Page 22 of Such A Bad Girl

“Fuck!” I pounded on the steering wheel. Tears sprang to my eyes, despite my anger. None of this shit was fair.

I didn’t want to think about any of the shit that went down with Avett.

That’s why I’d left Austin, after all. That, and also to get away from my mother, my father, the prying eyes of that way too small town, and the lingering memories of my childhood that still haunted me.

But leaving Texas didn’t leave all that behind, after all. Wherever I went, my past came with me. And there was my past. Rearing its ugly head once again.

I bit my lip, simultaneously trying to focus, and forget everything, all at the same time. I failed badly at both.

“Fuck,” I repeated, as I began typing into my phone with a loud sigh of frustration.

It took Theo ten seconds to respond to my texted summons to meet me in my car in the parking lot.

Thirty seconds later, he opened the passenger side door and slid in.

“Where’s your security?” he barked.

No ‘hello’. No ‘how are you’. Leave it to Theo to be brutally abrupt.

I stared at him, momentarily taken aback by his gruff handsomeness.

Effortlessly handsome, wildly intelligent and the kind of guy that oozed sensuality — it was all I could do to sit in the car with him. He looked like he’d just gotten out of the shower, the smell of soap and shaving cream permeating the air in the car, leaving me turned on all over again like he’d not just given me the most intense orgasm of my life half an hour ago.

I wanted to tell him so badly it was me under the mask, but I knew I couldn’t. We had other things to deal with now.

“I gave them the day off,” I said, with a dismissive wave. His question irritated me. What did he care about my security? Most days, Theo acted like he couldn’t wait to get out of whatever room I was in. He didn’t get to play ‘concerned friend’.

“Why?” he demanded again.

I rolled my eyes. He was ridiculous. “Because I can, that’s why! I can do whatever I want, remember? I’m an adult!”

“I’m an adult!” he mocked, raising his voice an octave.

“Theo, stop it!” I demanded, hitting his arm, frustration welling up in me. Why couldn’t he just take me seriously for once? I wasn’t a fucking kid anymore.

He raised a brow and looked at me like I’d just stomped my foot and demanded candy or something.

“Look,” I sighed. “I don’t bring them when I come to the temple. I need privacy for that. They’ll meet me back at the studio.”

“That’s not safe,” he said, with a disapproving grimace.

“Whatever. Don’t worry about that. Look,” I said, shoving my phone in his face. “Worry about this instead!”

His eyes widened when he clicked on the photo attached to the text. Then he shrugged. “Whatever. It’s nothing.”

“Whatever?” I cried, exasperated. “Whatever?! Theo, something has to be done!”

“What do you want me to do? It’s your phone.”

“Are you kidding me?” I shook my head in disbelief.

“They didn’t text me, they texted you. Block the number.”

“It’s the third text. Each one has gotten worse. I’m scared, Theo,” I admitted, my stomach flipping at the vulnerability I knew I was showing him. He was so harsh with me sometimes. I didn’t want him to know how scared I was.

His eyes softened as they met my gaze, but he quickly looked away, shaking his head. “Everleigh, you know this shit comes with fame. You made your bed.”

I stared at him incredulously. “Are you for real right now?”

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