No Holds Barred (Hotel Bombshell Book 3), page 31
Hope swallowed audibly as she followed him into that room, and he shut the door. She made sure to click off her mic pack as she sat down, semi-parallel with the table itself. She spread out her legs and put her hand flat on the tabletop, tapping her fingers lightly as she waited for whatever hell he was bringing onto her today.
“How has everything with Josef been so far this week?” Logan asked.
“I’ve hardly seen him.” Hope frowned. She’d seen him in passing, like a ghost she’d rather avoid, but in terms of an actual conversation with him? That hadn’t happened at all. “But Eva’s been struggling this week, so both Rex and I have been busy tag teaming her.”
Logan nodded, his lips thinning. He looked toward the closed door to the room and then back at her. “He hasn’t made any comments to you or to Ange that you know of?”
“No. But I haven’t talked to Ange either.” Which was probably the hardest part of this week so far. Any time she wasn’t elbow deep in the kitchen or bouncing back and forth between Mark and Alexis, she was running circles with Eva.
“You and she aren’t…” Logan paused and then stopped all together.
The hairs on the back of Hope’s neck stood straight. A chill ran down her spine. Had he been about to ask her about their relationship? Did he know? Or was it just that he was listening to the rumors that Josef was spreading and he wanted to verify if they were true?
Every muscle in Hope’s body tightened. She wasn’t as good at avoiding as Angelica was, and if she had to do that, it was going to get messy.
“You two are still talking right? You haven’t had an argument like in season one?”
Hope blinked at him wildly. That hadn’t been where she’d expected the conversation to go at all. “No, not at all.” She bit her lip, still keeping all that tension in her chest because she just wasn’t sure where to go from here.
“I know Ange has been busy with Mark and Alexis, but you two haven’t filmed any scenes together since that first day.” Logan crossed his arms.
“That’s not always uncommon.” Hope furrowed her brow. “Would you like us to film a scene together?”
“Those are the ones that bring up the ratings.” Logan stared at her directly.
“All right.” Hope bit her lip again. “What kind of scene would you like it to be?”
“I’ll leave that to you and Cadence to figure out along with Rex and Ange. You know the details of where you can cause or create tension or where you can have a gentle moment of affirmation together.” Logan waved his hand in the air as if dismissing the thought.
But this was so radically different from any conversation she’d had with Josef concerning filming that it threw her for a loop. Hope nodded, taking in the information, letting it settle in her chest.
“Are you and Ange…” Logan started and stopped again.
Hope would normally finish the sentence for him, but this time, she kept her mouth shut tight. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know where he was going with it. Because then she might have to lie. Angelica had made it very clear that their relationship was to remain a secret at least through the rest of filming, and she wasn’t going to break the promise she’d made. Even if she suspected Rex might know. He had intimate knowledge of everything while no one else actually did. And Josef just had suspicions.
At least, she was fairly certain he only suspected and didn’t actually know everything that had happened.
“You and Ange seem close,” Logan amended, just saying the quiet part out loud. “Josef is making accusations about what that means.”
“I’ve heard,” Hope replied, keeping her tone curt.
“Right.” Logan sighed and nodded, but it seemed to be far more to himself than to Hope. “I can’t untangle a lot of this until after we finish filming, and since there’s only one episode left, do you think we can make it through before the three of us have a sit down?”
“Three?” Hope asked.
“You, me, and Ange.” Logan eyed her directly. “To talk about navigating these… accusations.”
“There won’t be any accusations if Josef isn’t on set.” Hope kept her tone calm and even. She was so tired of playing these games. “For three years, Josef has taunted Ange with threats based on who she has relationships with, trying to isolate her from the rest of the crew, and he very nearly succeeded until the middle of last season.”
“What happened?”
“Vegas.” Hope worried her lips together. “Vegas is where everything started to change. Josef slipped up. He wasn’t just nasty to Angelica in private, he did it in front of everyone, where they could all see the man behind the mask—so to say. Though I don’t think he really wore a mask. I think he just used the power and privilege of patriarchy.”
Logan cocked his head at her.
Hope rolled her eyes. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
“If it’s what you feel—”
“It’s what I know,” Hope interrupted him. “When we were dealing with Julian Tower, things changed. The crew started to treat Ange differently then, and it hasn’t stopped. They protect her now. Before, they wouldn’t have.”
Logan wrinkled his brow but didn’t say anything directly.
“He’s the one who’s pushing this.”
“I hear that.” Logan stared at her, his gaze unwavering. “But what I need to determine—not today or even this week because we all need to focus—is how much truth is behind what he’s saying.”
Hope’s heart sank. Logan was going to find out. He was simply being respectful for now, but if they were renewed for season four, then everything was going to come out. And Hope knew, without a doubt, that she and Angelica were going to have to tread very carefully when all of this was announced, not only to the world but to the crew.
“Josef knows nothing,” Hope said, firmly. She was sure of that. He was simply putting pieces together, but he had no actual proof. No one had proof. She and Angelica had been so damn careful for the last three years, and she wouldn’t allow anything to ruin that.
“Then we’ll talk when we’re finished filming.”
“Is that all?” Hope asked.
“Yes,” Logan answered.
Hope said nothing else as she walked back to the kitchen, passing Angelica and sending her a look of despair as she shook her head and held up her hand so Angelica wouldn’t come any closer. The last thing they needed was to give Logan any more ammunition to think that Josef was actually right.
When Hope reached the kitchen, she relaxed instantly. The scents, the sounds, it was all so familiar that it’d set her right no matter what. She stepped toward the prep table, but a hand on her elbow stopped her sharply.
“I need to talk to you.” Cadence looked nervous, something Hope had never seen from her before. Cadence was always confident in everything she did, even if she actually wasn’t.
“Okay? Right this minute?”
“Yeah.” Cadence pulled Hope out the back door of the kitchen. Rain fell lightly, drizzling on top of them as they stood huddled against the wall in the alleyway.
Hope waited impatiently. She was tired of being pulled one direction to the next. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m not sure how to say this. Well, hold on, your mic—”
“It’s off.” So this wasn’t work related? Or perhaps it was but Cadence just needed more discretion than that.
“Okay, okay.” Cadence worried her lower lip, stared at her shoes, shifted awkwardly.
“Now you’re making me nervous,” Hope said, a light chuckle in her voice, though she wasn’t sure how well it worked in her favor, because it seemed to just make Cadence that much worse.
“I’ve been debating on whether or not to say something since last week, but I can’t… I have to say something.” Cadence crossed her arms and lifted up on her toes before dropping back down. “I know about you and Ange.”
Hope froze. Her entire body rushed with cold fear. What the fuck was going on this week?
“I-I saw you two kissing in the hallway by her room last week. I didn’t say anything then because… well, I didn’t know what to say. But I just…” Cadence stopped, her cheeks so pale and her eyes so worried that Hope’s heart nearly shattered just looking at her. “Look, I don’t know what happened last year because I wasn’t here, but the rumors are flying, the gossip hasn’t stopped, and if you two are going to do this, then you both need to be very careful.”
“Cadence…” Hope bit her cheek when Cadence threw up her hand to stop her from talking.
“I’m not going to tell anyone. I thought… I’m not surprised is all I’m saying, but you two need to be more careful. You’re the stars of the show and if this goes sour then it could ruin a whole lot of lives.”
If only Cadence did know the full story. The last thing she and Angelica wanted was for their relationship to take down everyone else in the process, and they were working so hard to prevent that from happening. They had worked through last year—mostly.
“That’s all I wanted to say,” Cadence finished her speech. “All right? I don’t need details. I don’t need to know anything. Just… be more careful next time.”
“I don’t even know what to say,” Hope whispered, because somewhere in the middle of the fear and anxiety, relief burst. Keeping this a secret had been weighing on her more than she wanted to admit, and if Cadence knew, then perhaps Angelica would be more willing to let the rest of the crew know—as long as Josef wasn’t around.
Between Logan, Cadence, and Rex—it was bound to come out soon anyway, right?
“Don’t say anything.” Cadence pulled her lips into a tight smile. “I suspected something when I met Ange years ago, but I never pursued it. She’s so private about her life, and there wasn’t any reason to. But…” Cadence looked around the damp alleyway, as if checking to see if anyone else was nearby. “But when we went drinking in Maine, I didn’t think she was with anyone then.”
“She wasn’t,” Hope whispered, her voice so quiet that she wasn’t even sure if Cadence had heard her until she stilled.
“So this is all new?”
Hope nodded, not trusting her voice without explaining anything else beyond what they wanted shared. And like hell did she want to deal with this right now. Because it meant she was going to have to find Angelica and tell her that Cadence knew, and that was going to be a fight.
“Okay.” Cadence sighed. “Did you…” Cadence paused and then started again “…did you know you were queer?”
Hope shook her head, again, trying to keep her voice wrapped up tightly.
“Okay. Okay,” Cadence repeated, shuffling her feet around. “Then here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to keep quiet, because you have just figured out your sexuality and you haven’t come out, probably to anyone yet, and Angelica is our boss—”
Another shiver ran down Hope’s spine. They had barely even talked about that complication lately. Everything had been so focused on the fact that Hope had still been married that they’d pushed the whole boss-employee thing to the side.
“—and she clearly has a history of making rash decisions and then trying to walk them back, and I don’t need you to get hurt and then have it blow up on set. Wait… does Rex know?” Cadence stared at her directly.
Hope furrowed her brow. “I-I don’t know. We don’t… we don’t talk about that part of our lives anymore.”
“This is going to crush him.” Cadence groaned.
“It won’t,” Hope said confidently. “It won’t.”
Cadence narrowed her gaze at Hope and tilted her chin up. “All right, I feel there’s more to that than I know, which is fine. I’m trusting you for right now. Just… stop making out like teenagers in the hallways on set. Okay?”
“Yeah. Okay. Got it.” Hope stared down at her toes and took a deep breath. “It was a mistake.”
“Maybe it was. Maybe it wasn’t.” Cadence pushed her lips together hard.
“No, not Ange…” Hope corrected. “She’s not a mistake, being with her isn’t a mistake.” Hope rubbed her hands against her damp hair. “But hallways are a mistake. We’ll be more careful. Thank you, for… your discretion.”
Hope held her breath, waited another second, and then walked right back into the kitchen.
She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t play these games and come out on the winning side. She was built for honesty and openness. And keeping it all shut away was just too damn hard.
Chapter
Thirty-Nine
“This is all your fault!” Alexis’s voice charged through the lobby.
Angelica froze, tingles racing up her spine as her stomach dropped.
“My fault!” Mark yelled back, his voice booming far louder than Alexis could probably ever achieve. “You’re the one who’s putting the employees right in the middle of us. This isn’t a me problem.”
Walking toward the argument when every instinct told her to walk away, Angelica clenched her jaw and held her iPad close to her side. The last thing she wanted was to get caught in the middle of an argument that wasn’t going to end.
“You told Pria that she could take next week off. You know she can’t do that. Olivia is already taking off that week, but you didn’t bother to even look! You just made decisions without even communicating.” Alexis threw her hands up in the air and jerked her head forward.
Angelica knew exactly what they were arguing about. It had been a kerfuffle earlier in the day, one she’d been annoyed with but it had ultimately reached a resolution. It just meant that Alexis was going to have to work a few extra shifts that week, which was probably why she was throwing such a fit now.
But… it proved her point.
The two of them were the problem.
“We can’t force our employees to work! Olivia was going to leave either way. So we could either approve the vacation or deal with callouts later on.” Mark glared at Alexis.
“You’re such a bastard.”
Angelica’s eyebrows rose immediately. She hadn’t seen them fall into outright name calling yet, though she’d had no doubt it was within both of their capabilities.
“And you’re a bitch. Downright mean, angry bitch.”
“All right!” Angelica clapped her hands loudly. “Both of you can shut up.”
Mark turned on her first, surprise in his gaze. Alexis, however, didn’t quite give her the same impression. Then again, she’d probably seen Angelica approaching them.
“I have every right to tell him to shut up.” Alexis pointed a finger in Mark’s direction.
Well, then, they weren’t going to just end this to end it. Angelica clenched a fist next to her side and then immediately loosened it. She needed to have control right now, and if her temper was triggered, it’d be the end of the argument in a flash. And no one would learn a lesson.
“You lost that privilege when you divorced.” The words left Angelica’s lips with a snap.
Alexis’s jaw shut tightly, the muscles in her cheeks tensing. “He’s wrong.”
“You two don’t communicate, at all. In fact, you both intentionally screw up communicating with each other for the very purpose of creating conflict. Both of you.” Angelica pointed between them. “And here you are having a full-on argument that’s just short of throwing punches in the middle of the lobby. And you want me to tell you that he’s in the wrong?” Angelica glared at her. “You’re both idiots!”
Angelica’s voice ricocheted through the lobby. Suddenly everything was far quieter than it should be. She had no doubt that every single eye in the lobby was focused on the three of them, on the fact that Angelica hadn’t managed to keep her temper in check, and they were now wondering just how bad this was going to get.
“Ange?” Eva’s small voice reached Angelica’s ears.
Spinning around, Angelica’s stomach plummeted. “Eva!”
What the hell had she done? Eva looked devastated and wary all at the same time. Tears filled her eyes, and her cheeks were red. Angelica took a step forward, a hand outstretched as if she was going to wrap Eva in a hug and try to make her forget everything she’d just witnessed. But Eva jerked a step backward. She lifted her chin up in defiance.
Angelica looked around wildly for Rex.
Where the fuck is he?
“Eva… what are you doing here?” Angelica asked, still darting her gaze around for Rex or Hope or anyone who could deal with this. She wasn’t a parent. She didn’t understand how to do this. Her heart raced wildly.
Eva’s face tightened, and she shook her head.
“Eva…” Angelica trailed off, really not sure where to go from here.
Bending down as low to the ground as she could manage with her boot still on and her body still stiff, Angelica put her hands in front of her and looked directly at Eva.
“Eva, talk to me,” she said in her gentlest tone possible.
Eva stepped in closer, looking over Angelica’s shoulder before focusing her gaze back on Angelica’s face. “You were yelling,” she whispered.
Angelica nodded and put her hands in her lap. If she stayed in this squatting position much longer, she might fall over and not be able to get up. “I was.”
“You were scary,” Eva whispered even quieter.
“Yeah, I was,” Angelica agreed. This had to be the right thing to do, wasn’t it? She had no clue.
“Why were you yelling?”
“I lost my temper.” Angelica bit her lip and then moved to hold her hand out to Eva, hoping that she’d see the olive branch for only that. “It happens sometimes when I can’t control my reactions.”
“Yeah, me too.” Eva’s lips quirked up slightly to the side, the first sign that Angelica was actually making a dent. “Mom and Dad, too.”
“Your mom’s got quite the temper.” Angelica smiled at her, eyes crinkling in the corners. “I’ve been on the wrong end of it several times. To be fair, she’s been on the wrong end of mine as well.”
“You yelled at Mom?”
“Yeah, I have. Though not recently.” Angelica’s heart thundered. That was probably the wrong thing to tell Eva, but she’d wanted to be as honest as she could. Perhaps this was just too much information for Eva’s little brain to comprehend.
