Relentless (Relentless #1) (6 page)

My breath caught in my throat. Jaxon knew about the baby and I hadn’t told him
.
I should have taken the test with me, but I panicked and shoved it into the closet when I heard him outside in the hallway. Why did I leave instead of talking to him first?

I fucked up and he would never forgive me. Sure, the schedule needed to be addressed, but this could have waited. I knew that; it was just my excuse to push him further away and not accept what was happening. I
should
have pulled Jax away for a few hours and told him. I
should
have waited for him to take the test at all.

I’m a fucking idiot.

Five minutes later we pulled up to the theater and Zac looked at me.

“Are you ready to go look pretty?”

I winced. “Hell, Zac. What am I, a piece of fucking meat?”

“I wouldn’t have brought you if I didn’t want a hot date.”

“Fuck this. I’ll have the driver take me home. I’m not doing this. I’ve done my part.”

“If you do that I won’t approve the production schedule. I’m not sure why you’re so set on it, but I’ll make sure it’s never pushed through if you don’t get out of this car on my arm. So get out of the fucking car, Violet.”

I nodded once and he opened the door. He extended his hand to help me out of the car, and he whispered menacingly, “Smile.”

Plastering a fake smile on my face, I climbed out of the car. He tucked my arm into his and walked down the line of cameras. I tried walking through quickly, but he kept pulling me back to speak to reporter after reporter. Zac pulled me into his side to pose for pictures. It took everything I had not to throw up on his shoes. By the time we made it into the entryway of the ballroom I wanted to scream.

As soon as we made it out of the sight of the press, I shrugged his arm off mine. “You are such a pig.”

“I don’t care what you think of me, I just want to sell tickets to my movies and right now you are the way to do that.”

He pulled me down a side hallway, further away from somewhere someone might stumble upon us, “Your pretty little face will sell tickets, and I don’t really care how I have to get it out there.” He gripped my face in his hands tightly.

“Get your hands off me!” I screeched knocking his hands back.

“You’re going into that ballroom and you will play nice, or I’ll make your life a living hell, Violet. The production schedule will be the least of your concerns,” he hissed.

I turned away and started towards the ballroom. Pausing, I looked over my shoulder at him, “Let’s get this over with. I don’t know what you think you have on me other than the fact that I want to finish this movie sometime this year, but I’ll play nice for now. If you ever try to blackmail me again, I’ll call your daddy. Remember Zac, I know who’s actually in charge and I work for him, not you. You won’t push me around like you do everyone else, Holt. I’ll cut you at the knees if you fuck with me and mine. You’ve got thirty minutes to show me off, and then I’m out the fucking door.”

Zac blanched. He understood I would talk to his father with no hesitation if he stepped one more toe out of line. We both knew the only reason he had this job was because his dad owned the company. His father and I worked together early on in my career, something that Zac had probably forgotten. I wasn’t about to let this jackass push me around, and I certainly wouldn’t let him parade me around in front of the cameras. Exploiting my hatred of the media was shameless and despicable. If his mission tonight was to talk me into more exposure, he would be disappointed.

I tried calling Jaxon as soon as I sat down in the car, but it went straight to voicemail. It had been two and a half hours since he had texted me. As hard as I tried, I hadn’t been able to get out of there any faster. Every time I turned around someone else was trying to talk to me. Zac signed the paperwork confirming the production schedule and emailed the contract to his dad so it would be set in stone. I didn’t trust him not to change it later.

Two minutes later I called Jaxon again. I wanted to send him a text to see where he was, but I didn’t know if it was a good idea or not. He probably wouldn’t answer and if he thought I was coming he might try to avoid me. It terrified me to say the words out loud, but he should have heard about the pregnancy from me. Admitting how bad I screwed up to myself was one thing, but explaining to Jaxon was another thing altogether. His anger was palpable from the text message he sent me.

I shot a text to Stephen to see if he was okay and apologize for not checking in sooner. He didn’t text me back either, so he was probably pissed off at me too. This night was going to be fucking awesome. I needed my best friend right now; all I wanted was to go hide under the covers and pretend this day hadn’t happened.

What if he had told Stephen?

As the car pulled up to the driveway, I braced myself for the worst. My hands trembled as I opened the door, not willing to wait the extra thirty seconds for the driver to get it for me.

I ducked into several rooms searching for Jax, but he wasn’t anywhere I checked. The guys sat sprawled out on the couches in the living room watching TV, and I glanced in to see if he was with them.

“Have any of you guys seen Jax? I need to talk to him.”

Brad answered without looking up from the television. “He’s in the backyard. I wouldn’t go out there though; he’s in a pissy mood.”

As he finished he glanced up at me. He did a double take and his wolf whistle caught the attention of the other guys, “You look hot, Montgomery. Did we miss something exciting?”

“Just taking care of something and had to get dressed up to do it,” I said through clenched teeth.

I ran off towards the backyard before they could say anything else. It took me a minute to find him in the dark, but as I walked closer, he sat in the spot where we’d had our first onscreen fight. It was kind of fitting that we would have our first real fight there too. As I walked closer, the smell of vodka hit me before I saw the bottle clutched in his hand.

“Are you too drunk to answer a phone, Jaxon? I tried calling you as soon as I could.”

His head snapped up at my voice, apparently he hadn’t heard the door slam shut behind me. His eyes were cold and empty. To see him so unhinged sent a chill up my spine; Jax had never looked at me like that before. For one split second I was scared of him.

“That’s nice of you to call me.”

The venom and accusation in his voice was piercing, but his attitude and need to get drunk made me mad too. I didn’t plan on sitting back and letting him make me feel even worse than I already did. There was plenty of blame to go round if he wanted to fight this out.

“I took the test and freaked the fuck out, okay? I’m sorry I didn’t handle it like an adult. I spent the evening with a jackass trying to make this easier on everyone.” He stared past me with no reaction. “What the fuck, Jax? Can you even look at me or are you too drunk?”

“I’m sorry, I’m a little pissed off that my ‘girlfriend’ is knocked up and wasn’t planning on telling me about it. Just wondering when, how,
or fuck
, even when this happened. I was enjoying my youth, and if the baby is mine then I can fucking kiss it goodbye.

My mouth dropped open, and I stood there speechless. Getting knocked up wasn’t exactly my fault; it takes two people for it to happen. Jaxon had never even raised his voice to me, so to hear him basically call me a whore hurt more than I expected.

“You’re almost thirty Jax. Grow the fuck up.”

My chest ached as I realized I never expected it to be this bad. I should have kept him at arm’s length. He was hurting me like every other man in my life had before him; getting attached and opening up was a huge mistake. Jaxon Garrett was just another mistake in the long line of men that wanted to hurt me any way possible.

I took a step back and tried to figure out what to do next. He didn’t answer and his gaze never moved from the ground in front of him.

“You know what, Jax? We need to take a step back. This happened too fast.
We
happened too fast. Don’t worry about anything; you can enjoy your youth. Just pretend you didn’t find the test and I’ll pretend I never fucked you.”

His eyes met mine and I sucked in a breath. The beautiful, expressive green eyes I loved so much were gone. Jaxon had never been so cold and distant. This wasn’t the man I had spent the last few months getting to know.

“Were you even going to tell me about the baby? You ran off the first chance that you got without saying a damn word. Fuck! You’re still running. I’m watching you back away from me right now.”

His hands tightened on the arms of the chair until I thought they might snap under the pressure of his grasp. Fear spiked in my throat again as I watched his knuckles turn white. I blanched and stumbled back a few steps. Did he really think I would keep the baby from him? It was another punch in the gut as I listened to him describe the person he thought I was.

“I was trying to take care of our careers before our mistake tanked them. I did damage control to keep everyone from finding out our business. My business. I tried to protect you. If you don’t understand that, then whatever, that’s on you. Conveniently, you seem to have forgotten that I told you we needed to talk about something important before I left this morning. And I never said
when
I would be back. Is it the alcohol screwing with your head or were you always this mean and manipulative and I never realized it because I was too blinded by the façade you put up?”

“You fucking left, Violet!” he yelled. “You knew and you left! And you lied about seeing Laura. She showed up on set less than an hour after you left looking for you. That’s how I found out there was something wrong. Don’t you get it? I know you better than you think. I don’t understand how you’re protecting me, but stop.”

His hands raked though his hair. “How in the hell did it happen anyway? We always used a condom. Are you sure it’s even mine?”

I had been upset before, but I also knew I had made mistakes and I wanted to own up to them. He acted like he had no part in the situation, and this was the second time he’d asked if he was the father. That man was not an innocent bystander, and I wanted to make sure he knew it.

“Yes, the baby is yours, you fucking asshole. I didn’t slip and fall on your penis, Jaxon. This shit takes two people. You know I don’t sleep around. How dare you call me a fucking whore.”

“I just needed to make sure you weren’t lying to me again. You seem to be making it a habit.”

The sound of my hand striking his face echoed throughout the backyard. I turned away quickly so he couldn’t see the tears streaming down my face. He wouldn’t get the satisfaction of seeing me cry. He called out from behind me, but I kept running.

“Violet!” he called out again, sounding panicked. “I’m so sorry. Stop please, let’s talk about this and I’ll stop being an asshole.”

He tried to get up to follow me, but the vodka made him slow and clumsy. I slammed the glass doors as I stormed into the house. How stupid could I be to believe I could trust him to be there for me or the baby? I called out to the living room as I passed by.

“Let everyone know we have an early call time at the beach tomorrow.”

Groans went up behind me. Sick as it was, I felt just a little better by their misery.

I climbed into the waitingcar and told the driver to tak
e
m
e
home. The privacy glass divided me from the driver. Pulling up my phone, I searched through my contacts quickly. I called the one person I needed right this second. She answered on the second ring.

“Magnolia, I need you,” I said through sobs that consumed my entire body. I had done so well waiting until Jaxon couldn’t see or hear me, but I was done being strong.

“Vi, what’s wrong?”

“Just come,” I whispered.

“I’ll be there as soon as I can. Vi? Whatever it is, we’ll figure it out.”

Stephen wasn’t at the house when I got there. It was further proof he was pissed off at me too. What kind of awful person doesn’t check on her best friend after he had a head injury? I deserved his anger.

I am an awful judge of character. The three men I had fallen in love with had royally screwed me over. Looking around, I realized I was in this house all by myself because I would never find someone to spend my life with. What good was success if I didn’t have anyone to share it with? I sat down on the couch and curled up in a blanket trying to comfort myself. I didn’t bother wiping the tears from my eyes as they fell. After a few minutes of sitting in the dark, I decided to change clothes. My pity party lasted long enough for me to go take a shower and throw on pajamas.

There was a soft knock on the door. As soon as I cracked it open, my little sister burst through and wrapped me up in her arms. Magnolia Taylor Montgomery hugged me close and let me cry on her shoulder. The tears for my ruined relationship with Jaxon, my pregnancy, my fight with Stephen and everything else that had happened in the past year were a huge release I needed.

Her light brown hair was damp in places from my tears. I stood back and took in her concerned brown eyes. She watched to make sure I wouldn’t break down again before moving us to the couch.

“I would say let’s drink and forget about everything, but we can’t do that for the next seven or eight months,” she joked. “Too soon?”

“Taylor,” I whined.

“Joking! I’m just joking!” she waived me off. “Vi, I think you’re scared. Sure you are stressed the hell out too, but this is a big thing. You’re allowed to be freaked out and ready to run. The pregnancy is a wonderful thing, but you aren’t ready to see that yet. I can’t wait to be an aunt.” She paused for a minute. “Wait? You said Jaxon Garrett? Wasn’t there some kind of scandal about him? Some girl duped him into believing she was pregnant with his kid. If I remember right, she had been sleeping with half of Australia behind his back, including his twin brother. He was willing to marry her.”

“I never heard about that,” I said quietly, staring down at my hands.

“There are always two sides to every story, sis. I know he said some pretty fucked up things, but even if the media only got half the story right, he has a huge reason to be scared. It doesn’t excuse how he reacted, but maybe you shouldn’t give up on him yet. You should have told him as soon as you found out and that’s part of the reason you feel so shitty about the whole situation.”

I stared at my sister. She had always been good at reading my mind, but tonight she was on a role. Her attitude about men was typically that they were awful and you shouldn’t trust them, but tonight she preached the exact opposite. She was going soft on me now of all times that I needed her to be a hard ass.

My anger wasn’t far from the surface, but her words made me step back and think. If Jaxon had gone through that, he really could be terrified and lashing out because he’s scared of getting hurt again. I clutched the pillow to my chest. “Taylor, even if he is scared, he hurt me. It reminded me of Aaron. I won’t ever let someone rip me to pieces again while I sit back and do nothing. I’m not sure I can ever forget what he said.”

She hugged me close and ran a reassuring hand down my head. “No one said you had to, honey.”

Too exhausted to move from the couch after my talk with Taylor, I had covered up with a blanket and curled up while she went to the guest room. Stephen finally showed up around four in the morning. He tried to be quiet as he walked through the living room, but his foot caught on the coffee table as he walked by. I reached up and flicked on the lamp. He looked down at me sheepishly. When he saw my red, puffy eyes he sat down next to me.

“So your day was as bad as mine huh?” he asked.

“I’m sorry I didn’t call you earlier. I’m a shitty friend. You should get rid of me.”

“I’m sorry I pouted.”

“I know a text wasn’t enough, but I’m dealing with some stuff,” my voice shook and tears rolled down my cheeks again. I dug my face into Stephen’s shoulder as I sobbed.

“Hey, calm down. I was upset before, but not because you didn’t call and check on me. I’m fine, really. It‘s just a bump. I was being stupid.”

He stroked my hair softly as I cried. We sat there for a few minutes while I tried to pull it together. All I wanted was to go back twelve hours and change how I handled everything.

“Can we talk about it tomorrow? I need to calm down and get some sleep. If I tell you about it now, I’ll just start crying again. Tomorrow’s going to be a long day and I already know it’s going to suck.”

“Sure. Come on.”

“We’ve been so disconnected lately.”

“I agree. For some reason I feel like this movie is going to change everything for us.”

I followed him up to his room and climbed into his bed. He stripped down to his boxers and slid in next to me. My head rested on his chest and his arms wrapped around me; just having him near helped sooth me. We needed to talk, but it could wait until the morning.

No one would believe we’re just friends if they saw us like this, but Stephen and I had never once tried to push our friendship into something it wasn’t. I loved him like a brother, nothing more. The sound of his even breathing and the comforting support of his arms lulled me to sleep within minutes of lying down.