Hard Bastard(126)

I felt in control. And that was what I needed.

Fuck Cliff. I was taking control back.





Chapter 19





Lincoln





Interview #3





“What happened the night of the charity auction, in your words?”

I glanced at Aubrie as she slowly began to recount the night.

It hadn’t been hard to convince her to do the interview. For whatever reason, as soon as I asked, she said yes. Part of me figured it was because she would take any excuse to spend time with me, but truthfully she probably just wanted to clear the air.

There was a lot of air to clear, although a huge chunk of it had to remain a secret. It didn’t matter what Cliff knew or guessed, and that Jess probably knew as much as he did. We had to maintain the illusion of the secret.

Otherwise, I didn’t know what would happen.

“It was toward the end of the night when . . . when that girl won the date with Lincoln.”

She glanced at me and I grinned innocently. It wasn’t my fault I attracted a certain kind of insane stripper.

“So what happened after that?” Jess pushed gently.

“I was feeling tired and sick and I figured I could cut out early. I wasn’t exactly an important part of the operation at that point.”

Jess nodded, seemingly accepting that very clear lie. Brie wasn’t exactly the best actress. But it was becoming obvious to me that although we all knew the truth, we were all going to pretend like we didn’t.

Because apparently, it was so fucking horrible for me to want Aubrie more than anything. It was so terrible if the sinner Based Carter was into Aubrie Evans, the perfect little science geek, straight-A student, all around stunner.

We weren’t even related. It shouldn’t have mattered.

But it did. Somehow, it did. And that’s why the secret stayed a secret no matter how badly I wanted to tear her clothes off right there, cameras be damned.

“It was late and it was dark out, but it didn’t matter. There were so many people inside, you know? I felt safe. So I headed toward my car.”

“And that’s when you saw Brent?” Jess asked.

I steeled myself for this part. I kept running what I saw through my mind, over and over, and the anger never went away. I wished I could have beaten that piece of shit even more.

“Yeah. I didn’t think anything of it at first, you know? I’d seen him around here a million times since he worked on the crew.” Aubrie shrugged. “But I guess after a second I realized that he was drunk.”

“Why was he drunk?” I cut in, directing my question at Jess.

Jess looked at me. “Probably because he drank.”

“But why?” I pressed.

“He has an alcohol problem. We offered to get him help but he turned it down.”

“So you knowingly had an alcoholic on the crew?”

Her eyes narrowed. I knew I shouldn’t push, but I couldn’t help it. “He had never been a problem before. He kept the drinking and work separate. What he did on his free time was none of my business.”

“Became your business, though. Our business, actually.”

“You want to blame this on me? Fine, go ahead, Lincoln. But can we finish this interview without you interrupting?”

I clenched my jaw. Aubrie looked at me, concerned. “Fine. Go ahead. Finish it,” I said.

Brie paused for a second, looking at me, and then turned back to Jess. “So anyway, he was drunk. I told him I was going home, but he said we should hang out. I said no, thanks and started walking away. He pressed and I said no again. That’s when he grabbed me.”

“Describe what he looked like.”

“Drunk, obviously. Sweating a little bit. His eyes were wide open, a little crazy. Honestly, he scared the hell out of me, made me uncomfortable. Even before he grabbed me, right after he started talking and I realized he was drunk.”

“Had he ever made you uncomfortable before?”

“No, not at all.”

“What happened next?”

“His hands grabbed my arm. He was being really rough and pulled me back toward him. I yelled, told him to get off me. He didn’t look like he was listening, just kept telling me to wait a minute.”

“What did you think he was going to do?”

“I didn’t know. Honestly, I had never been in a situation like that before. I was just hoping that yelling would attract some attention and scare him off.”

“It attracted attention all right,” I mumbled.

Aubrie gave me a look and then turned back to the cameras. “That’s when Lincoln showed up.”

“Were you afraid of Brent at this time?”

“Yes, I was terrified.”

“Did you think he was going to hurt you?”