“I don’t fucking care about my image, Rome –”

“ –they’re going to drag the whole Molly shit into this –”

“Well, fuck Molly! The hell do I care about her? I’m sick that selfish little bitch pretending she’s something she isn’t!”

“They’re going to drag Leah into this too, you asshole!”

Carter went silent, running an exasperated hand through his hair. He looked a downright mess.

“They’re going to antagonize Leah,” Rome continued, talking about me as if I wasn’t there. “Make her out to be some relationship breaking slut. Is that what you wanted? Congratu-fucking-lations if it is.”

“Of course it isn’t!” Carter growled back.

“I told you to hold off on her, man. I told you to fucking wait.”

“It wasn’t his fault,” I suddenly intervened. “I agreed to everything Carter said, and more.”

Rome glanced at me in the mirror, like he’d just remembered I was there. “You have to lay low, Leah.”

“They didn’t see my face –”

“They’ll know your name in an hour. They’ll have your life story done by tonight. There will be pictures up, along with everything they believe happened, all before you lay your head to rest tonight. And by morning, it will be everywhere. That’s the world we live in, and you’ve just been dragged into it by the stellar guy sitting next to you.”

Carter stared despondently out the window, confirming Rome’s words with his silence.

Jesus Christ, I was fucked.

“How did they find us?” I asked, hysterically. “I don’t understand. How? I don’t…”

It could have been anyone, really. Could have been my boss. Could have been the motel lady. Could have been the trucker that passed us along the road. Fuck, it could have been someone we didn’t even know had seen us.

It was worrisome not knowing who had been watching. What kind of person could live through this?

“How?” I asked again, shocked.

“Doesn’t matter,” Carter mumbled. “It never does at the end of the day.”

No one spoke after that.

Fourteen

Leah

Feeling overwhelmed, I opened the apartment door and stepped inside. Carter and Rome followed after me. I threw the keys down on the counter just as Melanie stepped out of her room in nothing but her pyjamas.

“Hey hooker, you gonna tell me where the hell you’ve been –” Her words immediately died when she spotted the boys. Staring a beat longer at Rome, she forced her gaze away. “What’s going on?” she asked me solemnly.

“Nothing good,” I muttered.

“They got ambushed outside their motel room,” Rome told her, stiffly, avoiding her eye. “I had to come to the rescue.”

“Motel room?” Mel repeated in surprise, her eyes burning into my head. “Please tell me you didn’t do what I think you did with Carter.”

“I’m right here, you know,” Carter cut in icily.

She pointed at him and angrily retorted, “Yeah, you’re right here, and that’s the problem. Three years she’s been trying to get over you, Carter! Why couldn’t you stay away like you promised you would?”

“Melanie,” I said on a sigh, “not now. Please, I’m too tired. Let’s not go there.”

She forced her mouth shut but glared at him while shaking her head.

“So, what should I do then?” I asked Rome in defeat. “If they’re going to smear my name all over the media, what should I do in the meantime?”

“Like I said, lay low,” Rome replied. “Don’t go out.”

“I’ve got a job.”

“Not anymore.”

I looked at him in disbelief. “And how am I going to survive, Rome? I need a job –”

“We’ll give you some money to tide you over,” Carter interrupted, staring down at the floor with an empty expression. He looked just as exhausted as me, wearing the same wrinkled clothes, hair tousled messily over his forehead.

“I don’t want your money, Carter –”

“I don’t care, Leah! This isn’t the time to think about your pride. I won’t fucking throw a suitcase of cash in front of you. I’ll give you enough to tide you over, until the heat dies down and you find a different job. Or, hell, keep the job at that dollar store if you can convince your dick of a boss to wait a while for your return.”

“Point is, you don’t have much of an option,” Rome explained. “We’re big, you know? We’re used to being followed. You’re not, and I worry about your safety if people start really hating on you for what they’re going to suspect is an affair.”

“An affair,” I repeated.

“Yeah, it’ll die down eventually. I mean, I’d invite you out with us just to avoid this.”

“To LA?”

“Yeah.”

“What am I going to do in LA, Rome?”

“Stay with us and…be with him.” He gestured to Carter and I froze.

Carter didn’t blink in my direction, but he stiffened. The silence went on for a few moments, until he sighed and turned to Rome. “She’s got a life here, man. What we did was a mistake.”

I knew he didn’t believe that.

“A mistake?” Melanie sneered, snidely adding, “Does Leah know that, Carter? Or is this just you living by your own terms again?”

Carter glared at her. “Actually, cupcake, I’m the one that got shut down this time. But thanks for your assumptions. It makes someone who’s trying hard to change feel like a sack of fucking shit.”

Melanie’s surprised face turned in my direction. She raised her brows, silently asking me what the fuck happened. I just shook my head at her. Now was not the time to communicate silently. She would have to wait.

“Ideally, we’ll want to have someone look after you,” Rome explained. “A bodyguard for a short amount of time, just in case there are some crazies out there, you know? I’d advise you against going out at all –”

“So you want her to be a hermit,” Melanie interrupted, crossing her arms.

“For her safety, yeah,” he told her in a hard voice.

“People have been chased around after these situations all the time, and they don’t need bodyguards.”