Page 125 of Falling Into Forever
He lifts the gun, and I’m quick to cover my ears before he shoots at the pictures on the wall. White-hot fury sizzles and cracks in my veins. He shot at a photo of Poppy this time.
“It doesn’t matter,” he says, sliding down the wall. He bends his knees and rests his forearms on them. The gun is pointed carelessly at me. “All the clients are gone. There’s nothing left to sell. You let every client walk free.”
“How much, Trent?”
“One point one,” he says like it’s twenty bucks.
“One point one million?” I clarify.
He shrugs, and it brings the gun up an inch. I’m painfully aware that if it goes off, I’m dead.
“I didn’t mean to party again.”
“You didn’t mean to snort a line of coke? Explain that to me,” I say dryly while mentally counting the minutes away.
How long will it take for the police to arrive?
“Brendan Lake got that role that should have been mine. I worked hard for that role. It should have been mine.”
My heart sits heavy in my chest because Trent always has an excuse. But this time he’s right. He did work hard for that role, and if Brendan weren’t a Lake, Trent would have gotten it. Still, losing a role doesn’t mean you snort your life away.
“Then I lost the next role too. You were working with that football player at the time. You didn’t even notice.”
“You can’t blame me for your fall, Trent. I was building a future for our family. You could have worked in the office with me. You could have pulled your weight, but you weren’t ready to give up the spotlight even if the spotlight turned on you years ago.”
The gun fires, and it comes dangerously close to my foot this time, but he doesn’t flinch. Is he even aware that he almost fucking shot me?
Where are the police?
Sweat trickles down my spine as reality hits me. What if I never see Saylor again? I promised her I was coming back. I promised her.
“Trent,” I say through clenched teeth. “I promised Saylor I was coming back. I never break my promises. If you make a liar out of me, so help me God, I will haunt you the rest of your goddamn days.”
“Good thing my days are numbered then,” he laughs darkly.
A flash of movement behind him draws my attention, and intrinsically I know I’m supposed to keep him talking. “What about Olivia? She’s barely twenty, Trent. How did she get wrapped up in this?”
He scoffs and waves the gun like a Fourth of July sparkler. “She’s so fucking dumb,” he slurs. “I told her this was all your plan to get her face out there and that if she played it perfectly, movie roles would roll on in. But she didn’t like my Poppy story so she tucked tail. She’s home in Ohio or Nebraska or some shit.”
“So it’s not only your family’s lives you didn’t mind ruining?”
His lips curl into a sneer. “We were never family, Dante.”
“Is that why you’re doing this then? What the fuck did I ever do to you? What do you think you’ll get out of this?”
“I was supposed to get three million dollars,” he roars. “If you’d just sold when I told you to, I wouldn’t have had to do it, but no. You and your fucking high horse.”
“Three million from who?” My molars ache from clenching them so hard.
“They said all I had to do was cause a scandal so big that all your clients left you.” His dark laughter sends a shiver down my spine. “Can you believe I finally did something right, and they went back on their word? They gave me nothing, Dante. Nothing. They’re just like you.”
“Who, Trent? Who are you talking about?”
The gun dangles from his finger. “Playmore,” he says with a careless shrug.
He lifts his dark, unfocused gaze to mine. The door beside him snaps against the wall as men in black raid the room, and a final shot rings out. Trent’s horror-stricken face slowly fades until everything goes black.
CHAPTER34
