I dropped the sand and wrapped my arm around Ang instead.
She ducked her head against me and sighed.
“We’re not killing him.” Demetri, somehow ended up being the voice of reason. “It’s one cameo, and they sprung it on Jay last night after one of the guys, probably Jackass Andrew, had his agent pull some strings. The studio thought it would bring in more ticket sales, and since Will was already acting in the film, it made sense.”
“To them,” I spat. “But to me? It sounds like a complete nightmare. I’m fine with the rest of the guys. They’re… whatever, done with the whole scene. Hell, I keep in touch with them, send Christmas presents to their kids. But this… with Andrew. The media’s going to—”
“—do nothing.” Ang shrugged. “I mean what can they possibly say that hasn’t already been said?”
It was like the minute she said it, I recoiled because I knew there was one secret that had never leaked.
Alec nudged me.
I imagined he knew.
Both him and Demetri.
And when Zane locked eyes with me across the way, I guessed maybe our secret hadn’t been such a secret to anyone but us. Since we never talked about it, since it never hit the news, that made it not real, right?
But it had been real between us.
Too real.
“He can still find ways to hurt you, Ang.” I said hoarsely.
Her eyes widened and then fluttered closed. “Oh.”
The air felt thick with tension, heavy, even though it was cold out on the beach, and when Jay finally made his way toward us, his expression was grim, like he was about to tell us somebody had died.
“Bad news.” He sat next to Pris. The girls had been mostly silent, just offering water, gum, protein bars, whatever they could find in their purses to distract Ang from the fear. “The studio won’t budge. It’s my fault. Had I not done rewrites, forced Will into—”
“No!” I snapped. “This isn’t your fault, Jay, none of it is.”
“And here I thought you were going to put my head on a spike and stick it in the sand,” he said grimly.
I wiped my face with my hands. “It’s tomorrow, right? The cameo scene? And then they all — mainly Andrew — hop back onto planes and leave?”
“Fingers crossed,” Zane grumbled.
“Just use the buddy system.” Demetri shrugged, “Don’t leave Ang alone with the bastard, girls go to the bathroom in groups anyway, we can make sure that he doesn’t approach her in the next thirty-six hours. It won’t be hard. Besides, it’s not like he blends in.”
As if to prove the point, Andrew was a blur back on the beach; his tats stuck out beneath his loose tank.
“He should join the mafia,” Zane mused. “Kid looks like he’s seen things.”
“Kid.” I snorted. “He’s my age.”
All eyes turned to me again, and Zane laughed. “Yeah well, you don’t look as old as you used to, old man.”
I gave him the finger.
“Is that a hickey?” Demetri pointed at my neck.
“All right, enough of that, kids.” I emphasized kids and everyone burst into laughter. I could have sworn I felt Andrew’s intense gaze at my back.
Years ago, he had been jealous of my career.
And now I had new things for him to be jealous of.
And they were surrounding me as he stared.
Friends.
And he’d done nothing but burn bridges with every last one of them.
I LOST A part of my calm in the reflection of Andrew’s gaze, he didn’t stare at me like he wanted to part ways as friends.
He stared at me like I’d stolen something from him.
And he wanted it back.
I shivered again.
Too many memories surfaced, too many things I’d dealt with and locked away, because dealing with them once was painful enough. Reliving the past wasn’t exactly a hobby of mine, nor would it be to anyone who dealt with what I’d dealt with.
Hours after the group sat on the beach, surrounding me, flanking every side like my own private security detail, even going as far as to threaten death to anyone who looked our way — I was finally ready to shoot another scene.
With Will.
The rest of his bandmates had arrived.
They didn’t have to be on set.
But they were.
And it was suddenly too much, the curious stares, the sickness in the pit of my stomach that they were filled with judgment rather than grace.
“All right,” Jay’s evil eye hit every single person staring at us before he looked back to Will and his position in front of me like a shield. “Do me a favor, guys.”
Will tilted his head, his lips pressed in a thin line. He leaned forward his voice low. “You nail this scene, but not for me, not for the rest of the crew, nail this scene for you. You can’t beat this… thing.” He sighed. “There will always be monsters in this world — the only way to fight them is to make sure they know that in the end, they’ll never win.”