Chapter 19

19

T he moment I get home from the hospital, my world falls apart once again, and that high I had been rocking from the performance and Stone's kiss crashes at my feet. It's on the doorstep. I see it before we even reach the stone steps. We're maybe a hundred yards out, and I'm staring at it, trying to pretend it's something else when my heart starts to race in a pattern that tells me it already knows better. It's the same red envelope. The same block handwriting.

What. The. Fuck?!

My breath comes out in a torrential rush, and Loomis is beside me, all fun and smiles since we're supposed to have dinner together, until he notes my expression and follows my gaze.

I hear him swallow.

"Should I pick it up?"

"How?" I ask, my voice hoarse. Neither of us is able to tear ourselves away from the envelope sitting innocuously on the step when it's anything but innocuous. "How is that even possible unless…"

Loomis's head whips frantically around while he moves protectively closer to me. I love my friend. I love him so much and am so grateful every day he's in my life, but more than that, I'm grateful he's standing here beside me right now.

"We should call the police," he murmurs urgently.

"The Boston police aren't involved in this, and if I do that, it'll get out to the public, and I don't want that. It'll start all over again, Loomis. The media, not just the paparazzi, but the media frenzy."

"Fine. The bloody FBI then, Tinsley," he barks out, only to soften his voice and wrap his arms around me. "I'm sorry. I've had obsessed fans. Fans who try to scale my fence or break into my home or see me on the street and chase after me for a picture or a cheek kiss. I've never had this, and it scares me for you. Especially after what you told me you went through last time with it. Tell me if you want me to pick it up and dispose of it. I will. You'll never have to see it or open it."

It's tempting So very tempting.

"It needs to go to the FBI. But first, it needs to go to…" I trail off.

"Your men," he finishes for me.

I haven't told him what Lenox and Vander can do, but he knows the family I come from. The family I'm affiliated with. And he knows I have extra reach even if he doesn't fully understand its magnitude.

I glance around. There is no crowd, but we're far from alone on the street and people most definitely recognize us. We get a wider berth in Boston, but we still get watched. "Do you think he's here?"

"Don't know. All I know is you're not staying in this warehouse another night. You have cameras, yes?"

"Yes."

"Brilliant. Let's have a look at those, shall we? And this letter…"

"I'll pick it up. Not you. "

He nods. I hate that's the precaution we have to take, but it's a real one. I trust Loomis with my life, and when this originally started, I hadn't even met him yet, but I can't have his prints on this red envelope either. I won't do that to him.

"Wait!" he calls out. "Let's snap a picture of it first."

"Smart."

I pull out my phone and take a picture of it just how it was left and then pluck the five-by-eight envelope up. I need to call Lenox. And my father. He's not going to be happy, and I know exactly what he's going to say. This is his first world tour in years, and the last thing I want is to ruin or disrupt that for him by having him come home just so he can play papa bear.

But I don't need a papa bear watching over my every move. I carry a knife on me. Pepper spray too. I know self-defense and have a security team, but more than that, I won't go back into hibernation and allow everyone else to take over and call the shots for me.

"Fucking asshole. It's been years. Why now?"

"I wish I could tell you, but what I can tell you is that you're not going in there without your security checking the building first," Loomis tells me, just as I hear my name called.

Both of us spin in place to find Wren jogging toward us, letting out an annoyed and relieved huff when she finds us. "I've tried to call you like a dozen times," she bursts out. "Stop being so cool and ignoring me."

I check my phone and sigh. "I'm sorry, I had it off since I was at Children's."

She waves me away, pulls me in for a hug, and then smacks my arm, making my brows pinch. I'm close with Katy, Keena, and Keegan. But Wren has always been my best friend in the group. She and I kept in touch the most when I left as a teenager.

"Are you fucking my cousin again?! "

"Jesus, Wren." My head swivels like it's on a spit. "How about a little care with that mouth of yours?"

"Fine, but what the hell is going on with the two of you?"

"Which cousin?"

She scoffs, not enjoying my humor, only I'm not fully kidding. The question is valid. "Oh, that's a good one. Stone. I'm talking about Stone."

My heart starts to boom. "What about him?"

"Dude, it's all over the internet. All over social freaking media. Boston's Landing and Interntainment are reporting it, but it's catching everywhere."

I'm out of patience. "Wren, reporting what?"

"That you're engaged to Stone."

"What?!" I scream, and every head within a two-mile radius turns my way. It's five in the evening on a Friday, and people are starting to get out of work and crowd the streets. At least it's almost dark out. We had a half day of shooting, and then I went to the hospital. But… "How? How on earth could anyone think I'm engaged…" I trail off and then stare down at my left hand. Fuck. Fuckity fuck fuck. The stupid prop engagement ring and someone caught us standing outside the hospital together. I kissed his cheek. I smiled and flirted with him. He smiled and flirted back. We were us.

Crap!

Just then, something flashes out of the corner of my eye. "Tinsley! Loomis! Over here."

Double crap!

In our next breath, we're surrounded by the press, mostly local because Boston isn't New York or LA, but there are still plenty of them.

"Loomis?! How do you feel about Tinsley being engaged to another man?"

"Has she been cheating on you with Stone Fritz? "

"Tinsley, how long have you and Stone Fritz secretly been dating?"

"Does Forest know you're in love with his brother?"

"Come on!" Wren cries, waving us on, her blonde hair whipping about as she starts to run in the opposite direction. And stupid me, I called off my security detail when I met up with Loomis and knew we were hanging out at my place tonight. "Dude, move!" she calls again, snapping my attention away from the hordes of people surrounding us. "I've got my brother's Rover waiting!"

"Hard to argue that." Loomis shifts closer to me, and we flee, walking briskly through the press who follow us, keeping our heads down and refusing to answer questions. Loomis opens the front passenger door for me, and I climb in, slamming it quickly closed behind me. The moment Loomis is in the back seat of Owen's large SUV, Wren starts driving us slowly out of here, making the paparazzi part like the Red Sea out of the way.

Speaking of red, the red letter is burning against my hand, and I drop it to my lap along with my face. What a fucking afternoon this turned out to be.

"Where are we headed?" I ask in a low voice as I slide out my phone and pull up Interntainment . The first thing that comes up are pictures of me and Stone outside the hospital. Us holding hands. Us smiling at each other. Us standing close as we talk. Me touching his face. Him touching mine. Me kissing his cheek.

"Stone's," she answers as if that should be obvious, but there is a catch in her voice. "Everyone is already there."

He has to be furious.

He didn't ask for any of this. I kissed his cheek on the street. I touched his face. I told him I knew he was working in the ER because I did. It was one of the reasons I picked today. I hadn't planned on going to see him, but I liked the idea of it happening by chance or him knowing I was there and coming to see me. It was stupid and reckless. A girl who wanted a boy to notice her move.

And it's costing us. Both of us.

My eyes close, and I resist the urge to cry. Everything feels like it's pressing back down on me the way it did back then, and I can barely catch my breath. Still, I can't let it consume me. Not again.

As if echoing my thoughts, a text comes in.

Apollo: I just saw the video of the media swarm. Congrats on your engagement. Let me know if you ever need anything. I'm always here.

I snort out a sardonic laugh. For one, I can't believe how fast what just happened made it to the internet that Apollo already saw it. What was that? Seconds. For another, what an asshole he is texting me after everything he did to me. He bad-mouthed me all over

LA after I fired him. He called me a diva and told anyone who would listen that I was impossible to work for and with. He tried to ruin my career, but it backfired on him to the point where a few other artists he was working with left him.

Whatever. I don't care about him. he's trying to rub in what just happened because he knows I hate it.

Ugh.

"I didn't mean to cause a mess," I murmur, my voice thick. When everyone thought Loomis and I were together, they'd take pictures and follow us a bit.

But I haven't been surrounded that way since Terrance Howard went to jail and then later, when I broke up with Forest. It's part of what had me running. That and a shoddy team I'd hired surrounding me. In the last two years, I've rebuilt everything from the ground up to be my own. And the paps didn't bother me so much after that .

This is different. This is a scandal. And they're going to chase it because it's a juicy one.

"I don't see how this is a bad thing," Loomis pipes up from the back, scooting forward and ducking down until he's positioned as close as he can be between the two front seats. "For the moment, the world thinks you're engaged to Stone. If you have the press all over you, it makes it tougher for those letters or the person behind them to find you. Regardless of that benefit, if you want this story gone, it's easy enough to explain you're wearing a prop ring and were just playing at the hospital for the children and ran into a family friend. There. Done."

I nod slowly. He's right. It's why I have a PR team. They're the ones who made the statement that Loomis and I are just friends, and though no one believed it, it's what you do, and then the press moves on to the next thing.

"Letter thing?" Wren questions, and I hold up the envelope.

"My stalker boyfriend is back."

Wren hisses out a slew of curses. "Shit. God, Tins, I'm so sorry. I thought he was in jail."

"He got out a few months ago. I hadn't heard from him, but apparently he thought today was the day to change that."

I knew Terrance was released from prison a few months back, but he hasn't tried to reach out, and I've had Lenox keep an eye on him. Terrance is on parole and not allowed to leave California or get within a hundred yards of me or any of his other victims.

But there is no postage on this envelope. It wasn't in the mailbox.

It was hand-delivered to the front step.

"Something isn't adding up," Loomis muses, and I turn, catching his contemplatively creased brow, his hand on his jaw as if he's trying to unravel something incredibly elusive. "You were brought out the back entrance of the hospital after a surprise visit. You've done those dozens of times before, and not once have those videos or photographs leaked early. Not to mention, the person who photographed you wasn't close enough for you to see or notice. Paparazzi are anything but subtle and would have come as close as possible. Same with fans. Then, on the same day, less than an hour apart, you receive an envelope."

He has a point about the horrible timing of it. "We don't know what time the envelope was left yet. But are you suggesting the person who leaked the photos is my stalker?"

"I honestly don't know. But it just feels off. That's all I'm saying. It just feels off."

"Whatever it is or hopefully isn't, you have a safety net now." Wren changes lanes and brings us closer to Boston Common. "Stone is used to press." She shrugs, her eyes on the road. "We all are. Being a Fritz in this town comes with them, so he knows what he's doing. It'll get sorted, but it's good to figure it out, and we do that in person."

"I know." Because I do. She grew up being a Fritz, but I grew up being a Monroe, and we're equally as famous in Boston, and definitely more famous throughout the country and the world. I know how these things operate and I wasn't surprised she was taking us to Stone's. Doesn't mean I want to deal with this with an audience attached, but it's not necessarily a bad thing either.

I have about a thousand missed calls and texts, but I leave it on Do Not Disturb. I can see them, but they don't know they're reaching me yet. I should turn it back on, but I have no desire to right now. Not until I talk to Stone. And Vander, if he's there, and if not him, then definitely Lenox. Vander wasn't involved much the first time with Terrance, but Lenox certainly was.

I can't talk to my PR team or even my parents until I know what's happening and as many details as I can.

"Can I ask about you and Stone?"

I sigh. "I have no idea what you're talking about. "

She laughs and reaches over to poke my shoulder. "Such a slut for those Fritz boys."

Loomis chokes on his laugh.

I scrub my hands over my face. "Only one, it seems, though not really since that's all done and over with. I'm sure I'm going to hear it from his brother." I wince. That's a call I'm not looking forward to.

"I don't know why you care," Loomis throws out, and I fold in half, my forehead to my knees as we get closer to Stone's building.

"I don't know why I do either," I admit. "Guilt, I guess."

"You need to be more like Elsa and let it go."

"Easy for you to say, Wren. You haven't hit your Fritz-world scandal yet."

Wren shudders. "And may I never. I remember what Owen and Rory went through with his cunt ex. That was enough for me. Oh, look, the press is here. Good thing we're going through the back door, and no one expects the hot blonde with the big sunglasses to be aiding and abetting."

"You mean the one who likes it in the back door."

She throws me a sideways glance and a smirk. "Don't make me stop and roll down your window to tell those assholes of the press that I've got their leading lady right here."

"You do and I'll tell Owen his best friend took your virginity."

She gasps. "You do and I'll tell Forest you slept with his brother. Several times."

"Ladies, while this back and forth is amusing and endearing, can you please just get us somewhere I don't have to lie awkwardly along the back seat. My back is starting to spasm like I'm ninety."

"Done. We're here." Wren pulls into the garage, the metal gate closing behind her, and I breathe a sigh of relief only that relief doesn't last long as she parks in one of Stone's spots and we all climb out of the car. I'm already dreading this.

I like being strong. I like the Tinsley who did what she had to do for herself, her life, and her safety. I like the woman who stopped taking others' bullshit as gospel and wrote her own story instead. It's gotten me where I am now, which is mentally healthy and feeling good.

I fired my last agent and manager and hired ones who listened to me and believed in my vision for myself and my career. My last album—the one I wrote all for myself and not for what the label wanted—tripled my previous ones in sales. My last movie had a more emotional complexity to the character and really pushed me to be more with my acting.

I've found my stride. My rhythm. My fucking happy place.

And now this.

It's like a magnet, going straight for all that hard-won strength and trying to force it out of me. I could fall on those around me—I've done it before—but I refuse to. It's part of what kept me attached to Forest for longer than I should have been. The problem is, I might not have a choice with some of it. I turn back my phone off Do Not Disturb.

Time to go figure out what's up with my stalker and how to get unengaged from Stone.