Finding Love's Wings (10 page)

"Layla and I started fighting again, constantly, about six months ago. Around the time we finished filming the last
Burning
movie. With the fights came long stays away from the house we lived in. Then about three months ago, she became needy, begging for me to be around more. So I went back, like an idiot, only to discover that she was using drugs."
 

He looks at me, and sadness fills his eyes. There is something behind this drug-use thing, something that pulls at his heart. While he ponders what he will say next, I vow to find out what secrets hide behind those beautiful blue eyes.
 

"This is not my mess to clean up and I refuse to argue and fight with her and her PR team about it." He looks at me. "Plus I refuse to pay out god-only-knows how much money to silence a story of this magnitude. This was one of the other reasons why we were fighting the other night. She knows that it's within my power to get this story squashed, but I told her that I refuse, and I stand firmly by that choice."

I’m beginning to sense that the love he once felt for Layla is no longer there. No doubt he cares about her; after spending five years with someone, regardless of circumstances, I would think him selfish if he didn't care at least a little.

My heart soars, warmth spreading throughout my body. If he's free of Layla, then his reasons behind the drink last night become obvious. He really does want to know me more. Well, he did before the whole Bold business came into play.

Oh for crying out loud, what the hell is my problem? I barely know this man. Yes, ok fine, I have been staring at his face and his eyes for years, feeling a connection with him that I cannot even begin to describe. A connection through pictures? Seriously? Yup, it is official: I've lost my marbles. All of them. There is not even a hint of a rattle in my brain right now.
 

I look at Tristan, who is looking at Tyson, but his eyes keep darting in my direction.
 

"Okay, but that still doesn't explain why you guys are acting so cagey," I say.

Tyson is staring straight at Tristan. Then Tyson shrugs, and I look back at Tristan.
 

"Well?" I’m losing patience.

Tristan sighs. "Cami, I'm honestly not sure I'm ready to have this conversation with you. Or with Trinity, Vincent, or anyone else for that matter. When the time comes, I'll pull everyone together and tell you all. Right now, I'm here in Tarah, waiting for the shoes to drop, and when they do, I would rather be here than in Hollywood." He takes another deep breath, and color is slowly returning to his face.

"All right, Tristan. I will respect your privacy on this, just this once. Only because it's obvious to me that whatever this is is very important to you." I make a concerted effort to let this go for now. But there's still the matter of Trinity. "Now. What are we going to do about Trinity?"

Tyson breaks the silence. "I think the best that we can do at this point is warn Trinity of what's coming. She needs to prepare for the onslaught of phone calls and issues that can arise from this story. She'll know where he is," – he nods in Tristan's direction – "but at least he can continue to be here, privately, away from prying eyes and the good old photographers.”

"Fair enough. Am I calling Trinity, or are you going to call her, Tristan?" Personally I don't really care who calls who and who does what; it just needs to be done. Now.
 

"Tristan?" Tyson prompts.
 

"I'll call her. Cami, does she know where you are?" Tristan looks at me, and I'm surprised to see that his eyes are soft and warm, almost adoring.
 

"She knows – or thinks – I'm in Tahiti. Mick and Beau, my two best friends, know I'm here in Tarah and that I have no intention of leaving anytime soon. I have my own demons to deal with for a while." Oh boy, is that ever the understatement.
 

Tristan's expression warms as he realizes that I truly have a purpose for being here. "Mick and Beau?" He raises his right eyebrow at me. If I am being honest, the innocent look on his face is pretty cute.

"Mick is my financial advisor. Beau is my money spender, personal assistant, and best friend. They will probably be coming out here sometime next week. Beau and Mick don't work for Bold, so you don't need to worry about them. Right now you just need to worry about what you're going to tell Trinity."

PART TEN

Cami is watching me intently. I get up and grab another cigarette from the pack of Camels she's left on the table. Jesus, what a mess this is turning out to be. I came here to escape Layla and all her bullshit, but that sure didn't last long. She doesn't say anything, but I gather that she knows how hard this is on me. Lighting the cigarette, I turn and head back to the chair. Cami slides the ashtray toward the chair and gives me a hesitant smile. This is not at all how I envisioned meeting someone, throwing half of my life story at her in a single hour-long conversation.

I retrieve my cell phone from my pocket and turn it on. No doubt as soon as I do this, Trinity's team is locking onto my signal so they will know exactly where it is that I'm hiding.
 

As soon as the BlackBerry loads up, I start receiving emails and missed call notifications. I'm almost tempted to listen to my voice messages.

"Apparently I'm a wanted man," I say aloud.

"Why do you say that?" Cami asks.

"One hundred and seven missed calls." I scroll down my missed call log. "And only a few are from people who truly care. The rest of them are from people that are just trying to cover their ass. Layla and her crew have consumed my call log." I frown. I didn't want this Layla mess to come before Cami, or anyone else for that matter. It makes me feel weak, as though I can't handle a situation, and I don’t want to seem weak in front of Cami; she deserves so much better, both from me and from anyone else she has to deal with. "Regardless, what is done is done." I pause and stub out my half-smoked cigarette. "It's time to call Trinity."

"Are you sure you're ready to do that? I can call her if you want me to." Cami's tone of voice is all business again, but something in her warm, steel blue-grey eyes tells me that she is trying to protect me, whether from Trinity or from Layla, I'm not entirely sure.
 

"No, Cami, this is a battle that I need to deal with." I am cut off by the ringing of Cami's cell phone. I look up as Cami frowns. Her eyebrows pull together as she pushes a button and brings the phone to her ear.
 

"Hi, Trinity."

I, of course, can't hear the other end of the conversation, and Cami seems to read my mind.
 

"Trinity, hang on for me." As she says this she brings the phone down and hits another button. "Trinity, can you hear me?"

"Yes. Why am I on speaker phone?"

"Because I don't care to have the phone to my head. Now what's going on?" Cami says.

"Well, we were finally able to pick up a signal from Tristan's cell phone," Trinity says.
 

Cami rolls her eyes. It's actually kind of comical the way the color of her eye disappears altogether. With a sly smile and a slight chuckle, she tells Trinity, "You and Mick should go into the tracking business. That didn't take very long, considering he only just turned it on. I'm assuming that you're calling me, instead of Tristan, because it was traced to the Tahiti area, where I just so happen to be, am I correct?"

Trinity laughs. "How do you know that he only just turned it on?"

"Because I'm looking right at him." She smiles at me, her steel blue eyes warm and liquid. "Ironically, he happened to step into my suite as I cut you off from our last phone call. As strange as this sounds, he bought me a drink last night with no clue who I was. So it's all worked out for the best."
 

Trinity burst out laughing. "Apparently Tahiti is the place for the wealthy-in-hiding. Good morning, Tristan."

"Hi, Trinity." My voice is deadpan. I'm not really sure how to handle the whole situation, nor how to tell Trinity about it. I guess I just have to jump into it. "Listen, Trinity, I would imagine that here at some point today or tomorrow you're going to start getting massive amounts of phone calls from our favorite little magazine."

"I had a feeling," she says as she lets out a deep sigh. "Does this have anything to do with why Layla has been blowing up my and Vincent's phones?"

Wow, Layla must be completely desperate. Either she is looking for me or trying to get Trinity to stop her story. “You got it." I almost smiled. Trinity is a true genius at what she does. "You haven't spoken with her, have you?"
 

"No, I have this rule about not fraternizing with obnoxious girlfriends, and she's top of that list," Trinity says.

"Listen, Layla was kind enough to give me some advance notice on some things that are more or less coming up to bite her in the ass. More so her than me, other than the fact that I'm going to be portrayed either as the brokenhearted lover or the idiot that should have known better. Either way is fine by me." I pause, and of course Trinity, being who she is and doing what she does, is about a mile and half ahead of me.
 

"Let me guess, she's been cheating and the paparazzi have more than enough proof to publish a story? Well, Tristan, you know damn well we'll stop this story. Or at least delay it as long as possible—"

"No!" I nearly shout. "Don't. Do not stop this story. Look, this story is going to completely destroy Layla, and I am not at all opposed to letting it happen—"

"But Tristan," she cut me off. "I cannot let her attempt to ruin you like this."

"Trinity, that is absolutely not the point." I let out a long, hard, ragged breath. I have no choice but to let this spill out all over the table. "Look, she has a very long life lesson coming at her. I want to be disassociated with her as fast as possible. Because her life over the next several months is going to be hell enough as it is."
 

I'm ready to go mad, and at this point, I need to get it all on the table. So here goes nothing.
 

"Okay here is the bottom line of what is happening. Tuesday at the premiere Layla told me that pictures of her sleeping with the producer of her current project had been leaked to
Entertainment Now
, who responded by sending her copies of the pictures. She tried to tell me that it wasn't what it looked like in the pictures. But when she showed me cell phone image copies, I'll be damned if it wasn't a goddamn orgy."
 

I pause to let it all soak in. On the other end of the line Trinity's letting loose a string of profanities no person should really have to hear. Once she quiets, I continue. "Before you start asking questions, let me finish, please." I take another deep breath. "This whole thing happened about seven or eight weeks ago, after the final wrap of the filming. I guess it was their idea of a wrap party. Many of the faces in the images are recognizable. The images are grainy cell phone images, but close enough to make out the producer, two additional actors in the movie, and several of the film crew. All in all there appeared to be nine men and Layla."

"Jesus fucking Christ!" I look up in shock at Cami. She's white as a ghost and has this almost murderous glare on her face.
 

I raise my hand and with my index finger I gesture for her to come to me. She needs to know that this is really okay. Without hesitation, she stands straight up and comes over to me, bringing her phone. I slide myself back in the chair and pat my leg. She smiles and then wiggles her way between my legs. I begin rubbing her shoulders.
 

God, her skin is soft, warm, and perfect.
 

My hand still on Cami's back, I pick up where I left off. "So then Layla surprises me by demanding that I fix her little problem. I refused and she got angry with me. She thought that I would just drop everything and do whatever it takes to keep it quiet. I did think about it for about a tenth of a second before I decided that it wasn't my mess. She made her bed and she needs to lay in it until the storm blows over. I suggested that she take the pictures to all of the men in them and ask them to cover her ass and her career. No doubt they all would have been more than willing to do so, given their own relationship statuses."

I quickly realize that Trinity needs to know all of it if she's going to be able to deal with the press. I look at Cami and silently mouth, "I'm sorry." She is instantly puzzled, cocking her head to the side and raising an eyebrow. I half smile in reassurance as I am about to drop the last bomb.
 

"Listen, guys, before you go flying off the handle at me, I had nothing to do with this. But in an attempt to get me to protect her from all of this, she told me that she is pregnant." Cami stiffens, and Trinity's gasp can be heard through the speaker phone. "Before you guys get all 'Holy shit' on me, it's not mine. The last time that she and I had any type of sexual contact was some time ago. So I know, without a doubt, that this is a result of her infidelity. Which of course leads me to believe that she has no clue who the father is, and telling me about it was no doubt an attempt to get me back and convince me to protect her."

The wave of relief that washes over Cami is palpable. She smiles tenderly at me. From her reaction I know that she is glad the secrets are out and on the table, and in a way so am I.