36. Something

CHAPTER 36

SOMETHING

JIM STURGESS

I’m beaming when I unhook the harness after the take. We fucking nailed that stunt. Johnny, my stunt guy, grabs me and lifts me into the air in a hug. Without his help, I wouldn’t have been able to pull that shit off and I’m sure Cyn will appreciate that I survived.

“Coop, come over here and see how that came out,” one of the PA’s calls out and Johnny and I walk over to him, Johnny’s arm still over my shoulder. We’re watching the monitor, pointing out things they’ll add in post and laughing about how everything looks. It’s going to look incredible, and I can’t wait for people to watch this in theaters.

More specifically, I can’t wait for Ren to see this. I wish I could thank her for giving me back the confidence I needed. As I watch the clip, my thumb slides over the small sunflower tattoo on my wrist.

The stab in my gut from thinking about her just about has me doubled over and I have to play it off around my colleagues since none of them knows what’s going on. To the public eye, we broke up months ago, right after Luis’s photos went viral. The press were brutal as hell to her, and so were some of my fans. I left the internet behind, and Cyn staged photos of me with another woman. A few days later, they found someone more interesting to follow.

It got Ren’s photos off the front pages quicker than asking them to remove them would have. If I get her back, they’ll post them again, but we’ll be ready. I hope.

In reality, I haven’t seen her in six months. None of us have, but my gut says Mills knows where she is. The plan to meet at the airport never happened. By the time Mills got Dani and Mrs. Silva to the safe house, Ren had disappeared. They tracked her phone, but found it smashed in a trashcan, and no SIM card.

At first, we thought Luis had found her, and I lost myself in a haze of weed and booze. Theo came over to the house a few times after Dev called him, and Pongo was on non-stop alert. Jamie and Steve spent a week by my side every hour when Dev couldn’t. I didn’t eat or sleep for days and would have been the perfect pick for a zombie film.

After two weeks, Mills came back with evidence showing Luis sending his gang and prison connections to find her. Things he wouldn’t leverage if he already had her. He’s not smart enough to cover his tracks like that.

After Mills found out what I put myself through, his shell cracked, but only a little. He gave me a box, saying someone mailed it to his office. Inside I found a sunflower pin. I’ve given Mills envelopes of cash every few weeks since he gave me that. We don’t talk about it, he just nods and sticks it in his pocket. After that, I buckled down and took on more work.

Dani and her mother moved out of the safe house about a week after the photos, since Luis never threatened them. Xander got Dani to take him back, since he’d been worried sick about her. They’re dating my PA, Megan, and the three of them moved in together not long after Ren took off. I’m not sure that will last, though.

Instead of being home alone, Ren’s mother has been staying with Dev and me for the time being. She tried to refuse, but she saw my breakdown and because of that, she’s worried about me. Now we argue over who gets the kitchen on which nights and where the pots and pans go. She’s happy to not be alone, and it’s nice to have a part of Ren here. We’re all just trying to pretend life is back to normal when it’s anything but.

“E-excuse me. Uhm, Mr. Cooper?” I turn around and find a young woman biting her lip like I’m going to yell at her for interrupting. God, I hate the actors that feel the need to freak out people like her to flex their power.

“Yeah? What’s up?” I ask, making sure I smile as she hands me a note.

“Uhm, your agent, Cynthia, called. She said I needed to have you call her as soon as you were finished with the scene. She said you should probably take the call in your trailer.”

A month after she disappeared, I got the first email. No one knows about it, or if they do, they haven’t told me.

I don’t want to wait. I don’t want to give Luis any more of my time. You shouldn’t either. I can’t stop you from looking for me, and I hope when all of this is over, we can find each other again. For now, just know that I’m safe and I’m okay. I love you, Puppy. Go be my movie star so I can watch you on the big screen until I can hold you again.

I’m doing what she told me, not giving Luis Santiago any of my time. I’m also not giving any to Ren, and that part hurts, but sometimes I’ll get a package or a message. There’s never a way to contact her back, but she already knows what I’d say. I’ve thrown myself into my work with more energy and passion than ever. If movies are my only connection to Ren for now, I’m going to give her everything I’ve got. She’s going to see it’s all for her.

It’s also driving the press nuts trying to figure out why I got the tattoo and wear a sunflower pin to every carpet, interview, presser, everything. So far, they’ve guessed it’s for a movie, a cult, and a stance against some government somewhere. No one knows it’s just my way of telling her I love her. No one but her.

“Here we go again.” I nod to Pongo as he follows me back to the trailer. Cyn and I have been playing this game for the last few weeks, and I’m pretty sure I’m close to getting Cyn to crack. I want her to take Lawson down, and she has the connections to do it, but she keeps giving me excuses. So, once again, I’ve taken Ren’s advice and stopped giving Cyn my time.

“Don’t hang up!”

“Have you found her?”

“No, but ? —”

“Are you going after Lawson?”

“Chase—”

“Okay, fun talk.” I hang up, tossing the phone on the bed and heading to the sink to wash the dirty and grime off my face. I listen as the phone vibrates behind me, closing my eyes and letting the water drip from my face and hands. I’m too close to teetering over the edge. It’s like a high-wire act, and I can’t see the other side, but I’m still moving ahead. Pongo strolls into the bathroom and nudges me.

“Hey, Buddy. You wanna head back to the apartment and get something to eat? I’m starving.” He hops onto the bed, pushing the phone over the edge with his nose. “No way. She knows what she needs to do.”

The phone vibrates again, and I pick it up and glance at the screen—there’s no caller ID. Cyn can get pretty sneaky, but she’s not unlisted phone number kind of sneaky. I jam my finger down on the green button.

“Ren?”

“HA! Still thinking she’s coming out of hiding so you two lovebirds can have your cute movie ending?” Lawson sneers. “I knew that stunt a few months ago with the smoking hot, big titty blonde wasn’t real.”

“I’m not signing it. I’ve told you that already.”

“Check the news. I’ll call you back in five to see if you’ve changed your mind.”

Lawson hangs up, and I open the web browser, not finding anything. I refresh it a few times until a new headline loads, and I’m grinning ear to ear.

My phone rings again, but I’m not sure what to do. Why does Lawson want me to know about the arrest? Fuck it.

“What the fuck do you still want, Lawson?”

“You, on my payroll.”

“No. I already told you I’m not signing on. It’s not happening.”

“Let me tell you the offer first, big guy.”

“Fine, but you’re wasting your time.”

“One movie. One movie so people will stop blacklisting my ass. You do that, I give you the name of the stalker. I gave you one as a freebie, so you know I’m good for it.”

“You’re saying you ratted out Santiago, hoping I’d do a movie with your studio just to get the name of my stalker?”

When it came out that Luis Santiago had planned to come after me, the stalker lost whatever footing she had in reality. Death threats came for all of us, including the dogs. We’ve stopped feeding them anything we haven’t prepared ourselves, doubled the security cameras, and Mills has people driving by at random times. She even broke into Jamie’s garage and defaced the mural he did for Alexis, covering the wall with photos of Ren and I. It took him weeks to clean the mess up.

Everyone thought that would be as far as she went, destroying property and threats. But she took the threats to a new level, breaking into Marta Rodriguez’s home and stabbing her four times. Marta survived, but it confirmed that this girl, whoever she is, still blames Ren for getting in the way and poisoning my mind.

I glance over at the stack of unopened envelopes I’ve gotten from her just this week. I send them to Mills on Fridays, and he spends his weekend going through them and not finding a damn thing. Lawson could give us the break we need, and he’s fucking blackmailing me for it.

“You worthless, dickless piece of shit. You fucking go after my girl, you humiliate her, you force her into fucking hiding and you expect me to come back and do a fucking movie to save your sorry ass? Buddy, I hope your damn studio catches fire and there isn’t a drop of water in the lines when they go to save it.”

“Hey, you and me both on that one. Insurance payout,” he chuckles darkly. There’s a knock at the trailer door and Pongo jumps around like a lunatic.

“Okay, this has been great, but go to hell, asshole.”

“She has pictures of you.” I freeze, not responding. “Boning your bitch, on your knees and begging. She has some extra spicy ones from San Luis Obispo, too. I offered her cash money for them and she turned me down, but the longer you avoid her, the more interested in my money she gets.”

“I don’t give a fuck!”

“She showed me one when I told her I didn’t believe her. Hollywood’s Golden Goose getting fucked up the ass by his whips and chains whore. It’s gonna look phenomenal on the covers of every magazine in the damn world. Put you both back in the public eye.”

Lawson’s telling the truth about knowing the stalker.

“You’re a smart kid. Sign the fuckin’ deal and I’ll tell you who and where she is.”

“Pongo, get down,” I whisper as he jumps at the door. “Lawson, tell me?—”

He’s gone. I mumble under my breath as I head for the door and the second it’s open, Pongo bolts past Megan, almost knocking her over. I catch her and apologize for him acting weird as he disappears around another trailer. It’s gotta be food. Idiot acts like I don’t feed him.

“Sorry to bother you, Chase, but uhm, we’ve had another break-in. I just wanted to make sure you were alright,”

“Break-in? Did you catch her?” My heart races.

“Yeah, we found her snooping around the trailers looking for you. She looks familiar, but she’s probably someone we’ve tossed out before.”

I check in the direction Pongo went, waiting for him to come back. There’s a strange feeling in my stomach. “What, uh, what did you say she looked like?”

“I didn’t, but she’s short, around my height. She has a red bob, and a tattoo?—”

I take off in a full run. I remember the chick that broke in last time, the stalker. Sharron. Suzan. Shauna. Something like that. Whatever she calls herself, she’s much taller than Megan.

My heart hammers, while my brain tries hard to pump the brakes. If it’s the stalker, she could hurt Pongo, but that’s not what my gut tells me. My gut says it’s the woman I’ve waited fucking months for. When I round the corner, there’s a woman squatting down with one of the security guards next to her. Pongo’s on his back as she rubs his belly. She doesn’t have to turn around and doesn’t need to face me when I hear that laugh.

“Sunshine!” I practically tackle her, rolling to keep her from hitting the concrete. It’s a move my stunt guy taught me a few weeks back, and I never dreamed it would have real-life applications like this. I hug her to me, swearing to myself that I’ll never let her go. Never. “Fuck, Sunshine! I can’t believe it’s you! Are you okay? Are you hurt at all?”

I don’t even wait for a response, grabbing her face and pulling her mouth down to mine. It’s like a game of tug-of-war, each of us fighting to pull the other’s soul right out of their body. It’s a miracle I keep enough of my brain intact to not strip her naked right there and claim every damn inch of her.

“Chase! Come on, let me go!” she says between gasps of air. “Seriously!”

“No, not until you use the right name. The name I’ve begged every fucking star in the sky to hear again. Let me hear it, please, baby?”

Her shy smile looks out of place on her, but I’ll take it. “Puppy.”

“Fuck, I love you!” I assail her with more kisses, grabbing her face and holding it to mine so she can’t get away again. “And this new hair? Fuck, you’re fucking gorgeous.”

“Chase?” she squeaks out between kisses.

“Mm?”

“Can we, uhm, go somewhere less open?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah! Come on, my trailer’s over here.” I wave over at Megan as she stares at us. “All good, this one’s legit! Sorry!”

“Not your trailer, Chase. I can’t stay long, and too many people watch this place.”

“What do you mean, you can’t stay?”

“Let’s go somewhere safe first, somewhere we can talk, okay?” I nod and pat my pocket, but it’s empty. I left my phone and keys in the trailer. She holds out her own keys. “I’ll drive.”