Taking Something (29 page)

Once again, Gia Grayson was a tangled mess wrapped in a mystery. One I had to solve before it was the death of me.

By the time Landry and I finished our little talk, I was ready to go. Nothing made sense anymore. She wasn't with Landry, but she still didn't want to be with me. And she wanted me to think she was with him.

When Sadie finally dragged me back to her place, I poured myself a drink. Actually, I poured myself a few drinks.

Sadie had incessantly blabbered on and on about the tour the entire ride home, not listening to a word I'd said about not wanting to go with her. I gave up trying eventually, focusing my energy on what I should do about Gia. Sadie finally went to bed when I pretended to pass out on the sofa, as per usual. I needed answers and I knew that Gia wasn't going to give me a straight one.

Me: You up?

I hit send, hoping that she was awake.

Lila: Yep. Someone thinks it's cool to sleep all day and stay up all night.

Me: She's two weeks old, Rae. Give her a break.

Lila: She's too cute to be mad at. I'll stay up. ;-)

I hit the call button next to her name. There was no way I could text all of the thoughts going through my head.

“What's up?” she answered. “Besides me and my bundle of love?”

“I'm guessing you've seen the news?” I asked in a whisper, not wanting Sadie to hear me talking on the phone.

“News? What are you talking about? What did you do?”

“You mean you haven't seen the tabloids?” I was surprised that she hadn't called me the second the first picture of Gia and Landry had come out. I'd never seen a nightstand of Lila's that wasn't littered with gossip rags.

“I haven't,” she replied. “Been a little busy raising a human being and all that.”

“Yeah. I guess you're right,” I said, chuckling. “Well, let me fill you in.”

I started with the fact that I'd lied about Gia that day at the hospital. I told her how she'd left, told me that she wouldn't be my regret and then how Sadie had shown up.

“This is seriously screwed up,” she said, confirming what I already knew.

“I tried to break up with Sadie,” I asserted. “I really thought she was out of my life. I even told her I was fine with her ending my career, that I just couldn't be with her anymore.”

“So you didn't tell her that you were leaving her to go after Gia?”

“Didn't have to,” I replied. “She already knew.” Continuing the soap opera that was my life, I told her how I'd gone to Gia's only to find her with Landry and about Sadie waiting for me in my hotel room.

“She's blackmailing you?” she asked after getting over the initial shock that Gia had a baby with “Landry Freakin' Westwood,” as she’d put it.

“Pretty much. Says if I leave, then my career is over. She ain't bluffing either. She's done some pretty shady shit to people and I know that she will make it her mission to ruin me.”

“Sounds like it. What a crazy bitch.” She paused. “Oh, sorry, Bailey,” she said. “Babies don't understand cuss words yet, do they?”

“I think you're safe.” I laughed. I finished my story with how things had gone down. “I tried to be the good guy. I tried to just let her go and be with Landry, but come to find out they aren't even together. I'm really close to just giving up and becoming a priest.”

“Pretty sure you'd catch on fire the second you stepped foot in that church,” she teased.

“What am I supposed to do, Rae?” I was growing more desperate by the minute and didn’t have the strength to find the humor in our usual banter.

“I wish I had the answers for you, Nick. I really do, but I don't,” she apologized. I knew that she wouldn't be able to tell me what to do. Not this time. This was my mess. “Gia obviously has her own reasons for not wanting a relationship with you. But if she doesn't want to tell you, there's not much else you can do. You've told her how you feel, right?”

“Many times.”

“I think you might just have to let her go,” she said, confirming my worst fears. “No one said being an adult was going to be easy,” she added. “You should just focus on what makes you happy.”

“That's the problem,” I sighed. “I don't really know what makes me happy anymore.”

“Yes you do,” she insisted.

God, I hope she's right.

T
HE SET
of Landry and Sadie's video shoot was bustling with extras and crew. The idea was simple—two people falling in love on a crowded dance floor.

Been there.

I, of course, had been tapped to spin records in the background. Sadie acted as if she were doing me a favor, scoring me a role in her video, but I knew better. She hadn't let me out of sight since that night at the hotel.

“What do you think?” She came out of wardrobe and stood in front of me. She twirled, putting her arms out to the side. The silver beading of the tight minidress she was wearing sparkled under the lights.

“Looks great,” I acknowledged, barely casting my eyes up from the screen of my phone to look at her. I'd been sitting in a chair on set for the better part of an hour while she had been sewn into her dress. Landry had yet to arrive. It would probably be another hour before this thing even started filming and I was already ready to go. I should have been excited. I'd produced the song, after all. Somehow Sadie had managed to suck the love out of everything. I just wanted to get it over with and go back to my new routine of sulking and brooding.

“Just great?” she asked, slipping up between my knees and practically shoving her cleavage in my face. I looked up at her, unimpressed.

Also been there.

“Do you know how much this dress cost?”

“It looks fanfuckingtastic, Sadie,” I snapped. I really didn't care if it cost one hundred dollars or ten thousand dollars. It wasn't the dress that was the problem. It was the girl wearing it.

“What the hell has gotten into you?” she snapped back, placing her hands on my thighs and squeezing hard enough to let me know that she was pissed. “You should be a little bit more excited about the fact that you A, are in this video, and B, still have a job.”

“You're right,” I replied as I leaned forward, pressing my body up against hers, and stood. “You've made all my fucking dreams come true,” I sneered, grazing her nose with mine.

She slid her hands up my thighs and wrapped her arms around my waist, locking me in place. She pressed up on the tips of her toes to stare me in the eye, neither of us batting a lash. I was so over her it wasn't even funny. The past few weeks of my life had been pure hell. Between her constantly telling me what to do, her insults, and her constant reminders of just what she would do to me and my career, I'd had it.

“I think maybe you need to get some fresh air before you say something you’ll regret,” she advised, not backing down, even when I rose up to tower over her. There was not a doubt in my mind that Sadie Sinclair was the spawn of Satan.

“What's one more regret?” I asked before I turned away from her and stalked outside, the heavy studio door slamming shut behind me. My hands found my head and I tugged at the ends of my hair as I paced up and down the sidewalk outside the studio.

Do what makes you happy.

Lila's words had been on replay since our little talk. I stopped, looking around at my surroundings—the studio backlot in LA. A place I'd always thought I'd wanted to be. Making music. Making music videos. I had everything I had ever thought I wanted. A beautiful, albeit bitchy and manipulative girlfriend. A lucrative position with Westwood Records. The status and wealth I'd dreamed of building every day. On paper, I was happy. On the inside, I was dead.

I looked up at the surrounding buildings. One more day of living this fake life and I was going to jump from the top of one of them.

I pulled my phone out and made a call I’d never thought I'd make. When he answered, the words that came out of my mouth surprised me just as much as they surprised him.

“I quit.”

“Nick? Whoa. You sure about this, kid?” Hollace asked.

I took a few seconds to think about what I'd just said. Then I told him that things with Sadie were not working out, and despite the fact that I was pleased with working for him, I couldn't deal with her anymore.

“I'm sure,” I confirmed. “Thank you so much for the opportunity, but I’ve done all I can do here.”

“I'm sad to hear that you're leaving, but I understand,” he assured. “Best of luck,” he added before the call ended.

As empty as I was, I knew what I had to do. I had to let it all go. The inconsequential crap I’d been holding on to and pretending it made a life. The job, the money, the notoriety, and worst of all…her. I couldn't make her want me any more than Sadie could make me want her.

After I’d decided that I was doing the right thing—not that I could’ve called Hollace back and yelled “April Fool’s” anyways—I had Sadie's driver take me back to my hotel to grab my things. I slipped him a hundred to make sure he didn't tell Sadie that I'd left. It didn't take much convincing. Turns out, most of Sadie's employees didn't like her too much.

“Thanks for the ride,” I told him when he dropped me off at the record studio. I had to drop my key off in the main office.

“Good luck,” he said before he drove off. I knew that he meant good luck dealing with the aftermath of Sadie Sinclair and not with my future. I'd pretty much cemented that when I walked away. I imaged Sadie's head spinning clean off her body when she realized I was gone. I felt sorry for Hollace or Vince or whoever had to break the news to her that I was gone.

I slipped into the studio one last time before handing over the last piece that connected me to Westwood Records. Sitting down behind the control panel, I moved my fingers of the slides and looked into the recording booth, letting my mind wander to what could have been had I not screwed it up so royally.

“You're a hard person to track down.” Landry Westwood's voice pulled me back to reality.

“Aren't you supposed to be shooting a video right now?” I asked, looking at my watch. It had been a little over an hour since I'd made the decision to leave.

“I should be, but you see, when my dad called and said the best producer I've ever worked with had decided to quit and haul ass back to Chicago, I knew I had to try and stop him from making a big mistake.” He grabbed the chair next to me and pulled it out. “What are you doing, man?” he asked, sitting down next to me.

“I was just done there,” I told him with a shrug. “Things didn’t pan out the way I'd planned is all.”

“They never do,” he said with a smile. “Doesn't mean you can't make things right.”

“With Sadie?” I questioned his sanity. “I'm sure she's blacklisted me.”

“Fuck Sadie,” he scoffed. “She's not as powerful as she thinks she is. Work for me.”

“As great as that sounds, I can't.” I couldn't believe I was turning down his offer. I'd dreamed about working with someone like Landry before I came here. “I can't stay here though.”

“Is this about Gia?” he asked.

“You know about me and Gia?” I replied with wide eyes.

“Yeah,” he said, chuckling. “We're trying this whole honesty thing in light of me finding out that I have a six-year-old I never knew anything about. We decided that if we were going to be co-parenting, we needed an open line of communication. She told me everything when I dropped her purse off the other night.”