“Did you know Brent before that night?”
“Sure. He stuck his fucking camera in my face every day. You could say we were intimate.”
The crew laughed nervously.
“Did you sense anything like this from him?” she asked.
“Nope. Not at all. I liked him, before that night.”
“Okay. Last question. How did it make you feel, seeing Brent grabbing Aubrie?”
I laughed. “Seriously? What kind of question is that?”
“Just answer.”
“It made me feel fucking angry. What did you think I’d say? Made me fucking hard?”
“Thanks, Lincoln. That’s it.”
I sighed. “Really, we’re done?”
“We’re done.”
The crew started to break down the lighting, and Brie unclipped her mic. I did the same, looking at her.
“That was painless,” I said.
“Yeah. I guess so.” She didn’t look up at me.
“Thanks for doing it.”
“No problem. I’ll see you later.”
She quickly stood up and walked out of the room. I wanted to reach out and say something, but the crew’s presence stopped me. Even though the cameras weren’t running, I still wasn’t ready to reveal that much. I wasn’t ready to reveal how much I wanted her.
How much I was beginning to need her.
“Lincoln, a word?”
I looked over at Jess, who motioned for me to follow her. With a sigh, I stood up, grabbed my cane, and followed into the other room.
For a brief second, as I crossed over the threshold, I realized that for the first time in weeks my legs didn’t feel like they weren’t about to collapse. I tucked that away in the back of my mind. It was progress.
“What’s up?” I asked her.
“I have what you wanted.”
I stared. I didn’t expect it that fast. I only saw her the night before.
“Okay. Show me.”
She held up a thumb drive. “What you want is a video. It’s on here.”
“You need to give me a little more proof than that before I transfer a fuck ton of money over to you.”
She smirked. “Good. I was beginning to think you were an idiot.”
I grinned. “Appearances can be deceiving.”
She walked back into the other room and returned a second later with a laptop. She opened it up, typed in her password, and plugged in the drive. It contained a single video file. She double clicked it.
I watched as the movie expanded. She made it full screen and turned up the laptop’s brightness setting.
We crowded around the screen. There was no sound, and the image was shaky, but unmistakable. It was a short video shot outside a popular L.A. nightclub that I recognized. Parked maybe twenty yards away was Cliff’s car.
“What am I watching here?” I asked.
“Just look.”
Annoyed, I did as I was asked. After a few seconds, two people walked across the parking lot and stopped, leaning against Cliff’s car. It was dark, and the frame shook, and it was hard to tell who they were. They began to kiss, the guy’s hands roaming around the girl’s ass.
“Are you trying to sell me shitty porn?” I asked her.
She shushed me and nodded at the screen.
I saw the girl’s face first. As they broke apart, she stepped around the car and under a streetlight. She was young and pretty, and I recognized her from some action movie that was popular a year or two ago. I couldn’t remember her name, but she was definitely a minor celebrity.
Right behind her, the guy stepped into the light, and I nearly laughed out loud. It was totally unmistakable.
The man was Cliff.
I watched as he opened the passenger side door for her and then leaned in for a second. They were probably kissing more, but I couldn’t see. He moved back out, shut her door, and then got into the driver’s side. The car pulled away a minute later, and the video stopped.
I looked at Jess. “Where did you get this?”
“Paparazzi friend of mine sold it to me. He figured it wouldn’t get much play with any of the magazines, since Cliff isn’t exactly newsworthy and her fame has plummeted lately. But I figured it might come in handy one day.”
“Great fucking coincidence. When did you get this?”
“A few months ago.”
“And you’ve just been sitting on it?”
“I don’t exactly get a lot of reasons to blackmail my boss.”
I laughed out loud. She was absolutely fucking unbelievable. She already had proof that Cliff was cheating and apparently bought it just in case she ever needed it. She either could tell the future or she was the most paranoid person in the world.
Or maybe she just knew Cliff was a colossal piece of garbage.
“Fuck, Jess. He’s cheating on my mom.”