Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 72945 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72945 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
“Stop it.” I glare at him and he sits down, shrugs, but doesn’t relinquish the drugs. “This is absurd. It’s beyond absurd, it’s sick. He needs help. He needs—”
“I need my actor working,” Cowan says loudly, showing a flash of anger. “Rodrick is brilliant. He’s exactly what we need, but he’s worthless if we try to shove him through a program.”
“Been there, done that, never works.” Rodrick sighs. “Lots of expensive therapy is locked away in this worthless, rattled brain.” He taps his skull with two fingers. “Once a junkie, always a junkie.”
“This is wrong,” I say, shaking my head. “I won’t be a part of it.”
“Good,” Cowan says. “I will babysit my lead actor. I need him healthy, or as healthy as he can be, and very much on drugs. No withdrawal, no bullshit. We’ll keep him working and sane. Besides, you two have another task.”
“Fuck that,” Baptist says. “We’re done running your errands.”
“Location scouting. That’s a reasonable request.”
Baptist grinds his teeth. He looks at me and back at Rodrick, who’s sitting there and grinning away, holding his baggie like its pure gold. I can almost see the thoughts flash through Baptist’s brain, and for a second, I think he’s going to kill Cowan. There’s enough rage and darkness inside of him to do it, too. One moment of passion and he might strangle the old director to death before he even realizes that the life’s gone from the ancient, withered husk of a bastard.
Instead, he walks past the two men and stands by my side.
“Send me the address.” He steers me away and pushes me softly to the door. “Come on, Webb.”
We leave the hotel room. I pause at the end of the hall near the elevators and sink down onto a bench. I put my head in my hands and stare at the floor, doing my best to keep my heart rate under control, but I can’t seem to calm myself.
“This is wrong,” I say quietly, not looking at Baptist. “We shouldn’t be involved in this. It’s one thing to drag the guy off the street and give him a place to stay, but another to shoot him up ourselves. Which is basically what we’re doing.”
“That’s on Cowan and Rodrick. Not us.”
“What do you think Cowan’s using that check for?” I look up at Baptist and he’s staring back at me, teeth tight together, jaw working. “Do you really want this bad enough?”
He says nothing. I don’t expect him to. I’m not sure if I have an answer to that question either. I want a movie with Tony Cowan—but do I want it this much?
Baptist sinks down onto the bench beside me and leans his head back with a sigh. We sit in silence for a minute. His knee touches mine, and I listen to the sound of him breathing, in and out. It helps center me, bring me back from my panic.
He’s a calming presence, like an ancient waterfall or a godlike statue.
“What do we do?” I ask him quietly, but I know the answer already, or at least I think I do.
Instead, he surprises me. “We can’t pretend like that night didn’t happen. We keep on making deals and running from it, but we’re not going to be able to work together if we can’t face it.”
I turn toward him, chewing on my hair. “It’s easier this way, isn’t it?”
“The first time, maybe. Not twice.”
“We promised.”
“I’m not going back on that. I don’t plan on kissing you. I don’t plan on dragging you into a dark corner and holding your hips as I brush my lips along your throat, even if there’s a part of me that wants to do it. But I’m not going to act like last night didn’t happen. You can deal with that or not.”
I blow out my hair and stare at the floor. What’s the right thing to do? Is there a right thing, or am I just so out of my depth that I’m drowning?
If I were responsible and not missing some intrinsic part of my brain that makes me do the right thing, I’d tell him about the baby.
I’d make him understand that it’s not just about our work relationship.
It’s about the future now.
Instead, I only nod.
“Last night happened, okay? It happened.”
“Good. That’s all I wanted, Webb.”
“I still don’t want to talk about it.”
“We don’t have to.” He smiles slightly and gives me a sly, sideways smile. “Although we can. I’d be happy to give you a description of everything we did, nice and slow.”
“Don’t make me regret this.” I rub my temples, warding off a headache. “I understand that us sleeping together—”
“Fucking, Webb. Raw, wet, delicious fucking.”
“Whatever. I understand that it’s complicated, but this crap with Cowan is on a whole different level. What are we going to do about that?” I nod toward the room where Rodrick’s probably getting high again under the supervision of our director.