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—Isaiah—
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“Pick up, goddamn it!” I yelled as yet another attempt to call Holly went to voicemail.
I felt like a desperado, and in all honesty, that’s exactly what I was. I needed to talk to her. To make sure she was okay, because by now she surely knew about the video being leaked.
“Fuck this,” I hissed, snatching up my SUV keys despite Ned’s strict warning to stay the fuck at home during my stand-down period. I had to do something other than pace the floor.
If Holly wasn’t accepting my calls, then she would have to accept my presence. I had to talk to her—to explain and to apologize for getting her into this mess. I also vowed to myself to get her out of it. I didn’t know how yet, but I’d find a way.
The automatic gates on my property slowly opened. The freedom was short-lived thanks to the swarm of media outside my property. They surrounded my vehicle, making it impossible to escape.
“Move!” I yelled with a sweeping arm gesture. “Get out of the way!”
The sea of paps simply moved around me as I gently nosed through. Cameras were held up to all windows, each flash more blinding than the last. Gritting my teeth and wringing the steering wheel, I resisted the urge to accelerate and run all the m’fuckers down.
“Fucking move!” I yelled at the top of my lungs while holding down the horn.
Muscling my way through the relentless sea had me holding my breath the entire damn time. Once ‘free’ I gunned it down the street.
Surprise, surprise, they all jumped in cars and sped to catch up.
Tailing me through town simply wouldn’t do. That would lead them straight to Holly’s place. It was only a matter of time before they found out where she lived, but I hoped she still had that cloak of anonymity for the time being.
Cursing again when they literally ran lights to keep up with me, I rang Scout.
He answered after a few rings with his usual, “Hey, man.”
“Hey, dawg. Where you at?”
“At Holly’s,” came his cautious reply. “Where are you?”
Him being with her both settled and annoyed the piss out of me. “I was on my way ov—”
“You’re not!” he snarled.
I scoffed. “’Gon’ let me finish that sentence, brother?”
There was a brief pause before he cleared his throat. “Sorry. Yeah, go ahead.”
“As I was m’fuckin’ sayin’, I was on my way over, but I’ve got an entourage of paps lickin’ my ass.”
“Now there’s a vision,” he drawled.
Ignoring the comment, I huffed out a breath. “I need to talk to Holly.”
His tone grew wary, as if he was eyeing her while speaking to me. “I dunno, man.”
I growled impatiently as I changed lanes, hoping to lose the paps in the city. “Can you just ask her? If she doesn’t want to talk to me, then fine. But I want to hear it from her, not you.”
“Fine.” The call became muffled through the hands-free of my SUV, but I still heard Gats say, “He wants to talk to you.”
More static and bumping came through the speakers before Holly’s breathy voice filled my vehicle.
“Hey.”
“Hey, Mama. I, ah... I guess you heard, huh?”
She scoffed. “About our entirely unsolicited sex tape going viral? Yeah, I heard, and I just got fired because of it.”
My voice pitched. “You got fired?”
“Yeah,” she said thickly.
Guilt swamped my chest and anger ignited in my veins. I squeezed the fuck out of the steering wheel while grinding my teeth back and forth. “I’m so sorry, Holly. Is... is there anything I can do?”
The lack of emotion in her voice had my heart sinking. “No.”
Mercifully, she left the you’ve done enough unsaid.
I let out a heavy sigh as I rolled to a stop at the lights. “I’ve got a few days off, babe. Can we meet up sometime and talk about this?”
“No. I think it’s pretty obvious that we’re done. It was fun while it lasted, I guess.”
My spine snapped straight, and I jerked when the asshole behind me honked. “We’re not done,” I hissed, gunning it through the intersection. “Besides, the press release said we’re dating.”
“I don’t care what the fucking press release said, Isaiah. I’ve lost my job and been publicly humiliated. I literally don’t want to be within a mile radius of you, let alone show my face in public again,” Holly cried, now sobbing to catch her breath.
“I’ll fix this,” I growled, vowing it like an oath.
“You can’t.”
“I can, and I wi—”
Scout’s voice cut me off. “Hey, bro. She’s drowning her sorrows again.”
Cursing and wholeheartedly believing I’d blown my shot, I could barely focus on the traffic ahead of me. “Level with me, Gats. How’s she really doin’?”
There was a brief pause before his voice came low as if concealing his reply behind his hand. “Considering she’s drinking directly from her second bottle of wine, I’d say not great.”
The oppressive weight grew heavier on my shoulders. “Fuck!”
“Yeah, fuck. I gotta go, dude.”
“I’ll call later,” I hurried to say before he disconnected, then cursed when the call cut out.
For the first time in my life, I was at a loss over what to do. Holly getting hurt tore strips off me. I’d bounce back. The scandal would blow over just like any other, leaving me with my career and place on the team.
Hols however...
No wonder she was drinking herself into oblivion.
I gritted my teeth and wrung the steering wheel as I wove through traffic.
I’d fix this for her—I just had to figure out how.
