Dilynne leans forward in her chair. “Did you kill her and make it look like an accident? Are we harboring a fugitive?”
“Dilynne!” Laney chastises her.
“No, nothing like that,” I quickly reply, trying to defend myself. “And if I were, I never would have agreed to care for your niece, that’s for damn sure.”
Dilynne visibly relaxes and she leans back into the couch. “Okay, good. Just wanted to make sure.”
Laney glares at her best friend. “You seriously scare me sometimes.”
“Trust me. I scare myself.” Motioning with her wine glass, Dilynne says to me, “Continue, please.”
“Anyway, I saw what she had and wanted it. It wasn’t fair to me that I’d been working longer than her to get a record label to give me a chance, so I made a point to approach Liam at one of her shows, and we hit it off. It started with a few ‘business dinners,’ as he liked to call them. He offered to listen to my demo tape and I was vibrating with excitement. Finally, it felt like someone was willing to take a chance on me. That’s all I wanted anyway, someone to give me the opportunity to leave a mark with my songs like I wanted.”
Laney winces. “I’m pretty sure I’m not going to like what happens next.”
“I already have a torture plan in place. Pliers are great for extracting teeth,” Dilynne adds.
“And you thought Elodie would be the one that could attempt murder,” Laney mumbles before looking back at me. “Continue, please.”
Sighing, I say, “He invited me to the production studio so we could talk and told me that he wanted to record one of my songs. But when I got in there, he tried to…”
“Son of a bitch,” Dilynne says as she launchesfrom the couch.
“Did he…” Laney begins to ask the question I rush to answer.
“No, thank God. I pushed him off, kicked him in the balls, and then ran out of his office. Turns out, he didn’t care about my talent, he just wanted to sleep with me.”
“So you left L.A.?” Laney asks.
“Not at first. I kept trying to submit more songs and demos, but then at one studio, I overheard the office staff talking about how I would sleep around to get ahead, and that’s when I put two and two together.”
“Liam told everyone that you did,” Dilynne finishes for me.
I nod, feeling the tears build for the third time in the past twenty-four hours. “When I heard that, I had to leave. I couldn’t believe that all of my talent would mean nothing going forward because of one man…”
“Oh, I fucking believe it,” Dilynne grates out, drinking from her wine glass.
Laney meets my gaze. “Dilynne knows a thing or two about men and what they’re willing to do when their egos are bruised.”
The sound of the doorbell interrupts our conversation. Laney rushes to answer it, intercepting the pizza and moving toward the kitchen, placing a few slices on plates for all of us. Dilynne refills our wine glasses, and then we reconvene in the living room.
“Elodie, I’m so sorry that you had to go through that,” Laney says after taking a bite of her pizza.
“Thank you.”
“So back to the jealousy thing,” Dilynne says, a look of determination on her face. “How does that apply to my brother? Just so you know, my brother would never force himself on a woman, and if he did, I would castrate him for the greater good of womankind.”
“If you’re wondering, yes she is always this murdery,” Laney says, leaning forward in her chair while flashing me a wink.
“But I feel like we’re still missing something,” Dilynne continues.
Bracing myself to admit the truth, I inhale deeply and blow out my breath. “Last night, when he told me how he likes to chase adrenaline now by chasing women, and then he announced he was going out with Warren…” I swallow roughly. “Well, I instantly became jealous. I hated the idea of him being with someone else, and that’s when I realized, I have a serious problem.”
Laney and Dilynne glance at each other, but their faces don’t move besides the motion of their eyes. No twitch in their lips, no indication of what they’re thinking whatsoever.
And before they can respond, my phone rings on the couch beside me. Henley’s name flashes across the screen, but I know I’m not ready to talk to him, so I ignore it.
“Sorry,” I say when I look back up and see Dilynne clearly thinking heavily, her brows pinched and her lips twisted in thought.
