She tosses her hair behind her and props her hands on her skinny hips. “He will once he hears my news. He’s going to drop you in the dirt where you belong, and we’ll ride off into the Caribbean sunset together.”
My teeth grind as anger threatens to boil over. If I don’t get away from this bitch, I’m gonna have to hurt her. I slam my foot onto the accelerator. Tires squeal as I swerve to miss a car coming out of my blind spot.
I wish I could’ve seen Buck coming and swerved to miss him. A blind spot is all I’ve got when it comes to Buck. I knew letting him close was going to torch my peace of mind all over again.
Hot tears sting my eyes.
I blink away the moisture as a weird kind of déjà vu comes over me. But I know exactly why this is so familiar. It’s like when I was in high school.
I hated fucking high school.
Buck was just about the only kid in school that didn’t call me trash at least once.
Even the other poor kids looked down on me.
To them, my momma was trash and I’ll always be just as trashy.
SEVENTEEN
I mash the power button on the remote. “I’ll be back later.”
“Son, don’t go off and do something you’ll regret.” Pops calls after me.
I just about take the screen door off the hinges as I head out front.
“I regret ever signing up for this fucking show.”
Trudi stands behind the open door of the RV, looking around it as though it’s a shield. “Now, Buck, calm down.”
I grab the handle and yank it open. “Calm down? Did you watch that fucking show you produced?”
She backs up the two steps into the interior of the bus. “You have to understand, I’m not the director. He’s the one who decides how the film we take is edited.”
“Bullshit. You had to know what you were doing.” My hands fist, and anger courses through me. “What the fuck was that?”
“It was creative license.” Trudi backs further into the RV as I climb in with her.
Landry steps in front of her. “Buck, back off.”
I glare at each of the cameramen in turn. “You. And you. And YOU.”
Rick crosses his arms. “Seriously, man, stand down.”
All three men block my path to Trudi, as if I’d actually hurt her. Would I? Fuck no, even if I’d like to wring someone’s neck for fucking my shit up with Lou. Because that’s exactly what this is going to do.
I hold my fists up, take a deep breath, exhaling slowly, shaking my fingers loose. “Okay. I’m okay. I’m—I don’t understand what I just saw. Why the fuck would a show, one I agreed to do in order to help my public image, make me look like an ass who can’t decide between two women?”
Trudi peeks around the group of men guarding her. “Oh, it wasn’t that bad.”
“Sure as fuck looked like it to me. That footage was finessed and massaged, and I was sound bited to fucking death, to the point that the world now thinks I’m engaged to fucking Arianne and screwing around on the side with Lou.”
My jaw ticks. I wait. They all look at each other. The longer they avoid eye contact, the more it drives through me that they all knew exactly how this was going to go down. Still, no one looks at me until I slam my fist through the cabinet door over the sink.
They all back up, crowding against the divider between the living area and the bedroom behind them.
My knuckles throb. “Well? Anyone want to explain this shit to me?”
Trudi pushes her way to the front, holding her hands out as though she’s trying to calm a rabid dog. “Buck, it’s all marketing. Besides, your contract allows the show to edit as it sees fit. This is the angle the director wants to play. It’s out of my hands.”
* * *
I pace the length of my room as I dial my manager.
“Buck! I was just going to call you. How’s it going down there in the other LA?”
“It’s going to shit, man. Did you see the show?”
He coughs. “Sure. Sure. I saw it. It was good.”
“Good? Have you lost your god damned mind?” My voice echoes off the walls.
“No, it’s good. Don’t worry.”
I rub the deepening crease between my eyebrows. “Exactly what is good about it?”
“Well, I just got a call from Razor Wire Productions today. Seems they want to give you the lead role. This is it, man—the big time.”
Thoughts scatter across my brain like a box of ten penny nails dropped on the shop floor, each with its sharp end pinging into me before it lands and rolls across the landscape of my predicament. Lead role. McDowell—Arianne’s father, Norman McDowell. The show and the implications of the way it was presented.