“Tati, I didn’t know you were here.”
“Clearly,” she replied. “Aspen is not a gay. Trust me.”
“I… don’t have an opinion.”
“Then why threaten him with banning?”
“… I heard he was using steroids from Vanessa. Before she left.”
“Pfft! Consider source. She is nutty squirrel.”
“Honestly, I was trying to make an alliance with him,” I lied. “And failing.”
She crossed her arms, displeased. “You all the same. You men never bother to ask the female cast about deals or politics. We are just little chess pieces in your boy games, and you never take us serious. I am trained artist, and you still go to dumb-dumb Aspen before me. But maybe you are dumb-dumb too, eh? All you do is prance for cameras like rooster, flaunting your muscles, your new boyfriend, yourchildren,” she ranted, on a tear now, exposing all my tender spots. “You think you are only person here with kids? So special with your little daily calls. I have three sons I get to talk to once a week.”
How had this never come up? “Tatianna, I genuinely had no idea you had kids.”
“Because I guard their privacy! Not make them my fucking storyline for camera time.”
I bit back a harsh remark, knowing nothing good would come of it. “Idon’t do that.”
She scoffed and muttered something in Russian before abandoning me to the chlorine.
I was seething as I returned to the penthouse, her words battering my skull. I knew I wasn’t exploiting the kids. I had never let the show film our calls or anything like that. More immediately concerning was thatbothRussians had picked up on me and Shawn, so there was no way Troy wasn’t biding his time to make it a story. Once we resolved today’s mess with PB, Shawn and I had to decide our next step. I hoped I could convince Jenny to put her concerns aside long enough to ask Attorney Evelyn how to handle it, if only to better insulate me for the divorce proceedings. The last thing I wanted was for something that was rapidly becoming precious to me to feel more and more like a land mine buried in my path.
The elevator doors parted, and I trudged to my room to find Imogen equally fuming. PB had beat her to Camdon, and her old pal still refused to vote how she wanted. “But why is Camdon scared of Aspen?” I pressed. “I am positive there are no pancakes after talking to him, and if Aspen didn’t hate me before…”
“Oh, there are pancakes,” she corrected. “Aspen just wasn’t cooking them.”
I lowered my voice, covering my mic with my hand: “Who, then?”
“Peanut. Butter.Pancakes.” Each syllable came with simmering fury, and I got it.
I collapsed on the bed, my eyes hunting some reprieve in the ceiling. “The whole time?”
“PB invited Camdon and Royce to ‘breakfast’ at the airport before we flew to Shanghai. He offered them pancakes, theyacceptedsaid pancakes, then he whipped out his little tape recorder and threatened to tell the producers. He blackmailed them to vote however he wanted.”
“Before the first vote in Shanghai?”
She nodded. “They had to vote for you and me, or he’d get thembanned.”
“So they did his dirty work to protect their own asses, and PB made Aspen the fall guy?”
“Plus, he coerced Camdon to approach Greta without mentioning him. To play all of us against each other so we’d vote however he told us.”
After all I’d learned, how did I make the same damn mistake every time? Hadn’t it been evident from Vanessa’s tantrum in Italy how PB treated his alleged friends?
“I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you about him,” I finally said to Imogen. “He played me, and I bought it like an absolute moron.”
“At least we know the truth now, even if he’s made himself untouchable,” she answered grimly. “Now can we never say fucking ‘pancakes’ again?”
I rose, the fire that had been extinguished since my panic attack on the roof reigniting inside. Maybe all I’d needed was an enemy. “He’s only untouchable until he gets taken out.”
Imogen looked wary. “You think Fortune and Erika can beat PB and Greta in trivia?”
“They don’t have to,” I countered. “We will.”
“Luke, I hate this plan,” Erika whispered at the Arena that night. “Just vote for Jiamin and let her and PB battle it out.”
