed far more relaxed and jokey than when he’d first seen the story break. I tailed Nance’s car to Jace’s place, and we got out and headed into his townhouse.
Keegan played with Mac some, to cheer himself up, I thought, before he and Nance headed out to swing by her place. She said she’d pick up some things for dinner, then return.
But quiet as Jace had continued to be, I couldn’t help but stay on edge.
He got up from the couch and headed to the kitchen.
“You need me to get you anything?” I asked, feeling hyperprotective. It was strange seeing him limping around in the boot, looking disoriented, not his usual easygoing self at all, and in the back of my mind, I kept thinking that this was all my goddamned fault.
If I hadn’t rushed to Fever Falls to persuade him to sign on to that endorsement deal for Hacksmore, he would never have accepted, and his family would have never been put on the spot like that.
“I’m fine. I’m just going to get some water. No emergency here.”
As he opened the cabinet, I pushed to my feet from the recliner and approached the kitchen island.
“If there’s anything you need me to do, though, I can…”
“You know, Dax, I don’t mean this in any sort of bad way, but I think I need to spend tonight on my own.”
“Oh…”
I couldn’t help but sound disappointed, and as he looked at me, I wondered…did he think this was all my fault too?
I reminded myself that it had to be a lot for him between the accident and the news report. He was overwhelmed, and he had every right to blame me.
An awkward silence stretched between us.
“Yeah. Gotcha. I—” A buzzing sound filled the air, interrupting me. I checked my phone. “You mind if I take this real quick? It’s Carter.”
“Sure, bud.”
Bud? He never fucking calls me bud.
Something was very wrong.
“Hey, man. What’s up?”
“You guys okay?” Carter asked.
“Yeah, we just got back from the hospital. We’re at Jace’s now.”
“Well, you might want to sit down.”
“For?”
“That WME guy I’ve been seeing—”
“Are you calling right now to brag about your sexual exploits, Carter? Because I can tell you I’m not in the mood.”
“No, I was calling to tell you that he said he heard that someone scored a pretty timely interview during this shit show.”
“Who?”
“Who do you think?”
There was no way. I’d just seen Serena consoling Keegan.
And yet…my heart sank because suddenly everything made that much more sense.
“ABC’s Melissa Fairfax ring any bells?” Carter asked.
I thought on the name for a moment. “Melissa Fairfax, formerly with Glitz & Glam…a.k.a. friend of Freyda Inc.”
“Bingo. Serena’s booked to interview with her this weekend.”
“Of course she fucking is,” I muttered.
How could I have been dumb enough to believe she’d shown real compassion for another human being? She was only getting close so she could run off and jump-start her own career.
Carter allowed me some time to sort through the news.
A lot of fucking processing going on that day.
“Thank you for letting me know.”
“I’m sorry, man. I know that’s not what you needed to hear right now.”
“No, it’s exactly what I needed to hear right now.”
It was almost sobering to have an explanation for what I’d seen earlier that day.
Jace’s glass overflowed with water from the faucet filter. He noticed as it ran over his hand, and he turned it off as I hung up.
I didn’t see a reason to leave him hanging. “Serena’s going to the press.”
“With what?”
“Telling them about how heartbroken the family is. Maybe act like she’s closer to all of it than she really is. I don’t know, put on a show, because that’s what she does. That’s who she fucking is.”
“I don’t think she’s that bad. She wouldn’t do that.”
“You don’t know her the way I do. The timing of all this. Her coming here, and then this is just too perfect. Maybe she couldn’t pass up the opportunity. Whatever the reason, she’s already scheduled an interview with a woman who used to work for the company who outed us, which is too convenient if you ask me. This is all my goddamned fault.”
“Your fault? Dax, you can’t control what Serena does.”
“Not just with this. With everything. This is what I was talking about. This is what this machine does. It doesn’t care about people or feelings. It just destroys things. And no matter how good you try to be, no matter how much you may try to use it to help others, it finds a way to tear you apart. I knew that when I asked you to do this.”