Chapter 67

* Elena *

“Where are you? Have you seen this?”

“What? Did something happen?” I was barely awake when Sydney called, still caught in the throes of sleepy pleasure after the morning and night Ryder and I had spent together.

I felt the aches and pains as I tried to sit up in bed and couldn’t help the smile that flitted across my face. I was almost afraid to be this happy or to admit to myself that our time together was so much better this time around than the last.

Don’t get me wrong, our relationship had lots of good times, but the bad somehow had grown to overshadow them. But this time, for some reason, I feel it deep inside that things are different. That he is, we are.

Of course, we’ve grown, but it’s almost as if he’s a different person. I can’t say that I’d imagined him becoming the man he is today, and though I wouldn’t wish the last five years on my worst enemy, a part of me can’t help but be grateful in a way for all that we’d gone through, if it meant that we could be here today. It’s too confusing to put into words just yet, especially when I have sex fog brain.

I was a bit shy about fooling around in someone else’s home, but the fact that we were literally on the other side of the house, away from everyone else, soon had me getting over that feeling, not to mention the fact that Ryder was being so sweet and romantic that all my defenses just crumbled beneath his soft touches that I’d come to crave once again.

It started when I was standing at the bedroom window gazing out at the night view of the park, and he walked over and stood behind me with his arms wrapped around me. I blocked out everything else at that moment and just concentrated on what his closeness made me feel.

I can’t express how I felt, how all the memories came crashing down on me at that moment, and I just started bawling my eyes out like a baby. The way he turned me into his arms without saying a word, the way he softly sang our favorite song in my ear until I calmed down, only made me fall deeper in love with him.

I didn’t want to think about all the ugliness, not Rachel, or his ex, or any of the other horrible things that I’d had to face lately. So, when he nudged my chin with his finger and tipped my face up to his, looking deep into my eyes in the moonlight, the romance was overwhelming to the point that I forgot about our hosts.

As with the week we’d spent together, I found his lovemaking to be much more mature than in the past. He was no longer a selfish lover but took his time bringing me along with him, rejoicing in my pleasure as much as his own.

And when I cried from the sheer beauty of it, he’d kissed the tears from my eyelids and down my cheek until our lips met once more in a passionate kiss that took my breath away. His hands were gentle yet forceful as they moved over my body, touching me in all the right places and awakening something inside me that I had thought long dead.

When he slipped into me, we came together as if for the first time. I don’t know what it was about that night, what made it seem as if I’d finally let go of everything I’d been holding onto, but something vital had changed between us, and we both felt it.

It was even better when I woke up this morning to feel him moving inside me once more as I laid on my side with him behind me. We were both still half asleep, which added to the sheer bliss of the moment as our bodies moved together in perfect symmetry.

Now he was in the shower while I was supposed to be getting more rest as he’d ordered before rolling away from me, but the phone rang, jarring me out of my peaceful half-slumber. Hearing Sydney’s voice reminded me of all that had happened and all that I had yet to tell her.

She sounded excited, something I hadn’t heard in a very long time. “Did you break another record?” I tried to recall which part of the world she was supposed to be on her tour but drew a blank. Sydney’s tours are astronomical world events, kind of like Ryder’s used to be back before life took a turn for us.

“Forget that. I’m talking about what’s going on back in L.A. I know you’re in New York shooting, so I figured you might not have seen or heard anything.” Plus, she knows that I stay away from social media and anything to do with entertainment news, or at least I used to.

Thinking of that reminded me of Rachel and the things Ryder told me about her. That’s something else I dread telling Sydney about as well. “What’s going on in L.A.?”

“I knew that witch wouldn’t have told you about this. Are you sitting down? You better sit down.”

“I’m sitting; I’m sitting.” I was wide awake now because of the urgency in her voice. “Janie has lost her damn mind on national television.”

“What?” Does Ryder know? He didn’t mention anything about that.

“What do you mean? What’s going on?”

“Beats me, but she has been spilling her guts about everything. She’s made some pretty ugly accusations against Mary Hudson and her daughters; I think she even threw her own father under the bus, and get this, she admitted that she tricked Ryder into marrying her.”

When you said that in the beginning, I didn’t believe you, but after hearing this, I think you might have been right.” Char had told me about the dark magic at play, but I couldn’t believe that Janie would admit to doing such a thing in public. What the hell was going on?

Sydney’s right. Even though my mind hadn’t gone to such nefarious deeds back when Ryder left me for her, I suspected that something had happened to make him make that choice. His explanation two weeks ago, along with Char’s, had gone a long way to assuring me that I was right, but this sounded like something else entirely.

The Janie I knew would rather die than admit that truth. I wanted to grab my tablet to take a look, but Ryder would be out of the shower soon. “And get this, because of the things she said. Mary is now under investigation. Not only her but Scott, Matt, and that whole sham of a church they’ve been running.”

“Oh, by the way, Ryder divorced her as soon as he found out about what she’d done. At least, I’m guessing that’s how it went down. No one has seen him, and the Saunders people are keeping him under tight wrap. I almost feel sorry for him after hearing this shit. Oh my goodness, this is wild, and it just keeps getting better and better.”

“She said that Ryder divorced her?”

“No, someone else broke that one. She was too busy fighting for her existence in front of the cameras. You know I’m not a mean person, but I have to say that seeing her like that made my damn decade. Not to mention what happened to her face.”

“What happened to her face?”

“She’s got some kind of scarring from whatever she had that sent her to the hospital. Whatever, who cares? I guess you’ll probably be hearing from Ryder soon. Given all that’s come to light, I guess it’s okay if you forgive him, but don’t make it too easy on him; he was still a jerk.”

I heard the water turn off in the shower and started to sweat.

Now would be a perfect time to tell her that we were back together, but somehow I couldn’t bring myself to do it. This is something I should tell her face to face because there were going to be a lot of questions. But it sounded like she was giving me her blessing, so that should maybe ease the blow. Still, I wanted to wait until she was back home or at least until I made the trip out to see her on tour like I’d planned to.

I did test the waters a little bit, though, just to be on the safe side. “Are you saying you wouldn’t mind if Ryder and I got back together?” She sighed long and hard on the other end of the phone. “Babe, I was there. I saw you, how broken you were. I know what he meant to you, and as much as he pissed me off sometimes, I know how much you loved him. I guess it’s like you always say, the heart wants what it wants, right?”

“As your friend, I want only the best for you. It’s more important to me for you to be happy than for me to be right. And if what has been released in the past twenty-four hours is true, then he’s as much a victim as you are. I think he’s going to need a lot of help, but it looks like the Saunders group is already on it.”

“I’ve seen Ryder; I learned some of what you’re telling me now from his own mouth.” So much for waiting to tell her. There was dead silence on the other end of the line.

“You’ve seen him? When? Where?”

I told her almost all of it, including the bit about Rachel.

“I’ll kill that bitch. Where the hell is she? I knew I didn’t trust her for a reason. Didn’t I tell you?”

“Yes, you did, so I guess we’re even.”

“How is that?”

“Well, I told you there was something odd about the way Ryder went off and got married to someone else on the day of our wedding, but you didn’t believe me.”

“That’s because he was a jerk. How was I to know that those freaks had all that shit going on behind the scenes? So Rachel was the one feeding them information about you. Damn, and she was the one you trusted to run your social media accounts. After hearing this, I’m not sure who’s the worst in that bunch.”

“Anyway, I’ve got to go. I have to be on stage in a couple of hours, and I haven’t prepared yet. I’ve spent all day with this mess and waiting for the time difference to call you. If Ryder shows up again, take it easy on him, I think he might need it.”

She hung up just as he came out of the shower drying his hair with a towel with another one wrapped around his hips. He had a quizzical look when he saw the phone in my hand. “Who was that?”

“Sydney, she called to tell me about Janie exposing what she did to you to us on TV. His reaction for a split second seemed a bit odd, but I guess that could be from the whole world knowing the truth about what had been done to him, or it could be my mind playing tricks on me.

Either way, I lost all track of my thoughts when he approached me, dropping the towel to reveal his erection as he got closer to the bed. For a long while, I forgot about Janie and everything else. Besides, I knew all I needed to know about that situation, didn’t I?

***

* Rachel *

“I don’t know too much about that part of their dealings.”

“We know better. We already know what you know. We just want you to say it for the record.” I looked at the two men who’s been at it for hours since they picked me up at the airport.

They made me go over and over again everything I knew about Mary and what I had done to Elena. Now that I was here in this dark, cold room, feeling isolated from everything else, I questioned whether or not it was worth it to do all that I had done.

The anger and resentment I’d felt towards Elena all those years had disappeared under the onslaught of their disapproving stares, so I didn’t have even that to keep me bolstered. I’d used that resentment for so long, overturning all the good that she had done for me in my head.

But now, after hours of listening to it being driven home time and again from these two, I felt lower than I ever have in my life. “Tell us again how they approached you. How did they get you to turn on your friend?”

“I’ve told you already. I wanted to be part of the Hollywood set. I wanted to be something more than just her friend. But I didn’t have the talent to do it. Mary approached me. It was Elena’s fault anyway; she’s the one who introduced me to them.”

At least there was that. I hadn’t gone looking for them. It was Elena herself who had introduced me to that family. At first, it was all good. But then Elena started to pull away from them. Miss. Goody two shoes hadn’t wanted to tell me the reason for it in the beginning, never wanting to start rumors about anyone.

But eventually, she’d shared that she got a bad vibe around them and wanted to put some distance between her and them. She never came right out and said what it was that she was feeling, but true to her word, she’d started avoiding them at every turn.

It was about that time that Mary started showing an interest in me. I should’ve known then that something was wrong, but I was too caught up in my own feelings, my own wants, and desires. “I didn’t start out wanting to hurt her, you know. Mary promised to get me in with the right people. I’ve known Elena for years, and she never once tried to help me make it.”

“Isn’t that because you have no acting or singing abilities whatsoever?” Hearing it put that way still stung. Mary had tried. She’d set me up with an agent and had even gotten me a few readings, but nothing ever panned out. Still, she’d promised to keep trying, which she had.

It was because of that; that and my growing resentment for Elena that had led me down the road to destruction. The more she achieved, the more I grew to hate her. So, when Noel and Nicole started bashing her in my presence, I felt justified. I wasn’t the only one who thought she thought she was better than everyone else. I wasn’t the only one who hated her guts for being good at everything she did.

When they came up with the scheme to come between her and Ryder, I was all for it. I knew better than anyone that that would break her. I was hoping that losing him would destroy her, and it did. I knew they were only using me because of my friendship with her, that because she had cut them off, I was their only way to her, and I was glad. I was finally useful for something.

I knew I was being used, but I didn’t care. Not as long as it meant watching her suffer the way I had all those years as her sidekick. I felt the same euphoria I had that day when I saw her broken and devastated on the bathroom floor after Ryder left her standing at the altar.

But it didn’t last long because these two were still here, looking at me with disdain and reproach in their eyes. “Tell us about the doctor, the one who gave you the drugs you’ve been feeding her.” I looked down and away, suddenly realizing the shit I was in. How comes I didn’t think about this and the repercussions? Because I never thought I would get caught.

***

* Mary *

“How do they know all of this? There has to be a leak somewhere. Matt. It has to be Matt. He must’ve made some kind of deal with the Feds for a lesser charge.”

“I doubt that seriously. Although the girl he was caught with is pretty young, there are ways around that. It’s been happening for years; he could’ve just said she lied about her age. Any good lawyer could make that go away. His reputation might take a hit, but others have come back from that and worst.”

“No, this is something else.”

“It can’t be Janie; what little she knows wouldn’t have brought this kind of heat. And the blackmails started before she started spilling her guts. I don’t think she’s working with these people because they seem to be after her as well. Any word yet or where she disappeared to?”

“No, I have people looking. Andrews is in a motel. He’s not going anywhere, and Matt’s still holed up at his friend’s place in Connecticut. He tried boarding a plane to New Zealand, but they wouldn’t let him leave, of course.”

“We have to tell him to keep his mouth shut no matter what, Scott. No one has been named so far, so we might still come out of this thing with our skin intact.” We were shut up in my office away from the kitchen because I still hadn’t found whatever that bitch Rachel had planted here.

The last twenty-four hours have been hell. I keep waiting for the knock on the door to come any minute, not sure which I fear most, the law or one of the men or women I’d procured young boys and girls for over the years.

I have no doubt that my life is in danger from either one. One would put me away for good, and the other would just kill me to keep what I know hidden. How had everything come to this? Even my daughters were being dragged through the mud.

Years of carefully built and cultivated personas were being destroyed, all my life’s work down the drain because of a few spilled words, and I still have no idea who is behind it all. The thing with Elena and Ryder was now the least of my worries. If my position in the trafficking ring comes to light, it will be all over. The fact that I’ve been pimping my own flesh and blood out for fame and fortune will pale in comparison if the world finds out what I have really been up to all these years.

It was a perfect setup and had done tremendously well. No one would ever suspect the truth behind why I had pushed my daughters into the limelight the way I had. The world saw me as a hard-working mother who took her daughters from relative unknowns to household names.

But no one would’ve guessed that there was a more sinister reason behind it. The plan had been born from my own mind, with no help from anyone. I’d spent years in the background being overlooked until I happened upon a need, a need that the Hollywood elite had to keep hidden.

Their lust for the forbidden and their need to keep it hidden from the spotlight to keep up their unblemished images was something I knew I could foster. It had started with my own kids, as kind of an experiment, mind you, but also as a way to get my feet in the door.

The men and women who had shared my daughters at their little parties were only too happy to pay and pay well, not only with money but with brokered deals for the future. I knew my girls would grow up eventually, and I would need to find some way to keep the control I had fought so hard to gain over these very influential people, and I had come up with the perfect way to do that.

Once my girls were no longer young enough, it was time to get them in front of the camera and on the world stage. We’d fabricated a lifestyle most can only dream of. Our target audience was the young and impressionable, just the victims I was looking for to feed my hungry clients.

Years it had worked for years with no one being the wiser. I’d talked Scott around to the idea of using his clients in much the same way. All those young girls and boys dying for an autograph or a private meeting with their favorite pop star had garnered us plenty of pickings over the years.

But there was only one place where I failed. Elena Gianni. She was the only one who ever made me lose face with a client, and for that, I would never forgive her.