Once we’re alone she closes the door and then turns to me, tears streaming down her face. I quickly cross the room and wrap my arms around her in an attempt to comfort her.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
She sniffs. “People know about us, Tyke.”
My breath catches as I pull back from her so I can see her face. “Who?”
“Kimmy saw us go into my cottage together earlier today, but she swore she wouldn’t tell anyone.”
I furrow my brow. “Do you trust her?”
Frannie shrugs. “I don’t know. I think so. Gah! I’m not sure because when I checked my email today I got this.”
She walks over to her laptop and shows me the email she received.
My eyes hone in on the video and my hands begin to shake as anger washes through me. “Is that what I think it is?”
She nods. “It’s us in the woods. Someone filmed us, Tyke. What are we going to do? If this gets out not only will I lose my job, but the press will know all about you coming to rehab.”
I scrub my hand down my face. “I couldn’t give two shits about my reputation, Frannie. It’s you I’m worried about. I know how much this job means to you.”
I sigh. She’ll be so screwed if this gets back to Dr. Shepherd. As much as I want to run out there and threaten bodily hard to each and every person here to make them confess, I know I can’t do that. I have to keep my cool and figure out whatever this sick fuck wants.
“Did you reply to this?” I ask.
“Yes. I haven’t heard back though.”
I thread my fingers behind my head and stare up at the ceiling in attempt to keep my cool. “I want to kill them. I want to beat the shit out of whoever did this. They’ve got some fucking balls.”
Frannie grabs the hem of my T-shirt. “I know exactly how you feel. I’m beyond pissed—and scared—but we can’t lose our heads. We have to be smart about this. They can ruin everything with a few clicks of a button.”
She’s right. Another media scene portraying Black Falcon in a negative light would probably push Riff over the edge. He’s pissed at me enough already.
Even though I couldn’t give a fuck if people saw another sex tape of me, knowing the world was able to see that private moment shared between Frannie and me makes me sick to my very core. I want that look in her eyes when she comes to only be mine. I don’t want to share that part of her with the rest of the world.
I take a deep breath and try to relax my shoulders. “Can you forward me this email? If they respond, send it to me immediately so we can figure this out together. Okay?”
She stares up at me with tears in her blue eyes. “Okay.”
I lean over her desk and write my email address on a Post-it note. I hand her the paper. “I mean it. We’re in this together. I’m not going to let anything bad happen to you.”
I pull her to my chest and hold her in my arms. I know she feels lost without her twin, but I want her to know that she doesn’t have to feel so lonely anymore because she has me. I’ll be there for her.
“I Write Sins Not Tragedies” – Panic At the Disco
It’s been five days since I replied to my blackmailer and still haven’t received any word back. Every day that I sit here in this place, I grow more and more paranoid. I’m driving myself batty analyzing every single thing that every single person does here. Any one of them could have sent that email, and I’m determined to find out who in the hell is fucking with me.
Tyke leans his head back against the couch in my office and sighs. “Do you think it’s Arnold? The guy’s not right upstairs and could’ve been stalking you.”
I sag my shoulders. “I don’t know, Tyke. It’s possible, I guess. I just don’t know what he’d gain from doing this to us.”
“You don’t know what the asshole wants because they haven’t replied with their demands, and yet the video still hasn’t gone viral. I’ve got Trip keeping tabs on the tabloids for us, too.”
I squeeze my eyes shut. “You told your brother?”
Tyke shrugs. “Don’t get your panties in a bunch. He won’t say anything. Besides, he’s cool with it.”
I raise my eyebrows in surprise. “He is? He doesn’t care that you’re screwing your therapist?”
He pulls me into his lap. “First off, this is more than just sex. We’ve already established that. Secondly, my brother’s happy when I’m happy, and you, Frannie Mead, make me happy.”
I melt into him as he kisses my temple.
He pushes my hair away from my neck and nuzzles into me. “I can’t wait until we can be together without all this secrecy.”
“You really think there’s a future for us outside this place?”
“Of course I do,” he states confidently. “Don’t you?”
“I dream about it, but I don’t know how it will all work if we don’t see each other very often.”
He sighs. “It’s true I’m away a lot, but that won’t stop me from flying out to you every spare chance I get, and you can fly out to wherever I’m at on the road.”
I stiffen in his arms. “I don’t fly.”
“At all?” he questions.
“Like ever.”
“Can I ask why?”
Since we seem to be at a point where we are truthful with one another, I begin to tell him exactly why I won’t step foot on a plane again. “My sister...her plane went down in the Atlantic Ocean. None of the passengers survived, and all that was ever found of the plane was a partial piece of wing. Ever since then, I’ve been deathly afraid. It’s been four years, and yet I can’t seem to get over it.”