As soon as I locked the door behind him, I was ready to run. If he’d found me, there would be others. But that wasn’t my biggest problem. There were nude pictures of me online.
I went to the back and grabbed my stuff. I had to get out of there, find out what was going on, and figure out a way to fix it. If that was even possible.
Before I left the store, my phone rang. Ready to ignore the call, I fished my phone out and checked the screen. My mom. She just left and had no reason to call. Unless…
“Is Dad okay?”
“Dad?” Mom asked, clearly confused. “Of course. I’m calling to ask you why there was a man at home asking questions about your ex-boyfriend. That Patrick guy. The reporter said something about pictures of you online. What happened, Tara?”
I sighed. “I don’t know, Mom. One of the customers that was here when you left was a reporter also. Asked me a lot of questions and said Patrick leaked nude pictures of me online.”
“Why would he do something like that? Your relationship is long over and you aren’t anyone important now.”
Leave it to my mom to put things so succinctly.
“I don’t know. That’s what I’m going to find out.”
“Okay, well, be careful. When Dad and I left there were more cars pulling up. It seems they know where you live.”
Shit.
“Thanks, Mom. I’m sorry you guys are dealing with this.”
“We’ll figure it out, Tara.”
I hung up and felt like someone was watching me. I knew that was crazy since you couldn’t see the office from the outside, but my privacy was being invaded. When I lived in California, no one cared. I was in a few movies, but so was everyone else who lived out there. I was no big deal, and certainly not someone with reporters or paparazzi following them.
But reporters in Winterville? The sleepy little town near where I grew up? At my work? At my home? Harassing my parents?
It was not cool.
I turned off all the lights and ducked out the back door. No one was in the parking lot so I rushed to my car and left, keeping an eye on my mirrors to make sure I wasn’t being followed. Not that it mattered. They already knew where I lived and worked and had apparently seen me naked.
I needed sugar.
I parked in front of SkinnyCakes and walked across the parking lot, hoping my friend, Abby Bentley, wasn’t too busy.
“Welcome to SkinnyCakes!” she said as I entered, definitely out of habit. “Oh, hey!” she added when she looked my way and realized it was me.
“Hey Abby. Do you have coffee? And something delicious? I need sugar.”
Abby laughed. “Of course. Come sit and you can tell us what’s going on.”
“Us?” I asked, finally picking up on the fact that she was talking to someone when I walked in. Someone with wavy brown hair, as many curves as I had, and a penchant for lying.
Olivia Brooks. No, Humphrey.
“Hi Tara,” Olivia said, turning on her stool to face me. She gave me a sad smile, but I didn’t feel the need to return it. We’d been playing nice ever since Abby re-introduced us, but I’d had more than I could handle, and being nice to Olivia was not in the cards at that moment.
“Olivia,” I grumbled.
Abby put my desserts on a plate and set it in front of the stool next to Olivia. I really didn’t want to sit down. There was no way in hell I was going to spill my guts with her sitting there. She’d just take the information and use it against me.
How, I had no idea. It couldn’t get much worse. But if anyone could make my life worse, it was definitely Olivia.
“I think I’ll just take this to go instead,” I told Abby when she set a cup of coffee next to the plate. “I need a few minutes to myself.”
“Are you sure?” Abby asked, clearly not picking up on the animosity between Olivia and I. But Olivia knew exactly why I wasn’t staying. I could see it in her brown eyes and the slump of her shoulders. Why she thought we would be friends again, or wanted to, was beyond me. I wasn’t worried about her though. I needed to get my own shit straight, not obsess over Olivia’s precious feelings.
I looked into Abby’s kind green eyes and forced a smile. “I’m sure. Do you mind if I hang out at your place for a bit though? I don’t really want to go home.”
Abby shook her head. “Of course not. When I close I’ll bring dinner.” She bagged my snacks and poured my coffee into a to-go cup and handed both over with a smile.
“Thanks, Abs. I’ll see you later.”
Abby smiled, but I knew she was worried. Her eyebrows dipped in the center when she was trying not to frown. She knew something was up. I was just glad she was willing to let it go for the time being.
I let myself into Abby’s apartment and kicked the door closed behind me. She’d become a lifeline for me since I moved. Since she and Graham, her amazing boyfriend, got together, she’d given me a key and told me to stay whenever I wanted. It was nice to have a place to go when I needed a break from my parents.
I went straight to the bedroom where Abby kept her computer. I grabbed it and headed back to the living room. I opened a bottle of wine and turned the laptop on. With a very full glass, and no intention of going home before dawn, I typed my own name into the search engine and waited.
It didn’t take long for millions of posts to be found. I clicked on the first one. It was an article about the leak, not the actual leak. I still didn’t know what pictures had been posted. Then I remembered the article from the morning with my name in it.
I searched for Patrick’s name again and found the article I’d been reading at lunch. I scrolled through until I found my name.
Patrick Williams’ ex, Tara Fisher, fell off the radar of Hollywood when Patrick became a household name. Rumors surrounded the couple for months following their break-up but neither confirmed or denied any of them. Now, more rumors are circulating as pictures of the actress were leaked online. Some rumors think it was the actress herself sharing the pictures and trying to get her career started up again with her ties to the now-famous director. Others believe it was Williams, but the motivation behind him sharing the pictures is unclear. What is clear is that Ms. Fisher no longer is afraid to show some skin.
I gasped. They thought I would do that! That I would share my own naked pictures. Why?
“I gotta see these pictures,” I muttered aloud, searching for my name again.
The third link was the actual leak. I waited for the pictures to load and knew immediately one bottle of wine was not going to be enough.
Abby walked in a few hours later. I nearly kissed her when I saw bags of food from Thai This and more wine.
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on now?”
I nodded and led her to the couch. The article was still up. I set the computer on her lap and hit the keyboard to wake it up. She gave me a questioning look then turned back to the computer.
“Is that you?” Abby asked, gasping when she saw the photo.
I sat back and sipped my wine. “Yep.”
“Is this real?”
“Mmm hmm.” More wine.
“Who took these?”
I huffed a laugh. “My ex. He thought it would be hot for us to take pictures of each other before sex one night. Too bad mine are the only ones that made it online.”
“Do you really think he’s the one who leaked these?”
I laughed mirthlessly. “Who else would have? It’s not like they were taken in a studio and the photographer could have published them.”
“Why would he do this?”
“How the hell do I know, Abby! I guess I shouldn’t be surprised though. The asshole thought it was okay to cheat on me and was perfectly okay with leaving me when someone better came along. He was probably having money trouble and decided to sell the nude photos he had of his barely b-list ex-girlfriend!”
“I’m sorry, Tara,” Abby said, sounding contrite. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”
I waved off her concerns. “It’s fine. You didn’t upset me. That stupid son of a bitch did.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to make him pay.”
Abby sighed. “How are you going to do that?”
I shrugged. “I haven’t figured that out yet, but I have to do something. I can’t let him get away with this.”
“I don’t understand how someone could publish these without your permission. Didn’t you tell me people couldn’t publish pictures of you without you saying it was okay?”
I laughed mirthlessly. “Sure. Reputable places. But bottom feeders like these sites don’t care. To them, if more people complain, they’re doing better. They love shit like this.”
“Ruining people’s lives?”
I shrugged again. “To them it’s entertainment. There is no person behind that photo. It’s just something that will bring them visitors and make them more money from their advertisers.”
“I still think it’s wrong. Can you report them or something?”
I shook my head. “It’s not worth it. At this point, the pictures aren’t just at this site. They’re all over. I’ve spent the last few hours looking for them. All the tabloids have them posted on their sites. With the black lines, of course, because they’re ‘reputable’ places. I can only imagine the number of porn sites that have already picked the pictures up. All they have to do is download the photos, change the information attached to it, and upload it again and I’ll never find it. They won’t use my name, but they’ll use my face. And all my other parts.”
Abby shuddered. “It’s so creepy. I don’t know how you ever lived this life.”
“I didn’t have this happen when I was in Hollywood. I was no one. Which is why the whole thing is so confusing. I don’t know what Patrick’s getting out of this. I’m nobody, even less of a nobody than I was before. Why? Why does he care? The only thing I found out in all my digging is that he’s shooting his next movie here. It came out this afternoon that Winterville is the small town that was chosen for the shoot.”
“Really?” Abby squeaked. “He’s shooting a movie in Winterville?”
I rolled my eyes at her. She was clearly more excited about the prospect than I was. “Yes. But it’s only going to mean aggravation. Roads will be closed, all the hotels will be booked, it’ll be a mess of paparazzi. Trust me, this isn’t a good thing.”
Abby sobered and considered what I said. I knew she wasn’t done. She just had to figure out a new way to attack the problem.
“Maybe he leaked the photos because you live here. A little added drama for the upcoming movie. Real life drama.”
I sighed but knew she was right. That was so Patrick. Anything for his career. I knew that well. “Dammit. I bet that’s exactly what he did.”
“This is good though. He’ll be here. You can get your revenge on him when he’s in town.”
A dangerous thought filled my head. It was perfect. I’d have the chance to ruin him. To do to him exactly what he did to me. To show all of Hollywood exactly who he was.
“The only problem is I don’t have any sort of clearance. They keep those things tight. I could try to get on as an extra, but the extras don’t interact with the director or the actors.”
“What about an interview or something? Get an entertainment channel to do an exclusive with both of you. Promise them some kind of drama. Maybe not what you’ve got in mind for him, but something.”
It was the perfect angle. Exactly what they looked for. The failed actress. The successful director ex. And the scandal that surrounds them as he travels to her town for his new movie.
I could see them salivating over it.
I just had to find a way to convince Patrick it would be good for his career. Make him think it was his idea. After all, he was the one of the two of us who was still famous. The one that would be the real draw to the interview. I had no doubt he’d make sure I was well aware of that.
And it would only make taking him down that much better. He’d never even see it coming.
I just had to figure out how to make it happen.