Chapter Thirty-Six

Brandy

The alarms sounding scared the crap out of me, and apparently everyone else too. Everyone except Phil, who stood at the reception desk like a pulpit, his eyes wild and hair falling into his face. The sickly evil grin on his face made him look demonic, and the alarms became like the hounds of hell, braying for their master.

“What is that?” a cameraman said, taking the camera off his shoulder and shouting to a sound guy who appeared behind a potted plant.

“I don’t know. Some kind of alarm.”

“I didn’t sign up for this,” another crew member said, walking past me and heading for a door. He was the only one who was dressed in a button-up shirt and a tie, clearly looking to impress. “This whole thing is absolutely insane. Look, lady, I hope you get what you came for.”

“Get out!” Phil shouted. “I don’t need you! My crew is loyal! They will follow me to the ends of the Earth! I knew I shouldn’t hire any God damned local yokels! From now on, I only bring people from New York or LA. You hear me? No more locals!”

The man was already gone, but Phil seethed as he faced the door behind him. When he spun back around to me, his attention was pulled behind me. I turned to see what he was looking at, and my jaw dropped.

Crew members, who had been hiding in every possible dark space, behind furniture and plants, inside small offices and the bathrooms, came streaming out. I recognized a few of them as they walked past, heading for the doors. They were leaving en masse. A protest combined with the fear of the unknown. The alarm had been the final straw for some, his rant for others.

“Where are you going?” he shouted. “Stop! Come back! If you don’t come back right now…. You’re fired! I’ll fire you all! Greg! Stop! Lacey! Bobby! Stan! Stop! Dammit, stop or you’re fired!”

“I don’t think they care,” I said. “They don’t want to be here with you. Not anymore. So much for your loyalty.”

“Then they can go to hell!” he shouted. A maniacal laugh burst from him, his sanity well and truly gone. “Every single one of them. They can burn!”

“What is wrong with you?” I asked. “Have you lost your mind?”

“I’ve woken up,” he said. “I don’t need these people. I don’t need anyone. I’m tired of people like you trying to make me feel like I’m inferior. I have money . Money is the only thing on this planet that is actually functional, Brandy. You should know that by now. Money is what makes things move. It made your husband zip off to Thailand. Do you want to know how much?”

“Shut up,” I said.

Something was going on. Something big. I could sense it. I just needed to keep him talking. Antagonizing him would probably do the trick.

“No,” he said. “I don’t take orders from you. From anyone. But your ex, he took orders all right. From me. I waved a check in front of his face, and he took every order I gave him.”

“He was an asshole,” I said. “If he chose money over me, he didn’t deserve me.”

It was a phrase Basil said multiple times. I’d never really believed her, deep down. Part of me always thought it was just her being patronizing. But now, right here, I felt it. There was conviction in my voice. A power I didn’t realize I had. Phil just laughed.

“No one deserves anything, Brandy, and that’s the trick. We all get what we can get. Whatever we can get our hands on and stuff in our pockets. That’s the way this world works. Take it when you can. He took what he could. Fifty thousand dollars. That was how much he sold you out for. Fifty grand and the expenses for six months of living there. But it wasn’t even the money for him, was it, Brandy? Hmm? It was the cold bed he had at home versus the warm one Sarah could provide.”

Now he was trying to antagonize me, and I saw why. He was wearing a camera around his neck. It was tiny, and it swung wildly as he moved, but it was a little camera on a string.

“You want to hurt me,” I said. “So you can film me crying and put it in your show. But I have news, Phil. Your show will never see the light of day.”

“You think you can stop me?” he laughed. “You? A cake maker from Texas? Give me a break. You’re a nobody, and you will always be a nobody. I control this show. I control all of it. Now cry for me, little monkey. Cry so I can build some sympathy from your tears. So I can sell the world on how broken you are, and when we give you a little redemption ark, I can kick your ass to the curb again and start all over.”

His laughter was getting higher pitched. The crew walking out was driving him insane. Well, crazier than he was already, I guessed.

“What about the Galloways?” I asked. “They could stop you. You have footage of them too, especially Collin. Don’t you think they will stop you?”

“Fuck the Galloways,” he said. “The Andersons told me all about them, Brandy. How low they are. How they used trickery to get what they wanted. I’ll be honest, I was kind of envious. The Andersons were played for fools by them. It gave me ideas. But no, they couldn’t harm me. They’re country bumpkins, Brandy. Come on. You’ve lived in New York. You know they are no match for someone who doesn’t live in the ass-end of the fucking desert. They can eat it. Collin especially. He made the mistake of getting involved with a girl on a reality show. That’s his own damn fault.”

“The Andersons are liars,” I said.

“The Andersons might be liars,” he said. “But the Galloways are bad guys too, Brandy.”

“The only bad guy I see here is you,” I shot back.

Something behind him moved. A shadow coming from the door at lightning speed. Suddenly, a new sound filled the air, joining with the alarm and causing Phil to look back. It sounded like a war cry.

A blur dove at Phil, tackling him and sending him over the receptionist counter and onto the floor in front of me. When the blur stood up, my heart leapt in my chest.

I knew it. I knew he’d come.

Collin Galloway got to his feet and smirked. His eyes flickered over to me, and for just a brief second, I saw the eyes of the man I had fallen in love with so quickly. Then they went back to Phil, and the hatred that filled them was deeper than the farthest reaches of the ocean.

“I knew it was you,” Collin spat.

“Collin?” Phil said, clearly shocked. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Saving her,” he said, and reared back.

The next thing I saw was blood coming from Phil’s face, staining his white shirt.