Page 107 of Anyone But the Superstar

‘I know.’ He merges onto an exit ramp. ‘Which is why you’re going to give me a raise and let me hire an assistant.’

‘Whatever you want…’ I trail off, noticing our surroundings. ‘This isn’t the way to the studio.’

With a smile much less grim than before, he maneuvers through the slower airport traffic.

‘Here.’ Amanda leans forward, handing me a first-class ticket to New York. ‘Tell her I’m sorry, will you?’

‘Yeah.’ My head whips back as Jack pulls to a stop at passenger drop-off. ‘But not before I do.’

27

FELIX

I never imagined it would be so hard to apologize.

Not that I thought it would be easy. Or that I’d be forgiven. I mean, if I were Elizabeth, I’d nut kick me at first sight before telling me to fuck off.

‘Camilla dear, I’m so glad you could make it.’ Elizabeth’s voice, stiff and lilting, filters through the cracked-open secret door built between the Moore brothers’ offices.

The door I’m standing behind, wedged in between the brother who punched me and the brother who thought Mike Hunt a good name for a hairless cat.

The brothers who have denied me the opportunity to beg for forgiveness since I landed in New York an hour ago.

‘Elizabeth.’ Camilla’s surprise is quickly followed by two loud air kisses.

‘I knew the secret door would come in handy,’ Chase whispers.

Thomas doesn’t respond. He doesn’t have to. He shuts his younger brother upandwipes the satisfied expression off his face with a single raised eyebrow.

I make note to try and imitate it if I ever play a mafia boss.

Before Jack left me at the airport, he said a car would be waiting for me when I landed in New York. That it would take me where I needed to go. That it was all part of the plan. Not having time to ask questions, I ran full speed through the airport to make my last-minute flight, hopeful that the plan Jack mentioned was Elizabeth’s.

In fact, I was so hopeful, I didn’t even care about missing my call time. Or that Ron was going to have the one more mistake he needed to officially place me on his blacklist. Not wasting a moment, I spent the entire five-hour flight rehearsing ways to apologize to Elizabeth for the awful things I’d said and almost believed. To find the words to encourage her to introduce herself to her father and sister. To help her realize how lucky they would be to have her in their lives. How lucky I would be if she gave me another chance.

I may have overheard the flight attendants muttering that I was either practicing for a movie or had cracked under the recent tabloid stories.

Landing, my hope was further bolstered by the chauffeur who met me at the arrival gate holding a sign withJohnny Douchebagscrawled across in black marker.

However, when I was driven into a basement garage and escorted by security up a private elevator only to be deposited into a chair situated in front of a large desk which Thomas Moore sat behind, all hope met a quick and violent death.

After his secretary, part of the office escort crew, mentioned Chase Moore’s imminent arrival, Thomas and I waited – alone – in tense silence.

Me noting how, despite being dressed in an impeccably tailored three-piece suit, the eldest Moore child looked no less savage than he had while swinging his fist while wearing asequined kitty-cat t-shirt. Him, probably debating the various places he could hide my body.

So when Chase finally waltzed in wearing a smile and Mike Hunt strapped to his chest, I felt something akin to relief. Which then dissipated when the younger Moore decided to bypass my outstretched hand and instead greeted me with a hard, passive-aggressive slap/punch on my back, followed by Mike’s complete refusal to even acknowledge my presence.

It was the cat’s silent treatment that truly hurt.

Now out of his carrier, Mike’s been grooming his left testicle for the last five minutes.

Between the flight, navigating intense animosity from two polar opposite brothers, being rejected by a hairless pussy and now hearing Elizabeth’s and then Camilla’s voice next door, I have lived an entire lifetime of emotions in the span of six hours.

Ignoring the two men who want to maim if not kill me, I lean forward toward the bookcase-camouflaged door to better hear the conversation happening in Chase’s neighboring office.

‘What an unexpected surprise.’ Camilla’s over-annunciated syllables grate on my nerves. ‘I didn’t know youworkedat Moore’s.’ She says the word like it’s beneath her.

‘It is my family’s company, after all.’ Elizabeth sounds unaffected by the condescension.

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